ninjago imagines

falling facades | kai s.

[ Kai lives his life through a series of facades. Here's the first. ]

A/N: also child nya. we are at day three of summerofwhump and going steady, hold--

• • •

When Kai is eleven years old, his parents disappear. 

He waits five, six, seven, hours, till the sun has retreated into the horizon, leaving the darkness to fall over the village walls. 

He remembers the instructions he's learned through his life, so he makes dinner for Nya, settles her to bed, and then goes out to search. 

Tales of bodies lying by ditches and dark alleys flick through his mind, and he does his best to avoid dark corners and flitting shadows. His voice grows hoarse from calling for his parents, and eventually all the lights from buildings dim away. 

It's 4am before he comes stumbling home, palms and knees bloody from too many falls on the gravel sidewalk. 

He's kneeling on the floor, desperately trying to stop the blood from dripping on the floor while he digs around the bathroom cabinet for the first aid kit. It's not quite that easy through, the crimson puddles spill on the floor, staining the white ceramic. 

Kai's almost managed to pull out some bandages, biting back cries of pain, when the door swings open quietly, a small creak echoing through the house. 

"You're bleeding." Nya comments, looking through the crack at him. Her blue eyes are wide from curiosity, and Kai lurches up from the floor, palms catching the sink. He can't stop a loud wince that escaped, and she pushes the rest of the doorway open, stumbling unsteadily into the bathroom. 

"Nya!" Kai exclaims, and ducks his hands behinds his back, pasting on a smile. "Go back to sleep, okay?" Blood steadily drips to the ground behind his back, and he wonders if turning down those first aid lessons his school offered a while ago was really such a good idea. 

"What happened?" she questions, rubbing a hand across sleepy eyes with a quiet yawn. 

"...I tripped." Kai. says lamely, and Nya's expression instantly turns worried. 

"I wanna help." She says, and Kai shakes his head quickly. 

"You can't, Nya. It's really late-" He looks over at the small bathroom clock to check, and grimaces at the sight. "-It's four twenty six, Nya. Go sleep, okay? I'll be right there." 

A lie. He wants to stay up at the dinner table waiting for his mother, maybe slip out of bed after she's fallen asleep again. 

"Mama taught me how to take care of a cut las' week." She insists, jutting her lip out stubbornly, and Kai can't help but hold back a small laugh at her determined expression. He's seen that expression on both his sister's and mom's face enough times to know there's no conniving them otherwise now. 

"I... Okay. Can you help me get out the bandages?" He points towards the bright box, and she nods, stumbling towards the box. She rummages around the it for a minute, but retrieves the bandages.

"You got it?" Kai smiles, and accepts the bright plasters thankfully. It's a long five minutes and he and Nya bicker over how to place them to cover enough of his hand, and he ends up with a complicated pattern of bandages across his palms, carefully administered by his seven year old sister.  

"Are you okay?" She says, settling back on her heels with another yawn. 

"Yeah, I'm fine." Kai gives a small sniff, trying to hide the tears welling his his eyes, and Nya's face blooms into a sleepy relieved smile. "Let's go sleep now, okay?"

Another lie. His hands hurts and he's tired and  he doesn't know what to know if his parents never come back. 

"When is mama coming back? " She murmurs, and Kai picks her up gently, slinging her arm over his shoulder. "They'll be back soon. We just need to wait a little while, kay?'"

They'll be back, he promises himself. He just has to wait. 

"You're warm," Nya mumbles faintly, raven locks falling over her eyes, and she snuggles into his shoulder. 

"Yeah," he says, and pulls her a little closer. "It'll be fine. We just have to wait." He repeats it again, but this time maybe it's a bit more for himself than her. 

The facade stays.