Lava | Ninjago

🜂 | sleepless

[maybe i'll edit this someday...]

. ∙ ☾ ∙ .

Tossing and turning will never not be the most annoying part of a long night: the constant creaking and shuffling, the constant indecisiveness, the feeling of endlessness. As if there was a guarded door leading to the sleeping realm, you forgot your ID and now all you can do is watch as the otters get in instead of you. It's the way you can't stand the feeling of your blanket touching your body, just to cover yourself back up with it because you feel too revealed. It's the way the usually so comforting mattress feels bothersome. It's the way you know you just have to stop focusing on it and sleep will come but you just can't.

It's the way you regret letting someone share your bed. And that the certain someone is also a walking heater, that malfunctions under the effect of his emotions.

"Kai, I feel like if you turn one more time, you're gonna set my bed on fire." When the silence got finally broken, the fire ninja stopped moving for the first time since they tried to go to sleep. Cole looked at his back – the only thing he could see. But he didn't need to see Kai's face to know what it looked like at the moment (which doesn't mean he would mind seeing that face).

It is almost void of any visible emotion except for the slight wrinkle in between his sharp eyebrows. His eyes are focused on one particular point, seeming as if he was trying to figure out how to use telekinesis.

It's the look that means invisible trouble. After all, Kai won't just go around saying what is bothering him.

"Kiss for your thoughts?" He hoped it would make his lips at least twitch a little.

Then Kai turned again, this time to face Cole and not to fight the stupid guard (what would he need an ID for anyway? Everyone's a regular!). And when he finally got to see his face again, his theory proved to be right. Kai's face looked exactly like it always did in a situation like this. The kind of look that made Cole want to bash his head into a wall simply because Kai was always so impossible. He may have been the all-mighty master of earth, but Kai's pensiveness was the hardest rock to crack. He failed many times trying to do just that.

"Come on, talk to me," he said carefully as if taming a scared animal. Which was probably how Kai felt on the inside. "What's bothering you?"

But his boyfriend didn't respond and instead continued on staring into the void that seemed to be in front of his eyes.

"Look, if you're gonna shuffle like that all night, you're losing your sharing-my-bed privileges," he tried to joke. Joking usually works, right?

Not this time. However, it made Kai finally look at him and actually see him. It only made Cole's worries to grow. This was the first time they slept together, maybe it was his fault? Or maybe Kai had always been like this and only now Cole is getting such insight. The fiery guy was often complaining about having trouble sleeping – which was also what got them in such a position in the first place.

Cole reached out with his hand, cupping Kai's cheek while tracing the dark circle under his eye with his thumb. Kai moved his head closer.

"I'm here," Cole whispered. The tosser-and-turner was biting his lip, most likely thinking about what to say and what to keep locked in the chest his mind was. Getting to know Kai was like a treasure hunt (and not just because Kai was a treasure to Cole). Whenever he thought he was close, he hit another wall, another obstacle. Kai wanted to help him, he knew it. He could see it in his eyes, hear it in his word.

Then he finally answered, "I dunno, Cole. There's just... a lot on my mind right now."

"Let me guess – it's like that every night?"