Lava | Ninjago

🜂 | dancing fire, guitar player

Who would've ever thought that Kai Smith had the balls? Perhaps everyone but the fire ninja himself. Not like it was a big deal, right? It's just an innocent question. Oh yeah, totally innocent, for sure.

He kept tapping his thighs as if they were a drum set. It would go along well with Cole's guitar that was in said ninja's lap at the moment. Cole was mindlessly strumming random strings, sometimes keeping a melody, sometimes not, as he stared at the fire pit in front if them. Kai's gaze kept switching between those two things. Both calmed him somehow and he had no explanation for it. But eventually, the fire got too bright to watch and then Cole became too attractive to stare at.

Well, here it goes.

"Hey..." Kai spoke up, mentally face-palming for how weak his voice came out. "Cole?"

"Hmm?" The master of earth seemed mesmerized by the dancing flames, to the point he didn't look at Kai when he spoke to him.

"Can I–" Jesus, Kai, stop beating around the bush. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure. What is it?" Then Cole finally turned to meet Kai's gaze. Which apparently didn't seem as relaxed as Kai hoped it to. "Kai?" He looked down at his hands, that was safer than Cole's deep brown eyes that reflected the fire like a dark mirror.

"So, you've got a crush— and I'm not asking who it is, no, I respect that, we talked about it already," Kai rambled, faintly thinking if anything he said could be even coherent. "I'm just... I was..." A deep breath. Calm down. "How'd you– how'd you know it's a crush? You know? Like... how did you realise it? What are the criteria or... you know?" It was insane how many things you can do with your hands when you have no idea what to do with them. To make sure his question was at least somewhat understood, Kai dared to look back at Cole. What (an unpleasant?) surprise it was to find the other ninja looking at the campfire instead.

But there was this little crease between his bushy eyebrows, so it seemed he was already thinking about the answer. Kai's question was understood then, apparently. So he just had to wait now.

Cole's fingers brushed the strings of the guitar so softly, it didn't even manage to make a sound. There were already enough of sounds, from crickets to the fire cracking, Kai could even hear their breathing and he also heard his own heartbeat. It was too loud for his own liking and all he could do was hope it was a rhythm reserved for his own ears only.

"Well," Cole began speaking only to fall silent again right after. Kai suddenly couldn't tear his eyes away. Probably from all the anticipation. After a sigh Cole started talking.

"I think that thought was always there." A glance at Kai, then back to the elemental dancer. "But I kept telling myself it doesn't mean anything. I told myself I was just inexperienced with people, didn't have many friends... But I think deep down I knew it was... something different. Something I knew and was too afraid of."

"Something you knew?" Kai wondered out loud, getting Cole's attention again. It almost seemed as if the black ninja didn't want to look at him.

"This isn't my first crush, Kai, and, well... the ones before that didn't end too well."

"I'm sorry."

"It's nothing, really. It's way too far in the past. But thanks, you're sweet." Great, now Kai had to turn his face away, hoping the warmth he felt was from the campfire they were sitting near. Stupid fire.

"But how... how do you distinguish them? Like friendship and romantic things?"

"You don't." What if he burst into tears? "They're too intertwined. They go hand in hand. When you're in love with someone, you're also their friend. Which makes it pretty confusing like... all the time, really. And it's super annoying but when you figure it out, you get something like Jay and Nya or Zane and Pixal have. I think it's worth the trouble."