(In this au, Kai's father dies while protecting ninjago city and becomes a bartender after his father's passing around 3-4 years later. During the ninja team, Cole is a simple lego human being, he does not have elemental powers like Kai and the others does, this kinda takes place after season 3 but kinda not in a way)
Four words.
Four words, black ink, engraved into Kai's skin.
It had been there since he was 18.
He could remember that night like it happened yesterday, after Kai was promised the night of his life, a recollection of him and his father spending time together. "I'll be there before dawn," he said in his letters.
Unbeknownst to Kai, he was wounded.
A monster, far more experienced than his father could imagine, brought Ray to his knees, pain searing throughout his body as he tried, again and again, to defeat the creature that was stronger than humanity itself.
A person had seen Ray at the bridge before Ninjago City, holding himself up and taking large gasps of needed air, trying to soothe himself. A shout later and Kai came running. Loud cries rang out in the cold, clammy earth as blood sank into the stone.
His own father died in his arms.
His body was cool to the touch, his eyes glassy as wet tears fell down his face as his mouth was stuck in a permanent apology whispered to the redhead. His father was gone. Kai couldn't help but scream.
To beg.
What was he begging for, in the first place?
Mercy? Forgiveness? More time?
It didn't matter anyways, life was cruel. It was cruel like the world, filled with evil and fear and unneeded events.
Such as this.
The real cherry on top, though, was the appearance of those four words. Kai couldn't forget the soft tingling on the inside of his left wrist. How the words were bold, reddened, his skin stained dark with blood and the words left by pure fate.
"Finally, we meet again."
He had forgotten. His birthday. It's his 18th birthday, his first words that his soulmate says to him. A day of pain. What was supposed to be a day of celebration was a day of despair.
Kai just sank to his knees, and screamed.
Kai didn't pay attention to what people said around him.
Even four years later.
He didn't listen to the snarky remarks made by Wu, he ignored Zane's calls to rejoin the team, he ignored everyone. If it didn't involve his work, then it didn't matter. He remembered drink orders, he choosingly forgot that bard's drunken singing, he remembered stock dates and he forgot those date invitations made by the swooning young girls outside of the tavern.
He simply chose to ignore it.
Kai became a shell. He regressed into a forced behavior, forced smiles, forced laughs, forced actions.
Waking up was too hard.
Seeing his father's eyes whenever he walked by his reflection or saw himself in a mirror was too hard.
He saw his father in those wine bottles, the swirling liquid that Kai made fortunes on was too hard.
Seeing it was too hard.
Breathing was too hard.
Living was too hard.
Life was too hard.
