#kai is the undisputed winner of pinefest 2020

[imthepointe]

First Love / Late Spring

Five times Kai asks Cole to marry him, and the one time Cole (sort of) says yes.

a/n: word count- 3322, tw- mentions of injury

1  (in their first year of friendship)

Kai Smith was not a professional blacksmith. 

Say what you will about his weapon-making and metallurgy abilities, but unlike his parents, he lacked proper training and technique; he supposed that was why Sensei had him spending the day hunched over the furnace, practicing crafting weapons. The fire ninja couldn’t complain too much, though, since a certain earth ninja was also instructed to accompany him during his practice. 

Kai ceased hammering whatever it was he was trying to make and frowned. What was supposed to be a chain on a nunchuck looked...nothing of the sort.

“Cole Brookestone,” he offered up said metal band to his friend, “will you marry me?” 

A barely fifteen-year-old Cole put his hand to his chest and gasped. “I- I don’t know what to say,” he smiled, “I’m honored, truly.”

Kai slipped the dingy, ring-shaped metal onto his finger and smiled, feeling his face warm and his stomach swoop.

“Unfortunately, I am going to have to decline,” Cole said solemnly. 

“What? Why?” 

Cole laughed. “Your execution was lousy and informal.” He inspected Kai’s homemade ring on his finger as the fire ninja scrambled to his feet.

“It was perfect, I got on one knee and everything,” Kai sighed, a smile still remaining on his face. “But If you’re gonna reject me, I want my ring back.”

Cole held his hand with the ring close to his chest, laughing again in the same way that made Kai’s face burn. “No way. This is mine now.”

Kai jumped, reaching for the ring, only for Cole to dodge. Despite his youth, the earth ninja was still considerably larger than Kai, so a little game of keep away was no trouble. Still, he let the red ninja continue to play this game.

“But you rejected me! It’s mine!” Kai pounced again, this time landing a hit on Cole’s chest, prying his hands apart.

“I rejected you, not the ring!” Cole cried in between giggles.

Kai wrapped his hand around Cole’s waist and pulled him close, still wrestling to get the ring from his finger, even though he knew it was futile. “Me and the ring are a package deal,” he scowled, a shimmer in his eye.

Cole picked Kai up, tossing him over his shoulder with ease. Kai could feel Cole’s back tense as he began carrying him out of the little blacksmith’s shop, laughing so hard he’s nearly in tears.

“Fine!” Kai half shouted, half laughed after a few moments of playful struggle, relaxing against Cole’s shoulder. “I give up! The ring was ugly anyway.”

Cole set Kai down, a triumphant grin on his face. “Yeah, it was ugly. I like it.”

2 (post mortem)

Kai stood at Cole’s closed door, unsure of whether to knock or not.

Not one person had gotten a wink of sleep since returning from Yang’s temple, especially Cole- though that was probably because he didn’t need sleep now. 

Of all the things that could have gone wrong at the temple, why this?

Kai sucked in a breath and knocked on Cole’s closed door. A soft “come in” sounded, though it had a ghastly and fazed edge to it.

“Hey,” was all he said, pushing his way into the familiar room.

Cole was just sitting (hovering?) on his bed, blankly staring at nothing in particular. He hummed in acknowledgment.

“I was, uh,” the fire ninja rubbed the back of his neck, stumbling on his words. Cole would know what to say in a situation like this if any other teammate had been turned into a ghost, but all the things Kai wanted to say stopped at his tongue, like a barrier was holding them back. “I was just checking in.”

“I’m fine.”

FSM, what a liar. Even Kai wasn’t dense enough to fall for that. 

“I mean, you can talk to me about it, you know?” Kai made his way from the door to the little space beside the earth ninja on the bed.

As he sat down, a chill ran up his spine. The air around the new ghost was cold and illuminated by soft green light that was produced by Cole’s new form-- it was weird, seeing someone Kai had always looked up to as strong and indomitable seem so fragile and weak.

“I know. I’m fine. Thanks for checking,” Cole turned his face away from Kai.

Kai sighed, making an attempt to put his hands onto Cole’s, to no avail. When Kai’s warm hands phased right through the earth ninja’s, he flinched.

“Please talk to me,” Kai said softly, failing to add because I need to hear your voice.

There was a beat of silence. When Cole didn’t respond, the red ninja tried again. He shifted his body to face more openly towards Cole, who was still staring off into the space just beyond the floor.

“Can you make yourself solid?”

“No.”

Kai felt a little part of himself die when he heard those words. He shifted closer to Cole cautiously and cleared his throat. “Can you try for me?”

Now, Cole looked up and met the fire ninja’s eyes. His face was smaller than normal, eyes drawn wide into a scared expression that took Kai aback.

The ghost forced a small smile. “I already have tried, Kai, it’s no use,” his voice was muted. “I can’t hold anything and I can’t feel anything and-”

“Try for me now, okay?”

For a moment, it seemed as if Cole was going to protest, but he quickly shut his mouth and instead nodded weakly. Kai stood and rummaged around his room for something small that Cole could hold. 

Cole was an organized person, but he didn’t really have many trinkets lying around that would work. He was organized and was not a compulsive hoarder, and it was in times like these when those two qualities were not good things.

Kai thumbed through the drawers of Cole’s nightstand, looking for a rock, a pencil, or anything, before his eyes landed on a small shiny ring.

Well, maybe calling it a “ring” was subjective.

Kai held up the small metal band he had made while he was supposed to be practicing blacksmithing almost two years ago, showing it to Cole. 

“You kept this?” he asked, surprised.

Once again, the black ninja gave a small nod. 

Kai felt his stomach turn as light as a feather and a blush creep into his cheeks. “But--it’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Kai laughed, moving closer to Cole. “Why did you keep it?”

“I wouldn’t throw away a ring my fiance gave me.”

The fire ninja remembered the conversation he had with Cole that day in the blacksmith, when Kai had fake-but-not-really-fake proposed to Cole with this ugly ring that wasn’t even supposed to be a ring.

Kai was a much better smith now than he was two years ago. 

“Hold out your hand and concentrate,” Kai ordered. Cole extended his hand and closed his eyes shut.

When Kai slipped the band onto Cole’s finger and let go, the ring stayed in place. The ghost opened his eyes slowly, curiously looking at his hand, as if checking to make sure it was still attached. When he saw that the ring was still on his finger, he smiled. 

“Kai, I feel it.” 

“Well, now you have to marry me,” Kai said with a click of his tongue.

Cole laughed, and this time it was genuine.

3 (but it was forgotten)

“It just doesn’t make any sense,” Kai shook his head. “Why Nya?”

“Cause she looks like some other chick named Delara? I dunno,” Cole sighed. “Maybe you should wish for Nadakhan to marry you instead.”

Kai leaned against Cole’s shoulder, sticking out his bottom lip way too far for the pout to be real. Cole just rolled his eyes, making himself corporeal to accommodate the fire ninja putting all of his weight on to the ghostly earth ninja. 

The Bounty’s room was completely empty save for the two of them sitting at the table, and Cole was silently thankful for that; it was pretty par for the course for Kai to be all over people, but if Jay knew that Cole wasn’t directly opposing Kai’s clinginess, the lightning ninja would never let him live it down.

“Maybe you have a point,” Kai smirked, now sitting upright. “Who wouldn’t wanna marry me? I’m awesome, I’m funny, I’m--”

A hand flew over Kai’s mouth, silencing the fire ninja. Cole glared hard at him though a grin remained on his lips.

“I’m literally begging you to shut up. It was a joke.” Cole slowly retracted his hand from the now silent Kai.

The fire ninja waited for just a moment, letting his eyes meet Cole’s, before whispering under his breath “I’m really hot…”

“Oh, shut up!” 

In a swift motion, Cole had Kai pinned to the ground, knocking over multiple chairs in the process-- but just as soon as the ghost was solid enough to tackle Kai, he phased through him.

In all fairness, it took a lot of concentration just to let Kai lean on his shoulder. He was pretty exhausted from that.

The two dissolved into laughter, then both helping each other stand, tidying up the knocked over chairs.

Kai stopped laughing, turning to face Cole. “I mean, if you were Nadakhan, would you rather marry me or Nya?”

“Nya. No questions asked.”

“Didn’t even hesitate? I’m hurt,” Kai held his hands to his heart. He pretended to be injured for just a moment longer, before asking, “Okay, what if you were just yourself? Would you rather marry me or Nya?”

Cole looked to the ground. If ghosts could blush, he would have. 

“I’ll think about it.”

After the events of the following days, neither would remember this conversation.

4 (unrequited)

Kai sat in a chair in the medical bay, bent over with his hands resting on his knees. He bounced his leg to keep himself distracted from the overall disaster that had been that day.

He supposed he was supposed to be happy- his sister just got engaged- what?- and the team had defeated the Oni. It was supposed to be a good day.

But Lloyd had literally died and came back to life and Cole was unconscious after collapsing halfway through the final battle in the medical bay because he fell off of the Bounty. Kai made note that Cole should not have survived, and yet somehow, he did.

So, really, Kai should have been happy; but he was barely hanging on by a thread that was a second away from snapping.

“You missed it,” he told Cole’s unresponsive body. Massive bruises etched their way across his chest and up his neck from his fall.

“Jay asked Nya to be his yang, so, uh, I guess they’re gonna get married,” Kai said under his breath, releasing a deep exhale. He cupped his face in his hands. “I’m happy for them, I guess.”

Truthfully, Kai was. This was his sister and his best friend, and they loved each other, so honestly it was just a matter of time before they got married. 

It just felt so wrong to celebrate when one of their teammates was on death’s door. 

Zane had told him that Cole was going to be fine. There would be a recovery process, but he was going to live. Still, Kai found himself spending every moment after the final battle with Cole, making sure that he was still breathing and his heart was still beating. Zane had also told him that Cole wasn’t going to go anywhere anytime soon and that he needed to quit being so worried.

With the way he’s acting right now, maybe Kai should have been the one to propose today.

He laughed inwardly, before telling Cole, “If you asked me to marry you right now, I’d say yes.”

His eyes settled on the earth ninja’s closed ones. “Could you imagine? You marrying me instead of Nya marrying Jay?”

Kai hoped Cole would wake up and say something-- he didn’t. 

The fire ninja stood from his chair, walking over to the stretcher. He grabbed Cole’s wrist, feeling the pulse, a small reminder that the black ninja was still here. “I can’t marry you if you stay knocked out, though,” he said, tone controlled and steady. “Wake up soon, okay?”

When Cole remained motionless on the stretcher, Kai knew he would not get any response.

5 (sweater weather)

“Kai.”

There was a shiver instead of a response.

“Kai, look,” Cole called again, tugging at Kai’s coat sleeve. He pointed to a coffee shop just down the block with a giant sign on its front that read “SALE.”

“Hm?” Kai hummed, looking in the direction Cole was pointing. 

It was a known fact that Kai absolutely despised cold weather. He liked looking at snow, but that was about it. He hated the way it felt, he hated the way it made everything slippery, and he really hated the way it was cold. He was the fire ninja; cold weather didn’t like him and he didn’t care for it much either. 

So why in the world he agreed when Cole asked him if he wanted to go walk around town when it was barely 30 degrees fahrenheit and snowing was beyond him, but love works in mysterious ways.

“Do you wanna go get hot coffee? This place is having a sale, too,” Cole said. He looked at the sale sign, then to the door of the shop. 

“Oh FSM, yes,” Kai said. He pushed past Cole and into the warm building, not bothering to look at the sign. 

Kai hated snow, but maybe it would be bearable if he had Cole by his side and coffee in his hand. 

The ninja household was divided when it came to coffee versus tea. They were supposed to like tea, and FSM forbid Wu ever learn that Kai, Cole, and Lloyd prefer coffee to tea. Nya and Zane liked tea.

Jay liked coffee, but he was not allowed to have it anymore following the incident. 

Cole knew Kai’s coffee order by heart--medium caramel macchiato with an extra shot of espresso and caramel drizzle-- but his own order changed day to day. More often than not he ordered straight black coffee. Kai liked to joke that it matched his personality, even though it wasn’t true. 

Kai watched as the nindroid barista made her way over to two of them and silently thought about how mad Zane would be right now if he knew what the two of them were up to.

Cole ordered for the two of them, then watched as the barista rang up both of their drinks at full price. 

“Wait,” Kai interrupted, gaining the nindroid’s attention. “Isn’t there supposed to be a sale?”

The barista laughed. “It’s a couples discount,” she explained, eyeing the two ninja, “so, uh, unless you two married, then your total is $5.99.”

The two ninja glanced at each other, a smile growing on their faces. 

“Cole, marry me right now,” Kai said. 

Cole stifled a laugh. “In your dreams,” he rolled his eyes. “Unless…?”

The barista smiled and covered her mouth with a robotic hand. “Just for brightening my day, I’m going to give you the discount, bringing your total to $4.20,” she laughed.

Maybe Kai didn’t totally hate cold weather.

+1 (first love / late spring) 

Cole was so frustratingly well-spoken. 

He was infuriatingly good at saying things. Hell, he could be talking about puppies dying and make it sound like a rhetorical masterpiece. Kai always figured that his natural way with words probably had something to do with Lou being a songwriter, and Cole just being a natural born leader in general.

Kai was not that well spoken, despite what he may tell the others, but at least he was able to talk about his emotions (unlike a certain black ninja).

And that’s normally how their conversations went. Kai would talk about his feelings and Cole would deflect talking about his own and instead formulate some elaborate response to help the red ninja with his issues.

It took Kai by surprise one late spring night when, as the pair was sitting by the pond just outside the monastery, Cole said something weird and vulnerable.

“Do you think you’ll ever be able to have a really normal life?” He waved his hand, facing Kai. “I know that a normal life by societal standards is kind of...unattainable, because we’re ninja, but do you know what I mean?”

“I think so,” Kai said. Warm spring breeze made the water lap at the shore, where the two sat. He stared off into the distance, past Cole, maybe at the pond or maybe he was looking at the tall trees just behind the pond. 

“I mean, like, I never really had a normal life, I guess, but I really want normal parts of life,” he rubbed the back of his neck. He really wasn’t sure where Cole was going with this.

He saw Cole’s eyes light up and the black ninja touched his hand in a way that made Kai’s stomach turn to butterflies.

“Yes! That’s what I mean!”

Cole saw Kai’s momentary confusion and elaborated. “I know my life won’t ever be normal but I want normal aspects of life. I want to fall in love, I want to travel, I want to do all these things,” he looked to Kai then back to the water. “We were kinda forced into an adult life when we were just kids,” he said. “It doesn’t feel fair. I mean, Lloyd’s just a tall child.”

Kai picked at the small flowers blooming in the grass where they sat--he was still caught up on the first thing Cole said about falling in love.

“I get it,” Kai said. “I want to fall in love too. And also have a normal life.” He mostly wanted Cole to keep talking.

Kai gathered the flowers in his hand and looked to Cole. He liked the way the moon reflected in his gray eyes, and he liked the way his faint green scar was still visible in the night. 

Cole laughed and looked Kai in the eyes. 

“You’re one to talk about love, you’ve already fallen for someone.”

For a moment, he fire ninja panicked. How did Cole know? To be fair, he had been pretty direct about Cole marrying him more than once, and Cole was smart…

But oh FSM, did Cole know? Oh fuck.

“With Skylor,” Cole eyed him. “Don’t you remember?”

Thank the First Master.

Kai relaxed. “I wasn’t in love with Skylor, I think I just thought I was. I was in love with someone else.”

Cole smiled fondly, looking at the flowers in Kai’s hands. “Yeah, me too.” 

There was a beat of silence as both ninja processed what the other had said. Kai was the first to break the silence, asking, “Well, who was your first love, then?”

The black ninja looked at him for a moment as Kai held his breath. 

Please don’t say you love me.

“I think,” Cole paused. “I think it was you.”

Kai felt himself melt, but not because of any fire he could have made or any late spring heat. He felt the sense of normalcy he and Cole had just talked about. He felt himself really in love with Cole Brookestone. 

He had been direct before and he was going to be direct again. “I love you too. Like, really. I have for as long as we have been friends.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” 

He laughed nervously, and then reused the same old joke he had used when he first realized he was in love with Cole, in the blacksmith during their first year of friendship.

“Cole, will you marry me?”

Cole had a glitter in his eye and a soft smile on his face. “Maybe take me out to dinner first?”

“Only if I can call it a date.”

The earth ninja smiled and wrapped his hand around Kai’s. “Deal.”