Street Smarts | Ninjago AU

7 ~ if i only were unbreakable

Kai Mayason was both someone Ru wanted to stare at and someone she hated looking at simultaneously. His dark eyes were often warm, like sugar glazed over a rich, chocolate cake. A deep scar ran over his left eye. It'd left a notch in his thick eyebrows, drawing the viewer's gaze down his well-structured face. His grin was lopsided, but it left a singular dimple in his cheek that seemed to balance his entire facial structure out. While Nya was icily beautiful, Kai had the advantage of being ruggedly handsome—in a 'I woke up like this' kind of way.

     Harumi hated that he was interesting. She hated the fact that he'd noticed her enough to ask her if she would babysit for his ward, and she definitely hated the fact that whenever he entered the room he practically demanded her attention, just by being there.

     "Ru Wiggins, what the flipping heck happened to you?"

     His warm eyes had turned molten; they were the surging blazes of an out-of-control fire.

     Sure, Harumi had dived into polluted water to save her charge, had a panic attack over that one time she killed someone, had her jacket (and her loan payments for the next month) stolen, and encountered a very creepy and insane woman, but there was no way in Ninjago she would cower to Kai Mayason. She didn't care how emotionally and physically and psychologically drained she was. She would tear off her own arm before she admitted weakness to the idiot who thought he could stalk her at school.

     "I fell into a river," Harumi said, putting a hand on her hip.

     "You fell into a river," Kai repeated blankly, looking her up and down. "People like you don't fall into rivers."

     "What's that supposed to mean?" Harumi's tone turned defensive. She didn't know what he was insinuating.

     "What happened?" His voice was scorching.

     Harumi crossed her arms, feeling the smallest tremble of fear, but keeping her wits about her. Her hand moved to her stomach, where her dagger should have been hidden—should have been. It was still lodged into her jacket. The jacket that some filthy rug rat stole. Harumi seethed, forcing the next words through her lips, "Lloyd fell off the park's swing set into the river. I dived in to help him. We came home so he could change."

     Kai paused briefly, looking her up and down again.

     "What? Do I have earthworms on me or something?"

     His liquid eyes met hers, and she'd never felt so entranced.

     "Your throat is bobbing," Kai said quietly. "It's your tell. What are you hiding, Ru?"

     Her hands desperately grasped for something behind her, only finding the marble kitchen counters. There had to be some weapon-ish thing she'd left out: a fork, a spoon, a knife—

     "N-nothing... wait, how do you know my tell? I've never lied around you—"

     He raised an arched brow, so, so similar to his sister's. Kai's presence was leeringly close, enough to the point where Ru could practically feel the warmth radiating off his skin. Chills erupted down her spine, and she suddenly wished for that dumb jacket. Not for the dagger, for the cover, for the protection.

     "What are you hiding, Ru?" he asked again, his breath heart-wrenchingly close.

     Two dead parents, killed by the Ninja.

     Two alive parents, wanting me found and captured.

     One alive boy, my brother and protector against this entire operation.