Lava | Ninjago

🜃 | Stargazing and Crashing Waves

Cole climbed as quietly as possible up to the roof. The fresh night air already did wonders to his busy mind. Once he was up, he looked at the dark sky covered with tiny lights. He loved the peace and silence of the night since he was a kid. Some things never change.

His hair which he had in a bun felt heavy on his head, yet Cole decided not to let it down. After all, it was quite windy and the last thing he needed was to trip and fall off the roof because his hair was in his view. Not to mention it wouldn't be very ninja of him.

Tearing his gaze away from the night sky, he finally noticed a sitting silhouette at one of the ends of the roof. The spiky hair gave away that it was Kai who was - like Cole - not asleep in his bed. Cole didn't mind having company and so he decided to come to him. Carefully as to not slip he made his way toward the other ninja.

"What are you doing here?" he asked when he stood next to him. Kai looked up, his face surprised at first but then relaxing again. He gave Cole a tiny smile and looked back forward.

"I could ask you the same," he responded instead.

"Can't sleep?" Cole sat next to Kai, their legs hanging over the edge of the roof. Both of them supported themselves with their arms, although Cole leaned a bit more back. He turned his head to see Kai more clearly. In the dark he could barely see the details of his face, his scars were almost invisible. The unclear sight was almost dreamy - you know how it should look but can't seem to see it properly.

"Mhmm," hummed Kai. Cole looked forward, just like him, and said, "Yeah. Me neither."

Silence took over the pair. The sound of crickets worked as some sort of background music, their repetitive yet harmonic symphony soothing to Cole's ears. This was exactly why he loved the night. It just felt so ethereal, it was like a hug. As if the world was giving you a reward for going through another day.

Cole could see Kai's legs rocking back and forth. A habit he noticed a long time ago. Kai could never sit still. He was always busy, always itching for action, always doing something to keep himself busy.

He looked at him again. Watching his chest rise and fall as he breathed was almost hypnotizing. Not as much as Kai's amber eyes. Sometimes, when the sun shone just right, they almost looked like two tiny balls of fire.

There was also this one time when Cole was taking care of Kai's injuries when he noticed another tiny detail about them. As he was cleaning the blood off of his temple his gaze just shifted to his eyes. He never got this close of a look before. From any other distance, you just perfectly miss the tiny blue circles in the middle of his irises.

He wished he had a chance to see his eyes from up close more often.

Kai sighed, breaking the odd trance Cole got into while staring at him.

"Sometimes I feel like the stars are watching me."

"What?" Kai turned to him and their eyes met. Cole could feel the hypnotic sensation coming back.

"You know, like... It's like there's thousands and thousands of eyes and they just don't stop staring at you," Kai explained. "Star-ing, you hear it?"

Cole absent-mindedly nodded.

"Well, I mean, technically they are, aren't they?" Kai looked up to the sky, his eyes moving quickly as he was looking around as if trying to see every single star that was hanging above them.

"They just stare, so silently... And as much as uncomfortable it sounds, I don't really mind it. It's like I have someone looking after me." Kai turned back to him. There was something in his eyes Cole couldn't put his finger on. He took a deep breath and looked up, just like Kai did before.