Promises (Ninjago's Kai x Reader)

Episode 1 - Surrender

I've gotten used to it now: The constant buzz of monsters in my head. The muffled tones of my friends' voices. The peculiar clarity in Kai's and Kai's alone. The world has gone mute, but only if I try to pay attention to it. If I just listen to what these voices have to say, endure the visions--

Memories.

Yes. Right. Memories. If I endure those, and just accept my situation for what it is, then everything will be okay. I can take whatever the world hast to throw at me. I'm Tasha Garmadon, daughter of Sensei Garmadon, granddaughter of the first spinjitzu master, the silver ninja, a goddamn sensei. I was trained to face worse than this. This is child's play.

And yet, something tells me this is more dangerous than anything I've faced ever before.

"You okay," asks Kai, resting a hand on the small of my back.

I blink away my thoughts. Dammit! I zoned out again. It's been happening more and more often, either because the voices are being loud and distracting, or because I'm trying to cope with the fact that they're there.

"Yeah," I say. I pick up a box of yet-to-be-unpacked stone warrior figurines and carry it over to where Lloyd is working to fix the Stone Warrior exhibit.

As far as anyone knows, I'm suffering from a sudden partial loss of hearing. Pretty sure Kai can tell that it's more than that though. He's always asking me if I'm okay, which is actually helpful sometimes when I've been stuck zoned out for a while. But still, I don't want him to worry about me.

"This ends now, Samukai," exclaims Jay raising the Skulkin head to be eye level with him. "Nope, pretending this is the actual Samukai doesn't make cleaning up the museum any more interesting. This is so lame. We're Ninja, not janitors."

"Come on, Jay. We're all kind of responsible for the damage to the museum," says Lloyd as he fills a cart with the remains of a Chen statue. "After all, if we hadn't had that massive battle on the Day of the Departed this place would still be in one piece."

"Yeah, and whose fault is that, Cole."

Cole, who is no longer a ghost except for a small sliver of transparency on his forehead, rolls his eyes. "Okay. How many more times do I have to say I'm sorry for accidently unleashing the ghostly forces of evil that attacked Ninjago?"

"This is exhausting," says Nya as she sets down a box full of giant metal pieces rather roughly. "If I could go back in time, I'd tell Dr. Saunders we were too busy to help."

"Nya, you may recall that the rest of us once time-traveled," says Zane as he wheels in a cart that holds a Cryptor mannequin. "It can have devastating effects, and should not be used lightly. Certainly not to get out of labor."

"It's just an expression, Zane."

Nya wanders back to the room Kai's in, and Lloyd walks over to me.

"You doin' okay," he signs, furrowing his eyebrows to express his concern.

I smile and nod. "I'm fine." He doesn't look like he believes me, but he doesn't push it. Like Kai, he's been more concerned about the hearing situation. He can tell there's something I'm not telling him, but he hasn't asked. Instead he's done little things to try and make me more comfortable. He always signs whatever he and others say when I'm in group conversation, and whenever its just the two of us. Sometimes, during family meal time, he'll sign to me just to mess with the others. Their reactions are priceless, especially Jay's. I wish we would've used this to our advantage when we first learned to sign back when we went on those tours of Ninjago after defeating the Overlord.

"Guys, look what I found!"

Lloyd grabs my hand and leads me over towards the faint sound of Cole's voice. He's standing in front of a giant painting, gazing at it in awe.