Family from Afar

Where had Iris gone?

It didn't long before Kai and MK were full-on wrestling, pulling the other's hair or clothing in hopes of getting on top of the other or just wrestling so much, they zoomed around the place with dust surrounding them. Nya rose a brow at the antics and looked at the others, Mei's giant grin made it obvious that she wanted to join. Iris looked confused and concerned while Redson looked like he was thinking. "So much for training." Nya said, walking over and sitting next to Jay, who patted Nya's head in a form of comfort. Cole rubbed a hand down his face, shaking his head as Lloyd looked genuinely confused. While this was something that happened often when someone messed with Kai's hair, calling out Jay here, Lloyd found it odd how even though MK obviously didn't have any elemental powers, he acted just like Kai and Nya. Speaking of the brothers, Cole looked at Redson. "You get your boyfriend, I get mine?" Cole asked, Redson sighed but nodded, walking down the small stairs.

He even held a hand out to help the master of earth to his feet. Both then walked over to the duo and reached forward. Cole and Redson pulled back when they managed to grab something. When they did, both boys were separated. MK was pulled back by his bandana tails while Kai, who was still trying to swat and smack at MK, was pulled back by his gi hood/mask. "Kai, chill. We can go fix your hair now." Cole said, his tone tired as MK dashed behind Redson, peeking over the demon's shoulder as he grabbed hold of Redson's arm. Kai opened his mouth to spit some sort of insult, but shut his mouth when he saw the venomous glare coming from Redson. Small flares of fire spark around the demon's hair, giving the elemental master a silent warning. But because we know how much of a hothead Kai was, he only sighed and pouted. "Fine." Kai said, feeling the grip on his gi loosen. He then huffed, turning to the side as Kai crossed his arms in front of his chest and walked off, grumbling something under his breath as he headed into the monastery, Cole right behind him with a smile.

MK sighed in relief and hugged Redson. "Thanks, Red!" MK said loudly, hugging with a closed eye smile. Redson's glare softened to a soft smile, shifting his gaze to his boyfriend. But then Redson froze as he heard Mei, Sandy, and Mya saying "AWW!". Redson looked up and saw the ninja snickering a bit, Mya and Sandy gushing over the affection while Mei was doing the same thing, but more teasing. Ray had left, probably to make sure Kai wasn't going to sneak attack MK or something. Wukong and Maccaque were in their own conversation while Iris had left. Normally, Redson would flip off Mei while yelling at her to mind her own business. But because Mya was behind her and Redson was already afraid he was on thin ice with her, Redson only blew a raspberry at her, turned around and hugged MK, then used his powers to teleport to his and MK's room. Mei laughed a bit as Lloyd reduced his laughing to a snicker, Jay just laughing now. Nya rolled her eyes as she smacked her forehead. Then she looked around the group and paused, where was Iris at?

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Iris walked through the halls, a mope in her walk as she rubbed her arms. She had left when she saw everyone laughing at MK and Kai wrestling. She didn't know what urged her to leave, maybe it was the fact that MK felt comfortable hanging out with Kai and Nya because of their powers. Maybe it was because Ba Macaque was entertained by Wukong and his antics. Sure, the monkey seemed annoyed by what the immortal said, but there were worse reactions, ones that actually indicated he was irritated and/or angered. Or maybe... it was because Iris just felt out of place. Each person in the crowd had some sort of power that made them strong, not weaker. Iris sighed as she looked down at her hands, seeing them shake a bit as these thoughts kept appearing in her mind. Iris thought after watching something distract her, would stop these thoughts from coming back and growing. But she only found them appearing more and more. It caused Iris to grumble in annoyance, balling her hands as her brows furrowed.

It wasn't fair.

This whole place was filled with elemental/magic users and yet here was Iris, more useless than she was before LBD appeared. Iris shook her head, forcing herself to stop thinking about those thoughts as she kept walking, telling herself that walking would help block the negative thoughts in her mind. But then Iris heard huffing, causing her to pause. Iris looked to the side and saw a pair of doors that remained slightly open. Allowing her curiosity to take over, Iris walked over to the door and placed her hands on the door, pushing to door open just enough to allow Iris a peak inside. It was Sensi Wu's library, and it was slightly a mess. In the middle of the room, Wu remained there, picking up stray scrolls that had fallen off a table. "What happened here?" Iris asked, walking into the room, finding it more relaxing than the hallway she was just in. Wu looked up, then smiled as he saw it was only Iris. "Hello there Iris." Wu welcomed, then sighed as he set a scroll on the table next to him. "I managed to convince your Tang friend to leave my library." Wu said, his expression slightly tired.

That explained the room's condition. Trying to pull Tang away from a library with myths and legends about any culture was like trying to tell Pigsy not to add any seasoning to his soup. It was a very bad idea and usually ended up with the room a complete disaster. "Pigsy was walking by and told Tang to come with him, I'm sure the scholar is helping Pigsy and Zane with some cooking." Wu said, Iris laughed a bit as she crouched down. "He's probably helping by eating anything Pigsy deems 'not good enough to serve'." Iris said with a laugh, reaching around to collect some scrolls, Wu laughed at the idea as he welcomed Iris's help, continuing to gather scrolls around him and place them on the table. Once they all were at the table, Wu turned to Iris. "You wouldn't mind helping me put all these away, would you?" Wu asked, gesturing to the scrolls.

"Sure, I don't really have much else to do." Iris said, then grabbed a scroll, looking on the outside for some sort of letter and number. She found it on the bottom of the scroll's hand and looked around, humming to find the slot labeled with the same letter and numbers on the scroll. It was like this for a while, Iris helping Wu tidy up the library. She even offered to dust some shelves that remained untouched. "Thank you, I almost forgot how nice it was to have help with cleaning." Wu said, remembering how it was a literal war to get the ninja (even Nya) to clean up after themselves. At one point, Iris and Wu were on opposite sides of the room, dusting and cleaning up a shelf they remained at. But at one point, Wu felt it was odd how the Monistary was quiet. "I'm going to go check on everyone. Are you alright by yourself?" Wu asked, stopping before the door, Iris nodded as she remained on a ladder. She even gave him a thumbs-up, the action made Wu smile. "Alright, I shouldn't be long." Wu said, leaving the library and closing the door behind him.

Once he did, Iris returned to cleaning the shelf. She hummed a random song she heard from Cole's playlist. While Nya, Kai, and MK had done some much need "Sibling time", Iris happened to run into Cole while he was listening to his playlist whilst reading some book. She was trying to find Macaque but found the room relaxing. So she just asked if she could hang out in the room. He didn't seem bothered by Iris, so he said yeah. The memory made Iris smile, but then she pushed the duster against a certain scroll, causing it to push forward and fall out. Being quick, Iris grabbed hold of it with a yelp, sighing when she and the scroll didn't fall. But then she realized she dropped the duster, causing her to sigh.

 What scroll fell anyways? Iris looked down at it with annoyance but froze when she saw the writing. "BONE DEMONS" was written on the side. Iris looked up, seeing that she was alone. She looked back down at the scroll, suddenly having the urge to open the scroll, even though she knew what remained inside. So Iris climbed down the stairs and headed for a clean table, setting the scroll down. Iris wanted to throw the scroll, to ignore that it even existed. But Iris felt she opened the scroll and pushed it open until it fully opened on the wide table. And all it took was for Iris to stop and look at the first page and she immediately regretted it.