Lava | Ninjago

🜃 | two free birds

As it was the middle of the night, the two of them had to contain all of their laugh and excited whoops. It was difficult, for the euphoria filled their chests.

Kai held onto Cole's hand as he led him through the darkened streets, his grin illuminating the world with way more force than the lamps could ever fathom.

And Cole's smile grew every time the wild-haired boy looked back at him.

He's never felt as free as he did that night. Neither of them ever did.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” he breathed. The doubts weren't as powerful as Kai's radiant energy and the feeling of liberty they were drowning in but he guessed he could still ask. Maybe to make the feelings even stronger than they already were.

“Of course! To hell with them all! We don't need some stupid institute, we're both adults in a few months anyway! As long as we have each other, the world is all ours!”

He stopped, making Kai stop as well. The short moment in which they stared into each other's eyes was buzzing with electricity. Cole was buzzing with electricity. Everything was. And he felt oh so powerful. Kai was right. Nothing could ever stop them; nothing was going to stop them. Ever.

Their lips found their way to each other and Cole never wanted it all to end. He kissed him over and over again, his heart pumping pure joy instead of blood. It was Kai who pulled them both above the surface of the lifeless void. He lit it up. They were nothing until he came and set them both on fire, now they were stars in the sky.

His hand held Kai's jaw, the shortcut to holding the entire world, and Kai's held onto his wrist, making his skin burn. Both holding the other as close as possible and he felt like exploding with energy. This was the happiest he's ever been. Set free. Finally set free to soar the sky, spread their wings and be free.

Kai pulled away, glowing in the dark. “Let's finally start a proper life, shall we?” he asked him.

And Cole grinned back and nodded eagerly, still cupping his face. The world was his, it was theirs. “Yes. Yes, I want that.”

“With you.”

“With you.”

He stared into his twinkling eyes to which the starry sky could never compare and kissed him again, hoping Kai understand all of the emotions he felt and put into it. God, how he loved the ability to speak without speaking. So many words he could barely ever find could be contained in simple gestures. He wanted to feel Kai's lips against his until the end of the world; the end of their existence. His healthy addiction.

“I love you,” he said, brushing his thumb just under his eye.

Kai was the sun.

“I love you too.”

They ran farther into the night (stopping here and there when their lips got too lonely and their hearts were just so loud), through the empty streets that were calm until they came, then they were just as on fire as they were. Two balls of pure energy, two giant bolts of lightning. Nothing and no one could ever dare and try stop them. They were unstoppable forces.

And they were free. They were finally free.

***

Cole started at the withered flowers. It was easier to watch those than to let the text burn into his eyes, into his mind. As if it wasn't already. Like mantra, the contents of the tombstone always repeated itself to him and he couldn't do anything to stop it.

Funny, how he could relate to a wilted bouquet. His heart felt just as dead as its blooms were. Just as—

We are gathered here…

Sometimes when he came there (he could live there already with how often he came to visit), he wanted to scream his lungs out. At least as their last act of rebellion together. Break the silence of the necropolis. Disturb the town of the dead just how they did the night when they ran away. When the entire world was at their feet. Now his world was six feet deep under the dirt and while it still could count as it being at his feet, this was not what he imagined behind the expression.

This was not what he imagined to happen. Ever.

“You said that as long as we have each other, the world is all ours,” he managed to murmur. It could be considered a miracle with the way his breath shook under the storm of sobs that wanted to come crashing. “So what about me now?”

He let the tears spill. He was too weak to hold them back and barely anyone was there to see him anyway. But he hoped that if Kai could see him in some way, it wasn't now. Cole didn't want him to see him like this. He never wanted that.

Sitting down next to the grave, the lonely grave, he leaned his head against its side. Just how he used to put his head on Kai's shoulder.

Except now it was a piece of cold stone.

With words carved into it, announcing the end of the world. The explosion of the sun. The perishment of the universe.

“You know I don't like to cry like this, why would you do it to me? Why would you make me cry when you knew I don't like it?” He barely had any strength to hold his knees close. His arms felt so weak. They cut off his wings.

Usually Kai would've held him close and distract him. Kiss him, tell him it was okay, say something funny to make him smile again. Where was he now? Where has he gone?

Why?

“But of course I can't stay mad at you, how could I?” He tried to wipe away the tears with the back of his hand but it was to no use, they kept on coming.

Tears Kai would kiss away any other day.

“I'll forgive you for now. I forgive you. But don't get used to it, all right? I won't be so forgiving the next time. This is just an exception.”

The lonely soul sat there for a long time, silently weeping in the cold day. Who knew if it actually was cold, but in his world, there was nothing to warm him up again. The fire was smothered. Destined never to come back. And all that was left were ashes.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

He reached into his jacket and pulled out a pocket-sized notepad with his trembling hands. Trembling hands, that once were used to be so steady. Hands that once used to–

He stared at the scribbled text, which was slowly burning into Cole's mind as well. Cole just couldn't say whether it was blurry because of all the tears or because of the way his hands shook. Perhaps both were at fault.

Nya Smith-Walker
54 LaMer Lane

“But why'd you had to make me the bearer of bad news?”