Flames of the Past #4: A Tangle of Lies (A Ninjago Fanfiction)

Chapter 4

At last, the guards left Kai alone when they reached Chester's bedroom. The red ninja knocked on the door. After bringing up the prince's parents in front of everyone during dinner, he'd felt guilty and was hoping to apologize. The chefs had filled him in with as much as they knew about Chester's parents, although it had only been half of the story.

My parents are dead to me! Chester's reply echoed in his head.

Why would he say something like that? Kai wondered. He only knew he'd brought up fragile memories for the prince, and even if Chester was a jerk to him most of the time, he felt he had to make it right.

With the trouble he'd gotten into with Alec, he knew he had to make it right.

"Yeah," he heard Chester's reply. Kai assumed that meant he could go in, so he did.

He found Chester seated at a desk on one edge of the spacious room. The bedroom was grand and decorative, following the blue and silver theme, but Kai tried to keep his focus on the situation as he walked over to the prince.

Chester was half-slouching on his chair, flipping a pen onto the desk surface over and over again. His dark eyes seemed cloudy and distant. "What do you want, ninja?" he started in a grunt.

Kai hesitated. He found the idea of apologizing to Chester was much easier said than done. "Look, uh..." he stammered, "about what I said..." He forced himself to swallow the remainder of his pride in order to continue. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have... opened a wound like that."

Chester's eyebrows furrowed as he turned to the red ninja. "Look, you don't like me, and frankly, I don't like you," he spat. "We don't have to do this."

"Yes, I do," Kai persisted. "I don't like to hurt people like that, even people I don't like. Parent stuff... it can get sensitive."

Chester stared at him, seeming to process his words. "Huh," he commented. Then he turned back to his desk.

Kai gritted his teeth together. "So am I forgiven or not?" he demanded.

"Yeah, whatever," Chester muttered.

Kai heaved a sigh. He wondered why Chester was acting so cold when he was trying to be nice for once, but he knew that look on the prince's face. Something else was bothering him. And Kai could easily guess what it was.

Frowning, the red ninja moved and sat on the surface of the desk. He rubbed his hands together, wondering how to begin. "The chefs... Marcello and Jackson, they told me about your parents."

A half-smile appeared on Chester's face. "Did they?" he breathed.

Kai nodded. He went silent for a few moments. "They said your parents ran away, and no one knows where they went," he continued. "But then you came back to the kingdom. What happened? Why did you leave your parents?"

Chester continued to flip his pen, smiling again. Only this time, the pain was clear in his grin. "I um..." It took a while for him to gather the words. "I... I was disowned."

Kai's face dropped in shock. "What?" he whispered.

Chester let out a breath of strained laughter and shook his head. "Yeah, uh... my dad and I got into a fight about something stupid I did and... he said, 'Get out. And don't come back.'" The smile faded from the prince's voice. "'You're not my son anymore.'"

Kai could only stare at the blond in shock. He was struck speechless. He could tell from the pain in Chester's voice that he wasn't making things up. "That's terrible," he croaked out.

Chester only shrugged.

"What... What did you do?" Kai had to ask.

Chester swallowed. "Helped someone, that he didn't want me to help," he rasped. "At the time, I knew it was the right thing to do, but now... I'm not so sure."