Just because it BURNS LavaShipping

13

His parents stays just long enough to embarrass the hell out of him, and luckily Nya,--two days after he comes back around--and then leaves with promises to send Jay, Zane and Lloyd plenty of photos of him as an infant.

The man in the suit--who he finds out was a cousin of Skylor’s--leaves pretty much as soon as Kai wakes up, making some quip about ninjas needing to stick together. He takes the amulet back from Kai, too.

Kai finds that he’s pretty much back to normal. He has the appetite of a starved gorilla, and Zane makes extra at each meal to help Kai get his strength back. He’s also told to take it easy during training, and while he’d thought that would be cool, he really wants to get back out there and re-hone his body. It still feels a little clumsy sometimes.

And Cole… Cole pretty much avoids him at all costs during all of this. He sits far away from him when they eat, doesn’t train with him, doesn’t even make jokes with him. He even avoids his eyes, and Kai doesn’t know how to make him see…

It’s a few days after his parents leaves before he manages to corner him in the courtyard after dinner.

“Cole,” he calls, watches Cole jump, grins. “You are avoiding me.”

Cole looks up him, makes a hard face like he doesn’t know what Kai’s talking about. Kai goes over, sits down next to him, stares out at the courtyard. “I just thought,” Cole tries after a few minutes of silence, “you might want some space.”

Kai grins, scoots a little closer, bumps his shoulder against Cole’s. “And here I distinctly remember you saying you wouldn’t go anywhere if I didn’t want you to.”

Cole looks over at him, and Kai keeps looking forward. “You told me you didn’t remember.”

“I didn’t,” Kai admits, chancing a quick glance over at Cole. He looks… hopeful, which is perfect. Hopeful is perfect. “At least, not at first. I still don’t remember everything.” He pauses, takes his hands out of his pockets. He reaches over, puts his hand on top of one of Cole’s. “But I think I remember enough.”

Cole sighs, pull his hand away and scrubs it over his face roughly. “Look, I didn’t try to take advantage of you or anything,” he says, standing up and moving away from Kai. “But you kissed me, twice, and I though, I mean, I was pretty sure it was just the poison, but you were so sure it wasn’t and… We should just,” he hesitates, leans against one of the pillars, crossing his arms. “Let’s just…”

Cole trails off, looks over at Kai for help. “If you’re going to say forget it, I’m going to have to make a bad memory loss joke.”

Cole grins, which isn’t entirely a bad sign. Kai stands up, walks over to him.

“Maybe you should… remind me, about the rest of it first,” Kai prods, standing in Cole’s space.

Cole looks at him, sighs, leans forward and presses a quick kiss to Kai’s lips. He pulls back, looks utterly defeated, waits for Kai to say something.

Kai swallows. “Remind me some more,” he says happily, and Cole makes a face at him. “Okay, sorry, jeez. I just… It seems like something pretty life altering occurred last week, and I wish I knew about more of it.”

Cole looks away from him. “I told you before, that my feelings were real,” he says quietly, and Kai remembers that part. Remembers what he said back. “It wasn’t just last week.”

Not surprisingly, the only thing Kai can think of to say is a childish taunt, so he presses his lips together, keeps it in. Cole catches it, eyes him suspiciously.

“What?” He asks, the corners of his own mouth turning up.

Kai lets himself smile, reaches out to poke Cole’s chest. “You like me,” he sing-songs, “you really, really like me.”

“Kaiii,” Cole says warningly, and Kai looks at him.

“Cooole,” he echoes, amused.

Cole sighs again, looks away from him. Kai steps forward, reaches out to tug on Cole’s gi. Cole watches Kai’s hand.

“I think,” Kai says quietly, trying to be serious, “that I meant what I said, too. Poison or not, I meant it,” he whispers, leaning in, “when I said my feelings were real, too.” And he leans forward, locks his mouth with Cole’s and it feels familiar, even though all he has are vague memories of it, and he can’t help but wonder with a fond grin how much kissing they did that week.

Cole kisses him back, raises a hand to the back of Kai’s neck, steps closer. Yeah, Kai thinks, this is a pretty good reward for being poisoned and nearly dying. It’s not what he thought would happen, certainly, but he’s already decided he’s okay with it. Hell, his sick self decided that for him.

They kiss until there’s no space between them, until Cole pulls away and leans his head into Kai’s shoulder, and Kai smiles as he tilts their heads together. But then Cole reaches up with his hand, tugs on the collar of Kai’s shirt and pulls it back until his circular white scar is exposed.

He kisses it gently, which Kai should find sweet, but it just makes him laugh. Cole turns his head, looks at him like he’s being annoying.

“Man,” Kai says, still chuckling. “No wonder I fell for you. Your sap must have been very appealing to my near-death self. Such a cheese.”

Cole narrows his eyes, starts to pull back, but Kai holds onto him now that he finally has the strength to.

“Hey,” he objects, nudging his lips next to Cole’s again. “I didn’t say stop.”

And he kisses Cole again, let’s Cole kiss him back in the dim porch light, thinks again of Cole’s idle promise to a sick, exhausted Kai.

“I won’t leave, either,” Kai tells him when they pull apart. “Not if you don’t want me to.”