Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It all started with them getting drunk at Skylor's apartment after a date, which led them to doing it, while, of course, forgetting to use protection. They had an amazing night, then woke up happy, tangled in each other’s limbs. After that, they ate breakfast, then Kai was whisked off to do whatever ninja duty Wu or Lloyd had him doing. Everything was fine. It wasn’t until a week and a bit, that Skylor had felt a bit off. She realized she had missed her period by a few days, but that didn’t spark much concern, because her period was off by a day or two sometimes. But then she noticed herself becoming more tired and having an unusual amount of fatigue, at least for herself. She thought it was just from work being busy. Then her breasts became sore, which that she didn’t have an explanation for, but yet she still didn’t do anything. But finally, when she threw up in the middle of the night for the second time, is when she did some research on her phone, which led her to buy a test.

Which is now showing a clear positive in her hands.

“Oh fuck.”

The next few days are filled with her stressing about what to do, and trying to hide it from the people around her, like her coworkers, the other ninja, and Kai. Especially Kai. He’s like a walking lie detector for reading her when something is wrong, but luckily for her, he and the other ninja have had their hands filled with missions these past few days. So, that gives her some space to figure out what to do and how to tell him.

But there is a slight problem. She’s supposed to have movie night with the ninja at the monastery tonight, but today she’s been feeling the worst she has yet. If any of them notice one thing off with her, they’re going to bombard her immediately checking if she's okay. And it’s not like she doesn’t like the amount of love and care people finally have for her, it’s just she’s trying not to lose her shit about what that test said. And she’s not particularly interested in having to tell her entire friend group and boyfriend all at once about what’s going on. She just has to take some Pepto Bismol or something before she drives out, try to act like herself, and try not to throw up her entire body weight for one night and morning. Sounds easy enough, right?

When she finally does get there, she feels way better than at work. Work was horrible. The smell of noodles made her stomach churn so much that she had to lock herself in her office for the entire day.

Before she even reaches the door, it slides open with, no other than Lloyd Garmadon, giving her his dorky, childish grin, in his famous, black cat onesie.

“You’re late”, he says, still smiling.

“By like five minutes!”

Lloyd just shrugs and blocks the doorway from her getting inside. “That’s still late. Also where’s your entrance fee?”

Skylor heaves an attempt at a dramatic sigh, which fails into a small laugh, as she pulls out one of three bags of Nerd’s Gummy Clusters- which has become her new favourite candy, thanks to Lloyd- and puts it in his outstretched palm.

“Does this suffice, oh-lord-of-candy?”, she says in a mock-joke tone.

Lloyd grins up to his ears at the bag of candy, and steps aside to let her pass. “Why, of course.”

Skylor just laughs as she walks into the warm, loud, home, that is the monastery, where she’s met with Kai chasing Jay around the halls, but stops immediately as he sees her, and slides over grinning and slightly panting from chasing jay. “Hey, what took you so long? We’ve been waiting forever.”

“Hey, what was- you know what, I’m not even gonna ask, I don’t want to know. And also- what? I’m like five minutes late!” She says smiling, as they hug and quickly kiss.

When they let go, Kai is helping her with the bags of groceries she brought, while she takes off her coat, hat, and boots. Winter is shit. “Well it feels forever to me. Anyway, how have you been? Anything new and exciting happened while I was on missions all week?”

Well that’s one way to get a reminder of what Skylor temporarily forgot. Her expression falters, and Kai gives her a confused look, knowing that something is up, but before he can comment, his sister interrupts everything to say hi and drag her away to do who knows what. Skylor couldn’t be more grateful for her best-friend than right now.

The weekly Friday night movie marathons at the monastery were one of the best things of Skylor’s week. It was filled with laughter, fun, friendly teasing, and it gave Skylor an opportunity to catch up on all the movie pop culture her dad had made her be isolated from for sixteen and a half years. Tonight, the group is planning to watch the first six movies of phase three in the MCU. And currently, they’re on their third movie of the night; which is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2.

Skylor gave up snacking on junk food and candy a while ago, because of her stomach threatening to explode out of her mouth. She’s been doing a good job at keeping it down so far, but right now it’s all she’s focusing on. Not even the movie, which she will have to rewatch on a separate date because she stopped paying attention like forty-five minutes ago. At least Kai is keeping her sane.

Speaking of Kai, he nudges her arm with his to get her to look at him, but she regrets it as soon as she looks at his expression, which is full of worry. He probably feels her being so tense beside him.

“You okay?”, he mouths.

Skylor just forces a small smile and nods, and hopes that it’s reassuring.

And now they're just staring into each other’s eyes, not paying attention at all to the movie. Skylor feels butterflies in her stomach everytime they share moments like this. Even after dating for almost two years, he’s still able to make her heart beat fast. She's about to lean in, when she realizes that those butterflies, were in fact, not butterflies, but instead her entire stomach about to come out of her mouth. In a panic, she grabs the almost empty bowl of popcorn that Lloyd is eating out of from the other side of Kai, and throws up.

Immediately, she feels a pair of warm hands pull her hair back and start rubbing her back. She's not throwing up for a while, but it feels like it's been an hour when she's finally done. The entire room is silent, even the movie got paused. Skylor just closes her eyes, feeling extremely embarrassed, even if they’re her friends.

She vaguely feels Kai taking the popcorn bowl (now throw up bowl) from her hands and placing it back on the coffee table. She hears someone awkwardly cough to fill the silence. Sounds like Jay.

"You, uh, you good there, Sky?" She hears Lloyd finally ask.

She's suddenly now extremely aware of everything and everyone. She's gripping the couch arm with her left hand, and Kai's hand with her right. She doesn't remember holding Kai's hand. But, he’s squeezing back enough for her to feel grounded.

"Yeah…uhm…", Skylor's voice is a bit hoarse from puking, so she clears her throat, "I'm fine. But I am gonna go to the bathroom."

When she stands up, her head is spinning. She now realizes that she might pass out. Well shit. Just as it's about to go black, Kai's at her side, keeping her steady as they both walk to the first bathroom in the hall.

When they get to the bathroom, Skylor just sits on the toilet, with her head in her hands, while Kai stays leaning against the bathroom door, staring at her.

"So….You gonna tell me what's going on with you, or am I going to have to play a one-sided twenty questions game with you?"

She doesn't say anything.

"Skylor." His voice is ringing through her ears right now in a piercing way. Not like how cold her father was, but how warm and calm Kai is. He's not saying this as a warning, but as a plea to her.

In a minute he's on his knees in front of her on the toilet, gently taking her hands off of her face. "Hey. Sky. Hey, look at me.” He gently lifts her face up to meet his soft, loving green eyes. The same eyes that light up everytime she comes in the room– or so Nya says. Either way, Skylor still can’t believe that someone could love her that much- or at all. Jeez, her dad had made a huge impact on her. Maybe she should go to group therapy with the others. Still, she can’t say anything. She opened her mouth but nothing was coming out. Kai just sighs while still staring at her. “Hey, listen. Whatever it is you can tell me, you know that right?”, and he started to ramble, like how he does when he’s nervous about someone he cares for. “You’re really starting to, uhm, worry me here, and I need you to know that whatever it is you can tell me because I love you and I care for you and I’m always here for you and Sky, I just need you to tell me what’s going on because I know this is way more than a stupid stomach bug or something, because I know you, and it’s killing me not knowing what’s going on with you, so just please tell m-”

“I’m pregnant!”

If jaws could detach from your face, run away, and jump off the side of the cliff that the monastery sits on, Kai’s would be all the way at the bottom of the ocean.

“I- I’m sorry, what did you…what did you say?” Kai finally forces out after what feels like a century of being in complete and utter shock and being rendered speechless.

Skylor on the other hand, feels like a massive, old, painful bandaid has just been ripped off of her heart. She can’t quite tell if that’s a good or bad thing, but she’s now realizing that her usual coping mechanism of dry humor has come back, so she might as well use it. “Well Kai, it seems that…you impregnated me that night after our date, which was by far, your best performance night, so I’m not surprised that it happened, to be honest.”

He just stares at her with his eyes out of his eye sockets. As the minutes pass in silence, is when Skylor’s fake humor gets replaced by those stupid insecurities, rushing through her brain. What if this is the moment he finally leaves? What if he’s angry? What if she has to deal with this alone? What if this ruins them forever? What if she ends up like her dad? What if she fails as a parent like her dad did with her? The agonizing suspense of the silence is killing her. “Kai”, Skylor whispers, “Please say something.”

It takes Kai a few seconds to regain his composure enough to form a response. “That’s- That’s uh…uhm…not..what I was expecting you to say when I asked you what’s going on, Sky.” He awkwardly chuckles and rubs the back of his neck, like how he does when he’s nervous. “How long have you..uh..known?”

“Little under a week.”

Skylor watches him take a deep breath, then slowly exhale while nodding. “Okay. Okay. Well, how do you feel about this?”

How did she feel about this? She didn’t know one single thing about being a mom. She was raised in a toxic, abusive environment, by an insane and abusive man, as well as his creepy– also crazy, but less insane– assistant or whatever Clouse was. She was raised in a household that consisted of mainly fighting, and a snake cult. Her father only cared about power and would do anything, no matter the cost, to be the best and be powerful. Even if that meant exploiting his own daughter for her power. She grew up being afraid of the man who was supposed to protect and love her. Her father raised her to be like him. "Only one can remain" was her life’s motto. Either manipulate and defeat everyone to get to the top or you're a disappointment. There’s also the fact that she never knew her own mother. She never knew what happened to her. Her father hated talking about her, but said that she left. But he would never let her leave, would he? Skylor sure has tried that a few times as a child and young teenager. Never worked. He would always find her. And the punishments got worse each time. So, Skylor doesn’t know the first thing about being a parent, not to even mention raising a whole other human being.

But there is Maya and Ray. Kai and Nya’s parents. Skylor was the first person Kai came to when he realized that his parents were alive and working for the enemy. They weren’t even dating at that point. Just friends that saw each other every once in a while. After the whole Wu thing, Kai and Skylor talked more. It was nice. She thought that something would happen, but it didn’t. It wasn’t until years later, after the Crystal King attack, that they finally talked and worked things out between them. Then, as most romantic relationships include, is meeting the parents. Skylor was scared shitless about meeting them, mostly because of what they would think of her, and her relation to a massive criminal. But they still loved her anyway. And over these past few years as she’s been dating their son, and best-friends with their daughter, she’s seen and felt what true parental love should feel like. Skylor just doesn’t know if she can be as kind and caring and loving as Maya is.

But then there's the factor if she actually wants to have a kid. If she’s being honest, she never really thought about having kids. Until recently, that is. She’s also never thought about her future that much, only that she wanted to spend it with Kai. And then there’s also Kai. He raised Nya and himself since he was five, and he partly raised Lloyd, and they all turned out fine– at least on his part. And Skylor has seen him around kids, and he’s great with them. There’s that kid- what was his name? John, James, Jace…Jake? Yeah, Jake, that was it– that she briefly met during the Crystal King’s reign, and Kai and Jake seemed to have a good relationship with each other. Kai had been balancing being funny and protective over Jake pretty well. Skylor’s also seen him act caring and funny towards random kids over her time spent with him. He’d be a good dad, that she knows for sure.

“I…I’m not sure..” She finally says, after thinking about it for a while. “How do you feel about it?”

“That’s okay, we still have time to figure out what to do.” Kai says, seeming calmer than before, placing one hand on her knee, while still holding her hand with his other. “And I’m not going to tell you what I want because it’s your body going through this, so I don’t want you to make your decision based on what I want. But I need you to know that I’m going to be by your side through the entirety of whatever you want. If you want an abortion, I’ll hold your hand the entire time, and make the appointments and whatever other stuff there is to do. If you do…want to have a baby…I’ll be right here for the whole thing. I’ll drive to the store to get you the food you want at three in the morning. I’ll rub whatever you want me to, whenever you want. I’ll stay up with you when you can’t sleep so you’re not alone. I- I don’t know much about babies or pregnancy but the point is I’ll raise this baby with you, Skylor, only if you want to, and I’ll be here, no matter what. I want whatever you want to do, okay?”

And that finally makes her crack. And Kai knows that too, because he immediately stands up and wraps his arms around her (because he’d give a better hug standing than on his knees). Skylor clings to Kai like he’s the anchor keeping her from descending into a deep darkness until she drowns, and Kai holds her like she’s the most precious but vulnerable thing in the universe. His grip is tight, but not in the way her father would grasp her arm, but in the way like he’s trying to protect her from the horrors of the world. During all of this, Kai keeps whispering small reassurances into her ear, letting her know that he loves her and it’s going to be okay.

After that, Skylor went to bed early after making up an excuse of food poisoning. Kai stayed up for a bit longer but decided to go to bed early too. Instead of sleeping in his own bed, he slept with Skylor in her bed. The others finished the movie, then also went to bed, wondering what was going on. They knew something else was going on, but for once, let them have their privacy, because they could tell that something more personal was happening.

Skylor couldn't sleep for a while, but when Kai came in, she went right to sleep, wondering and worrying about what was going to happen. Kai went to sleep worrying about Skylor. He knew this must be hard for her because of her dad. But they'd figure this out together. They always did.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Skylor left early to avoid any confrontations on what happened last night. She also just wanted some time alone to clear her head. Also maybe some sleep. She’s more tired than usual; which she now knows is an early symptom of pregnancy. She was off of work for the next two days, due to it being the one day of the busy week that the noodle house isn’t open, plus an added extra day off for a holiday. This gives her some time to think things over. When she does get back to her apartment, she just drops her things on the floor, not caring to pick them up, and immediately scrounges her kitchen for food. So, she eats, then goes to her bedroom to catch up on some sleep. But not long later, an hour or two at most, she wakes up, feeling the need to puke her guts out again. She repeats the agonizing and annoying process of waking up, eating, sleeping, waking up, and throws up, then repeat, for a few hours with a few breaks in between to watch the news or something, until things finally quiet down and she falls asleep for real this time. 

Skylor wakes up to someone shaking her shoulder. When she opens her eyes, she’s faced with a small girl staring right back at her with a grin so familiar, it’s unsettling. The girl looks around three or four years old, with a lighter shade of brown hair just past her shoulders, and bright green eyes. Skylor just stares at this random child in her bed, who looks a lot familiar, for some reason she doesn’t know.

“Good morning, Mommy! Daddy said to wake you up for breakfast.” 

Mommy? But she doesn’t have any kids. Or has she just been dreaming about the past since she fell asleep last night and her memory has to catch up? Or is this a dream? It certainly doesn’t feel like one. 

Skylor doesn’t have time to think about this because her bedroom door opens, revealing Kai , wearing an apron –that looks like something a nineteen-fifties housewife would wear–and holding a tray of coffee and breakfast– pancakes, it seems–, all while sporting his dorky, loving grin that she fell in love with years ago. She doesn’t even feel herself doing her own dorky smile right back at him. 

Without her noticing, the little girl who called Skylor; “Mommy”, has climbed up on the bed and has now situated herself on her lap, which she actually notices, and on instinct, without even thinking, wraps her arms around the girl’s tiny body. The girl– who, Skylor has finally pieced together, is her daughter– automatically leans back into her mother’s arms.

What is happening right now? Is the only thing she thinks as the girl gets buried in Skylor's arms. The thing that scares her the most is the fact that she actually likes this. She’s never met this child before but she instantly feels a type of love for her that she’s definitely never felt for anyone before. 

Kai, in his adorably dorky pink apron, placing the tray on the bed in front of her, then comes around on the other side of bed to sit down next to her. On the tray, there’s two mugs of steaming hot coffee, and one smaller cup filled with orange juice. There’s also three small plates stacked on top of each other, next to a big plate filled with chocolate chip pancakes. Among other things, there’s a small thing of syrup, and a small bowl of blueberries, that her– their – daughter, is now snacking on. 

“Kai, what is all this?” Skylor asks, softly, looking at him. Kai just smiles and kisses her and mutters a small ‘I love you’ against her lips. When they finally part, he cups her face and continues smiling. 

“What? I can’t love my wife?” 

Now it’s her turn for her eyes to be exploding out of her head. She quickly looks at her left hand, which, of course, has a ring on it’s ring finger. The ring is gorgeous , to say the least. And, the best part, only one person could have made it. 

Even with her freaking out about what’s happening, Skylor can’t help but enjoy what’s happening. She’s happy. She just watches Kai interact with their daughter and her little laughs. She doesn’t want this to end. 

“Mommy, look! I made a smiwey face on the pancakes with the bewbewwies!” Skylor laughs at her daughter's mispronunciation of words. She remembers Maya mentioning that Kai also did this when he was around her age, at a family dinner once. 

She replies with something heartfelt and ‘motherly’, then Kai kisses her again, and she feels like she’s floating into the sky.

Skylor wakes up with a gasp, sitting upright in bed with a cold sweat, trying to catch her breath. Her room is dark, only illuminated by the bright city lights shining in through her balcony door's big window, and her alarm clock, which shows the time in big red letters; 02:18 am. When she finally calmed down, she realized it was just a dream. All of it. She feels an unexpected amount of disappointment, when she realized that she wasn’t married to Kai, and most importantly, their daughter didn’t exist. 

Or maybe that was a glimpse into their future. The ninja have had visions of the future before, so maybe that’s what that was. Maybe their daughter is the barely formed embryo inside of her right now. Maybe Kai and her do get married at some point. Or it all could have just been a dream, playing into the hopes and dreams of a future that didn't exist. 

Either way, she needed to get out of her apartment, no matter what time it was.

Hopping out of bed, Skylor quickly gets dressed in something pretty lazy– a pair of sweatpants that she definitely stole from Kai, a t-shirt (not the best for winter but she’s been feeling warmer for some reason), and a big soft cardigan– but it was the best she could do at almost two-thirty in the morning, grabs her wallet and keys, and hops into her car. 

If she were to make a list of things she hates, along with her father, and those annoying customers that bring up her father at every chance; is driving in Ninjago City, at night, during winter, would be somewhere in the top ten. Everything is so chaotic and nosy, most people suck at driving, it’s dark so it’s harder to see, and there’s always snow– more like mush– or ice on the ground. But luckily the grocery store is a couple blocks from Skylor’s apartment, so it shouldn’t take too long to get there.

The store is surprisingly empty for Ninjago City. But then again, she’s never been here at like two-forty am. Thank the First Spinjitzu Master for making most stores be open twenty-four/seven. 

Skylor just grabs a shopping cart and starts grabbing a bunch of random things; food, junk food, candy– especially lots of Nerds Gummy Clusters because Lloyd and the others ate them all (mostly Lloyd, though)--, advil and other medicine, and just any random thing she’s interested in. She’s about to go to the cash when she stumbles upon the baby aisle in the clothing section. She stops and thinks for a moment, before ultimately deciding to fuck it and go in. She just browses the various baby things– pacifiers, food, bottles, bibs, etc– until she reaches the clothing section, where one thing in particular catches her eye. A red, fluffy baby onesie in the shape of a dragon. There’s even a little hood for the head. 

Skylor plays with the fabric between her fingers while she thinks over everything. Could she actually do this? Be a good, and not a total fuck up of a parent? She thinks about the dream she had, about her, Kai and their daughter. She started to imagine it being real. Her and Kai, being a family with a kid. Everytime she thinks about it, she can’t help but smile. She didn’t even realize that her hand was resting on her lower abdomen this entire time. 

Someone clears their throat beside her and she jumps, letting go of everything that she was holding. She turns around to find an old woman wearing a name tag and the store’s signature colours smiling knowingly at her. 

“Baby shopping, are you, dear?” The old woman says, gesturing to the onesie that Skylor was fondling with, and her lower stomach. 

It takes Skylor a few seconds to regain her composure, but when she does she forces an awkward smile. “Oh uh…I’m not-”

“Honey, I was a midwife and an OBGYN for fifty-two years before I retired. I know a pregnant woman when I see one.” The lady has a slight southern accent, like she’s from the countryside. Old countryside. The lady smiles sweetly. Skylor on the other hand, feels quite embarrassed, for no reason. 

She sucks in a breath, “Oh! That’s- I…Uhm…”

The woman laughs softly. “I know, I know, you’re unsure of everything and it’s so new and scary, trust me, I’ve been there. But, honey, if you do choose to do this– because I can see in your eyes that you’re still unsure– you will do great. I’ve been with so many mothers for more than half of my life, that I’m able to tell who's going to be great, and who’s not. No, really, I can see it in their eyes. And you, my dear, are going to be great.” The woman speaks with so much confidence that Skylor believes it for a few, short moments. But this woman didn’t know her. She didn’t know who her father was, how she was raised, what she did. If she did, then she wouldn’t be telling her all of this. 

The woman just looks at her, and for some reason, Skylor can feel her eyes burning into her soul. “Well, I must be off, it is three in the morning. Whatever you choose, deary, it’s the right choice. You’ll be okay either way. Let people help and love you. You never know how much you need people until you’re alone.” The woman smiles sweetly at Skylor before turning around and walking away. Skylor just stands there, trying to take in what the old woman said to her. After a few minutes, Skylor impulsively tries to go find the woman, by going the same way she went, but after turning down the only corridor that the woman could’ve gone through, Skylor finds it empty. It’s not a very large store– like someone could hear a pin drop, so she would’ve heard the bells on the door if the woman would’ve left. 

‘Well that was super weird. ’ Skylor thinks to herself as she walks back to the baby aisle. When she gets there, she rethinks about that dream, the possibility of having a baby with Kai, the words that old woman said, and the thought of her and Kai being actual parents. So as she’s putting that fluffy, red, dragon baby onesie into her cart, she knows that she’s fucked. 

The next day, Skylor wakes up having to throw up– which is such a surprise– then walks out to the kitchen, where that dragon onesie is still laying on her counter from last night. Then she remembers everything that happened last night, and how she made the decision to keep it. Now all she has to do is tell Kai. Which she plans to do sometime today, because she doesn’t have work, so that gives her lots of time to figure out how to tell him. 

Skylor ultimately decides to just shove the onesie in a small box for now, and figure it out later, because her appetite came back after throwing up her entire body weight, so she wants to make food. Cereal should work. 

After getting settled on the couch, with her bowl of cereal in one hand, and the TV remote in the other, Skylor puts on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2, because of the fact that she missed the entire movie the last time she tried watching it, from her little puking episode at the monastery. After almost an hour, she can understand why people love these movies so much. But just as Drax and Quill are talking about relationships or whatever, Skylor’s phone starts ringing. 

She finds it under the mess of blankets, expecting it to be Kai– but it’s Lloyd. She clears her throat before answering, “Hey, Greenie, what’s up?” Skylor winces at how tired and sore her voice sounds. 

“Oh, hey! You actually responded.” Lloyd says, sounding surprised. 

“Why wouldn’t I respond?” She responds, confused, but with a smile playing at her lips. 

“I dunno, you’ve been kind of MIA recently. Not just yesterday– which you didn’t text or call or respond to anything at all– like practically all week. What’s going on?” Lloyd speaks with such confidence that something is wrong that Skylor is once again reminded that Kai practically raised Lloyd, so it makes sense for him to be a mini lie detector, as well. 

“Nothing’s going on Lloyd, I just haven’t been feeling great lately– probably the stomach bug going around work recently. I’m fine.” She tries her best to sound convincing, but it’s probably making it worse. “And might I remind you, Lloyd, that you guys have been on missions all week, so it’s kinda hard to text and stuff when you guys are off fighting crime.”

Skylor can hear Lloyd laugh through the phone, “Okay, that’s fair, I guess.” He’s silent for a few seconds before speaking again. “I thought it was food poisoning, though.”

“What?”

“You throwing up a few nights ago, you said it was because of food poisoning, but now you’re saying it’s a stomach bug. Kai’s also been acting weird and MIA since Friday night. Like he’s been in his room all day yesterday and this morning on his laptop and wont tell us anything. Listen, Sky, we know something’s up, you guys aren’t good at hiding feelings, you know that right? What’s going on?”

Skylor is slightly taken aback by the amount of details Lloyd has been noticing. She’s also internally cursing herself for missing that stupid little lie. But she can’t tell him– not now, at least. 

“Well, Lloyd, I’m feeling fine, thanks for asking. And for the record, it was both food poisoning and a stomach bug because I ate too much food, with the addition of feeling sick. And uh…Kai’s just probably working on a surprise or something!” Okay, now this is not one of her best moments, and she’s probably making it worse, but she’ll tell Lloyd eventually, so it’s fine for now. And besides, it all wasn’t totally lying...just bending the truth a bit, because she technically does have some sort of stomach bug, and Kai– she actually has no idea what he was doing– but was probably doing something for a surprise. 

Lloyd does not seem convinced. “Uh huh. Sky, c’mon it’s me, what aren’t you te-”

“Oh, sorry, Lloyd, I just remembered that I have an important work thing today, I got to go, goodbye!” Skylor quickly hangs up the phone before Lloyd can speak again. It’s not like she wants to lie to him like this, in fact, she hates lying to him– or anyone for that matter– it’s just she’s not ready to tell him yet, but she just kept digging herself a bigger hole, which is making her feel bad, but she’s pretty sure that Kai will kill her if she tells anyone without him. Speaking of Kai, she should probably tell him her decision today. 

After her phone call with Lloyd, Skylor texted Kai to see if he could come over, and Kai, being Kai, responded with a yes, immediately. After she put her phone down, she leaned back on the couch and released a sigh that she’s been holding since Lloyd called. For a good five minutes, she just laid there, until she remembered that Kai’s going to be here in around half an hour or so, and she needs to shower. Good thing she takes quick showers.

She’s never had a better shower before. She doesn’t know what it was, but the way the hot water ran down her skin, and the hot steam filled her bathroom; it made her never want to leave. But of course, she had to be quick and not take too long. Speaking of which, what time was it? Skylor opens the shower curtain slightly, to grab her phone to check the time, which read 11:46. It takes a few seconds before Skylor realises that she’s been in the show for almost half an hour.  

She curses out loud as she scrambles out of the shower, grabbing a towel, and trying to get dressed and ready quickly. Just as she’s trying to dry her hair quickly, her phone dings. Without even looking at it, Skylor knows that it’s Kai. 

Quickly unplugging her hairdryer, she starts walking out of her bathroom into her bedroom when she hears her door being opened. She walks into her hallway and she’s met with Kai staring right at her from the very end of her long hallway at the front door. 

“Hope you don’t mind me barging in like this, you were taking too long and it’s raining, so I let myself in.” Kai says, in a joking tone, while taking off his shoes.

Skylor laughs as she walks towards him. As she gets closer, she can smell the fresh scent of rain on him. “I did give you a key for a reason, you know that right?”

Kai’s laugh turns into a cough after a moment of silence, remembering the reason he thinks he’s here for. “So…have you uhm…thought about what-”

“Are you hungry? ‘Cause I am. Should I make bacon, eggs, and toast, or sandwiches?” She quickly turns away from him as she interrupts what he was saying, walking into the kitchen to do something, other than talk about that. Even though she knows her decision, she wasn’t totally ready to tell him yet. 

Kai, on the other hand, sighs before reluctantly following her into her kitchen. 

Skylor internally decides to just make sandwiches, but then realises that she ran out of bread at some point (why didn’t she get any at the store last night?). So, instead of making food, she impulsively grabs a bunch of paper towels, and turns around to face the problem head-on. “I actually have a gift for you.”

Kai eyes her for a moment with confusion, “Are you gifting me a bunch of paper towels? I mean, it’s a thoughtful gift, Sky, but I don't necessarily need some at the moment.” 

“No, what? Just- just give me one second.” She quickly says before dashing into her living room to shove the paper towels into the small box with onesie in it, acting as a replacement tissue paper. She waves Kai into her living room, ushering him to sit down on her couch, before sitting down herself, and handing him the box. 

He looks at her skeptically, before turning his eyes to the clearly, already used delivery box that she handed him. It takes Kai all of three seconds to get the box open, where he’s met with a bunch of paper towels– that were very clearly shoved into the box in seconds. He chuckles under his breath, and mutters a light, but noticeable “So that’s what the paper towels were for,” before reaching his hand into the box, where he grasped his hands around something soft and small. When he realized what this thing was, he inhaled a sharp, quick breath, and said one thing in his breath as he exhaled; “Sky.” 

Skylor swallows, nervously picking at her fingernails, before forcing herself to say something. “I uhm…I’ve been thinking a lot lately about this , and have had some…interesting experiences in the last twenty-four hours– which I will tell you about later– but it helped me realize that I do actually want this. ” Kai just stares at her after she’s done rambling, and it’s making her go insane. (Not literally, because then she would be like her dad– which nobody wants). 

Instead of saying something, like a normal person would, Kai crashed his lips against her’s so hard that their noses hit each other along the way. After saying a quick apology, Kai mumbled a soft; ‘I love you,’ against her lips. Even after dating for two years, they’re not super amazing at communing with words– not super horrible, but not amazing. Sometimes they both don’t know how to express their feelings with words, so instead they use the one thing that they’re both deprived of– gentle, physical touch.

After a little crying and kissing later, Kai made both of them lunch, then stayed for the rest of the day, and stayed the night. Of course, Skylor told Kai her interesting dream from last night, and that old lady from the store, right when they were about to fall asleep. Kai also told her what he was doing on his laptop for the past few days; which was researching some things about pregnancy and babies, etc. Normal things.

But Kai found Skylor’s little dream exceptionally hilarious.“Wait, wait, wait– you’re telling me that you had a dream of our future kid stealing blueberries, and us being married . Wow, Sky, I didn’t know that you had such romantic dreams in you.” He says while laughing his ass off, looking at the ceiling. 

“Shut up!,” Skylor kicks his leg a bit too hard under the blankets, but Kai didn’t even seem to notice. “Don’t forget the part where you were wearing a pink apron that looked like something a nineteen-fifties housewife would wear…. Also, stop criticizing my romanticness, when the most romantic thing you’ve done is snap your fingers to light a flame, which lights a candle.” 

Kai laughs again, more softly this time, and turns sideways so that they’re both facing each other, and moves a piece of hair behind her ear. “Okay, so we both know that that’s not true, I’ve done very romantic things, thank you very much. But for the record, the finger-snapping-candle-lighting trick is also top tier romantic things, no matter how much you try to deny it. And hey, apparently also making you breakfast in bed wearing an apron is romantic in your books– I’ll keep that in mind.”

Now, this finally gets through to her to make her start laughing into the pillows.

They laugh for a little while longer, before it finally quiets down and they’re just looking at each other. Skylor’s about to say something, but Kai beats her to it. “You know…this might be good. I mean, yeah, I’m fucking terrified, but nothing big has been happening in a long time; it’s mostly just some random thugs trying to rob a bank or two a couple times a week.Mostly small stuff. And…we’re old enough, right? I don’t really know the ages that people have kids at, but it’s around this age, right? And besides, I think having a kid could be pretty awesome.”

Skylor just smiles and nods, because she’s too tired to move her mouth, and because she knows that if she tries to speak, she’ll start crying, and it’ll become this whole thing. She missed having these moments with Kai; where they’re just in a dark room, alone, just talking and joking around, and having the light banter that she loves in their relationship. They could just spill their secrets in the comforting darkness of her apartment, without having to worry about the looming judgement of spilling their soul, because they’re talking to the other part of their soul. Skylor is the calm to Kai’s anger, while also having her own. Kai is the mind that Skylor’s thoughts go into. They are each other’s light in each other’s darkness. And, Skylor for one, is fucking terrified of whatever this future brings them, but so is he. But they both actually want it. So, even though things are terrifying, and unknown, and risky, they’ll survive it, and live it together with the rest of their families. The ninja, and the new little family that is just getting started.