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Kai could sing!
He stood mopping the ship's deck, crooning to himself, and occasionally plucking at invisible strings tied to the mop handle. His voice came out smooth and soothing, not what Lloyd was used to hearing from Kai.
"... And I never like to admit that I was wrong. And I've been so caught up in my job, didn't see what's going on, and now I know, I'm better sleeping on my own."
"Nice!" Lloyd smiled as he walked up with a brush and bucket in hand.
"Hey," Kai greeted. "Took ya long enough to get out here!" He waved the mop at his brother.
Lloyd laughed. "I was around back, not slacking off." He set down the bucket by the rail, the wind blowing off the Bounty's bow whisking away a few suds, and dunked his brush in the warm water. "You should keep singing. You sounded great."
"Nah," Kai smiled, scrubbing the deck harder. "Mood's gone."
"Aw, c'mon," Lloyd pressed.
Nothing he said could convince him to continue, and not wanting to make things awkward, he stopped asking. He and Kai worked in relative silence after that, but Lloyd couldn't stop thinking about what he'd heard.
Afterwards, with mop and bucket stored in the closet, Lloyd wandered into the kitchen where Jay and Nya jumped to put a foot of space between them.
"Heh, heh, hi Lloyd!" Jay chuckled, leaning his elbow on the table and putting his head in his hand, his smile twitching. "How's it going?"
Lloyd pretended not to have a clue about what they'd been doing. "Have you guys heard Kai's voice?" He stopped across the table from them. "I just heard him singing on the deck. He's awesome!"
"He really can carry a tune," Nya agreed, arms folded on the tabletop. "I haven't heard him sing in years, though. Not by himself."
"I've got a video of him!" Jay grinned.
"You do?" Lloyd walked over.
"On my phone," Jay snickered, pulling out his mobile device. "I caught him singing in the shower."
"Oh, I remember that!" Nya giggled, scooting closer.
It took him a few minutes to few minutes to find the video. When he brought it up, Lloyd leaned closer, eager to see and hear everything.
The footage showed Jay's point of view as he tip-toed toward the shower. His reflection passed across the bathroom mirror. Steam poured out from behind the blue, spotted shower curtain, and above the splash of running water came Kai's singing voice. Honestly... his fake opera sounded pretty horrible, but even so, Lloyd got a sense of his brother's vocal range. The video ended with Kai yanking back the curtain and sticking his head out, water dripping off his bangs poking out from under his shower cap, and with a furious scowl demanding, "Hey! How 'bout a little privacy, you - !" Jay cut it off there before the insult could be recorded.
The three of them laughed, and Jay scrolled through his photos a bit longer before tucking his phone away.
"I wish we had a better video of his voice," Lloyd said.
"I wish we had a video of all of us singing together," Nya said.
"Next time someone starts singing," Jay leaned back in his chair, "whip out your camera."
"I'll keep that in mind." Lloyd chuckled inaudibly, and stood up.
Lloyd padded down the hall in bare feet, still in his pajamas. This early, the wood floor felt cool underfoot, and the stirrings aboard the Bounty were hushed. He'd left Nya asleep in their quarters, since she'd been up late. Zane was currently at the helm in her stead.
Lloyd heard talking as he passed the bathroom. He paid little attention until he was right outside the door, which was ajar, and heard not talking, but singing. Kai singing. He stopped and peaked into the room.
Kai gazed into the mirror, busy loading his hair with gel. He used his fingers to comb it into a spiked, chocolate kiss shape, singing, "I'm too hot!" He winked at himself. "Called a police and a fireman, I'm too hot..."
Lloyd couldn't believe his luck. His fingers fumbled for his phone, which he'd thankfully remembered to grab. Surprised at how hard his heart was pounding, and biting his lip to keep from laughing, he turned on the camera and stuck the lens through the open door.
Kai spotted the green phone in the mirror and whipped around. "Don't you dare!"
Lloyd jumped back, almost dropping his phone, and darted away heart missing a beat.
Several weeks passed, and Lloyd forgot all about Kai's singing. The weather blessed them with continuous sunshine, which meant beach days every day.
"Race ya!" Cole shouted. Everyone booked it to the water, kicking up sand as they chased after him. They all plunged into the waves, screaming and laughing as the water splashed up in their faces.
Kai was the first one out after ten minutes, wading back to shore to tan. Nya was completely in her element, and Jay, Cole, and Lloyd were teaming up to try to take her down, while Zane had knocked his silly switch and was pretending to be a shark or something, cruising under the water and pinching his siblings feet to make them squeal and laugh harder. Nya scored a heavy hit on Lloyd when she sent a wave crashing into his face. He sputtered and tried to wipe the saltwater from his eyes before excusing himself and stumbling back to the beach.
Squinting his burning eyes, he headed toward his beach bag on his green towel, granules of sand sticking to his wet feet as he walked. Kai lay shirtless on his own, red towel. His headphones were in, and he sang softly to the lyrics on his phone until Lloyd got close, then he went silent, nodding along to the song instead.
Lloyd pulled his shirt out from his bag and wiped his eyes with it. "If you like singing so much, why don't you do it more?"
"What are you talking about? I sing whenever I want." Kai remained nonchalant, scrolling through his playlist.
"Not when any of us are around. You have a great voice! You don't have to hide it."
Kai shrugged. He didn't look away from his phone.
"Which songs do you like to sing?" Lloyd scrubbed harder at his eyes.
"This and that."
Lloyd grunted, eyes still stinging. He put his shirt back in the bag and pulled out his own phone, looking at his eyes in the camera. Ouch, they were red. He grabbed a water bottle and poured some fresh water into them, then blinked away the droplets clinging to his lashes. He looked in Kai's direction only to see his brother's phone right in his face. Kai took a picture, flash on.
"Aaagh!"
Kai fell backwards laughing in the sand, taking another - most likely blurry - picture as he did so.
"You!" Lloyd grinned, and started taking as many photos of Kai as he could. Kai returned the favour. By the time their abs hurt from laughing, they probably had a hundred pictures they'd have to sort through later. They settled down when the others joined them on the sand, taking pictures of them instead. Everyone was all smiles as they laid down on their beach towels.
Kai unplugged his headphones and set his phone down with the volume turned up to the Beach Boys. Lloyd only half listened to the music, staring at the sky deep in thought.
Kai leaned against the kitchen table, waiting for something in the oven to heat up. Lloyd paused in the doorway, listening as the Fire Ninja sang to some sick beat on his phone. A week had passed since the day at the beach. Kai's back was turned, so he didn't notice Lloyd watching him. Lloyd waited to interrupt. Kai sounded so good! How could he get him comfortable singing after he entered the room? For one who acted so hot-headed, Kai really could be the most self-conscious of all his siblings. But even Cole had struggled with singing in front of people. There was just that extra pressure when you sang by yourself.
A lightbulb went off in Lloyd's head. He stepped through the doorway.
The song ended, and Kai glanced over his shoulder as Lloyd walked in. He quickly reverted to humming, and checked on his food in the oven.
"This stuff takes forever to heat up," Kai complained, going back to the table and hopping up to sit on the edge. Lloyd leaned back next to him, watching him pick a new song from his playlist. The lyrics to "Love Yourself" filled the screen, and the muffled music thrummed from the speakers.
Lloyd smiled. "Hey, I know this song.
"Oh girl for goodness sake. You think I'm crying, oh my oh, well I aint."
Kai stared at him. His eyes doubled in size, and his mouth dropped open.
Lloyd almost laughed at his brother's expression. "And baby I be movin' on, and I think you should be somethin'. I don't wanna hold back, maybe you should know that."
"Do you hear yourself?!" Kai laughed, barely coming out of his shock. "I haven't heard you sing since before you hit puberty! You sound awesome!"
"I don't sound that good," Lloyd said, letting the rest of the song play without him.
"Good?" Kai scoffed. "You're wasted as a ninja! You need to go sing in Dareth's bar for a living!"
"Now I know you're pulling my leg," Lloyd chuckled.
"We gotta work on your modesty, buddy. What else do you sing?" The corner of Kai's mouth turned up in a lopsided grin as he sifted through his playlist again.
"Nothing."
"Baloney!"
"It's true." It was. Lloyd hadn't sung for years, and the last time had been under the influence of magic tea. He watched Kai scroll through his list. "What other songs do you have on there?"
Kai tapped on one. The catchy rock opening to the Weekend Whip began playing. The beat sped up their heart rates. This song practically begged anyone listening to sing it. Kai pressed his phone into Lloyd's hands.
"Sing this."
"Only if you sing it with me!"
"Are you kidding me?" Kai retorted, failing to sound angry. The lyrics started without them. It's time for training and we're getting started... Kai jumped off the table. He locked his gaze with Lloyd's, and they both couldn't help but bob their heads to the music, both of them wearing wide grins.
"Alright, are you ready?" Lloyd asked. They say, go slow...
"No," Kai replied, but his smile didn't falter. The lyrics continued to get away from them. We're ready for the fight, we know the drill...
Lloyd started. "Monday morning and we feel defeated. Seems so long ago. Tuesday's coming and - hey you're supposed to sing, too!"
Kai laughed. He led with the next line. "They saaaay go slow!"
Lloyd grinned. "And everything just stands so still!"
"We saaaay go, go!"
"You're gonna see us rip into it!"
They both jumped into the next part! "JUST JUMP UP, KICK BACK, WHIP AROUND, AND SPIN!" Perfectly on key (unlike Cole) they belted their hearts out: "AND THEN WE'LL JUMP BACK, DO IT AGAIN. NINJA! GO! NINJA! GO! COME ON! COME ON! WE'RE GONNA DO IT AGAIN! WE JUST JUMP UP, KICK BACK, WHIP AROUND, AND SPIN...!"
They jumped up in down, shaking the floor. Kai went crazy on his air guitar, and Lloyd used Kai's phone as a mic. "Wednesday morning and we soon discover..." Kai climbed up on the table and used it as an impromptu stage. "We've gotta push our game. We slept on Thursday just to get it over, the whips a day away!" When they reached the hook of the song again, he and Lloyd both spun in place, exhilarated and starting to sweat from their exertion. The table wobbled under Kai's feet, and the two ninja tried to keep singing and laugh at the same time. The longer they kept it up, the more animated they got, kicking, whipping, and spinning according to the lyrics.
Their antics proved too lively for the kitchen table, and it pitched Kai off. Lloyd caught him, but now they were laughing too hard to keep singing any longer. He set his brother on the floor, and they banged their heads to the rest of the song. When it ended, their chests had swelled and they were panting and smiling huge smiles.
"Man, that was fun." Kai wiped his brow.
"Yeah, it was!" Lloyd's heart felt light. He'd gotten his big brother to sing. But more importantly, it hadn't really mattered how they sounded. They'd sung together and had a blast doing it.
A whiff of smoke floated up from the oven. Kai snapped out of his reverie and darted to the stove. When he opened the door, trails of black smoke drifted out.
"Aw, come on!"
That night while Kai showered, Lloyd showed his (positively giddy) siblings the footage on his phone which he'd hidden as he'd entered the kitchen. He was surprised how good he and Kai sounded together, especially in the first half of the video. The second half went passionately out the window, but it was heartwarming to watch, and Lloyd vowed never to delete it. Upon Nya's request, he sent it to her, and she sent it to the others. They could barely keep from laughing when Kai came into the room later, quite confused by their gleeful expressions.
It didn't take long for everyone to see the viral video uploaded the next day.
"LLOOOOOOYYYD!"