Archive of Our Own ^beta

Kai slowly began to awake from his sleep, looking over to his side expecting to see his partner next to him, still sleeping in. As he came to, he realized Cole was not there. As he stared at the space where he should be, he began to register the sound of music coming down the hall, realizing this is probably what woke him up. Kai slowly got out of bed to investigate who was playing music this early in the morning. He tracked the noise down to the kitchen, now picking up the sound of someone singing along with the music. As he rounded the corner, he saw Cole preparing what looked to be pastries of some kind.

“Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful.” All Kai could do was listen to his husband singing, not wanting to stop him, like he was a harpy and Kai was being lured into his spell. “Let it snow, let it snow, let it- OH! Kai!” Cole had turned around, seeing his partner awake and staring at him with a smile.

“You sure you wanted to become a ninja and not some big singer?” Kai teasingly asked as he entered the kitchen.

“No umm… I don’t think I really do have the vocal range like a lot of artists do nowadays.”

“Aww,” Kai replied, hugging Cole from behind as he opened up a cookbook on the counter, “I would’ve loved to be your top listener.” He pressed a kiss to the back of Cole’s neck.

“You would support anything I do.” Cole laughed, turning around to look at Kai, bringing a hand up to his face, his face slightly blushing.

“That’s because you’re amazing at everything, babe.” Kai said, bringing them together for a kiss, and even though they’ve done this a hundred times before, he always still cherishes it like it’s the first time they’ve ever kissed. How Cole’s hands are always delicate whenever he touches Kai’s face, the warmth of the kiss, being able to run his hand through Cole’s messy hair-

“Oh crap, are we interrupting?”

The two ninja separate to look for who said that, seeing Pixal standing in the other doorway to the kitchen coming in from the living room, with Zane behind her, bags in both of their hands.

“Ahem, no umm, no you’re not.” Kai said, scratching the back of his neck embarrassingly.

Pixal laughed lightly, dropping the bags off behind the doorway to the side before coming in, observing the kitchen. “I see we’re not the only ones who have been doing some preparation for tonight.” Seeing the ingredients all over the place, countertops dirtied with flour.

“Yeah, I wanted to actually try my hand at baking this time, instead of going out and getting store bought stuff. So far I’ve been doing a good job.” Zane comes in, also taking in the sight.

“Well that’s good to see! Has Kai been helping?”

“No, he just woke up from hibernation.” Kai gives Cole a punch in the shoulder jokingly. “Ok! Ok! No need to attack me.”

“That’s rich, coming from the one who can sleep through earthquakes.”

“Bro I make earthquakes, those are like nothing to me.”

“Well let’s hope this kitchen doesn’t turn into the aftermath of an earthquake.” Pixal cut in. “Where are Jay and Nya?”

“They went to go see Jay’s parents, and then were gonna go see Nya’s parents as well.” Answered Cole. “Actually, that reminds me, she had asked if we could join her when we go see them if that’s ok with you, Kai?” Turning to his husband.

“Oh yeah, totally! Let me just get ready then.” Said Kai, turning to return to his room.

Cole smiled, turning to face the Nindroid couple, now sitting on the stools in the kitchen. “Would one of you be able to take over this while we’re gone?”

“I can certainly do that.” Zane replied, “Lloyd can then help Pixal with getting everything ready for tonight.” Cole gave him a thumbs up, then turning his head to the oven when he hears the timer go off.

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Jay nearly spat out his hot cocoa his mom had made him. “MA! You don’t need to tell her that!”

“Oh, don’t be like that Jay. It’s just a story from your childhood, that's all!” Edna replied, looking innocent as she shot a glance back over to Nya.

“I think it’s very interesting and cute to hear how Jay asked his crush to dance with him during the school Christmas ball during second grade.” Nya said teasingly.

“Blame them for it!” Jay said, gesturing towards his parents, Ed just returning from the kitchen. “They were on some Hallmark movie binge, and let me watch them, allowing little me to get all these ideas about love and crap!”

“That’s just because you were young and innocent.” Put in Ed, taking a seat next to Edna. Jay still looked slightly embarrassed, which got a small laugh out of Nya, before her attention turned to her phone, which lit up with a notification from Cole, saying “Kai finally awoke. Said he’s game to go see your parents with motor mouth. How’s visiting with his parents been?”

Nya smiled, and typed back “Thank god, I was wondering if he was just gonna sleep in until he smelled food.” She sent it, seeing the typing bubbles pop up a few seconds later as Cole sent his message saying “I think he did, or just from my singing, I don’t know lol” Nya sent a laughing emoji back, before replying with “Everything over here is going good, I’ll be sure to bring up all the embarrassing shit his parents have been saying at the party tonight lmao” Cole sent back another laughing emoji, and saying “We’ll be leaving in like half an hour or so” Nya sent back a thumbs up, putting the phone down on the arm of the couch.

“Who was that?” Jay asked.

“Cole. My brother finally decided that he had enough beauty sleep, and woke up. He was also fine with tagging along to see my parents, so that’ll be nice.” Jay nodded with a smile, returning back to debate with his parents about what TV channel they should put on to pass the time, arguing between HGTV or Food.

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Lloyd was in his room, playing Minecraft with music going in the background. He knew eventually he would have to help out with preparing for the Christmas Eve party tonight, but he wanted to still have some time to himself before that happened.

A knock came at the door. “Come in!” Lloyd answered, pausing his game to turn around and see Pixal entering.

“I see you’re doing your part in helping out with the party prep tonight.” She said sarcastically, gesturing to his computer screen.

“Hey, I’m the green ninja, ok? Don’t I deserve some slack?” He answered jokingly, obviously showing he didn’t truly mean it. “I guess it’s my time to help out. What do you need me to do?”

“Well Kai and Cole just left to go see the former’s parents, along with Jay and Nya. Zane’s in charge of cooking and all that, so we’re gonna help with decorating. Sound good?”

Lloyd shut down his computer and got up from his chair. “Yep, sounds good. I don’t know if I’m the best choice when it comes to decorative style, though.” He replied.

“Oh don’t worry about that, just make everything look presentable and we’ll be good.” Pixal assured him. She starts to leave his room, before turning around and taking another look at Lloyd’s room. “But first, please clean up this space.”

“What? Are we all going to be hanging out in here?” Lloyd laughed.

“It looks like hell in here.” Pixal exclaimed! Throwing a shirt laying on the ground at him. He luckily catches it, and throws it back at Pixal, who barely avoids it as she closes the door.

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Maya was outside the shop, pacing back and forth, with a worried expression on her face. Ray, Kai, and Cole watched from inside with some concern.

“They’ll arrive, don’t worry hun.” Ray assured his wife.

“But what if they got into a car accident? What if they got robbed, what if one of them had a stroke, what if-”

“They’re here.” Kai cuts in, seeing the couple arriving, causing Maya to stop panicking, and her face lights up with the same joy she always shows every day. She ran up to hug both of them before they could even have a chance to look at the fields of Ignacia.

“OH! Where have you been?! I was worried sick!”

Nya managed to escape her mother’s grasp, laughing, “Mom! We’re fine! As you can see. Jay’s parents just kept us longer than we had wanted to stay, that’s all.”

“Yeah, we’re sorry about that Mrs. Smith.”

Maya turned to Jay, a soft smile on her face. “Please sweetheart, you can call me Maya. You’re my son in law for god’s sake!” Jay laughed nervously as they walked back to the workshop, seeing the three men inside.

They all began to socialize and talk with one another, talking about how chaotic the last few months have been for the ninja, and how they are thankful for this break.

“I swear, we go through the same things over and over again!” Jay exclaimed at the dinner table, “I mean, what’s next? Another army of Serpentine?”

Kai laughed at Jay’s remark, “I hope it’s not like the Venomari. Seriously, hallucinating on their venom was bad.”

Cole looked over, “Weren’t you seeing gingerbread men and elves when you were tripping?”

Kai nearly choked on his food, embarrassed that had been told in front of his parents. “Cole! You don’t need to say that out loud!”

Maya and Ray began to laugh loudly. “What? It’s just the truth.” Cole shrugged as he had another bite of food. “These tamales are great, Ray, and so are these puffy pot stickers, Maya.”

“Well, you would have to thank my entire family for that, they’ve been passing down this recipe for as long as our lineage dates back to.”

“And Kai told me how much you love those,” Maya added, “You should bring him around more, hun. He’s a joy to have.”

Kai chuckled, “What, am I not a joy to have?”

“You’re more of a hazard to have around if anything.” Jay said. Kai threw a corn husk at Jay, hitting him right in his face. The table erupts in laughter as Jay gets up to throw it away.

Soon, it was time for the four ninja to leave. They all said their goodbyes, hands full with leftovers from the Smith’s.

“Please tell us if you ever want anymore!” Maya called out. “I’d be more than happy to make some and deliver it! Gives me a reason to see you two!”

“We call you all the time, mom!” Nya yelled back.

“Well you don’t visit enough!” Ray added. Nya just rolled her eyes, but gave a thumbs up.

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The four returned to the monastery to see it decorated in lights, flashing in a variety of colors. Upon entering, they see Pixal and Lloyd in the living room, arranging everyone’s gifts, and Zane passing by the doorway to the dining room with a platter of turkey.

“Oh my god, you guys! This place looks incredible!” Nya exclaimed.

“Thank you, Nya. Truly, Lloyd was a big help when decorating everything.” Pixel answered, wrapping her arm around him, “And you said you couldn’t decorate that well.” Lloyd laughed, getting up to greet Kai with a hug.

“I hope you guys at least saved your appetite for dinner here. Zane has been cooking up some amazing food.”

“I can smell it.” Jay said, taking a look inside the dining room, and beaming with excitement. “Holy shit! Is that cobbler pie?! And peach? Zane you are amazing!”

“No, don’t thank me. Thank Cole.” Corrected Zane as he organized the silverware. “He made all the baked goods.”

Everyone sat down to eat, again sharing stories and having good laughs about their adventures. Nya shared Jay’s embarrassing story from sixth grade with the others, which did indeed prompt them all to laugh at Jay’s dismay.

“Ok Cole, seriously, how can you be good at almost everything?!” Kai said, taking another cookie. “Like this is criminally good.”

Cole blushed a bit, “Please, I just got it all from a cookbook, no need to praise me like I’m some miracle baker.” Kai rolled his eyes, giving Cole a kiss on his cheek.

After dinner was over, the gift giving began. Cole got concert tickets to his favorite band from Kai. “You were so upset that they sold out so quickly. So I pulled a few strings and managed to get those.” Cole nearly squeezed the life out of Kai in his hug.

Kai got new shoes from Zane, who had noticed the red ninja’s growing collection over the past year. Zane received numerous different vintage styled posters from Jay, knowing his aesthetic. Jay got some clothes from his favorite TV show from Nya, “You always rant about Arcane like it’s some sort of show made from heaven.”

“IT IS! I need to get you on it I swear.” Jay protested.

Nya received a new headset from Lloyd, seeing that hers were nearly at the point of falling apart. Lloyd got a new video game from Pixal, which shocked him. “This, this isn’t even supposed to be out yet- Pix how in the hell did you get this?!”

“Cyrus Borg.” Pixal simply stated.

Many other gifts were shared amongst everyone, until it came down to one last gift. A small box for Pixal from Zane, who had been adamant that would be the very last one.

“I don’t understand what you could have gotten me in this small box that would need to be opened last.” Pixal said, unraveling the wrapping paper from the box as Nya pulled out her phone, hitting the record button on her camera. As Pixal opened the box, she dropped it out of shock, allowing Zane to pick it up, and get on one knee.

“Pixal, ever since you’ve been I met you in Cyrus’ tower all those years ago, something changed. Not only my physical appearance, but also my life. You opened my eyes to something truly wonderful; love. Having you in my life has been a wondrous experience, and I am thankful every day I get to experience this feeling in my circuits with you. So, will you be my Yang?” Zane offers a Yang pin to Pixal, who is nearly almost crying with joy.

“Yes! Yes Zane!” Pixal excitedly grabs the pin and hugs Zane. “Oh my god this is incredible!” She leans back to look at Zane, the two exchange a kiss, then returning to another hug as Pixal looks at the group sitting on the couch. She sees Nya, putting her phone down, having the same amount of joy on her face.

“You have no idea how hard it was to hide that from you, Pix!” Nya exclaimed.

“Did you all know?”

“We knew Zane had wanted to propose to you,” Jay answered, “He even went to Kai for advice on how to do it, which didn’t really work well.” He looked over at Kai, who scratched the back of his neck.

“Hey! Zane just wanted to do something heartfelt, not swooning like how I did with Cole.” Everyone laughed, and returned to congratulate the newly wed couple.

Once everything was wrapped up, and everyone called it in for the night, Cole went outside to look at the stars. He sat alone for a few minutes until he felt a tap on his shoulder, looking up to see Kai with two mugs in his hands.

“Thought you would like some hot cocoa.” Kai said. Cole took one from him, allowing Kai to sit down next to him. The two sat in silence for a moment until Cole spoke up.

“‘Swooning like how I did with Cole.’” He recited, “Like you totally were sweating bullets as you got down on the ground.”

“Like it truly is easy to propose to the one you love!” Kai argued, his face blushing red. Cole just laughed, and slung an arm around his husband.

“It’s easy to love you, embers.” Cole remarked, turning his head towards Kai. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas, rocky.” Kai answered, kissing the other as a shooting star passed by above them.