Chapter Text
It had been a few days since Kai had arrived at the village. Days spent fixing buildings, learning to live together, and arguing over household chores.
Things had reached the point where he and Skylor had decided to never cook together again; if their relationship was in crisis now, sharing a kitchen would destroy even the slightest chance of saving it. For that reason, Kai wandered aimlessly through the living room, listening to the sound of boiling water and the knife hitting the cutting board from the next room.
He was bored to death. He could have used the time to fix the stairs in the dining hall, but at that hour, it would be full of people eating, and he imagined no one wanted wood chips in their soup. Training was out of the question too, Skylor wouldn’t let him sit at the dinner table sweating and smelling like shit.
He began fiddling with every object that came to hand, moving and turning them on the shelves before putting them back. At some point, he even improvised a tragic love story between two horse figurines (he hoped Skylor hadn’t heard the little voices and kissing sounds). Eventually, he stopped in front of the bookshelf.
He had never read much, excluding the mountain of ancient scrolls he was forced to consult for missions, but something about the lived-in air of the volumes attracted him. He picked a book at random; the hard cover was worn and faded, a sign it had been read many times. Suddenly, he remembered his conversation with Skylor about shared interests so pride, and boredom, led him to sit on the couch and give the story a chance.
For a while, the sound of his pacing was replaced by the flipping of pages. He had read a few chapters before looking up and heading toward Skylor to ask for clarification on a part of the plot he didn’t quite understand. But when he arrived in the kitchen, something else caught his attention: Skylor was standing in front of the stove, massaging her left shoulder, her face showing clear discomfort.
Kai frowned. “Everything okay?”
She turned around sharply, apparently, she hadn’t heard him come in. After recovering from the initial surprise, she forced a half-smile: “Yeah, it’s fine. It’s just my dad’s stupid tattoo. It started itching, probably it’s just the change of environment.”
He looked at her, concerned.
“Really, it doesn’t hurt,” she added, trying to downplay it: “It just gets a little irritating now and then, but it passes after a while.”
Kai nodded, but didn’t immediately return to his book. He watched her for a few more seconds before slowly heading back to the couch. He looked back at the open pages, but his mind was already elsewhere.
It was late afternoon when Skylor realized something was wrong, everything was too quiet and still, and she felt this strange sense of loneliness she hadn’t felt in days. Then it hit her: she hadn’t seen Kai all day.
They had seen each other at dawn while preparing the gear for the day, and then with a “see you later,” he had gone off toward some scaffolding, like every day.
But this time, he hadn’t come back.
Hours passed slowly. The village bustled as usual: frantic orders, hammering, wood being cut… yet to Skylor, it all felt muted, like her ears were only tuned to hear one particular sound, a voice, a laugh, even the noise of an explosion.
She kept glancing toward where Kai had gone that morning, but there was no sign of him.
At first, she hadn’t thought much of it, after all, the fire ninja was rather impulsive and unpredictable. He could very well have stopped in the woods to test out a new combat move that had just come to mind.
Still, she couldn’t silence the little voice telling her he had left. Again.
By dinnertime, she decided to join the others in the dining hall. For some reason, she didn’t want to cook and eat alone, even though she had been used to it for years.
When she sat down at a table, a girl approached her with a tray. “Kai’s not with you today?”
Skylor shrugged. “He had stuff to do elsewhere.”
“Too bad,” the girl said with a smirk Skylor didn’t like. “But usually he never leaves you alone for more than half an hour. Got bored of you, or did you do something?”
She ignored her and went back to stirring the food on her plate, without taking a bite. Her annoyance at the situation had completely overshadowed the irritation in her shoulder.
Shadows had now stretched across the unfinished beams of the hall. No matter how many times she looked up at a new approaching voice, Kai’s unruly tuft of hair was nowhere in sight.
Why isn’t he back? She had promised herself years ago she would never ask that question again, but here she was.
In the end, being with her must really have been just a whim driven by his ego, and it seemed he had grown tired of waiting.
Skylor stood up from the table abruptly and headed home, leaving her untouched, now-cold plate behind.
She felt ridiculous when, later, at the sound of the doorbell, she rushed to the door. Needless to say, the gray hair, wrinkled forehead, and wool shawl didn’t belong to Kai.
Skylor didn’t know what expression she made upon seeing the village’s old healer on her doorstep, but she doubted she deserved the kind smile the woman gave her as she handed over a jar: “For your back, sweetheart. Freshly prepared ointment.”
She took it automatically, still confused. “There must be a mistake. I didn’t order anything.”
“Your husband did. He came to see me this morning.”
“Then you’ve definitely got the wrong person, I’m not married.”
“Always dressed in red, hair like an ice cream swirl, chocolate eyes that make the whole ice cream vibe even stronger… That’s not your husband?”
Skylor blushed so hard it was hard to tell where her face ended and her hair began.
“No! I mean… we’re not. We’re just—”
The old woman, clearly choosing to ignore Skylor’s protests, looked at her with a serene, slightly conspiratorial expression: “Ah, I see. One of those cases.”
Skylor opened her mouth again to clear up the misunderstanding, but the woman cut her off:
“Anyway, he asked if there was a way to ease the itching, and I told him I could make something, but I’d need herbs that only grow in the northern woods. I didn’t think he’d actually go, but here we are.”
Skylor didn’t know what to think, much less what to say. After taking a moment to process the information, she asked the woman where Kai was: “Oh, while I was preparing the ointment, he went off to help out around the village. He should be at the Parker’s house right now, I told him the ointment might be useful for their aunt too, and he went to bring them some.”
The woman hadn’t even finished the last sentence before the girl rushed out, thanking her as she went.
She found him asleep on the slide in the playground next to the Parkers’ house.
The last time she had passed by, just yesterday afternoon, it wasn’t even finished yet. It wasn’t hard to guess who had built it.
As she approached him, she couldn’t help but notice his hands, full of scratches, and that his hair, immaculate that morning, was now sweaty and stuck to his forehead.
She gently brushed it aside. “Thanks, hotshot.”
Kai mumbled something but didn’t wake up.
Skylor sat beside him. Even though she had desperately wanted to hear his voice all day, the silence was enough.
Later, when Kai woke up, the only light left was that of the moon.
“Skylor?” he said, rubbing his eyes, confused: “What time is it?”
“It’s time to go home.”
After stretching a couple of times, the boy started walking in the direction of their shared little house, only to realize Skylor wasn’t following him. He looked at her questioningly, not understanding what was wrong.
“I meant the other home.”
However uncertain Skylor’s voice was, the look in Kai’s eyes erased any remaining doubt.
The moon was no longer the only light at that moment.