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Kai took his cigarette away from his lips and exhaled outside of the car window. He relaxed further into the car seat and leaned his head back, his eyes wandered over the car roof.
“You know, you should stop smoking,” Skylor commented from the driver's seat. Kai laughed softly. “Says you,” he murmured. Kai handed the cigarette to his friend who graciously took it and brought it up to her mouth.
As Skylor took her turn, Kai turned up the music they had been playing. It was Skylor’s turn to choose, and her playlist had been on shuffle since they left. Men I Trust’s ‘Numb’ was playing in the background while they spoke.
Kai heard Skylor sigh happily after she put out the cigarette on the ashtray stolen from her restaurant. The Red Ninja grinned and nudged her elbow. “What’s got you so happy? Was it our indirect kiss? I knew you were still in love with me.” Kai teased.
Skylor scoffed light-heartedly. “You caught me.”
“This is terrible, how are you going to break the news to your non-existent girlfriend?”
Skylor lightly smacked Kai over the top of his head while the man laughed obnoxiously at his own joke.
The back seat car door opened, and Pixal sat in the middle seat. “I swear, you two’s diet gets worse every time we go out,” Pixal commented while she handed a bag that dripped with grease up to the front.
Skylor thanked her friend as she took out a box that contained a plain cheese burger and fries. She handed off the bag to Kai who grabbed his burger, which was called ‘Summer Vibes’. He hadn’t wasted a second before digging in.
Pixal didn’t need food or drinks to survive, but sometimes she wished she could join her friends in getting drunk or high and eating a feast that they’d regret the next day. It wasn’t something that bothered her too much, but she found her mind often occupied with the thought. The song changed to ‘Teen Sex’ by Infinite Bisous.
“Kai, give me a bite of your burger,” Skylor demanded as she reached out to grab his food.
“No, fuck off. It’s the only time I can have Summer Vibes!” Kai exclaimed as he tried to escape from Skylor’s persistence.
Pixal chuckled. “It’s not the only time you can have it, Kai, the team goes out for burgers together a lot.”
“Yeah, but I have to get a normal burger when I go out with all of them!”
Skylor raised one eyebrow. “Why?”
Kai rolled his eyes dramatically, he acted as if the reason was completely obvious. “Because it has pineapple.”
The two women shared a look before they turned back to Kai. “So?” They said in unison.
“I give Jay shit for eating pineapple burgers and pizza, I can’t let him know I fuck with it. It would RUIN my life!”
“I’m sure it wouldn’t ruin your life.” Skylor always called out Kai’s dramatic nature.
“You don’t live with Jay,” Kai hissed. Pixal laughed and agreed with Kai, the Lightning Ninja would probably act as if Kai had committed a criminal offence. He wouldn’t even mean it, he would just have been itching for drama.
“Be careful not to make a mess,” Pixal reminded her friends. “This is only a rental until our car gets repaired.” Pixal gave a pointed look at Kai, who squawked at the implied accusations.
“It wasn’t my fault that the car got totaled! The injustice is insane.” Kai grumbled, even though it was partially his fault.
Skylor made a face to herself. “We probably shouldn’t have lit a cigarette in here then.”
“Probably not,” Kai agreed.
The three had left the monastery at around 10pm, after pre-game that started at 8pm, and had gone directly to a party. Nya had expressed her worry to Pixal about her brother getting too drunk, and the nindroid assured the Water Ninja that Kai would be okay. She had no idea how to tell Nya that tonight Kai had seen a Bernese Mountain Dog and cried because it “looked like Cole”. Like usual, two out of the three of them got incredibly drunk. Pixal took the initiative to drag her friends back to the car at 1am and found an all night diner - which is where the car was parked.
By now, Kai and Skylor had sobered up enough that not every conversation was unbearable. Pixal was grateful to her past self for storing water bottles in the car.
“Let's find a gas station,” Skyler announced loudly.
“Why?” Pixal questioned.
“I feel like ice cream, but that kind of shitty one with the bubblegum nose.”
“I have never had one of those,” Kai commented. Skylor looked at him in disbelief, but then remembered his childhood and didn’t question it. She stumbled out of the car to swap spots with Pixal. Skylor knew she couldn’t drive in her current state.
It surprised the trio that it took a long time to find a service station. They had gone through many more songs, and when they pulled into the entrance of a road stop ‘Wish You Were Dead’ by Lola Young was what played. Skylor cheered and jumped out of the car, running off to get her treasure.
Pixal drove up to the petrol station to refill the tank. The nindroid and Kai both got out of the car, stretching their legs. Kai scanned over the different petrol options and wondered aloud. “Do you think you could get drunk off petrol?” Kai asked Pixal.
“What?” Pixal responded in a flat tone.
“I mean, like I’ve got beer ‘n shit. Could your alcohol be petrol?”
“Are you still drunk?”
Kai lightly glared at Pixal who shrugged in response. The nindroid wouldn’t admit it to Kai, but she had thought the same thing once or twice. She heard Kai start to heave beside her and grimaced, hoping that he doesn’t throw up on the car.
In a state of panic, Kai ran off to throw up into the bins near the entrance of the gas station. The Red Ninja’s phone had fallen out when he ran off, but he didn’t realise. Pixal sighed and after she finished filling up the tank, walked over to get Kai’s phone off the ground. As the nindroid inspected the device, she noticed a new crack along the screen.
Kai’s background was a picture of him and Cole, he was leaning against Cole while shouting at someone off screen. Above him, Cole was laughing with an arm around the Fire Master. Pixal remembers the day the photo was taken, she was the one who took the photo. Once again, her friends were drunk - minus Zane, although she doesn’t think he’s ever wanted to drink alcohol. Maybe everyone was right, hanging out with Kai and Skylor changed her a lot.
Pixal didn’t mind the change. She’s happier than she ever was, now that she found more people than just Zane who loved her. Pixal knew having different types of love in your life was important - but now that she has experienced all those types, the phrase doesn’t seem empty anymore.
She heard Kai throw up loudly and walked up to pat his back.
“I’m never drinking this much again.”
“You say that nearly every other week.”
“Well fuck me I guess,” Kai snarked with humour in his voice. The two distantly heard Skylor shout out to them, and walked back to the car where the girl stood.
Skylor waved two ice creams in front of her friends faces and grinned, proud of herself. She yawned loudly, tiredness finally catching up to her. “You guys ready to head back?” Skylor asked as she stretched her arms up.
Kai nodded, but before they got into the car, Pixal cleared her throat.
“I would like to try something first.”
The two looked at her confused. Pixal paid them no mind and grabbed the pump they used to fill up the car. Kai’s eyes widened, “are you actually going to drink it?” he asked in disbelief.
“There is no real harm in me trying,” Pixal spoke hesitantly. Maybe the biggest way she changed was the sudden increase in dumb decisions.
Skylor groaned. “Pix, if Kai had put you up to this, don't listen to him. He’s not very bright.”
“Hey!”
Pixal laughed and shrugged, indirectly telling her friends that it was her own stupid decision. As she put the pump up to her mouth, Kai came over and turned on the pump. Since Pixal was drinking the petrol, she hadn’t noticed when two extra figures came up to them until one of them spoke.
“Pixal, are you drinking petrol?”
Pixal spat out the liquid in her mouth and turned around when she heard her boyfriend's voice.
“Zane!?” She shouted.
Beside her, Kai laughed so hard he fell into the other new arrival, Cole.
Skylor also began to laugh at her friends, working on the hunch that the Zane and Cole had tracked them down to make sure they’re not dead. Pixal tried to explain to Zane what was going on as the two walked into the gas station to pay, but was too embarrassed for anything to make sense.
Cole looked at Kai with an expression that clearly translated to “really?”. Kai scoffed, “it wasn’t my fault! She did this by herself.”
Cole turned his look to Skylor who grinned cheekily, “Kai’s lying. He totally made her do it.”
“YOU FUCKING LIAR!”
Skylor laughed and got into the car's passenger seats, tuning out of the rest of the conversation.
Kai sighed and looked at Cole, resting his head on the taller boy's chest. “How did you guys get here?” He asked.
“Caught a cab since you hadn’t moved in, like, 30 minutes.”
“No way it’s been that long.”
“Your perception of time goes to shit whenever you go out, Kai.”
Kai frowned and got into the car with Skylor. Cole followed the two of them soon after, alongside Zane and Pixal who had gotten into the two front seats. The ride back was filled with an awkward silence, the only noise was Skylor’s playlist. ‘$20’ by Boygenius was playing when they arrived back at the monastery. Skylor had been dropped off at her home a while ago, so it had been just the team members left.
Cole yawned and grabbed Kai’s hand, leading the brunette out of the car. Pixal smiled as she watched Cole put an arm around Kai’s shoulder to stabilise him as they walked into the monastery. Much to the female nindroids surprise, Zane began to laugh loudly beside her.
“I can’t believe you drunk petrol, Dear.”
Pixal smiled, “we can think of it as an experiment. For science?”
Zane leaned over to her seat and kissed Pixal sweetly. “For science,” he agreed.
Pixal knows she's changed, but that's not bad. Maybe the her from a few years ago would be disappointed, but that doesn’t matter because she’s happy now.