A/N: This is almost 2500 words long. I am so sorry.

Five-ish months later---

"What the actual and entire living fu-"

"Lizz," Jay warned, tapping her leg with a controller before she could finish; her leg was the only thing he could see at the moment, "Language."

She sighed at him, "Alright, Cap," her fingers curled around the top of the TV and with much groaning, Lizz pulled herself up so she could Kilroy at Jay over the TV, "We've been trying to fix these damn things for how long? How are you not swearing?"

"I just keep it inside," he had to admit, Lizz had a point; the gaming systems were still so far out of whack that Jay suspected someone was coming in there and messing everything up when the two of them left.

"I bet he frizzed the wiring with an energy blast or something," Lizz was wriggling like a slow-motion snake, and Jay was about to help her when she finally slid free from behind the TV. She stood up, hands on her hips as she blew some hair out of her eyes, "I really hate that kid sometimes."

"Not as much as you could, though," he reminded her.

"Can't we just get one'a the, uh... ghosts to possess the damn thing and make it work?"

Jay barked out a dry laugh, "No! Cole and Morro need to practice staying corporeal, not possession. You know as well as I do that they both have that under control."

"What about-" she ignored his comment.

Lizz's shudder, however, didn't go unnoticed by Jay, "No! He's not allowed in here."

As if on cue, they heard the ghost in question laughing joyfully on the upper floor, "Ghoultar like Morro's pranks!"

Lizz held up a finger to silence Jay, listening for Lloyd's response, "I told you, big guy, I changed my name to Lloyd, now!"

The remark was followed by rapid footsteps that were headed towards the staircase, and soon Lloyd ran past the living room doorway in a blur of black sweatpants and bright green energy wisps. Ghoultar just decided to phase through the ceiling instead of taking the stairs, but soon he was chasing after Lloyd.

Lizz lowered her hand and burst into a fit of giggles, "Lloyd has a new friend."

Jay was covering his mouth with the hand that had a wrench in it, but he was still at risk of doubling over, "Ghoultar is never gonna leave him alone!"

This not-so-new news had them bursting into another wave of giggles; Lloyd had been dealing with one of their new residents non-stop and the playful ghost still refused to leave Lloyd alone. Lizz's flashlight slipped from her fingers right before her still-kind-of-bum ankle gave out and she fell to the floor, her laughter turning into a surprised squeak.

Jay gasped at her clumsiness before his laughter picked back up, but -- and Lizz didn't see what had happened -- but Jay sounded like he'd tripped on something. He yelled in pain and was suddenly on the floor next to her, clutching his face.

Not good... she scooched over, half leaning over him as she gently grabbed his wrists, "Jay. Jay," she cooed, tugging on his hands, "Lemme see."

When she pulled his hands away, she winced but made a scoffing noise, "Really? It's not even that bad, Jay. Come on," she leaned back and helped him to his feet, "'s get'chyu cleaned up."

It should honestly be the one coming out of a near-death experience being taken care of, not the other way around.

Blood was running down his temple. He was going to need stitches, however few the amount may be. Despite his should-be pain, he laughed. A short, dry laugh, but a laugh nonetheless, "Leave it to me to smack myself with a wrench."

"I've smacked myself with worse," Lizz assured him, "No worries. Nothing a quick stitch-up won't fix," she led him by the elbow to one of the stools in the kitchen, setting Jay on it before going to grab a cloth to wet down.

"Seriously, why do we even have Ghoultar around?" Jay's voice was resigned. He was leaning his head on his hand, which belonged to the arm that was propped up on the counter. He hissed when Lizz dabbed away some blood right next to his eyebrow.

Her concentration face cracked into a small grin as she nudged his knees apart so she could stand between them, "I dunno. I wanna keep him around just for entertainment, I mean," she took the cloth and folded it over a little, swiping blood off Jay with a cleaner part, "All he does is chase Lloyd around."

Jay laughed, "Tru-"

Lizz grabbed his head with her free hand, "Don't move!" she overstressed, her voice pulling into a slight accent. Jay had started laughing even harder, now, shaking both himself and Lizz's arm in the process, "Jay I swear I will sit on you if you do not sit still! How'm I gonna put stitches in if you're wriggling like a worm on a hook?"

He stuck out his tongue and started batting her hands away -- to no avail. Jay started making a face at her, "Just stick a butterfly strip over it right now. I don't trust you with sharp needles by me, let alone my face and especially not my eyes! And especially because you're not well!"

It was like someone had opened a tank of Nitrous Oxide in the kitchen, though in reality the two were just laughing at how absurd the situation was and how the other was acting; Jay had injured himself with a wrench, and was acting as if Lizz was a pesky mosquito. As a result, Lizz was acting like Jay was a piece of paper at risk of blowing away in a strong breeze.

"What the heck... are you two... laughing at?"

"Lloyd," Lizz, without releasing Jay, turned halfway around to look at Lloyd. He'd gotten more muscled in the past couple weeks -- much to Lizz's irritation. She was gonna have to bump up her training to keep up with everyone's athleticism -- and was showing off his new muscles by joining the others in laying around the house shirtless, "You sound out of breath."

Lloyd gave her an irritated look and un-doubled himself from his bent over position, "You-" he backtracked, finally getting a good look at them, "What are you doing?"

Oh yeah. Lizz and Jay were still tangled up in each other; Lizz was between Jay's knees to begin with, grabbing his head with one hand while attempting to clean his head scratch with the other. When Jay began struggling, one leg had half wrapped around her waist, the foot of the other leg pressing into her thigh. Jay's one hand moved from his cheek to grasp Lizz's wrist tightly, while the other was in a cozy spot on her collarbone.

"We were..." they began righting themselves once more, Jay giving Lloyd an apologetic look, "Playing... Twister?"

"I was trying to clean up his wrench wound and he started trying to shove me away," Lizz explained shortly, "Now, what were you saying before you thought I was trying to seduce Jay? By the way," she added on as an afterthought, pointing indignantly at him with her free hand, "Quit thinking I'm trying to seduce every boy I lay my eyes on."

Lloyd sighed heavily, "I was going to say that you should try running from a ghost and see if you get out of breath."

"I wouldn't," Lizz sassed, "I'm more in shape than you are, so I can outrun anything."

"You're on the verge of death," Lloyd quipped lazily, leaning on the doorframe, "You couldn't outrun Cole after dinner."

"I'm getting better," Lizz snapped.

"Just give the dude more Puffy Potstickers, he'll leave you alone and it'll be fine," Jay chipped in, cutting Lloyd off and tapping Lizz's knee with his toes. She got the hint and backed up, allowing Jay to slide to the floor, "Are you getting taller?"

"No," she patted his head condescendingly, "You're just getting shorter."

Lloyd had finally completely caught his breath and had moved farther into the kitchen, "He hit himself with a wrench? Again?"

"Yes," Lizz put her hand over Lloyd's face and shoved him backwards, "Now get outta my workspace, Greenbean."

He maneuvered his way out of her claw-grip and twisted her arm a little, "Not a chance, Bluebird."

Lizz just spun away from Lloyd to unravel her arm. Jay raised an eyebrow, "It looks like you're waltzing."

"Might as well be," Lizz shook her hand from Lloyd's grip and did a three-beat step back to Lloyd, almost so they were chest-to-chest. She was staring him in the eye, "Sectoral heterochromia. Never noticed that before," she patted his chest, "Man-boobs. Put a shirt on."

Jay coughed to try to cover up his laugh.

"They're called 'pecs', I think," Lloyd corrected her gently, "And no."

"I get yelled at for trying to be shirtless all the time," Lizz huffed, "I call sexist bullsh-"

Jay clapped a hand over Lizz's mouth, "Anyway, Lloyd. Is there a reason you're in here, for reasons other than irking Lizzi?"

"Yeah, Uncle Wu said we need to have a meeting or something," he waved a hand in the general direction of the living room that Jay and Lizz had just vacated moments before, "Otherwise I'd still be trying to run from Ghoultar. Remind me again why we keep him around? All he does is eat everything."

"No..." Lizz had begun grinning stupidly at Lloyd, "He chases you around, too."

Lloyd thwacked her on the back of the head, "No."

Lizz kicked Jay when she heard his giggles start, "No."

A passing voice prevented the three from breaking into an all-out sibling brawl, "Guys, Sensei called a meeting in the living room. We're supposed to be dressed and ready in two minutes."

"Two?" Lloyd furrowed his eyebrows, beginning to head towards the doorway, "I heard five."

Kai shrugged lazily, leaning on the doorframe and simultaneously blocking Lloyd's path, "Well, yeah. That was three minutes ago, I was told."

Lloyd gently moved Kai out of his way, "I'm going to go change."

"Have fun, dude," Kai waved a hand at Lloyd as he went up the stairs.

Jay was tenderly feeling his head, again, "Ow..."

"Stitches?" Lizz offered, "And painkillers?"

"No," Jay was almost too quick to answer, waving his free hand at her, "No, no... No. I'll just butterfly it and we'll see how we are in the morning."

"You know I have the steadiest hands on the team, don't you?" she'd followed him out the kitchen door and was shouting up the stairs at him.

No reply from him.

Most likely because he knew she was lying; it was Zane with the steadiest hands.

She sighed, turning to Kai, "It's like he thinks I'm the reason he hit himself in the eyebrow with a wrench."

"Well, were you?" Kai quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Well..." Lizz shrugged, "Not... really, I mean... it was kind of Lloyd's fault."

"Ghoultar?"

She grinned toothily at him, "Yeah..."

Kai pressed his back to the wall, crossing his arms over his chest, "Well, Jay's an idiot. That should clear it up."

Lizz took a few small steps towards Kai, drinking him in. Like Lloyd, Kai had been working out, however Kai was always a bit on the muscley side -- not as muscley as Cole, but Kai looks really good. Unlike Lloyd, though, Kai was actually wearing a shirt. It was a cut-off shirt with armholes than ran almost the length of his entire torso, but a shirt nonetheless.

She was only an inch taller than he was -- Kai demanded they measure several times -- but Kai was more built than Lizz was. No matter the case, though, Lizz was still stalking towards him like he was her prey, and soon Kai found himself trapped by Lizz.

Not that he was complaining.

She slid her hands up to his shoulders, "He isn't as big an idiot as he could be."

Kai's hands went to rest gently on Lizz's hips, "True."

She made a noise, a hum that was somewhere caught between 'eh' and 'be quiet Kai', and her posture was casually coiled. Her hands slid up to rest behind his neck as she leaned further into him, their lips meeting. It wasn't just one prolonged kiss, though. It was several quick ones that got deeper with each pass, but even so, the kisses were slow and soft, like a cascade of dripping caramel. There was a lazy gentleness to their actions, almost as if there was nothing urgent going on, not much better to attend to.

Kai's grip on Lizz's waist had tightened considerably during their activities, pulling her closer, while Lizz's hands shifted into his hair. The two of them didn't seem quite intent on parting with one another, even when there was a slightly-angry throat-clearing noise from the doorway, "Guys!"

Lizz just turned her head, laying her head on Kai's chest, "Yes, Cole?"

To say Cole looked aggravated would be an understatement, "There's a meeting. In the living room. Remember? We're waiting for you two."

Kai had begun rubbing shapes into the small of Lizz's back, giving Cole a lazy look, "We'll be there in, like-"

"Two minutes," Lizz patted Kai's chest and pulled away from him, "Two minutes tops, I swear," she stopped in front of Cole, setting a gentle hand on his shoulder, "Okay? Two minutes. For me, anyway," as she walked away, she let her hand slide across his chest, "See you in a moment."

And she disappeared up the stairs, completely missing how badly Cole and Kai were scowling at each other.

A/N: Again, I apologize for the continuity. Since, like, 3 years ago when I stopped writing in it, I have a lot written but it's going to take me a while to get back into the swing of things and actually be able to smoothly write in this. I'm a tad terrible with original ideas :p