Chapter Text
"What the fuck"
Cole looked over to Kai to see him staring at the women's health section of the store they where in, looking absolutely furious. "what the actual fuck"
"You OK man?"
"Look at this shit"
Cole Pushed the shopping trolley over to Kai to try see what he was so upset about. It was a rule with the Ninja that the whenever Kai or Nya went shopping, someone would have to come with them. They tended to always buy the cheapest stuff they could find, and Kai particularly was very picky with how much money he spent, so if they wanted to get any decent quality supplies another person would have to follow them and remind them that they had plenty of money to spare. When he looked over to what Kai was looking at though, he was very confused as to what he was yelling at.
"I mean, I get that these companies need to make money, but how the FUCK are none of these pads even slightly affordable?"
Kai was ranting at the period product's, likely trying to buy some for Nya, but when Cole looked at the prices, he couldn't help but feel like he was being a little dramatic.
"Hey man, I know that you're a bit of a cheapskate but these aren't that bad." He gulped when Kai snapped his head up to glare at him "I mean, six dollars every five months isn't all that bad..."
Cole immediately felt rather small under Kai's gaze, which was ridiculous considering he was a fair amount taller then him.
"Cole..." oh he definitely made a mistake somewhere here "how often do you think women have periods?"
He gulped "well I mean... my mom had pretty light periods once every 2-3 months so I was assuming it was the the same for Nya?" Silence. "I mean, she was pretty sick, so it was probably kinda skewed, but the product's still seem pretty cheap if you ask me."
Kai stared at him for a while before opening his mouth "Cole. Periods happen monthly. Nya needs one or two of these packs a month. If we buy the cheapest ones here, that's 72 dollars a year at least."
Well. Cole wasn't expecting that. "...is that why she gets so angry so often? I thought she just hated everything..."
Kai shook his head "no Cole, her insides are literally squeezing eggs out of her body once a month. Which is why this is so fucked up, because if we can't afford pads then she's going to end up bleeding everywhere, which is fucking uncomfortable."
Cole blinked, wincing at how Kai described it. It wasn't too weird for him probably, with how he grew up with Nya and her woman stuff, but Cole has always been raised to 'never ask a lady about shark week'. Looking at the price tags again though, he frowned. "I mean, this is bad, but it's still not awful. If you cut back on snacks and more unnecessary stuff it's perfectly affordable if you have a little less money, right?" He looked back at Kai and immediately felt more anger then he had facing Viana's dad.
Oh dear
"Cole. Cole. I get that you grew up with your fancy dancer dad, and your private school, but please understand."
Cole nodded, feeling tears threatening to spill down his face.
Kai grabbed his shoulders, bringing him close and growling "it wasn't less cake. It wasn't less Teddy bears, we literally had to eat less when Nya was on her period. If we couldn't afford food or pads, we had to use toilet roll. Being poor isn't an inconvenience, or a downer, it was literally choosing which basic necessities where more important then others."
Cole stared at him with wide eyes, waiting for Kai to break into a grin or to shake his head and giggle about how fun it was to mess with 'rich people' but he didn't. He just turned around, grabbed a small pack of six dollar pads, and carried on down the aisle, looking more exhausted then Cole had seen him in a while.
He knew Kai and Nya had struggled with money- that was the whole reason Cole was here today, to stop Kai from messing up their shopping with those past struggles. But that was the first time Cole realised just how difficult it had been for them. The first time he realised how young Kai was when he started looking after Nya.
The first time he realised that maybe, his loud, funny, bold friend Kai wasn't as happy as he seemed.