Well, it looks like Part 1 of Tiny Troubles received fairly positive feedback, so here's Part 2!

~~~~~~

Previously on Tiny Troubles

"Huh. Kai, when did you get so big?"

"Ummm..." Kai scrambled for an answer. "Uh, Cole, I don't know exactly how to put this but..."

That's when Jay let out a little shriek. "Cole! You're TINY!"

———

Part 2

"What?!" Cole exclaimed, looking down at himself.

"Ohmigosh guys, COLE SHRUNK!!" Jay screamed.

"He didn't shrink Jay," Kai said, crouching down so that he was eye-level with his now really short leader. "I think...I think he somehow got turned into a kid!"

"WHAT?!" The other four exclaimed.

"Oh, COME ON!" Cole shouted in his squeaky voice. "Not again!"

"How did that happen?!" Jay shouted. "Lloyd, did your dad turn evil again and somehow recreate the Mega Weapon?"

Lloyd scowled and smacked Jay. "No Jay, he didn't become evil again and he didn't recreate the Mega Weapon."

"Well then, how do you explain this?!" Jay exclaimed, picking up Cole and practically shoving him into Lloyd's face. "This doesn't happen naturally!"

Cole struggled in Jay's grip. "Put me down!" He demanded, fixing his blue teammate with a glare.

It didn't have the effect he wanted.

Jay took one look at Cole's face—with his deep grey eyes looking too big on his little face—and made a sound that resembled a dying vacuum cleaner. "Awwwww, you're so adorable!" He squealed, hugging the black ninja.

"Jaaaaaaay, lemme go!" Cole complained, wiggling and squirming.

Kai snickered at the scene before him. He had to admit, it was pretty cute(not that he'd ever say that out loud). Deciding to let the two of them be for now, Kai turned towards his other teammates. "Does anybody have any idea on how this happened?" He asked.

Zane shook his head. "I've expanded all of my logical parameters, but nothing is coming up," he said, holding his head. "This...this does not compute!"

Kai flinched backwards as a spray of sparks came from Zane's left eye. "Hey, hey, don't hurt yourself Frosty," he said. "We'll figure this out."

"Maybe my dad or uncle will know what happened and how to fix this," Lloyd piped up.

"That is a possible solution," Zane replied.

Kai nodded. "Okay, let's head back to the Bounty and see if any of them can help us," He said, turning back towards Jay, who was still hugging Cole. "Jay come on, we're heading back."

"Okay!" Jay chirped. "Hang on Cole, I'll get us down in a jiff!"

"Jay, put me down!" Cole complained. "I can get down by myself!"

"Nuh uh, no way," Kai immediately denied. "We're too high up, there's no way you're going down by yourself. If you fall, it won't end well."

Cole pouted, which drew another "Awwwww" from Jay. "Fine," he grumbled. "But the minute we're on the ground, I want Jay to let go of me."

"That I can deal with," Kai replied, already starting to climb down. "Come on, let's go."

~~~~

Ten minutes later and the ninja ran into a problem.

Jay, very reluctantly, stayed true to his word and set Cole down on the ground so that he could walk. Then, all five of them set out for home.

However, what probably could have taken a few minutes took much longer since they all had wait for Cole to catch up. The black ninja's much shorter legs meant that he had to take three steps for every one the others took. And more often than not, he fell behind and had to run in order to catch up.

After the fifth time this happened, Kai let out a little huff. "This is getting ridiculous," he muttered underneath his breath.

"*huff huff* I hate...*huff* being a kid," Cole panted as he caught to them, breathing heavily. "Stupid short legs..."

Lloyd sighed. "At this rate, it'll take forever to get back to the Bounty."

Cole sighed and sat down. "Just...just give me a sec...I'll be okay..." he said breathlessly.

Zane hummed in thought. "Perhaps it would be easier if one of us were to carry you," he said.

"Oh, oh! Pick me, pick me!" Jay exclaimed, jumping up and down. "I'll carry him!"

"No!"

Everyone froze and looked down at their leader. Cole's cheeks had turned bright pink and his eyes were big with fear and...sadness?

But as quickly as the emotion came, it vanished as Cole ducked his head and stared at the ground. "I don't want any of you to carry me," he said as fiercely as he could. "Come on, let's just get to the ship, it's getting late."

Cole quickly stood up and started walking again, albeit faster than he had before. His four teammates exchanged looks, shared a collective sigh, and followed him.

~~~~

Cole sighed as he was forced to run after his teammates—again. "Can this day get any worse?" He mumbled.

He should have known better than to say that. For not even two seconds later, his foot caught on something and he tripped and fell.

"Ow!" He cried out. He started to sit up, hissing in pain when he saw that he had a few small scratches on his hands. Thankfully, they weren't bleeding, but they still hurt.

Cole growled in frustration. This is the absolute WORST! He declared internally. Why did this have to happen to me?! Especially now of all times!

A pang of sorrow struck Cole's heart but he pushed it back, trying to ignore the stinging in his eyes. No, not now! He scolded himself. I won't cry, I won't cry!

So caught up in his little battle, Cole didn't notice that his team had noticed that he had fallen behind...until a pair of arms gently and carefully picked him up.

"Hey!" Cole yelped, snapping out of his trance and kicking at the person who had picked him up. "Let me go!"

"Calm down, Cole," he heard Kai say reassuringly. "It's just me."

Cole didn't stop his struggling. "Kai, put me down! I can walk!"

"It's getting late, and you're obviously getting tired," Kai replied, turning Cole around so that he could look him in the eye. "So, I'll give you a choice: we can either do this the easy way and I give you a ride on my back, or we do this the hard way and I carry you home slung over my shoulder. Take your pick."

Cole scowled at the red ninja, but Kai seemed to be immune to his glare. Defeated, Cole let out a sigh and mumbled, "Fiiiiiiine. But this is a one time thing!"

"I'm glad we reached an agreement," Kai replied, putting Cole down before turning around so that the young black ninja could climb onto his back. "C'mon, climb on."

Cole frowned but complied, gently climbing onto Kai's back and looping his arms around the red ninja's neck. Kai gently hooked his arms underneath Cole's legs and stood up. "Ready?" He asked, glancing at Cole over his shoulder.

Cole blushed and buried his face into Kai's shoulder. "Just go," he grumbled.

Kai chuckled lightly and started walking, the rest of the team not far behind.

Cole eventually stopped hiding his face in favor of resting his chin on Kai's shoulder. The red ninja didn't seem to mind, only giving the ninja-turned-kid a sideways glance and a small, fond smile.

I wonder if he's done this before with Nya, Cole wondered, adjusting his grip to make sure that he wasn't accidentally choking Kai. The black ninja couldn't remember the last time he had someone carry him like this. Probably not since...since...

Cole inhaled slowly, holding his breath for a few seconds before letting it out. Don't think about it, he told himself. Thinking about it makes you sad, and you can't worry your friends...

"Cole?"

"Hm?" Cole blinked out of his little trance and saw that Zane was looking at him.

"Are you alright?" The white ninja asked.

Cole opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted when a big yawn shook his entire body.

"Awww, someone's sleepy," Jay cooed.

"Not tired," Cole instantly denied, fighting the urge to rub at his eyes. He let out another, smaller yawn.

"It's okay if you want to take a quick power nap, Cole," Kai said. "I won't let you fall."

Cole shook his head, gently resting his right cheek on Kai's shoulder. "Not tired," he repeated, but his eyelids were already drooping.

He heard Kai laugh before the red ninja said, "Take a rest, buddy. We won't let anything happen to you."

I know, Cole wanted to say.

But he was already asleep.

~~~~~

Kai sighed in relief as he finally spotted the hull of the Bounty just ahead of him. "Made it," he mumbled. Turning slightly towards his teammates, the red ninja asked, "Hey guys, is Cole still asleep?"

Lloyd peeked at Kai's right shoulder and grinned. "Yeah," he replied. "Poor guy's drooling all over you."

Kai grimaced at the thought of having to clean spit off of his ninja gi, but quickly shrugged it off. "Eh, it's okay. It's not that big a deal."

Lloyd blinked. "Wow. That's not at all how I'd thought you'd react."

Kai snorted. "Lemme guess: you'd thought I'd freak out and cause a huge fuss, right?"

Lloyd blushed slightly and ran a hand threw his hair. "Maybe..."

Kai smirked. "Perks of having a little sister," he replied. "You sort of become resistant to that sort of thing. Doesn't make it any less gross, but you kind of get used to it."

Lloyd smiled and laughed a little. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense," he said. "You look so...I don't know, natural I guess, carrying Cole like that."

Kai's smirk molded itself into a small smile. "I used to carry Nya like this when we were younger," he explained, carefully adjusting his grip on Cole. The now-young ninja didn't wake up, instead murmuring something softly and clutching onto Kai tighter.

"Awwwww, he looks so cute~" Jay softly cooed.

Lloyd rolled his eyes. "I swear, Jay, if you "awwww" one more time, I will drop kick you off the ship."

Jay pouted. "I can't help it!" he complained. "I mean, look at him! He's so cute as a little kid!"

"Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, how old is Cole? Like, right now, I mean," Kai asked.

"Hmmm," Zane hummed in thought as he examined a sleeping Cole. "Based on my observations, I would say that Cole is currently between the ages of 5 and 7."

"Wow, ya think he's that young?" Jay asked, shocked. "I don't think we were that young that one time we got turned into kids."

Zane shrugged. "It is just a guess, I am not entirely sure."

"Wow," Jay breathed, his blue eyes sparkling. "Do you know what this means?!"

"That our leader is currently too young to even consider driving?" Kai sarcastically asked.

"No! Technically, this means that I'm finally older than Cole!"

Kai and Zane groaned and Lloyd facepalmed. "That's it, I'm drop kicking you off the ship." Lloyd declared.

"What, why?!" Jay protested.

"In case you haven't noticed, some mysterious figure has turned Cole into a child, we have no idea on how it happened, nor do we know how to reverse it...and you're excited that you're actually older than him?!" Lloyd exclaimed.

"Shhh, keep your voice down, you'll wake Cole up!" Kai hissed, taking a quick peek at said ninja to see if he had woken up. But the ninja-turned-kid was still soundly asleep.

"Sorry," both Lloyd and Jay mumbled.

Kai shook his head. "Let's just get inside and see if Sensei knows how to fix this."

~~~~

They found their teacher meditating in his room. His back was towards them and the scent of incense was strong in the air.

Lloyd entered the room first with everyone else filing in after him. They all lined up in a line and bowed respectfully, though Kai had to forgo clasping his hands together lest he drop his precious cargo.

"Uncle," Lloyd greeted simply and respectfully.

Sensei Wu didn't turn around but he did lift his head up slightly. "Nephew," he replied, not turning around. "Did you apprehend the criminal?"

Lloyd bit his lip nervously. "N-no, he managed to get away," the young Golden Master admitted quietly.

There was a beat of silence. "I see..."

Zane let out a small cough. "There is a slight problem, Sensei," he added. "Before our adversary escaped, he managed to...well, um..."

"He somehow managed to turn Cole into a kid!" Jay interrupted.

"Shhh!" Kai shushed him.

Jay's eyes widened as he remembered that Cole was still sleeping and quickly lowered his voice. "Sorry," he apologized.

Sensei bowed his head. "I see," he said simply, smoothly standing up to face his pupils. "And where is he?"

"Kai's carrying him," Lloyd answered. "Poor guy fell asleep almost instantly."

Sensei hummed in thought as he quickly looked over Cole. Noticing everyone else's worried look, he quickly reassured them, "do not worry my students. Cole's transformation is reversible. Some Tomorrow's Tea should cure him."

Lloyd's eyes brightened in recognition. "That's the same stuff that I used on the Grundle, right?"

Sensei nodded. "Indeed. I shall make a trip to Mystake's tea shop tomorrow morning. But for now, I believe that you should follow your teammates example and get some rest."

Kai smiled. "Sounds like a plan," he replied, already feeling tired from the day.

The others agreed and after saying their goodnights to Sensei, they made their way to their shared bedroom. Lloyd didn't even bother showering. After quickly changing to pjs via Spinjitzu, he promptly flopped face first into his bed and fell asleep five seconds later.

Jay followed the green ninja's example, but he chirped out a "goodnight guys!" from his top bunk before he went to sleep. Zane opted to take a quick shower, grabbing his pajamas before heading to the bathroom.

Kai walked up to the bottom bunk that Cole normally slept. He sat down on the edge of the bed and carefully lay the sleeping kid-ninja down, gently unhooking Cole's arms from around his neck. Cole whimpered in his sleep and unconsciously reached out for Kai. Thinking quickly, the red ninja grabbed one of the pillows from his bed and gave it to Cole. The black ninja's brow furrowed for a second before relaxing. Cole cuddled with the pillow and sighed happily in his sleep, a little smile just barely visible.

Kai smiled fondly, instantly reminded of his childhood when he had witnessed Nya doing the same thing multiple times. Letting some of his brotherly instincts take over, the red ninja carefully pulled a blanket over Cole, and took a moment to gently sweep Cole's raven-black bangs out of his face. "Night pal," he whispered. "Sleep well. Hopefully we can get you back to normal tomorrow."

Exhausted, Kai barely had enough energy to Spinjitzu into his pjs and climb up to his bunk before his eyes closed and he started to fall asleep.

His last thought before he completely succumbed to sleep was I hope Sensei can get that Tomorrow's Tea...

——
When I started writing this chapter, I let my friend irl read it.

Friend: Awwww, Kai is such a good mom.

Me: Umm, I was kinda more going for "older brother" than "Mom" for Kai.

Friend: Well, Steve is a mom , therefore Kai's a mom.

Me:...okay then.
(I think she was making a Stranger Things reference???)

Welp, that's Part 2 of Tiny Troubles. What will Cole do in the morning  while he waits for Sensei Wu to get the tea? You'll have wait until next time to find out! :)