#THIS IS TWO HALVES OF A WHOLE IDIOT BESTIES | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

rainbow-flavoured-skittles · 11 days ago

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Best Friends(?)

I have. finally finished the bruise childhood friends au. the series is finally completed. I can finally write the other stuff I've wanted to now that this is done. I'm kinda in disbelief, especially since the first fic in this series was my very first ninjago fic. and now the story is over that's actually insane to me I am dying

cross posted to ao3

“Okay… get rid of one: Twizzlers, or KitKats?” Cole asked. He and Jay lay lazily on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. Jay threw a ping pong ball up and down.

“Twizzlers. They are an abomination that must be erased from the face of Ninjago,” Jay declared. Cole stuck his tongue out at him. Jay jabbed him in the chest.

“You’re a terrible person,” Cole said. “You would get rid of Twizzlers? Twizzlers?”

“They’re like eating rubber!”

“No, they’re not!”

“People who don’t like avocados are not allowed to have opinions on candy.” Jay poked Cole in the cheek.

Cole snorted at the comment. “Oh? You don’t like pickles.”

“And that’s a good thing! Who else would give you extra pickles when we go out?”

“I could always just order extra pickles,” Cole grinned. “Then you wouldn’t have any to worry about.”

“No!” Jay screeched, hitting Cole with a pillow. “You’re evil. Pure evil.”

Cole threw the pillow back. It hit Jay in the face.

“You’re so mean.”

“That’s my talent,” Jay sing-songed. “Who would keep your ego in check if I weren’t around?”

“Zane could,” Cole said. “Because Zane is an incredible person who doesn’t bully me.”

“I do it out of love.” Jay slung an arm around Cole’s shoulder. “Besides, you love me.”

“Uh huh,” Cole said.

“You love me so much.”

“I do.”

“We’re the best of friends. Soulmates. Two halves of a whole idiot. Besties forever.”

“What was that last one?” Cole laughed. Two halves of a whole idiot. Not that wrong of a description, actually. It seemed that Zane was the sole holder of any brain cells.

“Besties forever. We’ve known each other since like the fourth grade, dude,” Jay smiled.

“No, the one before that.”

“Soulmates?”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

Jay cackled. “Always be specific.”

“And it’s the third grade, not fourth. We’ve known each other since the third grade.”

Jay paused for a second, counting the years on his fingers. “Huh, you’re right,” he said.

“I’m always right.”

“Liar! That one time you said there’d be free candy at the corner store?”

“It was six years ago, give me a break!” Cole groaned.

“Never.”

“You almost drowned me in the pool!”

“One time!” Jay protested, and mimed choking to death.

“That was you, in case it wasn’t clear,” he added.

“Joking about my near-death experience? Wow, I didn’t know you were so cruel, Jay,” Cole gasped in mock horror. He dabbed at the non-existent tears on his cheek. “I’m so hurt.”

“Hurt like me when there was no free candy?”

“Just let it go already!”

“Over my dead body.”

Jay collapsed on the sofa next to Cole. “So many sore muscles…”

“I think I’m going to start seeing the First Master soon,” Cole mumbled. The world was swirling around and strangely bright, splotches of colour in his vision, almost as if he were looking through a kaleidoscope.

“Please don’t die on me, Cole. I can’t do any ninja-ing without you.”

“No promises.”

“Hmph.”

Cole blinked his eyes. It helped, just a little.

“Cole?” Jay waved a hand in front of his face. “You alive?”

“What do you think, Blabbermouth?”

“You’re not allowed to die. How are we to get married if you die?”

Everything came to a halt. Cole’s brain took a few moments to process the words, put them in the right order and figure out their meaning. “Married?”

Jay laughed nervously. “Y’know those marriage pacts? If we’re not married by, for example, age thirty, then we marry each other instead.”

“Oh.”

“Just a joke. Just a silly joke and stuff,” Jay rubbed the back of his neck. “Ignore that I said that, yeah?”

“Okay,” Cole said. The mood had died. No more lighthearted jokes or complaining of sore muscles. They were sprawled across the sofa, leaning against each other, but not speaking.

Ouch, Cole thought. It was fine. Awkward moments happened. They’d be back to normal in a few minutes.

“I overstepped,” Jay apologised. “That was stupid of me. Sorry.”

Why did it bother Cole so much? It was just a joke. Jay was talkative, and awkward things spewed out of his mouth daily. This was nothing out of the ordinary.

Cole shrugged. “It’s fine, Jay. Was just a joke.”

“…yeah.”

The silence was stifling. Cole tried to ignore it. Just a joke, he told himself. Just a joke.

Jay was regretting any and all decisions he had made in the last twenty-four hours.

Stupid, stupid stupid, he scolded himself. He’d let his mouth get ahead of him, had completely forgotten about filtering what he said. He clutched the video game console tighter. On the screen, his character crashed into a wall.

Cole was sitting next him on the couch, chatting to Zane. He appeared to be explaining in great, excruciating depth, the lore of Percy Jackson.

“—so then he has to go on a quest to find the lightning bolt, right? And he has to fight all sorts of monsters, and he can’t just take a plane because that would be dangerous—“

“So he has to go on foot, across the country,” Jay added, video game forgotten. He knew this book. He and Cole had read it together all the time as kids.

“Yeah, exactly!”

Zane frowned, confused. “What is a ‘country’?”

“It’s a made-up sort of area of the world. You know how we have all these different areas, like the Sea of Sand and Shintaro and all that? Like that, but bigger,” Cole explained.

“That… doesn’t make much sense.”

“It’s a story about demigods and a magic lightning bolt. It doesn’t have to make sense,” Jay rolled his eyes.

Zane hummed noncommittally.

“We should read the books together,” Cole said wistfully.

“We should!” Jay nodded.

“We need to go to the library, don’t we? Neither of us brought our copies.”

“We didn’t.” Jay hadn’t been able to bring much to the Monastery. Cole hadn’t either. A lot of sentimental stuff had been left at their respective former residences, Jay thought bitterly. Not homes. Residences. A cold word that didn’t mean much at all, because neither of them had had a good home before Sensei Wu.

“Library it is, then. You think Sensei will let us take a trip to Ninjago City?”

“Only if you can master spinjitsu within the next twenty-four hours.”

“Dang.”

Zane coughed. “I’m sure Sensei would let us, so long as we’d finished our work for the day,” he said.

“Yeah, hopefully,” Cole said.

Jay handed him the second game console. He was glad that the lingering awkwardness between them was gone. Everything was okay again. “Wanna play Just Dance?”

Cole looked to Zane. “Do you know this one?”

“No,” Zane said. “But I do not want to play anyway. You two should play together.”

Jay watched as he rushed out of the room, not even closing the door. “Wonder what’s up with him.”

“He didn’t want to see your terrible dancing,” Cole teased.

Jay snorted. “Or was it your awful music taste?”

“My music taste is amazing, you heathen.”

“Liar!”

Jay tried not to wince as he watched Cole attempt to make dinner. The smell of burnt chicken invaded his nostrils, and he figured the smoke alarm would go off any second.

“Cole, you’re going to give everyone food poisoning,” he complained.

“It’ll be fine. Everything is fully cooked,” Cole said, waving a knife around.

“I don’t want to eat charcoal.”

“It’s perfectly fine!”

“It looks like it was mummified and then chucked into a volcano.”

Cole rolled his eyes and went back to cutting up zucchini.

“Can potatoes be eaten raw?” He asked.

“Please don’t serve raw potatoes,” Jay groaned. He winced just thinking of what the texture would be like.

“I’m just asking,” Cole said indignantly.

“The answer is no,” Zane said from the doorway, eying the kitchen warily. “You can’t — or at least shouldn’t — eat raw potatoes.”

“Got it.”

Jay grumbled and returned his attention to Cole. His cooking skills had not improved in the slightest over the past two-and-a-half years.

“You’re going to burn down the Monastery.”

“False,” Cole said. “You are. Or have we already forgotten the toaster incident?”

“We don’t talk about that.”

“What is the toaster incident?” Zane didn’t look like he particularly wanted the answer, only asking to entertain Cole.

“It was before you got here. So, you see, Jay decided that the toaster didn’t work properly—“

“I’ve been betrayed by my own best friend,” Jay moaned. He refused to let Cole finish that sentence. “Betrayed. Stabbed in the back by my other half. Left to rot in prison for a thousand years.”

Cole ignored him. Jay stuck his tongue out.

“You are a terrible cook,” he said.

“You’re not any better,” Cole snorted.

“I can at least make instant noodles without setting the microwave on fire.”

“But would you ever willingly eat a vegetable?”

Jay thought for a moment. There was no response he could give that let him keep his dignity. “…No.”

“Exactly.” Cole shook his head. “If Sensei left us for even a week, we’d be dead.”

“You survived on your own for years just fine,” Jay said.

“I had several near-death experiences in those years.”

“We’ve all had near-dear experiences. I mean, I jumped off a building trying to fly what was basically a giant kite held together with duct tape and superglue.”

“You did what?”

Cole’s tone told Jay all he needed to know.

“….Did I perhaps not mention that? At all?”

“Jason Edward Gordon,” Cole said, turning around to face him. “What did you do?”

“You were climbing mountains with no safety gear,” Jay defended.

“I had experience climbing. You—“

“It was fine!” Jay yelped.

“Jay!”

Jay began mentally writing his will, already resigned to the hour-long lecture he was about to receive.

Sometimes, Jay wondered if it would be best to disappear from the face of Ninjago. Just for everyone’s sanity. And his mental health.

He had a crush on Cole, didn’t he? And not just a small one. The sort that made his heart hurt, and head spin, and stomach twist.

Cole, his best friend. The one he’d known since he was just a little kid. Of all the people in the world, he’d chosen his best friend.

And his moment of realisation hadn’t even been dramatic. It had occurred to him out of nowhere, while they were training. He’d thought about how Cole looked so good in his black training gi, and how his hair was always so silky and fluffy, and how his eyes were so pretty with those little flecks of green, and the next moment—

Ugh. He hated emotions.

Jay walked into his room, lay down on the floor, and resisted the urge to scream.

Cole looked at Jay across from the table and tried not to groan. He liked Jay, and not just a bit. He had a full blown crush on him. Probably had for a while, now that he thought about it.

Did Jay like him back? He doubted it. But that meant that he’d be overthinking every single moment in their lives, trying to figure out if there was anything between them. And he’d find nothing, because they were best friends and that was it.

How was he supposed to act normal? What even was normal for them?

Why had he chosen to fall in love with Jay of all people?

Cole buried his face in his hands. Jason Edward Gordon. His best friend. His only friend. The one who’d been his other half for years. It made sense that he’d love him.

Too bad Jay didn’t love him back.

Jay smiled at Cole. His smile was crooked on his face, teeth gleaming white. It was a nice smile, Cole thought. “So, do you by any chance have a crush on someone?” he asked, rushing his words. More than usual. “Anyone at all? Perhaps someone who lives in the Monastery?”

Cole blinked. “If you mean Zane, then no. He’s a cool guy, but I don’t like him. Not in that way.”

“But do you have a crush?”

Yes, he didn’t say. I do. But you don’t want to know who it is.

“No,” Cole lied. He liked to think he was a good liar. But then again, Jay could read his every mood. He hoped that that one singular word didn’t give anything away.

“Oh,” Jay said. Was Cole imagining it, or did he seem disappointed? “Never mind.”

“…do you?” Cole asked.

“No!” Jay laughed nervously. “Nobody at all. Certainly not anyone in the Monastery…”

“If you like Zane, then you could always ask him out,” Cole said. Did Jay like Zane? Was he asking to make sure it wouldn’t affect his friendship with Cole? Selfishly, Cole hoped it wasn’t that.

“No, not Zane,” Jay shook his head.

“Okay.”

Maybe Jay should just pull away from Cole. Distance himself, so that his feelings could stay buried and locked up in a little box. It would hurt, and Cole would be hurt, but maybe it was for the best. They could still be friends — just not the same as it was now.

They’d be better off. Jay wouldn’t be ruining a perfectly good friendship with his feelings.

And hey, maybe Cole could end up with Zane or something. Jay had gotten that vibe when he’d tried to find out if Cole liked him back. It had been so tense, and it had really seemed that Cole liked Zane.

So it was the best option. Jay distancing himself would mean his and Cole’s friendship wasn’t completely ruined, and it might even mean him being happy with someone else. Best for everyone, Jay told himself.

It would be painful, but best for everyone. Best for everyone. Best for everyone.

He repeated those words until they lost meaning.

Jay was avoiding him. Cole wanted to shake him and ask why, why he was pulling away.

“Was it something I said? Jay, I’m sorry. We said we wouldn’t be awkward anymore. Please talk to me.”

He sighed. Maybe Jay had figured out his crush. Maybe he hated him now.

He’d been so stupid, thinking that he’d had a chance when Jay asked if he had a crush. Maybe Jay didn’t like him, even as just a friend — who knew? Jay was being all secretive and pulling away, probably because of something Cole had said.

And now everything with Jay was awkward again.

Things weren’t supposed to be awkward anymore. They were supposed to be inseparable best friends, so close they may as well be attached at the hip.

Cole pulled his knees to his chest. Maybe, just maybe, everything would work out, but he doubted it.

Avoiding Cole was physically painful, Jay thought. He looked so hurt whenever Jay gave him one-word responses and turned down their usual hangouts.

“Do you want to play video games after training?” Cole had asked at breakfast.

Jay had shrugged and pretended like Cole hadn’t said anything. And Cole had looked so confused and hurt, like he didn’t know what he’d done wrong. And he hadn’t done anything wrong, except Jay couldn’t tell him that, because that would merit explanation to why he was ignoring him, and Jay couldn’t let him know that.

Had he lost his best friend yet? Was Cole going to start drifting off to someone else, leaving Jay alone again?

It would be his own fault, of course, but the thought made Jay’s chest hurt. He wanted to run up to Cole and apologise, beg for him to come back. “I’m sorry for ignoring you, it’s just that I have a crush on you and you don’t like me back, so I had to avoid you and pretend you don’t exist so that you don’t hate me. But we’re still besties, right?”

There wouldn’t be any explaining himself, not without going into horrible, excruciating depth about his feelings. And Jay hated talking about feelings, almost as much as Cole did. If Jay ever decided to ruin his life by explaining himself, there was no way the conversation would end well.

A knock at the door. “Come in,” Jay croaked.

“You are… upset,” Zane said from the doorway.

“No,” Jay lied.

“Cole is looking for you,” Zane said quietly. “He wants to talk.”

“I don’t want to talk to him.”

“But he is your friend.”

“I…” Jay peeled himself off the floor. Cole was his friend. But he couldn’t talk, not without spilling his guts and vomiting up all the stupid feelings he had.

“Talk to him,” Zane pleaded. “Even Sensei knows something is wrong.”

“But—“

“Please?”

“No.”

“Okay,” Zane said quietly. “But you should talk. It might solve whatever is happening.”

Zane closed the door behind him. Jay curled into a ball and gritted his teeth. Cole was looking for him, wanted to talk. But Jay wouldn’t talk. He wouldn’t let whatever fragile relationship they had left snap.

Cole sat across from Jay at the table, avoiding eye contact. Jay was still ignoring him. He’d tried talking to him a few days ago to no avail, just a muttered “sorry, gotta go.”

Did Jay hate him? He certainly didn’t hate Jay. But was it the same the other way around?

“How is the food?” Zane asked, smile strained. He had picked up on the growing tension, even tried to convince Cole to talk to Jay yesterday. Cole winced at the memory.

“Good,” Jay mumbled. “It’s good.”

Cole nodded his agreement.

“Perhaps you two should cook next time? Do you like cooking?”

“No thanks,” Cole said. Hours in an enclosed space with Jay, when Jay clearly hated him? He shuddered at the thought.

“I can’t cook,” Jay said.

“Well, Cole could teach you?”

“I can’t cook either. You know that.”

“Oh.” Zane had a strange look on his face, as if he’d eaten something unpleasant.

“Great food, Zane.” Jay stood up from the table. “Really. Maybe you can teach me sometime. But I’m feeling tired, might turn in for the night…”

“It’s only eight,” Cole said quietly.

He watched as Jay left the room, footsteps echoing down the hall.

“You should talk to him,” Zane said, eyes looking down at his bowl.

“I tried talking to him. He’s avoiding me. Probably hates me.” Cole tapped his fingers against the table. They made a musical sort of sound, one that reminded him of rain drumming on a roof.

“I don’t think he could ever hate you,” Zane said.

“I couldn’t either. But he’s avoiding me, Zane. I can’t talk to him if he’s avoiding me every time I get within five feet.”

“Just say you want to talk. That it’s nothing confrontational.”

“But it is confrontational,” Cole groaned.

“Just try. Please?” Zane stacked dishes on top of another, clearing away the food. Diluted soy sauce dripped onto the table. Cole wiped it away with a tissue.

“I tried already,” Cole grumbled.

“Try again. It’s going to be impossible to work together if you keep going on like this.”

“One more time,” Cole said. If it would get Zane off his back, he’d try one more time. “If he still doesn’t want to talk after that, then…”

“Alright,” Zane beamed.

“Great. Yippee. Hooray.”

“Jay?” Cole shuffled his feet. He was nervous, Jay could see that much. He didn’t like this conversation. That was okay, because Jay didn’t like it either.

“Yeah?”

“Why have you been avoiding me? Did I say something wrong?”

No, he hadn’t. He hadn’t done anything wrong. But Jay couldn’t say that.

“I’m not avoiding you,” Jay said. A blatant lie. Could Cole tell if he was lying? He’d been able to tell when they were kids.

“We haven’t hung out even once in weeks,” Cole said quietly.

“I’ve been busy.”

“Busy with what? Jay, look, I—“

“There’s nothing wrong! You haven’t done anything wrong, Cole. I swear.”

“Then why are you avoiding me?”

“I’m not avoiding you,” Jay said.

“You won’t even talk to me. We’re supposed to be best friends.”

“We are best friends!”

“Then why are you avoiding me? Was it something I said?” Cole had tears in his eyes, now. Jay was struggling to hold back his own tears.

“You didn’t say anything wrong. It’s nothing, I promise—“

“Then why is everything awkward again? We promised that we’d work out anything, that we wouldn’t be like… before. Why won’t you just talk?”

“I’m not avoiding you!” Jay yelled.

“Stop lying!” Cole yelled back. “You know that’s a lie. You’re avoiding me, I must have done something, just tell me! Is it that I like y—“

“You haven’t done anything!” Jay snapped. “It’s me, okay? It’s always me. I’m avoiding you because of me, not you. Because I like you, Cole! More than like, and I can’t ruin everything!”

Words, just spilling out of his mouth. A waterfall that couldn’t be slowed, a broken faucet, a flash flood just rumbling out. “You don’t like me, and I’m not going to ruin whatever friendship we have left. And I like you romantically, not just as a best friend, but since you don’t like me I have to avoid you! I’m sorry everything is awkward, okay? I’m sorry we can’t go back to when we were ten years old and just best friends!”

Cole blinked. “That’s not right,” he said, and Jay’s heart dropped.

“I like you. Not the other way around,” he said. “Aren’t you avoiding me because you figured it out?”

“No?” Jay sputtered. Cole liked him? As more than a friend? Maybe he needed to clean his ears. Or get a brain scan. Maybe both.

“So you’re avoiding me because you like me, and don’t want to ruin our friendship? But…”

“You like me too?” Jay finished weakly.

“Yeah,” Cole said.

“But I… I’ve been avoiding you so that our friendship isn’t over and I won’t make things worse, but if you like me, then—“

“I thought you’d figured it out and that was why you were avoiding me—“

“You like me!” Jay laughed hysterically. “You like me! In the same way I like you, right? I’ve been avoiding you for no reason, and I’ve made things ten times worse, if that was even possible—“

“Jay?” Cole cut him off. “Can I just kiss you? Like, right now?”

Jay was dreaming, wasn’t he? He hoped that he never woke up. “Yeah,” he said giddily.

And then Cole kissed him. Jay had to force himself to stand upright before grabbing his arms and pulling him closer. Cole’s hair smelled like tangerines and basil, he noticed. The shampoo that they all used, since Sensei wouldn’t bother with buying so many products, but it smelled better on him than it did anyone else.

“I think I’m in love,” Cole said when he pulled away.

“I think I’m in love too,” Jay said. Was this what

love felt like? The kind that he saw in shows and movies, but somehow better?

“We’re still best friends, right?” Cole asked.

“Best friends and more,” Jay smiled. “Can I formally ask you out on a date? To the library, maybe a coffee shop? Hell, maybe a hiking trip?”

“Anything would be amazing,” Cole grinned. He was so pretty when he smiled, Jay thought. Could he print out this moment on a piece of paper, preserve it forever? He really wanted to.

“Maybe a walk through the forest together? You like the outdoors, so—“

“I think I’d go literally anywhere as long as I was with you.”

“Really?”

“I’d fall off a cliff for you,” Cole said.

“Let’s try not to make that a reality,” Jay teased.

“Let’s not,” Cole agreed.

Jay leaned in and kissed him again. No, maybe he couldn’t print this moment out and frame it, but he could sear every detail of it into his mind. That would be enough. Just being with Cole, best friend and now-boyfriend and maybe someday even more, was enough.

#ninjago #lego ninjago #bruiseshipping #cole x jay #jay x cole #ninjago fic #ninjago fanfiction #kit's writing #cole brookstone #jay walker #ninjago cole #ninjago jay #bruise childhood friends au #god no this is actually insane #my first ever completed series??#the story is over??#???#I really do love this au though so hopefully there will be some side stories soon

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