#like Cole’s eyebrows don’t go with Kai’s gi

[darknessinaninja]

Errors 😭

I was cleaning my Lego stuff and these mistakes - Lego you had one job 💀

them giving a normal girl face for Nya smh

[alastorswifee]

Um... Hi! I really love your writing, I think it's really amazing. I kinda have a request if you don't mind. How would Cole, Kai or Lloyd react to meeting an Oni reader? Instead of the extremely destructive being they were used to when they first met one. They are faced with basically an overly puppy, cutely distracted by everything. Thank you if you do this. Have a good day/night wherever you are

𝓛𝓵𝓸𝔂𝓭 𝓖𝓪𝓻𝓶𝓪𝓭𝓸𝓷:

Now this poor boy has seen his fair share of oni, none were good experiences whatsoever

He’s cautious once he meets you, fully on guard and ready to defend himself if you try any slick moves to attack him

Once you finally take notice to him approaching you, you’d slowly stand up and look at him with curiosity to which he wouldn’t expect

I guess he was expecting a more hostile reaction

“Who are you.”

His voice was firm, serious and almost demanding as he didn’t want to show any sign of weakness

You simply would smile politely at him and tell him your name much to his surprise

His defense falters as he raised an eyebrow at you

Was this a trick?

What were you planning?

Within a blink of an eye you were stood in front of him, inspecting his gi and overall physical appearance

He would stumble back a bit out of shock but before he can stumble too far, you’ll wrap your arm around him and carefully balance him

Clear concern on your face as you ask him if he’s alright

Blinking away the shock he gave you another questioning look

“Why aren’t you attacking me?”

The only thing running through his brain was the time Mystake told him that she was an oni but she didn’t want to cause harm and destruction like the others..could you be the same?

“Why would I?”

Your response basically answered his question but before he could respond, you spoke up once more

“You didn’t do anything to make me have an issue with you therefore I don’t have any reason to have anything against you”

You did have a point but at the same time this was all so strange to him, you didn’t give off a dangerous or uneasy vibe

Instead your vibe was welcoming, warm

He still was cautious with you as he continued to question you, following you around as you admired things such as nature and wild animals

Could this mean not every oni out there is a threat?

This is huge news

He would definitely inform the others about your existence incase of any other run ins

He definitely would want to keep a close eye on you so he simply asked you where you resided

Ever since meeting you he would check up on you from time to time to make sure you are what you say you are

“I’m not a threat I promise”

He’ll hold you to your word and he hopes you stick to it

𝓒𝓸𝓵𝓮 𝓑𝓻𝓸𝓸𝓴𝓼𝓽𝓸𝓷𝓮:

Hold the phone

What the heck is an oni doing in ninjago?

Is he seeing things right or is his hair in his eyes?

He would slowly turn his communicator on and immediately inform the others

“Uh guys, did you know there’s an oni near ninjago city?”

When everyone started panicking and saying no they didn’t know, Cole would raise an eyebrow and quickly go to investigate

Once he got close enough to you he’s gonna clear his throat and quickly put his guard up

“Alright who are you and why are you in ninjago?”

You would blink at him for a few seconds before turning to him and smiling brightly

This he didn’t expect

He listened as you politely introduce yourself and simply explain that you’re not here to cause any destruction or harm

He finds that sorta hard to believe considering the oni he’s had his run ins with

He would for sure keep his distance at first and awkwardly ask you simple questions

“So uh why aren’t you attacking me?”

“How’d you get here?”

“Why aren’t you causing destruction?”

As you politely smiled and calmly answered his questions, he becomes more baffled at how calm you are

He decided to take you back to the monastery, if anything he’ll definitely have the others judge this situation

So far you don’t seem like a threat or an issue, you seem genuinely kind and polite

He would watch as you got easily distracted by the smallest things like a bird or the shape of a cloud

How is it that an oni can be so harmless and lack the need to destroy?

Let’s hope it’s not an act

𝓚𝓪𝓲 𝓢𝓶𝓲𝓽𝓱:

Kai didn’t exactly take the smartest approach

Unlike Cole and Lloyd who cautiously approached with the intent of questioning, Kai immediately ran in ready to attack

This immediately alerted you which resulted in you standing up immediately and starting to jump away from his attacks

As the fight went on, Kai would question one thing

“Why aren’t you fighting back?! You’re an oni aren’t you?”

You would try to get him to stop so you can explain yourself but this guy was so stubborn!

Eventually you would grab hold of his hands and carefully pin him to the ground

“Let me explain please!”

Kai would scoff and roll his eyes, no way an oni would be here for a good reason

“Fine but make it quick.”

He would unfortunately listen as you explain yourself to him, his eyebrow raising at your harmless reasoning of being here

There is no way an oni can be harmless, especially after what he’s witnessed and experienced with onis

You would ask him if you let him go, he wouldn’t attack you

Eager to get out of your grasp he agrees in a bored tone

“Yeah yeah..”

As you got off him and took a few steps away from him, Kai would watch as you happily go back to picking flowers off the ground, counting the petals and smiling softly to yourself

What in the world?

This isn’t a trick right?

“What are you doing?” He questions with a raised eyebrow as he walked up behind you

“Picking these, they’re so beautiful and if I hold one up and I’m patient enough!”

He listened to you enthusiastically talk about the flowers as he watched you demonstrate that butterflies would fly onto the flowers you picked

“Ugh..” he groaned as he turned on his communicator

“Guys you might wanna see this” he announces as he laid out his location

If this is all an act, he’s gonna be the first to strike you down

That’s a promise.

Tags: @kitomon @rqsamy @strahmslayer @rosiroleplays @thatonesimpforlegiteveryman @pixanefan @lolitalatteart @crackedpumpkin @baejojoba

[rosiehunterwolf]

This request is the result of a very awake mind at 2 am. How about a part crack, part tooth-rotting fluff fic about and interview with characters of your choice.

I tried my best with this... it's difficult to do crack in such a short piece (hence this one ended up being a little longer) and although I think writing crack is really fun, I have no experience in the field XD. So... hope this is what you were looking for XD.

The Case of the Forgotten Birthday Gift

Summary: When the ninja are invited to the Ivory City of Shintaro for Princess Vania’s birthday, they find themselves in the most devastating predicament of all- they forgot to bring a birthday gift for Vania. In a panic, Cole offers her a chance to interview them as compensation. Not everyone is thrilled about the idea.

“We thank you for attending Princess Vania’s birthday,” King Vangelis said, hovering before the ninja with two winged guardsmen at his sides. “We ask that you leave any gifts on this table.” He gestured towards a table that was practically groaning under the weight of all the presents atop it.

“Um.” Cole blanched. “Gift?”

“Cole!” Jay whispered harshly in his ear. “Don’t tell me. That you didn’t bring a present for the princess. On her birthday.”

“I didn’t bring one? Last time I checked, we were all invited! Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Well, I didn’t, so you better come up with something now or they’ll never invite us back here again!”

“Uh…” Cole’s brain felt like it was whirring a mile a minute, and he reluctantly turned back to the king. “Thank you, your majesty, but our gift to the princess is not something material.”

King Vangelis raised an eyebrow. “No?”

“No, it’s a… it’s um… we’re giving you a free interview.”

“What?!” the other ninja all yelped, at the same time that Vania beamed, clapping her hands together.

“I get to interview the ninja? The ninja? Truly, this is the best birthday present ever!”

“Cole,” Kai groaned, putting his head in his hands, “what have you done?”

---

“When I told you to come up with something to give the princess, this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind,” Jay grumbled from where he was sitting stiffly in a chair next to Cole. “Did you really have to offer the girl who’s obviously a bit bonkers about us an interview?”

“I didn’t see you coming up with anything better,” Cole snapped. “Besides, she may be a bit obsessed, but she seems nice enough. Just go along with it. She’s like any other fan.”

“Any other fan, you say? I wouldn’t be so sure!”

Cole sighed, glancing back at where Lloyd was standing atop his chair, glaring down at them. “Lloyd, sit down.”

“She’s no normal fan, I’m telling you! I don’t trust her! She was too excited about this interview! She’s out to get us, she just wants to trick us into giving away information so she can exploit our weaknesses!”

Kai glanced back and forth between Lloyd and Cole. “Seriously, does no one else see what an obvious cry for therapy this is?”

“Lloyd!” Cole hissed. “For the last time! Sit. Down.”

“Don’t worry, Lloyd,” Zane said as the teen plopped down grumpily in his seat. “The odds of our team member’s princess girlfriend turning out to be the leader of a criminal gang for the second time in our lives are practically nonexistent! Under seventy percent, at least.”

“She’s not my girlfriend!” Cole snapped.

Zane blinked. “Well, then whose is she?”

“Not mine,” Jay told them, grabbing Nya���s hand. “I’m already engaged!”

Kai laughed. “No thanks, she’s not my type. Plus, I already have a girlfriend who stabbed me in the back, although luckily for me, mine came around, eventually.”

“For the last time, Vania is not going to betray us!”

“It’s not our fault we have trust issues,” Lloyd sniffed. “You’d think someone would book us therapy, but apparently that’s not a priority.”

“Well, if she herself isn’t evil, maybe she’s related to someone evil!” Kai said. “Skylor’s evil, psychotic father influenced her to turn on me. Do you think Vania has an evil, psychotic father?”

“Definitely,” Lloyd agreed, at the same time Nya said “No way.”

Nya shook her head. “Do you know how ridiculous you guys sound? How many evil, psychotic fathers can there be out there?”

“Um. There’s Chen, Milton Dyer, Skales, my father- need I go on?”

“Don’t forget Nadakhan’s evil djinn father!” Jay chimed. Lloyd blinked at him. “Who?”

“See? That’s barely any!” Nya exclaimed. “Besides, like half of those people are good now, so they don’t count.”

“But they were, which means there’s a high chance of King Vangelis being evil and psychotic-”

“Who’s evil and psychotic?” A cheery voice interrupted them as Princess Vania pushed open the doors.

“Oh, uh… just an old villain we faced,” Cole covered quickly.

“Oh, you must tell me all about them!” Vania smiled, pushing the doors closed behind her and clicking the lock.

Kai blinked. “Did you just lock us in?”

“Of course! I can’t have anyone else breaking in here and trying to eavesdrop on my very special interview!”

“Do people break into your room often?” Nya laughed.

“Not at all! Only a few times a week.”

“Um… you do realize that we’re crime-fighting ninja, right?” Jay told her. “We have lots of enemies. Maybe you should have some people guarding us while we’re here.”

“Oh, don’t worry! If anyone attacks you, Chompy will scare them off!” The ninja looked to where she was pointing to see a tiny dragon snoozing on Vania’s bed.

“Oh, how reassuring,” Kai said dryly. “The overgrown gecko can keep us safe.”

Vania raised an eyebrow. “You’re lucky he’s asleep. Mr. Chompy does not play nice when he’s angry.”

“Oh yeah, I’m so scared,” Kai grinned, leaning back.

Vania narrowed her eyes at him. “He killed a dire bat once.”

“Yeah, well, we fought off an entire flock of them from our ship.”

“First of all, it’s called a colony of bats, not a flock. Second, I know that a squadron of our guards had to go save you.”

“We didn’t need saving! They interrupted us just as I was about to use my mighty fire powers to burn them to a crisp!” “Chompy would knock them out of the sky before you could do that.”

“Yeah, well, I could squish Chompy under my foot.”

“Chompy could gouge out your eyes.”

“Oookay, as fun as this is,” Cole interrupted, pushing them apart, “Let’s just get this interview over with. Vania, what questions did you want to ask us?”

“Hold on.” Vania jogged over to the wall and pulled over a small table, setting up a camera on top of it.

Jay stared at it. “What is that.”

“I need to record this, silly!”

“What’s the point of locking us in here and not letting anyone else listen in if you’re just going to broadcast this whole thing to everyone, anyway?” Nya asked.

“Because seeing it live isn’t half as fun as watching a recording!”

“Then why record it at all?”

“How else am I going to rub it in all my friends’ faces that I met the ninja?”

“This is a non-consensual violation of my privacy,” Jay grumbled.

“Oh please, your face is over half the city,” Cole sighed.

“Welcome back to Truthful Tidbits! I’m your host, Vania, and I’m here with an exclusive episode today- with me, I have the famous ninja!” “What,” Lloyd said slowly, “are you doing?”

“It’s for my TV show,” Vania whispered.

“You have a TV show?” Nya spluttered.

“Wait, no one told me this was going to be on TV!” Kai yelped. “The camera’s not getting my good side!”

“Wait, if this is a TV show, shouldn’t we have makeup artists or something?”

“Jay’s right!” Kai agreed. “I can’t go on television without a makeover!”

“My database shows no recollection of the show ‘Truthful Tidbits.’”

“It’s not on mainstream television,” Vania grumbled. “I just show them to my videography class.”

“Oh.” Jay relaxed in his chair. “That’s it?”

“What do you mean, that’s it? People are still going to see me without makeup! Just because it’s a small group doesn’t make this any less of a disaster!”

“I’m hoping to change that,” Vania beamed. “This is the big break I need! An interview with the ninja? Everyone will want to see it!”

“Andddd we’re back to privacy invasion again,” Jay groaned.

“Wanna bounce, Jay?” Lloyd asked.

“Do I ever-”

“Count me in, guys, I’m not doing this without a proper makeup job-”

“If you guys are all leaving, I’m not going to stay!” Nya insisted. “Zane?”

“It seems futile to stay if you all are leaving.” “You can’t leave!” Vania cried. “This is my present! Besides, you’re locked in here!”

Lloyd stared her dead in the eyes. “I will literally jump out the window to get out of this.”

“Are you kidding me? You’ll die!”

“Then tell Chumpy to catch me,” he told her, already climbing into the window.

“It’s Chompy!”

“Oh no, you don’t.” Kai reached out a hand, snatching the back of Lloyd’s gi before he could jump. “I don’t want to spend the rest of our stay in a hospital. What did you think was going to happen, you were going to sprout wings?”

“I’m part dragon,” Lloyd grumbled. “It’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility.”

“I have a much less life-threatening way. Stand back.” Kai’s fist lit up in flames.

“I swear, Kai, if you burn down anything, we are never coming back here,” Cole warned.

“A little arson never hurt anyone.” Hurtling a fireball at the door, it burst into flames. Quickly, it burned a human-sized hole in the door, and Kai, Jay, and Lloyd quickly darted through.

“What about my interview?” Vania protested. “You promised!”

“Technically, Cole was the one who promised you the interview,” Zane pointed out. “He never specified which of us you would be interviewing.”

“And since Cole’s staying, we’re technically not breaking that promise!” Nya added.

Cole blinked. “I’m what?”

“Staying. Have fun, you two!” Nya waved, and the two of them shot out the door, spraying ice and water as they passed to extinguish the flames.

“Sorry about that, princess,” Cole said, scratching the back of his neck.

Vania narrowed her eyes. “This better be the best interview ever.”

Cole grinned. “Mark my words, it will be. Fire away.”

“Speaking of fire, you’re paying for my door.”

“... Yeah, I figured.”

[rinas-ninjas]

More cute toddler kai,please

I love little toddler Kai.

“How are you this messy?”

Cole stared at the toddler in front of him. Kai had somehow slung chocolate pudding everywhere – including all over himself and the onesie Misako had from when Lloyd was a baby.

Cole kept one eye on the happy kid while he rummaged for a washcloth. “Seriously little guy, it was only one,”

“Where’d my pudding cup go?”

Cole cut off with a face while Kai giggled.

Jay’s face popped up from where he was looking in the fridge. “Cole, did you take my pudding cup again?”

Cole glanced at the chocolate-covered fire master. “Technically I did not eat it.”

Jay’s eyes slid over to Kai, just in time to dodge a slung handful of pudding. “Kai!”

Kai giggled and clapped his hands. “Snack!”

“Cole.” Jay glared. “Did you give him my pudding cup?”

“Snack with Cole!”

Both boys gaped at Kai. “Come again?” Jay asked.

Kai focused on licking chocolate pudding off of his hand. “Snack with Cole.” He repeated.

Jay put his face in his hand while Cole melted. “He said my name!”

The taller ninja scooped up the toddler in his arms, heedless of the pudding covering him and the flailing limbs as said toddler protested. “Say it again! Say Cole!”

“Cole you better put him down,” Jay advised. “He looks like he’s gonna get smoky again.”

Kai squirmed and protested. “Down!” He smacked Cole’s shoulder, having zero effect on the excited ninja. “Down!”

“Come on, one more time?” Cole begged, squishing Kai in a hug. “Say Cole!”

Kai glared, and Jay reached for the sink.

“Down!” He shouted, setting his arms on fire. Cole yelped and held him at arm’s length, while Jay dowsed the toddler with a mixing bowl of water.

Kai wailed.

“Kai? What’s going on?”

Lloyd turned around the corner into the kitchen. “Whoa. C’mere little guy.” Lloyd took him away from Cole, cringing at the now soaking wet pudding and dripping hair. Kai continued crying into Lloyd’s gi while the blond raised an eyebrow at Jay and Cole.

“Why is it always you two?”

Jay pouted. “I did nothing wrong! I just wanted my pudding cup.”

Lloyd patted Kai as he started settling down. “You soaked a kid!”

“He was on fire!”

“He controls fire!”

“Not well!”

“Bad!”

Jay and Lloyd stopped short to stare at a teary Kai.

He clutched Lloyd’s gi in one hand while pointing at Jay with the other. “Bad!” He repeated.

Lloyd laughed. “I don’t think he likes you very much, Jay.”

Jay gaped at the two of them. “What? Kai’s one of my best friends!”

“See,” Cole made a hissing sound of sympathy. “That was before he got shrunk and you dumped water all over him.” He shook his head. “Now you’re just bad. Bad Jay.”

Jay looked between Cole and Lloyd. “Are you kidding me?”

“Bad Jay! Bad Jay!”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Jay stared at Kai.

“You heard him,” Lloyd laughed. “Bad Jay.”

[multiversal-madness]

Meeting the Team - The Jade Smiths Au

Summary: How Prince Kai and Hutchins met the other ninja.

Word count: 1864

~~~

Kai turned off his toothbrush and put it in the cup on the sink. This sink was a lot smaller than the sink at the palace, same the with bathroom. Actually, everything in the monastery was a lot smaller than in the palace. It didn’t matter though, he wasn’t here for a vacation, his aching body spoke for that.

He had finished the training course earlier that day, clearing it before Wu could finish his tea, it made him glad he had begged Hutchins to teach him how to fight over the years. His final test was tomorrow and despite all of the hard training over the last few days, he felt good. he was one step closer to learning spinjitzu, which meant he was one step closer to finding Nya.

Nya... Kai looked into the mirror, staring himself in the eye. He had to save her, she was all he had left of his blood family, his little sister he had to protect. If those skulkins had harmed one hair on her head...

He felt the hair on the back of his neck prickle as an odd sensation washed over him. It was one he had become used to in the palace as some of the servants or guests would stare at him as he walked by. He was being watched.

Kai turned away from the mirror, looking around the small bathroom for anything out of the ordinary. “Who’s there?” He called out to the seemingly empty room. “I know you’re there, come out and face me!”

There was an almost silent thump behind him and he whipped around to come face to face with a figure wearing an all black ninja gi with nunchucks gripped in his hands. He heard two similar thumps behind him and looked to see two other similarly dressed individuals, wielding a scythe and pair of shurikens respectively.

Kai was outnumbered and outarmed. Great. This was sure to go well.

Just as the three ninja were getting ready to attack, Kai reached for the nearest thing that even resembled a weapon. Unfortunately, this just so happened to be his electric toothbrush. He lunged forward with it and shoved it in the mouth of the ninja he dubbed ‘Shurikens’.

Shurikens faltered in surprise, vibrating for a second before spitting out the toothbrush so it hit Nunchucks in the face and bounced off into Scythe’s gi. He squirmed uncomfortably as the two others stared at him. Having their attention drawn away, Kai used the opportunity to climb up into the rafters.

Hutchins’ room was only a few doors down, he always slept with a weapon near by and was highly skilled in fighting, so if he could just reach him, then they would have a fighting chance against these ninja. He hopped from beam to beam, but it seemed that the distraction hadn’t lasted as Shurikens appeared in front of him.

He jumped at Kai, attempting to kick him off the beam. Kai dodged to the left and turned to watch as Shurikens fell down into one of the rooms below. Kai couldn’t stop the chuckle that left him, but the smile left his face as he saw Scythe and Nunchucks were gaining on him. 

Just a few more beams, he can do this. Kai hopped across as fast as he could without falling off of the rafters, quickly reaching Hutchins’ room. He opened his mouth to call out, but he was pushed over and pinned to the beam as Scythe forced the handle of his weapon down on him. Damn it, Scythe was really strong, he couldn’t do this alone.

Looking down, Kai shouted, “Hutchins! Wake up!”

Luckily for him, Hutchins was always a light sleeper. He shot up and was standing in a matter of seconds. He looked up to where Kai and Scythe were wrestling for the scythe and an array of emotions passed across his face before he settled on looking furious.

Kai tried to say something else, but the pressure pinning him down vanished and threw him off guard. Scythe grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him through the roof.

There was a loud crash as the roof broke to make way for him, Kai thought he also heard Hutchins yell out for him. The ground greeted him faster and harder than Kai would have liked it to, knocking the wind out of him and sending him rolling. That was going to leave a nasty mark.

He pushed himself to his feet just in time for the three ninja to appear in front of him, ready to attack. Just before they could do anything, Hutchins burst through the door and rushed to Kai’s side, throwing him a katana while wielding his own bo staff. 

“You are going to regret this,” Hutchins growled as he prepared to for the fight to begin.

They all stared each other down, waiting for the first strike-

“Stop!”

The five of them all turned to see Sensei Wu standing at door looking majorly displeased. The three ninja quickly dropped their offensive stances and stepped into line, bowing to Wu and simultaneously saying, “Yes Sensei.”

If Hutchins looked furious before, now he looked even more wrathful, “These are your students?!” Sensei Wu looked to Hutchins, voice sounding more regretful, “Hutchins, I apologise for their behaviour. I should have informed them before hand who our guests were.”

Hutchins didn’t seem to be the least bit sated by this response, “You do realise they could be arrested for this.”

“Whoa whoa whoa, hang on,” Nunchucks spoke up. “Yeah, we attacked you, but we thought you were trespassers. Why would we be arrested for something like-” “Enough,” Wu cut over him. Nunchucks went silent and Wu sighed. “You three, I have yet to introduce you to your new teammate. Meet Prince Kai, adoptive son of the emperor.”

The three ninja went pale under their masks. Well, the first two did, shurikens’ eyes just widened in shock.

“That is exactly why this is such a problem,” Hutchins said as he slammed the end of his staff into the ground. “You-” “Hutchins, stop,” At his words, everyone turned to look at Kai as he continued. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

“’Not that big of a deal’?” Hutchins repeated. “They attacked you-”

“Yeah, but I’m a ninja now,” Kai retorted, cutting him off again. “I’m going to get attacked a lot. If anything, this was just practise.”

Hutchins fixed him with a hard look, which Kai returned unwaveringly. After a moment or two, Hutchins sighed and relented, just looking over the three ninja who seemed to straighten up under his gaze. Hutchins stare always had that effect on trainees, guess it applied to ninja as well.

“Now that everything is resolved, the four of you step forward,” Sensei Wu gestured for Kai to join the line.

He did as he asked, not missing the way the other ninja cast quick glances at him. Wu came down the stairs to stand in front of the ninja, “Each of you have been chosen, each in tune with elemental abilities. But first!”

Sensei Wu spun into his golden spinjitzu and moved across where the ninja were standing, new coloured gi they were now dressed in seemingly appearing out of nowhere. Kai looked down at his hands and body, he was wearing all red, with a golden pin attached to the front of his shirt. 

“Whoa,” Kai looked up to see Nunchucks, now in a blue gi with a similar golden pin on the front, checking out his own gi. “Look what colour I am!”

“Wait a minute,” Scythe spoke up. “I’m still black.”

Sensei Wu seemed to ignore his question as he walked up to Kai instead, placing his staff on his shoulder, “Kai, Master of Fire. It burns bright in you.”

Moving onto Nunchucks, he repeated the action, “Blue is Jay, Master of Lightning.”

Jay seemed to smile under his gi as he chuckled, “He, that’s not all I’m master the of. I do a little inventing, dabble in model building, touch of cooking, little poetry.”

Kai raised an eyebrow as Scythe scoffed, “More like ‘mouth of lightning’.”

Sensei Wu then went to Scythe, “Black ninja is Cole, solid as rock, Master of Earth.”

Cole nodded to Wu, before turning to Kai and bowing, “I’m sorry we attacked you, Prince Kai, I should have figured out who you were before attacking.”

“Thank you for apologising, but there’s no need,” he acknowledged. “It’s already forgiven and in the past.”

Cole rose from his bow and took off his hood, “I’ve got your back. And for the record, there ain’t nothing in this world I’m afraid of.”

“Except for dragons,” Shurikens cut in.

Cole faltered, “uh, dragons aren’t from this world Zane, I said in this world.”

“And white ninja is Zane,” Sensei Wu finished. “Master of Ice, and seer with sixth sense.”

“A seer?” Hutchins pondered aloud. “I thought there weren’t any left.”

“Do you know of any others?” Kai asked.

Zane took off his hood and looked to him, “I do not know. I cannot remember much of my past.”

“Hey, it’s alright!” Jay took off his hood, giving Zane a pat on the shoulder. “We’re ninja now, we’re gonna go all over the place. Chances are we’ll find out about your past.”

Zane nodded at Jay, then they all turned to Sensei Wu as he began to speak again, “The four of you are the chosen ones who will protect the four weapons of spinjitzu from Lord Garmadon.”

Kai stepped forward, trying to keep his tone from sounding too hostile, “What about my sister?”

“Oooh, we’re saving a princess? Now this feels official,” Jay joked.

Kai frowned at him as Cole sighed in annoyance, “Really not the time for that, Jay.”

“What?” Jay protested. “It’s gonna be like all the classic stories. The heroes always go and save a princess from the big bad guy.”

Kai huffed and looked back to Wu, deciding to just ignore Jay.

“When we find the weapons, we will find the princess,” Sensei Wu answered. “It is time. We must go to the first weapon.”

“Whoa, hold on a minute,” Cole cut in. “You said you were going to teach us spinjitzu.”

“Spinjitzu is inside each and every one of you, but it will only be unlocked when the key is ready to be found.”

They sat in silence as they thought over this, at least it was silent until Sensei Wu announced, “Come! My feet are tired. We will take the horse carriage. Hutchins and Kai, will have the option to join me on the carriage or run along side it with the others.”

The three ninja groaned, but Kai spoke up, “I don’t want any special treatment, I just want to find my sister.”

Sensei Wu nodded before looking to Hutchins, “Any you?”

“I will ride with you,” Hutchins agreed. “I’m not as strong as I once was.”

With that, Wu led them back into the monastery, then to the location of the carriage. Once they saw it, they knew it was going to be a long night.

[sketch--booked]

Awesome ninjago dream time!

I had a dream like, 10 minutes ago and hell it was cool. It had Echo, Zane as a focus but included the rest of the ninja too which surprised me. Except for Jay, he just wasn’t in the dream,,, I don’t know why--

From what I remember, Kai, Cole and Zane were separated from the rest, and were in this tower lookin’ place, think Donnie’s lab from RotTMNT, but darker.

The center of the room was just brimming with blue and white electricity, and as they walk in, someone walks out from behind the column of static. It’s Echo, but he’s not copper or gold, he’s a purple-ish grey silver (the sides of his head and hair was darker than his face and his eyes were gold, straight gold, they stood out against the blues and blacks). Ngl, looked kinda like Ultron.

He comes out and I remember Kai and Cole look to Zane and Zane just looks conflicted, scared, confused, concerned. Echo says something, probably about knowing Zane or how they’re totally related, and it makes Kai and Cole real mad, and the two of them start to fight Echo. Zane is not fighting and instead stands back as he watches, what looks like, himself fighting his friends. The battle continues and Nya and Lloyd (without Jay?? Jay just wasn’t in this dream) join in just as Echo pushes some button, directing the lightning to Kai and Cole, and they disappear.

They do not die, and in fact are teleported to a jungle island(?). They get thrown out of what looks like a wormhole, and immediately assume they were banished to another realm (understandably) and Kai of all people begins having an unexpected panic attack to which Cole comforts him and they choose to wander along the edge of the beach to map out their surroundings (my dream gave me a reason for them leaving, thanks brain).

I think it would be fun to mention that this dream all happens in a stylized animated way, that’s generally how my dreams look, but with Kai and Cole’s “scenes” it looks like the minifigs, and I would love to point out that Cole has a bandanna and man bun and tore his black trousers to resemble shorts, while Kai ends up tearing his gi to look like a crop vest with no arms and has light brown trousers instead of red... It was a cool design honestly, I’m proud of my brain.

Back to Lloyd, Nya and Zane. Echo ends up beating Lloyd and Nya pretty badly and directs his attention to Zane, still having a mini freak-out, and tells him all about how Zane was the one that was loved, Zane wad the son Julien wanted, Zane got cool powers and made friends. While Echo was a copy of that, Julien didn’t want echo, he wanted his real son, Echo didn’t get powers, Echo didn’t get friends of love, he didn’t even get his brother. So now he was gong to take that all away, so Zane could know exactly what Echo felt.

It strikes then that Echo is his brother. And tries desperately to talk to Echo, while Echo is continuously attacking Zane. Eventually , Zane places himself on an Ice podium to escape Echo’s barrage of attacks and Echo takes this as an opportunity to play with Zanes head. He begins to talk about how he’s always been above the rest, pointing to Nya and Lloyd, and how he’s the one that gets the attention since he’s “oh so special”. Zane uses logic to negate everything Echo throws at him, throwing in his line “I am built to protect those who cannot protect themselves” and it is that sentence that throws Echo off the edge.

Echo is yelling, screaming at him, throwing all his emotions into one big pile and telling Zane everything he’s felt and done because he just wanted what Zane had. Echo doesn’t know that through this, he’s crying and Zane’s lowered himself from his podium to stand in front of Echo. Echo looks up to see Zane also has tears in his eyes. And in an unspoken attempt to make things up, Zane hugs Echo, tight, and hold him close, Echo is tense at first but softens into the hug. Echo’s sobs are drowned by the cracking and popping of the machine and the two just sit on the floor together in a brotherly embrace.

My dreams don’t end happy though and it all goes wrong! Sirens emitting from the computers and warnings cover the screens. Echo pulls from the hug instantly and looks around frantically, landing his eyes on Zane and Zane looks in confusion. Echo dashes off to one of the computers close to the previously mentioned button. Lloyd and Nya, with their weapons still drawn but not prepared, move up to the brothers. Lloys asks what’s wrong and Echo states that the machine technically isn’t ready and that first blast actually could've destroyed them all. Echo did not equate for the recharge, and throughout their squabble the machine was just getting more and more charged.

Echo states the best way not to die, would be to teleport them all to the same location, since there would be no time to escape the blast radius. Lloyd and Nya are adamant that they could make it and just when they are about to leave the tower (which i’m realizing at this point is probably the lighthouse prison), when Zane puts his hand on Echo’s shoulder and says “I trust him”. Promoting a disbelieving and hopeful look from Echo and a hesitant glare from Nya to Lloyd, who states “If Zane trusts him, so do I”.

Nya is still hesitant but believes the same. The four stand together as Echo slams down on the same button, sending them all to the same location through the wormhole. Just as they do this, the Lighthouse combusts in a striking explosion of blues and purples. The lighthouse is no more.

When the four get thrown out, they appear at the same beach. Nya is okay with the location because there’s water. Lloyd is asking Echo all sorts of questions. “Why are you evil? Are you still evil? What was your main goal? Where are we right now? Are you honestly Zane’s brother? Are you even listen--” He’s not listening, and instead is looking away from them, ashamed. 

Zane comes over, while Lloyd is still asking questions, to comfort him again. They have a conversation about how Echo thought this was the only way to get his attention and the only way to make him understand how he felt and Zane tells him that it’s okay to feel however he feels, what’s upsetting is the way he went about those emotions. Echo remarks that being a nindroid doesn’t help all to much and Zane laughs in understanding, saying “You will understand when you are older”. 

Nya pulls Lloyd aside to point out two pairs of footprints in the sand. Lloyd calls Zane over who confirms that that is Cole and Kai’s shoe sizes, and Echo confirms that this is the location he intended to strand Zane on, realizing how bad that sounds out loud he looks away. Lloyd recommends they follow the prints to see where the two went and see if they can catch up. 

This is where we go back to Kai and Cole, who are still traveling through the jungle, the beach cornered off into a cliff and Cole didn’t want to disturb any potential threats, so they continue inwards. (I’m writing this whole bit out exactly as I saw it, Cole getting upset)

Kai is cutting away at the leaves and sticks while ranting about how “When I get off this island, I’m gonna pin that little squirt to the ground and make him wish he was never built!”.

Cole reminds him that “If that ‘Little squirt’ really is Zane’s brother like he says, Zane probably wouldn’t be to thrilled with you smashing him into scrap.”

“Zane wouldn’t care! That twerp is clearly evil, did you see the way he zapped us?” Looking back at his friend.

Cole raises an eyebrow at him “...Evilly?”

“Exactly! Wait- yeah, evilly.” and Cole sighs “Besides, Zane knows better then to get friendly with villains, we’ve seen enough of how well that tuned out with-” He cuts himself off.

“You know Zane doesn’t like ‘that’ being mentioned, even when when he’s not here.” Cole reminds him calmly.

Kai paused “I-I know, I’m just--Mad! How can someone, supposedly your family, turn on you like that! It’s-”

“You did the same thing,” Cole interrupted. Kai stopped mid-swing and stared wide eyed at Cole, anger clearly starting to build. “What?” He prompted Cole to continue, carefully.

“You’ve fallen for the same trick as both of them, dude. Lloyd says you were persuaded by Chen’s staff just the same as Zane was by that Vex guy and the scroll,” He moved from following behind Kai to standing beside him.

“You also attacked your parents, thinking they were traitors, according to Nya. Of all of us, you should be able to see both sides clearer than the rest,” He takes one of Kai’s swords from it’s sheath on his back and begins to cut more bushes in his way.

“I guess that just makes you more blind to it then us instead.” He looks back, only to continue on his way. Kai is stood still for a few more moments, his arm frozen in the air like a game on pause. Soon though, before he loses sight of the Earth master in the brush, he jogs up to him, putting his own sword in it’s sheath allowing Cole to lead on. His words do sting and bore into his head. Recollection of both those events hurt by themselves, but with this new context, Kai couldn’t help but feel like Cole was right. Maybe he is more blind to how the “brothers” felt that he should be, or was that just him denying his own emotions?

AND THAT WAS IT--

That was my dream, and now there will be nothing done with it because LEGO are already doing a jungle adventure. My dreams are wild man, it’s like my brain is showing me a movie, it’s so cool--

I do like this concept, I love it in fact. But unless I want to change the entire vibe, I don’t think I would be able to make it a fan season. If season 14 wasn’t a jungle season-- I WOULD.

[spinbitchzu]

citrus kisses

Darling, you don’t need to say what you mean, ‘cause your kisses taste like tangerines. Aka: cole’s love language is tart and sweet and reminds Kai of things he thought he’d lost. 

hey uhhh so. I don’t write ninjago fic often but apparently when i do, it’s about the inherent romanticism of peeling an orange and also action-oriented love languages. anyway you know the drill. lavashipping, a bit over 2k words. unbeta’d bc we die like men. 

The oranges that grew in Ignacia grew in huge groves.

It’s one of Kai’s only memories with his whole family: walking between his parents in the long aisles stretching between the lines of trees, Nya’s tiny, chubby hand clasped carefully in his own as she toddled along beside him. The smell of oranges was everywhere, and that day they picked enough to last them for weeks and weeks. 

He can still recall his dad’s hands braced around his ribs as he hoisted Kai up to pick a Valencia orange bigger than his head from a high branch, eyes squinting against the bright sun on his face. He’d felt such pride that day, as he carried his treasure around for all to see.

He remembers summers of frothy fresh-squeezed orange juice in the morning, afternoons of fragrant orange cake, and evenings of carefully-partitioned segments that exploded juice on his tongue. His mom used to make ambrosia for Saturday morning breakfast, the orange slices piled high with coconut shavings and thick, fluffy whipped cream. She’d scold him when he peeled the oranges himself; his forceful little thumbs always dug too far into the flesh and sent the juice squirting everywhere. Instead, she clucked her tongue and peeled it for him with easy, deft movements while he sucked the stickiness off his fingers.

Those days—patchworks of hot nights and sunshine through the kitchen windows and the smell of citrus on his mother as she leaned in to kiss him goodnight—they’re days Kai can hardly remember the older he gets. 

After his parents disappeared, no one took Kai and Nya to the Valencia groves; no one whipped the cream for ambrosia; no one lifted him to the highest branches for the best oranges. He simply had to wait until he was tall enough to reach them himself.

He doesn’t think about those memories very often, and Nya was so young, he doubts she remembers it at all. It’s not like he ever gets a summer off to return home either, so instead he lets the memory fade until it’s almost entirely forgotten. He locks it in the part of his brain that he’s sectioned off because it’s too painful to keep clinging to when things were that good. It’s okay. 

The past tastes like oranges and coconut cream, and Kai has left it behind.

...

Kai forgets why they’re making a stop over Ignacia, but it just so happens that the nearest rural area place for them to moor is over the Valencia groves he had nearly forgotten about. 

He stands at the front of the ship, leaning over the railing with his chin propped up on his pillowed arms to study the trees extending in every direction, the dark leaves bejewelled with not-quite-ripe January oranges. The sun overhead is more of a pale, cold disk, and Nya is somewhere below-deck, but it makes him melancholy anyway.

Footsteps approach from behind him—heavy but soft: Cole. He leans over the railing beside Kai, bracing his forearms against the wood as he surveys the landscape. “Hey. Whatcha doin’ out here, stranger?”

“Just lookin’,” he murmurs back. He hums to himself. “Did you know I used to come to this grove with my family as a kid?”

“I didn’t even know you liked oranges,” Cole replies, giving him a sideways glance. He smiles when Kai glances back, dark eyes crinkling. “Do you want to go down now? I’m sure we could grab a few and no one would miss ‘em.”

“Nah, that’s alright,” Kai says with half a grin. “They’re not ripe. And I don’t like oranges that much anyway. Too hard to peel. They just made me think about—things I hadn’t let myself think about for a while.”

“What kind of things?” Cole asks, nudging him with an elbow.

The touch grounds him and he’s grateful for it. He shrugs in a way that’s neither here nor there. “Just things. Home, I guess. My life? Before all the...ninja stuff.”

“Is that a good thing?” Cole tilts his head. In this light, his eyes turn from obsidian to sunlight through whiskey as he waits for an answer.

Kai makes a contemplative noise. “I don’t know. Hurts less than I expected, after everything. It’s bittersweet.” He sighs then, shoulders falling with the motion. “It really is making me miss oranges, though. I don’t know why I lied before—I really do like them.”

He looks back at the groves below and misses the look Cole gives him—measured and curious.

“What about you, do you like oranges?”

“Some. The sweet ones.”

“You’d like these ones, then,” Kai tells him, cheeks rising as he smiles. “The oranges from Ignacia are the biggest, sweetest ones around. They’re good just by themselves, but my mom made a mean ambrosia with them.”

“I bet Zane could replicate the recipe if you told him what it was,” Cole replies.

Kai just shrugs. “Maybe so. He’s sharp like that.”

They fall silent. Kai can physically feel Cole worrying about him and his rare bout of melancholy, so he squares his shoulders and musters up a grin. “Hey, Cole, you—,”

“You don’t have to,” is what Cole interrupts him with, paired with a weighted look that settles around him like a blanket. “I don’t mind the quiet. You’re allowed to, Kai.”

All the feigned bravado drains out of him. Kai stares at him for a second and wonders when Cole got so good at gauging his moods. There’s so many words unspoken inbetween what he says and that earnest, draping look in his eyes and Kai kind of aches with it.

“Okay,” he says instead, shoulders slowly falling. His chin dips to rest on his crossed forearms again and he leans into it when Cole slips as arm around him. “Okay.”

The nippy January wind dances around them, stirring their hair and whipping at their gis, but Kai tips his head against Cole’s shoulder and feels warm down to his toes.

...

“Holy crap, what the hell did you do?” Kai can’t help asking a week later, as Lloyd and Zane walk into the kitchen carrying groceries.

“There was a sale on tangerines at the grocery store,” Zane answers primly, setting his paper bag on the counter. “I thought it prudent to take advantage of it.”

“We have like a hundred pounds of these things,” Lloyd adds, setting his own bag down. “We’re going to be eating tangerines until we get old and grey.”

“Zane, man, you know I love a sale as much as the next guy, but this is a little overboard,” Cole says as he comes in, two more bags of tangerines hoisted on his shoulders. Kai does not stare, thank you very much, as much as he’s been finding it kind of hard to avoid when it comes to Cole and lifting things recently.

“Proper intake of vitamin C is important in preventing scurvy,” Zane replies, though he’s blinking the way he does when he’s getting embarrassed. “It’s a common illness in sailors.”

“Does that still apply  if the ship can fly?” Lloyd wonders.

“Or if we’re in the twenty-first century?” Kai adds wryly, eyebrows high.

“I’m sure we’ll find some way to finish them all,” Cole pipes up. “Don’t worry about it, Zane.”

“I was not.” Zane turns away to put away the rest of the groceries while Kai and Cole exchange an amused look. As he bustles back and forth, Kai grabs a tangerine from the bag behind him and turns it over in his hands, studying the way the light catches on the dimpled rind.

“Hey,” Kai says quietly, leaning across the kitchen counter. “Did you do this?”

Cole just shrugs with a crooked grin. “I didn’t do anything. You know Zane and sales. Can’t resist ‘em.”

“You did,” Kai deduces, eyeing his teammate’s reddening ears. He feels his expression soften. “You didn’t have to.”

“Maybe I wanted to,” Cole says in response. He reaches over Kai, coming very, very close, until their noses are close enough to brush. His eyes are very dark and very close and Kai would very much like to kiss him right now.

“Um, uh,” Kai says, very eloquently.

“Not in the kitchen, please,” Zane calls from the pantry, because he hasn’t a romantic bone in his body (or any bones, to be fair to him).

Cole just grins and pulls back, displaying the tangerine he’d grabbed from behind Kai with a flourish. “I’m heading to the training deck. See you around, Hot Stuff.”

“R-right,” he mumbles (like an idiot), fighting the heat settled in his cheeks. He watches Cole go and feels distinctly like an opportunity has sailed over his head.

...

Cole smells like oranges these days.

Kai only notices because that isn’t his normal smell, which is much more organic soaps and something earthy and fresh. It’s a smell that clings to the hoodies Kai keeps pilfering from his closet—comforting in its familiarity. 

The abrupt invasion of tangy citrus makes him do a double take the first time he smells it. And then he reaches into the pocket of the hoodie and finds a tangerine. It’s store bought, with a little sticker on the side, and it’s not exactly a strange sight for any reason, but it sort of confounds him.

“Hey,” he says, walking into the kitchen, the object of confusion held gingerly in his hand. “Is this a tangerine?”

Cole looks up from where he’s making a sandwich and raises an eyebrow. “Is that my hoodie?”

“I asked first,” Kai replies quickly, before he has time to pink up.

“I mean, yeah, five points for powers of deduction,” Cole says cheekily. “Congratulations, it’s a tangerine. We gotta finish them somehow, don’t we?”

“I—yeah,” Kai says absently. Cole holds out a hand for it and he tosses it over wordlessly, before he even thinks too much about it.

“You said they’re hard to peel, right?” Cole asks, digging his nails into the rind. He peels it in the shape of a flower and then splits the orange in half with his thumbs to hold out to Kai. “Here.”

Kai looks down at the segment being offered to him in an open palm and then back at Cole with his earnest, crinkly-eyed smile, and feels something stutter fatally in his chest.

“Thanks,” he manages to say, as his heart cracks open to let sunshine stream all in, filling his ribcage with warmth.

He bites into the fruit and feels his mouth fill with juice and thinks about how his mother used to peel oranges when he was too clumsy to and then about how Cole leaves tangerines in the pockets of the hoodies he knows Kai will steal and peels them for him in the shape of a flower, even though it turns his nails all yellow. He thinks of it so hard he forgets to make a face that doesn’t show about seven years of adoration on it and when he looks back at Cole, he’s already looking back with realization blazing across his expression.

“Kai?” he asks, voice wavering as his throat bobs with his nervous gulp.

“Yeah,” he agrees, and then grabs Cole by the collar of his shirt and kisses him, soft and open-mouthed, across the kitchen island. He’s so filled up with sweet oranges and sunlight and the heat of Cole’s skin that he forgets to even be afraid of this, as much as it’s frightened him in his fantasies. He stops being afraid of it altogether when Cole sighs into his mouth and cards a hand through his hair.

When they finally draw back, Cole’s pupils are blown huge and dark and he’s looking distinctly Kissed with a capital K. Kai would very much like to continue that endeavor.

“You taste like oranges,” Cole chuckles as he tugs Kai around the island to pull him closer.

You taste like home, he wants to say, but then Cole leans over him to cup his jaw and kiss him breathless, and Kai decides to let it go unspoken. There are more important things to attend to.

…

In the early summer, Cole and Kai negotiate with the others for a three-day vacation in early June. They drive in a rented car to the Valencia grove outside Ignacia and pick enough oranges to last the ship for weeks. Cole boosts him on his shoulders to help him reach the huge oranges at the tree tops and they laugh the whole time, chasing each other through the orchard and trading citrus kisses. Kai wonders if it’s possible to burst with happiness.

“I’m sick of eating oranges,” Lloyd complains when they come home bearing the (literal) fruits of their labor, newly sun-tanned and smiling.  

“Really?” Kai tilts his head, considering. “Seems to me like I can never get enough of ‘em.”

“Was that some sort of romantic metaphor?” Lloyd asks with a wrinkled nose. “Gross.”

Cole laughs from where he’s watching and sidles up from behind to rest his big hands on Kai’s hips. 

“Yeah,” Kai says affectionately. “Gross.”

“Not in the kitchen,” Zane calls from the next room, but Kai just leans back against Cole and closes his eyes to drink in the moment.

It’s worth it, he decides. All the fighting. All the losing. All the danger. It’s worth it to eat oranges in the kitchen with people he loves.

“What are you thinking about?” Cole teases, his voice rumbling low in his chest against Kai’s back.

“Nothing,” he says with a smile, opening his eyes. “I just love oranges.”

[lloydskywalkers]

afsdgfdhgj!! thank you sm, i’m so happy to hear that :’D that is...something i do very much need to work on actually, i’ve been trying to kick the talking-self-down habit for a while now, it’s just!! it’s tough, guys.

on a lighter note, i know exactly what trope you’re talking about and i’m an unapologetic sucker for it afdsgfdh. unfortunately this probably isn’t exactly what you’re looking for, but i got bit by the idea and it wouldn’t let me go, so here’s a somewhat-short (somewhat) fic about it!

Sometimes, the ninja forget they’re technically, kind-of-sort-of, famous. Like, not all the time, because some people are creepy and won’t leave them well enough alone, and some people are just…really enthusiastic…but for the most part, it is easy to forget sometimes, because out of gi they look pretty normal.

(Until Lloyd’s eyes start shuffling through colors like a sporadic traffic light, of course, but that doesn’t happen as much now.)

The point is, sometimes it’s easy to forget that they’re famous.

Sometimes, though — when movie posters the size of the Bounty are plastered all over the city because some wise guy thought making a film about them would be a great idea — it’s harder to forget.

“This feels like an invasion of privacy,” Cole mutters, crossing his arms as he sinks deeper into the theater seat.

“Oh, yeah,” Nya says. “Because trading cards and entire news documentaries with our full names and intimate dating life details were one thing, but a loosely-based movie is where we draw the line.”

“Intimate dating life my foot,” Lloyd scowls, clearly far from getting over that one article that managed to snag a picture of him and Harumi before…everything.

“Well — yeah, fair, but like—” Cole sputters. “They hired actors to play us. They’re gonna be recreating our lives and it’s — it’s weird, okay?”

“I dunno, I think it’s pretty cool,” Kai says, already on his third mouthful of popcorn, and the trailers have’t even started yet. “I mean, it can’t be worse than that play they put on, right?”

“Don’t jinx it,” Zane mutters darkly, his eyes flashing at the reminder.

“I’m with Kai,” Jay says, bouncing in his seat as he reaches for the popcorn. “I think it’s cool that people care enough about us to make a movie, you know? Like, did you see the budget for this thing?”

“Was it as high as the repair cost for the tower we blew up last week?” Lloyd says.

“Uh…maybe. I didn’t compare, exactly. But look, you can’t put a price on lives. A little collateral damage is worth it.”

“A little?” Zane says, his eyebrows shooting up.

“Eh, we helped clean it up,” Nya shrugs. “That counts.”

Jay points at her. “Thank you.”

“Still say it wasn’t my fault,” Kai grumbles, crossing his arms. Lloyd pokes him in the ribs, and Kai yelps, flinching away from him. “Not cool, not cool!”

“We’re definitely not going to make it through this movie without getting thrown out,” Cole groans into his hands. They’re already getting looks from the movie-goers around them, and their patience doesn’t look like it’s going to last very long.

“C’mon, have a little optimism,” Jay placates. “This is gonna be fun— hey, that’s my popcorn!”

“No way, lightning brain, I bought it, I hold it.”

“But you bought it with Nya’s money.”

“Which she stole from Lloyd’s sock drawer this morning, so that doesn’t count.”

“Wait, you stole my sock money?”

“Um…call it payback for stealing the last of the cookies last week.”

“How is that a fair trade, I only took one!”

“Yeah, one dozen—”

“Guys, please—”

“You’re one to talk, you stole all the—”

“Would you all shut up, it’s starting, and — I said shut up!”

******************

It takes a few threats of murder, and one or two threats of open power-use to the face, but they quiet down in time for the opening credits.

The movie begins peacefully enough, with an older man telling some ‘punk little kid’ as Kai describes him, a whole lot of ‘stereotypical sensei mumbo jumbo’ as Lloyd describes it, about himself. Which, to be fair, is pretty accurate to their lives, so they’re able to quietly munch on popcorn for the first few minutes, at least.

But then the plot starts.

“What do they mean, ‘uh oh’, to Lloyd Garmadon?” Kai frowns. “The city loves you.”

Lloyd shrugs, tossing a mouthful of popcorn back. “I dunno,” he says. “I mean, it is tough to be that kid.”

“Yeah, ‘cause he’s the worst shortie ever, like four feet tall,” Nya whispers to him. Lloyd elbows her in the side. Zane shushes them, just in time for the actual movie Lloyd to show up on the screen, in bed and receiving a call from—

Lloyd doubles over, choking on his popcorn.

“Luh-Lloyd?” Kai says, in delight. “Luh-Lloyd?!”

“Pajamas,” Lloyd wheezes, as Nya thumps his back. “Look at his pajamas, I gotta buy my dad those—”

The others are left to giggle their way through the interpretation of one of their greatest enemies snacking on cereal in printed pajamas, telling Lloyd he ‘must’ve butt-dialed him’. It’s hysterical until Garmadon forgets Lloyd’s birthday, and the Lloyd onscreen gets the signature Sad Puppy Eyes Lloyd Look on his face — which, props to the actor, he nailed it — and everyone looks to Lloyd in sympathy.

“That’s rough, buddy,” Jay pats his shoulder. Lloyd rolls his eyes.

“It’s not me,” he says, shrugging again. Really, his dad forgetting his birthday is like, incredibly tame, compared to hurling him through a prison wall or six.

Now, forgetting he existed, that stings. But also, like, this isn’t his dad, so. Eh. He doesn’t really care.

“Is that supposed to be Misako?”

Never mind. He cares now.

“Are you—” Kai plasters a hand over his mouth, muffling this next part. “—kidding me?!”

“Oh, she’s, uh…really present, huh,” Cole winces, as ‘Koko’ encourages her son about being himself, and other really nice stuff Lloyd would have super appreciated hearing when he was younger.

He opens his mouth again, and Nya takes the opportunity to stuff more popcorn in it. Lloyd chomps down angrily, glaring at the screen and grumbling under his breath.

“At least you’ve shown up at all,” Jay comforts him. Lloyd is very much not comforted. He just wants to get through the rest of the movie in peace, and shift the focus off of him as quick as possible.

Oh boy, is he disappointed.

Like, he gets a few minutes of relief as the others are introduced, but that’s all, really. Even if it is hilarious.

“Hello, fellow teen.”

Cole makes a sound like a dying balloon, and Jay almost coughs popcorn out of his nose. Zane just presses his lips into a flat line, his expression unreadable. “I do not…know how to feel about this.”

Jay and Kai are doubled-over on each other by now, choking on laughter. Cole, bless him, is doing his absolute best not to burst into giggles, while Nya and Lloyd have given up and are full-out cackling.

“Well,” Zane says, eyeing them with a gleam in his eye. “Perhaps I should start updating my database with ‘teen lingo’ then—”

“No!” they all chorus in unison, waving frantically at Zane, earning several dirty looks from the people around them as they do.

“You’re perfect the way you are, buddy,” Jay says hastily.

Kai, at least, seems pretty steadily in character—

“Aw, look, I almost snapped your spine.”

“That’s a Kai hug, for sure.”

—and Nya’s thrilled about having a motorcycle. Jay’s a tad indignant at his character’s stuttering, but Cole reminds him he has zero room to talk, so Jay shuts up in time for Cole to shrug at his own portrayal.

“I like that shirt,” he remarks. “And those headphones are cool.”

Then the reality of the scene they’re watching sinks in.

“Wait, why are we in school?” Zane blinks, confused.

“Why are they being so mean to you?” Cole exclaims at Lloyd, taken aback.

Lloyd makes a face at the cheerleaders on screen, jerking his shoulder up as if to say ‘like I know’. Which is kind of a lie, because he does know, the movie told them, but he’s not gonna get into that. Kai is already fuming in his seat beside him, growing steadily angrier by the second. “Who do they think they are,” he hisses. “I’ll show them a number one hit.”

Lloyd rips his eyes from the screen, watching Kai in mild alarm. “Kai, you know that’s not actually me, right?”

“—tear those kids a new one—”

Lloyd cringes at the looks they’re getting from the people around them, patting Kai’s arm. “Chill out, Kai, seriously. This is like, basic Darkley’s stuff, don’t worry. And I walked away from that fine.”

Wrong thing to say. Kai swivels on him, his eyes flashing. “Wait. This happened to you at Darkley’s? For real?”

“Um…” Lloyd sweats briefly, the sounds of Boo Lloyd! coming from the screen really not helping at all. “I mean, I was a brat. I brought a lot of it on myself.”

Kai looks like he’s going to combust. “I swear—”

“Kai,” Lloyd interrupts, trying to quell the storm. “It’s fine. Seriously. I mean, there was this one time that four guys way bigger than me ganged up and hung me from a roof by my hoodie all night, but it wasn’t that bad. I’m fine.”

Kai’s face turns thunderous, matching the roar of Garmadon finally coming into view onscreen. “Wasn’t that bad?” he says, incredulous, gaining them several shh’s, mainly from Nya. Kai ignores them. “Point me to those punks, Lloyd, I’ll strangle ‘em—”

“Kai.”

“Wha — oh. Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“That — that was different.”

“Uh-huh.”

“…you — you weren’t there all night.”

“I sure was.”

“Oh.”

“Mm-hm.”

“Um. Sor…rry?”

Fortunately, both are saved by Garmadon smashing his way on screen in a giant shark mech with a full-scale crustacean-themed army, to which the ninja kind of just…stare. That’s — that’s the best they can do with that one. That, and be thankful Garmadon himself isn’t here to see this.

“I mean, to be fair, I can see him appreciating a song entirely about himself,” Kai mutters, as the chorus continues to yell about Garmadon!. “And — wait, Lloyd, are you filming this?”

“Uh, yeah?” Lloyd says, re-adjusting the zoom feature on his phone. “Now hush, I wanna save this and make it my ringtone.”

******************

The mechs are, admittedly, cool. Their total lack of ability to do Spinjitzu, way less so.

“That’s so not how Spinjitzu works,” Nya scoffs, as Sensei Wu finally makes an appearance, just in time for Lloyd to request wind as an element, which brings on another bout of choking.

“Oh, for crying out loud,” Lloyd sighs. He then blinks rapidly. “Wait, where are our powers?”

“Nonexistent, apparently,” Zane murmurs. “Along with our common sense.”

“To be fair, that’s never been a reliable thing in the first place,” Jay points out.

The lack of common sense continues to be a trend throughout the movie, and by the time the ‘Ultimate Weapon’ comes up, things start to go downhill rather fast.

“Which, to continue to be fair, is also pretty in-character. This whole fight kinda is.”

The other ninja grumble in agreement as Lloyd runs off to confront his father alone despite all warning, and Lloyd begins to sink lower into his seat. He has a bad feeling he knows exactly where this is going, and sadly, he isn’t disappointed.

Well, for the most part.

“A cat?” Lloyd yelps, his eyes bugging out. “A giant cat?! How is that fair? All I ever get to fight is creepy part-reptile people who want to suck the power out of me, where do I sign up for this?”

“This is surreal,” Zane remarks, as Meowthra tears her merry way across the screen. The whole scene is a disaster, slo-mo destruction and everything, but it’s pretty much the standard fare they’re used to, so they really don’t bat much of an eye as the cat totally wrecks them.

“Nice to know we can’t catch a break in any universe,” Jay sighs sadly, as his mech is torn apart on screen.

“This movie is really beating the ‘don’t-challenge-dad-solo’ message over the head, huh,” Lloyd mutters, chin in his hand, having recovered from his brief bout of extreme-cat-heart-eyes.

Kai gives him a stink-eye. “Yeah, I wonder why.”

Understandably, the Lloyd onscreen is considerably upset at the apparent destruction of all his friends. The ninja are all incredibly curious as to where the movie is going to go next, though, since this Garmadon celebrates his victory by throwing a pretty sick party instead of building a skyscraper-sized stone Colossi of destruction and wrecking half the city.

“Kind of unfair,” Jay scowls, as the henchman do the conga onscreen. Nya’s got a smart comment to make back, but then the Lloyd onscreen reveals himself —

“In typical dramatic-Lloyd fashion, they got that right.”

“Oh, shut up.”

— and then proceeds to snap at the Garmadon onscreen, “I wish you weren’t my father.”

The theater goes remarkably quiet, as do the ninja. Cautiously, they turn to look at Lloyd, who is staring at the screen with a look on his face similar to if you’d shaken up a soda bottle really hard and were about to take the top off. Then—

“Oh, heck yeah, how’s that for karma, you over-powered conceited jerk of a dad,” Lloyd hisses viciously at the screen, punching his fist in the air. “He’s got the right idea, it’s my turn to start disowning family members. Screw ‘you’re not my son’, I’m gonna pull this one out next time and disown him—!”

“Lloyd,” Nya says, a bit nervously. “You know he’s, uh, he’s crying on screen now, right?”

“Yeah,” Lloyd spits.

“You, uh. You know you are too, right?”

“N-no.”

“Therapy,” Cole whispers to Zane. “So much therapy.”

“I’ve already booked us,” Zane murmurs back, sliding his phone back in his pocket. “If the office can simply manage not get blown for one more week this time, we might actually make it."

******************

While they do, however, manage to stay quiet for most of that scene — and isn’t Cole wildly impressed with them for that — the next scene kind of shoots that victory right into tiny little pieces.

“Why are we being so mean to you now?” Cole exclaims, flabbergasted, as the poor Lloyd onscreen looks seconds from tears, the rest of the team staring down at him with firm glares.

“Shh, this is getting dramatic,” Lloyd hushes him.

Nya gets a look on her face that promises murder, and Kai refuses point-blank to be shushed.

“What a bunch of jerks. We’d never do something like that, I’m going to have words with some people—”

“Jamanakai,” Lloyd just says, wearily. “Rooftop. All night.”

Kai deflates, sinking into his seat. “S’not the same,” he mutters, fiercely. “We never said all those mean things to you.”

Lloyd gently pats his arm. “There, there,” he says. “I know you didn’t mean it.”

“I never said it! It’s — it’s that imposter on screen, that’s who!”

“Kai, I know—”

Lloyd is interrupted by an unfortunately-timed declaration from the onscreen Jay.

“Now, we hate you.”

Lloyd blinks, almost surprised at the slight flare of hurt that sparks in his chest at that. Which is stupid, because these directors don’t know them, and that’s not really Jay, but hey, why not play into his worst fears, movie—

Then “Jay!” is hissed in scandalized unison, and Lloyd stuffs said worst fears back into box and tries not to snicker at the look on his brother’s face.

“It’s not me!” Jay defends desperately, waving his hands wildly. “That’s not me!”

“Deleting all data related to treating Lloyd as a friend.”

Jay is saved as everyone turns on Zane, who just buries his face in his hands. “Let it end,” he moans.

******************

Apart from being shocked that Sensei Wu is actually going with his ninja on their quest for the Ultimately Ultimate Weapon—

“It’s ultimate ultimate, did you miss that trip-inducing scene they explained it with?”

—they aren’t as surprised by things anymore after that, having caught on to the movie’s flow. It’s a little more slapstick than they’re used to, all bright colors and quick action, but it’s enjoyable to watch Garmadon and Sensei Wu snipe at each other, at least.

“Ten bucks says he survives just fine,” Cole says blandly, as Sensei Wu goes plummeting toward the river.

Not one of them take him up on that wager.

“Geez, they’re really roasting us for being morons in this, huh,” Jay observes, as their onscreen counterparts take the clearly-a-trap route, as per Garmadon’s advice.

Lloyd, who is still stewing about having his voice made fun of, bites out, “I think it’s pretty valid, for some of us.”

“Oh, suck it up already, Lloyd. Your voice changed anyways, get over it.”

“Are you saying I sounded ridiculous before?”

“Uh, no-o…?”

“Oh, there we go, getting humiliated again,” Nya sighs, as the ninja are cornered by Garmadon’s ex-generals. “I wonder why they didn’t give us our powers. You’d think they’d have capitalized on that, it’d look pretty cool.”

“Who knows. I’m still trying to figure out if my character’s love for music is a clever reference to me and my dad’s singing background, or just a shallow attempt to give me character at all,” Cole muses. They turn back to the movie just in time to wince in unison as the ninja onscreen flee, leaving Lloyd and Garmadon to be captured.

Kai is less than pleased with this development.

“Oh, so we’re just leaving Lloyd behind now? Who wrote this movie, I wanna talk.”

******************

By the time Garmadon’s teaching Lloyd how to throw bricks from a roof to some sappy soundtrack, then relocating his dislocated shoulder in a wild tone change, they’re mostly lost for words.

Also kind of enjoying the movie, though no one will admit it. The expressions are funny, and there are some lines that hit home. Sure, Lloyd spends a good ten minutes alternating between sputtering and gaping when Garmadon describes their family history, and only proceeds to get worse when everyone else receives powers and he gets a cute little tree branch, but it is fun to watch their onscreen counterparts run around to “I’ve Got the Power” playing cheerfully in the background. Plus, no one tries to ostracize Lloyd again, and it’s oddly satisfying to watch Garmadon get eaten by a giant cat, so by the time Lloyd’s trying to hide suspicious sniffling into the empty popcorn tub while his onscreen counterpart is giving Garmadon his big sappy speech about forgiveness, they might actually give the movie a decent rating.

Cole’s just happy they haven’t been thrown out yet, because they’ve really been pushing it this whole time. But finally, it seems like everyone’s settled down and is keeping perfectly quiet—

“What do you mean, he gets to keep the cat?”

Cole’s hopes and dreams go up in sad, despairing smoke.

“Wait, that’s what’s bothering you?” Nya blinks. “Not the whole, ‘this Lloyd gets his entire family back happy’ part, but the cat part?”

“Well yeah, I’m upset about the cat part!” Lloyd exclaims indignantly. “He gets a giant cat! The size of a skyscraper! What kind of raw deal did my grandfather cut me here, I didn’t even get to keep my dragon! This is so dumb, and — and oh look, now my dad’s all happy and stuff—”

Nya and Zane glance around in alarm. The movie-goers around them seem to be losing the last, lingering shreds of their patience, and Cole wisely decides that this might be a nice time to make an exit. The movie looks like it’s about over, anyways, and—

“—and what, they just have happy family dinners together now?!”

Yeah, they’re leaving.

******************

“Well, that was…enlightening,” Zane says blankly, as they exit the theater. He still looks tragically annoyed at the way the producers decided to portray him, but he’s mostly recovered by now. Probably because he torched his little movie poster on the way out, but who are they to judge.

“I think you mean infuriating,” Kai mutters, glaring at the theater as they leave it behind.

“I don’t know, it wasn’t so bad,” Nya says. “Like, they obviously decided to go for Lloyd’s very sensitive personal life as a focus point, so at least the rest of us got off alright.”

“Giant cat,” Lloyd mourns, clearly still more hung-up on that than Ninjago’s apparent obsession with his family drama.

“I just wanna try that lightning thing later,” Jay says. “Know any doors I can practice busting open dramatically?”

“Yeah, the door to the producer’s office,” Kai grumbles.

“Enough, guys,” Cole sighs. “It was a lot better than it could’ve been. Let’s just be happy the city still likes us enough to make us the heroes.”

They all nod at that, placated for now, at least. They fall into silence, carefully navigating their way home, until Jay breaks the quiet.  

“Your heroes on the wa-a-ay,” Jay murmurs. He’s met with five looks of equal disappointment. “What?” he shrugs. “It’s catchy.”

Cole rolls his eyes, and Kai scoffs. They fall back into silence for a beat, their footsteps the only sound on the street, then—

“Something-something save the da-a-ay,” Lloyd hums.

Jay beams, and Kai moans. Nya just grins. “Gonna something-something pla-a-ace—”

“That takes us higher!”

They dissolve into snickers, their mix of off-key singing echoing across the Ninjago City streets. Cole spares a sigh of despair at their attempt, but he can’t help grinning too. It is a catchy song, and, to be fair, for trying to capture their general team spirit, it comes pretty close.

A lot closer than half that movie did, he frowns. Though he does still want that shirt his counterpart wore.

“Hey,” Jay speaks up. “Let’s learn that Garmadon song next. We can sing it to him in battle.”

“Oh, now you’re talking.”

[fanfalc-616]

(Master of Emotion) Can you write a little Angst about a fight between ninjas (including Nya) inadvertently their words hurt Kai which led to him stealthily fled from the Monastery ( he wears Vengestone bracelets to prevent them from finding him)

Oof writing this took forever but it’s finally done here you go.

Kai clenches his fists, his gi a bright orange as he glowers at Nya. “Don’t.” He gets out, gritting his teeth.

He’s sitting down on his bed as his sister tries to patch up his injuries from their most recent battle- a relatively low scale fight with a group of thugs.

“You need to take better care of yourself.” Nya insists. “You keep getting hurt because you throw yourself into dangerous situations with no regard for your personal safety!”

“It’s fine.” Kai clenches his jaw. “I’m fine. You don’t need to worry so much, it’s not a big deal.”

“You almost broke your arm-“

“I’ve been through worse.” Kai defends himself, watching as Nya finally sits back from wrapping his injuries.

“Kai-“

He gets up from the bed and walks out. No. No, they’re not doing this. Everyone on this team has put themselves in harm's way to save the others, so why does everyone get so upset when he does it?

It’s not just Nya, and this isn’t the first time. Every time he gets injured, people go into panic mode and start treating him like he’s made of glass.

And he’s not! He’s just as good as the rest of them! So why do they always act like this?!

With a huff, Kai flops onto the couch in the living room, ignoring the complaints his body gives him from the pain of the earlier fight.

A few minutes pass, and as he’s starting up a video game, Cole comes into the room. He’s wearing a fake smile that would be convincing if Kai wasn’t able to read his emotions. The noirette is clearly concerned and stressed, in the same way they all get when he’s hurt.

“Hey-“

“I’m fine, say whatever questions you have about how I’m doing so I can answer and you can get out.” Kai glares. He doesn’t need to be doted on.

Cole’s smile drops, replaced by a more genuine expression of concern. “We, uh… we need to talk. Everyone’s in the dining room, we’re just waiting for you.”

Kai watches his clothes shift from orange to brown, the pure color rained by the purple anxiousness. “I- okay.” He agrees warily.

So he follows his teammate into the dining room, feeling his clothes shift more and more to purple as they walk. By the time they get there, the orange is completely gone.

The entire team is there, and Kai shifts uncomfortably as a tense silence overtakes them.

“So… is this some kind of intervention? Because I’m pretty sure that I’m not doing anything that needs intervening with-“

“We need you to stop throwing yourself into danger.” Jay blurts out. “It’s-“

“Cole got himself turned into a ghost and we didn’t have a talk like this.” Kai points out, annoyed.

They all collectively ignore the sputtering noise that Cole makes in order to continue on with the conversation.

Lloyd sighs. “Yeah, we didn’t. But that’s because he’s not you. I can’t- we can’t- let you keep doing this.”

Kai feels an eyebrow shoot up, his clothes starting to shift orange again. “And what is that supposed to mean?” He demands. Do they think he’s weak? That he’s not strong enough to handle it like they can?

There’s a pause before Nya speaks. “It’s… complicated.”

“Okay, then I’m going to need you guys to uncomplicate it.” Kai crosses his arms, glaring at his teammates.

Lloyd starts to try to say something, but Zane speaks first. “We cannot allow you to continue to get hurt in this way. It is dangerous for everyone involved.”

“For… everyone? What do you mean?” A mixture of curiosity, anger, and anxiousness overtakes him.

Lloyd gives Zane a warning look and mouths something that Kai can’t quite make out.

Cole speaks up next. “It’s just that- well. Uh…” He trails off, clearly not sure what to say next.

“One of you needs to explain what’s going on!” Kai grits his teeth.

Zane sighs. “Very well. We are concerned about your emotions getting out of hand and potentially causing damage to both us and civilians.”

Kai stares at him for a few moments. “Zane, you’re- you’re joking, right? You don’t actually think-“

“My humor switch is not activated right now. We are genuinely concerned about this matter.”

Kai looks around at his teammates, at his friends. “I- I have a good grasp on my powers!” He tries to defend himself. “I’m not going to hurt anyone!”

“You always have a harder time controlling them when you’re in pain.” Lloyd points out. “It’s too risky for you to keep getting hurt like this.”

Nya nods her agreement. “You’re a good ninja, Kai. But we’re just trying to be careful-“

“If you guys really thought I was a good ninja, you would trust me to have my powers under control!” Kai snaps, feeling himself start to tremble with a mixture of heavy emotions, his clothes rapidly swirling from color to color as they start turning into a muddled brown.

“We do think you’re a good ninja!” Jay insists a little too quickly. “It’s just that we want you to be a little more careful. We-“

“No, what you want is for me to step back! You guys think that I can’t control myself!” Kai yells, clothes shifting more towards orange.

A sudden heavy feeling hits him as he realizes that he’s just proving them right. He’s injured, they try to talk to him, and he freaks out.

“Fine.” Kai snarls. “I know where I’m not wanted.”

Without waiting for a response, he runs out of the room, racing into his own to pack some supplies.

After a few moments, he realizes that he’s not going to have time to take anything with him- they’re going to try to stop him because they think he’s too dangerous.

Is that why they keep him on the team? They've made it clear that it’s sure not because of his skill as a ninja. No, they let him hang around because they think he’s too dangerous to be left unsupervised.

So he runs back out, pausing just long enough to grab his wallet and a vengestone bracelet that they used to use when Lloyd was the Golden Ninja and was worried about his powers getting out of hand.

He can hear clamour from all over the Bounty, but he doesn’t wait around. Thankfully the ship is currently landed, so he doesn’t have to try and land it.

Clasping the vengestone bracelet around his wrist, he runs out into the night, heading towards a nearby forest. He’s not entirely sure what forest it is, but at the moment he doesn’t care. He just needs to get away from his so-called friends.

————————————

It’s been several hours since he ran away from the ship, and he’s currently hiding deep in the woods, hoping that no one will find him.

He’s run out of tears at this point, and is now just laying on the ground, staring up at the starry night sky that’s partially hidden by leaves and branches.

His teammates’ words echo around in his head on repeat. They don’t trust him. They think he’s too weak to have a handle on his powers. They’re not even really his friends, they’ve just been babysitting him because they think he’s dangerous.

How long had it taken them to convince Nya of those things? Did it take them a while, or did she always think so little of him?

A deep sigh escapes him as he silently wishes that things were different, wishes that he didn’t have these stupid powers and could just be normal. Why can’t he be normal?

The thoughts and feelings hound him for the rest of the night until he eventually drifts off into a dreamless sleep.

[spinchip]

71, Zane

A/N: polyninja as a treat

Pixal takes notes.

There’s not much else to do in Zanes head, not really, other than running diagnostics or chatting with him. She’d already been in contact with her father, and he was working on a new body for her in secret that was taking much too long- but for now she could be patient and wait, playing sudoku or solitaire when Zane was too busy to talk to pass the time, finding all sorts of busy work to occupy her, which turned out to be… notes. She had never been one for people watching before meeting the ninja, but now she finds herself doing it constantly, looking through Zanes eyes and observing, catching things that seemed to pass over his head.

What she notes is this: Kai loves Zane.

He’s the most obvious about it, his heart spilled across his sleeves, and he shows it each and every day in little ways that compound into simple and pure acts of love. He compliments Zanes cooking each and every time he makes something, he brings him a water each time they train despite Zane rarely ever needing one, his touch lingers a few seconds too long and too familiar. fingers resting just barely against Zanes, perfectly poised as if it were natural. a clap on his shoulder that slides to his lower back. A hug where when he pulls away he doesn’t quite let go, resting his hands along Zanes collar bone. When Zane goes down in battle and Kai gets there first, he clutches at him, twists his finger in his gi to ground them both, and he won’t settle until Zane gets back on his feet.

(Pixal also notes that Kai loves Cole and Jay too, just as ardently and passionately as he loves Zane.)

What she notes is this: Jay loves Zane.

He fumbles over it, tripping over his own tongue, going shy and red faced whenever he gets a joke to land just right and Zane’s face lights up with a smile, his laughter making Jay's next line catch in his throat. He offers Zane the second controller every time they start up a game. He tries to make Zane happy, eyes flicking to him at every joke, and when Zane makes an attempt at matching his wit Jay is the first to laugh, even if the joke wasn’t that funny. Sometimes, when Zane is patching him up after a lab incident and Zane is doing that thing where he helps you but in a disapproving way, Jay will promise to be more careful in this soft tone that Pixal’s never heard before, and he’ll actually mean it.

(Pixal also notes that Jay loves Kai and Cole too, in the same way he loves Zane, with a smile on his lips.)

What she notes is this: Cole loves Zane.

Cole loves Zane like he loves dancing: With everything he has, and secretly. He’s not as obvious as the other two, but he has his tells. He teaches Zane to dance, several different kinds where they press close and move in sync and laugh when they get the steps wrong and he’s perfectly poised, but for the rest of the day he’ll smile more easily and, sometime, dance a little without thinking. He sits in with Zane each time he cooks under the guise of sneaking snacks, but each time he forgoes picking at the foods to talk with Zane instead. About anything and everything, big or small, Cole cares deeply about it all. He seeks Zane out just to sit with him quietly too, days passing side by side with Zane on the deck of the bounty appreciating the scenery. He wants to be close to him.

(Pixal also notes that Cole loves Kai and Jay too, with the same flutter in his step as he loves Zane.)

When you aren’t paying attention, they watch you Pixal thinks, seeing their gaze out of the corner of his eyes. He’s focused on his phone, she hasn’t been paying attention enough to know what, but he’s fully concentrated, eyebrows furrowed and a small smile curling hip lips. Kai noticed first, and he keeps glancing away from the video game to look. Jay and cole were staring unabashedly, faces all soft around the edges- and when Zane apparently beats the level of the app he was messing around and and his eyes flicker up, they all jolt, turning away in a rush. Embarrassed to have been caught- and Zane did catch them, warmth and bashfulness spreading across his system pleasantly.

What she notes is this: Zane loves them all too.

Why they don’t just confess is a mystery to her.

[mcfanely]

Golem AU

For @razzle-zazzle‘s Golem AU, because I can’t get enough of it

Gaia Brookstone could do many things, She was a dancer first and foremost, something that had caught the eye of her now husband, Lou; she was creative, imaginative, and gifted with incredible powers passed down through her family lineage. The Earth seemed to bend to her guidance, shift and form under her steady hand. Maybe that was why ceramics and pottery came so easily to her? But faced with the inability to have her own biological child, she resorted to something only she would think was possible. A clay Golem, one with free will. Guided not by instructions, but by heart and soul, by magic. He would be her masterpiece, a worthy inheritor of her elemental powers. He would be her son, Cole. 

Part 1: Spells and Sigils, 2477 words

Cole found himself staring at his reflection in the mirror again. 

He would have thought that he was used to what he looked like, since not that much ever really changed about him on a day to day basis, yet sometimes he still caught himself staring. 

Staring at the water dripping from his hair following the morning shower, carving a path that was crafted by the muscle on his shoulder and down his chest. Then it eventually met its routes end, dropping off, missing the towel he had wrapped around his waist and hitting the wooden floor of his bedroom in the monastery. More drops of water followed in its wake. Cole still stared. 

It was probably because of the day. That was it, it was because of the day he was looking at himself in a different light that didn't make itself known on normal days. 

It was only once a year, when this day came about. The anniversary of the day his mother had finished her magnum opus, a project that she'd put her life and talents and everything into. Something she'd crafted so lovingly, skilled hands moulding an immense amount of clay; painting perfect and exact amounts of glaze onto the visage of an adolescent male. Months and months of work coming to fruition in the form of something she'd always wanted but had always eluded her. 

This was the day that she'd brought her son into the world. 

The day that she had finally filled him with magic and life, the day she'd created an extremely unique being. 

Well, with the elemental power of Earth along with an innate grasp of magic courtesy of her parents and pure talent for ceramics, it was no wonder that she'd managed to create something that had never been done before.

A clay Golem, this time guided by a soul. A Golem with elemental powers, one that wasn't controlled by instructions on a small piece of paper or stone tablet placed under the tongue every morning. 

There was free will. The ability to speak, to walk around, to eat and enjoy food, to feel emotions and love. All due to a neat and flowing script of runes dutifully marked over his body. 

Cole lifted his hand and slowly ran his fingers over the scripture situated above his left collarbone. The words were a deep black colour, easily mistaken for a tattoo; the colour had faded just a little from what it used to be but the glyphs were still clear. 

'Speech' or 'The act of speaking', was the literal translation. 

Everything he was, was held in these short symbols on his skin, and without them he was literally nothing but a soulless automation with nothing else. No emotion, no self-awareness, no thoughts -- he'd been there before. Twice, actually. 

The first time was on the Dark Island, and a misplaced swing from a stone warrior had taken a good chunk of stone from his shoulder and rendered the speech rune useless. 

Then there was Chen's island, where all of the runes had been blurred due to the loss of his elemental abilities and with them his soul. That hadn't been a fun experience, from what he could remember of it. He was lucky he'd been able to plan for the scenario. 

But the runes were a part of him, always had been. 

He was Cole Brookstone, son of Lou and Gaia Brookstone, and today marked the ninth year of being given life. 

His birthday. Even though, technically, he wasn't born by conventional means. 

Even though he wasn't even human. 

Cole let out a small breath and went over to his bed to get ready for the day, pulling his gi over his still sodden hair. At least he didn't need to keep his lack of humanity a secret anymore, since a damaged rune and Misako with an in depth knowledge of old magic made keeping everything under wraps pretty hard.

Though he had been lucky in some respect, since if Misako hadn't been there to explain the situation and help fix the rune, then Cole would have found it very hard to guide his then very concerned family as to how to properly put a broken Golem back together when he literally had no words to use. No voice. Nothing. 

Still, birthday or not, there was no rest from training; not when the resident electric chicken had some method of finding its way into anyone's room who wasn't awake and in the courtyard on time. 

Cole shuddered at the notion and towelled off his hair as best he could, though his gi had definitely not been spared from the water. 

Today was just a normal day. A regular day. Birthday celebrations were never his thing anyway. 

If he could just have a relaxing day training, then he'd class that as a win.. 

Though that went out the window as he swung open the door to his room, and the blue blur that was Jay shot past without so much as a 'Look out!'.

"Hey, watch where you're going, Ozone Breath! Some of us are still waking up!" Cole shouted down the hallway as he stepped out, his hands absentmindedly tightening his belt a little. Something to fiddle with. 

Jay turned back with a grin and a raised eyebrow, "Someone hasn't had his morning coffee!" He shouted back, then turned and made his way outside. 

How he had any energy at that time in the morning, Cole wasn't entirely sure. But he could put it down to him staying up all night playing video games, and running on leftover adrenaline and fumes. 

At least that meant training would be a breeze. 

Cole walked outside. 

Everyone else was already there, and in a mixed state of wakefulness. Zane, as per usual, was sitting down in a meditative position near the centre of the pavilion; Kai was swinging his sword randomly at a training dummy before a large yawn broke free from his mouth. 

Cole liked to think he was awake enough for early morning training, but the fuzziness in his vision and his slightly dragging feet even after a good shower said otherwise. 

One good thing about the day was that no one was the wiser to it's significance. They just got on with everything, and for that he was thankful. 

"Ever think we should move training into the afternoon." came Lloyd's voice as he walked out into the courtyard, stretching his arms above his head. If Sensei Wu had been within ear shot, those words would have earned a sharp tap to the head with his bo-staff. 

Jay sighed, "We tried that once, but Sensei said we were wasting the day."

"And what better time to get things done?" Cole raised an eyebrow, spreading his hands as he walked towards the general middle of the group. "Train in the morning, then we have the rest of the day to do whatever."

"Morning should start at nine, not at six."

He couldn't help the eye roll at Jay's remark. "You know, maybe if you went to sleep instead of playing games all night you might not feel like walking roadkill. It's not like we're doing it for no reason, being a ninja is a full-time job." Cole looked around the group, "And I don't want Sensei to start messing with us again."

There seemed to be a unanimous thought that ran through the team in a second, and acknowledgement that no one wanted to go through that experience again. Even Zane winced at the memory of a booby trapped monastery. 

Cole clapped his hands once. 

"Right, sooner we start, sooner we'll finish. Sparring with weapons today, no powers."

"Ha! Because Kai is always losing his!" 

There was a growled, "Shut it, Jay!” then Kai turned to face Cole, “Anyway, who said you were deciding what we were doing?" The question was general, and expected. 

"I don't see anyone else with any plans. Plus, we need to learn to not rely on our abilities. We've all lost them before at some point or another."

"Yeah, but when we lose our powers we don't become decor." Jay said. 

Cole rolled his eyes. He was used to that, the teasing, it actually made him smile slightly. If you couldn't laugh at your flaws--

He went over to the weapons rack and hefted a hammer. Heavy, but balanced. Perfect. 

"Jay, you're with me."

Jay spluttered, "What? But I was going to go against Zane!"

"You can go against Zane afterwards, as well, if you want." Cole gave a slight smile, resting the head of the hammer against the ground, "Don't want to fight me? Scared or something?" 

There was a laugh from behind him, and it sounded like Lloyd. 

That just seemed to spur Jay on, his voice growing an octave. "Me, scared of you? Not in a million years, dirt clod." 

"Really? You know, you had me fooled. I thought I saw you shaking in your boots."

Arcs of lightning flickered briefly over the chain of Jay's nunchucks before they died down just as fast, "I'm not-- You know what, fine! Just don't cry when I put you on your ass." 

"I don't cry."

There was a brief pause, "Is that like a Golem thing? Or--" 

"No, no, it's a choice. I just do the exact opposite of what you do and I haven't cried in years."

Cole could see Jay getting riled and tightened his grip on his hammer, but otherwise didn't move a muscle.

"You can fight Zane. I get it, don't want to go against me. No shame in admitting that you're--" 

The first strike came as fast as lightning, and he'd barely shifted out of the way before the second one descended. 

This wasn't Jay using his powers, he was just scary fast. Which was why the choice of sparring partner was to both of their advantages. Jay was fast, Cole was strong. They both had contending qualities that they needed to learn to fight against. 

On the third strike, he lifted his hammer, supporting it with two hands and received a reverberating clang of metal through his arms when both the weapons made contact. 

Though the fight didn't stop there, it was only getting started. 

Cole already felt wide awake. 

He stepped forwards and swung his weapon, missing Jay by a hair breadth. 

The next blows were traded sharply, fluidly. Moving from offence to defence in less than a second. 

Cole would be lying if he said he didn't like sparing against Jay. He was a formidable opponent, especially when he stopped cracking jokes and focused. Which was rare enough. 

"Come on, Sparky, you really think some fancy nunchuck spins are going to beat me?" He took a small step back to catch his breath. He didn't know what the rest of the team was doing, but with the amount of area they were using up for this spar, they were probably watching what was happening. 

Then in the next second Jay was right in front of him, and the nunchucks connected with his cheek a millisecond later. 

Cole's face snapped sideways, though he held his ground. His feet barely even moved from their position, if only for a minor step back. His eyes widened, though he opened and closed his jaw as if to check it was still working, and still connected to his face. 

His reaction to the strike, or lack thereof, seemed to translate over to Jay. 

Jay, who stood there, slack jawed and nunchucks held loosely in his grip. "You just--! What?" He shouted, "You didn't even move! Did you even feel that?" 

Cole carefully ran his fingers over his cheek. If that hit had been any harder, or with a more formidable weapon, it could have caused a bit of damage. "I felt something." He admitted, then raised an eyebrow at Jay, "Definitely something." 

"You-- what? Was that like--" Jay paused, his hands moving a mile a minute, as if he was trying to find the words. "That was a Golem thing, wasn't it? That better have been a Golem thing!" 

"It was a Golem thing." Cole admitted, then rolled his shoulders. "Try harder next time, you might make me take two steps back."

Famous last words. 

They traded blows for another minute before Jay got another solid hit in. 

This time a direct downwards strike to his shoulder, and Cole's hand immediately shot up to the site of the impact with a pained grunt. 

Jay, meanwhile, seemed elated he'd got another hit in. 

"Ow." Cole mumbled, wincing as he fingering at a gash that was now sliced into his gi. It was just washed, fresh on that morning and now he'd either have to stitch it or bin it. 

No, Jay was going to fix it, if he was so happy to have caused the damage in the first place. 

Cole straightened himself up, lightly waving off an approaching Zane with a small smile, then he wheeled around to the blue ninja dancing about the courtyard. 

The hit had hurt, and whilst they were no stranger to bumps and grazes from training, they didn't purposefully aim for injury. 

Jay had. Whether he'd realised it or not, he'd gone in with the intent to make contact again. Maybe get a better reaction than the brick wall one he'd gotten beforehand. 

If Cole had been any closer to human, that strike would have shattered bone.

"Jay, you i- i-" Cole faltered for a second, the word catching sharply in his throat. He gave a small cough to clear it, and dropped his hammer down onto the stone inlay. 

"Y- you i-." Cole frowned. He knew what he wanted to say, he knew what word he wanted to use. 

It just wasn't coming out.

"Cole?" He saw Kai walking over, his eyebrows furrowed. "Are you okay?" 

"I- I'm f- f- fine." He ground out, then brought a hand up to quickly cover his mouth.

Cole looked around the group, at their analysing and confused expressions; one hand was still cradled tightly over his shoulder. 

"Are you hurt?" came the question, though Kai had probably already established an answer for that. 

Cole definitely had. 

Yet physically he felt fine, sure his shoulder stung and his words were jamming in his throat, but he was fine… 

He was--

His words.

He quickly felt over his shoulder, his fingers moving in a calculated motion, small circles. Down over his chest, up to his neck, over his collarbone--

Then they dipped into a prominent crevice that hadn't been there that morning. A crack, he didn’t even need to look to know that. He could feel it, the flaking clay, the rough edges and the fissure that marred once smooth skin.

A crack, over his collarbone. 

Directly through the runes.

____

Cross-posted to AO3

Part 2 coming soon!

[imthepointe]

The One That Got Away

@penofwildfire whoops...hehe :) 

this is entirely based on their lovely and angsty post here!

Lloyd shot up from his makeshift bed, forehead dotted with sweat and eyes rimmed red with tears. His heart so beat loudly in his chest he was sure the thumping could be heard from a mile away.

At once, a steadying hand held his back, murmuring soothing utterances that he did not care to listen to. Harumi’s words from a week prior rang in his ear, the image of the Bounty- along with his brothers- being ripped apart still burned into his mind every time he shut his eyes.

For the past few nights, sleep had not provided any sort of escape or remedy for the past week’s events- rather proving to be an oblivion and open invitation to nightmare.

Nya seemed to have taken notice, much to the despondency of a certain green ninja. 

She stood above Lloyd’s pallet, her hand still on his back rubbing small circles and her voice still cooing words of comfort.

Once he had calmed down a bit, Nya quirked an eyebrow. “Nightmare?”

Lloyd held his head in his hands. “Yeah.”

“Tell me about it?” she asked, sitting herself down beside him. 

---

“I wanted this,” the Jade Princess had said, as she dangled Lloyd hopelessly over the once-bright Ninjago City. She giggled maniacally, her eyes wild and glued to the Colossus a few blocks down the street with fierce intensity.

“I wanted this!” she screamed in the green ninja’s ear. Her smile stretched from cheek to cheek, whatever semblance of sound mind she had left fading before Lloyd’s helpless form.

He was pathetic; he couldn’t do anything in Harumi’s grasp. The green ninja, once highly esteemed and venerated by citizens of Ninjago, was about to watch his friends die at the hands of some sadistic teenage girl and his father.

As much as the sane voices in Lloyd’s mind told him to turn his face away, he couldn’t peel his gaze from the ship in between the stone giant’s arms- the one his brothers were in- being crushed before him.

Harumi dug her fingers into the back of Lloyd’s neck, before pulling him back down to the train’s roof. “Now watch,” she breathed in his ear, a sweet and bitter edge to her cutting voice.

As if on command, the Bounty was crushed to a pulp. 

Lloyd did nothing but watch in disbelief. His teammates were still on that ship. They were still on there, they must have been crushed too-

The Jade Princess jerked his head away from the fallen airship. “It’s too bad you were the one that got away,” she clicked her tongue, twisting her mouth into a grin. “I guess that just means I get to personally deal with you later.” 

---

“Oh, it was nothing,” Lloyd reassured Nya with a sad smile. The same steadying hand from earlier once again patted his back, and though he was grateful for her presence- don’t get him wrong- something still was missing.

To be precise, 3 teenage boys, a nindroid, and a 500-year-old sensei turned infant were missing.

“I don’t believe you, Lloyd,” the water ninja deadpanned. “It’s okay, you can tell me what’s up.”

Lloyd fidgeted with his hands and looked around the room. It was completely empty, save for Pixal and her mech off to the side; his mother and Dareth presumably off somewhere in the city. He sighed, turning back to look at the last remaining ninja left on the team.

“It’s just that we lost them, Nya-”

“Lloyd.”

Upon hearing Nya’s grave tone, Lloyd flinched. Her hands were now bracing his shoulders, and she stared into his eyes; such firmness was not really out of the ordinary for the water ninja, but she usually never took this attitude with him. “We didn’t lose anyone,” she frowned, “my friends- our friends- they are fine.”

“How can you be so sure?” Lloyd interjected. He wanted to believe Nya, he really, really did.

But he couldn’t. He had watched them...

Nya continued to hold Lloyd’s arms, and he couldn’t help but remember the way Harumi’s own hands had held him in place just a week prior. As chill ran down his spine, where he could still feel the Quiet One’s fingers wrapped around his neck.

The green ninja spoke up again, more softly this time. “I saw them, Nya. I saw the Bounty get crushed to pieces. I saw them die.”

Nya bit her lip, visibly tensing. She closed her eyes and whispered a small “I know” before wrapping her arms around the last remainder of her former team.

“I lost people, too, Lloyd,” she muttered into his hair. “But they’re not dead.”

Doubt crept its way into his mind, and subconsciously he thought Nya knew how irrational she was being.

Perhaps more so how irrational he was for believing her. For a split second, he hugged the water ninja back, and accepted the fact that maybe his friends weren’t dead, and that they would come out of hiding soon enough, and Harumi and his father would be defeated, and Ninjago would be saved. That’s how things normally ended, right?

Just as soon as the moment of belief came, it too passed. 

His mother and Dareth burst into the room, both Nya and Lloyd startled from their thoughts. 

Misako’s face furrowed into an expression somewhere between scared and confused, and Dareth looked like he always did- mostly confused- and out of breath. 

“We have to go,” his mother’s voice faltered slightly in a way that made Lloyd’s stomach turn. “The Sons of Garmadon are sweeping the block.”

---

The narrow alleyway the group of five were now hiding in was familiar to the green ninja in a very distant sense- something only Lloyd could liken to vague deja vu, or the moments of disorientation after waking up from a realistic dream.

He held his breath as Mr. E and the rest of the gang passed their hiding spots, with Nya beside him, Pixal and his mother adjacent, and Dareth...somewhere. 

Only once the Sons of Garmadon were certainly out of range did anyone dare make a noise. “Thank FSM,” Nya breathed, pushing the piece of wood the pair had been hiding under out of the way. 

Beside them, Pixal and Misako did the same, and the self-proclaimed brown ninja emerged from wherever he had been.

Misako laughed in relief, dusting herself off as she stood. “Do you all smell that?” she asked, trying to clear the air. She turned to her son, who still sat on the ground. “Lloyd, doesn’t it smell-” 

Lloyd clutched the piece of wood Nya had previously shoved aside. “It’s the Bounty.”

---

The Colossus’ hands closed in on The Bounty, the sound of splicing wood and crushed memories ringing in Zane, Kai, Jay, and Cole’s ears. The stone giant was quickly compressing the ship to a pulp, and with each rattling shake the ninja stumbled closer to one another on the broken deck. 

Wu clutched Cole’s gi and squeezed his eyes shut, burying his head in the earth ninja’s chest and whimpering softly. In turn, Cole hugged him tighter, shielding him from their imminent demise. 

“Zane!” Kai stared at the nindroid at the wheel, an unreadable and blank look on his face. “Do something,” he pleaded, before desperately adding, “please.”

Zane sputtered. “I- I cannot-” He wanted to say that he couldn’t save them, but he supposed the rest of his teammates had already figured that out by now.

Jay looked at Cole, the baby in his arms, then to Zane, then to Kai. The wind whipped wildly around the team and the distant sound of sirens blazed in the background, though almost entirely erased by the screams of onlookers and the clamor of their precious Bounty being torn apart underneath their feet.

But between the team on the ship, it was silent. 

Time moved in slow motion as the Colossus’ hands began to meet, and each ninja glanced at one another other with a small smile on their face and a look that said ‘Thank you for the past few years.’

Cole relaxed in acceptance, though the small figure in his arms began to squirm. “We have to go!” Baby Wu shouted.

The tea. Mystake. 

Jay’s eyes widened in realization as he registered Wu’s words, and then the fact that it was too late to do anything about it.

---

Nya felt her chest tear apart.

The Bounty.

She said nothing as moved a few pieces of wood aside, revealing a broken picture frame that belonged on the ship. Pixal looked around- two engines, an anchor, a sail, a rudder- her home- and it was all right here, lying strewn about before them.

Lloyd sucked in a breath. “No, no, no, no, no…”

He knew this day would come, when he would find the ship he had watched just a week ago be completely obliterated, when he would see the remnants of his home somewhere in Ninjago City. He remained on the ground still, desperately searching through the wreckage for more fragments of the ship.

Lloyd froze when he grabbed something cold, and panic and awareness quickly set in. 

His body began to jerk and tears began to spill freely from his eyes, because he knew what he had found. Still, he couldn’t stop himself as he brushed the wood away, revealing exactly what Lloyd had hoped he would never find.

Kai. Buried underneath the rubble of the Bounty was Kai- but it wasn’t. This wasn’t Kai. It was his corpse. 

A scream caught in his throat, rendering him unable to comfort the master of water as she realized what Lloyd had found.

Beside him, Nya began to breath faster and faster, stumbling in her legs until Misako had to help her slide to a sitting position.

“No,” she sniffled and shook her head, “he’s okay. There must be a pulse, there has to be, they’re all alive.”

Nothing about Kai was alive, and Nya knew that. Lloyd knew that, too, but that didn’t mean he accepted it.

“Here,” Pixal called, small tears rolling down her face. She held a broken and battered nindroid in her arms, with dark and deactivated eyes and stray wires indicating no sign of life.

Neither Lloyd nor Nya moved as Jay, Zane, and Kai’s bodies were all recovered from the ruins; the two simply sat in the same crouched position beside each other in disbelief.

Had it not been Nya telling Lloyd just that morning that they were alright? That his brothers were just hiding? 

He had watched them die.

A few more moments of waiting and Pixal had found the final two bodies. Quietly, Nya helped Lloyd to his feet, and they stepped over broken wood and their own teammates’ corpses to where Pixal was trembling slightly.

Cole, skin cold and gray, body covered in blood, was finally found lying underneath a large pile of wreckage. Still in his arms, despite being crushed then falling hundreds of feet to the ground, was a small figure, its fingers still curled tightly around the earth ninja’s body.

A baby that had died in Cole’s arms. 

Their sensei.

A harsh, half-stifled yell sounded in the ash gray sky- undoubtedly alerting Mr. E along with the rest of his crew of their location- but Lloyd did not care. 

He didn’t care when Nya broke down into sobs beside him, when Dareth and Misako too began to cry, or when Pixal fell to the ground on her knees, unable to stop herself from shaking. 

He didn’t care when a smiling Harumi found him not fifteen minutes later, still clinging to each of their bodies.

[strangermask]

Lava, and(or) body swap? :D

Hello! I am deeply sorry you had to wait so long for this. I hope you do like it though. I’m going to put under keep reading because it’s 1,000 words long

Kai and Cole waited patiently for Wu to finish Mind tea. The two were having a hard time clearing their head, and the others weren't helping. Soon, Wu came in with the tea. "Here we go, this should clear your heads and put you in a more relaxing state." Wu said as he gave the two the teacups.

"Thank you, Master Wu." Cole said.

He and Kai started to drink the tea. After drinking the last drop, the two began to feel tired.

"Is the tea suppose to make us tired?" Kai yawned.

"No, it's not supposed to do that," Wu answered. "Something must have gotten in the tea."

"What does that mean?" Cole asked.

"Something else is going to happen instead of clearing your head."

"What!" Kai exclaimed.

The two boys started to get more tired, fighting to stay awake. But alas, they both failed and passed out. Wu called Lloyd and Zane over.

"Master Wu, what's wrong?" Zane asked.

"I can't tell yet, but I need you two to take Kai and Cole to their rooms." Wu ordered.

Lloyd and Zane nodded. Zane picked up Cole, and Lloyd picked up Kai. They left the room, and Lloyd remembered how far Kai's room was.

"Do you think they'll be fine if we leave them in the same room?" Lloyd asked.

"They might feel uncomfortable." Zane stated.

"But Kai's room is so far."

Zane sighed.

"Alright."

Kai and Cole were taken to Cole's room and placed on his bed.

A few hours later.

Kai woke up groaning. He had a pounding headache. He sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"Why am I in Cole's room?" Kai asked himself. He jumped a little when he heard his voice. "What's wrong with my voice?"

He heard groaning next to him and felt the bed shift.

"Jeez, what did that tea do?" a voice said.

Kai froze. That sounded like his voice.

"What happen to my voice?" the voice spoke again.

Kai looked to the left of him and froze. He saw his body. His body looked at him, and its eyes widen.

"...Kai?"

Kai took a closer look at his body. Its eyes were green and orange.

"Cole?"

The two stayed silent, then screamed and fell off the bed.

"You're in my body!" They both exclaimed.

They heard footsteps, and the others came into the room.

"We heard screaming, is everything okay?" Wu asked.

"Master Wu." Kai and Cole said.

Wu took a closer inspection of the boys.

"Your eyes are different."

"We swapped bodies." Cole said.

"What?" Nya raised an eyebrow.

"So, this is what the tea did." Wu stroke his beard.

"Tea?"

"Kai and Cole told me they were having trouble clearing their head, so I made tea for them. Except it seemed to backfire."

"You can fix this, right?" Kai asked.

Wu stroke his beard.

"I will have to get reversal tea, but it might take a while to find the ingredients."

Kai and Cole groaned. All of a sudden, an alarm went off. Everyone rushed to the control room.

"Looks like there's trouble in Ninjago City." Zane said.

The ninjas were going to suit up, but Wu stopped Kai and Cole.

"You two are staying here." Wu ordered.

"What!" Kai exclaimed.

"You are in unfamiliar bodies. There is no way to know what might happen if you both are sent out to fight."

"But, Master Wu-"

"No buts. You both are staying here."

The others got in their gi and went out to save Ninjago City. Wu was starting to pack a small bag.

"Where are you going?" Cole asked Wu.

"I'm going to find the ingredients to return you both to your original bodies," Wu answered. "I expect you two to not go on missions while I'm gone."

"Yes, Master Wu." Kai and Cole said.

Wu left, and Kai sighed.

"What are we supposed to do?" Kai asked.

Cole shrugged.

"This is the worst day ever."

"Well, at least we don't have to worry about the others finding out about our secret dating life." Cole reassured.

"I guess your right."

The two stood awkwardly.

"I'm going to get something to eat." Cole said and walked to the kitchen.

He looked around for something to munch on. He spotted some cookies on a top-shelf. He put his hand out to grab it, but he couldn't reach it. He got on his tiptoes, but he still could not reach it.

"Why can't I reach it?" Cole asked himself, then remembered he was in the shortest person in the team. He grumbled. "Kai! Why do you have to be so short!"

Kai came in the kitchen, confused.

"What does me being short have to do-"

"How about you look at my challenge right now?" Cole interrupted Kai.

Kai saw Cole reaching for the cookies and started to laugh.

"Don't laugh at me!" Cole scolded.

"Now, you know the struggles of being short." Kai snorted.

"Oh, being tall is better?"

"It gives me this advantage."

Kai picked Cole up.

"That's not an advantage! You're using my super-strength!"

"Is it now?"

"Kai Ash Smith put me down right now."

"I think I'll just drag you to the couch instead."

Kai carried Cole to the couch while he tried to get out. Kai sat down with Cole in an unescapable grasp.

"You suck." Cole said.

"Excuse me, you do this to me, every time." Kai told Cole.

Cole grumbled, then an idea came to his head.

"At least your not tickling me." Cole said.

"Does Teddy want tickles?"

"You wouldn't dare."

Kai started to tickle his body's most ticklish spots. Cole started to laugh. This went on for a little while until a snort was heard. Kai immediately stopped tickling Cole, but he continued to laugh.

"W-Why did you stop?" Cole asked.

"No reason." Kai lied.

"Was it because I snorted?"

"No."

Cole smirked.

"You just revealed one of your biggest secrets to me."

"What?"

"I know your ticklish spots now."

Kai turned pale.

"You are a monster."

"Hey, you tickle me every time we're alone."

Kai let Cole go and pouted.

"Did I make grumpy kitty grumpy?" Cole asked in a baby voice. 

"I'm not grumpy." Kai gritted.

"How about a drama show to make you feel better. Sound good?"

Kai nodded, and Cole turned the tv on.

Two hours later.

Kai was now cuddling Cole. The two made up for what happened earlier, and they're just chilling.

"Oh please, Karen," Kai rolled his eyes. "You can't even tell the difference between satin and silk. What makes you a sewing genius?"

"You are getting sassy."

"If Karen would stop acting like she's a sewing god, I'd be less sassy."

Cole chuckled.

"Hey, Kai?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."

The two boys kissed.

"You two are dating!?" Someone shouted.

The two pulled away and looked at the door. The others were standing there, shocked.

"When did you guys get back?" Kai asked.

"Just now," Nya answered. "How long has this been going on?"

Kai and Cole look at each other.

"About two years?" Cole answered shyly.

"Two years! Why didn't you say anything?"

"Jeez, I wonder why," Kai said. "Why wouldn't we tell you guys, who try to push us to date, ask us questions about love, freak out over a friendly conversation that you state as a 'beginning of relationship', about Cole's and my relationship."

The others started to look guilty.

"Now if you'll excuse us, we are in the middle of watching a show."

"I'm talking to you about this later." Nya told Kai.

Kai nodded and shooed the others away.

"This isn't how I imagine the others finding out." Cole said awkwardly.

"Well, at least we don't have to keep it a secret anymore." Kai comforted.

"Yeah, I guess."

Kai sat there silently, signaling Cole that Kai wanted another kiss. So Cole gave Kai another kiss on the lips.

[lloydshoulddyehishair]

Shot

i know very creative title but oh well

warnings: blood, guns

summary: lloyd gets shot by thug and he is  n o t  having it

(everytime i post something over my laptop it fucks up the format so i hope it doesn’t do that again)

There were many things Lloyd had been planning to do in his life; Go to the beach with his friends, go with Cole on a concert of their favourite band, cut and dye Kai's hair red while he was asleep- The list could go on.

Something that was not on his to-do list though was getting shot by a lowlife criminal and slowly bleeding out in an alley. That was definitely not on his to-do list.

Now, it wasn't like had intended to get shot in the abdomen on a simple mission like this, especially since he knew that if the others were to find out he'd never be allowed to go out alone again. That was if he'd survive this of course- But as of right now Lloyd really didn't think that would be the case. And he was straight up terrified.

He knew the dangers of being a Ninja, he knew the risks and he knew that his life could be over in just the blink of an eye. He's been close to death a lot of times but at least he had had his friends with him. Right now he was alone with no way of calling for help. And the feeling of his Gi slowly soaking in his own blood left him sick and he wasn't sure if he was freezing because of the blood loss or because the sun began to set.

He hissed as his hands made his way to his gunshot wound, just mere centimetres away from his bellybutton.

How had it come to this? Things had been going so well at first.

The Green Ninja had been on patrol that night and witnessed the robbery of a small shop – knowing that the thief would have escaped before the police would get there he had decided to follow him, cornering him in an alleyway.

“I think it would be more than wise of you to put that down.”, he had voiced calmly, pointing at the bag the criminal had thrown over his shoulder. “And maybe we can sort things out like civil people.”

“Or what, Green Ninja?”, the man had risen an eyebrow and smirked at him, startling Lloyd for a second. “You'll cry for your daddy? Oh I forgot- He hates you so much he disowned you and threw you through prison walls.” Was the criminal trying to irritate him? Because it was working.

“Wha-”, Lloyd had bitten his lip almost so hard he thought it was going to bleed. “Listen, just- Just put the bag down.”

“I'm not scared of you.”, the blonde had felt himself grow angrier by the second. Was it too much to ask to be respected every once in a while.

“Oh, you should be.”

“I don't think you're in the position to make any threats since I am the one who killed you.”

“E-excuse me?”

“Boo.”, he had grinned and pulled out a gun, immediately pulling the trigger.

It took a few seconds for Lloyd to realize where the sudden stinging pain in his abdomen came from and why the thief had a mischievous grin on his lips before running away. He lifted his shaking hands up to his stomach and looked down seeing his normally Green Gi already stained as if it was Kai's. He cursed under his breath trying to ignore the pain and just focusing on getting out of this god damn alley but he soon found himself collapsing to the floor.

“Shit, shit, shit.”, he mumbled face wincing in pain and of course he just had to forget his phone on this particular day.

He almost felt like he was going to cry as he realized there was no getting out of this one. His friends weren't going to find him in time and his father was most certainly not either.

He didn't want to die – he didn't want to leave his friends – there were still so many things he wanted to do that he couldn't think of right now because the pain only got worse and worse by the minute and his mind started to get clouded.

“H-help-”, he tried to choke out but his voice died in his throat.

OhGodOhGodOhGodOhGod-

He was dying. Actually dying. Killed by a low-level thug. His father – Lord Garmadon – would probably laugh at him right now and be even more disappointed of his son than he already was.

Lloyd could practically hear his manic laugh in his head.

No.

He couldn't die like this. Wouldn't allow himself to die like this.

Police had to be near by already, looking for the thief. If he found some officers in time he had a chance to survive this – at least he hoped so.

He forced his own body to stand up again even if it hurt like hell – thank the FSM that he was probably the most stubborn and determined person in Ninjago, else he wouldn't have made it.

Feeling himself tumble the blonde leaned against a wall and slowly walked along it for balance, one hand pressed on his gunshot-wound.

Finally making it out of the alley after what felt like an eternity he basically bumped into the Commissioner and his friends.

Apparently the police had called for help then.

“G-guys-”, he choked out and barely saw the shocked expressions on his friends' faces before breaking down.

Darkness completely consuming him.

[glennsparadice]

Chasing Thrills

(The Bizarro ninja are underrated so I wrote this. Takes place in Season 2. Basically an AU thing where the Bizarro ninja return, and they’re determined to make the true ninja’s lives a living hell while making the most fun out of it. Also I gave them cool names based on their elements to avoid confusion. Kai is Pyro. Jay is Electrik. Zane is Storm. Cole is Rock

Word Count: 1726) 

The boys are back, and this time, they take orders from nobody.  

Pyro sits behind the wheel, his legs above the dash board, one crossed over the other. The music which blasts from the radio makes his head bob to the beat, shamelessly. His eyes are closed with the bliss of the moment. 

Storm sits on the passenger seat beside Pyro. He is in control of the music. His index finger, which is in the shape of a USB, is inserted into the car radio, transmitting music files from his system to the radio. Unlike Pyro, he can’t get into any song that comes on. He groans less than five seconds into each song, switches, listens, repeats.

“Stop changing the music!” cries Rock, who sits on the right seat in the back. He’s wearing the sunglasses he had worn when he and his crew visited Darkly’s as a “souvenir” of his experiences. A slice of Devil’s Food cake lays on his lap, threatening to slide off unless he grabs hold of it. He smudges a layer of icing off the cake with his pinky, wipes it on his bottom lip, then licks it off. 

“All right,” Electrik mumbles, though his attention is set on the mirror reflecting his face, “don’t share.” He rubs a hand over his pasty colored cheek, removing a smudge of either dirt or blood- he can’t tell. He grins at the mirror, red eyes wide with devilish joy. Surely, he looks well enough to stun Nya. She hasn’t seen him in a while, but he knows she misses him. After all, he is much better than that obnoxious ninja, Jay. 

Rock moves the plate of cake as far from Electrik as possible. “I had asked you if you wanted some before, and you said no.”

“Well, I didn’t want cake at that time!”

“Yeah, and now you do?”

“Hell yeah!”

“Too bad then!”

Pyro watches them from the rear view mirror. “Boys, boys. Easy, now.” 

The black and blue evil ninjas huff. They mutter their final threats to each other before finally settling down under the red ninja’s command. 

“I found a good song!” Storm exclaims. The music that plays isn’t as upbeat as the other bunch of songs. A woman raps the lyrics of the song in a voice that sounds forced, too deep to be her own. She skips several beats, and the song relies mainly on the unnecessary violin strumming in the background. 

Pyro blasts fire at the radio until the object is left black and the sound drowns out. 

“Garbage,” he says. No one complains. 

A different noise is heard. This time, it comes from outside. It’s a mixture of prideful exclaims and cheerful laughter. Four ninja appear from behind a building. They’re dressed neck to toe in their designated colored gis, hoods down. Their eyes have their own unique color, not a bright red. They cross the street and use their hands to make dramatic gestures. Most likely they’re talking about a successful mission, or the moments from the mission where the clumsy blue ninja had to be saved from his doom. More laughter. Blue ninja bows his head, curses his friends.

“Ninja,” Pyro sneers. His hand is already on the key, one twist away from starting the engine.

“Oh, great!” Rock whines. “We finally find something interesting to do and Pyro broke our radio!”

“No heist music!” Electrik buries his face into his hands.

“This would not have occurred if Pyro allowed my music to play,” Storm adds. 

Pyro bangs his fists on the dashboard. “Blame me all you want, but who was the one switching songs?” 

Their argument becomes too sloppy that no one can tell who’s talking, or who they’re talking to.

“How are we supposed to chase the ninja without any music?!”

“Maybe if you guys weren’t so reckless!”

“Hey, why are you looking at me? I didn’t do anything!”

“Shut up! This is all your fault!”

“Don’t tell me to shut up!”

“Shut up!”

“All of you shut up!”

“You shut up! You have no right telling us to shut up!”

They all fall silent at the sound of the ninja’s vehicle driving away.

“No more arguing.” Pyro turns the key, takes in the roar of the engine. “It’s time we catch us some ninja.”

The bizarro ninja drive a sleek, white car with an open convertible top. Unlike the ninja’s chunky, monstrous looking vehicle, their vehicle does not attract too much attention. They calmly cruise the damaged streets, successfully avoiding potholes and litter. No passerby takes notice of the chase going down in front of them. Not yet, at least.

Storm fiddles with the car’s control panels, which, surprisingly, were not damaged by Pyro’s outrage. “What method should we use on the ninja?”

“I want to surprise them,” Pyro says, eyes burning at the large vehicle ahead of him. “Give me Transparent.” 

Storm nods. He scrolls down the control panel, clicks on a bullet point, then sits back as their once white vehicle becomes no longer visible to the human eye. The inside of the car remains, but looking out the window where the side mirror should be, he sees nothing but empty space. He runs his hand outside the window, over the invisible car, and outlines the top of the side mirror with ice. 

“Now they see us,” Storm whispers.

A wave of heat emits from Pyro’s fingers onto the ice, melting it instantly. “Now they don’t.” 

The invisible car drives into the back of the visible car. Gently enough to not cause harsh impact. One of the ninja jumps out of their seats to check. A puzzled look rests on his face as he returns to his friends with news that nothing is behind them. 

“I want to say one!” Electrik exclaims. “Go Hypno mode!”

Storm looks at Pyro. Pyro nods. 

They switch lanes as well as methods so that the car is no longer transparent, but covered in green, moving swirls. With both cars now side by side, participants from either side can see what’s going on in the other vehicle. 

“It’s them!” Kai shouts. “Those damn impostors can’t seem to quit, huh?” 

Cole forces Kai’s head back to the road. “Don’t look! I’ve been hypnotized once, and I do not want to go through that again!” 

“But the swirls look so pretty!” Jay sighs. 

“Jay!” Zane says, actual fear in his voice. “You mustn’t be looking!” 

Cole has to physically close Jay’s eyes. “My hand is staying here unless you grow some common sense!” 

“Uh, guys,” Kai interrupts. It’s then that the ninja realize how much their vehicle is moving. “I have to look. I have to look!”

“No!” Cole shouts. “Zane, take the wheel. Kai, Jay, if you look at the car, I swear you’ll be eating nothing but Cole-made food for the rest of the month!” He unbuckles himself and unlocks the hatch above him. 

“Where are you going?” Zane asks. 

“I said take the wheel!” His body wheezes through the hatch. “I’m going to handle this myself.” 

Avoiding glancing at the enemy’s car, Cole hops from the roof of his car to the inside of theirs. Immediately he kicks at the control panel, causing it to spark before turning black. The enemy’s car turns back to its visible, white color. Cole grins at his accomplishments. 

“Not cool, dude!” Electrik groans, nunchucks in hands. He skillfully flings the weapon so that it purposely launches close to Cole, but misses. His technique is far more advanced since the last time the ninja had to deal with the bizarro ninja, but Cole assures himself they can be defeated the same way. One hit and they’ll be destroyed. 

Cole whips out his scythe, but because of the small space inside the car, he awkwardly holds it an angle which still gives him no space to attack. “Fantastic. Another Jay.”

“It’s Electrik!” The bizarro ninja hits Cole with his nunchucks. “With a ‘K’!” 

“Watch where you’re fighting!” Rock whines. He notices Cole, who is pinned to the floor by one of Eletrick’s feet, lightning nunchucks dangling threateningly in front of his face. “Look who’s making this way too easy.”

“One ninja captured!” Rock calls to Pyro. 

Pyro glances behind his shoulder for a second, and in that second alone, Zane manages to hit the side of the car. “You made me lose focus!” He blindly scrolls through the control panel, presses on what he believes is the Self Driving method, then leaps out of his seat. He crawls to the backseat, where Rock and Electrik have a careful eye on Cole. 

He snatches Cole’s scythe. “I’ll take that.”

“He’s kinda strong,” Electrik whispers. “Can I release him now?”

“Why do you keep asking me questions as if I make up your decisions?”

“Because every time I do something without asking you, you get mad at me!”

“Maybe because you make the stupidest mistakes!”

Rock gets between them. “He’s right, though. He won’t be able to hold him off for much longer.” 

“Well, do me a favor and keep him company. I expect him here and alive when I return.” He forces the scythe through the open top of the convertible. “Storm, come with me.”

The two bizarro ninja hop from the hood of their car to the hood of the ninja’s car. Jay yells. Kai hits him. Zane swerves the car to a safe parking place. 

Kai puts on his hood. “Three against two.”

“It’s not as fun if I’m not fighting myself!” Jay pouts. 

“Fighting is not a priority,” Zane adds. “Retrieve Cole’s scythe and we should be all right.”

“And retrieve Cole himself,” Kai says, ignoring the scraping of the scythe above them. 

“And,” Jay says, pointer finger up, “don’t get our weapons taken.”

Zane nods. “Agreed.”

The ruckus caused by the two bizarro ninja above their car grows louder. It begins to feel hot, then cold, then both. There’s a wind of dirt blown their way, cackles, and a whole repeat of weather. 

Kai looks both his team mates in their eyes. His eyebrows lower for emphasis, yet a confident shine remains in his dark eyes. “We can do this. We defeated them once, and we will defeat them again.” 

The other two ninja nod, a strong connection to their team encouraging them to fight. 

“Ninjago!” 

[nonexistent-anime-echo]

A/N: So, basically, here’s another thing based on a dream I had. I’m such a nerd. So here’s something that’s bound to have some angst. And Lava!! (Cole has red eyes in this, just thought I’d mention that) TW: Refusal of food..??? Kind of?? And blood (although not in an injury sense)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

----

  I need it, but I can’t attack my friends!

  “Cole? Are you okay?” 

  “By my calculations, Kai, he’s gone too long without blood,” said Zane, looking at Cole, worry on his features. 

  “Just attack one of us!” said Jay.

  “I’m not going to attack my friends,” mumbled Cole, not looking at Kai, Zane, Jay, Lloyd, and Nya. “I don’t want to attack anyone.”

  “C-Cole, you have to,” said Nya. “If you don’t ― COLE!”

  Cole had collapsed on the ground. 

  “Definitely didn’t get enough blood,” said Zane nervously.

  “Zane, please tell me you’re programmed to help vampires that haven’t had enough blood!” said Lloyd, staring at Zane.

  “I’m not,” said Zane. “I think we’ll have to take him to a hospital.”

  “We’ll take the bounty,” said Kai. “It’s the fastest way there."

  “Okay.”

----

“Cole! You’re okay!” said Jay happily.

  “No, I’m not.” Cole sounded exhausted. “I’m conscious. There’s a difference. I need blood but I’m not about to attack anyone.”

  “We could ―” began the nurse next to Cole.

  “I’m not taking blood, there’ll be a human that needs it.”

  “I’ll be right back,” said the nurse, leaving the room.

  “Cole, we don’t want you to die,” said Zane. “Just because you’re a vampire doesn’t mean you aren’t important to the team.”

  There was a few minutes of silence. Nobody made eye contact with anyone.

  “What about a heart transplant?” said Lloyd. Kai, Cole, Zane, Jay, and Nya looked at him. “I’ve read that if a vampire is given a healthy human heart it turns the vampire human.”

  “Uh, no,” said Cole. “One, I like being a vampire, two, the hospital needs human hearts for humans.”

  “You’re turning down everything that’ll help you survive,” said Zane.

  “Besides, we know you hate being a vampire,” said Kai.

  “You haven’t attacked anyone in at least a week, and you need to in order to survive,” said Nya. “We know you hate it.”

  Cole’s eyes started watering. 

  “I’m not going to take a perfectly healthy human heart,” repeated Cole. “You can’t make me.”

  He started crying, bringing his knees to his chest and hugging his legs. Kai hugged him; Cole grabbed his arm and cried into it. The nurse walked back into the room with Cole’s doctor.

  “If he’s not going to take blood, we can turn him human,” said the doctor. 

  “We’ve already discussed it with him,” said Lloyd. “He’s saying he won’t do it when there are sick humans that need new hearts.”

  “Ow!” Kai yelped suddenly. He looked at his arm; Cole was nibbling his sleeve.

  “I don’t taste blood, calm down,” said Cole, looking at Kai with an eyebrow raised. “I’d stop if you were bleeding. Would it make you feel better if I retracted my fangs?”

  “You have a lot more self-control than most of the vampires we see,” said the nurse, watching as Cole continued to nibble Kai’s sleeve. Kai flinched as Cole’s fangs pierced his skin.

  “You really could’ve told me to retract my fangs,” said Cole, standing up and wiping his mouth. He stared at Kai; Kai watched as Cole’s fangs disappeared.

  “I ―”

  “Kai, I know for a fact you knew I could do that,” said Cole. “I do it all the time.”

  “Yeah, but ―”

  “But what? You knew, why are you so surprised?” Cole laughed a little. “I guess on the bright side I got a little bit of blood out of that.”

  “Just drink the rest that comes out until it scabs over!” said Kai exasperatedly. 

  “No,” said Cole. 

  “I will hold you down and force you to,” said Kai.

  “I’ll bite you again!”

  “Cole, you aren’t even trying to avoid at least licking blood off your fangs,” said Nya.

  “Thanks for the fang holes in my gi, Cole,” said Kai a little angrily, looking at his sleeve; two fairly large holes were in it.

  “Anytime!” said Cole, smiling with his fangs protracted. Kai rolled his eyes. Cole sat back down.

  “Are you doing okay?” asked Jay, looking at him. 

  “Just a little light headed,” Cole replied.

  “Dude, just accept blood from the hospital,” said Lloyd, staring at Cole.

  “I don’t think we’ll be able to convince him to,” said Zane.

  “I don’t think people would be happy to know a vampire’s getting their blood and not another human,” said Cole, holding his head.

  “If you don’t mind me asking, what do most of the vampires that come here come for?” asked Zane. 

  “We see a lot of sun damage,” said Cole’s doctor, looking at a clipboard.

  “Cole, will you please at least take the transplant?” said Jay, looking at Cole. 

  “I’ll think about it,” said Cole, looking down at the checkup bed.

----

“Of all the things I could’ve been born, I’m an elemental master that’s also a vampire,” said Cole, collapsing on Kai’s bed. “And I can’t be seen as a hero if I save Ninjago and afterwards proceed to kill people at night to survive.”

  “Cole, if you take the heart transplant ―” began Kai, sitting next to Cole.

  “I’m not going to take it,” said Cole. 

  “You’re dying,” said Kai. “The whole point of a normal heart transplant is to keep someone alive.”

  Cole rolled over on his side.

  “Why, of all my vital organs, does it have to be my heart, though?”

  “Because that’s where all your feelings are,” said Jay, walking into the room. Cole sat up. 

  "It's not like I have vampire feelings —"

  "Of course you do," said Kai. "You get urges to attack us and drink our blood, right?"

  Cole stayed silent. 

  "Look, our point is just because you do really well feeling and acting human doesn't mean you don't still get vampiristic urges," said Jay. "You still have vampiristic feelings."

  "Am I not already enough like a human to make you guys happy?" Cole was almost yelling. 

  "Cole, it's not that you're not human enough," said Kai, looking at Cole, full of anxiety. "You're dying. Either you start attacking people or you take the transplant. It's up to you."

  Cole looked between Kai and Jay. Zane walked into the room with Lloyd behind him.

  "We thought we heard raised voices," said Lloyd. 

  "Everything's fine," said Jay. "Cole just got a little frustrated with me and Kai."

  Cole was relaxing on Kai's shoulder. Fresh tears fell down his face. 

  "We just don't want to lose you, Cole," said Kai, holding him close. "Please consider getting the heart transplant."

  "I — I'll think about it," said Cole. 

----

“Okay. I’ll do it.”

  Kai hugged Cole tightly.

  “Kai, you’re hugging me too tight ―”

  “Sorry,” said Kai. He loosened his hold on Cole a little. “I just hope everything goes okay.”

  “Me too,” said Cole. “I’m getting closer and closer to death every day.”

  “If you’d just ―”

  “I am not going to start attacking people if I’m going to get surgery,” Cole said dangerously.

  “Okay! I was just saying ―” began Kai.

  “Are you two seriously arguing about that again?” groaned Lloyd, walking into the room.

  “Okay, he’s getting the surgery, there’s a positive,” said Kai, folding his arms stubbornly.

  “I didn’t ask for a positive!” said Lloyd, sounding frustrated. 

  “Well, you got one anyway,” said Kai. 

  “Thank you for agreeing to get it, Cole,” said Lloyd.

  “You’re welcome,” replied Cole. “I’ll keep my fangs, I love my fangs. The surgery won’t take those away, right?”

  “No, it shouldn’t,” said Lloyd. “You’ll keep your physical vampire traits, like your red eyes and your fangs, but you won’t be sensitive to the sun and you won’t have vampiristic urges or need blood.”

  “Yes!” said Cole, punching the air.

  “You really love your fangs, don’t you?” Kai stared at Cole, smiling.

  “Yeah, why wouldn’t I?” asked Cole, laughing. “They’re retractable, so I don’t have to have them showing all the time, but they make it a whole lot easier to eat meat.”

  “Makes sense,” said Lloyd. 

  “We should probably go schedule that,” said Kai. Zane walked by.

  “No need to, I already have,” he said. He stopped in the doorway. 

  “How’d you know I was going to take it?” asked Cole, looking at Zane.

  “I didn’t, but I figured you would,” said Zane. “I know you don’t want to die, so I scheduled a surgery just in case you wanted it.”

  “Well, that saves us some time,” said Lloyd. “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome,” replied Zane, walking away. 

----

“Kai, calm down!”

  “What if something goes wrong?”

  “Kai, I’ll be fine!”

  “Would you two please stop?” said Nya, looking away from the steering wheel of the bounty. “Kai, he’ll be fine!”

  “You don’t know that,” Kai mumbled, looking at the floor of the bridge and holding his arm.

  “You’re right, I don’t, but I do know that the surgeons have a lot of experience with vampire heart transplants,” said Nya. 

  Cole fell onto the floor of the bridge.

  “COLE!”

  “It’s okay, my legs just went numb,” said Cole, sitting up and rubbing his head. 

  “It’s definitely a good thing you’re getting this surgery,” said Jay. “You’re too dependent on blood right now.”

  “Yeah,” said Cole. 

  By the time they got to the hospital, Cole had nibbled several more holes in Kai’s sleeve, and caused him to bleed a little.

  “It’s at least keeping me alive,” said Cole, licking blood from his fangs.

  “But it hurts,” protested Kai. “I understand you’re nervous, but it hurts.”

  “Okay, I’ll stop,” said Cole. “I won’t need blood anyway when this surgery’s over.”

  They walked into the hospital, checked in, and sat in the waiting room. Cole retracted his fangs as they sat down.

  “I don’t think anyone’s going to care about your fangs, Cole,” said Jay, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

  “You don’t know that,” said Cole; his face flushed a little and didn’t make eye contact.

  “Cole ―”

  A nurse came out to the waiting room and called Cole’s name, interrupting Lloyd. Kai hugged him tightly.

  “If ― If anything happens I want you to know I love you,” he whispered. 

  “Nothing’s going to happen,” said Cole. 

  “You don’t know that,” said Kai. Cole waved to the others as he left.

----

“Kai, sit down, you’re giving me anxiety,” said Zane, watching as Kai paced the waiting room. He looked at Jay, Lloyd, and Nya. “And I think you’re making their anxiety worse, too.”

  “The surgery’s probably going to take a while, we could go do something to get our minds off of Cole,” said Nya.

  “Please,” said Zane, glaring at Kai. They left, giving the receptionist their number so they knew when Cole was out of surgery.

  “I can’t stop thinking about how the surgery’s going!” said Kai, grabbing his hair. 

  “You’re ― You’re aware you’re messing up your hair, right?” asked Zane. 

  “I don’t care!”

  “For once,” mumbled Nya. 

  Kai continued to panic for a little bit. 

  “Kai, seriously, sit down!” Lloyd shouted. “Jay looks like he’s about to have a panic attack!”

  Kai collapsed on the floor of the bridge.

  “Are you okay, Kai?”

  “You mean besides the fact that I feel like I’m about to start hyperventilating? Yeah, I’m peachy!” Kai said sarcastically. 

  “What if ―” Nya thought for a minute. “What if you tried taking a nap?”

  “With how bad my anxiety is, that’s highly unlikely,” said Kai. 

  “Try,” said Zane. “You never know, it might help you to sleep a little.”

  “But how am I going to fall asleep?”

  “Calm down, take deep breaths,” said Zane. “You too, Jay.”

  Kai and Jay did as Zane said. Within a few minutes both were asleep.

  “Thank you, Zane,” said Lloyd.

  “You’re welcome,” said Zane. “I don’t think any of us need more anxiety.”

----

A few hours later the phone rang.

  “Destiny’s Bounty,” said Lloyd, grabbing the phone. He glanced at Zane and Nya and let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you so much, can we see him? Okay, thanks.”

  Lloyd hung up the phone.

   “They said he’s doing great,” he said, smiling. “He’s still asleep, but he was transported to the intensive care unit. We can visit him there.”

  Kai and Jay ran onto the bridge.

  “You’re up,” said Nya, looking at them.

  “I heard Cole’s okay!” said Kai excitedly.

  “Yep,” said Lloyd. “I just got off the phone with the hospital.”

  “Well, then, let’s go!” Jay exclaimed, bouncing from foot to foot.

  “Calm down, you two,” said Zane. Nya started steering the bounty towards the hospital. When they got there, they were directed to Cole’s room. They entered; Cole was now awake.

  “Hey, guys,” he said; his voice was a little hoarse. “Still got my fangs!”

  “I’m so happy you’re okay!” said Kai, smiling. Cole smiled back, exposing his fangs.

  “He was pacing so much that Jay almost had a panic attack,” said Zane. “We had to get them both to sleep to lower our anxiety.”

  Cole chuckled a little. 

  “Sounds like my fireball,” he said, looking at Kai. A nurse walked into the room.

  “It might take a bit for the full transformation,” he said. “He might still have some blood cravings, and he might be sensitive to sunlight for a while longer. Hopefully only a few days, a week or two max.”

  “I don’t still need blood, do I?” asked Cole. 

  “You aren’t technically human yet,” said the nurse. “We can provide you with some until the cravings stop.”

  “Yes, give it to him,” said Zane, glaring at Cole.

  “Za ―”

  “Cole, you’ll take it or else. The last thing we need is you getting sick again.”

  Cole crossed his arms and glared at his bed.

  “Fine.”

  The nurse left, coming back with a blood bag a few minutes later. 

  “Wow, you must really be craving that,” said Kai, who was sitting on the edge of Cole’s bed. Cole’s fangs had protracted as he caught a glimpse of the blood.

  “I don’t want to, but yeah, you’re right,” said Cole. He grabbed the bag from the nurse, piercing the top with his fangs. He licked the blood off of them, looking at Kai a little nervously.

  "What?" said Kai, looking at Cole with a raised eyebrow. "We're not going to stop you from drinking that."

  "It's not that," said Cole. He drank a little bit of the blood. "What if I lose control and attack one of you before I turn human?" 

  "Don't worry," said the nurse. "Hopefully that's the first thing to go, usually it only takes a week. You'll be here for that time."

  Cole drank a little bit more blood. He sniffed it a little.

  "Cole, what are you doing?" asked Jay, looking at Cole.

  "I can tell what blood type it is based on the scent," said Cole. "B negative."

  "You can tell just by scent?" asked Lloyd, his voice full of surprise.

  "And taste," said Cole. "Kai's blood type is B negative, that's why I was a little careless with him, it's my favorite blood type. I'm assuming I'll lose that trait," he added, looking at the nurse.

  "I don't actually know," said the nurse. "I didn't know vampires could smell different blood types."

  Cole licked a little bit of stray blood from his fangs. 

  "It's getting late," he said. "Won't Master Wu get worried?"

  "We'll be fine," said Nya. "If he really starts to worry he'll send someone after us."

  "He'll still get worried," said Cole. "He's probably worried about me."

  "We made him aware of the situation," said Kai. "You can relax, we can relax, he knows where we're at."

  Cole continued to drink the blood and lick his fangs. He stopped when it was half gone. 

  "What do I do with this?" he asked, looking at the nurse.

  "I'll take it," the nurse said, taking the blood bag. He put binder clips over each of the fang holes in the bag and put it on the table next to Cole. "If you need it it'll be right here."

  "Thanks," said Cole.

----

"How's he doing?" asked Wu as Kai, Jay, Zane, Nya, and Lloyd got off the bounty. 

  "He's doing great!" Kai said enthusiastically. "He'll be in the hospital for another week though."

  "At least he's doing okay," said Wu. "He's taking the blood the hospital offered him?"

  "I made him take it," said Zane. "I am not about to let him get sick again, it might slow down the transformation process."

  "Well, get some sleep," said Wu. "I'd like to go see Cole tomorrow as well."

----

"Hey, Master Wu!" said Cole happily. He was now in cardiac care unit. It had taken Kai, Jay, Zane, Nya, and Lloyd a little time to find it; Wu had been trying to steer them in the right direction, but they hadn't listened.

  "Hello, Cole," said Wu, smiling. "How are you?"

  "I'm great!" said Cole. He grabbed the blood bag from the previous night and drank a little bit of blood. "I wish I didn't have to drink this though."

  "You'll be okay," said Kai, sitting down next to Cole's feet. "Just drink it and you won't need it in a few weeks."

  "Look at it this way," said Zane. "If you're drinking it, you won't get sick and the transformation won't take as long."

  Cole drank some more blood. 

  "When this transformation is over, I'll be so happy," he said. "I really don't want to be a vampire anymore."

  "It won't be too long," said Jay. "Only a week or two is what the nurse said, right?"

  "Yeah," said Cole. "I hope it's only a week. Then I'll be human by the time I'm out of here."

  "Hopefully," said Kai. 

  "I'm kinda tired," said Cole, yawning. "I'm going to take a nap."

  "Do you think I'll get yelled at if I joined you?" said Kai, smiling.

  "I say we ask a nurse," said Nya. "We don't want you getting in trouble."

  Cole pushed a button on a remote on his bed. A nurse came in a few seconds later.

  "You called?"

  "Yeah, my boyfriend was wondering if he could take a nap with me."

  "That should be fine," said the nurse. "The only problem I can see is getting tangled in the IV tube."

  "I'll be okay," said Cole. "I don't see myself or Kai getting tangled in it anytime soon."

  "Okay," said the nurse. "Go ahead."

  "Thanks!"

  "We'll leave you two alone," said Wu. "We wouldn't want to interrupt your nap."

  "See you later then," said Kai. He laid down next to Cole. By the time Zane, Jay, Lloyd, Nya, and Wu left, they were asleep.

----

A/N: I had a lot of fun writing this, not gonna lie. So I don't know where to go with this. Like do I want the transformation to be successful? Do I want Cole to stay a vampire? You can go ahead and let me know what you want to see because I have no idea what to do. Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!