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Well… Today was going fantastic so far…
..That was sarcasm. It wasn’t.
Today was awful, and Jay Walker–the babbler mouth–could ramble on about it, but there’s only one thing that’s got him all tangled up inside.
After lunch–which he skipped, due to his lack of appetite–he was sitting outside, enjoying what little of the sun was left as clouds started to roll in. (He had briefly wondered if they were rain clouds coming in.) His quiet time didn’t last all that long, though, as Nya came to find him. At the time, he was grateful for her presence, wanting something to brighten the ever dimming mood the day was putting him in.
“Hey, Jay.” She’d said, just as soft and casual as she does, and a faint smile flicked on, as he sat straighter.
“Nya. What’re you doing out here?” His bad day was forgotten entirely as he watched her sit down beside him. Then her body language registered to him.
She sat, staring afar off, legs pulled up with her arms propped on her knees. Back slouched, as she sighed, looking down to her fiddling hands.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, his smile falling away.
“Nothing..” She hummed out tensely, before lightly shaking her head. “No, it’s.. it’s something..” She fumbles with a light huff, her eyes searching ahead for the words she can’t seem to find.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” He tries to amend, a nervous twitch of his lip obscuring his words at a point.
“No… I have to..” She turns to look him in the eyes, and the sense of dread that swept over him caused him to shiver.
Her eyes went downcast for a moment. “When.. when you were a ninja, and I was Samurai X, we were a team.” She paused, then looked at him. “A great team, even.”
He wanted to smile, but couldn’t find any reason to when her tone carried something that he just knew would drop.
“And..?” He drew out, trying to egg her on to continue: some part of him wanting to hold on to the idea it’s not as bad as she’s making it out to be.
“And.. I still think we’re a great team, and as much as I loved those moments.. There’s no need for ninja or Samurai anymore.”
His stomach started to twist, and he held his breath.
“We may have worked well in those dangerous situations, but.. We’re not.. –This team isn’t really holding up without a reason to keep fighting…”
“Nya..”
“I think.. We need a break.”
He couldn’t hide how his shoulders visibly sunk, his heart–with them. But, his mouth was moving before he could really think. “I mean, Sensei has been saying we need a break for a while now. Even going to-”
“No, Jay. I mean us. We need a break.” She presses, gesturing between them. “We need space. To see other people: that kind of break.”
All I want is you…
And, as everything within him was twisting, screaming, and – for lack of a better word – dying, he pulled up a smile and gave a stiff nod, trying to hide the strain behind the effort. And with a deep breath, which did throb with an ache through his chest at how hard he had to force it, he patted his legs, and sat a bit straighter, looking ahead.
“Y-yeah, okay.” His voice came out a little flat, which didn’t clash well with the tight smile that was now making his face hurt.
“That’s it?” Her voice seemed a little hurt, and the way her eyes reflected that hurt, had him reeling internally.
“What’s ‘it?’” He nearly choked that time, smile gone as he looked at her confused.
“Just ‘Yeah, okay?’ No ‘Why?’ Or, ‘We’ll figure it out?’ Nothing?”
“What, is that what you want me to say?”
“I don’t know?” Her anger was a lot more obvious now. “I just thought you’d be more upset over the fact I practically just dumped you.”
He flinched; hard.
“What?” She asked, as if he said something, but he kept his eyes ahead.
“Nothing.” It came out flat: almost robotic. Fingers starting to dig into his knees.
“Well. Okay.” She emphasized with an obvious mocking jab, and got to her feet. “I’ll see you later, then.” And she was off, leaving before he could think to apologize for something he didn’t understand.
What’d I do?
He watched after her extended, heavy steps on rock, as she held herself: fingers just peeking from under her elbows at her sides.
He was stuck, eyes still watching her go, even when she was no longer in view.
He’d only blinked when he was hit with several droplets of rain. The quickly increasing pitter-patters become a roaring thunder of pouring water. And he stayed out there until the icy shivers that wracked him, making him sharply aware of just how cold he was just to sprint for a door and slip towards a closet for towels.
And now? Digging through the closet to grab the biggest, bluest towel they have available: he ruffles the towel over his head and through his hair, hard enough to give him a headache, and starts clumsily making his way towards his room.
“Hey, Jay!” Announced Cole from somewhere off to his right. “Jay?”
He didn’t stop moving, just kept his steadily increasing pace down the hall, beelining for the shared bedroom: towel over his head, and running down his face. When he’d finally reached the door to his room, he shoved it open on his way in.
“Dude, what’s your problem?” Accused Kai from somewhere inside, agitated about the forceful entrance.
“Nothing.” He replied automatically, not paying attention.
“Yeah, ‘cause storming into the room and angrily scrubbing your head with a towel is ‘nothing.’” The tone clearly gave away that the master of fire was rolling his eyes. There was a hint of teasing to his words, but that was lost on Jay.
“Yes, it is.” He bites out, yanking the towel off his head; hair, a soaked, skrunkly mess as he glares at Kai through his loose curls.
“Okay..?” Kai slowly turns away from the awkward tension and starts steering for the door that was swung open earlier. “I’ll just.. go, then.”
He exhales in a huff, the towel being dropped on the low coffee table, and he slumps: all anger fizzling out. His eyes trained on the towel, knowing he should probably get a new change of clothes, but his limbs refused to move.
A couple knocks on hard-wood has him listening as the visitor walks in, a little cautiously.
“Hey. I just saw Kai leave. What’s going on?”
His sights stay on the towel as his mind wanders. “Nothing…” He’s said for the third time now?
“Jay, don’t lie to me. We both know it’s not going to work.”
His shoulders tense up as his face scrunches in a silent wish to keep quiet: but.. “I know..”
Then there’s a sigh. “What’s going on?”
Jay scoffs with a tightness that scratches at the top of his throat. “What isn’t going on at this point..?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about everything, Cole!” He suddenly shouts, turning to meet eyes with the dark haired teen, who stands shocked.
“Everything’s been going wrong since the moment I woke up! I couldn’t find my gi for training, having to ruin one of my favorite shirts! I lost my nun-chucks somehow, and ended up having to fight against you guys without them: painfully losing, might I add!” He gestures to his various new cuts and bruises. “And I ended up destroying Zane’s cook-book, which left him silently resenting me all day! And that’s just before lunch!”
“-Okay, so you’ve had a bad day.” Cole puts his hands up in an attempt to stop the motor-mouth.
“Oh, and that’s not all! While sitting alone, thinking: ‘it can’t possibly get any worse;’ things somehow get worse!” He breathes out in huffy shouts, eyes growing misty. “Nya shows up to tell me…” He trails off, looking away as he wipes at his eyes. His steam is suddenly gone. “..we’re done.”
They both fall silent. The only sound to accompany his pounding heart, being the pouring rain that continuously beats at the building outside.
“Wait, you- you guys are..”
“Yeah..” Jay rattles out with a sniff. “And you wanna know the reason why? ..” He laughs out bitterly, getting a little nasally sounding. “Because we’re ‘a great team,’ but only when we’re fighting to save the world.” He mocks flatly, using the coffee table as support to sit down. Reclining against it uncomfortably.
It’s silent again, before there’s a couple creaks on the floorboards. Then Cole’s sitting beside him, shoulder-to-shoulder: one of them sitting higher and straighter than the other.
“What’s worse.. I believe her…”
“Jay..”
“No, seriously.. I was never all that popular in school. What - with everyone avoiding or laughing at me because I’m ‘different.’”
“You never told me you went to school.” Cole stated more as a question, curiosity bleeding through.
“That’s because I wish I didn’t. I had hoped if I just acted like it never happened, then it didn’t. I mean–come on–Kai and Nya didn’t really do school, at least, not the same kind as I did.”
“There’s a reason for that, Jay..”
“I know, but Zane? He never went to school.”
“Aand, that’s because he’s a nindroid.”
“Yeah, but we didn’t know that at the time. It.. It felt unfair, so.. I just pretended it never happened.”
Cole sighed. “I can’t argue with that.”
“..I liked to build and make things. Any sort of weird ideas that came to mind, and dad always encouraged it: but no one else walked into school with some kind of contraption everyday.” Jay sunk a little lower, all his weight dropping onto the coffee table behind him. “Man, did the bullies love me, though.” He outwardly cringed.
Cole sat silent, sharing a bit of a sad, understanding look.
“In between every class, break - bathroom, or otherwise - there was always some bully waiting around the corner. If it wasn’t about how I looked, or dressed; it was about how I acted, or what I made.”
“..Trust me, I wasn’t all that popular, either.”
“Oh, come on. You’re Cole! You were probably the toughest guy in your school!”
“Eh…” Cole shrugged.
“Dude, you said you first met Wu when climbing a mountain.”
“Okay, maybe a little.”
“Understatement-of-the-year-award, goes to–”
“Okay, I get it.” Cole chuckles. “But I kind of made myself a reputation for getting into fights at school. Sure I kept the bullies away from the little kids, but it also kept everyone away from me, too. No one wanted to hang out with the guy who could beat you into a pulp if you said the wrong thing.”
“Wait, did you seriously?”
“No.” Cole nudged him with an odd smile, but it fell rather quickly. “But that’s what everyone else seemed to think.”
“Hm.” Jay hummed in understanding, then he smiled. “Wish you were at my school. Dude, I would’ve had a field-day watching you beat up my bullies.”
Cole outright laughs with a wheeze.
“I’m serious! I would’ve been cheering you on from the side-lines!” Jay jumped up, pumping his fists in the air.
Cole swatted a hand down on his head - not painfully - before pulling him into a headlock. “Yeah, and then you’d be running the other direction like everyone else.”
“What? No way: I’m sure we’d be friends like we are now.” Then Jay’s smile wilted a little, and he looked uncertain. “..right?” The way he shrinks..
“You know it.” Cole adjusts to side-hug Jay, a softer smile popping up. And Jay smiled easier. “But about Nya.”
Aaand, Jay’s smile was gone.
“Don’t worry about it. She just needs some space. And I think you do, too.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you’ve been kind of following her around a lot.”
“What? No I haven’t.”
“Jay. On her lunch break, you were just following her down the hall talking about whatever, while you still had boxes in your arms.”
“That’s because I had to bring them to the workshop.”
“You were following her to the dining room…”
“...” Jay glances away. “Okaaayyy, maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention to where I was going..”
“And that’s an issue all on its own. She probably just wants her space. And when you’re both busy fighting, training, or whatever else, she has more of that then when neither of you are fighting for Ninjago.”
Jay exhales heavily, sluggishly letting himself dangle in the partial hug.
“Just give it time. And maybe learn to step back sometimes, too.”
Jay gives a small, crooked grin, trying to hide his embarrassment. “..I’ll– work on it.”
“Good. Now how about some Fist-to-face? Seems like someone could use the distraction.”
“Really? Who?”
Cole’s expression drops. “Just say ‘yes.’”
Jay laughs with a snort. “Yeah.”
“Great.” Cole suddenly shoves Jay and darts for the door. “I call dibs on the black remote!”
Jay jumps after. “Hey! No!” Slipping out the door; “YOU KNOW THAT’S THE BEST REMOTE!”
“That's why I called dibs!”
“CHEATS!”