Chapter Text
Sensei Wu hits his staff on the concrete stairs where he was observing two of his six ninja spar. “The fifth has concluded. Kai, Cole has pinned you, in the event of an actual fight your laziness would've cost your life. It’s time you start taking training seriously again.” Cole stands up, brushing sweat off his brow with one hand and offering the other to Kai. The fire ninja slaps the hand away and picks himself up. “Clean up and gather the other ninja in the dining room.” Wu requests as he picks up his teapot and cup and disappears into the monastery.
Kai stares at the ground in defeat and storms off. He doesn’t take losses very well. Cole follows loosely behind him. The remaining four ninja were doing their own thing around their home. Lloyd was studying Oni history, Nya and Pixal were working on mechs in the workshop below, Zane was doing maintenance on himself and Jay was probably tinkering on whatever his new invention is.
Cole discards his dirty training GI and showers before changing into clean GI before knocking on Jay’s door opposite his. No response. He knocks a few more times before Jay answers. “Yeah?” He calls out, too busy to actually open the door. Cole slides the door open and lets himself in. He peers around Jay’s room as if he was revisiting his childhood room even though he was in his room only yesterday.
Jay was a geek, a nerd even. His walls were plastered with posters of his variety of interests from Starefarer to a portrait of Cyrus Borg. A small bookshelf terribly organised of books Cole has never seen Jay touch but he swears he’s read them all. His floor, covered in boxes full of spare parts none of which Cole could name. His wooden desk that’s full of scratches, stains, burn marks and everything you wouldn’t expect. On the wall behind his desk, Jay had hung up a cork board that was organised just as messy as the rest of his room. Pinned on it were blueprints for inventions, receipts for items he probably doesn’t know the location of, notes with the worst handwriting ever known. However, in front of all the mess, Jay had carefully pinned up photos. One of Ed and Edna, one of him and Nya, one of the whole team and then one of him and Cole.
“Cole.” Jay speaks up, snapping Cole out of his trance. Cole blinked and took a breath before remembering what he had come to say, “Sorry, Wu wants us to meet in the dining room.”
Cole looks away from the blue ninja and at his desk before looking back up, “What in the name of the First Spinjitzu Master is that”
Jay looks down at his invention. It was a round metal thing that seemed to have legs. “You’ll see” Was all Jay answered before standing up and ushering the taller ninja out of his room.
Everyone was already gathered where Wu had asked before the two boys turned up. “Okay, now that you’re all here now, today’s tasks have come in and I have allocated them. Zane and Pixal, Born asks for your assistance with some mechanical repairs. Nya and Lloyd, you two have the usual city patrol.”
Jay sighs knowing the last two people he could be partnered with, one would be pure bliss, the other hell on Ninjago. “Cole, a farmer out in the rice fields, needs help moving stock. Jay and Kai,” Jay’s heart sinks as Kai’s jaw clenches, “ There’s a cat stuck in a tree.”
“Is that it?!” Kai exclaims frustrated,
“Either you go save the cat with Jay, or you stay here and clean the entire monastery.” WU abruptly responds. Kai lowers his head and apologises.
Wu finishes talking and Jay speeds off to change into his GI. Kai was ready after sparring and started out the door and down the stairs not waiting for his allocated partner.
“Wish me luck.” Jay says unenthusiastically as he jogs past Nya on his way out of the monastery. She gives him a sympathetic smile.
It doesn’t take them long to navigate through the city and find the cat. An old woman with grey hair looks frantically up at a tree as the two ninja approach. “Oh thank heavens you’re finally here. Whiskers has gotten himself stuck in the tree. Please get him down safely.” The lady practically begs.
“Don’t worry, we’ll get him down. Kai sighs, frustrated by the unchallenging task, “Jay you climb the tree and I’ll catch Whiskers.”
“Why do I have to climb the tree?” Jay questions annoyed,
“I don’t want to climb the tree.” Kai answers flat out. Jay bites his tongue and starts his way up the tree. “Here kitty, kitty, kitty!” Jay crawls along a branch holding a hand out and tutting at the cat. Whiskers hisses and claws at Jay’s face. “Whiskers doesn’t like being called kitty and being tutted at!” The lady shouts up from below.
“That would’ve been nice to know before I did those exact things!!” Jay shouts whilst wrestling with Whiskers but also trying to save the skin on his body. A snapping sound comes from in front of Jay’s body. His head whips forward to notice the branch he was clinging onto was breaking. “Oh no.” He muttered to himself as he desperately tried to grab onto another branch. Not quick enough, the brand slips through his hands and Jay plummets to the floor landing on his back. Whiskers landing on all four, his nails digging into Jay’s chest before walking off to his owner innocently. He peers to Kai hoping he would be offering a hand to help but instead notices him holding back a laugh. Jay signs and picks himself up.
“Oh Whiskers you poor thing, you fell from very high up on that tree. You ninja need to be more careful.” The lady complains before walking away. Jay turns to Kai and notices a smirk appearing on his face, “Thanks for all the help back there, that was an amazing catch.
“You’re welcome!” Kai walks off around the corner. Jay sighs again, it was going to be a long day.
Jay runs to catch up with Kai who had begun to patrol. Kai’s senses were heightened when he was wearing his GI. He yearned for a battle or challenge, just not one to share with Jay. However, Ninjago city is very quiet today except for a handful of his fangirls. Every corner the brown haired ninjas turn there’s at least two girls who run full speed towards Kai. Why couldn’t Jay have been paired with Cole to move stock? Sure Jay isn't as strong as Cole but surely it isn’t that hard to keep cows in line when moving them from one field to another. He even would’ve been useful with Borg, Pixal and Zane. But no, he got lumped in with Kai. And now his cheek is bleeding and both his chest and back hurts.
The chest pain is all too familiar to Jay. The “Good Old Days” of binding all day, every day.
Jay does his best to regulate his breathing and ignoring the stinging pain on his face and now on his chest. “Kai, I’m your biggest fan! Can I get a photo with you? A girl with blonde hair pushes Jay out the way, almost knocking him off his feet. The small mentions of Kai’s name attracts a growing group of fans. Jay pushes his way through them and out of the gaggle.
“What’s going on over here?” Lloyd asks as he and Nya turn the corner next to Jay who jumps all of a sudden. “You scared the shit out of me!” Jay clings onto his chest, the scare knocked any air he had managed to inhale straight out of his lungs.
“Where’s Kai?” Lloyd asks as Nya moves to Jay’s side and puts an arm around his shoulder.
“In there somewhere.” Jay responds pointing to the group of fans. Nya gently grabs the other blue ninja’s face and lifts it to face hers. “Oh Jay you’re bleeding!” She carefully assesses the cut.
“The cat Kai and I were supposed to save scratched me,” He starts as Lloyd passes her a tissue to clean the cut, “I also fell out the tree. Your brother stood and offered no help and then walked off. I’ve lost count of how many times I get injured when I get sent somewhere with him.” Jay begins to ramble.
“I’m gonna go try to pull Kai out of that.” Lloyd says with a chuckle before disappearing off into a mess of long hair and giggles. Jay drops his head onto Nya’s shoulder, “Why does Kai hate me?
“He doesn’t hate you Jay. He’s just weird I guess.” Her argument didn’t convince Jay in the slightest.
“I wonder how Cole’s doing. He gets to spend the day by the rice fields where everyone’s polite and considerate of other, herding animals. While I'm stuck with Kai. A cat clawed my face and made me fall out of a tree. Kai’s fangirls barged me out of the way.” Jay sighs deeply. Being a ninja isn’t easy. More so if you’re not attractive and witty like Kai, or strong like Cole, or intelligent like Zane and Pixal, or as independent as Nya is.
“The city’s really slow today apart from that gang, I could ask Wu if we could help Cole instead of wasting our time?” Nya offers. Jay picks his head up and muffles a “Sure.”
The blue ninjas arrive at the rice fields after a while. They didn’t mind the time it takes to get there on foot, it was a walk they did often. The villages were relaxing and peaceful. A complete opposite of the city.
As the two visit frequently they’re recognized immediately. “Nya, Jay! It’s so wonderful to see you again!” The oldest lady in the village greets them as they walk past where she sits in her rocking chair and watches over the workers.
“It’s lovely to see you too!” Nya responds with her warm smile and Jay smiles beside her.
“Need another break from the city? I’ll start brewing some tea.” She leans forward in her chair to get up,
“Thank you for the offer but not today, we’re actually here to see Cole. He’s moving some stock.” Nya informs as the lady settles back down in her chair,
“Oh yeah, the big strong lad right? SHe questions. Jay laughs but both him and Nya nod. “He should be around the corner with the sheep.” They thank her and walk off.
As the lady had described, Cole was in the field. He’d been asked to herd the sheep into the next field as the farmer’s dog was equally as old as his owner. Cole had taken the shirt of his GI off and was left with his trousers and a black vest. His locks were tied half up, half down. Jay felt his heart flutter and the world around him slow down.
Nya elbows Jay amused at the blush forming on his cheeks. “Hey Cole! Need some help?!” Nya shouts out as they approach the gate. Cole turns around and a big bright smile spreads across his face at the sight of the two ninja.
Even though he’s too far away to see exactly who he’s looking at, fear rises within Jay. Was he looking and smiling at Nya? He’s allowed to look and smile at Nya. Jay’s chest tightens and he notices the pain returning.
The water and lightning ninja hop over the gate as the earth ninja jogs over. “Ouch, looks like the cat wasn’t very friendly.” Cole immediately directs his attention to Jay’s injuries. He holds his face in his large hands and gently rubs his thumb over the small blisters that had begun to form. “Yeah Whiskers wasn’t too fond of me. And apparently Kai isn’t either.” Jay shrugged.
“He fell out of the tree.” Nya added as she tries her best not to giggle. If Nya was with Jay instead of Kai, she would’ve also laughed at him falling but the difference is she would still help. She wouldn’t have left him like her brother did. She probably would’ve ended up on the floor next to him. Jay smiles at Nya’s giggles but Cole doesn't gain even the slightest smirk. He actually looked pretty concerned.
“Are you okay? Your back doesn’t hurt does it? You can open the gates for us, I can’t have you running after sheep if you’re injured.” Cole fusses. The slight injury is nothing compared to near 24/7 in a binder. Jay can handle a chest injury.
“I’m okay Cole, honestly. You sound like my mother.” Jay laughs trying to contain the fact he’s slightly flustered. Cole nods and gives Jay some space.
“I’ve got half the flock through the gate already. They refused to move as a group and instead split up. Jay if you stick by the fence on the left and Nya on the right fence; I’ll go down the middle and grab some. You’re free to try and catch one but try not to pull on their wool. The farmer would kill me if we bruised the meat.” Cole starts dishing out orders and Jay and Nya share a look after the meat comment.
They do as he allocated and stick towards the fence line and watch carefully as Cole inches closer to the sheep. Cole glances over to each blue ninja on the outside and signals for them to move slower. The sheep become disturbed and try to disperse. As they run past, Cole tackles two to the ground. He hoists them up onto each of his shoulders. Just behind him Nya pins a ewe to the ground. “I got one!” She announces trying to hold it in a way so that she won’t hurt or lose hold of it. “Jay, can you get the gate for me?”
Cole’s muscles flexed as the sheep struggled in his arms. Sweat dripped down his face and onto his chest soaking his vest that hugged his body.
“Jay? Are you okay?” Cole’s hoarse voice brings Jay back to the present. He jogs off as Nya snorts and opens the gate ensuring no sheep get back through. As Cole drops them into the next field, Jay stands close still holding onto the gate. Despite all the sweat, Cole still smells like Cole.
He thanks Jay for getting the gate before jogging off to Nya and helping her with the ewe. They carry her together and put her in the field with Jay still by the gate. “Okay, one, two, three, four, five,” Cole counts under his breath, “Five more to go.”
The ninja assume the same positions as before, this time the remaining sheep had ran into the far corner of the field. As they become disturbed, they don’t disperse by trying to run through gaps, but instead 3 of the remnants run straight for Jay. “Hey back up ladies,” Jay slowly walks backwards and bends down to check, “Definitely ladies.” A dip in the ground suddenly appears and Jay stumbles backwards spooking the sheep to run straight for him, “Shit!” He screams and turns around sprinting away.
“What do they want from me!!” He shouts as the ewes chase him around the field and Nya doubles over laughing.
“Oh for the love of the first master!” Cole exclaims watching his close friend being chased by sheep. “Nya open the gate for me, I think if we get Jay to run through they’ll follow him through.” Nya straightens up and follows Cole to the gate and into the other field.
“Jay, run this way!” Cole puts his hands around his mouth and shouts
“You want me to run into the rest of the sheep?!”
“Just do it!”
Jay does as he’s told and turns and sprint directly towards the gate with the ewes still hot at his heels. As he reaches the gate Nya opens it fully and Cole backs up into the other field. As soon as he reaches the gate, Jay screams and leaps into Cole who just manages to catch him. He wraps his arms and legs around Cole’s large torso as he struggles to regain his breath. Jay refuses to release his grip from the brown ninja and Cole doesn’t force him to. He walks the blue ninja out of the field and through the gate.
He slowly lowers Jay to the ground, “Are you okay?” Nya chuckles as she rubs Jay’s back.
“Perfectly fine.” He says between breaths,
“Okay buddy, why don’t you stay here and catch your breath? Nya and I can get the last two.” Cole offers as he and Nya start to walk towards the sheep.
Jay hops up on the gate. He felt a little humiliated and betrayed by animals. They were not on his side today.
By the time he looked up, his friends had closed in on the two ewes and had them cornered. Like the other attempts, the sheep became spooked. The two ninja jumped forward trying to catch the ewes but instead fell flat on their faces. Jay laughed until he saw Cole quickly pick himself up to help Nya up. He watched as they laughed. Cole’s hands on either side of her shoulders. So he was looking at her earlier. They stood in front of each other for a few more moments until the sheep turned and headed straight for Jay.
His jaw clenched as he hopped off the fence and got ready to open it. The other ninja jogged up behind the sheep to ensure they get through the gate. Jay swiftly opens and closes the gate catching the last of the sheep.
“Good work Jay!” Cole says enthusiastically, Jay nods and walks off.
“Is he okay?” Cole turns to Nya,
“I think he’s just having one of those days, you know how he and Kai don’t get along.” Nya responds quietly as they catch up to the lightning ninja.
“I’ll go let the farmer know we’re done. You two go on, I’ll catch up.” Cole says before closing the gate behind them and jogging in the opposite direction through the village.
All except the two nindroids had made it back to the monastery. Jay headed straight to his room. He immediately took his GI off and assessed his chest and cheek in the dirty mirror hidden in the corner of his room. Thankfully, he wasn't bruised. Only a few scratches from the cat’s claws. After changing into lounge clothes he grabs his headphones and gets straight back to tinkering. His emotions were too conflicting to think about. He needed something to distract him and tinkering to loud music was always his saviour. He needed a distraction very badly today.
Hours pass easily when Jay has detached himself from reality and before he knows it, Nya is by his side shaking his shoulder. “Jay!” she takes his headphones off, “I figured it would be best to give you some space after today but I got worried when you didn’t appear to eat with us.” She sets a plate of cold food down on his desk. He moves his invention to the side and tucks in.
“I’m always here if you need to talk Jay, even if it’s about my brother. As much as i love him, I’m also willing to admit he can be an idiot sometimes”
She watches as he wolfs down his food as if he had been starved. Rice sticks to the side of his mouth. Nya smiles as he catches her gaze and fails to lick it off. She wipes the grain off his face and gets up to leave.
“Wait,” Jay finishes his last mouthful and grabs her hand, “I um, I don’t know how to.” He stumbles over his words struggling to form a coherent sentence.
“Take your time.” She reassures him as they take a seat on his chaotic bed. Jay inhaled deeply and collected his thoughts before starting, “I know it’s silly and old, but the way Cole looked at you today when he saw us and how he held you after you both fell over, I can’t help but feel jealous. I know we resolved the triangle and you’re with Pixal now but I can’t help it.”
The corner of Nya’s mouth turn down and she rests a hand on Jay’s leg, “Cobalt,” she drags the word out for emphasis, ”You have nothing to be jealous about. When we got to the sheep field today, Cole saw both of us. In all honesty, I thought he was looking at you. Have you forgotten that he was immediately concerned about your cuts?”
Jay averts his gaze growing slightly embarrassed, “You know what Cole’s like. He helped me up and asked me if I was okay because he’s a gentleman. He literally held you in his arms after those ewes chased you. And carried you out the field. And showed more concern for your health.” She picks up Jay’s hands and holds them in hers, gently rubbing her thumbs over his freckles.
“You’re right, I’m sorry.” Jay finally speaks up.
“You don’t need to apologise. I know how hard the whole love triangle thing was for you and I will never not be sorry about it. But as you said, I’m with Pixa now and Cole and I would never end up together.” She reassures him again before a smile grows on her face, “I thought the goal was for you and Cole to be together.”
Jay’s head whips up, “Shhh someone might hear you.” He puts his hands gently over Nya’s mouth as she giggles. A smile creeps onto Jay’s face. “There you go!” Nya beams.
“I hadn’t realised you were scared of sheep. I don’t think I've ever seen you run that fast or jump that far.” Nya giggles once again.
“If you had seen the way they stared directly at me with their beady eyes before running straight for me, you would’ve sprinted away as well.” Jay defends himself,
“You really clung to Cole, I thought you were gonna accidentally strangle him,”
“One of them glared her weird teeth at me, I thought she was gonna bite me. I needed to be out of range of those gnashers.”
Nya slaps her hand laughing and falls back onto the bed. “You are one very silly person, Jay walker.” She says in between giggles.
“Thank you very much!” Jay enthusiastically responds.
A familiar voice calling out for Nya interrupts her laughter. Pixal slides the door open and pokes her head through, “Oh you’re in here. Hello Jay!” She says with a warm smile. Nya jumps up from Jay’s bed and hugs her robotic partner before running back over to Jay and whispering in his ear, “Why don’t you go see what Cole’s doing?” She winks at him before leaving.
With sore ears from wearing headphones for hours and paint stained hands, Jay picks up his plate and makes his way to the kitchen hoping to bump into Cole on the way.
Flashing lights beam out of the rec room followed by video game sound effects. The brown haired ninja peers in and finds the brown and red ninja playing Fist to Face 2. He sighs knowing Kai wouldn’t let him join and instead heads into the kitchen to wash his plate. It didn't take long as he had practically cleaned the plate while devouring every crumb of his meal.
He bumps into a certain red ninja on the way back. “Oh sorry,” Jay stumbles back slightly. Kai looks down at Jay’s right arm before turning around without saying anything and waking off. “Yeah you run away loser!” Cole banters walking out the room before noticing Jay, “Oh hey Jay.”
“He doesn’t look happy.” Jay states the obvious,
“He just lost a tournament of Fist to Face 2 to the champ!” Cole flexes his muscles jokingly, “Although the loser had to do everyone’s washing but he refused to touch anyones underwear.”
“I can help, I think I have some washing to do.” Jay offers,
“You sure?” Cole raises an eyebrow following him down the corridor to their rooms. Jay nods before disappearing into his room and reemerging with a small amount of clothes.
They go room to room gathering everyone’s dirty clothes before meeting up again and separating them out by colours and fabrics.
“Ugh there’s still wet clothes in here.” Cole complains as he takes the clothes out and puts them in a basket.
“That's where my hoodie went!” Jay realises picking up an old Starefarer hoodie.
They load up the washing machine with GIs as they take priority in being clean and leave the piles of clothes neatly on top. Cole picks up the basket of wet clothes and Jay grabs the pegs.
He follows the taller nina outside onto the courtyard. Cole finds the washing line and drags it over the training yard to the other side. “I didn’t realise it was dark already.” Jay announces as the boys begin to pin up the clothes, occasionally glancing at the sky.
“The moons beautiful isn’t it?” Cole asks watching the lightning ninja out of the corner of his eye,
“I mean yeah, but I prefer the stars. Did you know some of the stars we can see actually don’t exist anymore?” Jay rambles and Cole chuckles deeply,
“I did not know that,”
“Yeah, they’re so far away from us that by the time their light reaches us they don’t exist anymore.”
They finish hanging up the clothes and sit on the stairs of their shared home. Luckily, the monastery was situated on a high mountain just outside of and above Ninjago City so that the light pollution didn’t affect their night sky.
They sit in silence for a while stargazing until Jay asks, “How was your day? Can’t be any worse than mine.”
Cole looks away from the stars and instead at Jay, “My day was good. The cows were significantly easier to move than the sheep. I was actually really glad to see you and Nya. Without you both it would’ve taken me far longer to move them. You were a huge help even though you got chased by some ewes and had to be rescued.” Cole chuckles again and watches as an embarrassed smile grows on Jay’s face.
“I was terrified of them and didn’t know what else to do.” Jay giggles lightly, catching Cole’s attention.
“And what happened after that? You lost all your energy and stopped talking to us and then went straight to bed. Nya said you were having an ‘off day’ but I know you Jay. What’s up?” Cole’s face and demeanour shifts.
“Are you implying that Nya doesn’t know me?” Jay attempts to shift the conversation,
“I’m not gonna force you to talk about it if you don’t want to, but if you ever do I'm all ears,”
“I do want to talk, I just don’t know how to say it.” Jay breathes out,
“That’s okay, take as much time as you need.” Cole smiles looking over at Jay who doesn’t look away from the stars, “You really do like the stars don’t you?”
Jay nods and peers at Cole when he wasn’t looking. The moon lit his face perfectly; It highlighted all his flawless features and made his eyes shine like the stars. Cole thought exactly the same about Jay.
“Living at the junkyard, I would watch the stars with my parents every night. They would point out any constellation they could see until I beat them to it. Then I found out, you know, that I was adopted by them and my biological father was the man I had idolised my whole life even after he passed.” Jay stops speaking and fiddles with his fingers,
“He has kept up with me and everything I have accomplished. He was a star during his living life, and now I like to think he’s one of those stars up there, still keeping an eye on me.” Jay fixates on a bright star, “You see that one there?” He shifts closer to Cole and points towards the star, “I like to think that’s him.”
Cole gazes down Jay’s arm towards the star and nods, “It’s a very bright and proud star.”
He turns to his blue best friend and smiles at the wide smile on his freckled face. “They look a lot like stars.” Cole pokes at the freckles on Jay’s arm, careful to not touch the large scar on his arm but lightly presses every freckle around it.
Jay’s cheeks blush as he tries to contain himself. Cole looks up and meets Jay’s gaze.
“Cole? Are you out-” Zane starts before realising he has interrupted something. The boys quickly sit apart and Jay looks away.
“I apologise for interrupting, I just wanted to know where you were.” Zane apologises before going back inside. Cole looks away from the door and back at Jay. His cheeks were a bright pink.
They sit in a slightly awkward silence feeling like they’d been caught doing something. “I think I’m gonna head back in, you coming?” Cole asks whilst standing up. Jay shakes his head in response. “Okay, goodnight.” Cole pulls the door closed behind him.
The earth ninja quickly changes out of his lounge clothes and peers out of his window with his hands together, “Thank you!” He says to the stars, to every single one of them- whether it was alive or not.