A/N: so here's a soulmate fic. I'm kinda sick of the "Cole needs a girlfriend" protest, so this happened.
Cole doesn't know what to make of it when five strings suddenly appear on his right hand.
It's his sixth birthday, which is pretty early for most people, the usual age is about ten or so, but who is he to complain? He just got his soulmates!
Five people, five people, he smiles. Five people are gonna be my soulmates. He feels lucky. A lot of people get maybe one or two, but five? His smile turns giddy, laughing and not even caring about the cake in front of him (which is a first.)
He runs up to his mother, squealing and bubbling with happiness. She smiles, but his father does not. He frown when he sees they're all blue, rubbing the red band around his ring finger.
Lou examines his son's fingers, Cole's mother tries to stop him but Cole looks confused. Lou pulls back sadly. What's wrong? I have five soulmates, he cheers happily.
There's this crestfallen look on his father's face, he keeps rubbing his red band, and sudden Cole thinks that's bad. He looks down, the smile falling from his face. He nimbly plays with his fingers, hiding them from his father, all the badbadbadbad blue strings he suddenly wants to cut off.
His mother scooped him up, scoffing at her husband, and bopping his nose. It's wonderful, she says, and he tries to believe her.
Cole grows up realizing three things.
One: his father wants him to be a dancer
Two: having no red strings is bad, at least in his father's eyes.
Three: his parents fight about both. A lot.
He spends one night silently crying outside the door, listening to his parents argue.
"You know what this means for Cole!"
"Honey, it's not like he doesn't have soulmates."
"Don't you read the news? There are people out there thinking they're defective for not having a romantic soulmate! What happens if Cole starts thinking that? We don't know what he's thinking!"
Cole rushes in, sobbing and yelling for them to stop, stop fighting and worrying over him. Maybe his strings are bad, but he isn't!
Lou wraps his arms around the boy, sighing quietly. "I'm sorry."
"Please don't be mad at each other," Cole begs, "I'm okay, please." He tries to stop tears, trying to stop making them think he was not okay. He tugs at his strings nervously, wrapping them around his fingers over and over again. Sometimes, he can feel tugs back, tiny little ones, but they're there.
He smiled when he feels a tug on the ring finger. The thumb and index respond simultaneously. The middle is the last, and he's never gotten a tug from the pinky. Maybe they're too young? Or not born yet?
His ten-year old self isn't quite sure. But he tries to be happy for his family.
Lou always looks so sad, and so Cole forced himself to take dance lessons and play the piano and join choir, anything to make him happy.
People give him looks at school, and he notices each one has a red string on their ring, not a blue one. The bullies tease him about it, the teacher's pity him and his friends seem reluctant.
He starts understanding that people without romantic soulmates are viewed like the people without soulmates at all... poor unfortunate souls that will never find happiness. Cole puffs out his cheeks angrily at this. He has five best friends he's yet to meet, and friends are supposed to make you happy! He's going to find the five best people in the world, and he's going to prove them wrong.
He'll prove them all wrong. He can be happy!
When the mother dies and Lou is grief stricken, going out, away from the house so many times and Cole is forced to do the chores, he finally snaps.
It's when he climbs the mountain and meets the old man, life starts making sense.
Sensei barely glances at his hand, at the only blue strings that disappear into the distance. He sits with his tea and talks with Cole easily. It's the first person he meets that doesn't judge him for his strings.
He's asked to join the ninja, help fight crime, and Cole agrees.
He meets his first two soulmates there.
He's painting and suddenly Ring and Middle yank, Cole nearly jumps out of his skin and follows the appearing string, his heart is going a mile a minute an he bumps into two figures. He looks up and is met with a pale face with freckles splattered across it, deep blue eyes and ginger hair, and another with nearly white skin and white hair with pale blue eyes.
Cole immediately blushes in embarrassment, the freckled-face boy giving a bright smile and holding out his hand. Cole notices that his pinky and index dissapear, the sign of already meeting his soulmate. Looking down, both of his that yanked disappeared too. (He tries to ignore the red strings on both their hands, too caught up in the moment.)
Jay and Zane, names etch themselves into Cole's mind. He smiles at his soulmates, who each give a smile back. Jay's is huge and cheesy, and Zane's is small but there.
His Index is a boy named Kai, and Cole is just as happy to meet him. Sensei introduces him to the team, and he feels a familiar yank.
Though, he learns that his thumb (and Jay's red, but he won't think about that now) is Nya, Kai's sister and he's that more ready to save her.
Soon enough, it leads to the five of them laughing and hanging out (and suddenly Nya is Jay's romantic soulmate, which Kai isn't very happy about.)
Cole grins with his friends, and everything feels right for once.
His pinky (and a finger of all the other's) is the son of Lord Garmadon, Lloyd, which only makes each more estatic to learn he is the Green Ninja, and everything seems okay now.
Except for one, minor, itty bitty issue.
All of them have a red string.
Cole tries his hardest to avoid it, but it's inevitable.
Some nights all the guys do is talk about their soulmates, Jay rants endlessly about Nya and the others question what theirs would be. Cole sits there, trying to block it out with his headphones and drawing the team, but his hand strays and he ends up doodling hearts and stuff. He blinks as Kai chuckles, grabbing his sketchbook for quote on quote "juicy stuff" but is severely disappointed.
Cole waves his hands, no evidence of a red glint there. Remember guys? I'm just a blue-stringed weirdo.
Kai's quiet, so is Jay and Zane. They seem to be giving each other looks. Cole knows what's coming, the storm he's desperately tried to avoid, these sweet moments he's about to lose, these friends he's about to lose.
Jay takes the journal and gives it back to him. Cole's eyes start to mist.
Even his soulmates think he's messed up.
Zane moves and sits down beside him, throws an arm around his shoulder and continues talking about whatever new game that came out, the one that Kai and Jay are nearly spilling blood over and Sensei whacks then on the head every time.
Cole stares at them for a good bit of time. Jay shifts so his legs are on Cole's lap and Kai is on his other side, and they continue with the conversation.
It takes a few more moments of comprehension, but finally Cole starts chuckling along with them. They each press a kiss to his forehead, Zane squeezes his shoulder and Jay hugs him tight. Kai rolls his eyes and huffs, flicking Cole's forehead and ruffling his hair in his not-quiet-empathetic way.
A blush swirls onto Cole's face, and they all laugh. Jay suddenly holds up remotes and looks them each dead in the eye, a challenge.
Kai tackles him immediately and Zane is left for damage control, and Cole laughs, his chest feeling light as he joins the pile of squirming brightly-colored ninja. Lloyd and Nya eventually join in, and it's a full out war between all of the residents of the Bounty.
The black ninja pulls back, breathing heavily and watching his friends.
Maybe blue strings aren't so bad.