Hey guys! Gosh, sorry I haven't been on FanFiction lately; I've just been busy working on stories―both old ones and new ones―but I haven't been feeling inspired to update anything. (That, and I haven't finished anything for anything old XD)
I've just thought of something―even though I've been off for part of this time, my account's existed for a little over a year and a half. Huh.
So. How've y'all been? Just finished watching The Lord of the Rings movies. I think they might have just boosted up into the Top 5 favorite movies for me! And I sent in my audition to Focus on the Family's Adventures in Odyssey Get In the Show contest―I'm so nervous about how it turned out! *bites fingernails anxiously*
Whoops, I just found out about the new DuckTales reboot premiering in August, so I've been watching stuff about that for the past fifteen minutes XD Does anybody else find that relevant? Here's something to pique your interest: David Tennant plays one of the main characters :)
Anyway, I just wanted to write something a little out of my comfort zone and see how I can do writing slightly scarier stories. Since I don't want to give much away, I'll let the progression of the story explain for itself. But be warned―this is one of my darker brainchildren, somewhere along the lines of Jaws of Fear, except maybe a little more intense.
So . . . on with the show!
Whoops, forgot to mention―mild spoilers for Hands of Time! Sorry! (The cover image is temporary―I actually drew a cover for this, but it gives away stuff that happens later; I'm gonna work on another one that won't give stuff away―maybe)
Chapter 1: The Friend Zone
Time: afternoonish
Place: the Temple of Airjitzu
Cole wiped the perspiration from his brow. "There, Nya―it's done. Are you satisfied now?"
The Water Ninja folded her arms across her chest skeptically. "Not until you taste it and tell me it tastes like it should," she said, her thin dark brows knitting into a slight scowl.
Cole looked at her reproachfully. "Seriously, Nya―you've been watching me like a hawk the entire time I was preparing this, and you saw for yourself that I didn't add anything or change the recipe in any form. Geez Louise, it's just Lipton Noodle Soup."
"I know that, but I don't want you giving my boyfriend food poisoning when he's already got this cold," Nya retorted, voice crisper than a fresh lettuce leaf.
Cole rolled his eyes, slightly irritated. "Cheez whiz, you're paranoid―and even more protective of Jay than Kai used to be of you. If you're so worried, you taste it!"
"All right, fine," Nya relented, still not convinced of Cole's culinary innocence. "I will taste it―if I relied on your word, you'd probably say it was fine even if it tasted like rotten brussels sprouts."
"Okay―now that was a real insult to my intelligence―and my cooking ability." Fishing a spoon from the silverware drawer, the Earth Ninja practically thrust it into his female teammate's hands before watching, arms crossed and foot tapping, as Nya tentatively dipped the utensil into the soup pot and blew on the clear yellow liquid.
"Smells normal," she conceded, blowing delicately on it again before tipping the spoon's contents into her mouth. "And . . . it tastes normal, too." She looked slightly rueful. "I'm sorry I doubted you, Cole."
"Apology accepted. I suppose now you believe Zane saying that it's not I'm a bad cook, I just have a thing for weird recipes." He shrugged his broad shoulders. "I'm starting to dislike most of the weird things I used to make myself, although violetberry soup is actually good―when prepared correctly."
Nya laughed a little. "Maybe I'll try it." Then, she sighed. "Gosh, Cole, I don't know what's gotten into me. I've never been this concerned about a guy before."
Cole chuckled. "You finally realized that you loved Jay, and you're trying to start over―you're probably just worried that you might lose him again." By this point in time, the Ninja had been informed of their battle with Nadakhan and the Sky Pirates, which made things dramatically clearer about Nya's choice of Jay as her boyfriend. "If I went through what you two did with my better half, I'd be worried and protective of her too."
Nya looked at him questioningly. "Cole, have you ever considered having a girlfriend in your future? I mean, Jay and I are together, Kai and Skylor are reconnecting, and I'm pretty sure Zane and Pixal can be classified as boyfriend and girlfriend by now―even though Pixal's nowhere to be found. You and Lloyd are the only two left without relationships like that."
Cole shrugged again. "Now that I'm human again, I've been thinking about it. I'd like to meet some girl I could date and hopefully marry, but I just haven't found her yet. I guess all I can do for now is wait―and hope that someday soon that Mrs. Right will come along."
"Well, maybe you should try taking a little initiative with the ladies," Nya suggested. "Tall, dark, and handsome strong-boys like you shouldn't find it hard to get a date."
"Don't you start flattering me now," Cole grinned a little roguishly, making Nya laugh, "or I just might start chasing you again, water lily."
Nya pretended to look scandalized. "How dare you, Mr. Brookstone! If you so much as lay a hand on me, I'll blast you so full of water we could rent you out as a garden hose!"
Cole faked despair, dramatically pressing the back of his hand to his forehead. "Ah, spurned again by the lovely water lily! Alas and alack, my heart shall never be mended!"
"Hey now, Jay's the thespian of the group," Nya broke character, laughing as Cole pretended to fall dead to the kitchen floor.
"Hey, I practically grew up on Shakespearean backlots and Rodgers and Hammerstein scaffolds―I've got more right than he does to act the ham." He tried to stand back up, but landed on his back again. "Speaking of Jay, I can't feed your sick boyfriend unless I get off the floor. Give me a hand up, would you, honey?"
"Jay would murder you if he caught you calling me that," Nya laughed, pulling the Earth Ninja to his feet and playfully dusting him off.
"It's purely in brotherly affection, m'dear," Cole smiled, brushing her hand away before ladling the now pleasantly warm soup into a bowl on a wooden tray. "Do me a favor and get that packet of Saltines from the starch cupboard, please?"
"Oh, I'm always a sucker for polite boys," Nya grinned, ducking into the cupboard and popping back out with a Saltine package in her hand. "Catch!"
"Whoops!" Cole caught the packet before it could fall into the soup bowl. "Didn't need to make a basket on that free throw, Nys."
"Sorry." Nya smiled embarrassedly. "Welp, I'd come up to Jay's room with you, but I promised my parents I'd spar with them this afternoon and they're probably wondering where I am."
Cole slapped himself in the forehead. "That reminds me―if you bump into Zane on your way over, tell him I'll be on the Bounty in about an hour―I'm giving him a hand with the repairs to the temporal scanners, since Jay's out of commission for the time being."
"Will do. Catch you later." Giving Cole a sisterly peck on the cheek, Nya exited the kitchen.
As Cole busied himself preparing the lunch tray for his sick friend, the memory of his conversation with Nya about his future romance life repeated in his head. Well, maybe you should try taking a little initiative with the ladies, Nya's suggestion came back to him. Tall, dark, and handsome strong-boys like you shouldn't find it hard to get a date.
Cole was fully aware of the fangirls who dreamed of being his girlfriend on some enchanted evening, but he wasn't interested in them. As soon as someone else tall, dark, and handsome came along, he'd be nothing more than a passing fad, just another celebrity gone down the tubes of human fancy.
Deep down inside, Cole longed for a soulmate―some special girl who would stay with him forever―through popularity and irrelevance, blessing and trial, wealth or poverty. In the end, though, Cole thought, balancing the tray with the soup, Saltines, and a fresh pot of tea on one hand before leaving the kitchen, it all boils down to a gal who could stay with me for better or for worse. I don't know if I can find anyone like that―at least not yet.
Precariously balancing the tray on his knee, Cole knocked softly on Jay's door. "Jay, buddy, are you awake?" he called quietly. While he waited for an answer, he picked up the bucket of medical supplies located conveniently in front of the door and hung it from his elbow.
"Yeah," came the Lightning Ninja's feeble reply. "C'mon in." This was followed by a loud sneeze that sounded like a thunderclap.
Twisting the doorknob and quickly putting his foot in the doorway while he regathered the tray in his arms, Cole walked into Jay's bedroom. The teenage Elemental Master was propped up in bed, his royal blue eyes huge and dark in his pale face. He managed a tired little smile at Cole before blowing his scarlet-tinted nose into a Kleenex. "Hey, Cole," he said, struggling to sit up.
"Did I wake you up?" Cole asked worriedly, hesitating in the doorway.
"Naw, I woke up about ten minutes ago. It felt like ages, though." He blew his nose again, with a sickly little honk. "Gosh, am I glad to see you. I haven't been able to talk to or see anyone for hours. The one thing I don't like about TV is that you can't talk back to it."
Cole smiled, glad that he'd made his younger friend happy. "I'd be glad to talk to you, but first, you've got to eat something."
"I am a little hungry," Jay admitted. "Especially since you went out of your way to make something for me."
"If it's for my favorite little brother, it's no problem at all," said Cole, carefully resting the tray on Jay's lap and pouring some of tea into a glass on Jay's nightstand. "How's the Elemental reactions?"
"Apart from my coughing frying my throat for a couple hours and my thunderclap sneezes, I'm fine," Jay replied, taking a spoonful of soup and drinking it. "Gosh, that feels good. My throat feels like sandpaper right now."
"I'm grateful Ray remembered Vengestone Tea, otherwise you'd cause a power outage every time you sneezed," Cole involuntarily sighed with relief. "I guess that must be the stuff Sensei Wu was giving us when we got sick before―I always wondered why I never destroyed the Bounty when I got those earthquake coughs."
"And that explains why we couldn't ever do Spinjitzu or use our powers for about a week afterwards," added Jay, taking another bite of soup. "Thanks for making this for me, Cole; that was really nice of you, especially when you've probably got better things to do than taking care of me."
"I can't think of anything better right now―well, except maybe finding Sensei." Cole's thick eyebrows knitted into a worried scowl, his green scar more visible under his bangs. "Do you think we'll find him?"
"I think so," said Jay. "Sensei's a tough old bird―he can't be beat so easily. I know he's out there fighting Krux and Acronix and giving them a good old fashioned whupping, as my dad would say." He frowned. "Correction, my adopted dad. I don't know what my real dad would say."
Cole glanced at Jay. "Did you find anything out about your parents?"
"A little, from Ray and Maya―they knew my mom. Her name was Claire. They showed me a painting of her and my dad on their wedding day." He sighed wistfully. "She was so beautiful . . . blonde hair, blue eyes. Although Maya told me that she dyed her hair blonde―naturally she had hair like mine. They said she talked a lot, made a lot of jokes, didn't seem to take things seriously―but that was just a smokescreen. She made more breakthroughs with her Elemental powers than any other Elemental Master before or since, Ray said."
"Sounds like you, all right," Cole grinned. "I'm sure you'll find her, Jay."
"I'm not sure I want to." Jay hung his head, and he looked even more tired. "I don't really want to know why my parents decided to get rid of me."
Cole gently placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Jay―"
Before he could continue, there was a quiet rapping on the door. "Jay?"
"Come in!" Jay called.
Zane tentatively peeked into the room. "Am I interrupting anything?"
"No, you're good," said Jay, sitting up straighter. "What's up, Zane?"
"We have a visitor―and he wants to see you."
Aw, I actually had a lot of fun writing the scene between Cole and Nya. I admit it―I think Cole and Nya would be best buddies.
Sidenote: in this story, which is not a part of my main official timeline, Cole is twenty-one, Jay is nineteen, and Nya is eighteen.
And note, Jay's mom isn't officially named Claire, that's just my name for her―no spoilers there :)
And I'm curious―who wants to see Jay? Guess you'll have to find out in the next installment of A Method to His Madness! Bye y'all!
-Titanium Jayde
