Spoilers for Hands of Time, set after episode 10.
"Fusion Dragon?" Jay cried excitedly. "That's cool!" Zane nodded his head in agreement, and Lloyd was practically bouncing up and down.
Cole barely glanced around as he used his Earth Punch to destroy more Vermillion eggs.
"Cole, are you okay?" Jay asked worriedly.
Cole hit his breaking point. "No Jay, I'm not okay. I don't even know what okay is anymore. Ever since I passed through the rift, I thought it was great to be human again, but I still can barely feel anything. Not the heat, not the cold, not these stupid Vermillion warrior eggs." He disposed of another giant egg, taking his anger out the the snakes.
The others glanced at each other with worry. How would this end?
"Cole...?" Jay knocked. They had come back to the Bounty and tried to figure out a plan to rescue Sensei Wu.
"Jay, you can... come in, I guess, if you want..." the voice sounded broken and it constantly cracked. Jay opened the door to see Cole hastily wiping away a tear. Jay knew the Master of Earth didn't like other people seeing him let out his emotions, even just to Jay. So he spoke no words about the crying session that he knew happened.
"You really wanna be a ghost again?"
"...ye-es...? Maybe? I guess? Oh, I don't really know. Sometimes I like being human and all, but sometimes I want to be a ghost since they can do stuff humans can't."
"Like walking through walls?" Jay teased.
Cole blushed furiously. After Day of the Departed, Cole kept ramming into walls, got a few bruises, forgetting that he couldn't walk through walls. He looked like Zane when the android glitched. "Stop it. I couldn't help it. But yeah, I do miss that, and disappearing." Jay's eyes widened. "I mean not fading disappear, but just turning invisible," Cole added quickly.
Jay breathed a sigh of relief, then hugged his best friend. "I like you better as human, 'cuz I can hug you now," he muttered, breathing in the Earth Ninja's candy-sweet and earthly mixed scent. The one that wasn't there awhile ago.
"Yeah, I guess it's nice..." Cole trailed off, hiding his head in Jay's shoulders. Surprisingly, he started crying.
"Hey, it's okay. It's okay..." Jay rubbed Cole's back and hugged him tightly.
"Please d-don't let go," Cole whimpered.
Jay wouldn't let go. Not for the others. Not for Nya. Not for the world. Cole needed him at the moment, and he was right there to help. He wouldn't leave for all of Ninjago.
And so he stayed.
Sweet little Drabble, 'cuz who doesn't like them? My first fanfic, just testing the water here.