Day 1: Write about your favorite character(s)
Don't you want to take a leap of faith? Or become an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone?
He has everything ready.
The train ticket that can take him to the other end of the continent. Enough money for the cab fare from there to the isolated village. Julien's divided up all of the money in a long-forgotten retirement account – he's been a millionaire for years and he never knew – into several smaller checking accounts, all at different banks, all with varying amounts of money in them, all under different names. The duffel bag is stuffed under his bed, pushed near the wall and hidden behind boxes, ready to be packed at a moment's notice. The stacks of clothes sitting on top of his dresser are waiting to be thrown in when the time is right.
He's standing on an edge, a precipice, a point in space and time from which all of the future divides off into two binary branches.
He either leaves, or he stays.
And he hasn't told anyone. In fact, he won't tell anyone. Julien can only tell the one person who needs to know… but he can't do that.
He has everything ready. He should leave now before the very idea of what he's about to do begins to suffocate him. He should leave now while he's still relatively healthy. He should leave now before he tries to take something that he cannot have.
But he doesn't want this…
It's then that Zane finds him, while he's sitting on his bed. Julien's hands are plastered over his mouth, attempting to keep the silent tears streaming down his face silent.
"Are you okay?" his son asks.
No, he isn't. Julien isn't okay, he'll never really be okay, because he's a liar and a coward and a cheat, and he's done so much wrong in his lifetime, more than his son could ever understand. He isn't okay because he's planning something worse than suicide, and the terrifying part is that Zane – his own and only son – will never forgive him for it.
"I'm fine," he says instead, drawing back and motioning for Zane to sit next to him on the bed. They sit next to each other for a while, each taking comfort in the other's presence, before he speaks again.
"Zane?" Julien whispers, simultaneously hoping for two different outcomes to his next words.
"Yes, father?"
He closes his eyes.
"I just want you to know…" he begins, almost choking, "Whatever happens down the road, I will always love you."
Julien can almost hear Zane's small smile, and it breaks his heart.
"I love you, too," Zane says, draping an arm around his father's back.
Julien sits there silently, unmoving. He doesn't want the moment to end. If this is the last perfect moment he can have with his son, he wants to remember it forever.
Eventually it ends, but he doesn't remember that part. Eventually everything goes silent and dark. Eventually it's three in the morning, and he's staring out his window, and he knows that tonight is the night. Eventually he packs the bag under his bed and leaves for the horizon.
He may be a running coward, but he's smart enough to not look back.
(A/N): Hello everyone and welcome to the Ninjago 30 Day Writing Challenge! When I saw this on Tumblr I knew I had to do it. I have no idea if I'll actually be able to do it in thirty days (especially because some of the later prompts are going to be hard...), but I'll try!
A lot of these are going to be extremely angsty, because as anyone who has read any of my fics knows, I love my angst. I might also change a few prompts simply because I have no idea what I'd write for some of them (that one for Day 30 is definitely getting changed, honestly - I haven't even seen AtLA).
Thanks for reading, and I'll see you guys tomorrow!