Nya made sure to make breakfast today, after the fiasco that happened a few days ago... the kitchen still smelled like burnt toast. And had a full stack of pancakes by the time the rest of the ninja woke up. Cole and Zane had been up with Nya, helping her in the kitchen.

The others had awoken and gathered in the dining room where pancakes where served out and covered in butter and a hearty helping of syrup.

"Any word from Sensei?" Kai asked as he shoved a forkful of pancake into his mouth.

"Not yet.." Nya replied. "Hopefully he will call soon."

"Is Sensei that old guy with the beard that left as soon as we came to the ship?" Cole asked.

"Yup, that's him." Jay said.

Breakfast continued as plates were emptied and seconds were ensured. Zane continued to pick at his first helping and had only eaten a few bites.

Once breakfast was over the boys were released from the table while Nya cleaned up and noted the still full plate in Zane's spot.

Cole and Zane were hanging out on the deck watching the ninja do their morning training. They were told multiple times they weren't allowed to join.. mainly because they weren't old enough and the equipment could be very dangerous.

"Immmm soooooo borrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeddddd." Cole complained as he flopped backwards from where he was sitting crosslegged, onto his back.

Zane wasn't paying too much attention, as he was currently examining a grasshopper he found on the floor of the bounty.

"I'm sick of coloring and that's all we ever do... I want to see my dad already..." Cole whispered out the last part. "Zane are you even listening?"

Cole sat up and looked at the blonde who was intensively starring at the insect in his hands. "Ugh.." Cole flopped back down on his back for a few seconds before deciding to stand up.

"Can we do something today?" Cole asked Jay who had walked over towards where they were sitting for a water break.

"Like what?" Jay asked.

"I don't know just something... I'm bored." Cole sighed.

"We could go to the park or something..." Jay mentioned.

"The park!" Cole straightened up. "Can we? Please?!"

"Woah now calm down there shorty, I would have to talk to the others about it first. and it would have to be tomorrow, because the golf club is holding some sort of vip party or something there today." Jay added as he drank some of his water.

"Stupid golfers..." Cole grumbled.

"Alright that's enough for today!" Kai wiped some sweat from his brow, as the others stopped what they were doing and went to put up the training equipment.

"But until then, I'm sure we can find something to do around here." Jay turned his attention back towards the kids.

Zane had put down the grasshopper and was currently laying on his stomach coloring. Cole grumbled out something about still being bored and went and sat back down next to Zane to watch him color.

Jay had gotten up to stretch a bit, when Cole shrieked from behind him. Turning around anxiously thinking there was an emergency, the sight he was met with was quite the opposite.

The grasshopper had jumped onto Cole's arm, and he was currently flailing it around while screeching like a penguin.

Jay couldn't stop himself from laughing at Cole's panic, and soon the other ninja who had glanced over joined in.

Cole turned a bright red in embarrassment. But he still couldn't keep himself from laughing at his own panic. he let out a light giggle, but abruptly paused when he heard a sound to his right. He turned to see Zane... Zane! giggling!

Zane had a big smile on his face and was quietly giggling with a hand covering his mouth. Cole paused and was absolutely stunned, this was the first time Zane showed any real emotions since they woke up together in a ditch.

Cole jumped to his feet startling the blond. "You!" The others stopped laughing and stared in confusion.

"You! Laughed!" Cole picked Zane up and twirled him around a bit before hugging the smaller blonde tight. Zane had started laughing harder out of joy.

"What!? no way I lost!" Jay groaned and dug through his pocket for a 20.

The other ninja snickered at Jay's sunken mood.

"Did you really think Cole even had 20 dollars?" Lloyd raised his eye brow.

"No but I was going to hold him accountable for it when he changed back." Jay muttered before slapping a 20 dollar bill into Cole's awaiting hand.

"Come on guys I'm going to make a snack." Nya waved to the kids as she went back inside the "Bounty"

The other ninja stayed out on the deck to chat.

"I hope Sensei wu come's back soon... I mean it's been fun and all, but we need to be ready for whenever Lord Garmadon attacks again..." Jay muttered as he took another swig from his water bottle.

"Yeah, Jay is right. I don't know how well we will do with two ninja out of commission." Kai agreed.

"make that 3, I still can't do spinjitzu..." Lloyd muttered. "This grown up body is so... weird..."

"Don't worry Lloyd, you will adjust soon enough... Let's think of this as a little break." Jay patted the green ninja's back in encouragement. "I mean, Lord Garmadon has been quiet, and we can't really do much right now. So, let's just take this time to slow down and catch our breathes."

Lloyd nodded and turned to head back inside with Kai and Jay.

Kai entered the living room a few hours before dinner, to see Lloyd playing video games, and Jay sitting with Cole and Zane who were coloring again.

"Got room for a player 2?" He said as he sat down on the couch next to Lloyd who handed him a controller.

"Oh, so you can let him play, but when I ask, it's all of a sudden a 1 player game." Jay turned around to stare at Lloyd

"Sorry man, but I need actual help getting through level 48. You just keep using up all my ghost points." Lloyd laughed as he unpaused the game.

Lloyd and Jay bickered for a bit with Kai imputing his amusing opinion every so often.

"Zane how come you don't like to talk that often?" Cole asked out of nowhere.

"What do you mean often? He doesn't talk at all." Jay laughed after overhearing the kid's conversation.

"Sure he does." Cole put down his crayon and stared right back at Jay. "He talks to me sometimes."

Lloyd by now had paused the game again and was looking over at Cole's innocent face. Suddenly more interesting in this then the video game.

"When?" Jay asked out of curiosity.

"He has nightmares a lot and he tells me what they are about sometimes." Cole answered.

Zane looked almost embarrassed, like he wanted to shrink away from this conversation.

"You mean you can talk?" Jay turned towards to Zane. "Why don't you ever talk to us?"

Lloyd picked up the change in aroma around Zane. He was nervous and scared, something wasn't right.

"Can't..." An almost whisper left Zane's lips. He wasn't making eye contact with anyone. He suddenly found the floor extremely interesting.

The room was dead silent.

"Why not?" Lloyd cautiously asked. He didn't want to trigger anything, Zane already looked very frantic.

"It... It's b-Bad..." The blonde whispered even lower than before. "N-...not allowed."

Zane's breathing was becoming erratic, he looked like he was about to have a panic attack.

"Hey are you okay?" Cole asked and scooted closer to the frantic blonde.

"S-sorry." Zane was curling in on himself, tears were starting to run down his cheeks and the ninja were in a silent panic.

'Whhhattt do wee doooooo' is what was running through all the older boy's minds. They had never seen Zane this... vulnerable.

Cole, seemingly already knew what to do as he hugged Zane and started rubbing his back, letting the smaller boy cry into his chest, while repeatedly whispering "Sorry"

Cole eventually picked Zane up and left the room explaining he was going to calm him down.

The ninja just sat in stunned silence for a few minutes.

"What... just happened.." Jay asked to nobody in particular.

"He was almost... scared? of us..." Lloyd pointed out.

"Hey guys! want to watch some anime with me?" Nya popped her head into the room to see them all just sitting in silence.

...

...

"Guys?"

A/N: welp that was super angsty :)

Wow another update in a single day... don't start getting high expectations of me, you never know when I'll disappear for a week :'D

this was un-beta'ed so if you see any grammar mistakes please be sure to let me know uwu