9-Hugging

Nya huffed, then sat down on her bed, choking back tears. Why? Why did Kai have to yell at her in front of the others? She fell onto her stomach, face in her pillow.

Today had been a very bad day. A few minutes ago, everyone had been out training on the deck of the Bounty. For some reason, Nya was very off-balance today, and she had tripped over nothing, causing her to land on Kai. He'd forgiven her, and everything went back to normal. A while later, Kai went to the edge of the Bounty to check his phone, and Nya followed him to ask him a question, but she tripped over a loose plank of wood and crashed into Kai again. He dropped his phone and it went over the side of the Bounty and into the ocean. Apparently, Kai thought she had only pretended to trip, and he got angry and started yelling.

That wasn't all. Earlier that day, she had been designing a 3-D model on her laptop. Everything was going well until a pop-up ad appeared on her screen right when she had clicked. It must've downloaded a virus, because it deleted everything off of her laptop. It was irrecoverable, and the poor water master skipped lunch trying recover them, but to no avail.

Then, after that, she had been forced to train on an empty stomach, which hadn't improved her mood one bit.

She sat up and hugged herself. Nothing was going right today, and it irritated the hell out of her. She wiped away her tears. She wouldn't be able to recover those files. She wouldn't be able to scrape up enough money to buy a new phone for Kai. Yet, she'd probably miss dinner trying to do both.

She would start by assessing the damage done to her laptop...again. Once her tears stopped flowing, and her eyes were less red, Nya stood and went to retrieve her laptop, hoping that she wouldn't run into anyone on the way there or back. Silently, she trotted along the hallway until she reached the dining room. Her laptop rested on top of the table. She swiped it, then retreated to her room. She was almost there when a bump in the carpeted floor latched onto Nya's ankle and refused to let go. Nya tripped, and was falling until a pair of strong arms wrapped themselves around her waist and pulled her upright.

Nya shrieked in surprise as the arms spun her around to face their owner. Nya found herself staring into spearmint-colored gems.

He chuckled. "Well, someone's clumsier than ever today. What happened to graceful water ninja?" Cole asked, resisting her attempts to wiggle free of his grip. His smile faded when he saw her glassy eyes. Releasing her, she stepped away, closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. She clutched her laptop to her chest tighter and willed her eyes not to betray her.

But Cole seemed to understand. "Oh. Are you having one of those off days?"

Nya nodded, not trusting her voice. She pushed a strand of her dark hair behind her ear and sighed. "Thank you for catching me. I have to fix my computer," she threw her hand up in the air, gesturing, "but yeah."

The earthbender's expression softened. He took her hand and lead her to her room. He closed the door behind them, the turned to face the pitiful waterbender. He could tell by her eyes that she was doing all she could to prevent the dam from breaking. The two sat down on her bed.

"What happened?" He asked, allowing himself to take her hand.

"I accidentally downloaded a virus on my computer, and it deleted all of my files, so I skipped lunch trying to recover them, and I couldn't get them. Then, you saw the whole incident with Kai." Despite her stubborn attempts to hold back her tears, they spilled out anyway. She wasn't worried about it, because she knew Cole would understand.

For a minute, Cole looked like he was arguing with himself. He gave up a few moments later.

"I know what you need." He stated, his eyes glinting with a mischievous grin tugging on his lips.

"Cole, no-" Nya said, placing a hand on her forehead.

He ignored her. "-a big, comfy hug!" Before she could react, his arms were coiled around her torso, and she was pressed up against his chest. Her heart rate sped up, and she could already feel the heat rushing to her cheeks. He radiated warmth. The tears in Nya's eyes spilled down her face and onto Cole's shoulder. He held her tighter and gently rocked her. Some time later, her strained sobs quieted down into heavy breaths.

Nya craned her neck to look up at him. She smiled, then snaked her arms around his torso and pecked his cheek.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"Anytime, cutie. Now, get dressed, 'cause we're going to your favorite cafe."