Jay started wearing a lot more sweater vests, which was how he knew that something was up.
Jay always dressed like what he thought cool kids dressed like. Sometimes this meant that he would dress in torn jeans and a leather jacket, and other times this meant that he would wear loose crop tops over sleeveless shirts. He never failed to pick out the most ridiculous combinations, but he somehow managed to pull it off, in his own, unique way.
Lately, he was wearing sweater vests, and no one knew why. Usually, his clothing style would be an odd combination of whatever trends were circulating throughout Ninjago at the moment, but with the sweater vests, no one knew when or why he chose to don such an item.
Cole found Jay sitting and staring out of the temple's windows, watching the rain trail down the panes with eyes wide and vacant. Along with the unusual form of clothing, Jay had also been quieter over the past weeks, which was an anomaly in and of itself.
Cole thought to finally ask his friend, "Any reason you keep wearing those sweater vests?"
Jay turned to him, "Got a problem?"
"No," Cole smirked and leaned against the wall, "unless you count the fact that sweater vests are the ugliest sweaters in existence."
Jay chuckled, but the sound wasn't as loud or joyful as either of them were used to. Thankfully, Jay offered some form of an explanation, "I was reading through some old movie magazines."
"The trashy ones full of gossip?"
"Yeah," grinned Jay, "those. I found out that Cliff Gordan liked wearing these when he wasn't in public."
"Seriously?" Cole snorted, "An actor that cool? In something so dorky?"
Jay smirked, looking down, "I was surprised, too."
"Why are you so interested in it?"
Jay shrugged, the smile leaving his face, "I just wondered if…" he shrugged again and refused to answer the question.
Cole stared at his friend, scratching his head, but Jay didn't say anything more. He left him there, saying, a bit solemnly, "More power to you, I guess."
Cole wasn't worried for his friend, per se, nor was he outright concerned, but he was…curious, to say the least.
Jay couldn't blame him.
He couldn't blame any of them.
The horrifying events that transpired and subsequently disappeared with Nadakhan were only a few weeks deep in Jay's memory, and he'd yet to tell anyone. Not that he planned to. No, no, never.
He and Nya made a vow to keep it a secret.
It was hard, sometimes.
Jay knew he was adopted. So did his parents. But they didn't know that he knew. There were times—many—when he felt like confronting them about it, but he never got past staring at the phone for a while.
He knew that he was adopted. In some ways, Jay felt like he'd known this for his entire life; he just didn't realize it until Nadakhan made it clear.
When he was little, he knew that there was something off about him, something that didn't match. When he looked at the parents of his classmates, they fit together like pieces of a puzzle, whole and complete. Jay didn't have that harmony; he had a funny side that stuck out from the rest of his puzzle, leading off to a place he didn't know about.
He saw it first in his eyes, which were blue, and dipped down at the ducts, while Ed and Edna's remained leveled. There was also his hair, which was a darker color than both his parents' had been. Then, of course, there was his age.
Ed and Edna were old parents; even he knew this. They were older than the rest of the children's, something he never thought about unless they pointed it out.
Or, until Nadakhan pointed out.
He knew that he was adopted, and perhaps he'd always known. Now, he was aware of a certain part of him that felt…empty.
Not empty as in unfulfilled; he'd had the love of a mother and father throughout his entire life. He'd always had a family, and yet…he still felt that a part of him was vacant; unoccupied.
He wondered what Cliff Gordan would've been like as a father. As his father. Jay wondered what it would've been like to grow up in that fancy mansion, how different things would be today.
Would he sit on the floor, reading his father's legacy in the form of many comic books, or would he read more obscure comics, sick of his father's bombastic popularity?
Would he look up as his father walked into the room, saying with a frown, "Really, Dad? All the kids at school wonder what it's like living with the coolest actor in all of Ninjago, and you walk around in a sweater vest?"
Would his father joke? "What do you want me to wear, leather jackets with studs?"
Would he half-heartedly defend himself? "Sweater vests are peak fashion, Jay, ahead of its time. Trust me, one day everyone in the land will have a sweater vest of their own."
Or would he fuss? Jay didn't know. Jay would never know.
And what of his mother? Would she come home and plant a sloppy kiss on top of his head, or against his cheek?
Would she scoop him up into a big hug, lifting him from the ground even as he grew?
Would she be the envy of his many friends, who all wished to have a mother as cool as his? Would she greet him always with a smile, a wink, and a happy, "What's shakin', bacon?"
Would she hold a lightbulb in her hands and dazzle him with a light show until her powers made the item shatter?
Jay didn't know. Jay would never know.
He'd imagined these scenarios a lot in the past few weeks, but he could never imagine either of them calling him 'son'. That was something for Ed and Edna, for they were his parents.
Cliff Gordan was not.
Though he decided that Ed and Edna were indeed his parents, he still couldn't shake that empty feeling from him. It wasn't a bad feeling; not good, but not bad. He wasn't sure if he would've preferred the vacant space filled with Cliff Gordan and his wife, because he didn't want another spot that lacked Ed and Edna, but he continued to wonder what it would've been like, if he would be better off.
Sometimes he wished that Nadakhan hadn't done this to him, but there were a lot of things he wished Nadakhan hadn't done.
Now, at least, he had a reason for that empty part of him. One he'd never stop wondering about, but an answer he desired all the same.
This one was unusually fun for me.
Thank you for reading!