"Jay, this is becoming an issue. Please do your laundry."
"I will, I will," The lightning ninja promised absent-mindedly, preoccupied with a video game. Zane crossed his arms, unimpressed and (rightfully) doubtful of his friend's claims.
"You have said that for days."
There was no response. Zane prided himself on being calm, but this had really started to get on his nerves. The other ninja were fairly good with chores- Cole said it was just a life skill and Kai mentioned once that he'd had to run the house after his parents died. Even Nya- who oftentimes avoided everyone but Kai and was rarely at the monastery- helped out during Saturday morning cleaning.
But not Jay. For all the traits Zane had begun to see were good in his friend- his humor, his fast-thinking, his energy- he simply could not get over how sloppy he was.
"Jay," He said again, utilizing his 'serious voice', typically reserved for missions.
That got his attention. He paused his game, turning to look at Zane.
"You have to do your laundry. Cleaning your room every now and again would not be bad, either."
"C'mon, Zane, cut me some slack," Jay tried. "We don't even have a washing machine!"
"I didn't either as a kid, and I still did laundry!" Kai called from the other room. Jay made a sour face at that, muttering about how he still was a kid and the like.
"It's not that bad," Cole said, walking into the room. "Using a washing board, I mean."
"Why are we still using a washing board?" Jay asked. "Washing machines aren't exactly new technology!"
"Dude, Sensei literally only got a gas stove a few weeks ago," Kai pointed out, sitting on the arm of the sofa. "I don't think he's all that up-to-date with technology."
"Let's buy one then! We'll surprise him."
"You got the money for that?" Cole asked. "Cuz I don't think any of us do."
Jay frowned in thought, before a light seemed to go off in his head.
"I got it!" He announced. "We'll build one!"
oOo
"So," Cole began, looking at Jay. "I'm not sure if you're aware, but that is not a washing machine."
"Of course it's not, dirt clod," The lightning ninja walked around the pile of scrap metal and old machines. He hadn't been able to haul them up the thousands of steps up to the monastery, so they sat in an empty lot in the town below. "These are the parts to make one."
"Wait, we're gonna be making it?" Kai asked. "I don't even know what washing machines are supposed to look like!"
"Yeah," Cole agreed. "We don't know the first thing about mechanics."
"That's fine, I'll show you," Jay dismissed, waving his hand. "Zane, did you bring those plans?"
The ice ninja nodded, holding up some roughly-sketched pictures.
"Great. Okay, so first we're going to want to find something to serve as the outer barrel." He looked at his friend's blank faces. "Y'know, the outer spinny thing!"
"Ooookay," Cole hummed, walking over and beginning to pick through all the scrap. "Where'd you get all this stuff, anyway?"
"Doesn't matter," Jay said quickly, then pulled out a fairly large hollow cylinder, with one side as an opening. "Got it! This should work."
He tossed it to Zane, who switched the papers to one had to catch it.
"Now we need a smaller one, for the inner barrel!"
Almost 2 hours later, they'd finally gotten all of the parts they needed, hopefully. But that, as it turned out, was the easy part.
"Kai, you're the fire ninja! How are you so bad at soldering?"
"Yeah man, weren't you a blacksmith?"
"Shut up," Kai groaned, throwing down the horribly-warped copper pipes he'd fused.
Zane picked it up, studied it for a few moments. "It appears to still be serviceable, if we fill in the cracks."
"Let's not have Kai do that," Jay laughed, earning a stink eye and light punch from the fire ninja.
"Why are we even bothering with assembling it?" He asked. "Why don't we just use the Tornado of Creation?"
"Sensei warned us against using it lightly," Zane said.
Cole nodded. "If we do it wrong, it could be bad."
"Disasterous consequences," Jay added, nodding, but then he was grinning. "We're gonna have to do it right, then."
"Don't encourage his bad ideas," Cole admonished, but the idea was already stuck in Jay's head.
"I'm the mechanic here," He argued, a manic gleam having come into his eyes. "What I say goes, and I say we use the Tornado of Creation."
"I must advice against that," Zane warned, but he was cut off by Jay's excited ranting, which quickly swayed Cole. He sighed, lowering his head. "Why is my advice always unheeded?"
The ninja cleared out all the excess materials, leaving only what they'd selected out. They each stood at one corner of the pile, backed up a bit, and looked to Jay.
"Alright," He grinned. "In three, two...one!"
Their elemental tornados burst to life, converging on top of the pile of metal. It swirled around them, but unfortunately for them, their minds were not quite in sync like they had been in the Underworld. The results…
"Well," Cole got out after he managed to force air back into his lungs. "Wasn't disastrous, but let's not do that again."
There was a chorus of groaned agreements. The ninja had been thrown from the tornado, and the landing had knocked the wind out of all of them as they'd been tossed on top of each other.
"I did warn you," Zane pointed out.
"When do we listen, though?" Jay chuckled.
Zane groaned as all the others laughed. There was a few moments of silence after that, each ninja checking to make sure there hadn't been any actual injuries.
"Man," Kai sighed. "We're kinda like a family now, huh? Only family does this stupid kind of stuff together."
"You are all quite lucky we are a family," Zane grunted. "Otherwise, I would not have stayed here so long."
"Yeah," Cole laughed. "We'd only put up with each other if we were family."
Silence slipped over them. It was no secret how close they'd grown since the whole Underworld fiasco, but saying it loud, confessing their fraternity, was...odd. Not bad, but...strange, still.
Wordlessly, they rolled off of each other and stood, before looking at the twisted metal that was supposed to be a washing machine.
"That really didn't turn out how I'd pictured it," Jay noted.
"Could say that again," Kai muttered, lightly kicking it. "What a waste."
"It was fun, at least," Cole said. "Until we got launched out of a tornado."
"It would be wise not to tell Sensei about that, I believe," Zane advised.
Jay grinned. "I know we don't usually listen, but I think we should this time."
Zane huffed, but couldn't help but crack a smile as his friends- his brothers laughed. He hadn't told them yet, but before Sensei had taken him in, he'd had no family, no home, no purpose. But now he did. Zane vowed to protect them with his life, because without them, what life did he have?
Even though Jay never did end up doing his laundry.
the found family trope makes me so happy
the ending of this was really hard to write and you can probably tell. oh well. hope you enjoyed!