With Christmas on its way I decided to do a Christmas one-shot, Zane focused, hope you guys like my little fluff piece with just a hint of Pixane, and Wu shenanigans.
Christmas was fast approaching and with all the emphasis on giving all around the city, the ninja wanted to ensure everyone had a wonderful christmas.
"Let's volunteer around the city," said Lloyd
"I'll go to the soup kitchen, apparently they are short staffed and the stoves keep breaking," said Kai
"Jay and I can go lift the spirits of kids in the hospital," sai Nya, kids always loved seeing the ninja
"I know the mall has been having problems getting a new mall santa, don't want to disappoint any little ones, I'll see if they want me to dress in red and a beard," said Cole
"The city is short staffed for decorating this year, I can go lend a hand," said Lloyd,
"I'm going to go to the orphanage and make sure the kids are happy and have plenty of presents," said Zane.
"Excellent, Pixal and I will stay and get the monestay ready for the holiday," said Wu
"Pix, keep Wu away from the tape," said Zane, remembering the disaster of last year
"Don't worry darling, I'll keep an eye on it," giggled Pixal, giving Zane a quick peck on the lips. The ninja left the monastery to go into the city. Wu brought out the presents and wrapping paper. Unlike the other ninja who always waited till the last minute to wrap presents and put them under the tree, Zane had already neatly, and perfectly wrapped each present and decorated the entire monastery to Christmas card levels of perfection, Pixal had noticed that Zane grabbed at least 50 gifts from under the tree before he left, Pix smirked, no doubt her boyfriend had been planning to go to the orphanage before Lloyd suggested the volunteering. The ninja christmas card had been sent out days ago, Zane had one mailed to every single person in the city. Pixal smiled, this was Zane's favorite holiday and he always went all out, even if it meant he'd stay up all night for weeks to get the house smelling like cookies and pie until new years. She carefully measured ribbon and cut wrapping paper for each present, lost in thought as she remanised about previous christmases, stuck in Zane's head as he baked and decorated, each gingerbread man correlating to a different ninja, or would spontaneously join a group of carollers and be gone for hours.
"Um Pixal, perhaps you could help me a bit?" asked Wu, Pixal turned around and saw Wu entangled in six rolls of scotch tape
"What happened?" asked Pixal
"I went to put a piece of tape on the present I was wrapping and my beard got in the way, I'm not entirely sure about the other five rolls," said Wu, Pixal sighed, this was why Wu wasn't allowed to use tape. Meanwhile Cole was listening to kid after kid tell him what they wanted for christmas.
"I want to meet the ninja!" exclaimed one little girl
"Ho Ho Ho, I'll see what I can do," chuckled Cole. Kai was being used as a human stove while talking to the people in line for the soup kitchen, lots of little kids were excited to see the fire ninja. At the end of the line were well over 100 neatly wrapped presents brought here by Zane earlier that day, Kai had known that Zane would spend days in november knitting and sewing sweaters and heavy blankets, with gloves and hats and mittens and socks for each family along with handmade dolls for little girls and wooden trucks for little boys, he also made homemade treats for families with pets. He'd also stop by early each day and bring vegetables from a garden he had somewhere. Anything Zane brought for families at christmas was made to last at least a year. Zane was always a common volunteer at homeless shelters and orphanages and kids always looked forward to seeing him. Kai smiled seeing one little girl so happy at getting a present, especially when they told her it was made by the white ninja.
'Zane probably knows the name of every kid here, he's probably the favorite ninja of all these kids' thought Kai. The next family in line got their hot chicken noodle soup and went to get their presents, Kai decided to ask the little boy something.
"Hey kiddo, do you believe in Santa?" asked Kai. They kid laughed
"No, who's that?" asked the boy
"Sata gives all the good little boys and girls presents on Christmas, he has a sleigh with reindeer and wears a red suit with a long white beard," said Kai
"Oh, we don't have santa here, we have the white ninja, he gives all of us presents and he protects the city, we get to see him every single monday" said the little boy
"He's your favorite ninja I bet," said Kai
"YEAH!" exclaimed the little boy before running off to get his presents.
'This explains why Zane is hardly ever home, he's off being santa to all the kids who don't have a home for Christmas, I bet he helps out at the children's hospital as well,' Kai thought. Jay and Nya were going room to room at the hospital reading the kid's stories and making them happy.
"Excuse us but would you give this to Zane, he's always over here on tuesdays making all the kids happy and we wanted to show our appreciation," said one of the nurses giving Jay a light blue present.
"This is where Zane is every single tuesday when he isn't on missions?" aked Jay
"Oh yes, the kids love seeing his hologram memories of all the adventures he's been on with you all, and he always brings a present for each child at Christmas, I dare say he has his own little fanclub amongst some of the children," said the nurse.
"I never thought Zane would be so good with kids," said Jay
"Oh he's wonderful with them, he did tell us he had this program that activated around kids allowing him to be the perfect playmate for them, and know how to interact with them, it also helps their families tremendously knowing someone they can trust is with their child," said the nurse. Jay and Nya looked at eachother, this did explain quite a bit. Lloyd was in the center of town using his ninja skills to decorate the massive tree.
"Who picked this thing out? It's enormous," panted Lloyd
"Your friend Zane picked it and got it here, he said he wanted every child in the city to see it and be full of joy, he normally helps us decorate but you were a surprise," said the police chief
"He's at the orphanage giving presents to the kids, all of us are volunteering around the city today," said Lloyd
"He's over there on a Wednesday? That's odd, he normally goes there on Fridays, he generally helps us with training new recruits on Wednesdays and Thursdays are when he does patrol, his routine is only broken by missions you all go on," said the Police Chief
"How does he have time for all this? Soup Kitchen on Mondays, Hospital on Tuesdays, on top of his ninja duties and everything he does at home?" asked a perplexed Lloyd
"I don't know but the city is mighty grateful for his help," said the Police Chief. Lloyd was lost in thought as he scaled the tree again to hang the tenth string of lights, they hadn't even gotten to the ornaments. Zane was having the time of his life hanging out with all the kids, they loved seeing him, especially two days early.
"Are you still coming on friday?" asked one of the little girls
"Of course," said Zane as he put all the gifts under the tree. He was exhausted but happy, months without sleep were really starting to drag him down but it was all worth it to see the kids happy, he wanted to give them everything he didn't have after his father died the first time, he wanted every child to feel loved and special. While more fortunate children had green ninja and red ninja dolls, these kids got special attention from the white ninja, that made him their favorite. He'd often help older kids with their homework and when he could he'd go to recitals and sporting events as a stand in, it gave the kids something to brag about, that the white ninja came to see them perform, it made them popular instead of targets for bullies. If some kid was picking on one of the orphans for not wearing a certain clothing brand, the orphan could say with confidence that his clothes were made and given to him by the white ninja. It was the end of the day when all the ninja returned home, exhausted. But the presents were wrapped and under the tree, Wu had been de-taped and Pixal had made dinner.
"How was volunteering?" asked Wu at the table
"Exhausting, Zane you do this every day?" asked Kai
"Except the mall santa thing Cole did, yes," said Zane. Zane picked at his food, he was tired and wanted to go to bed but he still had more stuff to do, especially since he was on patrol tomorrow, he had to train and review the security measures at Kryptarium.
"Hey Zane why don't you go call it an early night, we can handle your responsibilities for tomorrow," said Lloyd
"Are you sure?" asked Zane
"You do so much for everyone, it's time we do stuff for you," said Lloyd
"Oh, before we forget, Zane the nurses at the children's hospital wanted us to give you this," said Jay handing the gift to Zane who opened it. The gift was a bunch of framed drawings and some letters from all the kids at the hospital and a bunch of thank you letters from the parents and staff, a few of the mothers had even thrown in homemade cookies for him. Zane smiled at the gift.
"Zane you should get some sleep, Christmas may be about giving, but I think it's time you got something, like rest," said Lloyd. Pixal got Zane to bed.
"I need to start wrapping gifts, has anyone seen the tape?...