Cole wasn't sure why he'd decided to do this. Being a ninja more than kept him busy enough, but here he was volunteering his scant free time for a month rather than catching up on his massive backlog of video games. Even the woman interviewing him sounded skeptical, and the black ninja couldn't blame her. "At least we'll have the best evacuations in Ninjago City if it comes to that," she joked with a nervous smile.
"Yeah!" The joke wasn't any worse than any Jay had come up with, so it was alright. "This sounds like it's gonna be fun!" The black ninja just hoped he could somehow pull this off without any of the other ninja finding out. Kai and Jay would never let him hear the end of it!
"It is, but the guys who do it tell me it's harder than it looks, especially year after year. We'll focus on getting you through this one first, however. Welcome, Ninjago City Mall Santa #17!" Cole's new "boss" reached out to shake his hand. The ninja looked excited, but she wondered for how long that would last. She handed him the manual of rules, how to handle the most common situations, and so on, sending Cole on his way.
When Cole left the Monastery of Spinjitzu for his first "shift" of this volunteer gig, the other ninja presumed he was just buying Winterfest gifts, and he wasn't going to correct them. The first kid in line was a little girl holding a stuffed horse. She couldn't have been more than 4 or 5 years old and looked scared to be more than three feet from her mother, but she also wanted to look brave, so she took halting steps towards "Santa." Cole tried to remember to avoid his usual "resting grumpy face." The eyebrows made any expression look more "intense" than he intended. "H-hi, Santa," she said quietly, avoiding eye contact.
"Hey, there, kiddo!" the fake "Santa" greeted. He was still way too self-conscious to get into the "ho ho ho" part of the role. "How's it goin'? What's your name?"
"My name is Suzy and I'm four, but I'm gonna be FIVE soon! I almost fell down on the ice walking in and my mommy got scared, but I'm okay!" Seeing that "Santa" wasn't a threat, the little girl warmed to him a bit more. "I want a pony just like this for Winterfest!" she said, shoving the stuffed toy into Cole's face. Her mother facepalmed and gave the other adult a Look.
"Well, that's an awful lot of responsibility for a little girl. Maybe you should start with a smaller pet, like…um, a cat or something?" Cole met the mother's glance and she nodded subtly. "A cat would be just your size!" Okay, that sounded weird! For a brief moment, the earth ninja reconsidered whether he really wanted to do this. "Anything else?"
"Um, lots of candy and sweets! What's your favorite kind, Santa?"
The Master of Earth laughed genuinely. That was the easiest question he was going to get all day! "Cake!" And now Suzy's mother was giving Cole the stink eye. Whoops… "I think your mom's waiting to take your picture. Smile, kiddo!" Picture taken, Suzy hopped off of Cole's lap and he called out, "Next!" as she made her way back to her mother. A teenage "elf" led the next kid to "Santa" and things continued, equally uneventful. By the end of his shift, Cole was exhausted, but quite pleased. There hadn't been any major disasters, no screaming kids (or parents,) and the "elf" hadn't said much to Cole, but he had the impression the younger man just wasn't a chatty sort.
When Cole arrived back at the monastery, he did have gifts in tow. This evening, at least, he had an excuse for where he'd been. The only person he ran into before making it to his room, however, was Master Wu, and if there was anyone Cole wouldn't mind being "busted" by, it was him. "My, starting our Winterfest festivities early, aren't we?" Wu asked with a teeny smirk. Nya and Jay taking all day to do that kind of shopping would've made sense, especially with how easily-distracted Jay was, but Wu had noticed Cole missing shortly before lunch and it was now just after dinner; there was no way Cole could, let alone would, spend so much time on such a project.
"Y-yeah! It's like you always say, 'Never put off to tomorrow what can be done today!'" Cole replied nervously. "And a few of the things I got were selling like hotcakes so I couldn't put it off."
"Well-done, Cole," Wu said with a nod. "I'll leave you to it, then." He wondered what else Cole had been up to, but respected his students' privacy at their ages. The speed with which Cole disappeared into his room just confirmed Wu's suspicions.
The "Santa" role was to last for a month, and the first half of that went as smoothly as Cole's favorite Winterfest slow jams. The kids loved him, he loved making them happy, and none of the disasters about which the other Santas had warned Cole had yet come to pass. They kept taunting him or accusing him of "cheating" somehow, but the more kids Cole dealt with, the more he wondered if the other Santas had tried…being nice and not totally dead inside? Several smelled like cigarettes so badly that Cole couldn't help but wonder if the kids were reacting negatively to the stench.
The only thing about this that Cole was still dreading was if the other ninja ever got around to doing their shopping. Ninjago City only had one mall, after all… Today was not that day, however, and the time had finally arrived for the last child. Today's "elf," a girl who didn't look much younger than Cole himself, had roped off the line an hour ago and they just had to get through everyone already waiting. This last boy, however, and his dad both looked very unhappy. Cole's frown was hidden by the fake white beard, but he wouldn't have been surprised if the rest of his face betrayed him just as much. The boy was probably about seven by Cole's best guess. As the boy sat on Cole's lap, he saw the father holding the child's Kai plush. No matter for how long he was a ninja, Cole would never get used to that sort of thing. He almost didn't mind that his "merch" didn't sell—too weird! "Hey, why the long face?" he asked gently.
"Hi, Mr. Santa. I'm Bobby." The boy sniffled. "Can you make my mommy not be sick anymore, Mr. Santa?" His father winced, hard.
Cole hadn't anticipated the emotional kick in the gut and he drew his breath in sharply before he could catch himself. For the first time all season, the ninja of earth made a point to change his voice. Hopefully it would help keep his emotions from leaking into his words. "You're a fan of the ninja, right, Bobby?"
"Y-yeah…?" Bobby looked confused at "Santa." What did that have to do with his mom being sick?
"Well, the black ninja's mom was sick, too, when he was your age. He told her he didn't want her to be sick anymore and she told him that we can't always get what we want." Cole let out a sigh. "There's some stuff even Santa can't fix, and I'd give anything to help you, honest."
"Did his mommy get better?"
"…No…" Cole took a breath to steady his own emotions. "She didn't, and he was very sad for a very long time. His dad was sad, too, but the black ninja was too little to understand that." Bobby started crying and Cole just held the kid. The other "Santas" had been giving Cole grief about not having gotten a "crier" yet all season, "Your day's coming!" and all that, but if he had to get one…this wasn't the worst way it could have happened. The mall was emptying out, so it wasn't like the kid was attracting gawkers, (not that Cole would've given a flying rip if he was.)
When Bobby was done crying for the time being, he wiped his nose and eyes on Cole's costume, asking, "Mr. Santa, if you can't make my mommy better, can I talk to the black ninja, 'cause his mommy got sick, too?"
"That I can do. You have your dad talk to my elf and I'll talk to the ninja. How's that sound?" Cole wasn't sure how he'd work this out, but he would, no matter what!
The elf took Bobby's picture with "Santa" and lead the child back to his father. The two conversed briefly. Quickly making her way back to "Santa," the "elf" whispered, "His father says Bobby's birthday is supposed to be next week. They weren't going to have a party, though, because of everything with his mom."
"A birthday without cake?!" Cole hiss-whispered. "What?" The two volunteers talked for another minute before the elf bounced back to Bobby's father. The plan would work, but Cole was going to have to do what he'd been avoiding all month: tell the other ninja…and hope that they were all available, (or at least Kai, since it looked like Kai was the kid's favorite.)
During dinner, Cole ate nervously. He'd practiced his "pitch" in his head, but he'd forgotten his lines so often in performing arts school that he had little faith in his ability to remember now when he was nervous to boot. During a lull in conversation, Cole cleared his throat…a bit too zealously. Kai's eyebrow raised, "Uh, are you okay, Cole?" His brother was constantly disappearing without warning lately and now he sounded like he was coughing up his kidneys.
"Yeah! Uh, why wouldn't I be?" Come on, grow up, Cole! he chided himself. "Actually wanted to ask you guys something."
"By all means," Zane invited.
"Sooo…reason I've been gone a lot lately was I decided to volunteer some of that free time we get once in a while," began the Master of Earth.
"Don't you have, like, a million video games you haven't played yet, Cole?" Jay asked, confused. "Why wouldn't you work on that?"
Cole explained, "Wanted to do something for the kids." Master Wu smiled and Cole felt embarrassed; Wu's approval would always matter to Cole more than anyone else's, save his own father. As the earth ninja explained how the day's shift had ended and his "plan," (such as it was,) he saw the ninja go through many of the same emotions he had.
"Let's do this! I'm all fired up!" Kai yelled as he leapt to his feet with a fist in the air.
"Everybody free that afternoon?" Cole asked. He let out a sigh of relief when the others all answered in the affirmative.
"And we totally won't visit you on your next shift," Kai taunted with a wink.
"Adults gotta be with someone 10 or under, and just 'cause Jay's got the maturity of an 8-year-old, he doesn't count," Cole snarked back to an offended huff from the blue ninja.
"Your actions are quite noble, Cole," complimented the white ninja. "I am certain you have made the children of Ninjago City very happy."
"I don't know if we can make little Bobby 'happy,' but we can make his birthday a little better, right guys?" said Lloyd.
"And it is one less thing his father will have to worry about," Pixal added. She was already ordering everything, including a cake, (Cole-approved, of course.) Wireless-enabled brains were fun!
"You did good, Cole," Nya contributed in a rare compliment. She didn't give those out idly, so it made Cole smile.
Wu nodded in agreement, but his glance didn't leave Cole. The most taxing aspect of working all of this out was Cole's and Cole's alone to do, after all. In mild teasing, Wu asked, "And how do you plan to explain to little Bobby why Santa and Cole sound so much alike?"
"I changed my voice," Cole explained. "Uh, tried to, anyway. He's seven—is he really gonna be that sharp?"
"At that age, I sense it could go either way," Zane offered. "Hopefully the passage of time and difference in context will also help to prevent Bobby from making the connection. However, I do believe his father will figure it out regardless."
"Not sure what the other volunteer told his dad; guy might already know," Cole replied with a shrug.
The hospital had been only too happy to let Bobby's father rent out the conference room for the afternoon, but the ninja, Pixal, and Master Wu were there as soon as visiting hours began that day. Zane was taping balloons to the bend between the wall and the ceiling, with Pixal giving him feedback from below. "That one is a third of an inch too far to the left," she pointed out as Zane moved it. Whenever the ice under the cake started to turn back into water, Zane was also re-icing it to keep the cake from melting.
Cole was nervous, about everything today, but he was also the ninja best at portraying an air of calm. At least he didn't have to micromanage when Zane, Pix, and Wu were more than capable of running this show. Jay and Nya were taping up banners and streamers in Winterfest colors, Jay getting distracted and waving every time someone looked through the window in the door. "Jay! Focus!" Nya reminded him for the dozenth time that hour. Cole shook his head with a faint smile. He had good friends, and he was always grateful for them, but today he found himself even more so. Without hesitation, they'd all gotten right on board with his half-baked ideas. (Granted these were Cole Ideas rather than Kai Ideas.)
Zane's internal timer beeped. "Cole, it is time." Without a word, Cole nodded and walked out, hands in his pockets and shoulders slumped.
Cole'd been told by Bobby's father what room Bobby's mother was in. Cole's mother had spent most of her illness at home since being in a hospital wouldn't have helped. The smells of floor cleaner and antiseptic burning his nostrils, he didn't mind that. How scary this place would have been for seven-year-old Cole! For how long had Bobby been seeing his mother here. The black ninja's scowl had grown deep as past and present pressed against each other in his mind, but as he stopped outside of the correct room, he took a breath, straightened his posture, and pasted a smile on his face. Knocking on the door frame, he quietly said, "This where little Bobby is?" He knew the answer, but had to "play dumb," of course.
Bobby wiped his eyes and looked up. "Daddy! It's the black ninja! Mr. Santa really did talk to him!" The child's mother could only turn her head to face Cole, but her expression conveyed that gratitude of which only a mother was capable. Cole nodded by way of greeting, entering when she nodded in reply. That was as good of permission to enter as any, no? Bobby ran up to Cole and yanked the ninja by the hand, "This is my mommy and my daddy! I asked Mr. Santa if he could make Mommy not be sick anymore and he said he couldn't, but that you went through the same thing. Is that true, Mr. Black Ninja?"
"Call me Cole," he replied as casually as he could under the circumstances. Crouching to Bobby's height, Cole nodded. "Yeah, it is. Santa told me how sad he was that he couldn't help you, too."
"Thank you for coming, Cole," Bobby's mother said weakly. She hadn't talked in weeks, so it came out raspy. Oh well…
"Just doing what's right," Cole brushed off.
"Why don't you give the ninja a tour of the floor?" Bobby's father suggested. He didn't want Bobby's mother to be hurt by anything Bobby might say—she was beating herself enough over her inability to "mother" her son like she wanted to. It wasn't like there wouldn't be dozens of eyes on Cole and Bobby at any time anyway, and Bobby's father rarely got to be alone with his mother anymore. He silently pleaded with Cole to go along with the idea.
"Okay, Daddy!" Bobby happily grabbed Cole's hand and hauled the ninja along. Cole hoped he had an accurate enough memory of the layout to avoid accidentally spoiling the surprise party.
As they walked, Cole stated plainly, "Hurts a lot, doesn't it?" Bobby nodded and sniffled. "How long has your mom been here?"
"Mommy started coughing a lot during Winterfest last year. She told Daddy it was just a cold, but, the night before Santa comes, Daddy started yelling in their room and he called a white square car that took Mommy here." As the sniffling got worse, Cole pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to the boy. "Are you sure Mr. Santa can't make her better?"
"Yeah…and it hurts him that he can't, kiddo—promise." Since Bobby was getting more upset, Cole paused their procession at a bench along the wall. As they both sat down, Cole let out a sigh before he could help himself."
"How did Mr. Santa know about your mommy?" Bobby asked innocently.
"Well, you know what the Winterfest songs say—he's always watching," Cole bluffed.
Bobby looked thoughtful beyond his years for just a moment before asking another question. "Can I do anything to make my mommy feel better? What did you do for your mommy?"
"If you mean make her not sick…there's nothing either of us can do. But if you want to make her happy, you could sing songs, draw pictures, maybe dance a little if the nurses here aren't no fun. Dad and I both dance, he sings, and I draw, so we did a lot of those things, but my mom was at home so there weren't any nurses or doctors around all the time to tell us not to." A home healthcare nurse had come in every few weeks, (every few days at the very end,) to offer Lilly palliative care, but that had been all. "Why don't you draw her some pictures of your favorite memories?" The ninja of earth also made the suggestion in anticipation of what would be valuable to Bobby and his father one Bobby's mother was gone. "If you want to sing or dance, maybe your dad can get it on video."
"Those are great ideas, Mr. Nin—Cole!"
"Are you close to your mom, Bobby?"
"Uh-huh. Were you?"
Cole nodded, eyes fixated on the floor as his memory traveled back. "Yeah. She's the reason I became a ninja." Lilly was, of course, the reason Cole could become a ninja, but there wasn't any reason to get into that level of detail.
"Really?" Bobby looked genuinely interested.
"Yeah. I made a promise to her that I would stand up to bad guys and bullies, always. A ninja doesn't just protect himself, right?" The child nodded his enthusiastic agreement. "A ninja also never quits. If…" Cole took a breath before addressing the elephant in the hallway. "If your mom doesn't get better, you're gonna wanna quit, trust me, but you can't, ever. Know what I mean?" Bobby's expression grew contemplative, even as he nodded right away. "Become the big kid she wants you to be," Cole attempted to explain.
"I think I can do that," Bobby agreed. He and Cole talked for a bit longer, until a throat cleared behind the child and Bobby squealed in delight when he turned and saw Kai. "IT'S THE RED NINJA!" he yelled loudly enough to be heard on the Dark Island as he hopped off of the bench and ran up to hug Kai. Cole chuckled as Kai patted the kid on the head. At Kai's worst moments, his fans made his ego problems worse, but at his best moments, they were his motivation and the kids in particular often kept the ninja on the straight and narrow when they were tempted to be or do otherwise.
Kai had been sent to fetch Cole and Bobby after the child's parents, his mother in a wheelchair and with an IV in tow, had already made it to the party's location. "Hey, Bobby. Santa told me someone's got a birthday coming up, so thought I'd follow Cole here and wish you a happy birthday! Santa also helped with something else—wanna see?"
"What is it?" Bobby asked excitedly as he grabbed both the black and red ninja by their hands, following them trustingly. Everything that was on Cole's handkerchief was now on his hand. Swell. It had amazed Cole all season how quickly a child's mood could swing, but he supposed he hadn't been any different when he was that small. The earth ninja smirked imagining what Kai must have been like at this age—Kai's mood swings must have bordered on emotional parkour!
Just before they all reached the door to the "party" room, Kai said mysteriously, "Gotta close your eyes first!" Bobby complied in all childlike simplicity, expression curious as the door opened and the two ninja lead him inside.
"SURPRISE!" called out all of the ninja, Pixal, Wu, and Bobby's parents. His eyes flew open, confused. He'd almost forgotten about his birthday—it was better than feeling guilty for resenting his birthday being forgotten.
Nya bounced up to the child and put a party hat on him, Jay and Lloyd handing matching hats to Kai and Cole respectively. "Happy birthday, Bobby!"
"WOAH! The REAL ninja?! Oh my gosh!" Bobby jumped up and down, more excited than he had allowed himself to be in a year. "Did Mr. Santa talk to all of you, too?"
"You could say that," Lloyd answered with a wink in Cole's direction.
"Yeah, Santa said you'd had a rough year but, even if he couldn't do anything about it, he knew the ninja could," Cole added quickly. "So when Santa said you wanted to talk to me and said it was your birthday, I figured who's gonna say 'no' to cake? I mean, cake!" Half of the cake was regular yellow cake and half was chocolate, since Cole had forgotten to find out what kind Bobby liked. They'd gone to Cole's absolute favorite cake shop in all of Ninjago, of course!
The party had games, most of which had been organized by Nya and Jay, and the nindroid duo arranged a short "movie" of Bobby's family from the time before his mother had fallen ill. Master Wu served as another source of adult conversation with Bobby's parents whenever the child was thoroughly distracted by his ninja heroes. (The ninja, save Lloyd, were all "adults," of course, but they understood the difference perfectly well.)
When the time for cake came, Bobby was practically vibrating with happiness as Kai used his elemental power to light the candles. They all sang and Cole pasted a smile on his face, since he knew better than anybody what Bobby was wishing for. At least there was cake! It was only then that Cole realized Bobby's mother hadn't eaten anything the entire time, the slice of cake Pixal had placed next to her still untouched. If the child's mother couldn't handle solid foods… Was she even going to make it to the new year? The Master of Earth shoved another forkful of cake into his mouth aggressively enough Zane met his glance with a raised eyebrow and an unspoken question of if everything was alright. Cole gave a single slight nod of the head in reply. Being as empathetic as Cole was sure had its downsides sometimes…
"Time for presents!" Jay announced, he and Bobby having fed off of each other's energy the entire time. The other ninja, Pixal, and Wu were half-expecting stray lightning strikes any time now… Bobby's father had given some ideas to the "elf" the day Bobby had seen "Santa," and the ninja had had a few ideas of their own, too.
"This one won't be in stores until after Winterfest, but I pulled a few strings," Kai bragged as he handed a red-wrapped present to the child. Opening it, Bobby pulled out a plush Kai velcroed to a plush dragon, red, yellow, and orange. A flame dangled out of its mouth like a tongue. The fire ninja had made sure to wear the same gi on which the plush had been modeled. He wasn't the most detail-oriented ninja, but Zane and Pixal had made the suggestion, and it was as well-received as they had calculated that it would be..
Jay and Nya were up next, blue wrapping paper tied with silver ribbon. Bobby cheered with excitement, "New crayons and ninja coloring books!" From Zane and Pixal, the child was given a couple of small children's games he'd wanted and an educational math game that even the nindroids had found funny and cute. Cole found himself wondering if the game was too advanced until Bobby's father mentioned math being the boy's best and favorite subject.
Cole and Lloyd had gone in together on a box set of books about the ninja that had been written for kids Bobby's age, learning to read. Another silver ribbon bound green wrapping paper around the books. The green and black ninja had wanted to give the kid something he could entertain himself with during what Cole suspected could be long stretches of time in a bleak hospital room. This was no place for a child, but it was what it was.
During the opening of Bobby's gifts, Wu was offering several bags of tea leaves to the parents, something for the adults this Winterfest. It was easy to focus on how hard this was for the kid, but it was hard for the adults, too. The parents repeatedly asked Wu to convey their gratitude to the ninja for arranging all of this, and Master Wu repeatedly told them not to worry about it. He was proud of his students and how readily they had agreed to give up the time and energy to pull all of this together in such short order, with Cole continuing his "Santa" shifts the entire time.
Eventually, the birthday boy was starting to yawn, to a rare chuckle from his parents. "Bobby, it's time to say good-bye to the ninja," the father instructed in a tone that indicated there would be no arguments. "Ninja, we cannot thank you enough."
"It was our pleasure, sir," Lloyd dismissed with a hand wave. "We're here for the people, always." The other ninja nodded firmly in agreement. Nya, Zane, Pixal, and Cole quickly got to work taking down the decorations and cleaning up.
Just as Bobby's dad was leading him out of the room, wheeling Bobby's mother carefully, Bobby ran back into the room and wrapped his arms around Cole's waist for a hug. "Thank you! Please tell Mr. Santa thank you, too!"
Cole crouched down for a more level hug as he chuckled, "I'll let him know, promise. He'd probably tell me to remind you that ninja never quit, and now you're an honorary ninja, so you don't get to quit, either, right, Lloyd?"
"Of course!" the green ninja agreed with a warm smile.
"Good night, ninja!" Bobby waved as he followed his father out. Pixal quietly closed the door behind them.
"That was totally worth it, but I. Am. Beat!" Kai said with a long exhale as he sat down for a moment.
"Yep!" Cole concurred as he stacked all of the chairs and carried them back to the corner of the room by himself.
For the rest of the Winterfest season, Cole dove back into his volunteer "gig" with more vigor than ever, and he'd hardly been slacking before! At the end of the season, Cole found out that his "boss" had learned about the impromptu birthday party. Specifically, he learned about it when he went back to change back into his normal clothes and all of the ninja, Wu, and Pixal were there with the Santa wrangler, "SURPRISE!" they all yelled at once.
"What the ninblooey?" Cole asked, puzzled.
"At the end of every Winterfest, we look for evidence of volunteers who have gone above and beyond the call of 'duty', and, after one of your 'elves' tattled on you, there was no question of who was going to get our 'Santa of the Year' award!" Cole's boss explained.
"Y-you didn't have to, really!" Cole stammered out awkwardly. He was touched but mortified at the same time and was as red as the Santa suit itself. The ninja had gotten a card in the mail, from Bobby and his family, the day before and that had been more than enough "reward" as far as Cole had been concerned. Bobby had even sent some of the now-colored pages from the coloring books he had gotten. Cole wasn't sure why his orange belt was scribbled green in one of the pictures, but the pictures had all been promptly affixed to the refrigerator, to the excitement of everyone in the Monastery of Spinjitzu.
"What if we told you there's cake?" Jay asked with a wink.
"CAKE?! Why didn't you say so?!" Now Cole was on-board!
Mid-way through the mini-party, Kai asked Cole, "Think you'll do this again next year?" while sipping a root beer.
Cole shrugged his shoulders. "I'm surprised I was able to do it the whole time this year without Ninjago City having some crisis." After devouring another forkful of cake, he said, "Time will tell."