One-shot number 2! This one was requested by the lovely Guest, so I especially hope that you like this.

Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago

It was now March 29. The day before C.J.'s very first birthday. Monks were still working on painting murals on the walls surrounding the monastery's courtyard, the ninja were still trying to unpack their things after moving from the Airjitzu Temple two days ago, and Cole was trying to make sure everything was perfect for C.J.'s big day. He had a whole list of things that needed to be done, and he was going to present this to the others in a very important ninja meeting in Cole's room that day.

"As you all know, C.J.'s first birthday is tomorrow, and it has to be a night to remember," Cole said as he paced the room like a general speaking with his soldiers before they go to war.

"Does he even have memories at this point in his life?" Kai asked.

"To my knowledge, children don't gain explicit memories until they're around the age of two," Zane replied.

"Then why do I remember burning my hand on the forge when I was one?" Kai asked.

"There's a possibility he'll remember this, so it has to be perfect!" Cole continued, feeling rather annoyed by the change of topic. "I have a list of things that we need to do before tomorrow. The first of which is...cake!"

"Of course," Jay snickered, only to gain an elbow rib by Nya.

"I can make the cake," Zane suggested.

"Perfect! Alright, number two is...decorations!"

"I'll do it," Kai immediately volunteered as he stood up. Maybe a little too quickly, though, because all eyes were suddenly on him.

Kai's face turned beet red as he sat back down on the floor saying, "I mean, I don't know."

Suddenly, Nya raised her hand and said, "I can help with decoration too."

Neither sibling would ever admit it, but they loved to decorate, so they were always the ones to end up with that job when they were able to have a party, which wasn't often.

"Great! Next is...games!" Cole said.

"I think I know some good ones. I can set everything up," Lloyd mentioned.

"Do you mind if I help?" Pixal asked.

"Not at all."

"I guess that just leaves Wu and Jay," Cole mentioned. "Um..."

"I already know what I'm gonna do," Jay replied.

"Really?" Nya asked.

"Yep!" Jay replied proudly, but Nya was clearly not convinced.

To break the fight that was inevitably going to rise between the two if not distracted, Kai asked, "What about gifts?"

"Well, we should probably all do that ourselves," Cole replied, easily dodging the topic. At least, he thought it was easy.

"Yeah, but what kind of stuff do you get for a one-year-old?" Jay asked.

"Oh, uh, you know..." Cole didn't know how to respond to that. If he was being perfectly honest, he had no idea what he was supposed to get his son. Of course, there was the usual baby things, but what about toys? What kind of toys did he even like? Sure, there was the bear he gave C.J., but what else did he even like that he didn't already have?"

"Did you not get him anything yet?" Pixal asked.

Cole shook his head, ashamed of how long he had put this off. Hear he was, telling his siblings that this party had to be perfect, and he hadn't even gotten his son a gift yet.

"Should I help you with that?" Wu asked.

"I'm sure I'll figure something out," Cole replied. He then gave his list to Wu and said, "You can be the supervisor. Make sure everything goes smoothly," with a pleading look, he delivered this last sentence.

"Of course," Wu promised.

"Thanks," he then turned to the rest of the ninja and said, "I'll be at the store if anyone needs me. C.J. should be asleep until three. If he wakes up before then, there's formula in the fridge. Give him that and put him back to bed."

Everyone nodded in understanding before looking at the clock. It was currently one in the afternoon, and the ninja were going to try to have the party at around 9 tomorrow, so they did have some time to prepare. It didn't hurt to get a head start, though.

While Zane left for the kitchen, Kai and Nya migrated to the attic, Pixal and Lloyd made their way to Lloyd's room, and Jay just disappeared.

"What do you think Jay's doing?" Kai asked as he began scavenging through some boxes. Most of the stuff in the attic were just things that could no longer fit out in the open, so none of it was very old.

Nya grunted slightly as she lifted up a box labeled "Party" in Lloyd's messy handwriting. As she began looking through that she responded to her brother saying, "I don't know. Just last night he was complaining to me about how he didn't know what he was even supposed to do at a kid's party. Especially one so young."

As Kai rummaged through whatever box he was looking in, he suddenly noticed something he hadn't seen in a very long time.

"Woah!" he exclaimed.

"What?" Nya asked as she abandoned her own box and attempted looking over her brother's shoulder, but he blocked her with his arm. "What did you find?"

Kai smiled teasingly as he showed Nya a doll with a faded mouth and bright, blue eyes. She wore a pink dress with a bit of dirt on it, and her hair was made of light brown yarn.

The water ninja gasped when she saw this. She took it carefully from Kai, as if she was afraid she'd break it. She caressed the doll's cheek carefully, taking in all of her details and reliving so many childhood memories.

"I didn't even know we still had this," Nya said as she looked back up to her brother.

"You loved that thing. I'm not just going to get rid of it!" Kai told her, as if it was obvious.

Suddenly, Kai could feel his sister's arms wrap around him as she pulled him in for a hug.

"Thank you," she softly said.

"Hey. Anytime, Sis," Kai replied as he returned the hug.

The two smiled at each other for a moment before Nya placed her doll in the "Party" box, and the two made their way to the game room to decorate.

Meanwhile, Lloyd and Pixal were discussing games. It turned out to be a much more complicated task than either anticipated.

"We have Twisted, Pin the Tail on the Dragon, Apologize, but nothing for a baby," Lloyd said as he looked through all of the games located under his bed. "What games can C.J. even play?"

"I do not know of any party games," Pixal replied.

As Lloyd continued to rummage through the different games, he picked up the poster for Pin the Tail on the Dragon and said, "Do you think he'll be able to figure this out?"

Pixal nodded. "With a little help, I am certain."

"Okay, but what else? We can't play this forever," Lloyd said.

Pixal was about to say something, but Lloyd continued saying, "What if we had, like, a ring toss, but with teething rings."

The female nindroid nodded as she realized that it might actually be a pretty good idea.

As Lloyd continued spitting out ideas like this, Pixal realized that she should definitely be writing this stuff down. She wrote down the teething ring ring toss, Pin the Tail on the Dragon, a puppet show, a food eating contest that was quickly crossed off, and story time. She also wrote down "movie," but they really weren't sure whether they'd even have time for that or not.

"Is that all?" Pixal asked.

"All that I can think of," Lloyd responded. "We just need to find everything now."

While Pixal emptied a box in the attic, Lloyd gathered everything they would need and placed it in the box, so they could set everything up quickly tomorrow.

As this was going on, Cole was browsing the Ninjago City mall for anything he could get for his adopted son. He went through the baby store, the kid's store, the clothing store, but he couldn't find anything that interested him enough.

The ninja weren't the richest people in the world, so everything C.J. owned were hand-me-downs from the ninja when they were babies or things that Jay, Nya, Zane, or Pixal made, giving C.J. a ton of toys and clothes.

Clothes weren't even an option in Cole's mind as C.J. already had everything he needed, but the young father had no idea what kind of toy he could get.

There were action figures, but the only affordable ones were of them, which Cole could never get used to. There were stuffed animals, but they all seemed very...odd. Plus, C.J. already had his top hatted bear, Mr. Cuddlywomp (courtesy of Jay), and a red dragon plush from Kai. Another option was also some toddler books, which Cole actually liked, but which one?

To the bookstore Cole went, and he began browsing through a very wide selection of toddler books. Some about why certain things happen, others that taught little life lessons, but there was one in particular that caught Cole's eye, and that was one about a little ninja. Obviously, it was based off of him and his friends, but this one was so much more subtle. Cole decided to purchase this, but he still felt like there should be something better.

When Cole finally made it home, he was introduced to something he had not known for a very long time. Silence. Kai and Nya were calmly hanging some banners, Lloyd and Pixal were drawing something at the kitchen table, and Zane was reading a book as he was waiting for the cake to finish.

As Cole walked through the game room, Kai turned to him and quietly asked, "Did you get anything?"

Cole nodded before asking, "How's C.J.?"

"He got hungry earlier. We just got him back to sleep," Nya whispered.

The earth ninja nodded in understanding, giving his thanks before retreating to his room.

While there, Cole got some wrapping paper and wrapped up the book he got for his son, but he still wasn't happy with this. How was C.J. going to remember this birthday with such a mediocre gift?

Groaning loudly, Cole plopped himself down into his bed, so he sunk into his stiff mattress. As he continuously beat himself up over his dumb gift, his eyes fell onto the pictures strewn all over his walls, giving him an idea. And a very good one at that.

The next day, everyone woke up very early for sunrise stretches, giving them the opportunity to set everything up before C.J. woke up.

As the ninja were putting up the decorations and setting up the games and entertainment, there was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it," Cole told everyone

The earth master stood up from where he was helping to set up the puppet show and walked over to the monastery gate. When he opened the door, he saw none other than his father.

"Dad!" Cole exclaimed.

The two hugged, but Cole suddenly gasped when he saw what his dad was holding. It was a huge birthday bag that Lou was clearly having trouble lifting.

"Where should I put this?" Lou asked.

"I'll just take that," Cole said with a strained smile as he took the bag, but it nearly dropped to the ground when he did. What was in this thing?

Once the bag was placed in the game room with all the other presents (except for Jay's, for some reason), Cole decided that it was time to wake C.J.

"Hey, Buddy," Cole whispered as he tugged at the toddler's shoulders.

C.J. stirred a little before slowly opening his big, green eyes. He smiled brightly upon seeing his father, and Cole couldn't help but smile back.

"Hey, Buddy. Guess what!" Cole said as he picked C.J. up from out of his crib. "It's your birthday!"

C.J. didn't really understand exactly what that meant but seeing Cole's smile made him smile. It was very fun to see how much enjoyment C.J. got out of the smallest things.

As Cole changed his diaper, he looked to the blond and asked, "Are you ready?"

The toddler responded by just giggling at this.

Cole laughed as well before getting C.J. dressed in a blue shirt with a dinosaur on it and black shorts. He also gave the boy some white socks in case his feet got cold.

Once his little boy was all dressed for the day, he carried him outside to the game room where everyone was waiting, wearing different colored party hats and carrying blowers. As soon as they saw the two, they blew their blowers and cheered loudly for the little one's birthday. Then, it was time for the entertainment.

First, Pin the Tail on the Dragon. Everyone tried their hardest to get the tail in the right spot. Cole, trying to help guide C.J. to where he needed to go, but the boy was so fast that Cole could barely keep up. The tail ended up on the dragon's eye, and C.J. cheered loudly when he found this out, gaining a laugh form everybody in the room.

Jay ended up getting the closest, being only inches away from the tail's designated spot while Kai was the farthest about a foot away from the entire poster. Although, the fire master was just about certain that the lightning master cheated.

Then was the puppet show, which every ninja was apart of. While Lou and C.J. happily watched from the couch, each of the ninja held up a puppet of themselves and told the story of how they found the boy in a much more toddler friendly way with cheesy dialogue and truly dumb reasons for Harumi to be the villain of the story along with an oversimplified reason for why C.J. was actually with the group. As stupid as the ninja found what they had written, C.J. greatly enjoyed it.

Once they had finished with the ring toss game that C.J. thought he was so good at despite the fact that Cole held him directly above the thing the entire time, it was time for Cole's favorite part of any party. Cake.

The lights shut off, Kai lit the candles, and the ninja, Lou, Pixal, and Wu began singing "Happy Birthday."

C.J. looked around at everyone curiously as they sang to him, and then it was time to cut the cake.

"Zane, you really outdid yourself this time," Cole praised with a mouthful of chocolate cake with Ganache frosting in his mouth.

"Yeah, Zane. This is really good," Nya added.

"Thank you," Zane told them.

"It seems C.J. really likes it too," Kai remarked as he saw the mess that the toddler was making in his high chair. His cupcake's frosting was orange, which, despite the fact that it was all gone, was very obvious to anyone who saw him. The frosting was all over his face, clothes, high chair, and somehow, hair.

"Oh, boy," Cole said when he saw this.

"I don't think even you were that into your first piece of cake," Lou laughed.

"Oh, this isn't his first," Cole replied. "I tried giving him cake before, but he scared me."

Everyone laughed at this, and once they were finished eating, Cole gave C.J. a quick bath before it was time for the gifts.

Everyone sat in the game room with Cole in the center of the room and C.J. in his lap.

Kai gave the young blond a small bag. The birthday boy slowly, carefully took out the tissue paper from the bag to reveal a Kai action figure doll. Then Lloyd gave him a green blanket that looked a lot like his old blanket, Nya got him a narwhal plush, Zane and Pixal a small robot to teach letters, numbers, and imaginations skills, and Wu got him a bouncy ball.

Finally, it was time to find out what Lou got his grandson in that ridiculously large bag.

"Okay, Buddy. Let's see what we have here," Cole said, trying to sound as excited as C.J. definitely was. He just hoped it wasn't horribly unnecessary.

When all the tissue paper was strewn all over the floor, Cole placed C.J. on the floor next to the couch, where he was jumping up and down excitedly, while Cole took a rocking horse out of the bag.

"Woah!" Cole exclaimed.

"Horse!" C.J. exclaimed.

"Well, what do you think?" Lou asked excitedly.

"Horse!" C.J. exclaimed again as he ran up to the thing.

"Okay, okay. Give me a sec," Cole replied.

He managed to maneuver the rocking horse over C.J.'s head and right next to the couch. C.J. immediately began rocking on it.

"It's not too big for his room, is it?" Lou asked.

"No," Cole replied. "It's just really...expensive. How much did that cost?"

"Around $100."

"One hundred?!" Cole exclaimed.

"Noice!" Jay said.

Everyone looked to the lightning ninja to see that he was getting a kick out of the rocking horse being there in the room.

"Uh, Jay?" Nya asked.

"What?" Jay asked.

"What about your gift?"

"Oh yeah!" Jay exclaimed.

He left the room for a moment, retreating to his room and came back a few moments later with a little case.

"Sorry. I didn't have time to wrap it," Jay said as he handed the case to Cole, who promptly showed it to C.J.

The young boy quickly got off of his rocking horse to see what it was. Upon opening the case, he could see a small train engine, a couple cars, and a buildable track.

C.J. seemed mesmerized by the train. The ninja all worked together to build it for the rest of the party. It took much longer than it should have, but it was worth it.

Once C.J.'s nap was over, Cole decided that it was finally time to give his son his final gift. The other ninja were now trying to properly set up the train set after someone (Kai) accidentally stepped on it while Lou was setting his things up in the guest bedroom.

Cole picked C.J. up out of his crib and set him on the floor. Cole then sat down next to him and showed him his last two gifts.

The birthday boy looked at his father curiously to which Cole responded by saying, "Go on. Open it."

C.J. ripped open his wrapping paper, (he had gotten pretty good at it by now) and immediately began opening flipping through the book Cole got him. After a while, he started whining and hitting the book.

"What's wrong?" Cole asked. He was beginning to panic. Did he do something wrong?

C.J. whined as he pointed to the words on the book.

Cole breathed a sigh of relief as he realized what was actually wrong. C.J. didn't know what the words said.

"Do you want me to read this to you tonight?" Cole asked. "Or now?"

C.J. smiled as he held up two fingers.

"Both?!" Cole exclaimed with a chuckle. "Well, alright then."

After finishing the story of how the little ninja met his dragon friend, C.J. realized that he hadn't ripped all the wrapping paper up yet. He did so and found another book. This one was much bigger.

As the young boy turned the pages of the book, he saw so many drawings and pictures of him and his dad in the book, and eventually, there were no more pages of drawings and pictures but instead, just blank pages.

C.J. looked at his father wonderingly while Cole explained, "This is a scrapbook. It's a bunch of pictures put into this book, so that we can always remember different things we do. See. This is us at Mega Monster Amusement Park, and this is when we arrived home from the First Realm."

Cole knew that C.J. wasn't going to understand all of this. Not yet, but as soon as he could, Cole knew that he would appreciate this book for life. As long as he had a way to remember.

Well, I hope you all liked that. If you have an idea for another one-shot, let me know.

As always, have a great day/night!

#God'sNotDead