Chapter 7
Enthralled

.:Nya:.

The only sound that filled the empty dojo was the repetitive sound of metal clashing against each other.

Nya's hands were firmly around the handle of the katana, right hand above the other. Her feet were constantly readjusting and shoulder-width apart while her amber eyes were locked on her blonde opponent and his katana. She carefully manoeuvred her sword so that the flat side of the blade always contacted with Lloyd's katana's flat side since it was extremely damaging to repeatedly clash swords by the edge – in other words, the sharp side.

The two were almost dancing around each other as they dodged and fought.

With additional training on ninjutsu-based swordsmanship from Garmadon, Lloyd and Jay; Nya found herself getting even better with her skills. Brad was right, she could utilise both kenjutsu and ninjutsu-based swordsmanship to increase her skills. She was now always trying to identify any open spots to get her opponent down quicker and she was quicker in her movements, but she still remained strong in her attacks and defence if her opponent was trying to use their weight against her.

Lloyd and Jay had tried experimenting in making her only use one sword in one hand… Yeah, that was a lot harder and she wasn't able to generate as much power into the attack as she would be with two hands… However, with one hand, she was able to get a lot more speed.

However, whenever she sparred with Lloyd in a sword dual, her strength and experience was her strength while his was speed – but her speed was still increasing! So believe it or not, most of the time, she actually beat Lloyd.

The same applied to now. Nya managed to hook her katana around Lloyd's blade and flicked it out of his hands before bringing the blade right to his throat.

"Better, you were much faster this time," Jay called from the side.

At the moment, it was just the three of them in the dojo. Brad's entire grade was in complete study mode for their massive literature exam on Monday. The other grades were studying; or, in Nya's grade, doing their part of their collaborative projects.

"Have you ever tried fighting with two swords?" Lloyd curiously asked. "Because samurais used to carry two swords around."

"Yeah but they weren't dual-blades," Nya informed. "So the katana is the primary weapon while the wakizashi is a shorter blade and is only used when the katana is lost and also used for close combat and seppuku suicide."

"A what-a-what-what?" Jay asked, brows furrowing. Nya rolled her eyes.

"Wakizashi," Nya repeated before walking over to the weapons on the display case – something that students are forbidden to touch… not that Nya was planning on touching it. "See that blade there? It's the same body shape as a katana but the blade is a lot shorter and the hilt is only long enough to fit one hand since it's a one-handed blade."

"How do you know so much about weapons?" Lloyd asked, the two boys now standing on either side of Nya, looking at the weapon display case.

"… My family runs a blacksmith store."

"Wait, so you can actually forge weapons as well?" Jay gasped. Nya just nodded. "That's wicked and cool. How come you never told us?"

"Because it never came up," Nya answered curtly as she turned away from the case and walked from the boys.

"Still… I think it'll be cool if you could fight with twin katanas," Lloyd called from the display case.

Nya frowned upon that. She remembered how Kai had once tried duelling her with twin katanas. She remembered how he complained the reason he lost to her was because trying to coordinate two katanas at once wasn't easy and only having one hand on the weapon didn't generate enough strength… although, that never stopped her brother from trying to train with them.

"The tournament is only two months away and our training time is already being cut. There's no point in me trying to learn how to fight with two swords. We may as well strengthen our other skillsets," Nya suggested.

"Wouldn't hurt to try, would it?" Jay asked. "Come, let's just do one spar – you and the twin katanas against me… Even though I suck at swords."

"… Fine," Nya huffed.

So, it didn't take long for her to have a pair of twin katanas in her hands. The craftsmanship of the katanas weren't that bad… however, she could tell that one blade was slightly thicker than the other. It could have passed as a sword that Kai made since he never had the patience or precision… unlike their father-

Enough Nya! Stop thinking of them. You're training for crying out loud!

"Ready?" Jay asked.

The boy was stripped out of his shirt, his bare chest on display… and to be honest, it was a little distracting. However, Nya took noticed how he was uncomfortably holding his katana in one hand. Heck, she was super uncomfortable with two weapons!

"Okay, go," Lloyd called.

Jay wasted no time in heading straight in for the attack. If Nya thought Lloyd had speed before, it was nothing compared to Jay. Jay was fast, really fast. Apparently not as fast as Griffin Turner (who was on Cole's team) but on their own team, Jay was, by far the fastest. But, with great speed came lack of strength… strength Nya had to somehow exert into her attacks.

She immediately drew her right sword up to defend, her feet spreading wider to strengthen her stance. Once their katanas collided, Jay wasted no second in bringing his back to strike again, causing Nya to stay on the defence until she could see an opening.

"Kai, you got a left sword for a reason!" Lloyd shouted from the side.

"Ugh," Nya groaned before trying to incorporate her left arm.

Kai was right… This is so much harder!

"Swords are an extension of your arm," Lloyd informed, sounding a lot like his father. "Think of a fist fight."

"Easier said than done!" Nya snapped before gasping as Jay's foot managed to slip between her legs and immediately, his foot hooked around her ankle and yanked, making her fall back.

A guttural groan escaped from her lips as her back hit the floor, the muscle suit rubbing uncomfortably against her scar. Nya glared upwards to see Jay smugly smiling at her.

"So… I won for once."

"Don't think that this will become a frequent occurrence," Nya grumbled as she sat up, throwing both swords to the ground in front of her. "It's just going to take me too long to try and fight with two katanas at once and then being able to fight well with them."

"Fine, fine," Lloyd resigned, lifting his hands up in surrender. "We won't force you to learn it."

"Good. Can I go now?" Nya asked with a huff.

"Yeah, go ahead."

.::.

After a nice long shower, Nya immediately sat at her desk in the dorm and continued to work on her project. It had been about a week since the project had started. Ever since last week, Jay and Lloyd had been pestering her all about Skylor. Anyway, they would visit their sister school every Friday so both partners can converse about their project. Yesterday, Nya probably told Skylor way too much about herself. Already, the redhead knew her real name and the reason she was disguised as her brother. Skylor knew about her parents' death, her uncle's abuse which was the driving factor as to why she ran… until coming to Master Wu's Academy for Boys where Nya was confident her uncle would never look.

It was dangerous, Nya knew that. Heck, she told herself that so many times and even as she was talking to Skylor, she kept yelling at herself to stop… But she couldn't.

I guess it's just nice to talk to someone… To get all this weight off of my chest. I mean, Skylor's pretty trustworthy… And she's so kind, nice and understanding. She'd even dyed my hair.

Yeah, that was another problem. Because her hair was naturally black, over time, the roots of her hair would be black while the rest remained as the brown colour the sixteen-year-old had dyed it. Nya had used up the last her of chestnut hair dye a couple weeks back and Skylor -for some crazy and strange reason- just had a whole bunch of hair dye back in her dorm. It was a rule that boys weren't allowed to be anywhere near the girls' dorms but the two snuck in anyway. The shade Skylor dyed her hair was slightly a shade lighter than the dye Nya had been using but it was good enough. No one seemed to question it. Oh, Skylor also given her some extra supplies for her menstrual cycle.

Yeah, it was official: Skylor was pretty great.

However, Nya sighed as she leaned back in her chair, her hand already cramping from all the writing. Already, she had worked on this for a solid hour. She honestly thought Jay would be back by now because truth be told, it was a little lonely and too quiet in their dorm. When she had left training an hour and a half ago, the two boys stayed back to train more… Just how much more can those two train-?

Just on cue, the door opened and Nya looked over to see Jay walking in, covered in sweat. The uwagi (a Japanese kimono-like jacket specifically used for martial arts training) and shitabaki (Japanese pants specifically used for martial arts training) stuck to Jay's body like second skin while Jay's coppery hair had darkened to a dark brown.

"You stink," Nya commented as she leaned back in her chair, arms folded over her stomach and legs extended out.

Acting like a boy extended further than just looking like a boy, sounding like a boy, and responding and reacting how a boy would. No, it was also all about body language. Take walking as an example. Males tend to take larger strides and walk with their legs further apart which resulted them to walk in a sort of 'side-to-side' movement; hence why men are more prone to move their arms and shoulders when they walk. Females tend to take shorter strides and keep their legs closer which result to a more 'up-and-down' bobbing.

"You should smell yourself after you train," Jay snorted back, making Nya scowl. "That's why I keep tell you to take off your shirt – it just traps the sweat and the stench."

"Whatever, just go and take a shower," Nya grunted while Jay just gave out a good-natured laugh.

But, the girl's amber eyes caught sight of a small red line along the side of Jay's torso, slightly blended in with the sweat. Hold up, is that blood?

"You're bleeding," Nya called out before Jay could go into the bathroom.

"Huh?"

"Bleeding. You know, when blood escapes the body-"

"I know what bleeding is," Jay huffed as he scanned his arms and chest. "Where?"

"On your side."

Nya carefully watched as Jay lifted his right arm and looked down to look at the red line. He wasted no time before lifting up the hem of his shirt to reveal his side was smeared with blood and sweat but through it all, was a cut about five inches' long.

"What the hell?" Jay murmured in disbelief as he tenderly touched the skin above his cut before hissing and drawing his hand back in a flash. "I didn't feel a thing before-"

"Because you were still hyped up with adrenaline from training," Nya simply stated as she slowly leaned forward in her chair. "Doesn't look too deep for stitches."

"You know first aid?" Jay asked, surprised.

"I know enough. Go and take a shower. Just don't get soap in it."

"Errr… Shouldn't I get this tended to first?"

"And what? Remain sweaty and disgusting for the rest of the day? It's not like you're bleeding to death."

"True true… But what happens if I get soap in there? Will I make it worse?"

"No, you idiot. I mean you can if you want but it'll just hurt a lot. That's all."

"Oh… Right," Jay muttered before shaking his head, grabbing his towel, fresh clothes and then disappeared into the bathroom.

Looks like I'll be too distracted to keep working on this. Nya thought with a slight frown but her hands immediately moved to pack her project and stationary away. It didn't take long for the sound of running water to reach her ears – but Nya tried to firmly ignore this as she moved to the kitchenette and under the sink where their first aid kit was located.

"OW!"

Nya tried to stiffen a laugh when she heard Jay yelped out – indicating to her that he must have succeeded in getting soap into his cut. Nya had done that plenty of times after her fair shares of minor injuries she acquire from training or… from her uncle.

After a couple minutes, the water stopped. It probably only took another minute until Jay was out of the bathroom, hot vapour pouring out of the room. Nya looked over and her stomach slightly churn at the sight of Jay in nothing but sweatpants, his hair damp and his chest having a sheen of moisture on it, accentuating the crevices and curves of the muscles underneath his skin.

I don't have a crush on him. I don't have a crush on him… I'm just a teenage girl with hormones who happen to be sharing a dorm with a really attractive cute guy with gorgeous abs…

"Uhhh, the cut is all swollen… Should I be concerned?" Jay asked with a slight panic to his voice, snapping Nya out of her 'daydream' and reverting her back to the problem at hand.

"What, have you never got a cut before?"

"Nothing as big as this! A-And I rarely get them…"

"It's just swollen because you irritated it with soap."

"… You heard."

"Hard not to miss the girlish squeal," Nya teased, making Jay narrow his eyes at her.

"So should I be concerned?"

"No, it's fine," Nya said with a roll of her eyes before throwing the first aid kit at him. "There you are. Have fun."

"Y-You're not going to help me?"

"I'm sure you can apply ointment and bandage yourself up fine. I don't need to be your mother."

"Trust me, you're the opposite of my mother," Jay nervously chuckled before winching as he sat down onto his bed and opened the first aid kit.

Nya turned away, not wanting to keep staring at his naked upper body. So, she immediately swirled in her chair to her desk and pulled out a book – a book she had been struggling in reading with since last month.

"So… which ointment should I use?"

"Read the labelling," Nya simply replied as she opened the book to the fourth page. Yep, that was all she had managed to read in the last month.

"… So I guess the antibiotic ointment is the one to use?"

"Bingo."

"You're some big help."

"This isn't rocket science."

"I know; rocket science is much easier," Jay muttered. "Ummm…"

"What now?" Nya groaned as she closed the book.

"Should I be concerned if it's still bleeding."

"If it's a little bit, then no. It's fine. That's what the bandage is for."

"So would you consider this a little bit? Or a lot?"

With a sigh, Nya pushed her chair from the desk to turn and look at Jay's chest… before letting her eyes go over to the cut on his right side which was still bleeding at a considerable amount. Not a lot that it was concerning but it still got her up and heading towards Jay's bed to get a closer look – while adamantly ignoring the gorgeous array of muscles on his chest.

"So… How does it look, Doc?"

"Don't call me that," Nya immediately said, frowning but she gently probed the cut while ignoring Jay's hisses. "It's a little deeper than I thought… You won't die, unfortunately."

"Good to hear… Not the unfortunately part, of course- ow! Watch where you're poking your fingers!"

"Stop being such a baby."

"You try having a cut this big!"

"I had bigger," Nya said with a shrug.

"… You had?" Jay curiously asked, making Nya awfully aware of her slip up. Ugh, quick! Come up with something!

"I had my fair share of cuts while training for kenjutsu," Nya ended up saying. It wasn't a complete lie. She did get many cuts while training with her father and brother but the bigger and more severe cuts were from her uncle.

However, she pulled out a disposable cloth from the kit and pressed it against Jay's wound, making the boy yelp out and flinch away but from but she firmly pressed it against his body… but she couldn't help but be conscious of the warm heat that radiated from Jay's body and the tough muscle underneath her hand.

"Ow! What are you doing?"

"Applying pressure to stop the bleeding or even slow it down," Nya replied, trying to keep her voice low and keep the heat from rushing to her cheeks…

But how can I? The only other muscular chest I've touched was Kai's but he's my brother! Jay is… Jay! He's my roommate! My… friend?

Nya mentally frowned upon that. Her early resolution to remain distant and not come close to anyone was completely obliterated when she joined Jay's and Lloyd's team. But… was she close enough to consider them as her friends?

Well… I already consider Skylor as a friend but that's because she knows who I actually am and why I'm here… And the fact that she had helped me out a couple times already. But Jay and Lloyd? They're nice. They helped me a lot in terms of training for the tournament and getting better in Master Garmadon's classes (who have actually noticed my improvements!). But can I call them my friends?

And after some thinking…

I think I can.

"So… How long are you going to keep applying pressure?" Jay asked.

"Well, normally fifteen minutes but I reckon the cut will stop bleeding in a couple minutes," Nya replied quietly, lowering her face and gaze from Jay's face and to his injury.

Nya had been making sure to avoid getting close to people – not emotionally and mentally but physically! Reasons were that she didn't need them to notice the slight womanly look to her eyes, her nose and lips or even the feminine curl to her lashes. That was why she tried avoided being in close proximity with Dareth who wanted to be really close to her, and that was why whenever she was pinned down in a spar with either Brad, Lloyd or Jay, she would quickly shove them off before they could get a proper glimpse at her face.

As much as Nya secretly enjoyed being this close to Jay and his chest, she was equally as nervous.

.:Jay:.

Jay could feel his heart beat and every single pound that it made in his chest. It echoed within his ears that it made the boy pray that Kai could not hear how hard his heart was pounding. Why the heck it was doing that would remain as a mystery to Jay. He wasn't nervous around Kai, nor was he guilty and keeping things from his roommate…

So why having Kai close to me is causing my chest to pound?

Jay looked down to look at his roommate but he couldn't see more than Kai's hair which was mostly dry but messy and in… slight clumps? Jay wasn't sure if that was how to explain the state of Kai's hair but probably from the abuse of hair gel and the spiky hair style, Kai's hair had a natural tendency to remain in the segregated bundles.

But the blue-eyed boy was suddenly aware of Kai's soft and warm breath ghosting over the skin above his cut. It made the hairs on the back of Jay's neck rose and he tried everything to make sure that goosebumps didn't appear for Kai to see otherwise that would be downright embarrassing.

Soon, Kai removed the cloth from his cut before turning towards the first aid kit and rummaging it for some bandages. Jay leaned back discreetly to take another look at Kai's face. Starting to think about it, Kai had a somewhat… feminine quality to his face. It might be the slightly big eyes, the curled lashes and the slightly thick lips – other than that, Kai had sharp and strong jawline, tall and slightly broad nose and straight forehead.

Jay slightly hissed when his roommate used an antibacterial wipe to clean the slight smears of blood from around his wound. However, it did get Kai briefly looking up, showing Jay his eyes. His two, perfect orbs were a soft amber colour with specks of gold swirling within them. Along the edges, bronze shone but… not entirely brightly.

But Kai looked away, soon grabbing the antibiotic ointment and applying a thin layer of that onto Jay's wound. By now, Jay was a bit used to the sudden acute pains from whenever Kai would touch his wound so he didn't winch or hiss as Kai continued to apply the ointment with an odd softness Jay had never seen on the edgy boy.

"Hold this," Kai eventually instructed as he finished applying the ointment and started to press a gauze to Jay's torso – making the boy obey his word and hold it against his wound.

Soon, Kai started to wrap Jay up in bandages, his warm fingers always scrapping against Jay's skin. The muscles underneath immediately leapt, making Jay embarrassed but it seemed Kai didn't notice. Good.

"Okay, all done," Kai announced as he placed a clip over the bandages but he went to look up by tilting his head up, resulting their faces to be mere inches apart.

For some strange and odd reason, Jay felt his breath get hitched in his throat. They were so close that Jay could just see the few, extremely faint freckles that dusted under Kai's eyes on his tanned skin. But, Kai's amber eyes stared into his own eyes… causing Jay to stare back.

Heat stirred within his churning stomach, his throat suddenly tight but thick with saliva, and his heart was pounding so much. It didn't help that Kai's hands were still resting over the bandages; Jay could feel the slight warmth of them through the bandages and to his skin. Something in the back of Jay's mind told him to lean forward and kiss those lips – after all, everybody would if they were ever this close to a pair of lips.

And slowly, he did lean in.

However, it all suddenly vanished; like a fire that was suddenly doused by icy water. Jay immediately pulled back, his hammering heart wasn't pounding in anticipation anymore but in fear.

Did I nearly kiss Kai? WHAT ON EARTH POSSESSED ME TO DO SUCH A THING?!

"I-I just remembered I have to meet up with Lloyd!" Jay blurted quickly as he jumped to his feet, despite the pain that spiked in his side.

But Jay wasted no time in throwing on his shirt before bolting from the room… from Kai.

I honestly don't know how this chapter came to be. I honestly had one mindset as I was writing this chapter. I wanted it to go in a specific direction buuuuut, it turned out like this. I rather it happened later, after writing more scenes on Nya's and Jay's FRIENDSHIP but… I guess this would hurry my story along (since I do only aim for this to be less than twenty chapters long).

BUT 13 REVIEWS?! You guys are sooooo amazing! Thank you so much for the support so I've decided to post this chapter early. Excuse the grammar mistakes though, I didn't get to properly proof-read it since I've been working all week T.T But massive thanks to: Natalie Singe, MasterofCupcakes, MortalNinja, RandomDragon2.0, Jaell, JSNI, unknown, Cerenda, Nia Kogane, Guest and all my silent readers!

JSNI: Thanks for the abbreviation, it's definitely much quicker hahaha. And as for that 'Kai' and Skylor relationship, you just have to wait and see :)

Cerenda: Well, considering that Nya admiring Jay's smile made your heart skip a bit, I hoped this chapter this didn't make it miss multiple beats or stop it (nervously laughs). But that's so cool that your username came from a fantasy story that you had written. And yeah, don't worry, I forget that everyone lives around the world too and have completely different time zones to me xD.

Nia Kogane: You're Brazilian? That is so cool! I have never met a person from Brazil before – actually, it really overwhelms me that I have a reader from Brazil! And as you're your English, it's perfectly fine! I would love to learn a language but to be frankly honest, I'm horrible at it. I've tried learning Japanese, Thai and Russian and… it didn't work out so well. And is Kai really dead? I guess you have to wait to find out ;)

Guest: No, there are plenty of good writers out there. Unfortunately, I haven't read their stories completely since I'm too busy to do so but ShinyShiny9, Astrid16, Illyria Lives, VelvetPersona and many others are such brilliant writers! So shout out to all of them! (CHECK THEIR STORIES OUT!) But you've read my other stories? Ughhhh, some of them are so horrible! I tried to read my Secrets of the Water Ninja but gave up after three chapters.

Sorry if I didn't get around to answering everyone's reviews. It's late at night, I'm exhausted, still sick and got work early in the morning (cries). But thank you all for supporting me! I'll try to have the next chapter up on Tuesday! Xoxo – ZaneLoverFan88