Chapter 2. Thank you so much those of you who have followed my story already! A big yay! And RandomDragon2.0 thank you so much for your kind words. As I've already said, this is my first fanfiction, and the first time I have tried writing in a long while, but I am really enjoying it and you have helped spur me on :)
But onwards with the story. Same day, Skylor's POV.
"How was I supposed to know it would spin that fast?" As she pushed the heavy oak door to the kitchen open, she could see Jay with his arms folded, mouth set and eyes narrowed at Cole, who was leaning against the fridge, twirling a loose black curl of his hair around his finger whilst holding Jay's defiant gaze.
"You say that like I meant to take him out."
Cole straightened, looking Jay right in the eye.
"I just can't believe that you managed to take out a member of the team before we had even had lunch! And to make matters worse, by deciding to try and make one of the dummies replicate spinjitzu, with your powers, and without telling any of us! Jay, how did you think this would end!?"
But Zane intervened before Jay managed to retort, looking over his shoulder from the kitchen worktop where he was preparing some form of salad.
"I don't believe this was anything other than an unfortunate accident. Although Jay, you may want to recheck your schematics before attempting to electrify another training dummy with quite that much velocity. That was definitely more airjitzu than spinjitzu! Skylor." he noted my quiet entrance, "How is he? Has he given in and gone to sleep?"
The others turned and awaited my response, seemingly anxious.
"Yeah, he's out like a light. He moaned and grumbled but he eventually gave in, either that or that tea you forced him to drink finally got the better of him. He's not a great patient, is he?!"
Nya rolled her eyes. "No, he's the worst. Always has been! Here, grab a seat." gesturing to the end of the table, next to where Kai would normally be sitting no doubt firing some insult off at Jay or Cole whilst waiting for his lunch. It was strange, I had been through so much with Lloyd, Nya and Pix, and when the rest of the ninja returned from the First Realm and some kind of normality started to resettle over us all, they had just been so welcoming. They had been doing everything they could to make me feel like a part of the family, but something was holding me back and I still felt like a guest in the newly rebuilt monastery. I sighed inwardly. It hadn't been so long ago that my life just revolved around my noodle empire, a busy but much more simple life. A warm glow hit me as I my thoughts turned to Kai. He had been around, of course, before all of the chaos of a couple of months back kicked off, but we had struggled to get the relationship off the ground, what with one thing or another going on in his crazzeee life. Smiling to myself, I could imagine him singing that at me, stretching out the 'zeeee' with that boundless energy and oh so adorable lop sided grin on his face. And of course me trying to keep Master Chen's going, my little noodle empire. But that was all gone now. Well, not all gone. I still had most of the noodle houses intact, and the majority of my staff had returned to work for me as Ninjago City started to rebuild itself from the rubble once again. But things had changed. My priorities had changed. Absolutely for the better. Yes, I did like that change (Kai's smile flashed at me again in my mind's eye). Aargh, why did I still feel so unsettled then…?
"Penny for your thoughts?" Nya sat down opposite me, smiling but concerned. "You looked a mile away. He'll be ok you know?"
"Oh I know. Although I do think he is going to be the biggest pain in the butt whilst he's supposed to be relaxing, not training." I shrugged, settling into my chair a bit better and grabbing a glass of water from the jug on the table.
"How's that any different to normal?" Jay sniggered, followed by a light "ow" as Nya punched him in the arm. Pixal walked over from the kitchen worktop where she had been helping Zane, placing a batch of freshly baked bread onto the table.
"It is my belief that Kai would benefit from some structure being planned into his break with you, to help alleviate some of his anxiety at not being able to train."
"I would concur with this theory." Zane nodded at Pixal.
Hmmm, I could do that. I knew Ninjago City like the back of my hand, and there was plenty to do to keep anyone, and surely that included slightly het up fire ninjas, occupied. Or did it? Doubt flooded my mind. We hadn't actually managed to get away on many proper dates together. I mean, I do know Kai, I know he is the most passionate and caring person I have come across, and I know he loves spicy food and action movies, and he likes to watch the stars on clear nights. He's a gentleman and a sweetheart underneath his bravado. But, to keep him occupied and relaxed for four whole days. With no training or physical exertion so as not to aggravate his concussion… That suddenly did not seem so easy, and nerves started to kick in.
"Right, I'm going to need help. What kind of things would you suggest then?" I directed my gaze at Cole first, who blanched then suddenly sniggered.
"Hey, do you remember that time he went ice skating on that little ice rink that they open up at Christmas time with Lloyd when he was little?" Lloyd sniggered, the memory obviously coming back to him.
"Oh man," Lloyd was nearing hysterics now. "I so wanted to go but you all made out you were busy, so I nagged and nagged at him until he eventually gave in." I leaned in, eager to hear how this one turned out. I had seen Kai's spectacular fails at roller skating first hand; he had as much balance as Bambi whilst in roller skates, let alone actually on ice, which was surprising considering how graceful he was when fighting. Lloyd near enough snorted.
"He couldn't stand up on the ice, just kept on falling over. Then he got so mad he started to heat up, literally melted the ice around him! But he still couldn't stand up in the skates so was sat down in the puddle he'd created, steam all around him from the melted ice with this look of puzzlement and anger all over his face! I had to call Zane to come and refreeze the rink!" Lloyd was now trying to stop himself from howling, tears forming in his eyes whilst we all joined in, all the tensions felt from the incident with the dummy melting (ha! No pun intended!) away. I could just see Kai's expression now, and I couldn't help from joining in with the laughter. And as entertaining as it could no doubt be for me, maybe ice skating was not such a good idea and was off the list…
So how do you keep a fire ninja who is not allowed any form of exertion entertained? This was going to require some thought. I smiled; he was absolutely worth the challenge.
