WELP. So much for that double-update. Heh. Sorry about that.

Anyway! I'M SO GLAD MY WRITING IS IMPROVING YOU GUYS HAVE NO IDEA HOW HAPPY I AM TO HEAR THAT! WOOOO!

It was definitely there, tugging at his heart, begging him to stand, to run, to do something other than lay down and feel sorry for himself. It kept nagging him at the back of his mind, crashing through the walls he kept putting up in front of those thoughts. It was determined to make him feel inferior, and he kept having to remind himself who was in control. Cole. Cole was in control. He was always in control, or, at least, he was supposed to be in control. He was the earth ninja, for overlord's sake! Control was kind of his thing. He would never have been picked to be leader of the team if he couldn't control himself and his keep his emotions in check. So why was this happening to him?

It was that damn emotion called love. Longing. And it wouldn't leave him alone when it came to Nya. Before he knew it, a tear escaped his tear duct and slipped down his chin. The bedsheets that he was currently wrapped in were lacking the usual body heat that would radiate off of Nya, who always slept beside him. Tonight, they felt colder than ice. Nya was away at some conference meeting, and wouldn't be home for two more days. And that fact alone was enough for that awful, hope-consuming despair to come crawling back through the pit of his gut and claw at his rib cage, tear at his heart, and make him attempt to pull out his hair out of sheer frustration. If there was one thing Cole hated, (other than snakes, of course) was feeling helpless, alone, and not being able to see the ones he loved when he wanted or needed to. It made him want to just implode and cry forever in a dark hole filled with cake, where no one would ever find him.

That sounded great right about now, if Cole was being honest.

He buried his face into his blankets, the lump in his throat growing. Overlord, never in his life had he needed someone so much! Choking back a sob, he rolled over and sniffed the empty, ruffled bedsheets beside him. Her scent was embedded into the sheets, and, greedily, he breathed the last remnants of her in. A sweet, happy smell that immediately relaxed his tense muscles. He missed every little thing about her, from her weird yet adorable obsession for organization to the little dimples in her cheeks that she hated so dearly. Never before had Cole realized how big of an imprint Nya had made in his life. He used to be able to sleep fine with the wooden ceiling fan whirring above him, but now, without Nya's gentle breaths beside him, sleep refused to come to him. Aching to hear his beloved water ninja inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, to hear her rustle around in the sheets in her slumber, and to hear her mumble in the middle of one of her dreams.

Absent-mindedly, the earth bender stood, lost in thought. His hands fiddled with the on and off switch on the lamp. He steadied himself with his free hand, which he set on the edge of the nightstand. His vision hadn't quite adjusted to the darkness yet, and what little he could see in the dark was spinning a little bit. He sat down, waited for the spell of dizziness to fade away, then he turned on the lamp, its light spilling out and illuminating the left half of the room. On the carpeted floor next to Cole and Nya's shared dresser lie Cole's favorite ninja gi: the DX gi. It lay in a crumbled, wrinkled heap. Cole recalled that he had pulled it off of him in a frustrated hurry earlier this evening. Nya wouldn't have it if she were here. Coles stood, his sock-covered feet hitting the carpet a little harder than he meant to. Walking over, he also noticed that Nya had left her desk in hurried and abnormal mess. Folding his DX gi into a pretty, unwrinkled square, he neatly placed it inside his portion of the dresser, then observed her desk. Papers were scattered all across the desk, some were on the floor, and others had unintentionally been thrown into a trash can. On them were sketches of bizarre machines whose functions were what Cole could only imagine, equations that seemed to be in another language to Cole that had complex work accompanying them and what Cole assumed was their solution, circled in red, and diagrams labelled with Overlord knows what.

Yes. This was Cole's Nya alright. He collected the papers one by one, taking his time to scan each and every one of them. He loved Nya's ideas; they were helpful, eccentric, and unique. It was amazing what she could come up with given a few pencils, a piece of paper, some good old-fashioned motivation, and an hour or so. He loved to see her concentrated expression as her pencil scribbled furiously on the paper, her hands and writing utensil translating the ideas her beautiful mind came up with onto paper. One sheet had a lengthy paragraph on it explaining the function of some combat machine. A soft, small smile appeared on Cole's lips. Her handwriting was absolutely adorable, but it definitely fit her personality. Her y's were looped on the ends, and their ends were dramatically extended for a centimeter or two. When she came across a word that had r and s consecutively, she would switch to cursive, making her the bottom of her r loop into a fancy-looking s.

He stacked all of the papers together and lined up the corners, making sure they were in a neat pile before setting them inside one of her drawers. He double checked to top of her desk to find a picture frame that had previously been hidden underneath all of that paper. He picked it up, a small tear spilling onto his cheek. The picture was one of him and Nya when they had taken a hike together. The hike had been long, almost three miles, if Cole recalled correctly, and it had been pretty hot out too, but neither factor stopped Cole or Nya from having one of the best hikes together ever. In the picture, Nya was wearing a dark red tank top, and dark blue running shorts. She had a backpack on her back, and sunglasses covering her eyes. Her dar hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Cole was beside her, in an orange t-shirt and dark black shorts. His arm was around Nya's waist, and she was pressed up against his chest, a ridiculous smile on her face. It had been an unforgettable hike for the both of them, and it still was fresh in Cole's memory.

Gently, he set the frame back down on the desktop, and straightened up all of the pencils scattered about the desktop. IN his peripheral vision, the red of the alarm clock caught his eye. It read twelve-thirty five in the morning. He let out a groan. Right beside his alarm clock was his phone, which was hooked up to a charger. Now matter how much he longed to call her, she was probably asleep. He didn't want to wake her up if that were the case. Yeah. She was asleep. Or maybe she was in the middle of designing a new machine for the conference. Or maybe-

He nearly jumped when his phone lit up and started ringing. He grinned a smile of relief; Nya's designated ringtone was playing. She was up. And she was apparently not too busy. Greedily, and eager to hear her voice, he answered the call and lifted the phone up to his ear.

"Hello?" He answered, unable to come up with an interesting or flirty line this early in the morning. He flopped onto his bed, lying on his back.

"Cole? D-did I wake you?" Something was wrong, and he picked up on it instantly. Her voice sounded strained and tired, and he swore he heard her sniffle a few times.

"What's wrong?!" He demanded, sitting upright, completely ignoring her question.

"I-I'm so sorry, Cole," she started, "I really screwed it up."

"What?" He asked, softening his tone a little.

"I...the technology company that requested me to visit so we could discuss working together? Um, we had the conference today, but...they don't like me." She sighed, and immediately Cole knew there was more to the story than that.

"Tell me what happened." So, they didn't like Nya, eh? Cole frowned, reminding himself he needed to be careful not to crush his phone again.

"So, they called me in. I got off of my flight, headed over there. Y'know. Then I went inside, and...ugh, I should've known. Anyway, there weren't a whole lot of women working there, and when I did see some, they were wearing skirts or dresses. So I go to the conference. I gave my presentation, and it went pretty well. A lot of the designers complimented me on my designs, actually, but then there was this one asshole. He was the vice president of the whole company. Before I go any further, I was wearing that really professional suit that I packed. So the vice president stopped me when I was about to pack up and head to the hotel, and he told me they wouldn't be working with me, because apparently women shouldn't be allowed to wear suits instead of skirts and dresses, and that I couldn't work with them."

Cole slammed his free hand onto the bed. "You know what, love? He was fucking jealous of your amazing inventions. Overlord, he can go suck his boss' dick."

Nya giggled on the other end. "I actually said that to him after he said all of that. Actually, I yelled it in front of his boss and stormed out."

Cole fist-pumped. His girlfriend was such a nerdy badass. He loved it. "That's my girl. Are you coming home soon?" He tried not to sound too hopeful, but probably ended up failing.

"Yeah. I'm about to get on the plane. I was going to surprise you, but...I really miss you, Cole." She sniffed, and he could tell she was about to start crying again. He suppressed a yell of relief, then thought for a second.

"When will your flight be back? I'll come pick you up!" He grinned, unable to wait.

"In an hour or so! I'll be at the Ninjago Airport, so...just...I miss you, Cole. My flight's boarding, so I'll let you go. I love you, my beautiful earthworm!"

He chuckled at his nickname. "Okay. I love you too, cutie. I'll be there."

...

(An Hour Later)

The night air was chilly around Nya as one of the flight attendants handed her her suitcase. She thanked him, and pulled up the handle on the top. She tugged on it, and it rolled behind her. She glanced up at the black sky. She could pick out a few constellations, but all of the light in the world was blocking out the good stuff. Damn humans. She remembered where she was, then she looked around as she jogged off of the runway and into the airport. She was nearly blinded by the light of the airport as she burst inside. She found herself on the second floor of the Ninjago Airport. Peering over the railing, she scanned the crowd until she spotted a certain earth ninja standing near the base of the escalator, a sign in his hand. It read 'Nya the Awesome Sauce Water Ninja' on it in black sharpie and in Cole's bulky handwriting. She laughed, then nearly sprinted towards the escalator. Cole spotted her, and an enormous smile erupted on his face as he saw his beloved water ninja descend on the escalator like an angel falling down from heaven. She jumped into his arms, and he pulled her into a tight and protective hug.

"Oh overlord, cutie!" He whispered after he kissed her, "Overlord. I missed you. I fucking missed you so much."

"I missed you too!" She responded, too happy to see her earthworm to worry about her disheveled plane hair. "Oh, I'm so glad to be home!"

He relaxed and pulled her somewhat upright. She grabbed his elbow with her free hand and yanked it towards the parking lot.

"We're gonna go get ice cream and I don't care what anyone says!" She declared.

"Let's do it." Cole agreed. Nya turned towards him, smiling.

"Done."