==Hi, everyone! This is officially the last chapter I'll be posting during my break from school, but also the first chapter I'll be posting for the new year! One of my New Years resolutions was to get a lot of this story written this year, so that will something on my agenda. I definitely want to get to Chapter 100 by December 2018! :D I would also like to say that I go back to school tomorrow, so I don't know when the next update will be, BUT I'm excited to say that I got a surprise coming soon and that we made it to 200 reviews! I couldn't think of a better way to start off this year for this story :) ==

Disclosure - "Help Me Lose My Mind (Mazde Remix)"

Haunted: Collapse into Caliginosity

Chapter 67:

Physical Attraction

Zane came to us last night when we were on the road that led away from Ninjago City. His approach made us uneasy; the typical Zane was more of an unreadable introvert, but there was an unrelenting smile on his face and he was very handsy as he took two rounds to and from the Bounty in order to get us all back. It was like he was a new man, but he wouldn't tell us what happened.

I placed a plate of basil pesto pasta next to Zane's miniature drawing canvas. He was carefully tracing the shoulders of a woman that I automatically assumed was Macca. It was hard to tell at the moment, though, because there was no hair or face yet.

Nya sat between him and Jay, resting her cheek against Zane's arm to watch him express his artistic talents. Jay sat in silence, probably feeling as if he was getting blocked from potential flirtation. When I handed Jay a plate of green pasta, he put it in front of Nya and then took a second one for himself. Nya didn't hesitate to pick up her fork and stab at the twisted noodles without taking her eyes off the picture. Cole watched in amusement as Jay facepalmed himself. His nice gesture wasn't even noticed.

The quiet Ninja of Ice barely reacted to the sight of the food as his pencil faultlessly illustrated the image that was in his mind. I was nervous to question him about it, mostly because he would feel insecure and stop, but considering his unusual high spirits these past few hours, it probably wasn't a bad idea to finally prod at the issue.

"So, Zane," I began, sitting down at the table across from him, "you never told us what happened last night with Macca."

Without looking up, he dropped the pencil and directed his attention to the food I made. "Yes, and I intend on keeping it that way," he confirmed with a smile.

"Zane, you hugged me last night," Cole stated. "I think it's a good tradeoff if you tell us."

"I disagree, but you're welcome."

"Then what will it take, Frosty?"

"Nothing. For her sake, I refuse to share any information, but I will say that she said yes."

"Ooh," we all sounded in unison.

"No wonder you're so happy," I connected.

"You were gone for a long time, though," Nya recalled. "Something had to have happened."

"Something did, but I'm not sharing it with any of you."

"Why?" Jay wondered.

"Because I don't trust that it will not stay away from Macca, who will more than likely be embarrassed that I told you."

"Fine, then I'll just call and ask her what happened," I threatened, holding up the Bounty's cell phone.

He unblinkingly dropped his fork against the plate with a loud clang! "You wouldn't," he insisted.

"I would, but not if you tell us."

He heatedly exhaled through his nostrils, narrowing his eyes at me. "You're blackmailing me."

"And you're out of time, my friend." I pressed the call button.

Zane almost jumped out of his seat. "Kai!" he voiced as the phone rang.

"Hello?" Macca's voice greeted, cutting him off.

"Hey, Mac, you're on speaker," I informed her, setting it on the table.

"Oh? You guys need something?"

"Sort of," Cole replied, peering at Zane mischievously. "Zane refuses to tell us what happened last night. He claimed that you'd be 'embarrassed' if he told us."

"They're blackmailing me, Macca," Zane warned her. "I didn't want your pride to be damaged or for you to be mad at me again."

She laughed. "I appreciate the effort, Zane, but I don't care if you tell them. I was planning on telling my friends about it, anyway."

"Is it funny or bad?" Jay asked.

"A little bit of both. I was so pissed last night when it happened but now I can't stop thinking about Zane's scream after the fact," she giggled. "I'm actually in the middle of something, boys. I'll talk to you later."

"Okay. Bye, Macca!" we all finished.

I hung up the phone and then started in on Zane again. "You heard the woman gangster. Spill your guts, Frosty."

"Fine," he concluded, straightening his back. "I saw Macca naked."

A big combination of gasps and laughter rang out. Nya held a hand over mouth in shock while Jay smacked the table with his head covered and shoulders trembling from laughing so hard.

"You what?" Cole replied as he bent over the table in hysterics. "You saw your first naked lady?!"

"I wasn't intending to," he issued. "I made poor decisions and suffered the consequences."

I slid the last plate of pasta to Nya. "Guys meeting. Go give Sensei his lunch, please," I requested.

She rolled her eyes but picked up the plate and left the room.

"So you see her naked and she still says yes to your question about a date?"

"Yes. I was so scared to ask her because I thought she was going to hurt me. I just blurted it out and she obliged, but she doesn't think it's a date. She said, 'Of course I'll go have dinner with you, Zane. My friends take me out to eat all the time.'"

"Ugh," Cole cringed. "Friendzoning at its finest."

"So you were gone for so long because you followed her home?" Jay poked.

"Um...Technically I went home with her without her knowing."

He raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean?"

Zane hesitated. "Macca doesn't know about this, and I don't want her to."

"We won't ruin it for you," Cole assured him. "Just tell us."

"Okay, well, I went to ask her after we left the lot, but she was talking to someone. I couldn't be noticed because I would've gotten caught by the gatekeeper for sneaking back in. Before she could get away, I got in her car and hid."

"But...you're so huge!" Jay exclaimed.

"She has no idea you were in her car with her?" I asked.

"No, and I don't want her to know," Zane asserted. "Seeing her naked was bad enough. I don't want to make it worse."

"What was the intention, though?" Cole questioned. "Why did you stow away in her car?"

"Since I couldn't do it at the arena, I figured my next best option would be pretending to show up at her apartment to ask her in a completely different environment."

"But you saw her naked."

"Yes."

"How? How do you go from secretly being in the car with her to see all that?" I asked with exotic hand gestures.

He leaned in. "She left her window unlocked from our last visit," he admitted in a hushed tone.

"So you just let yourself in?!" I laughed.

"Yes!"

Cole and Jay were laughing to themselves. Jay held his head like a gargoyle while Cole was trying so hard to keep it suppressed as his face turned red.

"She was taking a shower and I was just in there wondering how I would go about it all before I thought I wouldn't be able to do it after all, but by the time I realized it, she was already out of the shower, the window was in her line of sight, and my only way out was to hide in her closet until she went to sleep. But when I went in there, she suddenly opened the door and there she was...No clothes."

"And then you screamed?" I laughed.

"She did it before I did."

"So you're happy she said yes but not that you saw her everything?" Cole panted, out of breath from laughing.

"Precisely. I'm trying to forget what I saw."

Jay shook his head. "Good luck with that."

I could now say that Zane was the unluckiest yet luckiest man in Ninjago. All he wanted to do was ask Macca to go to dinner with him, and he had to jump through hoops just to get the chance. Then he got more than he bargained for, but it was still Macca, so it wasn't as bad as it could've been.

He remained at the table to finish his picture of her. I was stuck in the kitchen cleaning the green-stained dishes by hand.

"Here's that extra canvas, Zane," I heard Nya say.

"Thank you, Nya," he calmly replied.

As I slowed down my scrubbing against the white porcelain, I heard that she didn't walk away. "I saw all your other drawings in your closet thing. Why are they all Macca?"

"I enjoy tracing the peculiar curves of females. Hers are becoming more like fluid to put on paper because of repetition."

She giggled. "Have fun with that, then."

"I-I can draw you if it bothers you."

"It doesn't bother me. You can draw whoever you want. But...is it possible for you to?"

"It's very possible. I look at you every day."

"But I don't have curves like her."

"I don't have curves at all, yet I am still able to recreate myself."

"I don't know about that. You got a little bit of curve..."

"What was that?"

"Nothing!"

I finished drying the plates and then rushed to the adjoining room to find Zane by himself. He looked at me with a bewildered expression. "Is everything okay?" he asked me.

"Where'd she go?" I queried.

"Back to the bridge, I assume. Did you overhear our conversation?"

"Sort of. You know that Nya's still seventeen, right?"

"I'm aware. There's nothing for you to worry about, Kai. I was just trying to be nice."

Without replying, I took a seat across from him. "Did anything else happen with Macca last night?"

"Not exactly," he held back, going back to his drawing to add finishing touches.

"How did you get out of her car without her seeing you?"

"I waited until she wasn't looking but had a door open."

"And then what? You just kept an eye on her or something?"

He gently blew against the paper surface of his canvas. "I made sure she made it home safely. It didn't feel right for her to be out by herself so late."

"And then what happened?"

"I waited for my opportunity to enter."

"And the only way for you to do that was to spy on her."

He stared at me, stone-faced. "No, I was merely observing."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. What did she do while you 'observed' her?"

"She ate dinner, stretched, and showered. And then I entered."

I smirked. "What kind of dinner?"

"Macaroni and cheese."

"What all did she stretch?"

"Calves, obliques, hip flexors, hamstrings, abdominals, back..." he trailed, twitching his neck. "And groin."

His sudden fluctuation in description sparked my interest. "Sounds like you didn't give her much privacy."

My statement caused him to break eye contact with me, grab his fresh canvas, and draw a new scene. Instead of it being used carefully like the other one, this sketch was done fast and effortlessly. Trying to view it from an upsidedown angle was a challenge, but I could definitely see a butt. "Why are you drawing a butt?" I awkwardly sniggered.

"I'm not done with it yet!" he quickly raised his voice, hiding it from me. "I can't describe it in words, so I'll describe it through illustration."

"Describe what?"

His pencil scratched the canvas faster and harder before he finally spun it around and slid it over to me. "This is what I saw before it happened."

I lifted the canvas to look at a picture of the inside of her apartment. Macca was leaned over while on her knees. Her butt was in the air. "Uh...What are you trying to tell me?"

"I'm trying to tell you that I watched her stretch her groin when I got an erection."

I suddenly dropped the canvas, pressed my elbows into the table, and embedded my fingertips into my temples. A troubled groan erupted from my mouth. "Why? What is wrong with you? Why would you tell me that?" I uncomfortably moaned.

"I don't know what to do about it," he confessed. "I was just so intrigued by her that my body decided for me that I was ready to mate, and I don't know even know how to mate."

"Well, I can't help you there," I declared, getting up from my seat to leave.

"You aren't going to give me any advice?"

"Zane, I'm not gonna talk about your reproductive organs with you. You're on your own on that one."

He reluctantly nodded, so I left him to sort out his own thoughts. As I took the first few steps up to the bridge, I heard him rip the canvas so that nobody would know what he saw last night.

Does Nya seem to still be attached to Zane even though they no longer have to pretend to be a couple? Did Zane just discover his manhood? XD
WHAT IS GOING ON? Share your opinions below! Thank you all so much for all the support. We made it to 203 reviews! It couldn't have been done with RandomDragon2.0, SpitfirewaterNinja, The Mayor of Ninjago City, and Dbee717 :)

RandomDragon2.0 - Okay fine, don't share then XD

The Mayor of Ninjago City - You too! And welcome back! :)

Dbee717 - Geez, you BROKE the reviews page. Kudos to you! XD