Hey everyone, happy Friday, time for an update. I got a fair warning to those that read my stories that nearing the end of this chapter may not enjoy about passioniate kissing, but fair warning though. I tried to watch what I was doing since I hardly ever do romance. But anyway, enjoy.

Chapter 20: On Our Own

A blissful cold breeze flew across the woodlands. A girl woke up startled to the chill and shivered. She lifted her head to observe her surroundings and found herself in an open cave with slight fog covering the trees. It even smelled wet as if rained last night. Oh wait. That's right. Betty remembered being carried by Cole in a thunderstorm and looked down as she felt something warm and smooth and moved by her hand to look down to blink in surprise. It was Cole in his normal body.

Betty observed his body as it was back to its tan color instead of green and not muscular as his body was already. He lied on the wet stone floor with no shirt on and stretched jeans in front of Betty. She must've fallen asleep next to him to keep him warm. The youngest scientist wondered when he changed back to normal and felt worried that Cole might get sick since he's more exposed than she was. All she had was her black blouse and black dress pants and her coat that they used as a blanket while he had nothing. Betty looked at Cole as he slept soundly and picked her coat back up and draped it over his body to keep him warm and kept turning her head to find a way out of the woods.

...

The raven-haired girl walked out of the office of a motel she and Cole found. When the earth ninja woken up, both spent all morning staggering out of the woods until they found a small village on the other side of Ninjago. They haven't realized Cole carried her far from the university. Betty felt the warm October sun warm her skin as she walked across the parking lot of parked cars until she reached a figure leaning against the brick wall with a white coat wrapped around his body. Cole.

The black ninja lifted his head to smile with his still red tired eyes and slowly picked himself up with Betty's help. The two staggered down a long hall of rooms with Cole leaning against Betty for support and drag his feet on the concrete sidewalks until they found theirs and used the room key to unlock the lock and entered. The room was slightly homiest as it did have a bed and bathroom and a TV, but it felt like it wasn't home much to the both of them. Was it because the walls were a dull grey color or something else? Both weren't sure, but it was a room after all. It reminded Cole the small apartment he and the others lived before they took the Bounty back from Garmadon. Home sweet home you have to wonder.

...

Cole's eyes were closed as he stood in front of the shower head with hot water raining down on his body. He's been silent since he woke up and didn't want to talk right now. Betty just left to get some supplies and left him to have some quiet time and space. But all he could do was taking a warm shower and forget everything, but couldn't as everything he done burned into his mind. It was still fresh to forget. The earth ninja moved his wet bangs out of his eyes to hear the calming rushing water and slowly opened his eyes to stare at the shower head. Suddenly it shifted to where he was staring at a rotating sentry gun that fired at him from the university and he jolted back to slip in the tub. He looked around to sigh as it was his mind playing tricks on him and turned the faucet off after he felt his heart rate return to normal.

This is never gonna end is it? he wondered to reach out for his towel and pull it in with him. A moment later, the stark white curtain fluttered open and the earth ninja carefully stepped up to breathe in the warm steamed air to slowly relax. He kept hoping that the Forces would break the door down and storm in to capture him. But he knew he and Betty were far from Ninjago City and that could never happen. Even in a village he thinks is believed to be called Aurora Village that's small. He'll hide perfectly well here. He drew in another deep breath and turned to the toilet. Time to bring up something. He sighed as he hoped it won't spike his heart rate.

...

The sound of retching made Betty concern as she entered the rented room. She's been gone for an hour or two and came back with supplies and clothes for her and Cole. After she placed the plastic bags on the bed, the girl curiously walked over to the bathroom and stood by the doorway. "Cole?" she asked, but heard silence. She became worried. "Cole?"

Cole quickly stepped out with a towel wrapped around his waist and brushing his teeth. That caused Betty to jump a bit. "Yeah?" he asked back.

Betty was relieved to see him, but what was with the retching. He seemed a bit pale at first, but his skin was still in its tan color. And his hair was a bit toppled. "Everything alright?" she asked, worried and curious.

"Yeah yeah everything is." the earth ninja replied. He removed his hand from his waist to show Betty the flash-drive of his possible cure. "Just had to bring something back up. That's all."

Betty furrowed her brows as she looked at him weirdly. Bring something back up? What did he mean by that? She thought it over and came to a solution. "You ate it?" she inquired.

Cole smiled a little. "Well it was the only option I had." he replied. "But it was either that or let them take the data."

"Wow." she simply said quietly. She smiled with him and walked over to sit on the bed to spill the contents out. "First things first." she said and picked up a box and tossed it to Cole.

The earth ninja caught the box and noticed it was a new heart rate monitor watch since he lost the other one at the university. "Oh wow." he chuckled a little and pulled it from the box and strapped it around his wrist. Once he removed the safety tab, the watch beeped to life.

Betty smiled and grabbed a bundle of purple cloth and tossed it to Cole. The black ninja caught the cloth and unfolded to see it was a pair of extra-large sweatpants and looked at Betty weirdly. She noticed the look. "What?" she laughed a little with a smile.

"No." he smirked while shaking his head. Purple wasn't his color.

"Oh come on." she argued lightly. "Those were the stretchiest pair they had."

"I'll take my chances then." he rebutted lightly and disappeared back in the bathroom.

...

"Sir," Haruko walked into the office, sounding surprised. "It's Blolasky."

The general quickly stood up from his desk and followed his captain through the halls to the medical bay. What was wrong with Blolasky? When the general and captain entered the bay, Ross watched Haruko pull the blinds away to reveal Blolasky; sitting and not battered or broken. Ross smirked. The Nanomeds fixed him in one day. He no longer had bruised skin or suspended limbs; just sitting tall while removed the bandages off his hands. "How do you feel soldier?" he asked.

Blolasky removed the last of the once white bandages to look up at the general to smirk. "Never felt well in my life." he replied.

...

Snip-snip-snip.

Cole sat still as Betty was behind him with a pair of scissors for his hair. He had a towel wrapped around his shoulders to catch the bits of his black hair as Betty trimmed his shaggy locks. He wasn't changing his looks to keep himself hidden, because his shaggy hair is trademark of his identity like Kai with his spiky hair, but it's because Betty could see he needed a trim on the ends. He'll still have his shaggy hair. "Can you leave it the way it is." he asked her. "I like it when it's this long."

Betty looked to stare at the mirror in front of them to nod. She carefully pulled back some of his black hair between her slender fingers and trimmed the ends. That was the last one. She gently ruffled his hair to shake any loose hair and rested her head on his shoulders to stare at the mirror. "How's that?" she asked. "It's still you."

Cole stood up to examine his hair closer and nodded. "It's perfect." he complemented. He saw Betty smile and then thought of something. "Betty, can I ask you something?" he said and removed the towel to place it on the table. "Something that I have been wondering since I was in the hospital."

Betty looked at him to nod. "What is it?" she asked.

"It's about...the kiss." he replied. Betty looked at him confused, but figured what it was going to be. "Ever since I was in the hospital, I kept wondering about it. Then there was when I was home from the base, the kiss happened again and I never felt this way before. I never felt this way towards anyone. All I'm saying is that..." he paused and looked into her ice blue eyes and gently grabbed her hands. He could feel his throat swelling on his words, but he quickly swallowed them. "I love you. But what about you?"

Betty smiled as she heard the words correctly. She can finally get the weight off her chest. "Cole," she began. "I...love you too." She saw him smile. "There's something different about you that makes you...different. Not the Hulk inside in you, but what you are. Strong. Brave. And fearless. Even though you're being hunted, I become worried for you. I love you and no matter what happens, we're in this together." She leaned closer to him and pressed her lips against his and lost her train of thought.

Cole felt his mind turn fuzzy as Betty was kissing him. And she was even returning the kiss back. The kiss began to become more passionate as it was lasting longer than a second while Cole wrapped his arms around her waist while she wrapped her arms around his neck. Both lost their train of thoughts. They have never felt this way before in their lives. Both haven't realized that their kiss was becoming more passionate; they both lost their balance and fell on the bed.

Cole fell on his back with Betty on his chest to smile at her. Her black hair and trimmed bangs fell around his face in a black veil curtain. She smiled back and continued to kiss the earth ninja. The black ninja kept kissing her back and felt his mind washing away. He could taste her cherry lips with his. He could feel his heart rate increase against his ribs; excitement was building up. Cole heard something beeping and quickly realized his watch was going off and stopped. "Stop." he begged and prompts himself up against the headrest with Betty next to him.

He looked down at his watch to see it creasing down till it stopped beeping. Cole sighed in relief as it was a close call and looked at Betty. "I'm sorry." he said with a small chuckle. But it then turn to a small frown. "I just can't get excited at all."

"Not even a little?" Betty wondered. Cole looked into her eyes and shook his head. Not even a little.

Not even a little.

Hope that last part was okay because I tried to keep it appropriate as I can for doing romance for the first time. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you next week for the next update. :)