Father-Jay
Jay was feeling as if he was going to die of embarrassment.
His parents, Ed and Edna, had unexpectedly decided to pay Jay and other fellow ninjas a visit to their new home, the Bounty. Jay had forewarned his friends-to never play along with what his parents were saying, since they were very talkative, and to be acquainted with their-well, a bit strange behavior. But, as if his friends had listened into one ear and out the other, they were talking quite actively with his parents, which worried him immensely. And in front of Nya, too. If Nya heard all the things Jay's parents always told everybody…
"Oh, by the way, is Jay taking good care of himself? He's such a forgetful boy, when he was younger, he would put on his pants without wearing his undies, you know~"
"Mom!" Jay yelled, his face flushed red, but Edna only laughed in a good-natured way.
"Can we take the scraps you have outside there? It looks like you don't have any use for it anyway…" Jay's dad asked, pointing to the random pieces of trash the Ninjas had taken out earlier that day.
"Uh…sure. They're trash for us anyway. What are you going to use them for?" Zane replied, surprised that anybody would want their garbage.
"Trash? They're like gold! You have no idea of their value, young man. Edna! This hearty fellow here doesn't know the true value of the treasure outside! Isn't that so unfortunate?" Ed exclaimed.
"Yes, dear. Think about what nice additions they will be to our collection! And all the things we can make with those!" Edna agreed, her honey brown eyes twinkling with happiness
"As if all the 'collection' is nothing but garbage…" Jay muttered under his breath, scowling.
"Why did you come anyway? I called you two days ago."
"Once in two days? We need a call seven times a day, son! When are you going to visit the dump? You always say that you're going to come but you never actually do!" Ed asked, wiping his hands on his grease-matted pants and shirt.
"Dad! Don't talk about the dump in front of my friends!" Jay hissed.
"Oh, embarrassed, Cutiepants? It's nothing to be embarrassed about, Jay." Ed teased slightly, but a flash of hurt crossed his sweet, blue eyes.
"Dad!" Jay hissed again, not noticing.
"And-the tea's delicious, can I have more?-will you give us a tour of your home? It seems to be quite nice and we have a lot of time on our hands, you know?" Edna requested. And of course, all the Ninjas agreed despite Jay's ignored protests.
"Ok, so this is the living room, and this is the coffee machine, and this is the spyglass. That's all." Jay pointed to various things in the room, showing the place in one grand sweep. It was quite evident in his voice that he was tired and wished with all his mind that his parents would go back home.
"Nice, son! I'm so proud of you!" Ed smiled, patting his son's back.
"Yeah, yeah." Jay muttered.
"Oh, what's that? You didn't show us that one." Edna pointed to a large device in the middle of the room, a tall pole-with a button on it.
"That's some kind of defensive device Jay is inventing." Cole quickly explained.
"Really? How exciting! Can we take a look at it? What are its features? What can it do? What-"
"No, because it's. Not. Done." Jay said through clenched teeth, blocking the way.
"I can work on it on my own. I'll show you when it's finished, alright? Oh, my gosh! Look at the time already, so late- you better go before it gets dark, Dad. I told you-there are Serpentine Armies out there and we don't want you to get hurt by them, yes?"
"Ah, yes, I guess so…" Edna muttered, looking sad and disappointed for the first time since they got to the Bounty.
"Thank you for sharing your wonderful stories about Jay's first time kissing his pillow. It was so fun!" Cole thanked Edna, which immediately brightened her.
"Oh no, it's quite alright! I have so much more stories to tell you if you'd like, like the story of-"
"Mom! Snakes! Snakes are coming out at night, yeah? Hm?"
"Alrighty, dear. We're going, we're going."
"Be sure to call us later!"
"Good bye! Be careful while driving!"
Jay waved to them until they were a speck against the setting sun. Heaving a deep sigh of relief, he turned to his friends, awaiting the teases and the laughs he'll get.
"I'm sorry guys…but I told them to not come, but-"
"Your parents? Nah, they're cool." Kai shrugged.
"I'm actually pretty glad that they visited today. We learned a lot about reusing, recycling, and inventing. I could see why even you described them 'talkative.' They're pretty fun people to talk to."
"They…they are?" Jay murmured, surprised.
"Sure, man! They are way better than my dad. They actually seem to love you and care for you. That's more than what I got." Cole yawned, stretching. The wind ruffled his black hair.
"Love? Care? Yeah…I guess. It's just that…well, it like they got no sense of private space or private information, you know? And their clothes too…"
"Hah!" Cole muttered under his breath, smirking.
"Look here, 'Cutiepants', you don't know how lucky you are, huh? That's the reason I don't like people like you. Spoiled and a snob. Don't know how precious what you have is until you lose it, huh?"
"What are you talking about, you Eyebrows? You've got no right to say things like that!" Jay growled, his eyebrows furrowed together in anger. Kai, Nya, and Zane, sensing yet another fight, excused themselves into another room, hurrying to escape the tornado to come.
"No right? I've got every right! I live in a free country and I can say whatever I like! And I say, you. Are. Spoiled."
"Spoiled? Try living in a freaking dump all your life. Your friends shun you because you smell, your parents' hobby is collecting trash, and your mom goes off, telling every single people on this planet about all your embarrassing moments!"
"It's better than having your father who forces you to do things you never want to do, require perfection on every single thing you try, he never says good job, he never says I love you, he never tells anybody else about me!"
"Sure, Mr. Miserable. At least your father poke and prod at every single thing you do! At least he gives you privacy, and space is the most thing I needed while living with them!"
"Spoiled, spoiled kid." Cole sneered.
"Let's see how heartbroken you'll be when you realize how lucky you have been."
"Jay, you are going to visit your parents today, right?" Kai asked the chestnut haired Ninja, who was working on his mysterious button and other gadgets.
"Well, I would love to, but as you can see, I'm too busy." Jay replied. It had been several days since Jay's parents had visited him, and he was just hoping that everybody would have forgotten about that. But sadly, no, they hadn't.
"What? But you promised!" Kai protested just as Nya walked in.
"Jay, you're going to your parents' house today, right?" Nya asked, smiling. Jay hurriedly smiled back and nodded eagerly.
"Yeah, I'm totally going to!" He said. Kai shoot him a look.
"What? A promise is a promise?" Jay protested, frowning.
"Well, have fun there, "Cutiepants,'" Nya winked at Jay and went back into the Bounty.
"Wait, Nya-" Jay called, and Nya stopped, eyes full of questions.
"Well, as you know, our dragons went to the east for metamorphosis, which means that I have to travel all that distance by myself. I really do wish somebody would accompany me, you know~"
"Oh, we can go with you. That's what friends are for, right?" Kai intervened, smiling broadly.
I'm not leaving my sister alone with you. His glare said.
"…Great…" Jay murmured, feeling a headache coming on.
"Just great."
The Ninjas and Sensei Wu trudged along the dusty road, heading slowly towards Ed and Edna's house. The sun was hot and blistering and the dry air was full of dust.
"Weird…" Jay murmured, his head cocked to a side, as if listening for something.
"What's weird?" Zane asked.
"We're very close to my house, but I can't hear my parents chatting. We should have been able to hear them a mile away, unless…" Jay's blue eyes widened in realization and fear as a thought struck him.
"Unless something happened to them!"
Donning his Ninja hood on, Jay began running towards his home, a million thoughts passing through his mind.
What happened? What could have happened? A sudden illness? An accident? The Snakes, maybe?
Jay reached his home, which was definitely too quiet-none of the machinery was on, the usual whirring and smooth vibration of the gadgets were absent, and most of all, the lively voice of his parents were nowhere to be heard.
What if…What if the Snakes took them? As a hostage? Or even…killed them?
Terrible, terrible thoughts began to fill his mind. He thought about his Mother-Edna, who was always so lively and worried about him; always giving him more food to eat, checking if he was alright, protecting him like a wolf guarding her pups. And his Father-oh, his father, who gave him the love of inventing, the talent, his old man jokes, even his white, grizzly hair-what had happened to them?
Yes, there were often times when he wished that his parents would leave him alone; or even just disappear, sometimes. But not like this. Not in this way. He didn't want them to be gone, not really-he loved them too much for that.
Yes, he loved them, Jay realized. Loved them more than anything in the world, even Nya or inventing. They did give him some embarrassing moments, and they did make him annoyed sometimes, but they were Jay's parents, Jay's mother and father. They were people whom Jay could tell the world that they were his family without being ashamed.
He was not embarrassed of his parents anymore. He just wanted them to be next to him right now, safe and sound.
Series of bangs and muffled screams erupted from a chained container in the corner of the dump. As Jay opened it, he found his parents in there, trapped and tied.
"Jay! You finally came!" Edna cried in joy.
"Run, son! This is a trap! The Sssss-Snakes bit us!" Ed warned. True to his word, Jay could be hints of a fang from the tips of their lips. But he didn't care. Snakes or not, they were his parents-and he could yell it out for the world to hear, if needed.
"Don't worry, dad. I'll get you back to normal." Jay promised.
"And oh, Jay, did you remember to wear clean under wear on your way here?" Edna asked.
"Mom!"
A/N: So, this chapter was more of a 'parent' than a 'father' chapter, but Ed and Edna couple is so delightful I couldn't afford to leave Edna out of the story! There are often times when I'm embarrassed by a certain thing my mom did, and I used that kind of situation to illustrate how Jay must have felt by his parents, but at the end he realizes that he loves them anyway and how great his parents really was. I hope that this was more light and carefree chapter than before, in contrast to my previous chapters. Thank you for reading and reviews are LOVE.