"I don't need a star or a djinn to make a wish Jay, I learnt that the hard way." She said, leaning into him, gaining some heat from their embrace.
"We both did, Nya." It was true, sadly they were the only two out of the entire team to remember the debacle that was the Sky pirates invasion a few years ago. "We learned to never trust a djinn." Jay said as he gently placed his finger under her chin, lifting her gaze up to his own.
"Or a pirate, besides, "She said. "I made my wish, I chose you and I'd do it again and again." She finished, holding onto his warm hands.
A big smile was plastered onto Jay's face. There were no words he could utter that she didn't already know, in fact words weren't needed. He simply pulled her into his arms, her body flush against his as he closed the gap, placing a delicate kiss.
He would have closed his eyes and meted into it, but there was something on his mind. Typically the freaking meteor was invading his thoughts; the nerd inside him wanted so much to know more of it. Plus; he still couldn't get the image out of his head at the way that the thing had simply fallen from the sky. It was so bizarre for it to follow such a pattern, considering most followed the gravitational pull of the planet.
"Maybe we could investigate the meteor tomorrow?" Jay whispered in to her ear as he held her close, her back to the night sky.
"Why? There's nothing that special about burning rocks falling from the sky."
"I don't know, sometimes they herald loads of information, unless the heat destroys it first. Ya know that most meteors, well the small ones they kinda crumble and only the big ones leave a crater."
Nya playfully rolled her eyes.
"Plus, you'd know if a big one hit the ground, it'd feel like a tremor and likely cause some sort of disaster."
He was still talking, she knew that once he got onto a topic he liked, it was difficult to shut him up.
"Nya, uhm did ya know that most meteorites are one of three types? There's stony, stony-iron, or iron and the compositions alone tell us where the meteoroid existed originally ya know, in its parent body."
"No I-I didn't." Nya whispered in response.
"So an iron or stony iron based meteorite would have been close to the core of an asteroid, while a pure stony one would have been closer to the surface, kinda boring really, can't do much with a stone, but iron however…" Jay added and trailed off.
It was why his nickname was motormouth and zaptrap. Jay could talk and talk. Sometimes he would tell jokes that no one else would find funny, laughing before the punchline was even delivered. Jay was the jokester, the playful and often shy one.
"You're such a nerd," Nya cooed into his ear feeling him warm up in her embrace. "And I love you."
"I could talk all night about meteors, inventing in general."
"I know." She said, sarcasm heavy in her voice. "You like to talk, that's one of the things I love about you. You're confident with the subjects you adore."
"Guess so…" Jay shrugged, further shivering in the cold night air as he locked lips with Nya.
"You're nervous about something." Nya broke off the kiss and gently trailed her hand down the side of his face, snapping him out of his trance.
"It's nothing Nya, seriously I'm just cold." He suggested, nibbling her neck.
"Just a little…cold." He mumbled and closed his eyes, his mouth settling on an area near her collar bone which he took the opportunity to suck on, she moaned into his ear.
'One more day is all, one more day and we can do this. All I have to do is propose on Friday, no pressure.
Jay removed his mouth from Nya's neck looking at the love bite he had just given her before apologising profusely.
"S-sorry Nya, I know how much Kai hates those." He mumbled apologetically and looked at the warming light coming from the living quarters of the ship they called home. "It's getting cold, you wanna head inside for a hot chocolate?"
"Thanks for the offer but no. I'm going to have a bath and call it a night."
"Aww, why?" Jay whined, bottom lip out.
"I'm worn out from yesterday, plus I've been helping Zane with the control room of the ship." She paused taking a deep refreshing breath. "Gotta say though, at least everything is working as it should and, because of Ed and Edna we now have plenty of spares on board." Nya replied with a yawn.
Jay pulled Nya towards him again as he backtracked towards the warmer lit interior of the Bounty where he could hear cheers and boos coming from Cole, Lloyd and Kai. It was obvious they were still playing on the games console.
He kissed her good night and watched as she walked off. All the while, fighting his own urges at wanting to spend the night with her, then biting his lip because of his earlier agreement with Kai.
"Night Nya, sleep well and see ya tomorrow."
"Good night Jay." She replied and closed her door gently.
He had promised another thing he might not be able to keep, yep that same sarcastic retort that Jay had said yesterday Kai had taken as a serious promise. The master of fire was expecting him to keep to his sarcastic reply even if he had said it in jest. Jay didn't like to think about what Kai might contemplate for punishment if he was caught in such a sordid position with Nya.
Even her lips smell like cherry and vanilla, oh god Nya. Focus Jay you promised him.
The master of lightning walked in to the kitchen and grabbed the cocoa powder and mini marshmallows as well as the tin of squirty cream, giving it a vigorous shake. He heated the milk and water measuring enough for everyone before grabbing enough cups to go around.
"Hey uhm guys, I'm making hot chocolate cos it's gonna be a cold night." Jay stated clearly into the open kitchen bar into the adjacent games room.
"Thank you brother, can I have mine without the marshmallows, they stick to my enamel plated porcelain veneers." Zane replied.
Jay raised an eyebrow but poured the hot liquid into his cup and followed with the squirty cream sprinkling powder on the top.
"All the trimmings on mine, cream, marshmallows and a chocolate flake, oh yeah thanks Jay." Cole mumbled as he grabbed a handful of potato chips shoving them into his mouth quickly, he hastily wiped his hand on his jeans before grasping the controller with both hands again.
"Same here for both of us." Lloyd stated as he nodded at Kai. "Thanks bro, always being a mother hen hahaha." Lloyd teased, but he knew that Jay didn't mind friendly banter, it was to be expected on a daily basis living with so many young men all within such close proximity.
Jay loaded all the cups onto the tray and made his way over to his brothers, placing the tray down carefully on the table behind his brothers. He grabbed his own and sat down on the empty sofa and watched the game unfold. They were all involved in a racing game of sorts and it was the last lap. Kai was in the lead, Cole was in last place having forgotten to use the brakes and careening off at each sharp turn. Lloyd was in third and Zane was fighting for first, slowly gaining on Kai.
Tensions were mounting and voices were getting louder as they neared the finishing line and in typical calculated style and logic Zane saw an opening and took it, Kai had gone wide on the last corner trying to show off by sliding it, this single move allowed Zane to take the inside and the master of ice overtook him with ease. The finish line was crossed by Zane and Kai groaned wanting a rematch, whilst Lloyd and Cole crept across the line in third and fourth place respectively.
The most Kai had said to Jay today was small talk, it was obvious he was still annoyed at finding his sister straddling Jay's hips looking like they were both up to no good, yet all they were doing was kissing. It was like being caught by your parents and going red faced and then the humiliation of having to admit what you did because they were threatening an intervention if you didn't.
It was an awkward and slightly tense atmosphere for the moment and Jay was feeling it more than ever. He was half relying on Kai to make sure that he followed through with his side of the plan, all he had to do was make sure Nya was dressed appropriately without giving away too much information.
Then it would be Jay's turn to take the baton, it was after all his idea, he even had his smart clothes hanging and ready in the wardrobe in a dust proof bag, the ring was still in the box and he would get the flowers delivered to the restaurant.
The blue ninja would just have to bide his time for now and hope to the first spinjitzu master that Nya would say yes to his proposal. Then maybe they could both elope somewhere and marry in secret. At least then Kai wouldn't be able to interfere any more, maybe he would back off a little because the whole big brother thing was becoming tiresome now.
He finally plucked up the courage to talk amidst his brothers who were grumbling about losing the third race to Zane. "What's the plan for tomorrow guys?" Jay said with a yawn. The hot chocolate doing its job too quickly.
"Training at a guess, think we might be sent out on a mission ya never know." Lloyd suggested sounding hopeful.
"Or we might get a day off and ya know be allowed some time to get our bearings, look around this place. Ya know the control room shows a good birds eye map of this area and there's a large lake nearby. We could go and scope it out tomorrow!" Kai suggested smirking.
All eyes turned to him in interest as he described more about what he had seen, the lake sounded perfect, it had a waterfall, a few lagoon style caverns and the whole thing was completely obscured by trees.
"Okay we know what we're doing tomorrow then, uhm out of curiosity Kai how far away?" Jay asked timidly, he stretched his arms and stifled another yawn hoping it would be in the direction of where the meteor had fallen.
"A couple of miles at a guess, sorry I didn't hang around to get full details but it's not far from here."
"I'm off to bed then…" Cole grumbled and got up glugging his still hot drink down, not wanting to waste a drop, a loud belch ensued.
"Good night guys see ya bright and early tomorrow." Kai hollered and apologised at his own loudness not realising the late hour.
Lloyd got up and walked out of the room with Jay, he carried the tray back to the kitchen and washed the pots as Jay went to bed. "I'll sort these out considering you made them, you go to bed Jay." Lloyd smiled.
"Night green machine." Jay yawned again and strolled past Nya's room until he arrived at their shared sleeping quarters.
He removed his clothes and threw on his striped blue and white pyjamas before climbing into his old comfy bed and snuggling up, he was asleep within mere minutes dreaming lucid dreams of places he had never visited before, seeing those same golden eyes.
All that was on his mind was Nya but each time he thought of her he would see Kai in her shadow, even in his dreams he wasn't safe from him. It seemed that Kai was a fire demon in his dreams which wasn't far from the truth if you got on his bad side in real life.
But in real life, it wasn't just Jay who had noticed Kai's recent behaviour, Lloyd had been rolling his eyes every so often at Kai's over protective outbursts. Where-as Jay had somehow become accustomed to it, although it seemed that recently he couldn't get a break from Kai even in his dreams.
It was like Kai was constantly watching over his little sister, never really leaving her side and if he did he would remain close to Jay, at least that way he could keep an eye on one of the couple….a virtual chastity belt for want of a better word!
Cole the master of earth hadn't said much about it, he just rolled his eyes and told Kai to focus, in fact he told everyone to focus. He foolishly told Sensei Wu to focus earlier today and that didn't go down too well. Lloyd had flat out laughed in the master of earth's face and watched as he then spent the entire day doing tasks and then having an elongated training session with Sensei Wu watching from the steps.
Earlier that same day
Cole was duly reprimanded for his overly harsh leadership skills, although his Sensei was always pleased with Cole's ambition and work ethic, he thought that the young master could still learn some humility and what better way to do that than with some words of wisdom as he sparred with the training course.
"A great leader knows when to step down." Sensei Wu admonished.
"Yes Sensei." Cole replied miserably as he spent more minutes on the training course.
"You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too."
"Yes Sensei." Cole replied yet again, swiping his scythe at the inanimate training mannequin.
"Finally my young student, a great leader needs to love and respect people, and he needs to be comfortable with himself and with the world. He also needs to be able to forgive himself and others. In other words, a leader needs grace and to own up to his own mistakes."
"Yes Sensei." Cole replied and bowed to his Sensei as the old wise man got up to leave with his now empty teapot.
He left the master of earth scowling at him from the side lines of the deck but before he completely disappeared from view the old man stopped and paused, his back was still to Cole as he spoke.
"I understand you don't want to become complacent with your training and I admire that in you, I always have but I feel that sometimes you may be a little too hard on your brothers. Go easy on them from time to time as we never know what is around the corner." He said, stroking his long white beard before walking off.