Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't updated in a little while, got busy with life. Anyways, I'm back! I have a handful of chapters pre-written so I'm going to upload a few a once to hopefully make up for the content drought. As for upcoming chapters I haven't been able to write at all this month (including the last few chapters to this story ;-; )
I will be trying to write them within the next week though! So hopefully updates will be a bit more consistent again! :D
Anyways, whenever this book is done I'm considering going straight into writing another one (most likely a filler with short stories). Examples like, Cole and Destiny hanging out, or all the ninja going to a Board walk faire and stuff like that! Not sure if I should just tag those chapters onto the end of this book or not, and then make the next book covering season 7 of Ninjago.
What do you guys think? Would you like the oneshots/filler chapters at the end of this book or in its own story? I'm just a bit worried about having those chapters covering the period of time between the end of this story and season 7 being missed by future readers. So they'd be kinda confused if they skip it by accident and go straight into the Hands of Time book... :/
Ahh I'm ranting! Sorry! Enjoy the chapter(s) update, and love you all! Hope you're doing good :D
Cole stretched as he made his way down the hall of the Bounty. Kai had just announced that dinner was almost ready, so the Master of Earth had taken it upon himself to make sure Destiny knew. The black ninja hadn't expected his day to go the way it had when he woke up this morning, but he would be lying to himself if he said it didn't turn out better than he originally imagined.
He knew that Destiny wasn't supposed to leave the Bounty, but the mountain of a ninja had been happy to have company on his mission. He hadn't told any of the others, but Cole still had mixed feelings about both the museum and Sensei Yang's temple. He would've asked to go on any other mission just to avoid visiting the museum again so soon, but he didn't want to make things any harder for his team. They were already having a hard enough time coming up with leads to follow up on surrounding these 'Shapeshifter' guys in the first place.
Not to mention the fact that Cole was the team's foundation. He had been under Master Wu's tutelage the longest, so it was up to him to be the responsible and dependable one. Sure it was a lot of pressure he placed upon himself but he could handle it. He would also rather carry it all himself than watch his teammates crush themselves under the extra weight of responsibility. His ninja family already worked too hard to keep ninjago safe, so it was Cole's job to make sure they had time to recuperate, even if that meant he had less time to do so himself.
The black ninja stopped as he finally reached his destination. Moving his hand up to the dark wooden oak of the door, Cole knocked several times. Cole could hear muffled movement from inside the room, and after a minute or so the door was pulled back revealing Destiny's small form.
"Yes?" Destiny's voice questioned, sounding weaker than it had earlier in the day.
"Kai said he was almost done making dinner. I just thought I'd let you know in case you were hungry at all." The black ninja explained. As Cole studied the yellow clad girl in front of him he began to notice that her eyes seemed slightly red and puffy. Had she been crying?
"Oh, okay." The short girl answers quietly, moving to walk past the Master of Earth. Cole put an arm out in front of her though, blocking her path and stopping her from walking out into the hallway.
"Destiny, are you doing okay?" The boy asked quietly, giving Destiny a small look of concern. The smaller of the two stayed quiet, but Cole noticed when her shoulders began to shake and didn't hesitate to pull her into a gentle embrace. "Do you want to sit down?" The raven asks in a hushed tone, not moving from the hug the two were currently sharing.
Cole could feel Destiny nod against his chest, so he walked into the spare bedroom, closing the door behind him and leading his crying friend over to her bed where they could both sit down and talk.
"What's wrong?" Cole questioned as he used one his hands to brush the stray pieces of hair out of Destiny's face before gently lifting up her chin so she was looking up at him. There were tears streaming down her face, just like the scene from last night.
"I- I was talking to Misako a-after the meeting, and I was t-telling her about w-why I've been so upset." Destiny stops talking for a minute as she sniffles a few times, and Cole waits patiently for the young girl to catch her breath. "I've felt so lonely, Cole. My mom made us move, and she's never home a-and… and I, I j-just miss my dad-" The yellow clad girl struggles to explain as she breaks down completely.
Cole could feel a sudden twinge of sadness envelop his heart at Destiny's words. She had lost her father. The black ninja finally put together the events of the last week, and now all of Destiny's behavior made sense. Cole felt like an idiot for not realizing it sooner. Sure he and the others had known that the yellow clad teen was depressed, but Cole had lost a parent too. He out of all of them should have recognized all the pain their new friend was in.
The Earth ninja held the shaking form of the small girl for a long time, and did all he could to try and soothe her as her sobs continued to rack her body. Cole tried whispering all the words of comfort he wished he'd heard when he was grieving, and rubbed small circles on her back to remind her he was still there.
Once Destiny's cries had calmed down the Master of Earth looked down, being careful not to move too much. It didn't take long for Cole to realize that she had fallen asleep against his chest, and as gently as possible he moved her so she was lying comfortably in bed. After covering Destiny with the sheets, Cole made a mental note to bring her back some water and painkillers along with dinner.
Quietly, the black ninja left the room, slowly closing the door behind him to avoid making any noise. On his way back towards the dining room Cole silently scolded himself. He felt guilty. Yes, he had tried to comfort Destiny just now, and last night, but he should've been able to put the pieces together quicker. Cole sighed.
He couldn't change the past, he had to try his best to accept it. At least now he knew. He didn't know everything of course, like what caused the death of Destiny's father. Had he gotten sick and died a slow death just as Cole's mother had? If that was the case then Cole could relate a lot more to Destiny than he originally thought.
Cole was going to do his best to help Destiny as much as he could. He didn't need to know all the details of Destiny's situation in order to make that decision. Tonight, before he slept, Cole would make a list of all the things he wished people had done for him after his mom had died; and he would do everything in his power to do every single one of those things for the young girl in the other room.
"There you are Cole! I was just about to go looking for you." The familiar voice of Cole's best friend says, pulling the black ninja from his thoughts. Cole looked up at Jay, giving him the best smile he could manage at the moment.
"Sorry about that Jay." Cole apologized, not having the extra energy to sound very cheery.
"You doing okay pal? You look like you just saw somebody step on a puppy's foot or something." Jay states, trying his best to lighten the sullen mood of the black ninja.
"Yeah, I'm okay. Don't worry about it." Cole insists, hoping the Master of Lightning wouldn't press further.
While Jay didn't seem convinced he still respected his friend, and decided not to pry any more on the matter. For that Cole was thankful. When the two of them finally returned to the dining room everyone looked over.
"Cole, where is Destiny? I thought she would be joining us this evening." Master Wu spoke first, running a hand through the length of the white beard. Cole rubbed the back of his neck nervously with one of his hands.
"Um, well yes, Destiny was going too but she was actually pretty tired. So, she went to bed early. She wanted me to tell you thank you for the food though Kai." Cole lied, hoping his ninja family would buy it.
Misako caught the black ninjas' eye, and gave him a small nod in acknowledgement. Cole remembered now that Destiny had mentioned talking to Misako earlier. So he assumed this meant that she had already figured out the truth behind Cole's tardiness and Destiny's absence. The Earth ninja knew Misako well though, and trusted her not to say anything to the others about it.
"Ahh, I see." Master Wu responds, giving Cole a gesture to take his seat at the table.
Once everyone had finished dinner, the ninja began the routinely ritual of cleaning up the leftover food and dirty cutlery from off of the table. As Jay began grabbing the dirty dishes Cole made sure to grab Destiny's empty plate before the Master of Lightning could. Looking over what food was still left the black ninja began plating some of it to take to Destiny's room before he got ready for bed himself.
"Man Cole, your stomach must be a bottomless pit or something if you're still hungry after eating all that food." Jay teased, noticing how the black ninja had grabbed the final dish before he had.
"Yeah, well, you know Cole. I bet if the Bounty were crashing he'd want to save the fridge." Kai chuckled as he began sorting the leftover food into different containers to fit into the freezer.
"Ha ha, very funny guys. This food isn't for me though. I'm taking it to Destiny's room for her." Cole explains, not very amused by his ninja brothers teasing.
"Ooo, Cole the lover boy!" Jay continues, making kissy noises to try and embarrass the black ninja.
"I am not a lover boy." Cole tries to argue.
"C'mon Jay, leave Cole alone." Nya interjects, walking back in from the kitchen to grab more glasses that were still on the table. "I for one think it's sweet that he thinks about others."
"I guess." Jay pouts, he felt slightly jealous over how Nya called his best friend sweet and not him. Jay then goes into the kitchen with the dirty dishes, Kai following close behind him.
"Thank you Nya." Cole thanks, he wasn't sure how much of Jay and Kai's teasing he could've taken tonight before it became irritating.
"No problem. I know how much of a handful Jay can be sometimes." Nya says with a small laugh.
"You're telling me." Cole adds, chuckling slightly.
"Out of curiosity though," Nya starts again, causing the Earth ninja to look up at her as he finishes putting the plate of food in front of him together. "…do you like Destiny?" The water ninja asks. The question surprises Cole, and he was sure he had a dumbfounded look on his face.
"What? What would give you that idea?" Cole fires back, extremely confused as to how both her and Jay could have gotten the impression that Cole was involved with Destiny in that way.
"I don't know. I mean, for one it's pretty obvious that you're Destiny's favorite. Plus I just think you two would be cute together." Nya simply states, shrugging her shoulders slightly.
Now Cole was extra confused. Not only was he Destiny's favorite ninja somehow, but now the others thought they were romantically involved? How had Nya managed to come to that conclusion? Sure, it seemed like he had spent the most time with Destiny so far out of all of them, but he hardly considered that reason enough for them to be anything more than friends.
Even saying they were friends seemed to be a bit much for Cole. It's not that he doesn't enjoy spending time with Destiny but she'd been with them for less than a week. Not to mention the fact that they only really started talking last night. Maybe Nya and Jay thought there was more to the two of them because of the whole situation involving the fact Destiny had only been eating the food he gave her?
Still, how would Cole even know he likes someone like… like that-? Sure, he and Jay had fought over Nya in the past but in reality Cole never liked Nya as anything more than a friend. To him, she was like his younger sister. The only reason he got mixed up in the first place is because Nya had told him how underappreciated he was. No one had ever said anything like that to Cole before. It had made him happy, and he had accidentally mistaken that happiness for something more that it ultimately wasn't.
Now that Cole thought about it he wasn't sure that he had ever been attracted to anyone romantically before. When he was little he'd never had crushes. Then his mom had gotten sick and he was too distracted by that to think about anything else.
Even after his mother had passed away Cole was too grief stricken to even have considered going out with anybody. Then Master Wu found him and he'd dedicated himself to becoming a ninja, and well, since him and the others had become a team there'd been no shortage of threats to Ninjago.
Cole thought about Destiny for a moment. Sure she was pretty, but just because someone is pretty doesn't mean you're automatically attracted to them. What about her personality? Well, Cole hadn't had much time to get to know the yellow clad teen either. Whenever she was happy though the black ninja couldn't help but smile. Cole finally turned his attention back to Nya.
"You really think Destiny and I could be a thing?" Cole questioned, not really happy with the wording he'd used.
"Yeah, I don't see why not." Nya responds with a smile.
"Did I just hear Cole ask about him and somebody else being a thing?" A new voice asks. It was Lloyd.
"Oh, I was just telling Cole how I think he and Destiny would make a cute couple." Nya says with a giggle.
"Come on guys, be realistic. I hardly know Destiny, all of us hardly know her. Besides, even if I did get the chance to know her better I'm not even sure that I would be able to tell if I liked her as anything more than a friend." Cole admits, grabbing Destiny's empty glass and filling it with water.
"Cole, you don't need to know anything about a person to be attracted to them. Getting to know them just makes it all the more fun." Nya argues.
"Well, how would I know if I was attracted to someone the way you and Jay like each other?" The Earth ninja asks, clearly embarrassed by his lacking understanding of romantic love.
"You'll just be able to tell. You'll care about them but in a way that's different to anything else you've felt before. It'll be scary and nerve racking, but it'll also be worth it." Nya explains with a soft smile as she sets a gentle hand on Cole's arm. Cole smiles back at her, grateful that she didn't take the opportunity to tease him like the others would have.
"We have faith in you Cole, I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out." Lloyd tries to be supportive from the same spot he had been standing in this whole time.
"Thanks buddy." Cole thanks him as he pats the young ninja on the shoulder. "Do me a favor guys and don't bring this up to the others. I deal with enough teasing as is." Cole says with a light hearted laugh.
"They won't hear anything from me." Nya reassures.
"My lips are sealed." Lloyd adds as he pretends to zip his lips together.
"Alright, well, I'm gonna take this stuff to Destiny's room and then head to bed. See you in the room Lloyd. Have a good night Nya." He bids farewell to his fellow ninja before walking back down the hall in the direction of the spare bedroom once more.
Just as the black ninja said he would, he took everything he had gathered to Destiny's room. Setting it all down on the nightstand before heading to his and the others shared bunk room. After Cole was changed and brushed his teeth he crawled into bed, doing his best to remain quiet so as to not wake the other sleeping ninja around him. Once Cole was finally sat on his mattress he pulled out a small notebook, and began writing down his list of things he planned to do for Destiny. It wasn't until the early hours of the morning began to dawn on Ninjago that the raven haired boy finally allowed dreamless sleep to claim him.
