I will say this was just me trying to get an idea out of my head. It turned out better than I thought it would, so I'm posting it. I'm planning on writing a second one, to show what happens next, but for now, please enjoy!
Really, he bought it out of impulse.
Sure, he had thought of buying it. Yes, he had had that thought multiple times. He had even pulled up the website of one of Ninjago's best jewelry makers to customize it over and over and over again. He had almost bought the design he had settled on so many times, only to put it off.
That, he had to admit, was him "playing chicken" as Jay would call it. The thought of it not being enough, of him not being enough was overwhelming. For months, since Jay had given Nya half of theirs, Zane imagined buying his pin. No, not his pin. Their pin.
At first, he told himself it would look like he had only thought of it because Jay had done it. That hadn't been it. He was fairly certain they had simply come to the same conclusion around the same time. Jay had just managed to design his pin first. It wasn't long before Zane came up with dozens of excuses for himself. He had just been away for decades and they needed to reconnect and anyway, why would anyone want to be the Yang of a monster such as him?
They had so much to do, so much dead ends in the cold case they promised to solve, while the others were away in Prime Empire…
They had spent more time away from each other when he and his friends were stuck in the dungeons of Shintaro's mountains...
Nya had merged with the sea…
After the Crystal King had been defeated, after he had almost died and she had managed to pull him away from his journey to the Departed Realm, he realized just how long he had been putting it off, how many clues he might have missed from Pixal that would have told him she was ready.
That particular thought had popped into his head late one night as he tossed and turned in his bed. In an instant, he found himself seated at his desk, switching on his computer, despite being able to do it on his HUD. Another moment passed and he was suddenly staring at the receipt the website gave him for his purchase of the pin. His gaze fell upon on the estimated arrival date as he dazedly sat in his chair. He had bought it…he had really bought it.
Zane ran his fingers through his hair, unable to contain the single chuckle that burst from him. The pin would be coming. Soon, too. He hadn't even considered the possibility of buying it in the middle of the night based off of a random awareness, and yet that was exactly what he had done.
Zane laughed at himself again, remembering just how impulsive and foolish he could be when it came to Pixal. He was one lovesick Nindroid.
And now, now he had proof of that. And a question he needed to prepare asking.