Lou Brookstone hummed a little song to himself as he finished making a bowl of ice cream for Cole, with chocolate syrup, whipped cream, a slice of pie, and a little cupcake. His son had been studying hard for his final exams and Lou couldn't be prouder. He thought his son deserved a little treat. He had been working so hard. Not that Lou was completely happy with his son's plans. While he would have preferred that Cole be looking at schools with a good dance and performing arts program, he was learning to for who he was.

Not who he wanted him to be.

Things had been pretty quiet around Ninjago City for the teens and Lou was grateful for that. Every choice the teens made from now to graduation decided their futures. Cole needed to focus on studying and getting the grades to get him into college and that meant no distractions. Not even from his friends. Lou had all but confided Cole to home when he wasn't at school or his extracurricular activities. He had also tried to persuade his friends to leave the large teen be.

The only one Lou was never able to send away was Kai Smith, Cole's boyfriend, and the almost pain in Lou's neck.

Whenever he came over, he would manage to convince Cole to hang out with him and the others. This was always despite the older Brookstone's insisted he stay home and study. Lou honestly didn't know what Cole saw in that boy. While Cole may love Kai, Lou only saw the brunette as a distraction. He wasn't a bad kid by most people's standards. He was just very hotheaded, prone to taking action before he thought things through. His emotions often overrode his caution, putting the pack in danger.

His single-mindedness made interaction with others difficult.

He could be very cocky at times, sometimes even to the point of selfishness. The brunette insisted that he was better than others, gloating about his victory, or yelling about his failures. He seemed to have a large ego. He also had something of an overconfident stubborn side, believing that he was right until overwhelming evidence to the contrary was shown. On the other hand, Lou had to admit that Kai's stubborn streak lent him incredible determination.

This also allowed him to bolster the pack's spirit when they were in dark times.

Which was very grateful after the past year. Luckily, the Smith family had gone to Florida for the week to visit Ray's parents, so he couldn't come over and distract Cole from his studies. They were all a little shocked, however, to see Ray's parents return to Ninjago City without the younger members of their family. When the adults questioned the couple about this, Hotaru just shrugged. He then said that Ray was being a baby and would be staying in their house in Florida for the week while they had come to the city.

When they heard this, Jay and Cole had messaged their partners and had gotten the full story.

After the pack heard about how Hotaru had treated his son and grandson, they all agreed to avoid the old couple as much as possible. After he was certain the ice-cream dinner was ready, Lou carefully carried the room up to Cole's room. There he found his son sat on his bed with his head deep in a study book.

"Here you go, son." Lou smiled as he gave the noirette the food in exchange for the book.

"Thanks, Dad." Cole sighed heavily, staring solemnly

"Are you feeling ok? How's the studying doing?" He asked and Cole paused as he was about to grab a spoonful of ice cream.

"Sorry, I'm just- thinking about stuff."

"What kind of stuff?

"High school, Kai, college, my future." He sighed before letting out a slightly bitter laugh. "It's funny, I was so certain about things the past few years but now with Morro and Skylor's arrival, the fight with the wild pack, coming to terms with my sexuality and loving Kai, and now going to college? I just wish I knew what to do with myself."

"Well, I can relate to that." Lou smiled, catching Cole off-guard.

"Really?"

"When I was your age, I didn't know who I was, or what I wanted to do." He nodded.

"You didn't always want to be a dancer?"

"No way, I didn't get my sense of rhythm until I was your age." He replied, smiling at the memory. "Before I was part of the Royal Blacksmiths I had no idea what was out there, but everything changed when your mother and I hit the road! We had some of our most formative moments eating rest-stop sandwiches and watching the trucks go by."

"Huh, I didn't know that," Cole admitted, but he still looked troubled. Lou thought for a moment, but he grinned when he was suddenly hit with what he thought was a good idea.

"Maybe you need a change of scenery; you're never gonna find yourself if you don't start looking." He suggested and Cole thought about it. It would be nice to get out of their apartment and spend some quality time with his father.

"Yeah, yeah!" He grinned, and that was all Lou needed.

"Let's go, son! Right now!"

"Really?" Cole asked in shock. He thought his father was talking about a camping trip over the weekend, not at this very second.

"The road is calling, Cole! Can't you hear it?" He beamed before he ran out the door, and Cole smiled as he followed him while carrying his bowl of ice cream...

After gobbling down his ice cream, Cole and Lou jumped into Lou's car and drove out of Ninjago City. They drove around for a couple of hours, stopping at a small burger joint and a mostly empty gas station. Inside the gas station, they each tried on a pair of wacky sunglasses and laughed at each other. Cole was legitly enjoying this time with his father. It seemed like this was one of the only times he and Lou enjoyed hanging out since his mother passed away.

Cole couldn't get rid of the huge smile on his face as stared out the window at the passing world.

With every passing second, he could feel all the stress and drama leaving him and heading back to Ninjago City. Lou felt the same way. The human truly hoped that this lasted as long as possible. As their drive continued, Cole and Lou both sing along to the radio and played the license plate game, eventually stopping once they start driving through a neighborhood.

"About two blocks that way, that's where I participated in my first dance recital with Tommy, Randy, and Bradley; I think we were about seven." Lou reminisced as he pointed to a street to their left.

"Really?" Cole chuckled as he thought about his father and the other members of the Royal Blacksmiths being kids, dancing around a stage.

"We weren't even the Royal Blacksmiths yet," Lou replied with a laugh. "We were just kids with some dancing shoes, sneaking out past the warden on a Saturday night." He smiled at the memory and Cole's interest was peaked. He actually couldn't recall his father telling him how the Royal Blacksmiths were formed. He knew Lou and the other members had been childhood friends, just like him with Lloyd and the others, but that was it.

"Wait, so... how did you get into dancing and become the Royal Blacksmiths?" He asked and Lou froze. His childhood had rarely been brought up around Cole unless it involved Lily in some way. After thinking about it for a moment and lightly scaring the noirette teen, Lou realized his son was probably old enough.

"You know what? I can show you." He grinned and suddenly took a sharp turn to the right, causing Cole to yelp in terror...

After driving around for another ten minutes or so, Lou eventually parked the car outside of one of the many houses on this street and stepped out. From the outside, this house looked posh and extravagant. It had been built with white poplar wood and had sandstone decorations. Tall, wide windows let in plenty of light. The roof was high and pyramid-shaped and was covered with red, flat roof tiles. Two small chimneys sat at the side of the house.

Several small windows allowed in just enough light to the rooms below the roof.

The house itself was surrounded by a modest garden, with mostly grass, a few small trees, and a white wooden fence.

"Good, no one's home." Lou sighed in relief when he saw there wasn't a car in the driveway.

"Wait, what? Who's house is that?" Cole questioned, but Lou ignored his son. He approached the house before he jumped over the white picket fence and landed on the other side with a hard thud. Cole quickly got out of the car and ran over to the fence himself, but instead of jumping he only peaked his head above it. He watched as his father climbed a large tree that stood in the yard to get high enough to open a window.

"This used to be a lot easier." The middle-aged man grunted. Cole gulped and quickly climbed up the tree as well. His young age, well-built body, and werewolf genes allowed him to climb up the tree in a matter of seconds as his father vanished into the darkness of the house.

"Dad, you're breaking in!" Cole exclaimed in shock. He never expected his father, who he had always associated with being strict and rule-abiding, to break into a stranger's house so casually.

"I just gotta grab one thing." He dismissed as Cole climbed through the window as well and landed with a matching thud.

"Dad, you don't have to steal! C'mon, let's get out of here." He tried to convince the older male, but it had no effect. "What are you even looking for?" He groaned, but he knew it was useless to get his father to listen to reason. Instead, he left the room they had climbed into and looked around the house, worry clear on his face. He was terrified that someone might be here and hiding as they called the police about the break-in. As Cole walked down the stairs, he got a good look at the house.

The house was equipped with a modern kitchen and one large bathroom.

It also had a spacious living room, five bedrooms, a grand dining area, and a grand basement. The entire house was filled with hundreds of little decorations and trinkets that Cole thought were cute. Their fancy foreign spoon collection was impressive, as were their tiny glass goats. Many different framed photographs hung from the walls showing an older couple, and he thought he saw a couple with a child as well. Cole had to admit that it was a lovely home.

He had always imagined settling down in a place like this and live out the rest of his life.

The owners seemed like nice people with excellent taste who enjoyed potpourri. He remembered Edna saying it was like a snack for the nose. For a werewolf nose, however, it was a pain and made it impossible to pick up anyone's scent in the house. Cole opened a drawer, looking for some evidence of people in the house, but instead, he found a neat pile of letters. He saw they were all addressed to a Mr. and Mrs. Brookstone and the return address and name belonged to Lou.

Cole's eyes widened when he realized they were letters from his father and they were all unopened.

Cole suddenly gasped as his brain connected the dots and he ran up the stairs again, stopping at a picture he saw before but looked at it more closely. The picture was of a man, a woman, and what must have been their son. Cole immediately recognized the boy in the picture. It was Lou when he was around Cole's age. The noirette's eyes widened and he ran to find Lou for answers. His father was still searching through boxes for something when Lou ran into the room again.

"Dad! Th-Th-This is your house?!" He cried and Lou groaned when he realized his son must have found something.

"Not mine, my parents." He groaned.

"This was your room!" Cole gasped as he looked at the room in a new light. Instead of peeling blue wallpaper, dusty furniture, and piles of boxes he saw the bedroom where his father had spent his formative years. "Wha- This place is beautiful! I thought you said you grew up in a prison?"

"I did! You have no idea what it was like! Curfew, chaperones, meatloaf!"

"You didn't like meatloaf?"

"Not every Friday for seventeen years."

"Aw, it couldn't have been that bad."

"Cole, it was horrible! Do you know how old I was the first time I had any form of sugar? Too old." He sighed for his childhood. Cole frowned, but shook it off and then looked through a box as well, but with much more enthusiasm than Lou.

"Ooh, so this is your stuff! Is this your little hand? And your tiny baby boots! A wrestling trophy? I didn't know you wrestled." He chuckled lightly as he examined the many knick-knacks.

"Not by choice," Lou grumbled with a sharp scowl. Cole didn't notice this, however, soon found an old-looking book. He opened it and smiled when he realized it was his father's high school yearbook. He snickered lightly when he saw a picture of his father when he was Cole's age. They were almost completely identical except for hairstyle, eye color, and in the picture, Lou was wearing braces. Cole quickly took a picture of Lou's school picture on his phone.

"You look like me! Only more... human." He pointed out sadly. While they could pass for twins if they were the same age, there were a few noticeable differences. Cole was taller, had shaggier hair, and was built like a tank compared to his father. He knew that those things didn't exactly make him a werewolf. Any regular human man or woman can have long hair and large muscles. Lou was at least trying to help, but if Cole had a werewolf problem, he had to go to his friends, their parents, or his grandfather.

But it still rubbed Cole the wrong way whenever he attempted to talk to Lou about any werewolf issues and he didn't know what to do.

Cole looked sad for a moment before perking up again when he turned the page. So many people signed Lou's yearbook. Tim wanted him to have a great summer, and the noirette smiled warmly when he saw his mother's name. She sure wrote a lot of stuff.

"Why did Mom write a ton of Math jokes in here?" Cole asked.

"We were in mathletes together." Lou smiled, but it quickly vanished. "It was just one of the million things my parents made me do."

"Where are they, anyway?" Cole asked. It was safe to say that no one was here, or else he was sure that he and Lou would be in the back of a police car. Despite that, Cole had hoped for a second that they were here when he learned his father's connection to this place.

"At their timeshare in the tropics; they go every single winter every single year and they threw a fit the first time I refused to go with them," Lou growled lowly. Cole heard it but he wasn't sure what to say. He would have to be blind to not see the obvious tension between his father and his absent grandparents. Unfortunately, the noirette teen was scared to say anything on the subject. Instead, he hoped the break the atmosphere by focusing on anything in the box.

"Your hair, it's so short!" He gasped when he held up a picture of his father at graduation. Cole's mind briefly jumped into a fantasy of what his graduation would be. As he examined the picture, however, he saw several troubling things about Lou's image. He had a robe and cap, but he had a buzz-cut hairstyle and he had a large, depressing frown on his face.

"Oh no, is that my graduation photo?" Lou whined and Cole immediately regretted bringing up the photo. "They made me shave it, and it was right before a dance performance." He scowled at the memory. He looked ridiculous performing with that haircut and made Lily destroy all the pictures that she had taken with him in them.

"Do you have any photos of you on stage?" Cole asked, noticing there was nothing in that box that suggested that Lou liked dancing. He jumped slightly when his father suddenly burst out laughing at the teen's question.

"HA! Are you kidding? Everything music or dancing was off-limits! Which is why I had to... hide my stuff." He gasped in remembrance and ran to the corner of the wall behind the door where Cole saw a small vent near the roof. Lou opened the vent and pulled out a small metal box. "Yes! This is it! We can finally get out of here." He smiled, happier than Cole had seen him since they arrived at the house. As Lou checked to make sure he had everything, Cole couldn't stop looking at the other box.

The one his grandparents filled with items from Lou's possessions.

Even though he could tell that Lou wasn't happy with his childhood, Cole honestly didn't think it was too bad. Not when the teen compared it to his own. For most of his childhood, Cole always felt closer to his mother than his father, and he didn't believe it was just because of their werewolf genes. Lou had always pushed his son to be a dancer, even when Cole told him he didn't want to follow in his footsteps. But Lou always refused to listen when Cole tried to follow other interests.

That was one of two things Lou and Lily argued about when it came to their child.

Not that Cole ever knew that. He was always led to believe his mother wanted him to be a dancer, even after she passed away. When Cole was six, he could vividly remember when Lou wanted him to do a legendary dance move known as the Triple Tiger Sashay. Only for Cole to fail and let his group down. Shortly after Lily died, Cole and Lou had a falling out as they coped with the loss differently. Then Cole's father sent him to the Marty Oppenheimer School of Performing Arts in hopes that he would become a professional dancer.

Despite not wanting to displease Lou, Cole was kicked out of the school.

When Lou demanded the teachers give him a reason why they said that his son wasn't good enough to become a professional dancer. They also pointed out that his heart wasn't in it. This caused the wedge between Cole and Lou to grow. From what Cole could see, Lou's parents at least made an effort to care for their son and his future. When Cole and Kai ran away Lou was abroad and from what he can gather, Lou made no effort to track him down.

Then when he found out Cole was gay he kicked him out.

He only took him back because Ray confronted him and Social Services were threatening to take him away.

"Leave that junk behind," Lou told him as the older male started to climb through the window again, this time with more difficulty. Cole couldn't stop himself from gritting his teeth and clenching his fists. How could Lou just dismiss all this as junk?

"Can't we use the front door?" He asked, trying to keep the anger out of his voice.

"Oh, sorry, it's a habit." He chuckled as he climbed back into the room and they headed down to take the front door. Thankfully his parents still kept the spare key in the same place so they could leave without breaking down the door. As the two of them exit the house Cole was about to hop into the passenger seat of the van before the older male stopped him.

"Hold on there, Cole." He smiled as he excitedly spun his car keys around his fingers. "This is your journey of self-discovery, so you should get behind the wheel."

"But, where are we headed next?"

"That's up to you," Lou replied and Cole reluctantly got into the driver's seat of the van with Lou in the passenger's and they drove away from the house.

"I get it, Cole, when I was little Lou Brookstone, I was just going through the motions, doing what everybody else wanted." He sighed, sounding incredibly relieved now that they were out of that house. "But one day, when your mother and I were in social studies she snuck me this." Lou beamed as he held up a poster advertising an audition for a dance and drama group. He then pulled out an old video camera and Cole was honestly surprised that it still worked.

"That audition made me who I am and your mother was lucky to get it on camera! Hold on to your butt, Cole!" He squealed, making Cole slightly uncomfortable, as he pressed play for the video saved in the camera. Cole pulled over and slowed the car almost to a crawl so he could watch the video. Once he was certain that there was no danger of crashing, Cole directed his attention toward the blank video camera screen, still wary. Lou then pushed play on the camera.

Suddenly, there was a brief burst of static before a stage appeared on screen with four teens on it.

Cole couldn't help but cringe at the fashion back then. Music was emanating from the speakers, and the teens were dancing. The one on the far right looked a little bit like the picture of his father he saw. Cole turned to Lou who was sitting beside him on the couch and had a big smile on his face while Cole was cringing.

"Perfect execution! I told him he was a natural!" Lily's voice sounded over the music, apparently wanting to record and narrate the audition for posterity's sake. Both the Brookstone men felt their hearts swell with love and grief at the sound of her voice. "Yes! Beautiful somersault sweetie! I knew those tumbling classes would come in handy!" Lily whispered, zooming in on Lou before zooming back out to capture the whole quartet.

Cole recognized them as the people who performed with Lou in the Royal Blacksmiths.

"And, now, Lou is going to attempt the Triple Tiger Sashay!" Lily announced excitedly. Cole gasped, not knowing how this was going to end. This was his father's favorite dance move. It seemed like Lily was about to say something, but she cut herself off and held her breath as Lou began the Triple Tiger Sashay. Something went wrong. Even though Cole wasn't a professional dancer, he could tell the footing wasn't right. The panic was evident on past Lou's face and the faces of his quartet as he began falling.

His face collided with the stage floor with a sickening crunch.

Cole winced beside Lou, rubbing his nose as if he could feel the impact of that fall. The entire auditorium, including Lily, was frozen as the music continued regardless. Then Lou lifted his head, crimson blood gushing from his nose and mouth. He was missing his two front teeth, and, he started screaming on stage. In front of everyone. Lily quickly stood, and from the way, the camera was jostled about, Cole guessed she started running down the aisle.

Suddenly the camera was brought to eye level again, revealing one last glance at a sobbing and bloody Lou as Lily was muttering about how to turn the camera off.

Then the video ended. For about a minute, there was nothing but silence in the car. Lou was excitedly waiting for Cole to say something while Cole was struggling to process what he just saw.

"Dad... W-Was that the first time you tried to do that move?" He finally asked.

"Yes! I thought it would be perfect for my first audition."

"You failed?!" Cole exclaimed, fury evident in his tone and expressions. When Cole first tried that move and failed, Lou acted like he had committed a crime and would speak to Cole for nearly three days. That didn't sound too bad, but it was very distressing to a six-year-old.

"Once I started dancing, everything changed." He beamed. "Even though we didn't win auditions, I suddenly realized there was so much out there I hadn't even dreamed about and dancing was my way to escape." He sighed as he remembered the feeling dancing gave him. "I wanted to get out and see all of it to become the greatest dancer and chase that feeling; so Lily and I got on this road and we never looked back!" He exclaimed but Cole was listening in shock, still trying to think of what to say or do.

"We never could have known a couple of years later would lead us to you." Lou smiled warmly as he remembered learning he was going to be a father and holding Cole for the first time. "Now it's your turn! Where do you want to go?" He suddenly asked, causing Cole to jump slightly.

"What? I-I don't know." He stuttered, trying to keep his focus on the road instead of Lou.

"Maybe you need to watch it again," Lou suggested and attempted to play the video again.

"Dad! Th-This isn't helping!" Cole snapped as he snatched the camera away and put it in the glove box. Lou frowned and looked at Cole with confusion as Cole started to growl. "I don't need this song! I need...I need what you had!" He growled. "I wish I could've grown up at a house like that."

"No, you don't!" Lou scowled, feeling that Cole was missing the point.

"Maybe your parents weren't so bad." Cole continued. "Maybe they gave you curfews and chaperones and meatloaf f-for a reason!"

"Cole, you don't know what they were like!"

"They can't be worse than you! I went halfway across the country, was locked in a crate, and thrown out of my home because of you!" The teen snarled, unable to stop the words pouring out of his mouth even if he wanted to. Despite his son's distress, Lou attempted to save this situation.

"Cole, I couldn't do anything growing up; everything I liked, wore, wanted was always wrong! Trust me, you're better off than I was." He dismissed in hopes that Cole would see things from his perspective.

"I can't believe I never realized, you're.. you're a shit father!" Cole snarled as his veins darkened and his eyes flickered to yellow and his grip tightened on the steering wheel.

"You grew up with actual freedom!"

"I grew up without my parents there to love me! Whenever I had a problem I had to rely on my friends and their parents!"

"Cole you're a werewolf and I'm human! There are some things I can't help you with!"

"You could have at least made an effort! My problem isn't that I'm a werewolf, my problem is that my Dad's a HUMAN!" He roared and that's when Lou made the worst mistake of the night. He reached over and grabbed Cole's shoulder to get him to look at him and that caused the noirette's temper to break. He whipped around to face Lou with his wild, enraged, yellow eyes as he snarled with razor-sharp teeth and black gums. For a split second, Lou was back in school with Lily's wolf lunging for the kill.

In his rage, Cole almost yanked the steering wheel clean off as he snarled and snapped, and Lou's eyes widened in panic as the car started swerving around on the empty road.

Cole slammed his foot onto the brake and the car screeched to a halt, skidding across the road at the same speed. Lou cried in fear as he closed his eyes tightly and the sound of wheels squealing was all he heard. There was a loud ringing in his ears as he slowly blinked his eyes open. The car was parked awkwardly in the middle of the road and Lou could see some very bad skid marks on the road where Cole hit the breaks. He looked back at Cole and was terrified by what he saw.

Cole was hunched over the wheel, still in his iron grip, as he breathed heavily and Lou could practically hear his son's rapid heartbeat.

But what scared Lou the most was Cole's appearance. Almost all his veins were black as ink and his eyes were so wide that Lou was scared they would fall out of his skull. It took roughly two minutes before Cole calmed down enough to control his inner wolf and his features to fade away. When he made to restart the car, however, Lou reluctantly gripped his wrist, forcing Cole to look at him.

"I... I think you should walk back to Ninjago City." He stammered, fear clear on his face.

"...What?" Cole gasped in shock. He hadn't expected his father to be fine after his outburst but didn't think he would force him to walk back to the city. True it wasn't that far away for a werewolf to travel but it was still something unexpected.

"I-I'm glad you can t-tell me anything and I... know you're having a hard time right now, I-I get it, but I can't be around you right now," Lou explained, shaking and stammering terribly because of his terror. Cole sighed and climbed out of the vehicle without a fuss. As soon as Cole was out of the car, Lou climbed behind the steering wheel and drove off before Cole even got on the side of the road. The noirette didn't react and started walking home.

As he walked along the side of the road a few cars that passed by pulled up or honking their horns, thinking he was a runaway or looking for a ride.

But Cole was not paying attention to anything. Instead, he was looking at the picture of the teenage Lou he had taken earlier. He stared at it for a few seconds as his finger hovered over the delete button. He sighed and clicked...

By the time he arrived home, Lou was regretting leaving Cole on the side of the road, but he couldn't go back for him now. Cole would already be close to the city so it would just be a waste of gas. The surprise trip to his parent's home didn't have the outcome Lou had wanted. He had hoped this would show Cole how he had been lost as a teen but instead, it seemed to drive them apart. The older Brookstone knew he would always regret this day.

Every time he visited his parents or tried to get in contact with them it always ended in disaster.

First, it was his entire childhood, then it was his relationship with Lily, and now it was his relationship with his son. Lou groaned as he felt the headache coming. He made a bee-line for the kitchen and pulled out a half-empty bottle of scotch. He knew that alcohol probably wasn't the best thing right now, but he desperately needed something to calm his nerves. He truly feared that Cole was going to wolf out in the car and tear the older man to shreds.

After he had a shot of scotch, he splashed some water on his face and headed upstairs.

He crept into Cole's room and carefully pulled out a pair of tweezers and a small, plastic air-tight bag. As slowly and as carefully as he could, he picked a few raven strands of Cole's hair out of the teen's brush and placed them in the bag. He sealed the bag and put it away for another day. With that done, the father left the room and headed downstairs to finish that bottle of scotch...