Escapade | Ninjago AU

Chapter 39

Jay's POV

My heart is hammering in my chest so hard that I can practically hear my heartbeat. Nya and I walk side by side, our hands occasionally brushing each other's. With each bit of contact, my charged skin releases energy, letting out a slight zap.

She either doesn't notice or doesn't care because she mentions nothing as we walk in silence. It's not a pleasant silence either. It's the awkward, tense one that makes your own breathing feel loud and the air around you feel stuffy. However, we maintain it until we reach a little clearing with two foldable chairs in it beside a stream.

"I figured we'd need a place to sit," she explains, immediately plopping down in one of them.

I follow her lead and sit down. "Nya, I..."

She holds up her hand as she lets out a sigh. "Let me talk first, please." I shut my mouth and purse my lips together. "Thank you."

She takes a deep breath in, massaging her temples with her index and middle fingers before she continues, "You know how I am. I'm stubborn and hate to admit when I do anything wrong, but I acknowledge that I fucked up. You literally told me the day before how you felt about me being physical with Shade, and I completely ignored you. I hurt you, and there's no way to sugar coat it. You didn't deserve that," she pauses, breaking our eye contact momentarily to zone off into the distance. "You were completely justified in acting how you did last night. You were so mature in how you handled everything, and I want you to know how much I appreciate that. I acted without taking you into consideration, and that was wrong. This whole situation is unconventional and weird, but that doesn't mean that I can play with everyone's feelings. The thought of you feeling like I don't care about you kept me up all night. I'm so sorry, Jay. "

"Oh Nya," I lean across the small divide between our chairs, tightly wrapping my arms around her. She does the same, and the pressure soothes me. I lean forward and rest my head on her shoulder. "That's all I wanted to hear. I forgive you, and I'm sor..."

"No you're not," she pulls me even closer and leans her head on top of mine. "You don't have anything to apologize for."

We linger there for who knows how long. I savor our closeness and how precisely I can feel all of the currents in her body. The electricity that thrums beneath her skin merges with mine, filling me with a lightness that only she brings out. It's as if I'm meditating.

She picks her head up from on top of mine with a sigh, "I need to talk to you about what happened this morning with Shade."

I pull back from her, the ease replaced by a lump in my chest. I recline back in my chair, my eyes focusing on how the water parts when it reaches rocks that jut out of the water.

"I already heard a lot of it. He proposed to you. Cole interrupted. Shade got upset and started to ask questions. You explained how I'm back, and he got upset that you even wanted to be around me before you explained the situation to him. He then asked you what we did together, and when you answered, he lost his cool. He threw the ring into the lake and cussed everyone there (and me) out before storming off," I say everything that I remember.

"I wasn't going to say yes to him," the strain in her voice commands my attention, pulling my eyes off of the water and onto her creased face. "I need you to believe that I was going to say no and explain the whole situation to him if Cole hadn't interrupted."

"I believe you," I give her a small, closed mouth smile. "It doesn't mean I enjoy another guy proposing to you, though."

"Of course not," she agrees, and the weight in my chest forces me to look away and back at the stream. "What was it that you said a long time ago, that the thought of me with anyone else 'makes [you] want to, ugh, punch something then sulk in a corner'?"