ninjago one-shots!!

blemishes - bruise

"oh, shut up zane" cole responded, now clearly irritated.

"just as zane said, your hips - or more like your body - don't lie. and I'm starting to feel like I'm right" kai said, and cole could almost hear the grin in his voice.

"now you're quoting shakira? seriously, what's wrong with you, kai?"

"that's funny because I thought you were the one acting weird today. come one, what did you and jay whisper about when we were arguing about my awesome prank with the fridge?"

"it's nothing, really!"

kai sighs, now visibly troubled by coles stubbornness: "I literally saw you yesterday, cole. with jay. in the kitchen."

"and? that just means you admit the fridge thing!!" cole answers.

"he has got a point, you know?" zane says as he considers interrupting his two friends. the three of them almost arrived at their destination and he certainly had no time for their bickering while fighting the notorious mechanic.

"we'll continue this later, cole. don't think I'm gonna forget about it so easily! this conversation is just postponed until we defeat that tin can" kai says, putting an end to their little argument.

the fight did not last long, but in the end, the mechanic escaped, leaving his underlings behind. as the commissioner led the handcuffed henchmen into their police truck, he turns to the three ninjas: "thanks for your help, we wouldn't have been able to catch them without you"

kai smiles: "always here to help, commissioner! now let's get home, shall we?" he says while already going in the direction of their vehicles.

zane and cole quickly followed, saying goodbye to the police officers and making their way home.

"now that we're alone again, let's continue our conversation, cole" kai suddenly got serious, the usual joking tone in his voice disappearing as he started talking over the intercom.

"kai, you don't understand it's literally just a bruise! stop making such a huge fuss about it" cole answered, irritated by the topic.

"It would be best to tell kai the truth, cole. keeping secrets from each other is not very ninja-like" zane adds.

"okay, fine! we both looked into the fridge simultaneously and then hit our heads. who would've known that jay's head is so firm? now you know the truth, stop pestering me!" cole exclaimed, now seriously upset at his friends' demeanour.

"okay, okay! chill, cole. I just wanted to tease you a bit, jesus christ" kai replied.

"well that did not go as well as you anticipated it to, hm?" cole said agitatedly.

the rest of the way home there was an uncomfortable silence, and even after arriving at the monastery, everyone could sense a certain tenseness between the master of fire and the master of earth that went on up until the evening. by now the other ninjas were all confused and worried about the two since cole and kai usually argued rarely, maybe once or twice every four months. on the next day, nya decided to speak to kai:

"uh... kai? is everything alright with you and cole?" she said carefully, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm just bothered that he won't tell me the truth! I know that he and jay did not get their bruises because of the damn fridge" he groans: "I confronted him when we were on the mission trying to make him stop lying about it. I saw what happened and I probably just don't like him keeping secrets from me. I know that such a trifle should not drive a wedge between us but it's just really hard for me knowing that he still rather chooses to lie than telling me the truth."

nyas look softened at kais confession: "I'm sure he has his reasons. why don't you go talk to him? tell him what you just told me, I'm sure he does not want something like this to separate you two too. he will understand."

kai had already thought about that yesterday, but could not muster up the courage to do it. now that he told his sister, he felt a burst of confidence in him. cole was currently in the kitchen, baking a cake and thinking about their argument, too. he wanted to apologize to kai for being so harsh on him and for not being truthful. it was time to tell the team about him and jay. he already spoke to the lightning elemental who had agreed that it was time. just as he was taking the cake out of the oven, kai walked in. their eyes met and cole decided to speak first:

"hello, kai" he greeted, placing the still steaming cake on the kitchen table.

"hi..." he responded. after taking a deep breath, he says: "I... uh... I came here to talk to you, cole"

cole looked up: "really? actually... I wanted to talk to you too" he continues: "I... I wanted to apologize for being so harsh yesterday"

"No, no! I'm sorry. I was pushing you to tell the truth. I shouldn't have done that. It was just... we know each other for quite long now but it still bothers me when someone I have known for a long time tries to keep secrets from me." kai explains, kneading his hands and avoiding eye contact. cole was quite astonished at the sudden revelation:

"oh... well uh, jay and I have been wanting to tell everyone what really happened anyway... but I still have one question: did you, uh, really see what happened?" cole looked at his friend self-consciously.

kai gulped: "no... I did not. I just... I just wanted to know the truth, you know? Now... now I feel horrible about it. I just wanted you to be truthful but then I started to lie... I'm really sorry, cole"

the other then stood before kai and says: "it's alright" cole smiles: "no big deal! I understand that you don't like being lied to. now, let's go outside to the others, hm? we can eat the cake later, it's your favourite"

kai grins: "thank you cole"

when everyone gathered outside, jay and cole quickly stepped forward, nervously smiling and fidgeting around a bit:

"uh... you guys might wonder why jay and I have gathered you all here today" cole starts, looking at everyone in the circle and then at jay.

"yeah, right. so, the thing is that..." he looks at the ground "that cole and I are in a relationship, a romantic relationship" and smiles softly. cole now reaches out for jays hand to hold it and says: "and the bruises resulted in us hitting our heads when... um... when trying to kiss" and laughs "but that was pretty embarrassing so we thought we'd blame the fridge..."

for a moment, no one said anything, but then lloyd started snickering silently.

"hey, that's not funny!" cole said, but quickly started laughing too as the others joined in. his eyes met kais again, who had started smiling and grinning as well.

"all the attraction, the tension!!" he yells as coles eyes widen in realization: "don't you see, baby, this is perfection!!"

- 1,748 words