SOULBOUND | Ninjago Jaya AU [Complete]

Comfort Plush

"Ya think?" I say, though chuckles still manage to escape my lips.

The door slowly creaks open. Kai enters the room with a sleeping Lloyd in his arms. For a moment, his smile is genuine.

My laughter immediately quiets down. Even Jay is silent behind me, even though he technically can't be heard.

"You're becoming a morning person again. You're scaring me," Kai tells me and Lloyd groans.

I narrow my eyes. I don't know how he can be so cheerful in the mornings. I've been waking up and falling asleep with the same empty feeling every day since what happened. Kai just... got over it. I don't understand it. It can't help but irritate me at times.

"Are you going to the landfill again?" Kai continues before placing Lloyd under my covers. Of course, he didn't resist to stretch all across my bed.

"It's a junkyard, not a landfill," I correct him. "And yes, of course I'm going there."

"Just be back before noon. Don't think you've escaped that noodle lunch."

I sigh internally, but at the same time, my stomach grumbles. I guess noodles don't sound too bad.

But I've got a bigger target to focus on.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"This is so cool!" Jay says as he races beside me, trying to catch up with my motorcycle through the wind.

I smile at his antics as he twirls around me in the air, knowing he couldn't get too far away from me.

I remember my parents' faces when Ed n' Edna gifted me a motorcycle last year; it was priceless. I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time, but my excitement was through the roof.

I did what any normal person would do and spent a month painting it black and printing some designs on it (my favourite being the red phoenix on the side). There was no way my parents would let me drive it in the city, so... here I am. I've only ever gotten to drive it in the long, straight, empty road that is the Sea of Sands.

It's colder than usual, something I failed to realise before. Imagining Edna's warm soup and Ed's fuzzy blankets is all I can think about right now.

I've accepted that I can't keep Jay away from my life. Besides, Edna won't stop calling me if I don't visit as promised. It's a weekly occurrence, but one I don't mind at all; I like working on vehicles, and I hear stories about my parents every week. It's a win-win.

I pull up at "Ed n' Edna's Scrap and Junk". Jay chuckles at the lack of an 'S' in the sign, but I can't help but groan. Everyone does that.

"This place is cleaner than Stiix when I was alive," Jay jokes behind me, going through all the piles of scrap metal on the ground. Alongside them, I can't help but notice a few piles of actual trash... Well, more like secondhand items. Old toys, clothes, furniture...

"I don't think any of these shirts will fit ya," I hear a male voice say behind me. I turn around immediately, grinning at the old man in front of me. As per usual, he's wearing his grease-covered overalls, squinting at me due to the glasses he refuses to wear.

He hugs me and pats my back. "You're here early today," Ed tells me. "I don't think Edna even has the food ready yet."

I wave my hand dismissively. "I won't stay for long. I promised Kai to go get noodles."

"Kai... He hasn't visited for a while, huh?" he tells me as we walk towards the humble trailer they call home.

Jay is trying to tell me something, but I don't listen. I don't want to start talking to thin air out of nowhere, after all.