heart2heart | Ninjago Bruise

Chapter 6

"Do you think we're gonna have to take refuge here tonight?" Cole finally spoke up, sitting upright against the wall of an abandoned house.

"Yeah, and we'll have to start a fire and feed on bugs and huddle together like penguins to keep us warm-" Jay rambled from the opposite side of the room.

Cole chuckled, "very funny."

This was the first time since Zane's sacrifice that the team had been properly split again. Except, this time they were hiding from evil, and they had no idea if they were going to run into Chen's goons or snakes. It felt sort of chilling.

If Lloyd hadn't given the order to find refuge and stay hidden then the pair would've already been fighting. It was nice to have a break, and to finally have time to chat, but there was a fine line between a good few minutes and hours - possibly even days - of complete boredom. Small conversations were already starting to get awkward.

For once, Jay was relatively quiet. As much as he wanted to ramble away, spewing complete and utter nonsense, his chest couldn't handle anymore. Talking about the same things over and over with the guy the world thought you hated was becoming boring, but sitting in silence was even worse. Every now and then, one would mention how cold it is, or how bored they are, or how they wished Lloyd would radio soon. Minutes turned into hours, and the little light they had in the abandoned village they'd managed to find was wilting away rather rapidly.

A light yawn escaped Jay's mouth, earning a slight chuckle from the master of earth.

At least it would be nice to have a peaceful night's sleep.

"We really should go out looking for food soon though," Cole mentioned, catching Jay's eyes.

Jay shrugged, "what is there to eat? There were berry bushes back at the camp, but we barely saw anything up here."

"I'm sure we'd find something," Cole spoke quietly.

Food was one of their favourite topics yet no matter how much it was brought up, it always ended in awkward silence. Cole was beginning to get tired of it.

"We should make the most of this time alone."

Jay glanced up at him, his eyebrow slightly raised.

"Y'know, like have proper conversations," Cole continued, "deep ones."

"Deep conversations? When have we ever done that?" Jay smiled.

"We can start now."

"And talk about what?"

"I.. don't know."

"Exactly," Jay grinned, "that's why we don't do that."

Cole smiled too, breaking eye contact for a moment. Perhaps Cole hadn't thought it through thoroughly, but it didn't stop him thinking about it. The two had always been close, but never truly close enough to talk about deep things. They'd only ever briefly discussed more serious topics, so it would be nice to talk about them in depth, right?

But what topics did they have to discuss? Things that didn't involve Chen, the tournament or Nya.

"Besides, I don't really like deep conversations," Jay added, "it's just not that fun."

"Not everything has to be fun."

"I know that, but I prefer to keep things positive, y'know?"

Cole nodded.

Silence struck again. Even when the whole love triangle thing happened, it had never been this awkward between them. It felt odd to get along, but it definitely wasn't the source of why they couldn't talk properly. It was almost as if they were waiting for something to happen, but neither of them knew what. It was like something was missing.

Cole cleared his throat and pushed himself up off the cold, dirty floor. Jay watched as he did so, his mind completely blank. The master of earth stretched and yawned, showing off his muscles slightly. Jay tried his best not to notice them, rolling his eyes and glancing away.