Chapter Text
Cole groaned, rubbing his eyes as he got out of bed. He had been up late the night before, studying the night away. Ninjago High was a good place to go, but his tests were hard. As was everything else.
He got ready for school, checking his arm. Two statements from his soulmates were there. One in a shiny silver, reading a quick 'Good Morning!' One other in a deep blue, sating: 'haha gm.' It seemed as if Red hadn't either written a good morning or woken up yet. Probably the latter, as he was almost never awake at this time unless for school reasons (to which he would loudly complain about through his messy handwriting).
Now, it was odd to have more than one soulmate, rare, even to have two. Having three soulmates? What a surprise. But, he was fine with it.
At this point, Cole hadn't met any of his soulmates yet. White (even though his pen was silver, he said he would rather be called White) was constantly busy, only finding quick periods of time to chat over some writing. He knew Red and Blue knew each other well, as they were actually together and Red would sometimes boast about it, but the two of them lived outside of Ninjago City. Not that it made him jealous, not at all.
And you may ask why they call each other by colors, hm? Whenever the soulmate's name was written on the skin, if they hadn't met yet, it would be blocked out, erased by the skin. Cole, or shall we say Black, hated this stupid rule, but that was how soulmates worked. No changing that.
All of a sudden, there was red on his arm, the third soulmate finally up. 'Hah guess what- I got to hang out with-' There was a blank space. Cole chuckled, knowing well that Red would constantly forget the rule. '-last night. it was fun~' A moment. 'crap, forgot that i cant write blues name.' A large scribble appeared. 'what the hell? he just threw a pillow at me. love you too then you butt'
'Wht happened?' Cole had uncapped his pen, writing out a reply to the other. 'Is he mad at you?'
'ofc he is' Red was writing again. 'not wanting to mention we ha-' The word was quickly covered by blue marker. Looks like Blue was now coming in.
After a moment, Red was back. '1 moment' One second. 'gotta pummel my bf, want me to do anything?~' Blue marker covered the statement in seconds.
'Shut up. If you do not, I will color on my face and you wont be as handsome anymore. You will gain a mustache. A blue one.'
'but then youll have markings appear on both Black and Whites faces too.'
'Yeah sure, but its enough to get you to stop.'
'i dont want it on my face.'
'then stop :3'
Cole snorted as he finished brushing his teeth, spitting into the sink.
'what? stop talking about last night? theyre just our soulmates it doesnt matter if they know what happened-'
'shuddup'
'nuh-uh'
It wasn't long before blue marker began to cover Cole's face. He groaned. Great time to do this, Blue. Right before school.
'You guys know I'm already at school, correct?' A neat silver font sprawled across his arm. White was here. 'Blue marker all over my face is not a nice thing to have in the middle of class.'
'IT WAS BLUE'
God, how Cole loved his soulmates.
...
Cole resisted the urge to bang his head on the desk as he listened to Mrs. Garmadon drone on about some war. His 7th hour history class what one of his least favorites. He pulled up his sleeve to see that Red had had gone off to school and Blue was now writing notes about some invention he was working on.
Blue was homeschooled and had time to do what he wanted to do while at home, compared to the others. Both him and White would chide Cole and Red to not write during classes, but it was hard not to scribble on the notes and mess with him. It was the time to pay attention and work for once.
It didn't work. He had zoned out within seconds and only realized he had when their teacher had stopped talking.
Cole looked at her and then over to the girl to his right. "Hey, Tox," He whispered, trying to grab her attention.
She looked up from her arm, which she was drawing on and glared at him. "What do you want?" She hissed, placing the pen down.
"She stopped talking, do you know why?"
"No, Cole, I don't." She made a small sweep with her arm. "Why don't you pay attention?"
He glared at her then looked at the board. Mrs. Garmadon had navigated to a new presentation and was beginning it now. "Alright class, we will be beginning a new project tomorrow." Collective groans could be heard around the room. "But, we will be going over the specifics today. You will be assigned a partner from another class tomorrow and you will begin."
Cole narrowed his eyes, thinking. A student from another class? That was odd. How would it even work in the long run?
"You may be wondering how this will work." She stated, clasping her hands together. "We will be going with Mr. Garmadon's 7th hour class to work on this project. We will meet in his classroom tomorrow. If you do not remember, there will be a note on the door. The project is based on-"
The door opened, a blond kid walking in. "Mom? Do you have my English folder-" The kid turned his head and looked at the assembled class. "Is, is this a bad time? Did I stop something?" Cole had seen the kid around every once in a while, and he had known he was the Garmadon's son, both of their history teachers. He was pretty sure his name was Lloyd.
"Honey, you're fine." Mrs. Garmadon smiled. "Check if it's behind my desk."
The boy smiled sheepishly as he walked across the room and behind the desk. After a few moments he rushed out of the room with his folder in hand, ignoring his mother's goodbye request.
The woman only sighed and smiled, looking back to the class. "Now where was I?" She laced her hands together. "Oh, yes! The project will be about the Serpentine Wars." She smiled, but it only gained more groans from the class. Again? They had already done a study on the war before in the year. "You will pick a certain battle, find as many details as possible, such as location, generals who fought, winners, and anything else you can find on it. I will be giving you more information tomorrow." She picked up some papers. "Remember, we are in Mr. Garmadon's room tomorrow."
The bell rang, signaling the end of class. Cole stood, grabbing his stuff and making a beeline for the door. One more class and this day would be over...
...
Cole collapsed on the couch, tired and ready to go to bed. School was hard enough, and now with another project soon, it was even worse. Maybe his soulmates could get him distracted from this funk.
He rolled up his sleeve, grabbing his pen. Scanning over the words, he noticed that Red was complaining about something, as per usual, while the other two were trying to get him to calm down. Cole scribbled down a quick message. 'What's wrong?'
A silver handwriting appeared below his. 'Red is mad because he will be moving soon, away from Blue. He is not having it that they'll have to be separated.'
'yeah' Blue answered, his message appearing.
'its not fair :c' Red marker wrote, more slowly than usual.
'hey, maybe you'll be moved closer to us' Cole wrote, hoping it could at least help.
'yeah, but still.'
The boy shook his head, getting up. He needed to get up and do something actually, ignore them for now.
...
Cole opened the door to the small restaurant, walking up to the counter. Dareth, one of the owners, stood behind the counter, washing a cup. He smiled and waved as the boy walked in. "Good afternoon, Cole."
"Hi, Dareth." He spoke, sitting down on a stool.
"How are you today?"
"Good," He hummed, resting his head on his arms. "Tired, and a little annoyed, though."
"Oh?"
"We have a whole new project coming up and it's pretty big. Apparently we're teaming up with another class and I have to have an assigned partner. I don't know how well that will end up." He muttered, putting his head in his hands.
"Good luck, bud." Dareth chuckled. "You never know what'll happen." There was a different tone in his voice for a second before he sighed. "Do you want anything else?"
"No, thank you though. I just wanted to ask something."
"What do you need to ask me? I'm open."
How... How's Ronin?" Cole cautiously asked, tapping his fingers together as the other placed the cup of water in front of him.
"He's doing better now. He's still bedridden, but at least he's fully awake and such." Dareth spoke, a slight smile on his face. A slight mark had begun to make its way on his face, almost a moustache. "At least he hasn't gotten ahold of a pen yet. You know what he'd do."
Cole resisted the urge to snort, covering his mouth. "A little late for that..."
The man touched his face. "What did he do this time?"
"He drew you a magnificent moustache."
Cole laughed at the man's predicament as he dashed to clean the pen off. The boy looked at his own arm, seeing that Red was still complaining even though White and Blue had decided to stop consoling him. Though if he didn't wash off his own marker now, his arms would probably be bright red soon, considering that Red was now scribbling on his arms instead of speaking. It was most likely so he could annoy the other three, it would happen sometimes if he was particularly angry about something.
And right now was one of those times.
Dareth came back. "Is everything gone?" Before Cole could give him an answer, he looked around the restaurant. "Looks like business is picking up again. Are you sure you don't want anything else?"
"Uh, if it's no bother, could I get some cake?"
"No bother at all."