Chapter Text
No more fighting.
No more saving the world.
Sure it’s selfish, but Cole doesn’t want to do this anymore. It’s not as fulfilling as it used to be.
When he was younger, he’d spent hours imagining different fantastical lands where he’d be the hero, serving justice to the worst of criminals.
And sure, once he became a ninja and actually got to do that it was great! It’s a pretty good feeling knowing you’re impacting so many people positively. And that good feeling’s lasted around three years.
Because he’s realised that this job, this whole kicking bad guy ass thing? There’s no way he’d ever be able to settle down. No way he could ever raise a couple kids, get a dog, live in a small cottage spending most of his time watering flowers or something.
He’s never pegged himself as a family man. Sure, children are cool and all, but they’ve never really been a major “woah I totally want one” kind of thing.
And then a few months ago, a little girl ran up to Jay after they’d defeated some evil fucker, and showed him a picture she’d drawn of the ninja.
It was nothing short of adorable; the crude colouring, Jay squatting down to see better through his mask, the little high five they’d exchanged.
Fuck, that had totally thrown Cole through a loop.
He’d known for a while that something was missing in his life. Once he and Jay started dating, the feeling went away for little bit, but it quickly came back.
It makes sense now. He wants a family. Cole wants a mundane domestic bliss, and that’s it.
And it’s selfish, so selfish, because he’s needed to save people, needed to help with crises, but it’s simply not good enough anymore.
Cole used to spend his nights laying awake brainstorming new ways to use his elementals powers, new tactics to use during battle. Now? He shuts his eyes, spooning Jay, and pretends that they’re living his dream life. Adopting some kids (maybe some older ones, they get completely fucked over by the system), moving into the countryside, the most dramatic events that happen usually concerning their children’s school drama.
It was unrealistic, completely, and he knew that, but it provided that touch of escapism Cole needed sometimes.
It’s not enough.
“I’m tired.”
“Aren’t we all? That all-nighter was shit! Do criminals not sleep? Like ever? How do they survive?” Jay’s babbling isn’t as spritely as it usually is, a given due to their exhaustion. “Let’s just go to bed, have some nice sleepy sex, and then wake up tomorrow at noon, preferably later.”
Cole follows Jay into their room, closing the door gently behind them. He watches Jay pull off his clothes, before the lightning ninja turns and tilts his head.
“You are good with sleepy sex, right? It’s chill if not, you just usually get naked before me and-”
“No. I mean yes. Sorry. I’m just a bit out of it.” Cole tugs his t-shirt off.
“That’s okay! We don’t have to. It is quite late after all.”
“No, no,” Cole wraps his arms around Jay, focusing on the warmth the energetic man provides. “Sex is good.”
“Okay. If you’re sure.” Jay kisses Cole’s cheek, and then moves his lips down Cole’s neck, before freezing. “Is something wrong? You feel off.”
“I - uh, no. Everything’s fine.”
Jay shakes his head, threading his fingers through Cole’s hair.
“Baby. You can talk to me if you need to.”
Cole swallows, nodding.
“Tomorrow. I just wanna sleep now.”
“Okay.” Jay gives him a gentle kiss, squeezing his hand. “I’ll sort out our pyjamas.”
Cole smiles at his boyfriend, so soft and caring, before leaving to give his teeth a quick brush.
He ignores the part of him that worries whether or not Jay shares his domestic wish.
“Morning sleepyhead. Or rather, good afternoon.”
Cole’s eyes squint open as Jay opens the curtains. He looks dressed and raring, as if he woke up a while ago. The cold side of the bed certainly confirms that.
“You got up without me?” Cole blinks a couple times, before sitting up to stretch. Jay places a mug on the bedside table, before crawling into his lap.
“Yeah. You said you were tired and you looked kinda down last night, so I let you sleep in. Only waking you up now because Lloyd wants us to train in an hour or something.”
Cole groans.
“I know! It’s like we don’t get even a single day off.” Jay tilts his head, before rubbing their noses together. “It’s okay. We can be sleepy and perform terribly together.”
“Together...”
Oh god, that’s really all Cole wants, isn’t it? Just him and Jay, together. Together on holidays. Together in bed. Together at the altar. Together, maybe not all the time, because that’s a tad clingy, but they always come back together in the end.
“Yup! I made you coffee. Was gonna make you something to eat too, but Zane kicked me out the kitchen because I was ‘using too many ingredients’, like that’s even possible. So we’ll grab you a meal later. And then maybe we’ll kick everyone’s ass during training, but that’s a little unlikely.”
“And then we do the same thing all over again tomorrow.” Cole doesn’t mean it to come out so aggressively, but it does, based on Jay’s face.
“Well, some things will change. And there are always surprises. And, uh, yknow, maybe a mission or something. Our lives are pretty far from boring Cole, what with oh, yknow, elemental powers and beating bad guys up and doing all sorts of cool shit.”
Oh. Right. Of course Jay wouldn’t want to trade this for days of chores and childcare.
Jay’s too much fun for that kind of thing.
“Babe? You look grumpy.”
“I’m not grumpy.” Cole says, grumpily.
Jay cups his cheek. “Of course not. You’re my big, warm and strong teddy bear who never gets grumpy. Ever.”
That cheeky grin on Jay’s face is more than enough to lighten Cole’s mood.
“And you’re my sweet little demon in angel’s clothing.”
“The disrespect!” Jay mocks outrage, and it makes Cole feel even better.
He kisses Jay’s forehead. “Sorry honey. I of course meant my cute, tough and cheerful, um... butterfly?”
“I love it when you try and be romantic.” Jay beams at him, and Cole returns it.
He’ll just think about how much he wants a different life later, Jay’s too much of a fun person to be around.
Another few months. More late nights stopping crime. More training. More fighting. More world saving.
Enough is enough.
“I’m tired.”
Jay yawns as he wriggles a bit, nuzzling into Cole’s side. “Then go to sleep. Otherwise you will keep both of us up and then there will be twice the tired.”
“I meant of being a ninja.”
Jay doesn’t reply for a few seconds.
“What?”
“I don’t wanna do this anymore.”
All traces of sleepiness are gone from Jay as he sits up. “I don’t understand.”
“I dunno. I just don’t want to be a ninja anymore. I’m tired of saving the world. Tired of kicking ass. Just tired.”
“... What will make it better?”
“Honestly Jay? Quitting. I’ve been thinking about this for ages. Months and months. It’s the only solution I can come up with.”
“But you can’t! What about all the people to save? What about the team? This is literally the most fulfilling job I can think of and it isn’t enough for you?”
“No. It’s not. I want more than this Jay.”
“What more even is there?”
Cole sighs. He knew Jay wouldn’t share this opinion with him. And he couldn’t achieve his dream without Jay. It would be incomplete. Jay owns his heart entirely, another relationship just wouldn’t be the same.
“Don’t worry. It’s fine. I might just be tired.”
“No, Cole, I’m serious. If you’re not happy, we should talk about this, because that’s really important.”
The earth ninja bites his lip. “It’s lame though.”
“If you deem it better than kicking ass on a battlefield, it can’t be that lame.”
Cole doesn’t reply. How does he even phrase this?
“Babe. Please. Talk to me.”
“I just wanna settle down. That’s it. Nothing cool, nothing exciting, nothing high action. Just marriage. Couple kids. House with a big garden.”
Jay is quiet.
“I told you. It’s lame.”
“...With me?”
“Huh?”
“You want that with me?”
“Yeah. Only with you. And if you don’t want, uh, that, it’s okay. I’ll just forget about it.”
Jay runs a hand over Cole’s chest.
“You’ve thought about this a lot?”
“Mhm.”
Silence.
“Could you tell me about it? Please? Like... what’s our house like?”
“It would be in the countryside. And I’d grow my own vegetables and fruit and stuff, and you’d tell me that I’d make a great farmer, and we take turns cooking dinner every night, and our house is like... messy, but in a nice way? Few of our kids’ drawings on the fridge. Pictures on the walls. Stuff like that.”
“How many kids?”
“Uh, three maybe? Or four. Something like that. Older adoptees. Maybe we’ll adopt one baby, just because babies are cute, but yknow, it would nice for the older children to get chosen.”
Jay hums. “Do we have a dog?”
“Sure! If you want.”
“What would we be doing? Like... jobs.”
“You’d do whatever you want. And I would, um... work for a bakery or something.”
“What if I like being a ninja?”
“Then you keep being one.”
Jay nods slowly. “Are we gonna get married?”
“I’d like to.”
Jay’s lying back down again.
“Can you keep describing it to me?”
So Cole does, way into the night, Jay hanging on to every word.
Jay doesn’t mention it in the morning, so neither does Cole.
They go weeks without talking about it, like it never happened, so Cole assumes that Jay isn’t into his dream world. So he tries to stop thinking about it.
There are more important things to focus on anyway, like crime rates, and fighting stances and... blah blah blah.
This is the life Jay wants. So it’s the life Cole will live too.
“Well, I mean, Cole and I might be moving out or something soonish, so yknow, that’s not really an us problem.”
The discussion about the dojo renovation grinds to an immediate halt.
“You what?” Kai is looking between them rapidly.
“Uh, yeah, we what?”
Jay raises a brow at Cole. “It was your idea silly. We talked about it!”
“Wait - you actually - I thought you didn’t like it?”
“Oh my god, I literally told you I was gonna start looking at houses.”
“You were serious about that?”
“Yes?? Were you not?”
“No, no, I was. We - we’re gonna get a house together?”
“Yeah! I literally made you talk about it for hours.”
“Hold on. You’re gonna move out?” Nya asked.
“Yeah. And we’re gonna get married and have kids and-”
“That’s a little unrealistic. You’re ninja. It’s not like any of us can just settle down. We have a pretty dangerous job.” Lloyd folds his arms.
Cole shifts. “I, um, wanna quit.”
Kai drops his mug. “Huh?”
“I don’t wanna do this anymore. I’m tired of it. And-”
“Both of you? That’s quite detrimental to the team and-”
“No. Just me. Jay’s still gonna be a ninja.”
“Do you even have enough money to-”
“Yeah. I added things up, and there’s enough for a deposit and some extra.” Jay doesn’t let Nya finish.
Lloyd shakes his head slowly. “This is insane.” He looks at Cole. “You’re really quitting?”
“If it’s alright.”
“Of course.” He stands, embracing him. “This is pretty cool. I’m happy for you guys.”
They move out four months later, a small cottage that’s a 20 minute drive from the dojo. It’s cosy, and homey, and better than anything Cole could’ve imagined.
It’s a step towards the domestic lifestyle he’s craved for so long.
He’s happy, Jay’s happy, and that’s so much more than he could ever ask for.