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Jay’s ears were still ringing from the explosion. The sound was infuriating, like someone had smacked two high pitched tuning forks and stuck them next to each ear, resonating loudly and interrupting his thought process.
He managed to escape the blast, finding cover behind a heavy steel door of a tiny closet, preventing the shockwave from liquefying his internal organs and turning him into a human milkshake. He hoped the others fared as well as he did, refusing to think otherwise. His head was pounding and the annoying sound in his ears was so loud he couldn’t hear himself breathe. He assumed his vision was blurry too, if there was any light in the tiny closet for him to focus on. As soon as he saw the blast-zap bomb, he shouted for the others to take cover, then ninja training instincts took over and he quickly maneuvered into the small utility closet.
As his eyes adjusted to the dimness of the room lit up by the crack of light coming under the door, he noticed shelves full of chemicals, assorted cleaning supplies, and something else that made his heart skip a beat and his body stiffen.
He wasn’t alone.
There was someone else in the closet with him. His back was pressed up against the door, and the person was pressed up against his chest. It was hard to discern their voice over the pulsating high pitch sound in his ears, but the voice sounded feminine.
“Nya?” he ventured.
“Yeah,” she responded, “who is that? I can’t hear very well.”
He paused. Would she be repulsed that she was stuck in this confined space with him? Should he say he is someone else? No, he would eventually be found out and probably make her even more irritated at him, if that were even possible. He thought things were getting better between them, especially after defeating the Anacondrai on Chen’s island. It seemed like they were friends again, tolerating each other. Or maybe things seemed fine because they kept themselves too busy to interact with one another. But the past week, she was noticeably cold to him as they helped Master Wu build his dream tea house. He racked his brain trying to recall what he could have done to annoy her so much, but was coming up with nothing.
Nya frowned at the lack of response. Was it the enemy stuck in here with her? Adrenaline surged in her veins, and with practiced precision, her hand moved to the kunai in her belt, ready to strike the possible assailant pressed up against her in the tiny space.
Sensing her agitation, Jay quickly responded.
“It’s Jay,” he finally answered her, then added a lame attempt to cover up his awkward pause, “I think I lost a few decibels of hearing from that blast.”
Nya relaxed her shoulders, “Yeah, me too. Hey thanks for warning the team, If you hadn’t, we would all be splats on the wall. That blast-zap bomb was no joke.”
That was an understatement. The Shiryuu gang that they were infiltrating for intel was not messing around. They clearly had something to hide, considering how dramatic they were in getting rid of evidence, and Jay was starting to realize they were going to have to fight their way out of this mess.
“Don’t thank me until we get out of here alive,” he muttered under his breath.
There was a pause, then some rustling, and Jay felt Nya press up against him more, if that was even possible.
“My communicator is fried,” she informed him, “I think that bomb had an EMP component to it.”
Jay took a moment to check his communicator as well, finding it also damaged.
“I can’t remote call Samurai X over here either.”
“What does that mean?” Jay asked out loud.
“I think it means,” Nya started slowly, “we are stuck in here until someone finds us or we can confirm all the hostiles are gone.”
Jay let out a long, ragged breath that he didn’t know he was holding. Being stuck in this tiny closet with Nya pressed up against him for who knows how long waiting for someone to find them, that sounded like a terrible plan. What were they supposed to do with all that time? Talk about their feelings? Considering how cold she had been to him recently, he was surprised Nya said more words to him in the past minute than she had in the past week.
He started racking his brain for ideas but there were too many distractions, and he was devoting a lot of mental energy on what to do with his hands. Instinctively, he wanted to wrap them around her slim waist, but that was not an option. So, he kept them as his sides, tapping lightly on the door behind him.
He could feel every small movement she made, every breath she took. It was infuriating and oh so distracting. Light. He needed more light so he could see and focus on something else other than the intoxicating scent of her shampoo, the way she brushed up against him with every minute gesture, and the soft hum coming from her throat as she was also calculating a way out. His brain was melting, trapped in a prison of everything about her he desperately tried to forget.
He fanned his arms out to the walls, fumbling for a light switch or an electrical current to tap into and light up the room, finding nothing.
“Shield your eyes,” he managed to say without sounding flustered.
A tingling surge built up in his spine and shivered down the muscles of his arms before being released in a glow of blue lightning in his hands. The makeshift torches illuminated the room, and he finally found what he was looking for. Above them was a light with a pull cord.
“I got it!” Nya said helpfully, standing on her tippy toes to reach up, dragging her body across his. Jay did everything in his power to keep his breath from hitching.
“Hmmm,” she hummed, as she surveyed the materials available to them, “are you thinking what I am thinking?”
Probably not.
Most definitely not.
Jay was thinking a lot of things, and none of them had to do with escaping the confined space, but rather making good use of it, with Nya a lot more eager to be in there with him.
Downcast eyes and rosy cheeks as she meekly said, “I’m sorry for everything, let me make it up to you,” before capturing his mouth with hers.
No.
She pulled herself flush against him, cheeks dusted pink and eyes full of want. “I don’t know if we are going to make it out of here, so let's make the most of our last moments together.”
No.
“Jay?”
A weird sound escaped his mouth, a cross between a stifled moan and a whimper, and he hoped she didn’t notice.
“Uh,” he cleared his throat, scrambling for an answer.
“Are you ok?”
Ha! That was a loaded question. Mentally or physically? Warmth pooled in the pit of his stomach, elated that she cared, but annoyance gnawed at the back of his mind, a harsh reminder of all the unresolved tension between them.
“You are unusually quiet. Maybe you got a concussion from the blast.”
She turned to face him and placed both hands on either side of his head. Beautiful brown eyes searched him for clues, and Jay was fairly certain he heard his brain short-circuit. His body was frozen in place and words were trapped in his throat. She had successfully rendered speechless the Master of Blabber.
Close.
She was much too close.
Jay was thankful for his ninja mask and hood, otherwise she would notice the blush blooming across his face and his shallow breathing. As much as he appreciated the attention, he needed her to back off, like immediately, or things were about to get a lot more awkward in the confined space.
Being stuck in the Friendzone was one thing, but Unrequited Love Land? No thanks. Jay wanted a one-way ticket out of there.
His elemental power was thrumming widely, matching the erratic beating of his heart. Energy surged under this skin, and instead of harnessing it, he let the built-up electricity discharge throughout his whole body.
Nya yelped and jumped back, wide eyed and stunned silent not from the shock, but from the fact that he actually shocked her. Jay’s features mirrored her own, secretly wishing he were the elemental master of earth at the moment, so he could open up a bottomless pit and casually fall in, never to be seen again.
His mouth moved to form an apology, but the words Potassium Nitrate on the wall behind her caught his eye, and he blurted out, “Smoke bombs?”
Nya stared blankly at him for a solid five seconds. He tried his hardest not to wince.
“Oooo, I like your idea better,” she said, finally breaking the excruciating awkward silence between them.
Ignore and deflect. That seemed to be working out for them so far, so why rock the boat? Eventually that strategy would run out of fuel, and they would reach the point of no return, with the only two options left: reconcile the relationship or forever drift apart.
Nya turned to investigate the wall of supplies, intentionally sidestepping away so that she was not touching him. Jay was both relieved and disappointed.
“I see the potassium nitrate. We also need baking soda, sugar, fuses, and maybe some tube-like containers to hold it all-- something that will roll under the crack of the door.”
Jay started searching the shelves for the other ingredients, grateful he had a task at hand to distract him from total humiliation.
“Hmmm, I’m not seeing sugar in here.”
“I’ve got some hard candy in my pocket,” Jay offered. Before Nya could even question why he followed up with an explanation. “We were playing keep away with Lloyd, and-- long story”
Nya rolled her eyes. After living with the Ninja for so long she learned not to question their antics. But working with Jay in the confined space was beyond her comfort zone and beyond her desire for self introspection, so she surprised them both with:
“I’d like to hear it.”
Jay was shocked silent for the nth time in the tiny closet, but recovered quickly. They continued working, falling into a comfortable rhythm, like so many times before when they worked on projects together. Jay prattled on about their epic game of keep away. As long as he focused on anything other than Nya, he would walk out of this situation alive and dignity intact.
“And that’s when I ended up with all the candy. I was going to dump it, but then we got called for this mission, so I stuffed it in my pocket before we left.”
Nya eyed him incredulously.
“What? It was quality candy, can’t let it go to waste.”
He noticed the faintest of smiles on her face, something he hadn’t seen in a long time and it made his heart ache.
“I think these are done.” Nya held up the smoke bombs that they had stuffed into some PVC pipe they had found in the supply closet. “After you ignite them with your power, we roll them under the crack in the door, then wait 5 seconds before leaving. That should give us adequate cover.”
Jay nodded in affirmation then summoned electricity in the palm of his hand to light the fuses. Their time in the confined space was coming to an end, and while he was grateful to leave, part of him was sorry to go, unsure if he would get quality time with Nya like this again.
Smoke billowed from the tubes. In one fluid motion Jay rolled the smoke bombs under the door crack, positioning himself to burst out of the door first and pulled Nya behind him, acting as a meat shield for her. With coiled muscles and bated breaths, they silently waited to spring into action. Nya clutched his forearm, waiting for his signal.
“Go!” he shouted in a hushed whisper.
As they charged out of the room, Jay knew one thing for certain: clearing the room of hostiles and wiping the floor with the Shiryuu gang would be the easy part. Forgetting all about being trapped in the confined space with Nya, that was the real battle.