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Jay almost screamed when he saw. No, forget almost. Jay did scream.
He, Cole, Kai, and Zane had been looking for Morro, who had overtaken Lloyd's body, and they were on a mission to save him and the rest of Ninjago from Morro's plots. On the final test of the tomb the ninja had traveled through, in a race with Morro, the ninja found themselves in what seemed like a glacial cave, surrounded by ice. The glistening ice seemed normal at first, but nothing in this tomb or about these tests were normal. You could see your reflection in the ice, which Kai pointed out.
"I look...older." Kai had breathed taking in his reflection.
"Whoa! I have an awesome eye patch!" Jay had said excitedly. His reflection did in fact, have such an eyepatch, and he appeared older, as Kai had said. But an eyepatch was not all Jay's reflection had. He had someone on his arm. The reflection of the person on Jay's arm slowly materialized into view. Jay saw black hair. His heart jumped. It had to be Nya. That would be the most logical answer. Sure, she had kind of made it obvious that they were broken up and she wanted to focus on herself and her own future, but Jay still had hope. Sure, that hope died a little more day by day since he and Nya had broken up, and more villains appeared to track down the ninja essentially trying to completely ruin their lives and Ninjago as they knew it and it wasn't like Jay had eyes for anyone else recently or anything and-
The person standing next to Jay was not Nya. It was the other person with black hair he knew all too well.
The reflection came into focus, and Jay could make out black hair the same length as Nya's but slightly curled. He made out thick eyebrows, and two muscular arms he was almost ashamed to admit he stared at maybe too much. It was Cole. And the older image of Cole standing next to the older Jay in the reflection was holding onto Jay's arm, smiling over at Jay. And the Jay reflection smiled back. Jay - the present day one - watched as the reflections of himself and Cole leaned in closer to each other and-
That was when Jay screamed, causing the other three ninja to jump and turn their attention to Jay.
"What?!" Cole yelled back in concern.
"Did you find something?" Zane asked.
No way could Jay say anything to the others. This was insane. This was embarrassing. Or it would be, if his best friends all knew he was destined to end up with someone on their team and what if Cole laughed in his face or said it was gross and that he would never be with a loser like Jay who can't take anything seriously or-
"No!" Jay exclaimed, to both respond to Zane and to stop his thoughts for a second. "I just- didn't think I could still look that good older...ha ha..."
Kai rolled his eyes and continued searching the cave. Cole laughed. "What do you mean by still?" the Master of Earth smirked, causing Jay's face to heat up.
"Yeah, really funny, good one..." Jay muttered, and turned back to his reflection. His and Cole's reflection.
Okay, Jay. Let's think about this.
Jay had already come to terms that he had been thinking about Cole too often recently. First, it was the urge to always be around him which Jay interpreted as wanting to be around his best friend. He had lost some time being mad at Cole for something he didn't even do. It was when Jay became ashamed of himself for accusing his best friend of stealing his girlfriend when in reality some machine had just told her she didn't belong with Jay. If Nya stopped liking Jay, that wasn't Cole's fault. It wasn't anyone's fault. The only person at fault was Jay for literally attacking his best friend over something Cole had been oblivious to. And then came the weird thought of how Jay didn't blame Nya for seeing Cole in that way. That was a thought that came out of left field.
Cole's actually really funny, really smart, he's always there for any of us, he cheers me up when I'm down, and he's got super strength so he's a great ninja that fights really well, not to mention he's really hot and-
Jay remembered thinking about all of Cole's good qualities, but he originally shook off that last one. Jay didn't have a problem admitting that his friend was attractive but felt weird thinking about his best friend that way. He tried to focus on the other qualities his mind pointed out but Cole was just about perfect, and so Jay longed to be around him. Thankfully, Cole must have enjoyed Jay's company, because the two had been making up on lost time, hanging out and teaming up whenever they could. But soon the feelings of wanting to be around Cole evolved into much more. Through those hang outs Jay came to the realization that maybe...
Maybe he wanted Cole to be more than a friend?
He was looking at Cole the way he used to look at Nya, and that scared Jay more than anything. Jay had been cold to him because of Nya. That wasn't fair to Cole at all. Thus, Jay could not let anyone know about this little crush. It would ruin his friendship with Cole, and quite possibly change the entire dynamic of the team. Jay had already been selfish fighting with Cole over Nya, and he couldn't do something like that again.
That was why this reflection was so shocking. Was this supposed to be a glimpse of his future, or just a mirror of his innermost desires? Because if it was the future, that would have to mean that Cole felt the same way. At least, eventually. It would also have to mean that the complicated feelings that Jay had for Cole weren't just a silly crush or some sort of gay awakening. It was going to evolve into love.
"Uh, Jay?"
The Master of Lightning jumped as a hand touched his shoulder. "Are you alright, buddy? Kai and Zane have already gone ahead." Jay turned around to face none other than the Master of Earth, his dark brown eyes glinting with concern.
"Oh! Yeah, let's go." Jay smiled sheepishly, turning away from the glacier. He glanced back, but instead of his older self with Cole, he only saw his current self.
"I was starting to get worried," Cole chuckled as he and Jay began to follow Kai and Zane's path. "I've never heard you stay quiet for that long before."
Normally, Jay would have retorted with a snarky remark of his own, but now did not seem like the time. His feelings were getting the best of him and he could not stop thinking about the image of Cole on his arm with his lips on his.
"Hm." Jay grunted as he followed Cole head down, hoping that would be enough of a response.
"Aaaaaand again I say, I have never heard you so quiet." Cole stopped in front of the Lightning Ninja, causing him to almost walk right into him. The Master of Earth crossed his arms over his chest. "Where's the signature Jay Walker comeback? Not even a pun about how I'm dumb as rocks?"
Jay sighed. "Fine, you're dumb as rocks. Happy?"
"Not really. You seem upset."
Great, now he knows me so well he can tell if I'm upset.
Jay put on a fake smile. "What? No! I'm fine! Nothing happened!"
"I didn't ask if anything happened," Cole replied. "So I'm assuming something happened? Is that why you screamed?"
There was no way Cole was going to let this go. Whether it was in this moment or after they could defeat Morro - whenever that would be - Cole would be bugging Jay to fess up about what he saw. And let's face it.
Jay had always been a terrible liar.
"I saw something else in my reflection." Jay said. Cole's eyes widened in curiosity as he uncrossed his arms.
"What'd ya see, Jay?" Cole asked. "Was it bad? I mean, you screamed."
Jay bit his lip. Fuck fuck fuck.
"That's complicated."
Cole furrowed his eyebrows. "I don't follow."
"It's just...complicated okay? It wasn't bad for me but I just can't..." Jay trailed off, glancing back at the glacier. Again, his reflection showed the older version of himself, with future Cole by his side. This time, the two each had a hand clasped in the other’s. They didn't look as happy as they did the first time. "Just tell him." Both ninja in their reflection hissed.
"Jay?" Cole said the Lightning Ninja's name slowly. "Hello? What did you see that's so complicated you can't talk about-"
"We end up together!" Jay shouted, cutting the Earth Ninja off.
Cole just looked more confused. Jay's outbreak caught him off guard. All he could muster was "What?"
"I saw us together, Cole. In my reflection. Me and you. Together." Jay studied Cole's face. He couldn't make out anything past the confusion. No disgust or anger, but no relief or happiness either. "Can you please say something? You wanted to know."
"Together." Cole deadpanned. "Like, together together?"
"Yeah," Jay replied, looking at the ground as he felt his face heat up again. He definitely should not have said anything. How much pain and confusion had he caused Cole already? The silence was getting deafening. And they couldn't be wasting time like this, they had to get out of there before Morro-
"I saw it too." Cole finally said.
"What?" Jay's head snapped up and his gaze met Cole, who took a step closer to the Lightning Ninja.
"I saw it in my reflection too. I saw us."
Jay's heart leapt up into his throat and he felt like he couldn't breathe. Either Cole was playing some sick joke, or that was truly the future. Jay hoped it was the ladder.
"I saw us together, Jay." Cole said, taking the blue ninja's hands in his own. Now Jay definitely could not breathe.
"You-you did? Why didn't you say anything?"
Cole scoffed. "Couldn't I ask you the same thing?"
"Well, I did, didn't I? And why didn't you...like...have a reaction?"
Cole dropped the Master of Lightning's hands as his face fell. "Because I just assumed that it was something I wanted to see."
"That you...wanted to see?" Jay repeated slowly, since he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing.
Cole sighed. "Look Jay, you're my best friend and I never wanted to ruin that. But why do you think I still kept trying to reach out after we lost Zane even though were supposed to be fighting? I was never mad at you, Jay. I was just mad that you were mad at me, and I didn't know why. And I was so...jealous. Not of you, but of Nya. I just...wanted you to myself."
Jay felt the urge to shock himself so that he could wake up from this obvious dream. It wouldn't have been the first time he had a dream about Cole.
"These past few weeks have been the time of my life honestly," Cole smiled shyly. "I was so happy you wanted to spend so much time with me." The Earth Ninja's face fell again. "I probably just said too much, huh?"
Literally shock yourself and wake the fuck up.
It was Cole's turn to ask, "Can you please say something?"
You're awake Jay oh my god just say something do anything don't just stand there-
Jay jolted to his senses, and leaped forward to wrap his arms around the neck of the Master of Earth.
"Oh-"
“You said just enough.”
Cole wrapped his arms around Jay’s torso as the Lightning Ninja buried his face in Cole’s neck.
“So then it’s not just what I wanted to see? It’s…our future?” Cole asked.
Jay pulled away from the embrace, to come face to face with the Master of Earth. “I think it is.”
“And you feel…the same? You don’t just see me as a best friend?” Cole asked.
"I thought I did, but I don't think you're supposed to feel this way about your best friend."
Cole beamed.
Jay smiled back. He was going to have a future with Cole, not as his best friend, but as his lover. And he was looking forward to it. He was really looking forward to it.
"You know Jay," Cole smirked. "I'm not that shocked you would want to be with a guy as handsome as me."
Jay rolled his eyes, but he couldn't bite back his grin. "You're as dumb as rocks."