Work Text:
“It’s a team building exercise!”
Jay dropped the dusty board game box in the middle of their circle. The others leaned in to read the title. Cole was the first to speak. “Out of all the board games you could’ve picked, you picked Sorry?”
“I would’ve brought out Jenga, but for some reason, Sensei doesn’t have it,” Jay protested, taking a seat in the empty spot. “Come on! Pick your colors and let’s play. Zane, can you shuffle the cards?”
“Hold on, hold on,” Kai interrupted, waving his hands to pause Jay from continuing to unpack the game. “How is a board game meant to be a team building exercise?”
“Given that board games typically spark competition, I believe what he means is that it is a team bonding exercise,” Zane clarified, picking up the deck of cards. “For another term, an icebreaker.”
As Zane started shuffling the cards, Jay worked on setting up the board, placing the colored pawns on each respective starting area. “You guys have played Sorry before, right?” asked Jay.
“Uh, ’course I have,” Kai supplied.
“I have not,” replied Zane.
“That’s okay, we can teach you,” Cole reassured, swiveling the board around so the green pawns were facing him. Kai shuffled over to sit where the red pawns were, and Jay took his seat behind the blue pawns. Zane stayed with the yellow pawns, and he placed the newly-shuffled deck on the Place Deck Here spot. “Would you like the honors, Jay?”
“You can go first,” he replied, waving a hand in dismissal.
Jay then turned to Zane. “Sorry is a game about revenge,” Jay explained. “Every card gives you a different instruction on what you can do.”
In demonstration, Cole picked up a card from the deck, reading 7. “Darn,” he muttered. “And you have to get a 1 or a 2 to move one of your pawns out of Start.”
“So it’s a waiting game,” Kai commented. Zane matched his frown once he read the instruction on the card Cole placed down. Either move one pawn forward 7 spaces — OR split the forward move between any two pawns.
“Zane, wanna go next?” Cole offered.
Zane took a card from the deck. “‘Move one pawn forward three spaces’,” he read aloud, placing the card onto the discard pile. “So then… that means I am unable to go?”
“Yeah,” Jay confirmed, discarding his new card that read 8. “And the goal of the game is to get all four of your pawns into Home.” He pointed at the circle next to the spot that read Start .
Kai picked up a card. “One means I can move a pawn out, right?”
“Didn’t you say you’ve already played this game before?” asked Jay, though no suspicion laid in his voice.
“Just double checking.” Kai moved a red pawn out of start.
“Ha!” Cole suddenly laughed, slamming a card reading Sorry onto the discard pile. “Sorry, Kai,” he apologized sarcastically, replacing Kai’s red pawn with one of his own green pawns.
“What the heck, Cole?!”
“When you get a Sorry card, you can replace any pawn that’s on the board with one of your own pawns from start,” Jay explained to Zane.
“This defies all logic of a regular board game,” he stated with a frown. “Why are there so many different rules for each card? Are board games not meant to be simple?”
“That’s what makes it fun!” Cole pitched in with a grin. “Chutes and Ladders may be vastly different from The Game Of Life, but that’s what makes each game unique. Every game is different, and so is Sorry.”
Zane hummed in thought. “I see,” he decided, picking up a card from the deck. “‘Move one pawn forward two spaces, then draw again’.”
“Seriously?!” Jay groaned. “It hasn’t even been two rounds and I’m already the last person to be out of Start?”
“That’s your revenge for bringing this game out,” Kai joked.
Zane pulled out a 5 (“When you land at the start of a sliding arrow, you can move your pawn forward to the end of the arrow.”), followed by Jay getting an 11. Kai and Cole both got a 3, with Zane getting a 9.
“Finally!” Jay exclaimed, bringing his first blue pawn out of Start after getting a 1.
Kai laughed when he pulled the second Sorry of the game. “Use it on Cole!” Jay shouted, pointing at Cole.
“Kai, think about this: you don’t use it on me, I’ll uh, buy you something tomorrow!” Cole tried to bargain in response.
“Sorry, Cole,” Kai mimicked with an evil grin, replacing Cole’s pawn with one of his red pawns.
“I see what you meant by ‘revenge’ earlier, Jay,” Zane realized out loud with a small smile.
Cole rolled his eyes fondly when he picked up a 10, followed by Zane with an 8. Jay brought out his second blue pawn when he picked up another 1. “Jay, we’re targeting you next,” Cole warned with no heat.
“Oh, no, I’m so scared!” he mocked sarcastically, before a grin split across his face. “Bring it.”
Zane chuckled at Jay’s enthusiasm. “We are going into ‘the big leagues’ now, yes?” he joked as Kai moved his pawn forward seven spaces.
“Please be a Sorry, please be a Sorry— come on,” Cole groaned as he picked up a 2. “Hey, that’s still decent!”
“Please do not be a Sorry,” countered Kai as Cole drew his second card, sighing in relief when he realized Cole picked up a 4. “Oh thank the First—”
“Don’t thank the First Master, he has to move backwards four spaces!” Jay interrupted immediately. “How are you so lucky?”
Cole moved his green pawn backwards four spaces, landing on the space right before the sliding arrow. “Almost there…”
Zane got a 3, and Jay moved a pawn eight spaces forward. Kai got a 9, followed by Cole, who picked up a 12. He breathed a sigh of relief once he landed his green pawn two spaces in the Safety Zone.
“What other hobbies do you guys like to do?” asked Jay when Zane moved his pawn forward by six spaces. “I can paint, though I’m not very good at it. Cole and I actually first met through the painting club at our elementary school,” he added, picking up a 4.
“You guys knew each other before becoming ninja?” asked Kai.
“Jay often hung out at my place before my family moved closer to Ninjago City,” informed Cole. “I took a lot of singing and dancing classes ’cause of my dad, but I don’t like singing or dancing.”
“Learning how to dance does help with your balance,” Zane pitched in. “I, for one, am interested in learning how to dance. It seems like an entertaining physical activity outside of martial arts.”
“Your balance is already impressive, Zane,” Kai complimented as he picked up a 7. “And so is yours, Cole,” he quickly added. Cole snorted at his afterthought. “I don’t really have many hobbies outside of blacksmithing,” he thought aloud as Cole picked up a 1, moving a second green pawn out of Start. “I know some stuff, like sewing and cooking, but I don’t do it enough outside of necessity to make it a hobby.”
“Sewing is pretty hard,” Jay commented, surprised. “Did you learn how to sew from your parents?”
“I learned from one of the villagers,” he answered truthfully, avoiding Jay’s gaze by watching Zane move his yellow pawn up eleven spaces. “When we were younger, Nya often got her sleeves ripped ’cause she’d get into fights with kids outside of the village, so it wasn’t a rare occasion when her clothes had to be fixed.
“What hobbies do you have, Zane?” he asked, turning the attention away from himself.
“I find cooking to come naturally to me,” Zane admitted with a small smile. “Although I do wonder what other hobbies I could have had prior to my amnesia.”
“It’ll take time, but we’ll figure it out,” Cole reassured, placing a comforting hand on Zane’s shoulder. “I, for one, enjoy art and gardening. My mom also did both.”
“What kind of plants did you grow?” asked Zane curiously.
“Vegetables, but my mom used to grow flowers. I try to keep the lilies alive, but…”
Cole and Jay shared a look, and Cole looked away, letting the conversation fall into an odd silence.
Kai was the one to break the spell. “Well, I’m sure Sensei won’t protest against growing a garden at the Monastery,” he suggested casually. “We could find lilies to grow at a local botanist.”
Cole smiled gratefully. “Thanks, Kai.”
Jay then turned to Zane. “Do you remember anything about your life before being a ninja?” he asked. “I mean, if you’re not comfortable talking about it, that’s totally fine,” he quickly added.
“It’s okay,” reassured Zane, crossing his arms in thought. “My earliest known memory is waking up in a birch forest. I don’t know how I ended up there, nor how I remembered my name, but I do know that I had no visible injury to myself. It could be due to something happening with the nerves in my brain, but I do not understand why I wouldn’t have awoken in a hospital instead of a birch forest.”
At the looks of his friends’ fallen faces, Zane held his hands up to stop them from speaking up. “I do not need pity, my friends. I am content with the way I am currently living, and I would much rather focus on the present.”
Kai smiled at his response. “Glad to hear that, buddy.”
“If you do not mind me asking, Kai, were your parents often busy?” Zane asked curiously.
“They, uh…” Kai trailed off, looking down at his hands. “Yeah, they were… busy. It was mostly just me and Nya until we met Sensei.”
“Well, we’re here to share the load,” Cole reassured. “That’s what friends are for, right?”
“We’ve got each other’s back!” Jay pitched in.
“Yeah,” Kai supplied.
“Of course,” Zane agreed.
“Uh,” Jay spoke up, looking down at the unfinished board, “who was supposed to go next?”
“I believe it is your turn, Jay.”
As Jay was about to pick up a card, the door was swung open, making the four ninja jump in surprise. “Hey, boys!” Nya greeted cheerfully. “Hope you don’t mind the interruption, but dinner’s ready — come and get it while it’s hot!”
“Sweet! Thanks, sis!” Kai was the first one to get up from his spot, followed by the rest of the team.
As Kai and Zane followed Nya into the dining room, Jay glanced back at their unfinished board game of Sorry! , when Cole placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “We’ve got other chances to do team bonding exercises. We should include Nya in the next one,” he added, looking back at where Nya had disappeared from the doorway.
Jay smiled slightly in agreement. “You’re right. We’ve got lots of chances hanging around.”
Cole jerks his head in the direction of the doorway. “Coming with?”
Jay looks back at the unfinished board again, then looks back at Cole. “Yeah.”