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Cole can’t help but feel a bit uneasy when he goes back to visit Shintaro, and he’d be ashamed to admit he feels that way.
In his defense, the last time he and the rest of the Ninja were in the palace, they had ended up battling with a King-turned-Skull Sorcerer in the very hall he’s walking by now.
Looking around now, though, he notices that a lot in the palace’s interior has changed since he was last here, and maybe that’s why he feels a bit off.
Cole picks up his pace as he rounds the next corner, a small part of him expecting one of the guardsmen to turn on him. The sound of his feet on the marble floor and the towering ceilings make his heart drop a bit if he looks up, and he tries his best to shake the feeling off.
It's just him visiting the palace today, but only because he’d reached out to Vania personally. Things back home had gotten just boring enough that Cole had started wondering how the new Queen of Shintaro was doing. Any messages that he’s sent her way before have been returned with short and abrupt replies, however, and he wonders just how busy Vania must be to have sent less than a paragraph’s worth of texts to him in the span of a month.
Despite the short replies, Cole will admit that he’s missed talking to his new friend, and he hopes that visiting Vania will earn him more than a few words about the happenings of her new life as Queen.
He’s rounding the corner into another long hallway, following the directions to Vania’s quarters a guard had given him, when he hears a small chirping sound bounce off the walls.
He stops, squinting as he looks down the hallway at a dragon rushing towards him, little claws making loud scrabbling sounds against the marble. The creature has definitely grown in the time that he’s been gone, because it only takes him five seconds to barrel straight down the hall and into Cole’s chest.
Any uneasiness the earth ninja had before is promptly licked away as he scratches under the dragon’s chin. “Missed you too, Chompy,” he chuckles. Not unlike a dog, Chompy nuzzles up to him in kind, shifting a bit so Cole can start scratching at any itchy spots between his scales.
“Is Vania busy right now?” Cole whispers, to which he gets a rather cute head tilt in reply, before the dragon nips playfully at his fingers and Cole resumes his scratching. “Desperate for love today, huh?” he continues, walking down the hall. “You’re already spoiled rotten.”
Chompy trills sleepily.
He soon finds himself in front of a set of double doors, lined with gold and twice as ostentatious as anything else in the palace. He knocks once, then twice when he gets no answer.
The baby dragon wriggles from where he was previously boneless in Cole’s arms, hopping down to push one of the doors ajar and slink inside. Not knowing that the door was previously unlocked, the earth ninja cautiously follows.
He then freezes when he almost steps on a loose piece of paper.
Vania’s new room is very large, with high ceilings and large windows to let in the light, but Cole can barely see anything outside due to the stacks of books and parchment around the room taking up almost every free space.
He’s no stranger to spaces crammed with disorganized literature (he’s pretty sure that nobody could ever reach the levels of clutter that Master Wu reaches on a typical day), but it feels out of place for Vania to have just so much of it in her personal quarters, especially when he’s never taken her as someone even remotely interested in research.
A quick look at the paper he’d almost stepped on shows a summarized report of something or other, complete with graphs and a strange diagram. Cole winces and folds it up carefully, tucking it in his gi.
He’s shaken from his thoughts by another small chirp from Chompy, and he has to look around a bit before he sees the little dragon, having carved a small path through the mess and patiently waiting for Cole to follow him.
“Right, let’s find Vania,” Cole mutters, quickly following after the flash of grey scales.
Somehow, through the mess of books and papers, Chompy leads him to a large canopy bed, where a certain blonde-haired royal is trying her best to meld her face into a pillow. She groans as her dragon hops up next to her and starts trying to peel her away from the covers.
“Nooooo Chompy, I already told you I’m busyyyyy…” Vania whines, her voice muffled as a hand stretches out to try and push little claws away. The dragon in question just redoubles his efforts, biting at her clothing where she just can’t reach.
“Busy napping?” Cole asks.
Almost comically, Vania suddenly sits up, eyes wide as she stares at Cole for half a second before immediately climbing off the bed to squeeze him in a tight hug. “Cole! I didn’t think I’d see you so soon!” She then pulls away a bit to give him a small smile. “Sorry I couldn’t come greet you properly, I was, um…” she trails off.
“…busy?” Cole asks again.
Vania hasn’t changed much in the month since he last saw her, but he notices small changes in her expressions. Her smile seems frayed, not quite reaching her eyes before it morphs into a well-practiced wince.
“Yeah, I’ve had a lot to do, if you couldn’t already tell,” she nods at the mess in the room.
Cole is quick to wave her apology away. “It’s ok to take a break to nap every once in a while. Hopefully Chompy has been letting you sleep, though,” he stares pointedly at the dragon, who chirps happily at being acknowledged.
Vania winces again. “I shouldn’t have been napping, though! I still need to finish that report by tomorrow…” she trails off again, her gaze traveling through the piles of clutter in the room.
Cole shares another look with Chompy. “It can probably wait, Vania. How long has it been since you’ve taken a day off?”
The question seems to give the Queen a bit of pause. She tilts her head in thought and doesn’t meet his eyes when she answers, “It’s been… more than a few weeks. But,” she protests, “there’s been a lot to do!”
Now it’s Cole’s turn to wince. “That doesn’t make it any better for your health. You look like you haven’t slept a wink since I last saw you.”
“And, now that I’m visiting,” he continues, “why don’t you at least take a couple hours off? If I were you I wouldn’t want to see another piece of paper ever again.”
Vania sighs, slumping back onto her bed in defeat. “You’re right. Maybe some fresh air would be nice.”
Cole joins her on the bed, Chompy curling up in his lap as he sits down. “I noticed they’re doing lots of new stuff with the decor around here, have you been directing that too?”
Her eyes light up a bit. “Oh yeah! Doesn’t it look nice? We’re nowhere near finished, but—do you want a little tour?”
“With the best tour guide? I’m in,” Cole smiles.
As soon as they leave the confines of the Queen’s quarters, Vania starts to brighten more. She illustrates the palace’s renovations at length, and Cole is surprised to find out that she’s more of an architecture buff than he had previously thought. He tells her as much, and her expression turns somewhat smug.
“It’s not all paperwork and boring meetings up here,” she points out. “You know I’ll always find a way to get into something new.”
They continue through the rest of the impromptu tour in a similar fashion, Vania regaling him with her newfound knowledge while he asks questions.
They eventually turn a corner into an unlit hallway Cole’s never seen before, and it takes him a moment to realize that it’s a part of the building that hasn’t been renovated yet. In fact, the old marble floors are practically untouched, with a fine layer of dust catching the light as he steps forward.
Vania doesn’t follow him, and he gives her a curious look. “What’s up with this hallway?”
She crosses her arms. “That’s…the way to my father’s old wing. I guess I’m leaving it for last.”
Cole senses a bit of hesitancy there. The decision makes sense to him, but he also can’t imagine what it must be like for her. Him and his father had their ups and downs in the past, and still Lou was nothing like Vangelis. Going back home was still a bit of a sore spot for him, and to Vania it must feel like punching an open wound to walk through these halls.
“No worries,” Cole says, trying to sound reassuring. “We can stop the tour here if you want.”
“No, no it’s ok! I guess I just—”
Chompy chooses that moment to jump down from where he’d been snoozing on Vania’s shoulder and onto the floor, pattering down the dusty hallway with a curious trill.
“—have to go down there sometime, huh,” Vania finishes.
“You sure?” He asks.
She still seems hesitant, but she nods confidently.
They start walking through the hall silently, a stark contrast to the rest of the tour, where Vania had been quick to point out anything she wanted Cole to see. The walk takes them past framed paintings depicting a lineage of kings and queens, left to gather cobwebs for the time being.
The line of portraits is broken up briefly by a large mural, where the stoic faces of a Shintarian royal family unknown to Cole stare back at him blankly. Vania pauses in front of the mural to call out for Chompy, sighing when she gets no response.
“Sorry this isn’t more interesting, I never realized just how dark and stuffy it feels back here,” she finally says, huffing again.
Cole frowns at the Mural. “Who are these people supposed to be, anyways?”
It earns him an unexpected chuckle from the Queen. “Believe it or not, that’s my Dad.” She points to a young boy kneeling in the bottom half of the illustration, who, if Cole squints, looks somewhat like Vangelis, although he has a hard time seeing it.
“Huh.” He says.
“I still don’t really know what I want to do with this hallway,” Vania admits, “additions to the rest of the palace don’t feel as…serious.”
Cole hums, nodding at her to continue.
“It feels like he’d say I’m disrespecting my ancestors by taking this stuff out, but I don’t even go down here anymore because all these people would probably judge every one of my decisions as Queen,” she gestures wildly to the mural, and the surrounding paintings.
“Personally, if I was your ancestor, I’d be very proud of all the decisions you’ve made so far,” Cole protests, “but if I have trouble guessing what my own family members are thinking on a good day, then I can assure you that we both have no idea what your ancestors would think of you now, anyways.”
She chuckles again. “Ok, point made, I’ll try not to dwell on theoretical situations too much,” crossing her arms, she looks back at the mural. “I still don’t know what to do with this hall, though.”
Cole stares for a moment as well, before he gets a sudden thought.
“I mean, why not start here?” He asks. “You could paint over this mural pretty easily.”
Vania blinks in surprise, before grinning. “That’s not a bad idea…” her eyes narrow as she trails off, grin widening. “…hey, you have some art skills, right?”
Cole can see where this is going. “I mean—”
“—oh, right!” Vania interrupts, “Nya told me, last time we texted!”
He winces. “Of course she did.”
Instead of teasing him like Cole expects her to, Vania proposes they paint over the mural together. He finds himself agreeing, and when Chompy joins the two of them again they’ve just pulled out stepladders, brushes, and buckets of paint.
Vania practically pounces on the little dragon when she sees him try to burrow under the old tarp Cole just threw down.
“There you are! You’re not getting away from me this time!” Catching Chompy in a tight hug, she starts petting his scales vigorously, much to his excitement.
Cole laughs at the sight. “Do you want Chompy to help paint too?”
She giggles, before tilting her head in thought. “Wouldn’t it be cooler for us to paint him?” Chompy trills curiously in response, as if sensing that they’re talking about him.
“Now that’s an idea,” Cole replies. “A big painting of the sky, with a dragon flying through?”
Vania nods. “Much less boring and way cooler than stuffy family portraits.”
The mural ends up taking much longer than either of them realized it would, a larger part of the time being whisked away by laughter and lively conversation. Hours of painting—and a few spilled buckets of paint—later, Cole and Vania step back to admire their work.
Fluffy blue clouds frame a golden sunset, and a lively dragon flies through, carefree. Chompy, having dipped his feet in paint at some point, tracks his way closer to the mural, tilting his head back and forth at the painted version of himself before looking back at them.
Vania looks down at the real Chompy, then up at the painted one, brow furrowed. “I’d say that's pretty accurate! Nya was right.”
Cole looks over at her. “Exactly how often do you guys talk about me behind my back?”
“Only sometimes,” she smirks, “and don’t worry, it’s mostly good things.”
He narrows his eyes. “Uhhhhuh. If I send her and the rest of the team a photo of this, hopefully she’ll rave about how I'm the next Picasso,” he gestures at the painting, before pulling out his phone.
Vania laughs. “Everyone in Ninjago will start asking us to paint their walls!”
“Exactly. Forget about being a queen and ninja.” He snaps a photo, then sends it to a group chat with the others.
“Would you be willing to come back whenever you’re free?” Vania asks. “I could use a friend to help remind me to take breaks.”
Cole grins. “Depends, how many more paintings will you want to make?”
She catches on to his joke. “I don’t know, maybe…” she looks down the rest of the hall, “…another 20?”
He laughs with her.