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It was a cold night, wind whipping against Cole’s mask as he ran on the top of the buildings of NInjago City. He was not going to be late for this.
”C’mon, Nya,” Cole shouts behind him, disregarding Zane’s repeated warning about using their names in public. Who was going to hear him on top of an office building after dark? “We have to get a good spot!”
Nya was following close behind, “Dude, slow down! We’ll get there soon, you don’t need to run down a building to-“ She was cut off by Cole disappearing down the side of the building. Nya sighs, diving down after him.
Don’t get her wrong, she was excited too. But she could use a normal walk after fighting with that week's big bad again.
Nya hits the ground with a roll, popping back up beside Cole as he pulls his mask off.
”Yes, there’s no one around. I checked,” Cole says before Nya can get a word out.
She nods, taking her mask off.
When the team had first started gaining what Kai called “Celebrity status”, Wu had sat them down to forbid them from sharing their identities. Ever. No going mask off. No mentioning their friends or families. Nothing. To the public, the ninja were the ninja. And to the enemies they faced, they were enigmas. There was to be no information about them out there.
So they went undercover.
And so Cole Brookstone was not a ninja. He was the son of one of the Royal Blacksmiths and a talented artist, but never a ninja.
He kinda liked having that separation. He got to be his own person outside of the Earth Ninja and he’s recently begun to be able to be someone outside of his father.
Cole shakes his head, breaking himself out of his thoughts as he pulls a hoodie out of the bag he had stashed in the alleyway they were hiding in. He passes a band tee to Nya and pulls his favorite sweater over his head.
He smooths a hand over the band’s logo, all intertwining stitches and dramatic lettering. A smile grows on his face, he was going to see his favorite band with one of his best friends and it was going to be great.
Nya nudges his arm, “Hey. Is my makeup still good?”
Cole thinks its smudged since they first got ready. It was hard to tell, considering nya’s makeup was always smudgy. “I think it looks great!”
Nya nods, satisfied. “Yours got a little messy,” she pokes at the eyeliner she drew on him hours ago, “C’mere, I’ll fix it,”
Cole hums in response, leaning down to let her touch up the liner.
The feeling was weird. He didn’t know if he likes the way it pokes and prods at his eye. But it looks cool. So he suffers through it.
“Alright. You’re good,” At the sound of her voice, Cole’s eyes fluttered open. “Looks great!” Nya smiles, “You should wear eyeliner more often,”
“Maybe I will,”
Now fully ready and made up, the two walked side by side to the concert venue. Cole was excited. So excited. He’d been counting down the days until this concert since Nya bought them tickets for his birthday.
“You know,” Nya says, “I think you’re way more excited about this concert than any other we’ve gone to. What’s up with that?”
“They’re my favorite band,” Cole shrugs, “Duh,”
“Hmm, sure, has nothing to do with the drummer, huh?”
Cole can feel his face heating up. Ok. Sure. Maybe he has a slight crush on the drummer in the band. Sue him. The guy has a good voice. And nice hair.
“I don’t understand how you’re so in love with him,” Nya continues, “like, have you ever even seen his face?”
Nya was right. The band's whole gimmick was that no one knew who they were. They all wore masks and contacts and crazy makeup. That might have been one of the reasons Cole liked them so much. It was super familiar to how he and the other ninja had to hide themselves.
“Okay,” Cole relents, putting his hands up, “You have a point. But have you considered his voice is super hot?”
“Oh, shut up,” Nya shoves his arm, "You're lucky we’re here or I’d be leaving you here while I went back to the Bounty.”
Cole laughed as they stepped into line.
***
Oisín should be ready by now. He was procrastinating. They loved the band, he really did, but he’d much rather be watching the man on his phone screen.
“So, what do you have to say to the people of Ninjago City?” A reporter on the screen points the mic at a tall man dressed in all black. The Earth Ninja.
He laughed. “Well, I’d just like to tell you all to stay safe out there, as much as I love my job, I don’t want to have to save you every day,”
Oisín smiles, makeup brush completely forgotten. He loves watching the Earth Ninja’s interviews. Or watching him with the other Ninja. Or watching him single-handedly lift a fallen building.
The door slams open, shocking Oisín out of his daydreams about the Ninja.
“Dude, are you ready yet? We’re at half hour call,” Freddy sighs. Freddy was the bassist of The Monsters. He was fully dressed in his costume, the Skeleton. Allie thought it would be cool if they all had monsters they dressed up as on stage. Oisín agreed, it kept everything else private.
“I’m basically ready!” Oisín grins, flipping his phone screen down.
Freddy notices.
“You’re watching videos of the ninja guy again, aren’t you?”
“…Maybe?”
“God, dude, you’re so in love with him!” he groans, “Have you ever even seen him?”
“I have!” Oisín knows he’s making excuses. He doesn’t care, “He kept a building from crushing me one time,”
“So you’ve never seen his face?”
“Well,” they know Freddy is right, “No, but, like, look at him!” He picks the phone up, showing Freddy the paused video of the Earth Ninja.
“Whatever, man,” Freddy pushes Oisín’s phone down, “Just finish getting ready,”
“You got it,” he unpauses the video, now focusing on the video and their makeup.
“Helping people is important to me, I want to keep all of you safe,”
It’s cringe, he knows, but Oisín can’t help but imagine the Earth Ninja talking just to him. I want to keep you safe.
He could never mention that to the others. He’d never hear the end of it.
***
It was loud inside. Cole and Nya managed to make their way to the front of the audience, barely a foot away from the stage. There was loud music blaring over people shouting to be heard. People were dancing, laughing, singing along.
Cole loved it. It was one of his favorite parts of a concert, the energy in the room vibrating with the excitement of a full room of people waiting to see the same band. It always gave him a sense of community.
And it reminded him of his mom. She loved concerts like this. He wishes he could’ve gone to concerts with her. But seeing them with Nya and their other friends always makes him feel closer to her.
The volume of the music lowers, the loud talking following close behind as everyone turned to the stage.
The lights dim, leaving one spotlight illuminating the drum set.
“Please welcome to the stage…” a loud voice booms over the speakers, the sound reverberating through the venue, “The Monsters!”
Cheers erupted. The crowd presses closer together.
A bass line thumps out of the speakers on the stage, deep and sharp and hitting right in Cole’s chest. A tall, lanky man with makeup resembling a skull painted on his face underneath his bangs and mask. He waves to the audience as the announcer booms out again.
“The Skeleton on bass!”
The keyboard joins in, nearly jazzy in its improvisational tone. It was light and jovial, bringing a grin to Cole’s face. A light comes on to the keyboard, revealing the player dressed in all red and black leather, a fake tail swinging along to the beat. They stick their tongue out at the people in front of them with a grin.
“The Fallen Angel on keys!”
A power chord rings out. Energetic. It draws a loud cheer from the audience, the crowd pulsing along with the beat of the music. The player steps out, a short girl dressed in a pink frilly dress, her soft aesthetic only broken up by the fake blood under her eye mask. She flashes a fang-toothed smile to the audience.
“The Vampire on guitar!”
The lights cut out. Silence. Drums start beating through the venue like a heartbeat. Cole feels himself push slightly forward to the stage, waiting for the lights to turn back on.
“And The Creature on drums!”
With the sound of the announcer, the lights flash back on, accompanied by the full band playing.
And there was the drummer. A wide grin on his face, eyes hidden by a mask covered in scars. Their almost half-unbuttoned shirt revealing more painted scars and fake bolts attached to his neck.
Cole thought he was gorgeous. He couldn’t look away.
He was brought out of his thoughts by The Vampire beginning to talk into her mic.
“Welcome to the show!” Cheers interrupt her, “We have a great set lined up for you, so please enjoy the show!”
Everything is loud. And bright. And perfect. Cole could feel the music deep in his chest, he could feel the crowd around him jumping and dancing along with him, he could hear each instrument blending together in perfect, practiced harmony.
***
Oisín loves performing. Getting on stage with his friends to create a show better than any they’ve ever done each time they performed, listening to the crowd react to their music with cheers and applause, it was his favorite thing.
But tonight, something, someone, keeps catching his eye.
A tall man in the front of the crowd. Dark eyes shining with the lights and the smile stretching across his face. He looks familiar. Familiar and so so pretty.
It was getting close to his favorite song. When Angel would take over the drums for them and Oisín would sing. He loved singing. And he loves this song.
Allie speaks out to the crowd. Oisín looks to Angel. They nod. Oisín stands, making their way to the second mic they had set up.
“And now, I’d like to invite our own Creature to sing along with me for this song!” Cheers. The guy in the front hasn’t taken his eyes off of Oisín. He looks back, smiling directly at the man.
Oisín could've sworn the man’s smile faltered for a moment. The girl next to him lets out a laugh and elbows the man in the side. And just like that, his smile is back.
So Oisín sings. And if he directs the slightly flirty lyrics to the man in the front more than he usually would, that’s between him and their bandmates.
***
“Oh. My. God,” Nya says as her and Cole walk out the door of the venue, “That was so good,”
“I know, dude,” Cole felt like he was on cloud nine. The drummer smiled at him, basically singing a whole love song to him. It was insane.
“So,” Nya interrupts his thoughts, “You and the drummer seem close,” She pokes at Cole with a laugh. He should’ve known this was coming.
He lets out a groan. “He probably does that in the song every night, it’s no big deal,” Logically, no it wasn’t a big deal. But it felt like one to Cole, no matter how stupid that sounded. God, he felt like a schoolgirl with a crush.
Something in Nya’s pocket beeps. The sound of Lloyd’s ringtone on her phone. She pulls it out with a grimace. Lloyd never calls unless it’s an emergency.
“What’s up?” Nya asks, phone on speaker. Cole leans in to listen, if this was a mission or emergency, he needed to know.
“Kai needs your help with a thief. He’s retreated onto a boat and Kai refuses to follow unless you’re there,” Lloyd was straight to the point, sounding almost annoyed at Kai acting like a diva over a boat chase.
Nya groans. “I’m on my way,” She hangs up, rolling her eyes, “Stupid brothers and stupid petty thieves,” she mutters, pulling her gi out of her backpack.
“You want me to come with?” Cole asks.
“Nah, you head home. I’ll be fine,” she shrugs, "This'll take two minutes once I get Kai on the boat,”
Cole nods, watching as she runs away into the darkness with a wave.
And he was alone. The chill of the night stinging his cheeks as he let out a breath. He knows he needs to head home to where the Bounty was parked above a nearby apartment building, but he likes having a moment of quiet before going back to the Bounty and the chaos of his family. He loves them, truely, but he also likes silence.
He pulls out his phone. Nya had sent him pictures. A selfie they took before the show, a shot of the full band, and a picture of The Creature singing. Looking right at Cole.
Cole saves the pictures.
He starts walking home, putting in one of his earbuds to listen to some music. Jay always thought it was funny that his favorite genre was rock. But he thinks everything is funny. And it’s not the only music he likes. He loves jazz too. His parents got him into it. It reminds him of his parents, dancing and singing in their kitchen along to their records while Cole sat and watched.
He had gotten Zane into jazz recently. Zane loves it, says it feels human. It became one of their favorite activities to do together. They’d put on one of Cole’s records and Zane would make them some tea. Then they’d sit and listen.
He puts on his jazz playlist, slipping his phone back into his pocket as he turns down a small side street and-
Thud
He ran into something, someone. A shorter guy with shaggy brown and red hair, a scowl on his face. He looks familiar.
“Can you watch where you’re-“ he stops talking as he finally looks at Cole’s face, “Hi,”
“Hi,” Cole backs up a little, not wanting to invade the other person's space too much, “Sorry about that,”
“Nahhh, you’re good,” he says with a nervous laugh, “I should’ve looked both ways or something,”
Cole laughs. And he realizes why this person looks so familiar. He had pulled this guy out of the path of a falling building a couple weeks back. He really hopes they don’t recognize him.
***
Oisín had just literally ran into the same guy that he had just been flirting with on stage and god he was so much prettier this close. His brown eyes shone with concern, he looked like a cute, sad dog, eyes downturned and full of a deepset sadness that Oisín desperately wanted to understand.
They were staring. And the guy was talking. And he wasn’t listening.
“…hope you have a good night,” the man finishes with a smile, a soft, kind smile. Oisín realizes he was about to walk away.
“Wait!” Oisín snaps out, embarrassment already creeping into his face, “What direction are you heading?”
He looks confused. But he points down the side street, towards a line of apartments. The same ones Oisín and Freddy had been living in.
“You wanna walk together? I’m going that way too,” Oisín tries to force off the stutter that’s trying to slip out. Hoping, praying, the man wouldn’t think he was weird or a creep.
He smiles. “Do I get to know your name first?”
“Oisín,” they stick his hand out to him, a smile growing on his face.
“Cole,” The man, Cole, replies, returning his handshake, “Shall we?”
“We shall!”
Oisín ends the night on his apartment’s doorstep with a cute guy's phone number written on a slip of paper and a grin on their face.