Archive of Our Own

Jay’s first thought upon seeing the barista was, “Wow, Kai got a glow-up.”

Then his sleep-deprived brain caught up with reality, and he realised it wasn’t Kai, his friend and the guy usually taking his order. Such were the consequences of pulling two all-nighters trying to finish his lab report while simultaneously solving a case — he apparently couldn’t tell his friend from the cute barista who was giving him an odd look.

Ah, Jay was supposed to be ordering right now, wasn’t he?

“One medium black coffee,” Jay said. His voice was embarrassingly scratchy. It cracked on the word coffee. The barista had an eyebrow piercing, which Jay rather liked. It complimented his eyes, which were a lovely shade of pale grey like the moon, were those natural or contacts—

“Anything else?” the barista asked. Cole, his nametag read.

Your number and possibly a date, Jay thought. He thankfully did not say that out loud, and instead shook his head.

Cole nodded, and turned around to grab a cup. “Name?”

“Jay.” Jay put on what he hoped was a charming smile. He suspected it came out as more of a grimace.

Cole smiled back anyway. His smile was crooked and Jay would pay actual money to see more of it. Hey, that was something they should sell here — Cole’s smiles for five dollars a minute or something. They’d make bank with this, Jay should have been a business major. He’d be great at it.

Jay got his drink and went to add some milk, heading over to the bar at the side of the counter. That was when he noticed the little heart next to his name, lovingly drawn on with marker.

Jay booked it out of the coffee shop before he started hyperventilating.

Garmadon attacked the same day that Cole met the cute boy with the eyebrow slit and the blue eyes. Because his life was a miserable tar pit.

He hadn’t stopped thinking about him for the rest of his shift — his name was Jay, and he gave the most adorable smile and got a medium black coffee. Cole had the order seared into his mind, so that if he ever came back he knew what to make.

That was, if Cole survived the next hour or so and didn’t get crushed by a car. Green and Fire were going after Garmadon’s mech, fighting through his mutant sharks and crabs. Water and Ice were on the ground roads evacuating civilians.

And Cole was stuck with Lightning, who was quite possibly the most annoying person in Ninjago City. Or all of Ninjago. They were standing in the middle of the battlefield like two idiots.

“We need to get over there and help,” Lightning hissed. “Distract the army so that Green can get Garmadon.”

“We’re should be evacuating civilians,” Cole hissed back.

“Says who? You’re not exactly the leader in this situation—“

“Water and Ice can’t evacuate everyone! There’s still people trapped on the highway, they’re taking care of the ground—“

“The sooner we get Garmadon out, the less damage there is!”

Cole bit back a few unpleasant words. It wasn’t Lightning’s fault he was awful to be around. 

“I—“

“Guys,” Water’s voice crackled over the comms, “we need you to evacuate the highway. There’s a tour bus of people trapped by the rubble.”

Lightning sputtered, scowled, and turned to Cole.

“Let’s go, Earth,” he said, already taking off.

Stupid lightning powers and superspeed. What Cole wouldn’t give to be able to run that fast…

Their run to the highway was, unfortunately, filled with conversation, Cole grimaced. At least on Lightning’s end — mouth of lightning, indeed.

“What kind of person tours Ninjago City of all places? I mean, we get a supervillain attack every other day. I’d go to Osaka, personally. Much nicer. Hell, even Hong Kong is better than this city’s bullshit—“

“They could’ve been passing through,” Cole said as they approached the bus.

“We’re on an island! There is nothing to pass through to get to a better destination!”

“Less talking, more saving civilians.”

They worked in silence after that — Cole did most of the heavy lifting, moving rubble out of the way to clear the doors. Lightning zipped around fighting off Garmadon’s various goons. One of them went flying off the highway after a good hit to the head with Lightning’s nunchucks, which, ouch. Cole had never been a fan of heights, and falling from them was even worse.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Cole said as he guided the people off the bus. “There’s a Garmadon attack shelter this way, just follow me—“

He was cut off by a giant mutant crab flying into the road in front of him, shell still crackling with electricity.

“Who likes seafood boil?” Lightning cackled, sending another crab off the side of the road.

“Lightning!” Cole scowled. They were supposed to be rescuing, not putting people in more danger.

“What, you don’t like my jokes? Hey, here’s another one: what did the stick-in-the-mud earth elemental say to the—“

“Rescue mission!”

“Ah, crap. Right. This way, people! Follow us!”

They got the civilians off the highway. Punched a few bad guys in the face. Lightning made more bad jokes, which Cole responded to with sarcasm. All in all, not a terrible battle. At least Cole could hope to see Jay again tomorrow, now that he’d survived Garmadon’s attack and Lightning’s truly terrible puns.

Jay collapsed on his bed immediately after getting back from the Garmadon attack. It was just a shitty mattress that he’d gotten from a thrift store, but it was nice and soft and better than eating tarmac on the highway.

Kai was lying face down on the carpet, completely wiped out after attacking Garmadon’s mech. He’d gotten a nasty bruise on his face for the trouble. Who knew sharks could throw a mean right hook?

They weren’t supposed to know each others’ identities, technically. Wu had been very clear about that: none of the elemental masters were to know each others’ civilian names or lives, for their own safety. If a villain found one of their identities, they’d be able to find all of them.

But Kai had come home with a black eye last year that matched Fire’s perfectly, and Jay had had a broken arm at the same time that Lightning was out of commission. So it hadn’t been hard to put the pieces together and come clean to each other after that.

Whatever. At least it meant that Jay could complain about both hero and school work with Kai. Computer engineering was a terrible major, and Jay regretted all life decisions that had led him to taking it.

No amount of coffee could keep him awake long enough to finish that damn lab report. Jay had gotten coffee earlier, and then he’d met the cute barista named Cole and he had drawn a heart on his cup, and now Jay couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Did that mean that he should go back? Ask him out on a date, maybe.

Or maybe Cole was just nice and drew hearts on everyone’s cups. Jay groaned.

“What’s got you looking like someone kicked your dog?” Kai asked from the other side of the room. He wasn’t lying down anymore, instead sitting up and flipping through one of Jay’s textbooks.

“You mean other than the Garmadon attack today?” Jay said dryly.

Kai wheezed, slamming the textbook shut and rolling his eyes at Jay. “A Garmadon attack doesn’t usually have you looking like a Victorian era woman waiting for her beloved to return from war.”

Jay fiddled with the Lightning Pendant on his shirt. It was a small, innocuous thing. Disguised as a brooch, it didn’t look like a magical gemstone that gave Jay his powers. It was a comfort, to know that it had chosen him.

“I met a guy at the coffee shop today,” Jay admitted.

Kai’s eyes brightened. “Oh?”

“His name was Cole, and he was so cute. He had this eyebrow piercing, and his hair looked so soft, and—“

“Cole?” Kai asked, sitting straight up. “As in Cole Hence-Brookstone?”

“I don’t know,” Jay said, narrowing his eyes. “I didn’t exactly get a last name out of him. Do you know him from work?”

“No,” Kai said immediately. Bullshit, considering that he’d just come up with a full name. 

“Kai,” Jay said, raising an eyebrow.

“I don’t! We worked together on like, one group project.”

Considering that Kai had recognised his name instantly, Jay sincerely doubted that they’d just worked together on an assignment.

Jay glared. If it turned out that Cole the cute barista was also Kai’s ex-boyfriend or something, he was gonna be so disappointed. He couldn’t have a crush on his friend’s ex-boyfriend, that was a terrible thing to do—

“We work together at the shop, dumbass,” Kai said.

“Is that all?” Jay pried, because there was more to the story than just coworkers, Jay knew it, there was no way Kai would be squirming like this if it was just that.

“We may have drunkenly made out a few times,” Kai admitted. “On a dare. Lloyd’s an asshole.”

Ah yes, Lloyd. Kai’s adoptive little brother and a massive pain in the ass. Ruining Jay’s love life even before he met the guy.

Jay groaned and sincerely considered just going outside, walking into the forest, and never coming back.

Kai patted his shoulder. “You probably have a shot with him,” he said soothingly.

“Probably? I just stood there and stared at him for like, twenty seconds. He probably thinks I’m a weirdo,” Jay groaned.

“Okay, maybe,” Kai amended.

“It’s just — he has such beautiful eyes, Kai. They’re like looking at the full moon, I didn’t even know anyone could have such incredible eyes…”

“Yeah, I vividly remember looking into his eyes as we made out in Harumi’s closet,” Kai said dryly.

“You’re supposed to be consoling me.”

“I am! I told you you have a shot, didn’t I?”

“You’re an asshole,” Jay decided. And then, “Any chance you can tell me when his next shift at the coffee shop is?”

Jay showed up to the shop again the next day. Cole fought down the sense of giddy joy that overcame him when he saw Jay walk in — he was a fully trained superpowered vigilante, who’d stared down literal demons without flinching. A cute boy wasn’t going to do him in. Totally. Jay’s smile as he ordered a medium black coffee was totally not the best thing he’d ever seen. His freckles and that eyebrow slit were totally not incredibly, stupidly, attractive.

“Would you like anything else?” Cole asked, just for the excuse of talking to Jay a little longer. He seemed like the type of guy to enjoy more savoury than sweet. Maybe he’d like a sandwich, or a bagel? They didn’t sell bagels at the shop, but Cole would run out and buy some if Jay asked, because he was a sucker for pretty boys with mysterious eyebrow slits.

“A chicken wrap would be great,” Jay grinned.

Cole gave him a little salute, smiling like an idiot as he wrapped up his order. On a whim, he drew a little doodle of Jay next to his name. And a heart, for good measure.

“That’s cute,” Kai smirked, walking past with a steaming cup.

Cole rolled his eyes. Kai somehow managed to look even smugger, and Cole resisted the urge to flip him off. Kai didn’t get to make fun of his romantic pursuits, not after the Skylor fiasco in their freshman year. Kai hadn’t had eyebrows for a month after that.

“Order for Jay,” Cole called out, as if Jay wasn’t one of the few people in the shop, as if he didn’t know exactly who he was and what he’d ordered. He had to keep a semblance of control somehow.

“Thanks,” Jay said, grabbing the bag. His eyes widened when he noticed the drawing on the cup. He thanked Cole again and walked out the door. Cole watched him go and tried not to stare too much.

“You’re still on the clock, Sleeping Beauty,” Kai snarked, ruining Cole’s not-so-subtle pining. “Your prince’ll be back later. Now, some idiot just ordered a latte with like six pumps of syrup. Get mixing.”

Jay had never found someone to be quite as infuriating as Earth. He liked to think that he was an easygoing guy, but Earth really did test his limits. Maybe it was that their elements were opposite, like magnets repelling, but he was just plain annoying. Especially when they were on a stakeout and it had been hours, and the criminal wasn’t showing up, and he still insisted on staying. Like Jay said, annoying. And bossy.

Case in point, the time that they ended up trapped in a haunted temple chasing after an ancient scroll, and Jay had accidentally touched a magical painting that caused the room to flood.

“Why would you touch the scary picture, Lightning?” Earth groaned. The room was rapidly flooding, water already up to their ankles.

“I didn’t know it would do that, Earth!” Jay snapped back. Really, who would guess such a thing? Earth certainly wouldn’t have, so he didn’t get to sound so high and mighty about it.

Jay rolled his eyes at the memory. Earth had been at this hero thing longer than he had, but not that long. Jay had been doing this since high school, and Earth only showed up on the scene half a year before him. It really wasn’t that much of a gap.

“This is pointless,” Jay complained. “The Quiet One’s smarter than this, they’re not going to show up at a warehouse in the middle of the night.”

Earth glared. His silhouette glowed a faint orange, same as Jay’s glowed blue. It was a side effect of their powers, one that was extremely annoying in situations such as this. Any villain worth their salt would be able to spot them.

“Just a bit longer,” Earth said.

“We’ve been out here for three hours. I’m tired of sitting here while Fire and Water get to punch criminals.”

“Ten more minutes,” Earth insisted. “Then we can go, I swear.”

“Ugh, fine.”

Jay started whistling the tune to The Fold’s Weekend Whip, because if he was stuck here he might as well get in his daily dose of annoying the shit out of Earth.

“Would you shut up?” Earth hissed, glaring at Jay. He was wearing a stupid amount of eyeliner that made him look like a panda. Cole also wore a lot of eyeliner, but it looked good on him. Earth just looked like he pulled one too many all-nighters.

“Aww, not a fan of my lovely voice?” Jay teased.

“You’re whistling, not singing,” Earth said. “And I’m not a fan of everything about you. Your voice just happens to be particularly annoying.”

“Like your face? Because you have a very punchable face. Though, I guess that Aspheera already did for me the other day—“

“Shut up.” Earth’s face was flushed, and he was glaring even harder now. 

“I think I’m incapable of shutting up,” Jay grinned. “Like how you’re incapable of not being a prissy asshole.”

Earth muttered something under his breath, likely an insult to Jay’s family line. Or a prayer to the First Master for death.

Jay started the whistling again, if only because Earth’s expression was hilarious.

The minutes passed. Once that was done, Jay stood up, stretched his legs, cracked his knuckles, and looked pointedly at Earth.

“I’m going to get snacks from the corner store. Because it’s been ten minutes, and the Quiet One isn’t here.”

Earth grumbled, rolling his eyes as he stood up. “You’ll give whatever poor cashier is working a heart attack.”

“Yeah, well, I want a slushie. And a rice ball, and maybe some peace and quiet from you.”

“I’m not the one here who’s ruined several stakeouts by being a motormouth.”

“One of those times was not my fault,” Jay said indignantly. “That was Green’s fault for freaking out at the spider.”

“Dumbass.” Earth flipped him off as he jumped off the building, doing a double flip on the way down. Drama queen. Jay would bet good money and his best sword that the guy was a theatre major.

Jay did a triple flip, just to rub the point in.

Jay entered the coffee shop with a mission: to see Cole and maybe get his number, because Kai and Lloyd were adamant that Cole liked him back. They’d been halfway to dragging Nya into it, too, but that was the point where Jay put his foot down, because he could handle rejection but not his idiot friends dragging his friend-and-also-ex-girlfriend into the mess that was his love life.

(Lloyd didn’t even know Cole. He’d heard that Jay had a crush and immediately jumped on the train of bullying him into asking him out.)

So there he was, standing awkwardly at the counter as he counted out change to give to Cole. Lloyd was in a very obvious fake moustache and sunglasses in the corner. Jay wanted to punch them off his face.

“So,” Jay smiled, praying his hands weren’t sweaty as he handed the money to Cole. “I was wondering. If you’d like to — you can say no, by the way, that’s totally fine — go out? Like, for coffee or something, or maybe not coffee because you work at a coffee shop and that might be weird if you go out to one of your competitors. Smoothies, maybe? It’s getting kinda hot lately, smoothies is probably good. Or—“

“I’d love to. Get coffee, I mean.” Cole absolutely lit up — and his smile was the most beautiful thing Jay had ever seen. His teeth were so nice. Was that a weird thing to think?

Jay elected not to voice that thought, and instead said, “Alright! So like — tomorrow, maybe? If you’re free, I can—“

Someone coughed behind him, and Jay laughed nervously. “We can figure out the details later. I like your eyebrow piercing. Okay, thanks bye!”

He bolted out the door as soon as he got his drink, only stopping to shoot Lloyd a dirty look. Lloyd was practically doubled over on the floor laughing, the little brat.

Cole had written his number on the coffee cup, right next to a little heart. Jay put it into his contacts immediately, hands shaking as he typed in Cole’s name. He had a date, maybe tomorrow. Crap, what was he going to wear?

Jay fired off a dozen text messages about fashion choices to Kai as he made his way back to his apartment.

Cole hummed as he got off his shift and walked home. Jay had asked him out, and his heart was beating fast against his ribs as he turned down the street. Fuck, Cole had never really been on a date before. He didn’t really have experience with romance in general, what if Jay thought he was weird for that?

(The time with Kai and the making out in the closet didn’t count. They were friends and coworkers, and occasionally bitched about their professors together, but they weren’t exes.)

Cole unlocked the door and stepped into his and Zane’s crappy apartment. The key threatened to snap and break the lock as he pulled it out.

“Hello, Cole!” Zane said from the kitchen. He was baking something that smelled of cinnamon and vanilla. Snickerdoodles? He’d been trying to perfect that lately.

“Hey, Zane,” Cole said. “What’re you making?”

“Snickerdoodles.” Ah, so Cole was right, then. Zane was a pretty talented cook, guy should have been a culinary student.

Cole absently fiddled with the Earth Pendant, watching the way that it caught the light. It was disguised as a necklace, and Cole only regretted that he couldn’t wear his mom’s necklace anymore because of it. But then again, his mom had been the last wielder of the Earth Pendant, so it was hers, in a way.

He wondered if that would be a problem, with Jay. Jay was a civilian — what if someone found Cole’s identity, and went after Jay as leverage?

Cole put that thought out of his mind as Zane sat on the sofa next to him.

“What happened?” Zane asked. “You look upset.”

“What? I’m actually very happy, thank you very much.”

And he was, he really was. How could he not be? Jay had noticed Cole of all people, and asked him out on a date. Cole was over the moon, really. He was just overthinking, in the same way that he overthought every single plan out on the field.

Zane raised an eyebrow. The Ice Pendant glinted on his shirt collar, as if doing the equivalent. Damn, even the magic possibly-sentient artifacts were judging him.

“Ugh, fine,” Cole groaned. “Jay asked me out.”

“The customer from the shop?”

“Yeah.”

“And you are upset because…”

“I’m not upset, Zane! Just nervous. Really, really nervous.“

“You made the first move,” Zane reminded him. “You’re the one that drew a heart on his cup the first time you saw him.”

That had been impulsive of Cole. He’d been distracted, and then he’d drawn a heart on the cup and Jay was out the door before he could start to regret it. It had turned out well, at least.

“What if he’s just pitying me?” Cole whined, burying his face in a cushion.

“I’m fairly sure that’s not the case. If he didn’t actually like you, he wouldn’t have gone back to see you.”

Cole didn’t respond, just stayed in the same hunched position on the couch. He could practically see Zane’s mouth twitching, even with his face in the cushion.

“Someone is texting you,” he said.

“What?” Cole checked his phone. Unknown number, it said on the screen.

He opened the message. Hi, it’s Jay, it said.

So is tomorrow alright? I’m free pretty much all day.

Or the day after works too if you’re busy.

We could go to the coffee shop next to Chen’s Noodles?

Cole smiled, and typed out a quick response.

Tomorrow is fine. Maybe around noon?

That coffee shop sounds great, I’ve been meaning to try it for a while.

Jay’s response came immediately. Cole tried not to squeal when he read it, hands shaking with anticipation.

Noon is fine, see you then <3

He added a heart, Cole thought. Was it stupid that he felt so giddy over that?

Zane’s smug smile was almost audible. “You should bring him some snickerdoodles. I made too many.”

“You did that on purpose,” Cole said.

“How could I? I only just found out you’re having a date,” Zane said primly. “It was a genuine mistake. One that turned out quite in your favour.”

“I’m leaving you to the sharks during the next Garmadon attack.”

Zane laughed. Cole hit him with the cushion, and started wondering what to say to Jay.

Jay was going to be late to his date with Cole, and he was extremely pissed about it. Cole was going to think he stood him up. Damn Pythor, one of these days Jay was going to electrocute him and put him in a giant hamster ball.

“You are an insolent little fly!” Pythor snapped. “The Great Devourer will awaken again, and none of you will be spared! None of you!”

“Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard this speech like twenty times by now,” Jay snarked. It was almost a quarter to twelve. Unless Pythor wrapped this up in the next five minutes, Jay was going to be late. Really late.

Pythor sputtered, and raised the Fangblade. He only had the one, but it was still a threat, and that meant that Jay was duty bound to stop him. Even if it meant standing up his date. “You—“

“Man, shut up,” Green said, raising his sword.

“Let’s wrap this up already,” Earth grumbled. “I have places to be.”

Yeah, same, Jay thought. He raised his nunchucks, and that was when Pythor chose to bolt; he slithered down an alleyway and out of sight, and then they were going on a chase.

Jay really hated it when the villain of the day ran. Particularly when it was Pythor, because he was a slippery bastard who could turn invisible and took forever to even spot.

Yeah, Jay was definitely going to be late. Especially because the rest of the team was taking care of Ultra Violet downtown.

Jay swore, and turned the corner to find Pythor.

Roughly an hour later, they got him. Jay booked it immediately after that — Green and Earth could take care of the part where they dumped him back in prison. Jay had a date to get to, unless Cole had already left because Jay stood him up. Accidentally, but still, and it wasn’t like he could tell Cole it was because he was helping to catch a supervillain.

Jay made it to the coffee shop, panting and hair a mess. There was a bruise on his side from Pythor slamming him into a wall. He hoped there wasn’t blood on his face.

Cole was sitting at a table by the window, looking out miserably. He was probably looking for Jay, Jay thought, heart throbbing.

“Hey,” Jay said quietly. Cole bolted up, and Jay noticed he was covered in fine dust, as if he went running through a construction site before coming here. Weird, but Jay quite possibly had blood on his face and he wasn’t going to judge.

“Sorry I’m late,” Jay said, at the same time that Cole did.

“What? No, I’m the one late. You’re the one sitting here looking like someone stood you up, which I did, and I’m so sorry—“

“I was late too,” Cole said. He winced as he said it. “I thought you’d left, because it took me so long to get here. I’m so, so sorry, I didn’t mean to. I swear I didn’t—“

“So we were both late?” Jay interrupted.

“I… I guess?”

They just stared at each other for a moment, and then they were both laughing and Jay was wiping tears from his eyes. Cole was wheezing and it was the most adorable thing ever.

“I got held up by the thing near the museum,” Jay explained. “Apparently some supervillain stole an artifact?“

Not technically a lie, though Jay did feel bad that he wasn’t telling the whole story.

Cole gracefully did not ask why Jay hadn’t called him, and nodded. “Same. It took a while for me to get through traffic, and my phone was dead.” He gestured at said phone, which lay screen-up charging on the table.

“Do you want coffee?” Jay asked. “I mean, that’s kinda why we’re here, right? I’ll pay.”

“Oh, you don’t have to—“

“I’m the one that invited you out, of course I’m going to pay!”

Cole bit his lip. “I’m paying for the next time,” he said.

“Next time?” Jay repeated, because he hadn’t really thought that far ahead, hadn’t thought that there might be a second or a third or a fourth date.

“Next time,” Cole agreed.

Cole got an absolute monstrosity of caramel and whipped cream. Jay got himself a black coffee and a blueberry muffin.

“You go to the University of Ninjago City, right?” Cole asked, sipping from his drink.

“Yeah. I’m a computer engineering major.”

Cole whistled. “That’s pretty cool,” he said, and just Cole calling him cool had Jay blushing and stuttering.

“What about you?” Jay said, once he’d taken a long sip of coffee and organised his nerves.

“Visual arts,” Cole said. “Hoping to get to teachers college and become an art teacher.”

“Oh, that’s nice. I took an art course as an elective last year, it was pretty fun.”

The conversation continued like that for a while — just talking about school, comparing classes and seeing what professors they had in common. It wasn’t many, considering the difference in their majors, but it turned out they both had Professor Ras for Ninjargon history.

“He’s horrible,” Cole groaned. “I took that class because I like history, but he makes me regret taking it at all.”

“Tell me about it,” Jay nodded. “He keeps going off on tangents about whatever happened when he was a kid like a hundred years ago, and I walk out of the lecture not knowing anything more than I started with.”

“Oh, and don’t get me started on how he seems to have it out for me specifically—“

It was nice. More than nice, Cole was incredible and the more Jay got to know him the more he wanted to kiss him. Cole loved art, and hiking, and he absolutely lit up when Jay mentioned botany. He’d been a music major in his first year before switching to visual arts. He played chess and he was teaching himself to bake and he was just so perfect.

“We should go hiking next,” Jay grinned.

“There’s not any good hiking trails around here,” Cole said wistfully. “But if you want to do something outdoorsy, canoeing is an option…”

Jay was not an outdoorsy person. He actively avoided the outdoors when his parents dragged him on road trips, like a vampire hiding from the sun. But for Cole, Jay would go up every hiking trail in Ninjago.

“We might want to go now,” Jay said after a few hours. “Or they’ll kick us out.”

“Oh!” Cole looked like he’d just realised they had been sitting there for hours. “Yeah, you’re right.”

Jay really didn’t want this to end. “There’s a park nearby,” he suggested. “We could just walk around for a bit.”

“That sounds great!”

So then they were walking in the park, and Jay was slipping his hand into Cole’s before he could think twice about it. Jay talked about Fritz Donnegan and his hobbies and the latest model he’d been building, and Cole talked about his attempts at gardening and his art and the book he’d been reading. He even gave Jay a box of snickerdoodles — apparently his roommate had made too many and wanted Jay to have some.

It was amazing, and Jay found himself all too disappointed when the sky darkened and Cole said he had to get home.

“Get home safe,” Jay said, and before he could overthink it he leaned in and kissed Cole. Just quickly, barely for a few seconds before he was pulling away, face flushed. Cole looked stunned, and he broke into a smile before squeezing Jay’s hand and walking away.

Jay checked his phone as he walked back to his bike. One message from Cole, it said.

He opened it to see a line of heart emojis and a see you tomorrow.

Jay skipped the rest of the way to his bike, clutching his phone in his hand and already looking forward to the next day.

Cole was going to strangle Lightning. The bastard was supposed to be back with the map thirty minutes ago, and he still wasn’t here, and now he and Zane were being dragged into a dusty basement by the Sons of Garmadon.

He’d better arrive with backup, or Cole was going to be so pissed. Even more pissed than he already was.

“Move it,” the guy dragging Cole by the arms grunted.

Cole didn’t really have a choice but to comply. He was going to be so mad if he missed his next lecture.

They ended up tied to chairs. The rope was coarse and tied so tight Cole was going to have bruises by the time they got out. Zane grimaced when they busted out the chains and locked the door behind them. Cole let out a groan and decided that when Lightning showed his obnoxious face, he was going to punch it.

“Nice weather we’re having,” Zane offered. An old inside joke — when he and Cole first met, that was the first thing Zane had said.

“Terrible weather, really,” Cole drawled.

“How long before we can undo the knots?”

Cole wriggled his hands against the rope and sighed. “Dunno. They tied them really tight. Don’t think we can get out without cutting or burning them.”

“Of all the times not to have Fire with us.”

“Ugh.” Cole had dealt with being a hostage before, multiple times. That didn’t make the situation any better.

He could hear whispers from outside the door, whoever was standing guard gossiping about having caught two of the city’s heroes.

After what seemed like hours, there was a yell, and the lights flickered overhead before going out entirely, plunging them into darkness. The only light came from the soft glow of Cole and Zane’s powers, orange and light blue providing a way to see their surroundings.

“Fuck,” Cole said. He knew what was about to happen. He just didn’t like it.

The door slammed open, light streaming through, and Water and Lightning stepped into the room.

“I leave for five minutes and you get yourselves kidnapped? Man, you really are useless without me,” Lightning smirked.

“Wouldn’t have been kidnapped if you’d just shown up on time,” Cole snapped.

“Hey, it took a while to track down anyone! The Mechanic was plotting something all the way downtown—“

“All you had to do was get a map from our storage locker. How hard is it to get a piece of paper—“

“Well, I had to go get backup when I got to the location and neither of you were there. You’re lucky I found Water, otherwise you’d have been in here for hours.”

“We could have gotten out without you,” Cole said sharply.

“You’re still tied up,” Water said from where she was cutting Zane out. “So you’re sort of still kidnapped. Just saying.”

“Yeah, see?” Lightning preened. “Without me and Water, you’d still be stuck in a musty old basement that probably has far too many spiders in it.”

“Shut up.”

“So you don’t want me to free you? ‘Cause I can leave right now, it’s not like I don’t have places to be.”

Cole really, really hated Lightning. Annoying bastard never knew how to take anything seriously—

“Lightning,” Water chided, sliding her dagger through the rope with ease. Cole stood up and stretched, then pointed his middle finger at Lightning.

“Real mature,” Lightning said, sticking out his tongue.

“More mature than you—“

“Let’s go,” Zane said, grabbing Cole by the wrist and pulling him along. “You said the Mechanic was causing a ruckus downtown?”

“Yeah,” Water said. “Green’s taking care of it, mostly, but he might have planted bombs.”

“Great. Let’s go deal with that,” Cole said.

“What about the Sons of Garmadon?”

“They’re knocked out.” Lightning waved his hand dismissively. “Might wanna call an ambulance, though. Water smashed a few of them into a wall and I think they’ll have concussions.”

“You electrocuted a guy with enough power for an entire city,” Water said indignantly.

“The Mechanic is still on the loose,” Zane reminded them.

“Call the ambulance,” Cole said to him. “Explain the situation. Then join us downtown.”

Zane nodded, and Lightning handed Cole his scythe back. A surprisingly nice gesture — Cole had expected him to throw it at the back of his head.

“I can be nice sometimes,” Lightning said primly, as if having read his mind.

Why did he kind of remind him of Jay in that moment? Jay had used that exact tone of voice when handing Cole his coffee at their date.

No, it was just a coincidence. Lightning and Jay both had brown hair and freckles. Cole had just been spending too much time thinking about his boyfriend, probably.

Cole rolled his eyes and clapped his hands. “Thanks,” he said.

“You look like shit,” Lightning added. “The eyeliner makes you look like a raccoon.”

Cole bristled at that, if only because Lightning was the one with eye bags big enough to fit the entirety of Ninjago City.

“Asshole.”

“Dickhead.”

“Time to go downtown,” Water said cheerfully.

They nodded at each other with a promise to finish this later, and took off.

“Jay, wait up!” Cole said, running to catch up to Jay. The fair was busy — people milling about, rushing from ride to ride as they tried to see everything.

“Oh, there’s bumper cars!” Jay said with delight, grabbing Cole’s arm and pulling him forward. “We gotta ride that, and the ferris wheel—“

“There’s plenty of time for everything,” Cole laughed. It was only their second official date, but he felt like he’d known Jay for years. They just seemed to fit together, had started bantering like old friends and given each other teasing nicknames. There’d been stolen kisses and holding hands at the grocery store, texting each other and calling late at night. Jay fit into his life like he’d always been there.

“We can do all the rides today if we hurry,” Jay insisted. “And that leaves time to try the food — I know you were eyeing the pickle ice cream earlier. We can get that, and the funnel cakes. And cotton candy!”

“I was not eyeing the pickle ice cream earlier,” Cole protested. “I was looking at it in morbid curiosity.”

Jay rolled his eyes. “That’s the same thing!”

“No, it’s not—“

“Hey, Jay!” a voice called out. A blond boy and dark-haired girl ran up — the blond was holding an overstuffed teddy bear, the girl a slushie and cup of mini donuts.

“Nya, Lloyd,” Jay said, his voice taking on an odd quality. Cautious, in the way that one sounded when they knew their friends were plotting something.

“Jay,” the blond smirked, presumably Lloyd. He was grinning mischievously, smile showing all his teeth. “I see you’re with your boy—“

“So what are you two doing here?” Jay said loudly, words so fast Cole could barely pick them apart.

“Looking around the fair, dumbass,” Nya said. She pointed at Cole. “You’re Cole? Jay won’t stop talking about you.”

“That’s me,” Cole nodded. Jay talked about him to his friends? He thought about him outside of the time they spent together? Holy shit, Cole felt kind of giddy at that—

“And that’s enough,” Jay laughed nervously. “Hey, did you try the pickle ice cream? Me and Cole were just talking about that. It sounds kinda awful, but I still want to try it?”

Lloyd wrinkled his nose. “Absolutely not.”

“If you want to waste your money on that, I’m gonna record you eating it,” Nya said.

“As blackmail?”

“It can’t be that bad. Otherwise they wouldn’t be selling it,” Cole pointed out.

“I dunno. The deep fried hot dog last year was pretty bad. Way too greasy.” Lloyd mimed choking, sticking out his tongue and gagging.

“I still can’t believe you ate that,” Jay said.

“Hey, I spent good money on that thing. I wasn’t going to just throw it out—“

While the two bickered about the merits of eating greasy fair food, Nya turned to Cole. “Are you and Jay here on a date?”

“Yeah.” Cole rubbed the back of his neck. “Second one. Unless going to the grocery store to look at overpriced pasta sauce counts.”

Nya nodded approvingly. “Jay likes you a lot. Wouldn’t shut up about you last game night — Kai managed to beat him at Prime Empire because he was waxing poetry about your eyes.”

Cole blushed. “He wrote a poem?”

“Several,” Nya smiled wickedly. “You should ask him to show them to you.”

“Okay, that’s enough.” Jay stepped in, glaring at Nya. She flipped him off, and he rolled his eyes. “We have bumper cars to get to. Cole?”

“Oh, yeah. Sounds good,” Cole said.

Lloyd was making kissing sounds from his place behind Jay. Cole pretended not to notice, just to save Jay the embarrassment.

“We’ll get going.” Jay took Cole’s hand and waved to his friends as they left. As soon as they were out of earshot, he looked at Cole and said, “They’re assholes. Sorry about that.”

“What? No, they seem wonderful,” Cole teased. He did mean it, though — Nya was definitely someone he’d get along with. And Lloyd seemed like a fun person to talk to.

“You know Lloyd bullied me into asking you out? He was there when I did, in this tacky fake moustache and sunglasses.”

Oh, Cole had been wondering about that. He’d figured it was one of the university’s drama students doing a project or something, but that made more sense.

“Nya wasn’t?” Cole joked.

“She was in class at the time, thank goodness,” Jay groaned.

“Well, it all worked out. Otherwise we wouldn’t be here,” Cole smiled.

“Yeah, I guess,” Jay sulked. “I’m really happy that you did agree to go out with me, you know?”

“Jay, I liked you the moment I saw you step into the shop.”

Jay looked at him with wide eyes. “Really?”

“I thought you were cute,” Cole admitted. “And I kept wondering about the eyebrow slit, because it looked all mysterious and cool.”

“I got that falling off a slide in the fifth grade.”

“Well, it still looks really cool.”

“Aww, you’re so sweet,” Jay said.

“And you’re the most beautiful, most amazing boyfriend,” Cole responded.

Jay made a sound akin to a kettle whistling, face turning red. “Hey, look! Funnel cakes, let’s go get some!”

They bought a funnel cake and split it. It was huge, the size of Cole’s face and covered in whipped cream and chocolate sauce.

“This is nice,” Cole said, stabbing a piece of funnel cake and feeding it to Jay.

“Aw, just nice? Not the best second date ever?” Jay joked.

“You know what I mean!”

Jay wiped the whipped cream off his face the second they were finished and clapped his hands. “Okay, time for bumper cars! We are on a time crunch here, folks!”

Cole shook his head, smiling as he stood up and took Jay’s hand. “Alright, let’s go,” he said fondly, letting Jay lead him off.

A few days later, Jay showed up to Cole’s apartment with donuts and smoothies. Cole had invited him over for movies, because apparently his roommate was out of the house for the night, and they had the whole place to themselves.

Jay was going to make him watch the entirety of the Fritz Donnegan movies. Every last one of them, even the remakes which really weren’t that good.

“Hey, Jay,” Cole smiled. He was wearing a faded band shirt and jeans that looked unfairly good on him. Jay felt rumpled in comparison, in his sweatpants and ratty hoodie.

“Hello, my dearest,” Jay smiled back.

Cole laughed. “‘’My dearest’?”

“That’s what you are,” Jay shrugged. “Now, let me in. The smoothies are going to melt.”

They collapsed on the sofa and started on the food, Jay pointing out each flavour for Cole.

“That one’s crème brûlée,” he said. “I think that green one is pandan coconut? At least that’s what the cashier told me.”

“You didn’t have to bring food,” Cole said.

“But I wanted to! I mean, who else is gonna eat an unreasonable amount of donuts with me, huh? My roommate sure isn’t.”

“Don’t lie to me. Kai would down this entire box if you dared him to.”

“Yeah, well, he said that I look like a chipmunk today, so he doesn’t get delicious donuts.”

They started the movie after that. Cole fell asleep halfway through, face on Jay’s shoulder. It was quite possibly the cutest thing Jay had ever seen.

The movie was just getting to the part where Fritz Donnegan had to crash land on an unknown planet and fight the metal-eating space bugs when Jay fell asleep too. It was warm, and he didn’t want to move and wake Cole, and it was just far too comfortable. Jay shifted a little and leaned his head against Cole’s, falling asleep almost immediately.

He was woken very rudely by a tap on his shoulder, Cole poking him like he was testing for signs of life.

“It’s almost nine,” he said softly. “We should start on dinner.”

“Now?” Jay mumbled, looking around and landing on Cole.

“I think we still have some instant macaroni. Is that alright with you? I’m not a great cook, so…” Cole stood up and started opening cupboards, cruelly leaving Jay on the sofa without any company.

“Cole,” Jay whined. “Back to the sofa. Now.”

“We need to eat.”

“We had like four donuts each. Please?”

Cole paused, clearly comparing the merits of dinner and snuggling with his boyfriend. It didn’t take long for him to cave like a wet paper bag and come back to the sofa, leaning his head against Jay’s collarbone.

Ha. Jay won, all because of his good looks and sad puppy-dog eyes. Jay preened, and wrapped Cole around his arms to pull him closer.

It didn’t take long for them to both fall asleep again.

Cole really hated magic.

Yes, he was a superhero vigilante armed with a magic scythe and earth powers bestowed upon him by an ancient magic space gem. Yes, he dealt with magic bullshittery on the daily. Yes, most of he and his team’s enemies were people also armed with magic powers.

That didn’t mean he had to like it. Such as now, him and Lightning stuck in a magically sealed cave after the Skull Sorcerer dumped them through a pit in the ground.

Fuck, the others were going to be so worried. This was meant to be reconnaissance only. Now it was going to be a rescue mission for them.

“We’re trapped!” Lightning screamed for the hundredth time. “We’re stuck underground in a deep dark pit, we’re going to be stuck here forever, is there even enough oxygen to keep us alive in here—“

“Lightning, focus,” Cole grunted.

“How can I focus when we are locked! Underground! In a deep dark cave with no exit! And the others have no idea where we are!”

“They’ll find us.”

“Will they?” Lightning arched an eyebrow. “Or are you just saying that? Because again, we are locked in a cave with no exit, completely sealed off from any communication!”

“We’ll figure it out,” Cole said, even though he could feel dread rising in him as well. They were underground, but he couldn’t feel his powers. He should have been at his strongest right now, surrounded by his element, but he felt cut off from it instead.

It was probably worse for Lightning, Cole thought. Earth and lightning were opposite elements. Being underground like this definitely wasn’t making Lightning any calmer.

“We’re going to die,” Lightning said, so softly Cole almost didn’t hear it. “Fuck, this is how it was always gonna end, wasn’t it? Locked underground with no hope, it was never an option to just die peacefully—“

“We’re not going to die,” Cole said firmly. “The others will find us.”

“You can’t even feel your powers, can you? If the guy with earth powers can’t figure out how to escape, how can they?” Lightning sounded on the verge of tears. His breathing was erratic.

Cole sat down next to him. The ground was hard-packed mud, and the only light came from him and Lightning’s glows. The cave pressed down on them, an oppressive presence. It was like being stuck in the belly of a whale, like the stories Cole’s mom had told him, but real life and far more terrifying.

He wondered if his mom ever ended up in a situation like this, if she ever imagined her son would end up on the same path as her, if she would have wanted that.

Next to him, Lightning had his face in his hands, hunched over with his knees to his chest. It sounded like he might be crying.

Cole had never been good with emotions. Spent most of his childhood running away from them, as a fact, but he also couldn’t stand to see someone crying. Especially not Lightning, who for all their arguing and grievances was still a person he trusted.

“My mom used to tell me stories like this,” Cole said. The talking made Lightning go silent, like he was unsure of what was happening. Cole wasn’t really sure what was happening either, but he went on.

“She was the last wielder of the Earth Pendant,” Cole explained. “She told me that she once ended up stuck in this massive cave system, all alone, and she had to fight a dragon called Griefbringer to get out.”

“She was on this mission to stop an evil sorcerer. The dragon was his guard, stopping her from reaching him. And it had been terrorising a city, too, killing civilians and burning everything. She knew she had to stop it, even if the thing was practically invincible.”

Jay wasn’t sure what to do when Earth started rambling, talking about his mom and dragons and evil sorcerers. He’d been panicking for the last while, thoughts of you’re going to die down here and it’s not like anyone likes you enough to go looking for you and of course you’d die with the guy who hates your guts.

He expected Earth to huff and tell him to get up, give him encouragement in that weird way that he did everyone. Or not give encouragement at all.

He didn’t expect Earth to sit down beside him  and start telling stories.

“The sorcerer trapped in her in the caves, but he didn’t realise that being underground made her powers stronger. She managed to navigate to the sorcerer’s stronghold. Uh, she used these dual swords — that’s the form the Earth Pendant took for her — to behead the dragon, and she stopped the sorcerer and got back to the surface.”

“What’s the point of you saying this?” Jay asked bitterly. “It doesn’t get us out of this mess.”

There was no dragon to slay, no evil sorcerer to defeat. The thing keeping them from freedom was hard-packed dirt, and they could take stab or kill that.

“It’s a story,” Earth shrugged. “I… I don’t know. Thought it might calm you down.”

“We’re still trapped down here. And I’m gonna die deep underground with you. You hate me.”

Earth seemed to be stunned silent for a moment. “I don’t hate you,” he said.

“We fight all the time,” Jay said. It was a routine for them — Jay insulted Earth, and Earth insulted him back. They worked together for the greater good, but otherwise they tried to avoid interacting. They brought out the worst in each other. Around Earth, Jay was petty and mean and deliberately annoying.

Deep down, he knew it wasn’t that he hated Earth. It was that Earth was strong and capable and level headed, that everyone looked to him for answers, and he was everything good that Jay wasn’t.

“Yeah, but not in a ‘I hate you’ kind of way. I mean, yes in that way, but also not? I trust you, when it comes down to it. You annoy me, but you’re also reliable.”

“Way to make a person feel better,” Jay snorted.

“It’s true! I mean, you’re the person who single-handedly talked down Unagami from trying to destroy the city. Other people would have tried to use violence — I know I would have. But you talked to him, and you managed to end the whole situation without hurting anyone.”

“Unagami was a hurt kid who felt abandoned by his creator. I did what anyone would have done.”

“But we didn’t know that,” Earth said. “You saw what no one else did.”

Jay shrugged helplessly, staring down at the floor. Earth, giving him compliments? The world must be ending for this.

In a way, the world was ending. At least for Jay and Earth. He wondered if anyone would find their bodies and give them proper funerals. He hoped that Cole and his parents would be okay without a goodbye.

“If we’re going to die,” Earth started, staring up at the ceiling, “I’m just glad I’m with you. At least we’re not alone, you know?”

That at least was true. Earth was comforting him in what might be their final hours, both of them slumped against a dirt wall and covered in dust. Jay couldn’t say that just about anyone would have done that.

“I hope we at least get funerals,” Earth mused. “I’m gonna be one pissed ghost if we don’t.”

Jay laughed weakly. “I—“

And then there was light streaming through, the dirt above them crumbling to reveal the rest of the team.

“You’re here!” Green cheered, throwing down a rope for them.

“You found us!” Earth grinned.

“Your trackers went offline in this location,” Water said. “It wasn’t a hard guess as to where you were. Sorry it took so long — our priority was getting the Skull Sorcerer taken care of.”

“Climb up.” Kai helped Green with extending the rope down. His stupid porcupine hair was the best thing Jay had seen all day. He was never going to complain about his hair products taking up all the counter space in the bathroom again.

Earth reached out a hand to Jay. “You first.”

The second they reached the ground, Green was pulling everyone into a group hug. It was awkward, with everyone’s armour and pointy weapons, but they made it work.

“Only you could make a reconnaissance mission turn into a rescue,” Ice said, shaking his head at Earth. Earth elbowed him in the chest for it.

Jay didn’t get a chance to talk to Earth about the whole thing after that. Green insisted on everyone getting bubble tea together, so Jay couldn’t catch him alone, and then immediately after that Kai was dragging him home to take a nap.

Jay tried not to think about it, even though it occupied his every thought. He called his parents just because, made sure they were okay, and then called Cole and did the same thing.

“Is there a reason for this call?” Cole asked. He sounded exhausted but amused, and even though Jay couldn’t see him he betted that he was making that stupid little smile.

“I almost died and I thought I was never going to see you again,” Jay didn’t say. Instead he said, “Can’t I call my lovely boyfriend just because? Maybe I wanted to hear your beautiful voice.”

Cole snorted, and Jay could practically hear him smiling. “Movie night tomorrow?”

“Yeah, that sounds great,” Jay said.

“Alright! See you then,” Cole said cheerily. He hung up with an exaggerated kissing sound.

Fuck, Jay loved him so much. The terror of the day was still leaving his bones, but just talking to Cole for that brief time made him feel better.

He wondered who Earth had to talk to. He seemed close with Ice, but Jay wasn’t sure if they knew each other as civilians. He hoped that Earth had at least someone to talk to about today, even if he had to change details. Maybe his mom — he seemed to love her a lot — or a partner.

Maybe Jay could be that person for him to talk with? Not as civilians, but as Lightning and Earth.

That might be nice, Jay thought.

The day after he almost died underground in a sealed cave, Cole showed up to Jay’s apartment with chocolate chip cookies and a list of shitty movies to watch.

The cookies were kind of lumpy and overbaked, Cole thought. He’d tried to cover it up by drizzling chocolate over them, but that just made it look like he dropped them on the floor and smushed them around before putting them back in the box.

(Zane had given him a look when he saw Cole’s pitiful attempts to make these cookies. He was nice enough to tell Cole that baking soda and baking powder were two different things, but he wasn’t nice enough to say that all-purpose flour and bread flour weren’t the same.)

(The bread flour would make the cookies more chewy, like the ones from the grocery store. At least, that was what Cole hoped.)

Jay opened the door and lit up when he saw the cookies. “For me?”

“No, for the raccoon that lives near the dumpster,” Cole said dryly.

Jay flicked him on the ear. “Did you make these yourself?”

“Yeah. Uh, they’re kind of burned. Sorry.”

“It’ll make them crunchier,” Jay grinned. He grabbed Cole by the arm and dragged him into the kitchen.

Jay was so hot, it was unfair, Cole thought. No one had a right to look so good in a hoodie and track pants.

They ended up on the couch, Cole tracing his fingers over Jay’s freckles instead of watching the movie.

“Cole, pay attention!” Jay said fondly. “This is the part where Fritz Donnegan fights the space vampire army—“

“How does that even work? There’s no blood in space. What do they survive on?”

“Shut up,” Jay whined. “Suspension of disbelief.”

“Hey, I’m just saying—“

“Shhh. Quiet.”

“Make me,” Cole smirked. He expected Jay to slap a hand over his mouth, or stick his tongue out and poke him in the cheek. He didn’t expect him to roll his eyes and slam his mouth up against Cole’s.

Oh. Yeah, that was definitely one way to get him to shut up, Cole thought. He leaned forward, pressing their foreheads together. Any and all thoughts left his head — all he could think about was Jay’s tongue inside his mouth, his hand tangled in his hair. Cole leaned into the kiss more. It wasn’t fair that they couldn’t get any closer, that he already had his arms wrapped around Jay as tight as they could be. Jay seemed to be aware of this too, because he was trying very hard to stick his tongue even deeper into Cole’s mouth. His lips were so soft, and they tasted faintly sweet from his lip balm. Cole was acutely aware that Kai could walk in at any moment, back from his shift at the coffee shop, but he didn’t care. All that mattered in the moment was Jay, who had the most beautiful freckles and a way of making Cole laugh that no one else did, who loved poetry and engineering and cotton candy, who made Cole feel like the most special person in the world.

Cole wasn’t sure how long they kept at it, just that it was long enough he felt lightheaded from lack of oxygen. Or maybe that was the leftover adrenaline from Jay kissing him. When they pulled away, Jay was gasping for air. His face was all flushed, and his hair was messy.

“You,” Cole panted, “are an asshole.”

“Got you to shut up, didn’t it?” Jay said smugly.

“Are we watching the movie or not?”

Jay hummed, considering this. He ran a hand through Cole’s hair. “Nah,” he said as he went in for another kiss.

It wasn’t meant to be a difficult mission, Jay thought, dodging booby traps in the basement of an abandoned temple. They had to find the Mask of Vengeance before the Sons of Garmadon, get the hell out of dodge, and kick the Quiet One’s ass if they showed their face. Easy peasy, if not for the fact that this place was apparently filled with malevolent artifacts and traps.

Jay really regretted letting Green talk them into splitting up. If he and Earth got stuck in a glue trap and died down here, he was going to haunt the guy for the rest of his miserable life.

“I hate cursed artifacts,” Earth muttered, narrowly avoiding an arrow to the head.

“We just can’t have one week without someone trying to bring about the apocalypse,” Jay agreed.

Ever since the incident with the Skull Sorcerer and being trapped underground, he and Earth had fallen into a weird dynamic. There was still plenty of bickering and petty jabs, but with an undertone of I’ve got your back. It was kind of like how Jay teased his friends in civilian life, though with more pointy weapons and not knowing each other’s identities.

Was it weird to say that someone he didn’t even know was becoming a good friend? Maybe. But Jay figured his whole life was weird, so this was par for the course.

That was, of course, when a giant axe went flying towards his face, and he barely got out of the way before losing his neck.

“That’s just overkill,” Jay complained. “Come on! Were the poisoned arrows and lava pit not enough?”

“We didn’t even have to come here. The Sons of Garmadon would never be able to make it through,” Earth said.

Jay considered the multiple museum break-ins and explosions caused by them, and winced. “Maybe not. They do have a lot of firepower on their side.”

Earth shrugged and walked up to the door of the artifact storage. Jay followed carefully, eyeing the floor for any signs of another trap. He didn’t particularly want to get stuck in a cave-in.

When they stepped in, Jay couldn’t help but gape at the sheer amount of stuff. All sorts of junk and old artifacts, though he doubted many of them were magical. But still — there was enough in here that they’d be looking for hours.

“Time to start looking?” Jay groaned.

Earth grimaced. “This will take ages. And then we have to turn back through all the traps.”

“We could just blow up the whole place and call it a day.”

“With us inside? No way,” Earth said, in that way that meant he was genuinely considering it. It stupidly reminded Jay of Cole, how he raised an eyebrow and frowned.

Jay picked up a goblet encrusted with rubies and diamonds. “Think this could pay off my student loans?”

“Careful, you’re going to get cursed to turn into a frog,” Earth warned.

“Hey, I’m just saying. It’s not like I get paid for this hero thing, and I am a broke university student surviving off of energy drinks and instant noodles…”

“I think this entire team is a bunch of broke students. And also, maybe don’t say that you’re a student? That’s a hint towards your identity.”

“It’s not like I said my full name and address.” Jay rolled his eyes. “And you just kind of indirectly said that you’re a student too.”

Earth shook his head exasperatedly. “Let’s just find the mask and get out of here.”

Jay gave a mock salute and started looking through the closest pile of things. It wasn’t even ten minutes later that he heard a loud clattering, the sound of a tacky gold bowl dropping to the ground.

“What happened to being careful?” Jay called out.

There was no response, and well that’s just peachy. Jay reached for his nunchucks, prepared for some sort of horrible monster to come running out from the corner.

One, two, three… Jay counted the seconds, walking to where he saw Earth last.

He expected Earth to be fighting something — or in the best case scenario, for him look up and ask what Jay was doing holding his weapons out like an idiot.

He didn’t expect to find Earth collapsed on the floor, eyes rolled so far back he could only see the whites.

“Fuck! Earth, shit, can you hear me?”

What were the rules for treating an unconscious person? Jay took a first aid course, years ago, and he could probably perform CPR, but Earth was breathing, it just looked like he was unconscious—

Wait, no, not unconscious, he was mumbling, indistinct sounds that were probably meant to be words.

“Earth?” Jay tried again, touching his arm lightly. Earth yanked it away immediately, and Jay yelped at the sudden movement.

“‘m sorry,” Earth mumbled, eyes glazed over and distant. “Mom, Dad…”

Fuck, this was definitely some sort of curse. Was it worth it for Jay to try shaking him out of it? Would that make things worse? He had no idea what Earth was seeing right now. Touching him might be a bad idea.

“It’s not real, Earth,” Jay said. “Whatever you’re seeing. It’s not real, it’s some sort of magic curse.”

“They left,” Earth sobbed. “They’re gone, they’re all gone…”

Damn, someone’s got parental issues, a tiny voice in the back of Jay’s mind thought.

Be serious!

“I’m here,” Jay said firmly. “I’m here, it’s alright. I didn’t leave, see? I’m right here.”

That seemed to help, at least a little — Earth blinked, eyes still distant but not as far. “They forgot,” he said, so quiet Jay could barely hear.

“I didn’t forget.” Jay had no idea what he was talking about, forgetting and parents and abandonment, but he said it again. “I didn’t forget.”

Cole was alone. They’d all gone, forgot him and left him behind. He wasn’t strong enough, and then they left, and they had forgotten him and did he ever even mean anything?

“Wait,” he said, but Mom was dead and Dad didn’t care and Jay was shaking his head disappointed, and his whole team was gone, walking away, Cole was alone—

“…It’s alright. I didn’t leave, see?” a voice said, but they were lying, Cole was alone in his old home and the plane for boarding school was coming. He was being shipped off and forgotten about.

“They forgot,” Cole said softly to himself. Forgot about him, he was always deadweight and they didn’t need him anyways.

“I didn’t forget,” the voice said.

Why did that voice sound familiar? They were all gone, left ages ago, Cole was a ghost haunting his own home.

Wait. This was his old home, but Cole hadn’t been back in years. Not since he was a kid, certainly not now, when he was in university and far away from his family.

You’re alone, a voice hissed, but this couldn’t be real.

Cole snapped back to himself on a dusty stone floor, Lightning sitting next to him and murmuring under his breath.

“Lightning?” Cole croaked.

“You’re back!” Lightning cheered, reaching out a hand and pulling him up.

“What happened?”

“Best guess? Some sort of creepy curse on one of the things here. I wouldn’t touch anything in this pile.”

“…You helped me,” Cole realised. The voice he’d heard in the illusion was Lightning — he could place it now, without the sheer terror and loneliness fogging his thoughts.

“Yeah,” Lightning shrugged. “Are you alright? You don’t have to talk about it, but…”

“I think it showed me my worst fear,” Cole said. He didn’t offer anything on what it was, but Lightning nodded thoughtfully.

“I pieced that together. Hey, I don’t know what you saw, but whatever it was wasn’t real, ‘kay?”

“Yeah,” Cole breathed. It hadn’t been real, even though he could still hear his dad’s disapproval and angry sighs.

“You’re a really great guy. Don’t let that stupid curse tell you what to think,” Lightning said. It almost sounded like he was trying to comfort Cole — no, like he definitely was.

“Thanks,” Cole said. He meant it. When the hell had he and Lightning gone from petty enemies to friends?

“We don’t need to keep looking for the mask if you’re not feeling up to it. I’m sure Green would understand.”

“No,” Cole shook his head. “Best to get it before the Sons can.”

“Alright. Just don’t get cursed by another artifact, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Cole smiled awkwardly, trailing after Lightning.

“Do you like aquariums?” Jay asked, running his fingers through Cole’s hair. Their six month anniversary was coming up, and Nya’s status as a co-op student there meant she got free tickets. They could go and see the exhibits, get lunch there, spend some time walking around the area. Get tacky souvenirs from the gift shop.

Cole looked up and mumbled, eyes still half-closed. “They’re cool,” he said.

“We could go next week. I was thinking we could spend the morning there, have lunch, then just look around town. There’s a shaved ice shop that Lloyd says is good.”

“Sounds great,” Cole smiled. “I can’t remember the last time I went to an aquarium.”

“I can’t either,” Jay said. “It’ll be fun! We can see it together.”

“Sure your friends won’t decide to tag along? They seem to be masters of disguise,” Cole said dryly.

“If they decide to follow us, I’m disowning them. Lloyd’s not gonna get my video games in the will, I’ll leave them all to Kai.”

“Well, that’s just cruel.”

“Kids these days shouldn’t be playing so many video games anyway. No respect for their elders.”

Cole rolled his eyes. “Lloyd is a year younger than you.“

“And that means I have a whole year of wisdom on him!” Jay grinned.

Cole laughed. They spent the rest of the afternoon finishing off the last few episodes of the show they’d been watching. Cole made a few sarcastic comments about the main villain’s incompetence. Jay shushed him and told him that no, it made sense, you just had to go along with the concept of intelligent mind controlling bacteria—

Cole’s roommate opened the door. “Oh,” he said, looking surprised at the fact that Cole had company. “Sorry. I didn’t realise you had someone over.”

Something about him seemed familiar. Maybe it was his voice? The faint, crisp accent was damningly familiar, but Jay couldn’t put his finger on it.

“Hey, Zane,” Cole said. “Don’t worry about it. We’re just watching TV.”

“Are you sure? I can—“

“It’s fine. Nice to finally meet you.” Jay put on his most charming smile. It was nice to finally be able to put a face to Cole’s friend — he’d heard Cole bring him up many times, but hadn’t been able to meet him up until then. “I’m Jay, Cole’s boyfriend. You’re Zane?”

“Yes. It’s nice to meet you too — Cole won’t stop talking about you.”

“Aww, you talk about me?” Jay purred to Cole. He blushed and flicked Jay on the nose.

“Aren’t you going out with Pixal later?” Cole turned back to Zane, who still had the appearance of a deer caught in headlights. Jay was just glad Zane hadn’t walked in on anything less innocent than them watching a shitty TV show.

“I came back to change,” Zane shrugged. “It’s a nice restaurant. I do not intend to go wearing sweatpants.”

“Yeah, like your sweater vests are any better?” Cole joked.

Zane sniffed. “Your idea of fashion isn’t any better,” he teased.

“Hey, my combat boots are perfectly respectable!”

Jay laughed at that. Sometimes he swore that Cole loved those boots more than him. Not that Jay could talk — he loved his own stupid science T-shirts more than was healthy, too.

Zane shook his head as he walked down the hall to his room and out a few minutes later. Cole flipped him off on his way out the door.

“You’re so mean,” Jay said to Cole.

“It’s affectionate! And I’ve seen the way you talk to Nya and Lloyd. You have no place telling me that.”

“It’s affectionate!” Jay mimicked, cackling when Cole poked him in the side.

“Shut up,” Cole groaned.

“You’re right. It’s time for us to start another show, anyway. I was thinking that one about the zombie apocalypse—“

“Do we really need to? With the way this city is, we’ll have our very own zombie apocalypse within the month.”

“Don’t jinx it! I still haven’t recovered from the demon invasion.”

Of course, Jay didn’t mention that he’d been right in the middle of the invasion, fighting oni off left and right. Cole didn’t know his boyfriend was deliberately putting himself into danger every time the city was threatened. He couldn’t know.

For better or worse, Cole was a civilian, and it was Jay’s job to protect him.

He shoved that thought out of his mind as Cole put on a history documentary, eyes alight as he talked about Ninjago’s founding. Cole was safe, would be safe so long as Jay was there to look out for him. He figured that was a small price to pay for lazy moments like this, listening to him ramble about history while Jay tried to follow along.

The aquarium date went wrong, because of course it did. Cole was standing next to Jay, hands intertwined as they stood in front of a coral reef exhibit. They were trying to name all the fish when the lights went out and alarms started blaring.

“Shit!” Jay yelped, looking around wildly for the source of the noise.

“What’s happening?” The crowd was beginning to panic, people mumbling nervously as they searched for anyone to give an explanation.

It could just be something simple. A tripped fire alarm, someone hitting one of the exhibits too hard. But this was Ninjago City, and Cole had a sinking feeling it was something that would require the city’s heroes to take care of.

His suspicions were confirmed when a speaker started crackling.

“Supervillain attack,” the speaker said. “I repeat, supervillain attack. All guests please—“

The person speaking got cut off by a loud bang, and then the dull thump of someone falling to the ground. Cole swallowed the lump in his throat. He could only hope that they’d been knocked out, not killed.

He needed to get out of this room, find somewhere to transform and go after whoever was causing trouble. But Jay was right next to him, mouth pressed in a thin line and holding Cole’s hand tightly. He couldn’t just disappear.

“It’s going to be fine,” he said, squeezing Jay’s hand.

“I—“

The crowd shifted, people panicking and shoving as they moved towards the exit, desperate to get out before this became a hostage situation. Jay couldn’t even respond before they were being dragged apart, swept up in the flow of people—

Cole took the chance, and pushed against the crowd, headed towards anywhere that was free of people. He hoped Jay would make it out okay.

It didn’t take long for him to find an empty room, anyone who’d been inside already gone. There was just the tank of starteeth, and Cole sincerely doubted they were going to blab about his identity.

The comforting, warm orange flash of light Cole had known for years, and he was dressed in armour with his scythe already clutched in his hands.

Boom. An explosion shook the whole room, water threatening to slosh out of the starteeth tank. Cole swore, gripped his scythe tighter, and followed the sound of explosions to whichever asshole had decided to interrupt his date.

There was a figure, lurking suspiciously in a corridor, and Cole readied his scythe to swing—

“Agh!” Lightning turned around to glare at him. “It’s just me. Don’t be an ass.”

 Cole relaxed. This would be easier with Lightning, he thought. The rest of the team might not arrive for a while, but two of them was better than just one.

“Any idea who’s here?” Cole asked.

“The Sons of Garmadon,” Lightning whispered. “I saw two of them earlier. I think they’re working with Pythor — they said his name.”

Well, that was just peachy. The last thing they’d needed was for Pythor to start working with the most dangerous gang in Ninjago. Cole’s life was just great.

“What are they after?”

“No idea. I figured we’d follow the sound of explosions.”

Cole hummed, taking off down the hall. Lightning followed, mumbling to himself and giving sarcastic commentary.

“What could they want with an aquarium?” he said incredulously. “Are they gonna get the octopus to build a laser beam for them? Maybe ask the shark tank to help build a bomb? Oh, are they going to get the lionfish to perform a museum robbery?”

“There’s plenty of dangerous stuff here,” Cole said, thinking back to the tank of starteeth. “Could be as simple as wanting an animal for its venom.”

Lightning facepalmed. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Because I’m the strategist here.”

“That had nothing to do with strategy—“

Cole tackled him behind a display as a group of Sons walked by.

“—crazy. I don’t like that the Quiet One would work with him, he’s insane.”

Lightning went still, eyes wide with terror. Cole shared the sentiment.

“The Quiet One knows how to keep him under control,” a member hissed. “And keep your mouth shut. You want your head chopped off?”

“I’m just saying, have we already forgotten about the Devourer? Pythor’s got more than a few screws loose. Who’s to say he won’t turn on us…”

“Whatever. We get the electric eels and get out before any of those heroes get here.”

They walked away, leaving Cole and Lightning awkwardly sprawled behind a cutout that cheerfully asked the reader to waddle like a penguin.

“Electric eels,” Lightning panted, hands on his nunchucks. 

“Yeah,” Cole nodded. “We follow them. Take them out. Hopefully there’s not more than ten of them.”

“Down the creepy abandoned hallway we go,” Lightning cheered halfheartedly.

Cole really hoped Jay had gotten out safe. He had the bad feeling that this was going to turn ugly.

Without the crowds of people and lights, the aquarium was just plain creepy. Jay refused to shiver, but he was tempted to. The bubbling of the tanks and occasional sound of explosions did nothing to help.

Earth was next to him, eyes narrowed as he searched for any sign of the Sons of Garmadon or Pythor. At least Jay wasn’t alone — this impromptu mission would have been a lot worse without Earth. He must have been visiting too, before the Sons decided to ruin a perfectly good day.

Jay was so pissed that his six month anniversary with Cole got ruined. Hopefully Cole had gotten out safely and in one piece. They’d been separated, and even during all the chaos of the lights going out and alarms blaring he’d been trying to reassure Jay, and Jay felt pretty crummy at the fact that his civilian boyfriend was the one doing the comforting instead of him.

If Cole wasn’t okay, Jay was going to personally find the Quiet One and beat their ass, never mind that no one knew who they were or what they looked like.

Ahead of him, Earth stopped, putting a finger to his lips and pressing up against a wall. Jay could hear voices — it didn’t take a genius to recognise Pythor, ranting about eels and revenge and giant snakes.

Seemed about right.

Plan? Jay mouthed.

Earth pointed at the next room, where Pythor was giving his dramatic speech. Take out Pythor first.

How many Sons were in the room? Jay risked a peek, and was disappointed to find at least a dozen of them. Some were packing what must have been the electric eels into coolers, some were (poorly) standing guard, others were listening to Pythor speak. That was at least thirteen enemies.

Jay shook his head. Too many. It was too risky. There weren’t any hostages, aside from the eels, but still. They’d fought against worse odds, but in an enclosed space where their enemies had the advantage?

No choice, Earth mouthed. He was unfortunately right. They had no idea when backup was coming — it could take an hour, and by then Pythor and the Sons would be gone.

They didn’t even know what Pythor wanted with a bunch of electric eels, but it probably involved a doomsday device. They couldn’t risk him getting anywhere with those eels.

Also, Jay felt pretty bad for the eels, who weren’t at fault for being a prop in Pythor’s revenge schemes. He’d like to keep them alive.

We take out the guards first, Jay told Earth. Then Pythor and the rest.

Earth nodded grimly. On three.

As soon as Earth mouthed three, Jay went swinging into the room. He took down one guard with a hit to the head and another with a kick. In the corner of his eye, he could see Earth going directly for Pythor, who let out an enraged scream and called for backup.

“Eat lightning!” Three Sons went down with a blast, bodies still crackling with residual electricity.

Earth couldn’t use his powers in here, Jay thought. The building was probably already unstable from the explosions, and adding an earthquake to that would be disastrous. Earth clearly knew that — he was going after Pythor with fists and his scythe, not with rock blasts or quakes. Pythor was slithering around the room, avoiding hits, as a couple of Sons tried to make off with the cooler of eels.

Jay took those two out with another blast of lightning.

The fight between Pythor and Earth was still going on, Pythor lashing out with his tail and trying to trip him up.

“Shit!” Jay dodged a stab from one of the Sons.

The guy growled, pulling a gun out from his jacket.

“Aw, come on,” Jay laughed nervously. “Bringing a gun to a nunchuck fight? That’s not fair.”

The guy shot the gun. Jay prepared for the pain of being shot — the burning and frankly terrifying feeling of bleeding out. The sound rung out, and Jay prepared for the feeling of blood soaking his shirt—

There was a scream. It wasn’t Jay’s.

He whirled around — stupid, stupid idea, you shouldn’t be turning your back to an enemy with a gun — to find Earth clutching at his shoulder, blood already dripping onto the ground.

“Earth!”

Pythor smiled wickedly, holding a knife over Earth. Jay wiped that smile off with a well-placed shot of lightning to his chest, and then ran to check on Earth.

There was blood. There was so, so much blood. Everyone on the team had been shot at least once before, but that didn’t make it any less horrible, didn’t take away the terror of watching his friend bleed out.

“You’re alright,” Jay said, looking down at Earth. “You’ve been shot before. You’re gonna be fine.”

Earth’s eyes were half-closed. They were such a pale grey, like someone had taken the full moon and put it into his face. Silver like the moon on the Day of the Departed, like Jay had only seen on one other person—

Oh, no. First Master, please no. Jay’s heart dropped into his stomach. He felt like he was going to throw up.

“Cole?” His voice cracked, looking into the silvery eyes of his boyfriend.

“Behind you,” Earth (Cole? Fucking Cole? Cole, who was supposed to be outside, safe and sound?) croaked.

And then there was an arrow in Jay’s stomach, and the realisation of I may have miscounted how many enemies I took out.

Jay’s stomach was on fire. He could almost hear Kai and Water, both of them yelling in rage as they took out whoever just shot Jay.

Well, if backup was here…

Jay slumped on top of Earth (Cole?) and passed out.

Cole woke up feeling like shit. His mouth was dry and tasted like something had died in it. His shoulder throbbed and his head felt like it had been stuffed full of cotton. Overall, he felt pretty terrible.

He was lying on a sofa. This… wasn’t his own apartment. But it was Kai and Jay’s — he’d visited enough to recognise the badly crocheted cushions.

Wait. The last thing Cole remembered was the aquarium, and then being shot, and then lying on the ground as Lightning looked at him and said his name.

Not his alias as Earth — his secret identity, Cole Hence-Brookstone the art student.

What the fuck?

Cole made a valiant effort at getting up, and failed. Someone walked into the room and cleared their throat.

“You’re an idiot,” Kai said, glaring at Cole as if he hadn’t just been shot.

“What?”

“You got yourself shot and Jay is stabbed and you’re both idiots.”

That didn’t clear anything up. Cole made another attempt at sitting up, because by the First Master he was not having this conversation lying down—

Kai helped him, careful to avoid jostling his shoulder too much. He fixed him with another glare.

“You said Jay got stabbed?” Cole’s mouth somehow got even dryer. Jay was stabbed? Since when? Did he not make it out of the aquarium safely?

Didn’t he warn Lightning about an enemy shooting an arrow behind him, right before passing out?

Kai tilted his head in the direction of Jay’s room. “He woke up just before you. I think we all need to talk, because why didn’t you tell me you’re a fucking vigilante?”

Cole froze. Kai knew. Kai was very much not supposed to know any of that information. But how the fuck did he know?

…Kai sounded an awful lot like Fire, didn’t he? And they both had the same badly gelled hairstyle.

“You!” Cole exclaimed, jabbing a finger at Kai. “You asshole, hypocrite, you don’t get to talk!”

It was Kai’s turn to freeze, looking very awkward as he ran a hand through his hair. “Like I said,” he said sheepishly, “we need to talk.”

Kai helped Cole up from the sofa and to Jay’s room. Jay was already sitting up, tapping his fingers on the bed and looking very nervous. When he saw Cole, his eye twitched.

“You’re alive!” Jay said. The relief was evident in his voice. There were no evident bandages, but Cole was willing to bet that under his shirt was bloodsoaked gauze and a stab wound.

“Of course I’m alive,” Cole said. “You, though? You’re stabbed! You were supposed to be safe, outside—“

“I could say the same about you!” Jay glared. “You were supposed to get out, not run headfirst into danger!”

Well, cat’s out of the bag, then. Cole fixed Jay with a glare of his own. “You’re Lightning! You’re one of this city’s fucking vigilantes, going into danger every day!”

Cole couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen it before. Jay and Lightning both had the same freckles, the eyebrow slit, the terrible puns and sense of humour.

“You’re Earth! You—“ Jay sputtered, for once looking at a loss for words.

Kai coughed awkwardly. “So, considering that I’m the only person here not injured—“

“Stay out of this, Kai!” both of them snapped simultaneously.

“Ugh, fine. I’m going to make you two idiots soup. Don’t rip your stitches, or I’ll be very upset,” Kai said, backing out of the room.

Annoying friend taken care of, Cole and Jay returned to the discussion. All this time, worried that Jay would end up caught in the crossfire between Cole and a supervillain, and Jay was Lightning. One of the heroes that Cole worked with, who put himself into danger every day, who had for years and Cole somehow hadn’t noticed.

“You got stabbed,” Cole said plainly.

“You got shot,” Jay snapped.

“All this time worrying that you’d get hurt, trying to keep you safe, and you’ve been putting yourself into danger before I even met you.”

“Pot, meet kettle.”

Jay was currently stabbed, very cranky, and annoyed at his boyfriend for turning out to be a superpowered vigilante without telling him.

He glared at Cole some more, just to get his point across. Cole didn’t get to talk. Jay had spent so long worrying about him, wondering if he could defend himself if needed, trying his best to keep him safe, and then this asshole had gone and gotten himself shot.

“All this time worrying that you’d get hurt, trying to keep you safe, and you’ve been putting yourself into danger before I even met you.” Cole moved his arms like he was going to cross them, then evidently thought better of it. Because he had just gotten shot in the shoulder, the asshole, Jay was going to strangle him.

“Pot, meet kettle,” Jay snarked.

“You were supposed to be safe,” Cole said. His tone was harsh, angry even, but Jay could hear the concern underneath it. The guilt of not being able to save Jay.

“I wanted the same for you,” Jay shrugged, and oh that was not a good idea, the stab wound stung.

“We’re both idiots. I can’t believe I didn’t recognise you.”

Yeah, Jay reflected, it was pretty stupid that he hadn’t recognised his own boyfriend. Though, he could probably blame it on the magic of their powers keeping their identities hidden.

“I didn’t realise until you were bleeding out and half dead,” Jay groaned.

“I wasn’t even a quarter dead!”

“If backup hadn’t arrived, I think we’d both be dead,” Jay said.

“Yeah.” Cole sat down on the bed, taking Jay’s hand. “I’m really glad you’re not dead.”

“That’s the most romantic thing you’ve ever said to me,” Jay deadpanned.

“So what are we going to do about the Sons of Garmadon? And Pythor?”

Jay thought back to the fuzzy memory of Kai giving him a status update while he was high off of painkillers. “They apprehended everyone. Managed to stop Pythor from doing whatever with those eels. Kai thinks we’ll be able to catch the Quiet One soon, once we’re both back in action.”

“Finally,” Cole sighed. “Took us long enough.”

“I’m just happy we both survived. That… could have gone really bad.”

Jay had been close to death a lot of times, but something about this felt a lot more jarring. Maybe it was that he now knew Cole could have died too, that he could have lost him.

Cole was silent, tracing the freckles on Jay’s hand. “I love you,” he said softly, so quiet Jay almost didn’t catch it.

Was this the first time he’d said that? They’d complimented each other, given each other cute nicknames, but Jay was pretty sure they’d never said they loved each other. Thought it, sure, but never said it out loud.

“I love you too,” Jay said. He leaned forward and kissed Cole — probably inadvisable, considering the stab wound, but he couldn’t help it.

When they pulled apart, Cole didn’t let go of his hand. “So much for a nice aquarium date,” he joked.

“I’ll make it up to you,” Jay promised. “We’ll have the most extravagant date when we’re recovered. It’ll put the aquarium to shame.”

Cole cracked a smile. “Oh?”

“Yeah. A nice dinner at a restaurant, a romantic ferry ride, fancy desserts. The whole shebang.”

“Sounds lovely,” Cole said. He leaned in for another kiss — Jay met him halfway. Was it possible to love someone this much? Jay’s head felt like it might explode. He was kind of dizzy, stomach doing cartwheels. Or maybe that was just the stab wound talking. Either way, he was very much in love. Cole’s lips were dry and chapped, not surprising considering that they were both injured and probably dehydrated, but Jay didn’t mind. He was more focused on the fact that Cole was alive, and he was here, and there were no more giant secrets between them.

Yeah, Jay could stand to live like this. He felt indestructible, like nothing could touch him.

(He and Cole had been fighting alongside each other for years, since they were just starting out as heroes. It felt kind of like destiny that they’d meet as civilians and end up together. Jay had met Cole and fell in love with him without even knowing they’d known each other for years.)

“I really love you,” Jay whispered.

“I really love you too.”