Nya's POV

"Can you pass me the screwdriver?" I ask, sticking my hand out. Jay and I have been working on this motor for hours. It's been hard work, but it's worth it. Now, I'm just putting on the finishing touches

"Which type?" he asks, most likely scanning over all of my screwdrivers.

"The smallest hex, please," within seconds, the screwdriver is in my hand. "I love my sisters and all, but they don't compare to you as an assistant. I'll ask them for a Frearson, and they'll give me a Phillips."

Jay stifles a laugh. "Of course they do. The guys aren't any better, besides Zane. Whenever I ask for something, Cole just brings my my whole toolbox. But hey, once all of this is over, you can show them how it's done."

"What do you mean?" I look away from the invention and up at his now red face.

"I...I just, uh, kind of assumed that once all of this was done you'd come stay with us, considering your brother...but if you don't want to that alright of course," he explains his thought process nervously, making me smile.

"Of course. There's room for all of my sisters, right?" I check, smiling at his offer.

"I kind of assumed they'd want to go find their families," he admits as I turn to finish screwing in the last screw.

"Wouldn't they come back after?" I ask, setting down the screwdriver.

"Maybe, maybe not. Sometimes people drift apart, and sometimes people stay close even though there's distance between them," he tells me, comfortingly.

"They're going to leave?" I turn away from the now finished motor, facing him.

"Not necessarily. I don't know them or their families well enough. Some might though," he explains, making my face drop. I care about my sisters. Even though I'm currently not sided with them, I know they're not at fault. The thought of leaving them or them leaving me makes my heart sink.

"Oh."

"I have an idea," Jay says, clearly noticing my deflated attitude. "Let's make a list of things we want to do once all of this is over. Then, we'll have something to look forward to, and we'll have even more motivation. Do you have a piece of paper?"

I search the room briefly with my eyes. Once I see a piece of paper with a pen on top of it, I point to it. He jogs over, grabs it, and comes back.

"To-do list," Jay verbalizes what he writes. When I look over, his handwriting is surprisingly neat. It's a slightly different cursive than I learned, but cursive nonetheless. "Any suggestions so far?"

"Um, that amusement park looked fun," I bring up.

"Oh, it is," he smiles. "You've never tried cotton candy before, have you?"

"What's cotton candy?"

"Only the best thing ever! It's sugar, but it's all light and fluffy," he writes something else down on the list.

"What's sugar?" I ask, slightly tilting my head.

"Oh my gosh, you haven't had sugar?" his eyes go wide.

"Well, I know fruits have sugars in them, but I'm guessing you mean something else."

"It's from sugarcane, and it's so good. It's in so many tasty things, like cotton candy, and ice cream, oh and chocolate," he elaborates, making hand movements to go along with his words. "You seem like a chocolate person. I'm adding 'try cotton candy and chocolate' to the list."

"What does chocolate taste like?"

"It depends. There's different types. There's milk chocolate, and dark chocolate, oh and white chocolate, but that's the reject chocolate. You can eat it by itself, or sometimes there's stuff inside like nuts and caramel. Oh, and there's also chocolate covered pretzels, and fruits, and all that type of stuff."

"Is there chocolate covered cotton candy?" I wonder.

"I'm not sure, but that might be too much sugar, if that's even possible," he says before drifting off. "Have you gone roller skating before?"

"I don't know what that is, but probably not. Mara was never big for leisure," I shrug.

"Well, roller skates are shoes with four wheels on each one. You roll around on them," he explains excitedly, a huge smile on his face.

I laugh. "You people really do have weird hobbies, don't you?"

"Pfft, it's not weird, it's awesome! The guys and I all went one time, and it was absolutely hilarious. Lloyd was a natural, same with Zane, but I was the best of course since I was the only one who had actually done it before. Cole was a bit clunky, but he caught on quick. Kai on the other hand, now that was a mess."

"He was bad?"

"Oh, he was the worst there by far. You'd think that because he's a ninja he'd naturally be more agile, but nope. He kept falling flat on his face. It was priceless," he laughs, and I laugh along at the image.

"So what I'm hearing is that we should go roller skating with Kai so I don't look nearly as bad," I suggest. Jay nods, slightly laughing, his nose slightly crinkling when he does so.

"Definitely. 'Go roller skating with Kai' is now on the list," he scribbles it down under the other entries. Thinking of Kai, my mind wanders.

"Do you think I look like Kai?" I ask. Personally, I think I look a lot like Kai, but that might just be the shock of finding out that I have a brother.

Jay takes a look at my face for a while, just scanning over it. "Not excessively. I guess there's some similarities, but I don't see him when I look at you. B-besides, you're far too pretty to look like Kai." He gives me a sweet smile, making the heat rush up to my cheeks.

"What exactly does pretty mean? I know Ciara used to tell us we pretty, but I never understood what it meant," I admit, twisting my feet against the ground.

"Well, it really depends on who is saying it to you," he admits, scratching the back of his neck.

"What does it mean when you say it?"

"Well, it means...," before he can answer, there's a loud knock on the door. Both of our eyes widen. Thinking on our feet, I put the vengestone cuffs back around Jay's wrists.

"Who is it?" I ask while I clamp the cuffs, making it so whoever is behind the door can't hear it.

"Seliel. Can you unlock the door?" she asks. Letting out a sigh, I walk towards the door. I hold onto the chain between the two cuffs, pulling Jay with me. When I unlock the door, Seliel is standing there with two plates of food.

"Sorry I wasn't quicker. I was untying Jay, so he could go to the bathroom," I lie, making up an excuse for why he isn't all tied up.

"It's alright. I brought food since you're going to be stuck on babysitting duty. It's the least I could do," she tells me, a small smile on her face.

"Thank you. Hold Jay while I put this inside," I instruct her. She grabs where my hand was on the chain, and I walk back into the room, setting the plate down on one of the tables.

"Auntie is in a bad mood, just a heads up," Seliel warns me. I groan.

"What's there to be in a bad mood about? We literally have three gemstones," I point out. She shrugs.

"No clue. I can distract her to make sure she doesn't see Jay though, cause if she did, she'd blow a fuse," she offers.

"Thank you. You're a lifesaver."

"Also," she starts, leaning in so she can whisper in my ear, "the rest of the girls want to question Jay to try to get information. We're not going to torture him, of course, but we want to try to get as much information as possible."

"What? No, he doesn't have any important information. I've been trying to get it out of him for hours," I protest, coming up with a lie.

"The rest of the girls are already set on it. You couldn't convince them otherwise even if you tried," she informs me, meeting my eyes.

"Fine. Can I at least take him to the bathroom first?"

"Sure."

---

All four of my sisters stand in front of a freshly tied up Jay. Since I can't obviously avoid his arm, I still put the rope around it. When I tighten it, he lets out a yelp of pain, making my heart drop.

"Great, now let's get started," Skylor stands in the middle, crossing her arms. "How did you know we were here?"

"Well, you're all obviously on the ship. I saw you several hours ago," he dodges the question.

"I meant how did you know we were in this realm? When we came to get the Scolecite of Ice, you were already at the Explorer's Club. How did you know to go there?" she asks, more specific this time. Her eyes narrow at him.

"Well, we knew the realm alignment was happening, so we just went to get the gemstone when we knew it'd be there," he picks and chooses his words, obviously leaving out information.

"More specific, please."

"That's all I'm saying."

"Can I punch him? I really want to punch him," Chamille says, cracking her knuckles. Fear floods Jay's face.

"How about instead of punishing him for not answering, we reward him for answering adequately?" I suggest, trying to protect him without blowing my cover.

"That's a good idea," Seliel agrees.

"We already know he does not respond well to punishers. Let us see how he responds to a reinforcer," PIXAL nods in agreement.

"Why not?" Skylor shrugs. "What do you want?"

"Do you have cotton candy?" Jay asks, making a little smile tug at my lips.

"What?"

"Cotton candy," he says again. "If you don't have cotton candy, I'm not talking."

"Ugh. Nya, do you know what he's talking about?" Skylor turns to me, already fed up with Jay.

"It's sugar, but not like the one in fruits, a different kind, and it's light and fluffy," I explain.

"How do you make that?" Chamille wonders. "I think my suggestion of punching him is easier, just saying."

"You know what, if you all leave me alone afterwards, I'll answer one, just one, of your questions," Jay says, sighing.

"Fine, does your team have a plan to get the Lapis of Lightning, one that you think we can't beat?" Skylor asks Jay, walking up towards him.

"No, we don't. We were already bamboozled on the other three, gemstones. Especially going into the battle one person down now that I'm here, we're just hoping for a Hail Mary, especially if we were to run into you all there," Jay answers. Skylor looks into his eyes the entire time, trying to gauge if he's lying.

"He's telling the truth," Skylor says, a smirk on her lips.

Seliel claps her hands "This calls for tacos!"

"It does indeed. Come on, we can go prepare them," whooping and hollering, but at a volume so Auntie can't hear them, they leave the room. Once they're far enough away, I sigh, walking over to untie Jay.

"I'm sorry about your arm," I apologize. Grabbing onto his toned arm, I examine the wound. The stitches are still in tact. On the downside, it reopened slightly.

"It's fine. It was all for show," he looks at it and sighs.

"How did you lie to Skylor so easily? Not to discredit your skills, but you seem nervous a lot, and that seems like a situation where it'd come out."

"I didn't lie. I told the truth. If my team runs into them there, it'll be a problem since that means we weren't able to get the other gemstones while we were here," he explains, tapping his temple.

"You really are clever," I tell him, scanning over his face. Once again, all I can focus on is him. It's like my vision is locked on him, and I never want to look away. 

A/N Okay so I know a lot of people hc Jay as being extremely skinny, but for my stories I see him as being lean muscular (with all of that work he still is definitely muscular, just not nearly as bulky as Cole and Kai)

Also, I said I wasn't going to post on vacation, but here I am! It's a bit shorter but it's leading into something much greater

Also, in case you guys are wondering I research literally EVERYTHING I'm unsure about for my books so things are accurate. I check to make sure my characters have the developmental/ motor skills of their age, check to make sure injuries are realistic, and check to make sure things actually work in context (I looked up information on screws for like 10-15 minutes trying to find out what screws are used in motors so I could get the proper screwdriver)

Thoughts on this chapter? I know it was mostly fluff but oh well

3 chapters until the sequel. The pieces are all falling in place 😈 Any predictions for the finale?

Thank you guys for your support! Your comments and votes and everything means a lot to me