1
Point Blank

Jay dropped to the floor with a loud thud. His left side received most of the blow, and even though he wanted to groan and complain about the pain, he pulled himself together, stood up, and looked around frantically.

He was in the center of the field, out in the open.

The perfect target for an ambush.

A few seconds passed, nothing happened. It was quiet. Too quiet.

A bead of sweat rolled down the side of his head and dropped to the floor. Adrenaline pumped through his veins.

Jay began to calculate his chances of making it to a safety tower in time, but he did not even get to make a step forward, because the moment he did, he was kicked to the floor.

His hands caught him before he would fully plummet down, but he had to release his gun in order to catch himself. He quickly turned around and looked up at the person who had kicked him in the back.

Kai.

Jay's eyes widened when Kai stuck his gun into his face, his expressionless gaze giving Jay the confirmation that Kai was, in fact, cold-blooded.

"K-Kai, buddy," Jay said, smiling awkwardly. His eyes flitted down to the gun before looking back at Kai. "You wouldn't do this to me... I'm your friend, remember? We're brothers. Good friends. Roommates once upon a blue moon." He gulped. "Besties?"

Kai's mouth opened after a beat. "I'm sorry, Jay, but only one can remain."

Jay watched as Kai positioned his finger against the trigger. He closed his eyes and turned his head to the side, accepting the fate that called upon him.

Only, it never arrived.

Instead, a loud shot came from in front of him. Jay opened one of his eyes to sneak a glance at Kai, who had been hit.

The Master of Fire slowly looked down at his torso, his eyes wide and disbelieving. The gun fell out of his hand.

Then he turned around and glared at the one and only Water Ninja, who was holding a gun of her own. "You shot me? My own sister?!"

Nya pretended to blow off some steam from the mouth of her gun.

"Nya!" Jay exclaimed, relieved that his girlfriend came to his rescue. "Oh, thank you, Nya! I love you!"

Nya looked over at Jay. She fought the smile that was trying to appear on her lips desperately. She looked neutral but her heart grew in its size.

"I had him, Nya!" Kai exclaimed. "He was right in my palm!"

"You don't understand, bro." Nya pretended to polish the exterior of her gun, her tone unbothered. "You targeted my boyfriend and wanted to shoot him."

Jay looked at Kai and laughed into his face. "Ha! My Nya will always save—"

"But here's the thing," Nya continued, cutting off Jay's boastful words. She pointed the gun at Jay, catching him off-guard. "Only I can shoot him."

The gun went off, shooting Jay point blank in his chest. The circular blue light of his vest turned to red, eliminating him from the game.

Maybe playing laser tag with his over-competitive girlfriend had not been the best of his ideas.

2
Penny Profits

"You need an actual government name I can call you when you misbehave," Nya said, eyeing her boyfriend with a calculating gaze. "Jay Walker just doesn't sound serious."

"Jaywalking is a crime. I'd say it's pretty serious."

Nya grabbed a rag from the wooden table and tossed it against his face. His laughter bloomed from underneath the cloth and sent a buzz right through her chest. She suppressed a grin as she turned back to the front.

Just because Steeper Wisdom had closed down permanently after the whole Morro fiasco had gone down, it didn't mean Wu had lost his passion for the steamy hot beverage.

On the contrary; he wanted to urge the citizens of Ninjago to drink more tea more than ever. But he hadn't been able to advocate for it in a while—the Time Twins, the Sons of Garmadon, being trapped in the First Realm, the Oni, Aspheera, the Ice Emperor/Corrupted Zane, Unagami, the Skull Sorcerer, Wojira, and the Overlord were all responsible for Wu's delayed ability to project his love for tea onto his people.

So he forced the ninja to help him. He had made them wake up extra early, set up stands in the middle of Ninjago City's busiest districts, and stand there until the end of the day. Which was several hours away, still. The only positive aspect the ninja could derive was that sunrise exercise had been cancelled for the day.

Jay and Nya had managed to convince Wu to team them up. Zane and Pixal were also paired together. The others had no such luck choosing their tea-selling partners.

They were all close friends, sure, but maybe pairing up Kai and Cole had not been the best of ideas. The day before, the Earth Ninja had stolen Kai's underwear drawer and caused a whole ruckus in the monastery. Once Kai had found out it was Cole, he had stolen Cole's cake supply.

Then they both had convinced the others to pick sides.

Everyone had been on Cole's side. Kai's face had been priceless.

Long story short: Kai + Cole = big no.

"You're an idiot," Nya told Jay.

He opened his mouth to offer her a retort, but when an interested customer came by to look at their stand, he got into professional mode and explained the virtues and profits the various tea flavors offered.

Nya couldn't help but admire his ability to switch from goofy to professional with the snip of a finger. He looked all serious and business savvy in his attire. A navy blue button-up and a lighter shade of blue for his bow tie. He made sure the bow tie matched Nya's aquamarine blue hair tie.

"If you want to sell something, you need to look good while doing so," he had said when she'd wondered if the bow tie was necessary.

Nya still didn't believe it was a necessity, but it did make him look good, so she sat back and didn't complain.

But when he had told her he wanted to slick his hair back with some hair gel, she had immediately vetoed against it. His hair was perfect on its own; gel would only tame his curls, and they were not meant to be tamed, in her humble opinion.

"If you suffer from excruciating headaches, I would suggest you try..." He went on and on about interesting but mostly unnecessary tea facts, but the older lady on the other side of the stand seemed to soak up every bit of information he presented her with.

In the end, the woman bought almost every tea flavor Jay suggested. The total came up to more than sixty bucks, which he bragged to Nya about once the lady left their stand.

He waved the paper in front of her face. "Look! I told you you gotta look good if you want to sell some goods."

Nya rolled her eyes and ripped the money out of his hands before placing them neatly inside their makeshift cash register.

"This is getting boring," she mumbled as she counted the money inside the register in her head.

They'd had quite a few customers over the span of six hours. Doing the math in her head, there had to be at least six hundred in the small container.

Of course, they were not keeping the money they were making. Their plan was to donate the money to the local children's hospital. And if the others made nearly as much as Jay and Nya, the hospital would surely thrive on it for a while, even if only a short one.

"Maybe we can convince Wu to let us get the day off tomorrow," Jay suggested, getting more casual.

"Maybe," Nya agreed, before her eyes landed on an elderly man who seemed to be interested in what their stand had to offer. She smiled politely at him and pointed at Jay. "Hello, sir! Perhaps my tea-selling companion over here can accost you to a whole new universe..."

Jay straightened his bow tie and sent Nya a gracious nod. "Do you tire often, kind sir? Well, fear not, because this tea can work its magic on your eyes..."

3
Eternally His

Jay's feet dragged him towards his bedroom. His body was sore and tired, and his eyes barely stayed open.

His legs were killing him.

He opened the door and closed it with his foot. It crashed against the doorframe, making a loud noise, but he didn't care about that.

As much as he wanted to fall onto the bed and take a nap, he knew he smelled terribly, so Jay took a quick five-minute shower. Then he put on a pair of shorts and a tank top.

Jay fell onto the linen sheets with a sigh, his skin meeting a cloud of warm contentment. He lay there on his stomach, his arms stretched out and his face pressed into his pillow. He could not breathe well, but he didn't make any effort to fix his position.

He finally felt relaxed.

He should have known messing with Wu would end with him being punished badly, he really should have, but hiding his scrolls was just too much fun. Seeing Wu panicking and looking around frantically was comedy gold.

But once Wu had seen Jay's head peeking up from behind the table, the fun was over.

And the punishment Wu had given him was not it.

Running around in the courtyard for three hours straight.

Jay's stamina was good. Great, even. But three hours? With zero breaks?

His feet were on fire.

"Are you still alive?" Nya's voice rang out, and Jay could sense the smile in her voice.

He groaned into the pillow.

"Ah," Nya said, as if she understood what he groaned about. She closed the door and stepped up to the bed, standing right next to his lying form. "You should have known messing with Wu would cost you your legs, Jay."

Jay lifted his head just enough to glare at her. "You know I'm a masochist, Nya."

His girlfriend chuckled. "I can see that."

"You know, I could really use a back massage now."

Nya's smile dropped. "No way."

"Come on," Jay whined. "I thought you loved me!"

"What does me massaging your back have to do with me loving you?"

"A lot," he said, grinning into the pillow. "Massaging your significant other's back means you love them endlessly and eternally. Don't you want to eternally be mine?"

Nya blinked, unamused.

"Okay, okay." Jay gave in. "If you massage my back for me, I'll give you fifty bucks."

"Fifty bucks and a dinner date on Thursday."

"Deal."

Shaking her head, Nya knelt down on the bed right next to his back. She crumpled up the sleeves of her sweater and cracked her knuckles. Then she began to karate chop Jay's back through the thin layer of his white tank top.

Jay groaned. "You're killing me."

"Good thing or bad thing?"

"Both."

In fact, Jay was unsure as to how he felt. Nya's chops were hard, fast, and painful, but they felt good, too. The knots in his back began to untie and his body succumbed to the pressure.

The higher Nya moved up, the closer she got to his shoulders, until she decided to knead them. To do so, she straddled his back. "Can you even breathe?" she asked, referring to the fact that his face was pressed into his pillow.

His response was a mere rumble of his throat.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Nya decided she had enough and stopped massaging him. Then she let her body flop down onto his, her arms on top of his arms and her legs on top of his legs.

His laughter shook his body (and in turn hers), amused by her antics. He turned his head to the side to talk freely, his eyes closed.

"You know I would have gone on that dinner date with you regardless, right?"

Nya smiled. "You know I won't accept any money from you for this, right?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah."