TW: Someone gets shot in the head (not the ninja!)

CW: usage of the f-word

After any day of hard work, Nya would usually take a calming bath and relax her exhausted body marinating in some steaming hot water, even sometimes with cucumbers on her eyes, to ensure extra relaxation.

But this day was just...different.

She couldn't really put a finger on why it was different. She had gone out on a mission with the entire team, Samurai X included, and fought a cruel gang of about ten men and their people who had been involved in criminal, illegal, and dangerous activities.

Those people owned multiple warehouses so the ninja had been lucky when they'd raided the first warehouse and struck gold. Each and every single member of the gang had been there, together with their henchmen and personal staff.

With a sigh, Nya stepped underneath the shower head instead of lying down in the bathtub. She could not relax, no matter how hard she tried, so she wanted to spend as little time in the shower as possible.

The water drizzled down her skin and trailed down her body, eliciting low hums from the current streaming through her veins.

Even being connected with her element did not help. Before she knew it, Nya was standing there, underneath the water, staring at a wall, her shampoo, conditioner, loofah, everything forgotten. She spaced out, but even then she couldn't think. Why was she spaced out? And what even was she thinking about?

The bathroom door opened, and Nya registered it, but she didn't care. There was only one person, other than she herself, who used that bathroom, since it was attached to her and Jay's shared bedroom.

And said man stepped into the shower a moment later. She did not turn around to look at him, too far gone in her mind.

A shampoo bottle cap was opened before Jay's hands nestled on Nya's scalp, his fingers pushing past her wet hair to rub in the shampoo, slowly and quietly. He was so concentrated on the task he set himself that he did not notice Nya turning around in his hold until she glanced up at him.

He stopped his movements and stared back at her. Giving her a smile, he wordlessly continued, making sure not a single spot was untouched.

Nya's eyes never left his, however.

Granted, they had showered together a lot of times in the past. So much, in fact, that it had become a normal occurrence rather than just an intimate experience.

But this time, the air shifted around them. Nya was lost in her thoughts, but Jay was now lost in his own as well. Usually, they would have asked each other if they were okay and what they were thinking about, but today was, again, different.

A small smile appeared on her lips when she saw the tip of Jay's tongue pressed between his teeth, a sign of him being extra concentrated on the task at hand. He was very precise with most of the things he did.

So she closed her eyes and swayed with the motions of his, from side to side, back and forth. She tried to get rid of the images of what had happened on the mission, but that was close to impossible when the horrible imagery quickly played in front of her face like a broken record.

The raid was a short and quick one. The ninja had found the location of the warehouse quickly, courtesy of Pixal, and made the decision that attacking was a better way to conquer the enemy rather than stealthily waiting and observing.

The heads of the criminal gang were all in a conference room in one of the upper levels, so the ninja quickly took out the henchmen on the lower level before moving upwards.

"Ready?" Lloyd asked his teammates, who were all standing in front of the door of the conference room, making sure they were all ready to fight.

Glancing at each other, they all nodded, giving Lloyd his answer. He nodded back at them before putting his mask back on. Then he placed his hand on the door handle, ready to fling the door open, but Cole stopped him.

"Might be locked," he said. Cole then pressed his fists together, activated his powers, and blasted the door off of its hinges, making it fly across the room.

There were ten men sitting around a circular table, but the second the door was blasted open, they all stood up, shocked. Some scrambled to get away, but with the ninja standing in front of the only escape door, most of the men immediately got down on their knees and lifted their arms in the air, giving up.

Only one man was still standing. While police officers flooded the room after the ninja and handcuffed the men on the floor, the one guy on his feet did something that stopped the ninja from moving forward.

He grabbed a woman—presumably a working staff based on the apron she was wearing—and pressed one arm against her throat, keeping her pressed against his body. With his other hand, he pointed a gun at her temple.

"Put the gun down, man," Kai said, pulling off his mask. "It's not that serious. Let the woman go."

"No!" the man yelled loudly. "I don't think so!"

Lloyd also pulled off his mask. "Come on. She didn't do anything, just let her go. We won't harm you."

All the ninjas' reasoning did not make it into the guy's head since he pressed the weapon harder against the woman's temple. Her cries shook the room.

"E-Eric, please don't...please don't." She choked on her words, her eyes flooded with tears. "I thought you lo-loved me."

The man, whose name was revealed to be Eric, barked out a laugh. "Love? Are you kidding me?" He stared her down, his gaze penetrating her face with pure hatred. "You've been nothing but a good little toy for me, Petra. And a naive one, at that."

"What?" Her voice cracked. "All this time your words...your promises..."

"They were all empty, darling."

Nya pulled off her mask to sneer at him. "Let her go, Eric! She has no part in this!"

Eric's cold stare was now directed at Nya. "Shut up, woman!" he screamed at the Water Ninja, pulling the gun away from Petra's temple to point it at Nya across the room.

Nya stilled. Jay, on the other hand, quickly placed himself in front of Nya and pushed her back. His gaze matched Eric's in its coldness. "Put the fucking gun down!"

When the other ninja tried to make it across the room to get to Eric, he quickly pushed the gun back against Petra's temple.

"Stay back, or I'll blow her head off!"

The ninja obliged quickly. "Just give up, Eric," Lloyd said calmly. "This is the end for you. However you act, you will be put behind bars for life. Just put down the gun, hand over the woman, and comply. We don't want anyone to get hurt, including you."

"Is that so?" Eric seemed to ponder for a moment before he sighed. Just as it looked like he would let Petra go, he said, "Might as well go out with a bang," and pulled the trigger.

"Are you okay, my love?"

Nya snapped out of it and realized Jay was shaking her by the shoulders. "What? Yeah."

"You sure?" His eyes took her face in, looking for what was wrong. "Because the water just tripled in its amount."

Nya blinked. Then she noticed that the water was trickling down her body faster, harder, and then connected it to her elemental powers. "Oh." She controlled the stream again and brought it back to its normal pace. "Sorry."

Her boyfriend gave her a weak smile, and Nya knew he did not believe her when she said she was okay but didn't push her any further to explain.

"Wanna get out? I think we're pretty clean already," he suggested, holding her hand.

Nya wordlessly nodded. She was still too...traumatized by what had happened earlier. All she wanted to do was go to bed already, but with Jay knowing she was behaving differently, she had a feeling she would have to talk about her feelings.

Jay reached around her body and turned off the water. Immediately, Nya's skin was covered in goosebumps, but she stood there, back in her own mind, until Jay gently pulled her out and made her put on her bathrobe. He quickly put on his own robe and pulled out a couple of towels.

Then he began to towel dry her hair.

His own hair was still wet to the touch but he concentrated on getting her hair dry first, even if her hair was longer than his and more tedious to dry.

Nya gulped. He was busy drying her hair, but she was too moved by his actions—or better yet, by him and his presence alone.

Jay had always been nothing but perfect to her, and for what?

She was his complete opposite. While he was mostly calm, she threw temper tantrums left and right. She was always on her toes when it came to precision, whereas he was always wearing a big smile on his face after accomplishing a task with mild inconveniences.

She would have loved being more like him. She knew everybody had their flaws, but in her eyes, Jay was completely and utterly flawless.

What had she ever done to deserve someone like him to love someone like her?

Nya was already on the brink of crying as she brought her hand up to his jaw and let her thumb graze over his two-day stubble. Jay's hands stopped drying her hair. He glanced back at her, surprised.

"I know I rarely ever tell you this, but I love you, Jay." Her voice cracked but she continued, "I know it must be difficult sometimes...to not be reassured...but—"

Jay quickly shook his head and caught her hand in both of his, the towel falling to the floor. None of them cared about it. He was about to shed a few tears of his own, his heart moved by the intensity of the moment. "I've never doubted your love for me ever since we came back together all those years ago," he answered honestly, and Nya's breathing stopped for a moment.

The reassurance...

She had never known she needed it this badly before.

"I don't need your words to assure me you love me when your actions already guarantee me a bright, foreseeable future, with you by my side, until the end of our days. I know every single touch of yours is deliberate, and I know to appreciate each one."

Jay's hands let go of hers to cup her face, his own only inches away from hers. "Nya, you mean the world to me, and I can see I mean the same amount to you, too. You never have to feel bad for not confessing your feelings like I do. We are both different types of lovers."

He smiled, his tears now running down his cheeks freely. "I speak more than I touch you and you touch me more than you speak. And I believe none of us has a problem with that."

Nya smiled back just as brightly and nodded her head in agreement.

"It's always been the small things, you know," he continued. "The things I've picked up over the years. Your behavior. The way you always seem to stand next to me wherever we go. The way you sit next to me wherever we are."

He began to slowly slide his hands down her face and over the skin of her neck, his eyes following his movements. "The way you make sure to include me in whatever you plan on doing."

His hands traveled down her arms. "The way you always say, 'Jay and the others,' instead of 'the others and Jay,' or just listing the guys' names off."

He grabbed both of her hands and squeezed them gently, his eyes now reconnecting with hers. "The way your face lights up when I even so much as mention wanting to go on a date." He chuckled. "The way you get ticked off by someone else's behavior but tolerate it when I do the exact same thing."

Chuckling, Nya looked down at the floor shyly. "You are pushing your luck sometimes."

Jay laughed. "I know. And you know I'll keep doing it."

"It's like you're asking to be yelled at."

"If it's by you, then I'll gladly be your guest."

Nya looked back up at him. "Always the charmer," she said. Then she wrapped her arms around his torso and rested her cheek against his shoulder.

His arms embraced her back. "We've gotta get dressed, Nya. And you need to dry your hair, unless you want to wake up with a cold."

"I know." She closed her eyes, her mind finally at ease. "Just...one minute. Please."

Smiling, Jay complied, no questions asked. If Nya wanted to be held, he would hold her until the sky would fall and the earth's crust would shatter.

Because she deserved being held.