"Table for two, please," Jay told the waiter who greeted them at the door of Golden Chopsticks, a Chinese restaurant in the heart of Ninjago City. "Under the name Walker."

After the waiter checked their reservation information and nodded for them to follow him to their assigned seating, Jay and Nya walked after him in a respectable distance, his arm casually but possessively wrapped around her waist, keeping her frame close to his.

The two had decided that Golden Chopsticks would be a great restaurant to celebrate the last few hours of Nya's twenty-second birthday in, and so far, everything in that establishment screamed elegance and sophistication.

The walls looked incredible. The intricate mural of a scenic view of cherry blossoms gliding through the air was plastered across the left wall space, and on the right one were traditional paintings and words and phrases in the logographic writing system Han.

The waiter placed two menus on Jay and Nya's assigned table and left shortly after, only offering them a polite smile to indicate he would return later on to get their orders. The ninja made sure to thank him before he left.

Jay stood behind his girlfriend and grabbed her coat around her shoulders, letting her arms slide out of the sleeves. He went to hang it on the back of her chair before pulling the wooden piece out so that Nya could take a seat.

"Have I told you that you look absolutely beautiful tonight?" he asked her with a cheeky smile on his face as he walked around the other side and draped his own jacket over the back of his chair. Then he sat down and pulled his chair closer to the round mahogany table, his eyes solely set on the woman across from him.

Nya let out a pristine chuckle. "Only three hundred times."

She was wearing a gorgeous baby blue kimono, both her and Jay's favorite color. It was a deliberate pick. Her hair was down and her makeup was done moderately. She wore her half of the Yin-Yang pendant on a silver chain around her neck, fully on display for anyone to see.

Jay had his on as well, showing anyone who dared to glance in his direction that he was in it for the long haul with the love of his life.

The two would usually wear their pendants under the many layers of their ninja gi, but since they were not required to wear anything ninja-related during their well-earned date, their limits in clothing choices were endless.

"Then I shall make it three hundred and two by saying it again," He let his eyes roam across her upper body, unashamed of coming off as a hungry man, "because you look stunning. I truly am an unworthy partner, but can you blame me for sticking around?"

"Who are you asking that?"

"Myself."

Nya's laughter sounded like music to his ears, a fine tune only he could elicit correctly. He let his chuckles weave into her voice, both of them creating a harmonic melody together.

"Such a charmer," Nya said with a smile, her hand, delicate but supporting a few scars here and there, reaching for the menu book.

Jay copied her actions and opened his own menu book, his eyes immediately inspecting each and every meal the restaurant had to offer. His mouth salivated upon glancing at the pictures on every laminated page and his stomach churned in the best way possible.

The two had only been able to eat breakfast today because a sudden mission interrupted the rest of their afternoon, just like the others'. A group of criminals stealing money from a bank, nothing special or unusual.

It was a bummer that Nya had to fight bad guys on a day like her birthday, but being a ninja meant full-time. She could not just clock off and call it quits after eight in the evening to get some alone time. Just like the rest of her team, she had to be prioritizing her job, no matter the circumstances.

The couple's plans needed to be changed as a result of their stolen time. Instead of going to the movies and spending the day in Jamanakai, they had to spend useless hours in a car chase across Ninjago, and since they still had a few hours of the day left before the clock would strike midnight, they decided on a fancy dinner date in Ninjago City.

It was Jay's idea to go on a date but Nya's idea to go to Golden Chopsticks.

"This place is better than I expected," Jay admitted after flipping through each page of the menu. "If the food's great, we should come here more often."

"The food is great, Jay." Nya closed her menu book and put it aside so that her eyes could stay focused on her man's. "You know I wouldn't recommend you bad stuff."

"That's true." Again, Jay copied Nya's antics and placed his menu book to his left, stacking it neatly on top of hers without looking. "I'm just saying, though. I will have to be the judge of their fine cuisine, as they put it...here." He picked his menu book back up to show Nya the text beneath the restaurant's logo.

His girlfriend shook her head, her bangs flowing around her face. "You're so picky."

Before Jay could offer a retort, the waiter came back and swiftly picked up their orders. Nya's order was a simple one—Ma Po Tofu—but Jay's order managed to make the waiter suppress an unprofessional grin, his hand writing down each item in an expertly speed.

"I'd like to have the roasted duck, some dumplings, some kung pao chicken—but please make them all in small portions because I do have to keep my shape fit if I want the lady to stay." Jay threw a sly grin at Nya before going back to ordering more food, his tone back to business casual. "Of course we can't forget the Wonton soup and some char siu."

The waiter stayed silent for a few seconds to ensure Jay was done with his order before asking, "What would you like to drink?"

"Water," both Jay and Nya answered at the same time.

The middle-aged man disappeared then, leaving the two ninja alone once more to tend to their orders.

Nya buried her face in her palms, her fingertips massaging her tired eyelids. "You did not just order an entire family's worth of food, Jay. How can you even eat so much?"

"Psh!" Jay waved her question off with a light chuckle. "Please. When I told you I'd be the judge of their fine cuisine, I wasn't kidding." He surely was not, Nya now understood. "Besides, I've got you here with me, don't I? We can share everything. Boom, bam, everyone's happy."

An eyebrow slowly hiked up Nya's forehead, her brain processing Jay's words. He wanted her to finish his food with him? The five full meals? Definitely not.

"Whatever you say," Nya settled to respond, her eyes landing on a patch of lint on his white dress shirt. She reached over the table and picked it off for him.

His eyes followed that action closely, the moment suddenly so intimate that the chatters of their fellow fine-cuisine enjoyers turned to nothing but a forgotten buzz in his ears.

He caught her hand before she could retract it. His eyes came into contact with hers, capturing them in an unbreakable, imaginary hold, and his lips inched closer to her skin until they left a featherlight kiss on the back of her hand. Then he let go of it and watched as she slowly pulled her arm back to her side.

Not even five seconds passed before they were interrupted by the waiter once again, this time with the serving of their meals. He balanced two plates on each arm, so another waiter had to carry the other two plates.

Jay's mouth hung wide open as the food was placed on their table. Everything looked like it came straight out of the menu book's example pictures, which was a more than pleasant discovery.

"Enjoy." The two waiters left with smiles on their faces, their voices always polite and friendly.

"Thank...you." Jay was mesmerized. He didn't know where to start. "This looks so good," he admitted, grabbing his chopsticks and picking up a dumpling. The moment it landed on his tastebuds, he knew the restaurant would get a five-star rating from the Lightning Ninja.

Nya laughed. "I know it does." She grabbed her own chopsticks and dived into her plate.

Within the next few minutes, the two only ate and barely talked. That was how they ate most of their meals usually, because talking would be wasting time when their meals were hot and waiting for them. They did love talking over desserts, though.

Of course, the two shared each meal. Nya and Jay never kept anything to themselves so they just ate whatever they wanted to eat.

By the end of the night, every plate was left empty, their stomachs now full and begging for mercy. The two didn't really listen to them since they were now talking about what to eat for dessert.

"I'm thinking some good ol' ice cream," Jay said, his phone already in this hand to search for the location of the nearest ice cream parlor that was still open.

Nya thought about it for a moment. "Ice cream sounds fine," she decided, her arm deep in her purse to pull out her wallet.

Once she picked it up and opened it, she came to the conclusion that she did forget her own credit card at home, and the only card that was in her wallet was the group's shared bank account's.

That one was used to buy things for the monastery, like decorations or parts for their mechs and bikes and jets, their furniture, like a new couch whenever Kai would get jump scared on their recently bought one and light it up in flames, or just anything regarding the entire team, like new gi's, weapons, training dummies (though Pixal and Zane liked to build new ones and repair the old ones instead of buying them from a company), or training gear.

Definitely not to cover a bill of well over two hundred bucks for a dinner date.

"Lloyd's going to kill you, Jay," Nya said, placing the card on the table and putting her purse back on the floor next to her feet. It was trapped between the wall and Nya's sneakers, which was a better place to put it rather than the back of her chair, where she couldn't see if anyone was behind her to take it.

"Why only me? You ate everything together with me," he accused her, and she didn't want to admit it but he was correct. "And why are you carrying that one, anyway?"

"I must have forgotten to put it back after using it to buy a new toaster and microwave yesterday." She shook her head. "Why do we ever let Lloyd near them? When will we learn?"

Jay smiled at the feigned dramatics his girlfriend used. He was definitely rubbing his personality traits off on her, because the old, pre-Jay Nya would have never acted like that.

When the waiter came, Nya had no choice but to insert the team's shared credit card into the POS terminal since Jay had also forgotten his card at home.

Not that he ever carried it with him. He was a bill-and-penny-payer through and through. Nya guessed it came from him growing up in a junkyard where they never really worked with cash-or-card options to pay for spare parts.

"Thank you," the waiter said, giving Nya the receipt. "We hope you had an amazing experience at Golden Chopsticks."

"We most definitely did," Jay answered quickly.

"Then we hope we can see you here soon again. Have a great night." Then the waiter left again to let the ninja get ready to leave.

Jay and Nya both stood up at the same time and reached for their respective jacket and coat. Nya didn't wait for Jay to play chivalrous and quickly put her coat on, much to his dismay. She found him pouting at her and only shook her head, a smile on her face.

They left the high-end restaurant with his arm slung around her waist, just like how they'd entered it.

The ice cream parlor Jeannette's Treats was a five-minute walk away from the restaurant. Although the night sky was pitch black by the time they arrived, the artificial lights around the parlor lit the place up, inviting every passerby for a scoop of ice cream.

Jay held the glass door open for his girlfriend and entered right after her. The interior was kept minimalistic so that the people inside would be the star of the show. The show being the colorful clothes some wore and the children happily laughing and giggling.

But it was close to midnight, so no families with children were there, only a few other people who were irrelevant to the ninja couple.

Instead of sitting down and letting a waiter pick up their orders, Jay and Nya decided to give their orders to the person behind the glass counter before going to a booth and taking a seat.

"I'm going to use the restroom," Jay told Nya and stood up, sliding out of the booth.

Nya nodded and watched him disappear behind the nearest corner where a WC sign was pointing towards. Then she let her eyes wander around.

Another couple was a few booths away from them, laughing and talking rather loudly among themselves. A lonely, old man was in the far back, but there was a jacket in the seat across from him, and when an equally old woman walked towards him, Nya knew he was not so lonely after all. The worker behind the counter looked tired and ready to go home, but the place was supposed to stay open until two in the morning, so he had at least two more hours left to work.

Her curious gaze led her to look outside. But that curiosity quickly turned to annoyance when she found a guy openly ogling her through the glass.

She turned her head away from him and let her hair cover the right side of her face, hoping he would just take the hint and go away.

After a few seconds she snuck a glance in his direction and made the horrific discovery that the man was now opening the glass door and slowly but surely walking inside.

Nya immediately checked him out. Not in the I find him hot way but in the I gotta make sure he's not dangerous way.

He looked to be about thirty and had dark hair hidden underneath a dark green baseball cap. He had on a pair of regular blue jeans and a large hoodie. His hands were tucked in his jean pockets as he strode inside.

He was making a clear beeline towards Nya's booth but was held back by the worker behind the counter asking him what he would like to order.

"Uh, nothin'. Just wanted to use the restroom." The man's voice was a rough, dark timbre.

The worker seemed reluctant as he showed the man where the men's restroom was.

Nya grew agitated. Why was Jay taking so long?

The worker went back to focus on his own work, not seeing the way the guy was eyeing Nya and walking into her direction.

Rolling her eyes, Nya stood up abruptly, startling the man when he was only a few steps away from her. "Look, if you think—"

"Damn, all that food I just ate was desperate to get ou—" Jay stopped in his tracks and removed his hands from his belly, his eyes darting between the man and his Yang.

He blinked, then stood up straighter and got right up into the man's face. "What do you want? Why are you talking to my woman?"

The man took a step back but Jay closed the distance between them again. It was a scare tactic, since most people hated it when someone was in arm's reach of them. And Jay being a ninja was one thing, but him also wielding the control of lightning?

The guy knew he was cooked.

"Man, calm down. I just wanted to use the restroom." With his hands in the air, the guy looked as innocent as he possibly could pretend to look like.

Jay pointed at Nya. "Does my Yang look like a urinal to you?"

The guy frowned. Nya face-palmed.

Jay comparing her to a urinal was not what she would have expected on her birthday. Or any day.

The man opened his mouth but Jay didn't let him speak a word. "Come on." He lightly pushed against the guy's chest, into the direction of the restroom.

"Wha—" Catching himself just in time before stumbling to the floor, the guy looked at Jay, surprised. "What?"

"We're going to the restroom, what's so difficult to understand?" Jay looked down at his imaginary wrist watch. "And let's hurry up because I still have a birthday sundae to enjoy with my bae."

The man was too stunned to speak so Jay pushed him away from Nya and disappeared behind the corner towards the restrooms again.

Heaving a heavy sigh, Nya sat back down and slumped forward. Jealous Jay was a tough man to deal with and get some sense into, but Overprotective Jay? That was a lost cause by a long shot.

Nya rubbed her tired eyes and waited until she heard footsteps hurrying out of the building. She looked at the man just in time to see his busted lip and blackening eye.

Her narrowing eyes slowly looked at Jay, who was striding towards her with his hands in his pockets. His pursed lips emitted loud, obnoxious whistling noises.

"Jay, we've talked about this."

"Now, now." Jay pulled his hands out of his pockets to put them in the air. "Let's not argue about some random scum, okay?"

"But you beat—"

"Ah, look!" He pointed at the worker who was walking over to their table. "Our sundae!"

"But Jay—"

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and shut her up. "Thank you!" he told the worker who just brought them their large strawberry sundae.

When the worker walked away, Nya turned back to Jay and frowned. "Are we going to talk about—"

"No." Jay picked up his spoon and handed Nya hers before diving in.

A small smile crept up on Nya's face.

Overprotective Jay was a lost cause, but at least he was hot.

A/N: It's been a while, stranger. So much has been happening in my personal life (both good and horrible, terrible), which is why I physically cannot handle writing a lot, and I'll be completely honest; wtf is Dragons Rising?😫😭 I just recently started watching it (I'm currently on episode 17) and I genuinely have no idea what to think of it. Part of why I don't really enjoy it is because there are so many episodes out and there is no Jaya?!?!? I know Jay has lost his memories, has no idea who Nya is, and is working for the enemy (I've seen wayyy too many spoilers of the episodes in season 2), and I also know I'm going to DEVOUR the angst when those episodes drop (and you can bet your butts I'll drop some angsty oneshots when Nya realizes her Jay literally doesn't know who she is). But up until the moment Jay and Nya meet, I will not really enjoy Dragons Rising.

Also, what were the writers thinking when they made Nya not only meet a Djinn but also make a wish???

I cannot.

And don't even get me started on there being NEW NINJA. My heart cannot handle this (I don't like change and I don't like seeing the ninjas' spotlight being taken away by Arin (I really don't like Arin) and Sora and Wyldfyre).

(I kinda like Sora tho)

But the concept of the Merge is literally genius and I love seeing the people (and snail people and lizard people and whoever else) from different realms being mixed with the realm of Ninjago.

And Zane losing a Zane contest? Comedy gold.

And the 22-minute episodes are back so I guess that's a win.