Previously on Tiny Troubles...

It was quiet for a few minutes, save for a few rumbles of thunder. "Lloyd?" Cole's quiet voice suddenly piped.

"Yeah?" Lloyd asked sleepily.

"...Thank you."

Lloyd grinned before resting his head on his pillow. "Night Cole," he muttered as he shut his eyes.

Cole smiled and also closed his eyes. "Night Lloyd."

Feeling safe and secure thanks to his brother-in-all-but-blood, Cole spent the rest of the night in a dreamless sleep.

~~~~~

Part 16

When Kai woke up that morning, it was still raining outside, but it was a calm drizzle rather than a raging thunderstorm.

The red ninja slowly sat up in his bed and yawned, stretching his back. Hearing some quiet giggles, Kai peered down and blinked when he saw Jay and Zane crowded around Lloyd's bed.

"What's going on?" he asked, climbing down from the top bunk.

"Shhh!" Jay shushed him, snapping pictures on his phone. "Come look!"

Curious, Kai squeezed in between his two teammates and looked at Lloyd's bed. A big, fond smile tugged at his lips.

Lloyd was sprawled on his back, blankets tangled around him and a thin trail of drool trickling out of his mouth. Next to him, with his panda plushie under one arm while his head rested on the green ninja's chest was Cole. The little ninja had cuddled close to Lloyd, who had an arm draped almost protectively over Cole's shoulders.

"When did this happen?" Kai whispered.

Zane shrugged. "Probably sometime last night," he answered, smiling. "They were like this when I woke up."

"This is too cute!" Jay quietly squealed, taking a few more pictures.

Unfortunately, Jay was a little too loud and Lloyd woke up with a snort. His emerald green eyes blinked slowly as he slowly became aware of his surroundings. Yawning, he wiped the drool off his face and started to sit up, only to freeze when he saw his teammates staring at him. "What?" He demanded.

Kai snickered and pointed at the still-sleeping Cole. Lloyd looked at the little ninja current snuggled up against him and blushed. "We had trouble sleeping last night," he mumbled. "Cole had a nightmare...

Kai shrugged. "Figured. Nya used to always want to cuddle with me after she had a nightmare. It helped her fall back asleep."

"Did he tell you what the nightmare was about?" Zane asked.

Lloyd frowned. "It was...kinda personal. I'm not sure if he'd like it if I told you."

At that moment, Cole shifted in his sleep, cuddling closer to Lloyd. The green ninja smiled and gently poked Cole. "Rise and shine, Cole~"

Cole moaned and pulled the sheets over his head. "Five more minutes..." he whined.

Lloyd gently shook Cole's shoulder. "C'mon Cole. Time for breakfast."

Cole groaned and slid out of the bed, yawning and rubbing at his eye.

Kai laughed. "Morning, sleepyhead," he greeted.

"Morning," Cole yawned, still looking half-asleep. "What's for breakfast?"

"I can make French Toast!" Jay chirped.

Cole perked up. "With the cinnamon swirl?" he asked, excitedly.

"Of course!"

"Yay!"

Everyone laughed as Cole cheered. Not that they could blame him for being excited. Jay's Cinnamon Swirl French Toast was legendary, almost as good as anything Zane made.

Almost.

~~~~~

One very delicious breakfast later and one semi-fight in which Cole and Jay fought over the last piece of French Toast(Zane made them split it evenly), Kai announced that it was time to train.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Nya asked, looking out the window. "It's still raining some."

"Pssssh, please," Kai waved a hand flippantly. "We're ninja, a little rain isn't going to stop us."

Nya frowned. "Alright, just be careful. Don't need any of you slipping and hurting yourself."

"Can I join?" Cole asked.

"Actually Cole," Nya suddenly piped up, before history repeated itself. "I was going to let you help me make some cookies today."

"Cookies?!" Everyone excluding Zane exclaimed.

"Can I help?" Jay asked.

"Me too!" Lloyd added.

Nya laughed. "Sorry boys," she said, standing up. "But I believe that you have training."

"Awwwwww," Jay and Lloyd moaned, disappointed.

Nya laughed again. "Come on, Cole," she said over her shoulder. "Let's go see what ingredients we have."

"Okay!" Cole said, racing to the kitchen.

"Don't let Cole contaminate anything!" Lloyd called out teasingly.

"Hey! My cooking is not that bad!" Cole shouted back.

"Yes it is!" Jay heckled.

Nya rolled her eyes. "Don't listen to them," she told Cole. "Come on, what kind of cookies do you want to make?"

"Hmmmm," Cole hummed as he searched around the kitchen, opening the fridge and the surrounding cupboards. "Oh! What about peanut butter cookies?"

"Mmmmm, that sounds like a good idea," Nya complimented, laughing when Cole had to jump in order to get the peanut butter jar down. "And I have the perfect recipe in mind."

Nya got out one big bowl and one little bowl, along with several different measuring cups and spoons. She told Cole to measure out the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and to sift it into the smaller bowl. While the little ninja did that, Nya measured out the sugar, peanut butter, regular butter, and eggs and creamed them together in the big bowl.

"Ready to stir in the flour?" she asked Cole once she was done.

Cole nodded. "Ready!"

Nya poured in the flour mixture into the big bowl and handed Cole a wooden spoon so that he could stir it in. It got a little tricky to stir after a while, so Nya helped him some.

"I love baking," Cole sighed happily.

"Heh, me too," Nya replied. "I--hey! No eating the batter!"

She lightly smacked Cole's hand away from the bowl. "Awww, but that's the best part," Cole whined.

Nya rolled her eyes. "You'll make yourself sick eating the raw dough like that."

"But it's soooo good!" Cole went to sneak some of the dough again, only for Nya to catch him and gently smack his hand away.

"You can lick the spoon when we're done if you want," Nya offered.

"Yay!" Cole cheered.

Nya laughed and shook her head. "You're just like Kai was when we were young. He was forever trying to sneak little samples of whatever food Mom or Dad was making. Once, he ate so much raw cookie dough that he ended up with a stomach ache."

Cole laughed. "Yeah, that was me. I liked cookies, but my favorite part was licking the cake batter off of the spoon." His eyes grew a little sad. "My...my mom made the best cake."

Nya glanced at the little ninja, stunned that he had mentioned his mother. "Really?" she asked cautiously, not sure if Cole would answer.

Cole nodded. "Yeah, she made this really awesome eggnog cake for the holidays," he said wistfully. "She let me help bake once for Christmas. I still remember the recipe...well, almost all of it. There's this one ingredient that I can never remember, and it's not on the recipe card that she used."

"Do you remember anything about this mystery ingredient?"

Cole made a face. "It tasted yucky."

Nya laughed. "Yucky how?"

Cole shrugged. "Dunno. Mom only let me taste a little bit of it. It was this brown liquid thing." He stuck out his tongue in disgust. "It was gross."

"Hmmm, maybe it was vanilla?" Nya guessed.

Cole shrugged. "Maybe...is the batter done yet?"

Noticing the quick subject change, Nya let it go and replied, "Yeah, it's done. Can you get me the saran wrap please?"

Cole nodded and brought out the tube of plastic wrap, which Nya used it to cover the big bowl. "Now, we put it the fridge for an hour," she said, doing just that.

"An hour?" Cole groaned. "That long?"

"Don't worry, Cole," Nya reassured him. "The time will fly by, you'll see."

Cole pouted. "It better..."

Nya smiled and ruffled Cole's hair. "Do you want to watch the others train?" she suggested.

Cole perked up. "Really?"

"Just as long as you stay close to me and far away from them," she instructed. "And no getting anywhere near a weapon. Deal?"

Cole nodded. "Deal!" he said, grinning.

Nya smiled. "C'mon, let's go find an umbrella. I think it's still raining...."

~~~~~

Cole huddled underneath the blue umbrella that Nya was holding, watching his teammates train. Kai and Lloyd were training with katanas while Jay and Zane practiced hand-to-hand combat. The little ninja wished that he could join in, but stayed next to Nya.

Despite the fact that it was still drizzling, none of the ninja seemed to care much. At one point, when Zane had pinned Jay down, the blue ninja had splashed some water from a nearby puddle at the white ninja, temporarily blinding him and allowing Jay to get back to his feet.

Cole sighed as he watched his brothers train and have fun. He sorely wished that he was his teenaged self again, so that he could train too. Though, it was a little too wet for his taste. It reminded him too much of what had happened that one day....

Cole shook his head, trying to banish the pit forming in his stomach. Relax, he told himself. It'll be fine. It's not thunderstorming anymore, we're perfectly safe here. Nothing's gonna happen.

"Haha!" Cole snapped out of his little daze when he heard Lloyd laugh. "Give it up, Kai! It's obvious that I'm a better swordsman than you now!" the green ninja bragged as he took a swipe at Kai.

"Oooh, those are fighting words, Lloyd!" Kai shot back as he parried Lloyd's attack. "Everyone knows that I'm the best!"

Nya sighed and rolled her eyes. "Boys," she muttered.

"Be careful, guys!" Cole called out.

Sparks flew as Kai and Lloyd continued to spar. With a battle cry, Kai lunged with his katana. Lloyd, unprepared, held up his sword in an awkward position. The flat of Kai's blade hit Lloyd's gloved hand, causing the green ninja to let go of his sword. The katana spun through the air until it sunk into the wood of the ship's mast, a good seven or eight feet above them.

Kai held the point of his katana close to Lloyd's throat. "Dead," the red ninja declared.

Lloyd groaned. "Fine, you win." He then frowned. "Though my katana's stuck now..."

"Relax, I've got it," Kai replied, sheathing his own katana and making his way to the mast.

"Be careful Kai!" Nya called out, worried.

"Don't worry sis!" Kai called back, already beginning to climb up the mast to the sword. "I'll be careful--whoa!" the red ninja cried out as he slid down the mast some. "Slippery..."

"Please be careful Kai," Cole said softly.

Everyone watched with bated breath as the red ninja slowly climbed his way up to where the sword was stuck in the mast.

"Almost...there..." Kai whispered as he reached up for the katana. "Almost..."

There was a sudden and unexpected clap of thunder followed by a sudden onslaught of heavy rain, which made everyone jump. Unprepared, Kai lost his grip on the mast and flailed, trying to not fall.

Cole gasped as he watched his brother begin to slip. The world began to move in slow motion. The little ninja didn't even realize that he had stepped out from underneath the umbrella, barely felt the rain soak his hair and clothes. All he could do was watch as his brother finally lose his grip and fall, while he mentally screamed No, not again! Nononono!

There was a dull thump, followed by a sharp snap! Several sharp gasps were heard, along with a loud howl of pain.

But nothing was louder or shriller than Cole's scream.

"KAI!!!!!!!"

----

Uh-oh. 

And before you try to kill me, Kai's not dead. Nor is he mortally wounded. 

But still, poor Kai. And poor Cole honestly. 

Oh, and if you're wondering what the "mystery ingredient" that Cole's mom used for eggnog cake, it's rum. My mom always adds a little bit of rum to the batter whenever she makes eggnog cake. It makes that cake taste sooooo good. 

What's gonna happen next chapter, I wonder??