A/N: Sorry for the wait! I gave you all a long chapter to hopefully make up for it.

*1-2ish years ago*

Harumi's POV

Taking the makeup wipes on my vanity, I clean the red smear off from around my eyes. They water as I do so. Today was the last time I'm ever going to play the Jade Princess. It's not even like Skylor where her character left but could easily come back. My character is dead. There's no arguing that.

At the time of my audition, I was ready to give up acting. I tried countless gigs, but I was never cast. Whether it was the girl next door, the evil sidekick, the fun but mentally slow best friend, they always told me I wasn't what they were looking for. I started to think I was a bad actress. However, when there was a casting call for the newest season of Ninjago, I decided that I was going to "go big or go home". Clearly, I went big.

We filmed the past two seasons back to back, and it was so fun. From my initial appearance to the wild boat scene with Lloyd to the ambush on the elemental masters, everything was a thrill. I got to push my boundaries and make new friends. Most casts are stuck up, but not this one. Lloyd, Nya, Kai, Jay, Cole, Zane and everyone else are all so humble. They act like they're just regular people.

I've made some amazing friends that I don't want to lose. Lloyd and Nya have been beside me through this entire process, helping me become more accustomed to the screen. The rest of the guys were also a big help, but they've been off in the desert filming for the past month or so.

Lloyd had been especially helpful. He's always so kind, offering to show me moves if I mess up or going out of his way after hours to make sure I have my lines down. He gives my nice little tips that really help me get into character and enhance the realism of my emotions.

I'd be lying to myself if I were to say I haven't developed feelings for Lloyd. When you've worked with someone that charming for months straight, it's hard to have nothing form. He's hilarious, attractive, and kind; what more could you ask for?

The set is overflowing with chemistry all of the time. Between Jay and Nya (who aren't dating but clearly should be) and Pixie and Zane, there are clear examples of how well certain people can fit together. That's what I want in life, and I feel like Lloyd is who I work like that with.

Once I finish cleaning off my face, I let out a long sigh. It's my last time ever being in this dressing room. It's been a complete whirlwind, and I couldn't be more grateful for it. It's just sad to see it go.

Tying my hair up in a ponytail, I go to stand up and say bye to everyone when there's a knock at my door. "Come in."

The door opens, and Lloyd is standing at the other side. He's cleaned up after we wrapped up today's scenes, wiping all of the fake dirt and cuts off of his face. He's wearing a pair of black sweatpants with a green hoodie. Running his hand through his blonde hair that's significantly grown out since he was younger, he gives me a smile. "I was hoping that I could talk to you. Is that alright?"

"Yeah of course. Just close the door behind you," I tell him. Once he gently shuts the door, he walks over and sits on the small couch they put in my dressing room. I move over there to join him, sitting about two feet away. "What's up?"

"Well, I..." he can't find words, making me raise an eyebrow.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, yeah it is, more than alright, actually," he scratches the back of his neck. "I've had a really fun time filming these seasons with you, Rumi..."

"I had a good time with you, too. I couldn't have gotten through it without your help," I admit.

He smiles, his nerves breaking a little. "I'm glad. I...I don't want it to end. I've really enjoyed getting to know you. You're amazing. I want to keep spending time with you," he reaches his hands out to grab onto mine. My heart starts to beat quickly, sensing what is about to happen. "I like you a lot, Harumi Swanson, and I don't want to let you get away. Will you please be my girlfriend?"

Excitement flows through my body, knowing that one of the most amazing people in the whole world wants me to be his. As the blood rushes to my cheeks, I give him a large smile. "Of course I'll be your girlfriend, Lloyd Montgomery."

His arms immediately wrap around me, pulling me into his frame. As I return the gesture, it all just feels right. Being in his arms feels right. Maybe the others were right with their whole "show pairings" idea because as soon as my skin touches his, I know there's no one else that I'm supposed to be with.

---

Nya's POV

"And iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii will aaaalways looove yooooooooou," Kai sings horribly on the mock stage, a microphone pulled to his lips. He points at Skylor as she sings, and although she finds his horrible singing funny, it's clear that she still appreciates the gesture.

We've been doing karaoke for the past hour, all of us taking turns going up (while letting others that want to do it go in between too). So far, Kai and I are distinctly the worst singers here.

"Yessssss Kai! Serve king!" Seliel cheers for him. She's at least mildly drunk (she's 21 so there's nothing stopping her). I guess in her current state, Kai's singing is either a masterpiece or she doesn't care.

Cole (who is also at least a little bit buzzed) dances with her, spinning her in circles and swaying to the music. It's unfair that the two of them are so rhythmic even when they're drunk. I can't get that coordination without alcohol in my system, let alone with it in it.

Once Kai finishes his song, he gracefully bows before walking off the stage to Skylor and I. "That was great, wasn't it?" Kai rolls his neck back before giving Skylor a long, drawn out kiss. His hands travel down to her waist, and when they pull apart, they're staring into each other's souls with intensity. My awkwardness increases when they go in for another kiss, this one even longer and with Kai pulling Sky even closer to him. I look away, wishing that Jay was here so I wouldn't be the third wheel.

"Where's Jay?" I realize that he's been missing for the past three hours, and even though the line to get in was long, it couldn't have been long enough that he's still gone.

Kai and Skylor pull apart. "Huh, you're right. He's been gone a while," Skylor agrees that his absence is weird. "We should look for him."

"You don't neeeeed to go though," Kai pouts at her as she slides out of his arms.

"I'll be back. Then, you can sing me another song," she smiles at him before turning her head towards the two drunk dancers that are still going even though there's no music. "Hey Sel, you want to go help us find your cousin?"

"Ooooo, that sounds fun. Girls trip!" she runs over to the two of us, leaving Cole standing dumbfounded in the dust.

"I will accompany you too," startled, I jump and find Pix standing behind us. "Apologies, Zane and I were acquiring beverages. Virgin pina colada anyone?" Pix sticks out a tray of drinks, and I happily grab one, taking a long sip of the fruity, tropical goodness.

"Where are Rumi and Lloyd?" Kai asks, noticing his best friend's absence.

"Observing the buffet. Lloyd is convinced that he will catch someone with a chocolate face if he is patient enough," Pix explains. The explanation makes sense cause it's Lloyd.

I grab onto Pix and Seliel's arms. "Come on. We need to find Jay. There's no way he's escaping karaoke."

---

Lloyd's POV

I casually pop a jalapeno popper in my mouth while trying to look nonchalant, instantly regretting it when my tongue starts to burn. Since I don't have anything to wash it down, I just have to sit here and let my tongue fry. It's worth it though. I'm going to catch someone coating their face in chocolate.

"Kai already won, so you'd be getting $70," Rumi reminds me, tearing off a gummy worm's head with her teeth and making me laugh.

"It's worth it. Besides, now you can focus on catching a wardrobe malfunction. Skylor is also up a point. I saw a guy crying earlier."

Harumi strokes her chin, "We can always dance while we wait for something to happen. I'm sure it'll be a spectacle if either of our things happen. It's not like we can miss someone coated in chocolate."

"Well, there is no reason to use up ALL of our time at the party just watching people," I stick my hand out for her. "We can have some fun too."

Once she takes my hand, she pulls me onto the dance floor. However, we're stopped almost immediately by a group of girls. "Oh my gosh, can we take a picture? We're big fans!"

"Of course," I give them a smile, and the girls are quickly surrounding me, pushing Harumi out of the way and giving her the phone. When I go to tell them to be nicer to her, Rumi gives me a look that tells me she doesn't want me to make a scene.

We take various photos in several different poses. For the final one, two girls sandwich my face with their lips, both giving me a kiss on the cheek. My insides squirm, and I quickly try to get out, moving away from them. They must have been cast as extras in order to be here, but kissing my cheek in that role is still a bold move.

"She has you tricked Lloyd; she always will. The show just highlights who you guys truly are, and the world saw who she was," they quietly "warn" me. Then, they walk up to Rumi, take the phone back, and walk off into the crowd.

Rumi's mouth is pulled downwards at the annoyance and discomfort shining through my eyes and scrunched up nose. "What did they say?"

"Nothing of value," I walk back up to my girlfriend, discarding their irrelevant words. I cup her face with my hand, using my other to pull her back towards me as I connect our lips. The kiss is more passionate than usual, my lips pushing harder and faster into hers. She wraps her arms around the nape of my neck to deepen the kiss, pulling herself even closer to me.

Just as I feel my self control starting to leave, everyone else in the room disappearing, she pulls away, "so they definitely made a comment about how I'm actually evil, yeah?" she observes. Her hands move to my shoulders, cupping them.

"They're irrelevant. You know I don't care what other people say cause they don't know you. I do," I tuck a strand of her nearly white hair behind her ear, my fingers gently grazing over her skin as I do so. My eyes stare into hers. The deep, vibrant green excites my chest, amplifying the quick blur that takes me over when I'm with her. Everything but her fades out. All I want is her.

Her head lowers as she sighs. "I don't know what I did to deserve all of the hatred."

She pulls herself closer to me, so she can hold onto me. Once she's settled in, I wrap my arms around her too before placing a kiss on her forehead. "People are too jealous for their own good. They'll get tired of it eventua..."

"Holy shit! This stings!" at the sound of a loud voice, both Rumi and I jolt up to look at the snack table. There, Dareth is standing, his face covered in warm, melted chocolate. "Not only am I even more delicious, but I am finally the brown ninja! For real!"

Even in this serious moment, neither Harumi nor I can hold ourselves together. We burst into a fit of laughter. "Oh Dareth, you just got me $70."

---

Jay's POV

"So then the man next to me vomited all over the seat in front of him. At this point, I'd already given up on enjoying the flight (a shame because I love plane rides), but this sealed the deal. It was three hours into a twelve hour flight, and there was already a baby that never stopped screaming, a smelly pervert next to me, and throw up within arms length," Tessa details her flight over, and with each detail, I cringe. We've been talking for a bit, and I've been interested in the conversation the whole time. It hasn't been dull. Meeting new people is always fun.

My eyes are wide as I listen attentively to her story. I take a sip of my drink. "It was literally a flying torture chamber."

"Tell me about it. However, since the guy threw up all over the seat, they didn't want anyone sitting near it, so they relocated our row and the one that got thrown up on. Believe it or not, the direct flight from London to LA was not fully booked. I was in the middle seat this time instead of the window seat, but I ended up next to the most adorable little girl. She had these little curly pigtails and a pink tutu and kept wanting to talk to me about Paw Patrol. Her favorite was Skye. She had a little plushie of her and everything," she gushes at the end.

"That's adorable. Most kids I see just want to fight with each other until the other is on the ground which should definitely be alarming but I've never really seen the issue in it..."

"Cause you star on a ninja show with a lot of battling. Kids just mimic what they see, and the ones meeting you are the ones that watch your show," she explains possible reasoning.

I tilt my head, considering her theory. "That makes sense. Speaking of the show, I don't think I've seen you in any other projects. Is acting your main thing?"

She shakes her head, "No, I actually..."

"Tessa! What on Earth are you doing here? It's been forever," interrupting our conversation with a drink in his hand, Kai uses his free arm to give her a side hug. "Oooo, it looks like you found Jay. Of course you did though. You're her favorite ninja," Kai tells me just before she lightly elbows him in the side.

"And to think I was happy to see you," she jokingly shakes her head at him. "As I was about to say before Kai rudely interrupted," she gives him a quick but playful side eye, "I usually model. Kai and I did a few campaigns together last year and the year before while he was in London."

"She was supposed to come to my last birthday party, but she couldn't fly out here," he explains to me before looking at her. "What are you doing here though? Unless you came here as Jay's date - which I'd be seriously upset about cause no one told me -, it's a bit odd to leave your date to talk to someone else."

His words make my face heat up a little, and as I get slightly flustered, Tessa just laughs. "I came here by myself, actually. I've been wanting to get into acting, and this show usually picks more obscure actors for their roles, so I wanted to give it a shot."

"Dang, I'm impressed but honestly not shocked. You practice looking excited for hours all the time. Who are you going to be? Let me guess, Cole's love interest, the princess of Shintaro? If so, I'd be careful around Seliel. Cole probably hasn't told her yet, but when he does, she's going to lose it."

"Nope, thankfully since Seliel could probably scare me off of the show. Vania McBride is his love interest. I reached out to congratulate her on the role, and she was an absolute sweetheart. She couldn't fly out for the party though which was a shame," Tessa explains.

"Then who are you playing?"

"You're looking at Murtessa, the queen of the Munce," she tells him, a smile on her face.

Kai's face suddenly becomes so much more amused, a mix of shock and laughter leaving his mouth. "This is gonna be interesting," he mumbles to himself before he turns his attention to me. "All of the girls are looking for you."

As I remember the words I said to Nya earlier, I facepalm. "I totally forgot I was supposed to find Nya once I was done greeting people at the door. Oh boy, she's gonna be so, so, so, so mad at me. Of course I manage to screw up even when Gabe isn't here," I apply pressure to my temples with my thumb and middle finger, starting to walk back and forth.

However, I stop when I feel a hand on my arm. When I move my hand away from my face, I'm met with Tessa's amber eyes looking up at me. Her closeness makes my heart race, unintentional on her side. "We can go find her. I doubt she'll be too upset when she finds out you were just keeping someone who needed it company. Besides, I really want to meet her since I'll be spending a lot of time with her."

"I don't think..." Kai starts, but I cut him off.

"Y-yeah, great idea," I clear my throat. "Let's go find her, yeah?"

---

Nya's POV

It doesn't take long to find Jay. Even if it's a loud, busy party, his laugh is one of the most recognizable things ever. I could pick that sound out of a crowd of hundreds of people talking.

I expected him to be exasperated, sitting down in his slippers near the bar, sipping his chocolate milk while still attempting to put on the host act even though he was exhausted. Instead, he's standing near the doorway, smiling and laughing with some girl.

"Who the hell is she?" I cross my arms, an aggravatingly familiar feeling overtaking me. My blood starts to boil as I see her laugh at something he says, lightly reaching out to touch his arm.

"I do not recognize her. She must be a new addition to the cast," Pix deducts.

"I don't know who she is, but she sure is hot," Seliel slightly slurs, throwing in a little giggle at the end. For someone who isn't a giggler, she definitely lets out a surprising amount while drunk.

The girl with Jay is absolutely stunning. Her long, black hair is shiny and sleek, pulled in a high ponytail with a few hairs framing her face. Her eyelashes are long, her features delicate as she stares up at him with a smile. The olive green dress she wears hugs her body, highlighting her perfect physique. She's the definition of an hourglass while also being visibly toned.

My chest heats up as I clench my fists. Trying to calm myself down, I take a few breaths in and out.

"Maybe she's playing Princess Vania. It would make sense considering how beautiful she is," Skylor suggests, getting a closer look at her. "She's familiar though. I just can't pinpoint it. I've definitely seen her."

"Princess who?" Seliel asks, serious for the first time all night.

"Princess Vania. She's the princess of Shintaro, and Cole's love interest this season," Skylor explains, and from Seliel's clenched jaw and eyes that could kill, I can tell she didn't know. "He didn't tell you he had a love interest, did he?"

Seliel shakes her head. From the looks of it, she shouldn't be worried. The girl, Vania, is clearly ogling Jay, laughing at something he says before taking a sip of her drink. She says something, and he bursts into a fit of laughter, nearly spilling his chocolate milk.

The rest of the girls keep talking, probably trying to convince Seliel she has nothing to worry about, but I can't help but tune them out. All of my focus is on Jay and this girl.

The two talk, Jay deeply engaged in whatever boring story she's probably telling when Kai suddenly walks over, giving her a quick little hug before talking to the two. She elbows him for interrupting the conversation before glaring at him.

"It appears like Kai has met her before. Perhaps we can get information out of him," Pix suggests.

"Yeah, they look like friends. Maybe she's worked with him before. That could be why she was familiar to me," Skylor guesses as probably Vania laughs at something Kai says. After a couple more interchanges, Kai laughs before wiping the tears from the corner of his eyes. Of course this girl is already all buddy buddy with another one of my favorite people.

The pure, fierce anger that bubbles in me mixed with the nausea and constrictions in my chest not only makes me want to fight her on the spot, but it also makes me disgusted with myself. The fact that I'm this upset about Jay talking to another girl brings up things I'm not ready to deal with from deep down inside of me. Memories of Jay and I that I've spent years trying to ignore come back to the surface, and waves of guilt come crashing down on me. I'm horrible.

Jay freaking out pulls me out of my mind. He's pacing back and forth, his fingers applying pressure to his temples. Out of instinct, I start walking over to help him until the girl walks up to him, getting all up in his space before placing her hand on his bicep. She stares into his eyes. After saying something to calm him down, the two of them walk away. Kai just stands there, shaking his head before taking a sip of his drink.

"I'm going to find out exactly who that chick is," I declare to the others before making a beeline to Kai, not caring if they follow or not. I'm too worked up. My mind is laser focused on what I want, getting her as far away from Jay as possible. I hear some shouts from behind me, but I ignore them.

When Kai spots me making my way over to him, he tells me, "Dang it, you just missed Jay. He was right here not even a minute ago." However, once he sees the look on my face and the girls hurriedly following me, he slightly tilts his head, his features neutral. "Did something happen?"

"Who is that girl?" I grumpily point over in the direction that she and Jay left.

Kai, realizing that I just saw them, widens his eyes. "You were watching? Why didn't you just come over?" he questions.

"Answer my question," I cross my arms, not in the mood.

"Is that Vania, Cole's love interest?" Seliel chimes in, her own concern leaking through.

"What? No, no, that's not Vania. That's...ummm...Tessa, the one that's going to be playing Murtessa. I worked with her for a modeling campaign a while back. She's a sweetheart really..." he drifts off, looking at me empathetically. My heart falls out of my chest, shattering on the ground, yet I still know he's holding something back.

"But?"

"You don't want me to..."

"Tell me," I order him. He sighs.

"Jay's always been her celebrity crush. Her friends always used to be like 'you'd drop any dude in a heartbeat if Jay Gordon walked in and asked you out', and she'd always get really embarrassed because I was there, and I'm one of Jay's friends, but she never denied it."

Of course Murtessa, the girl who is going to kiss Jay, is played by a hot girl who already likes Jay. Why wouldn't she be? The person ruining show Jaya is trying to leak into his actual life.

"Maybe it's a good thing. If Jay gets a girlfriend, maybe Gabe will let you hang out with us more," Kai tries to cheer me up, but it does the opposite.

I'm with Gabe. I've been with Gabe for years now. The fact that I'm this upset about someone other than him just proves everything he's been saying. All of his assumptions are right. They're always been right. I'm a horrible person. I'm not a good friend, a good girlfriend, any of it. Gabe is right.

Even with the realization, I can't reign my feelings in. The anger, the anxiety, the dread, the pain, it all swirls around my head. It feels like it's about to explode. I need it to stop.

I abruptly leave the group in search of something to ease my feelings. Entering the crowd, I try to squeeze through people, but it's too dense. I'm pulled with it as my anxiety sky

A/N: One party chapter left! Woooo, what a treat. This has been fun.

Thoughts on the chapter?

The band that I originally wrote fanfiction about had their 10 year anniversary yesterday. It's so trippy. 

Thank you all so much for reading! You're the best! Don't forget to comment, vote, and share it with your other friends that like Ninjago!