A/N Sorry for the wait guys. This chapter was an absolute MESS, and I only had it on my iPad. When I sent it to my computer, I just flew through the editing. I made it longer in an attempt to try to compensate for all of the time I didn't write for you all, so enjoy!

*about 3 years ago*

Jay's POV

I sit inside my dressing room yet again. I inhale the cool air, admire the custom blue walls. When the team said goodbye several months ago after filming the final battle, we thought it was the end of the show. We all melted when we wrapped for the last time. We cried and held onto each other. For the first time in my life, I'd made friends. I didn't want the thing that fostered our friendship most to be over.

However, season 2 of Ninjago wasn't only a major success, but it also blew all of our network's previous shows out of the water. We broke several records and won many awards in the time after the finale. We created a market for Ninjago.

Due not only to how lucrative the show was, the cast was called back to see if we'd be interested in reprising our roles. With a resounding yes, all of us signed a contract for 4 more seasons. Now, we're back to film a 3rd season, and the anticipation has been killing me.

"Jay!" at the sound of her voice, I look up and see Nya standing at the door to my dressing room. Her eyes are bright, her smile huge. I immediately rush her and pull her into my arms. I pick her up and spin her around. As her legs lift off the ground, she lets out a laugh and hugs me. It's been so long since I last saw her.

"I sure did miss you, like a lot a lot," I tell her when I finally set her down. Every time I see her, she seems even more beautiful. Her eyes are so radiant in a way that makes me feel funny down to my core.

"I'm sure I missed you more. We've barely seen each other since we finished filming," she hugs me even tighter than before. "Gabe was just so happy that I wasn't busy, so he really wanted to hang out."

"I understand. It just sucked. I reeeeaaaally missed my best friend," I rest my head on top of hers.

"You've gotten taller," she sighs, her tone dropping.

"You seem upset."

"It's nothing."

"Nya..."

"There's just a big difference from when I last saw you. It makes me sad that it's been long enough that I can notice," she admits, still holding onto me tightly.

"Hey, we're together now, and that's what matters, right?" I try to cheer her up. She lets go, and the two of us walk over to the couch in my dressing room. I flop down, and she follows suit. She curls up to my side as usual, using my chest as a pillow. "It was about time I hit puberty anyways."

The way I turn it into a joke makes her laugh. A bright smile grows on her face. "The fan girls are going to lose it. They all thought you were cute before, but now you're going to be unstoppable. Has your hair gotten curlier? It seems like it."

Her words make a heavy layer of blush cover my cheeks as my throat gets tighter. Her words are light, but they knock me off of my train of thought and straight into Happyville. I'm thankful she's not looking at me right now, or she'd know something is up.

"Speaking of fan girls," I sway the conversation in a different direction. "Do you want to start reading our scripts? Rebooted is going to be Jaya's season. I can feel it."

"In a couple of minutes. I just want to talk to you for a bit," she hums. Her eyes are closed as she rests, and my heart can't help but freak out. It's practically slamming against my ribs. I can't help but worry that she's going to notice. The worry adds to the nervousness which makes my heart beat faster. It's a vicious cycle.

"How is the switch to homeschool going?" I ask her. She was on the fence about it when we wrapped up shooting on season 2.

Not only does shooting require a very flexible schedule, but when you're on a show this big, the promo that has to be done is no joke. She missed a large portion of school days, way more than the "acceptable amount".

Her social life was also drastically changed by the show. With paparazzi showing up every day to take pictures of her to being swarmed outside of every class, it all became too much. People wanted to be friends with her just because of her connections and status.

All of the stress weighed down on her and deteriorated her mental health. She would sneak into the bathrooms and call me, freaking out. She originally would try to deal with it herself since she tries to be self-reliant, but I convinced her that I want to help her, so she started to confide in me. Walter and I showed up at the school multiple times to help calm her down (the school only allowed it cause they wanted to keep Nya there for publicity). We tried to not be seen, but someone always saw me. Without fail, we trended on Twitter every time.

The last time I visited her, I went into this little room in the office like I usually did. She would go in there, and we would talk, but this time, a girl saw me go in at the very beginning. While I was trying to help Nya, at least 100 people rushed into the small room and swarmed us.

As someone who gets anxious very easily, it wasn't good for me. I haven't been exposed to crowds much seeing as I'm homeschooled and was never able to get used to them. When the crowd feels like they're going to crush you with their force with people pulling at your limbs, hair, and whatever they can grab, it's absolutely terrifying.

The crowd closing around me was too much. My heart erratically beat, my lungs nearly collapsed, and my head roughly pounded.I had a panic attack in the middle of the crowd. When Nya saw what was happening, she snapped. She went off on everyone, telling them how horrible they were being and how horrible they always had been. She was able to get us out. That day, she decided she was never going back to public school again.

"It's weird, but it's a lot better than the alternative," she admits. "Gabe keeps insisting that I do it at his house, so he can help me, and we can see each other more. It's been nice, but it feels like he's always around, like I don't even have time for just me or what I want to do."

"I'm happy that it's an improvement, but you're a 15 year old girl, Nya. You can choose what you want to do, not Gabe. Do what makes you happy," I advise her. She sighs.

"He wants to get an apartment together, a fancy one too. We have the money to pay for it," she informs me, her tone neutral. I choke on air. My body slightly jolts upwards as I gasp to regain my breath.

"You? And Gabe? Living together? Nya you're 15! You can't even drive yet, and he wants you two to live together. He's 18 for goodness sake. He's an actual legal adult, and you can't even drive. This is crazy..."

"I haven't told my mom yet."

"Wait, you're seriously considering it?" I sit up. Her head falls onto the couch as I look at her, bewildered.

"It's my dream apartment. He found one exactly how I always imagined. It's so nice, Jay."

"What does he want out of this?" I ask her, hoping it'll reveal a few red flags.

"The start of a life together," she answers. I sigh. Reaching out, I grab her hands in mine to try to signal that I'm truly meaning what I'm saying before she starts talking again. "I love him, Jay. That's not going to change."

I wince, trying to keep it as subtle as possible. The pain radiates in my chest. "As your best friend, I want you to take my advice to heart. I don't think moving in with him is a good idea. You said it yourself, you want your freedom. Imagine how that's going to be once you two start living together. I don't want you to get trapped in a bad situation."

"I think this is what I want. This apartment is what I want. Besides, my mom's cosmetics company took off. She's rarely home now anyways. The companionship will be nice," she looks me in the eyes the whole time. "I think he's the one for me. I'd be dumb to not take advantage of that as soon as possible."

My stomach churns as my heart sinks to the pit of it. My chest is about to burst with jealousy. It claws at my insides. She says those words with such conviction, such surety. "He's been the only one. You wouldn't know if there was someone better out there."

She looks at me and slightly tilts her head before sighing. "Neither of us are going to change our stance on this. Let's drop it, okay? I don't want to fight with you."

While I don't want to drop it, I let it go for the moment. The two of us pick up our scripts and act like nothing even happened. Both of us have a talent of ignoring the elephant in the room. It's moments like this where it comes in handy.

The two of us start to silently read through our parts from the first episode before Nya's eyes widen. "Oh no they didn't! What the heck?" she slams her script down. I raise my eyebrows to get her to elaborate. She clearly has a scene that I don't have in there cause I haven't seen anything.

"What is it? All I have is technoblades and statues and leaving the city," I raise an eyebrow.

"Nya goes on a perfect match machine and sees that her perfect match is Cole," she rereads the script, her face scrunched up with displeasure.

"That has to be a typo. Jaya is way too popular for that," I flip through my script, trying to find something in here that mentions it. "Are you kidding me? Cole's shown no interest in Nya ever, and now he and Jay are both on a date with Nya, so she can choose! Jay's literally her boyfriend," I say with clear annoyance.

"And at the end I hug Cole instead of you. Oh, and Zane is dead. What the heck is this?"

"The writers really had a field day with this one," I flip to the same page as her. "There has to be a good reason for this. There's no way Zane is actually dead since we all just signed on for 4 more seasons."

"Maybe he'll just be in flashbacks or visions. We don't know what they'll pull out seeing as we have this script in our hands," Nya brings up.

"I just can't believe that Jay and Nya are breaking up. After everything that happened, I can't believe they'd make Nya dump him cause a machine tells her to," I vocalize.

Not only did my hopes of ever getting with Nya die today, but so did our show relationship. Today sucked in that regard, but I'm going to stay by her side no matter what. That's what best friends are for. Even if I won't be her's, I'm going to be there for her.

---

"Hi Cory. Has the morning been treating you well?" I greet our script distributor. He's the one in charge of giving the right people the right scripts.

"Here's your script," he slides it over as usual. Cory is one of the blandest people I've ever met, He's not one for small talk.

"Can I have Nya's too? She's meeting me at my dressing room to read it together, the usual," he lets out a humph before digging through the pile in front of him. "Do you know why they're giving us the scripts several days before the table read this time? They never have before."

"They want to film sooner," he answers blankly, dropping Nya's script in front of me too.

I adjust my sunglasses and give him a smile as I pick up the nearly identical sized scripts. I'm going to break him one day; I'll make him crack a smile. "Thank you. I hope you enjoy your day."

Heading off to the building that holds our dressing rooms, I take in the familiar scenery. Walking here always fills me with nostalgia and makes me happy. Considering Ninjago is the only show I've ever worked on (I've never had the desire to do anything else), I'm here a lot less than the others. It still has the same appeal as the first time I walked in.

When I turn the corner to my dressing room, Nya is standing next to the door. Her head is down as she looks at her phone. She has on a pair of black leggings partnered with a maroon t shirt and a light blue bralette peeking out near her collarbones. Her hair is tied up in a messy ponytail, and I can't help but smile at the concentration on her face.

"Why hello there, stranger. Long time no see," she looks up and gives me her cute little smile.

"It really has been a while," she tucks her phone into her pocket as I approach. "How are the guys?"

"They're good. They've been enjoying life," I tell her. Once I reach her, I greet her with a hug. I can feel the tension and stress in her body. Her muscles are tight and tense. Slowly, she loosens up as she wraps her arms around me and sighs. "You're beyond stressed. I can tell."

She pulls out of the hug, and I notice how truly exhausted she looks. The bags underneath her eyes weigh her down, dark and layered. Her skin noticeably has several breakouts, and her hair seems thinner than usual. Her eyes lack the glow they had when we first met.

"I'm just tired. Come on. Let's go sit down," she gives me a small smile before I open the door to my dressing room. She takes a seat on the long couch that I have pressed against the wall before closing her eyes. I close the door behind us before walking over to a little box I brought in the corner of the room.

"Well, I kind of figured that you'd need a pick-me-up, so I brought something special that you could wear while we're in here," I lift the fragile straw crown from the bag and turn towards her. An electric smile grows on her face as she grins from ear to ear. I walk over to her and kneel down. As I slowly place the crown on her head, she laughs lightly. "As the reigning champ, I'll let the runner up wear the crown for a bit. It's the least I can do."

"Thank you," she gently touches it once I finish crowning her, the contentment on her face a sign that I did a good job. I give her a small smile before walking over to a blue bean bag chair I have in the corner of my dressing room. I can feel her eyes on me the whole time I walk before I flop down. When I look up, she's still looking at me, her head slightly tilted.

"Should we get started?" I ask her. She blinks a couple of times before reaching out and grabbing her script.

"Yeah, of course. I'm just a bit out of it. Be patient with me," she tells me, brushing some stray hair out of her face. Her choice of words make me recoil a bit, but I hide it under my small smile.

"When am I not?"

The two of us take turns reading our lines. So far, there's a lot of group stuff and then a separate scene with the two of us at the palace of Shintaro. We're in a room, and Jay tries to talk about their future while Nya keeps switching the subject onto things that are more about her and new abilities she's started to learn. Then, we start making out and get interrupted by Cole calling a mandatory team meeting.

Real life Nya has loosened up some more. More of her actual self comes out in comparison to the refrained version. She's still clearly holding back though.

We get through the ninja trying to free the Munce and Geckles and how they separate. Like in Prime Empire, we're with Lloyd. However, unlike last time, we end up in the center of Munce civilization.

"Who the heck is this Murtessa chick?" Nya breaks from reading it, flipping through the pages with her eyebrows slightly furrowed. "Jaya are in a happy place. We don't need anyone screwing that up."

I flip through a decent amount of pages before my eyes widen. "Well it looks like that's happening. There's a scene where she kisses Jay, and Nya sees."

I watch as Nya's jaw clenches and unclenches. "Jay wouldn't kiss another girl."

"That's why Murtessa kisses Jay and not the other way around. She's in a position of higher power and ultimately has control over the ninja. In his eyes, he can't blatantly turn her down cause then it'll make their situation worse, but Nya gets mad cause now Murtessa is acting like Jay is her's, and he's allowing her to walk all over Nya," I explain it how I see it. I flip through several more pages and skim. "Hey, but apparently they get into a huge fight about it and make up. Oh, and Nya decides to try to be the new queen by fighting her for Jay which also shows how she cares for him. Huh, that's a twist, but I like it." I look up at Nya who has her nose scrunched up reading the script. "I'm guessing you don't like it."

"Jay's clearly happy with Nya, so Murtessa should know not to try to get him. I just think it's unnecessary conflict," annoyance seeps through her words. She's been this annoyed at the script very few times. It's out of character for her to be this upset.

"I haven't seen you this mad at the script since you saw that Nadakhan forced a kiss onto Nya when you as an actress didn't feel comfortable kissing him. Is everything alright?" I check in on her.

"It's not needed. It's just there to create drama and take up screen time. Plus, I don't want you in a situation like that. We don't know who this girl is gonna be, and if it's an older woman..."

"I'll be fine. They purposely cast a younger actor to play Nadakhan to make you more comfortable. They'll probably do the same for me," I shrug before reaching over and taking a sip of my water. "What's in the script is in the script. We went to them complaining about the whole season 3 love triangle thing, and they never fixed it, so I doubt they would now. Besides, this is a good thing. It shows another dimension of their relationship. Thanks for the concern though."

We keep reading through the script from where we left off. I read all of Lloyd's lines and Nya reads Murtessa's. However, Nya's mentally checked out. She's good at hiding it, but I can tell. It's the same look that she's always had when she checks out. Her expressions are only half of what they usually are, and her eyes get distant.

"Hey, thank you for coming by the way. I know it's hard for you, like really really hard, and I appreciate the effort a lot, and...," I ramble instead of reading my next line. She slowly comes out of her daze with a small smile.

"Of course. It's a tradition. Besides, it's a nice break to spend time with one of my friends."

---

Seliel's POV

My head bops up and down as I sit in my house, listening to music while I work. I'm editing a Q and A I recorded yesterday with one of my friends. I'm fast at using the program itself, but the hard part is deciding which videos to keep and which to just toss. While I'm typically a decisive person, I bounce between all of the options several times. I want to give my fans the best video they can have.

I rub my eyes underneath my glasses since I was yet again too lazy to put in my contacts. Staying on the lazy train, I just rolled out of bed and went to do my work, not caring enough to change out of my pajamas. All I have on is a pair of underwear and one of Cole's t-shirts. It's the most comfortable outfit I've ever worn.

I let out a long yawn and stretch my arms. My hand reaches out and grabs my mug of coffee before bringing it to my lips. As I drink, I take a long look at the kitchen around me. I can't help but smile.

About 3 months ago, Cole and I decided to move in together. It was a big step, but I'm beyond happy that we did. Now, we live in a nice, beautiful house together, and I see him every day. We're both still busy, but it makes it so we can see each other a lot more. Plus, I've never had a more amazing view than waking up next to him in the morning.

Regaining my focus, I go back to my work. I stitch together the video more and more, adding 3 more clips before I hear a rustle at the front door. It audibly flies open.

"Seliel!" my boyfriend's cheery voice echoes through our house.

"In the kitchen!" Within seconds, he's standing in the door frame with a massive smile. Everything about him is glowing. "You're happy."

"We got scripts today," he sets his script on a little side table. It's massive. "It took 13 seasons, but I'm finally the focus ninja!" When the words escape his mouth, my eyes widen and I immediately run and give him a giant hug.

"Cole! I'm so happy for you." I jump into his arms, wrapping my legs tight around his torso and my arms around the nape of his neck. "You've been waiting for so long. I'm glad it's finally happened."

He moves his hands under my butt to support me. "I read it and flipped out. I had stopped hoping since it had been so long, so seeing it completely surprised me. The first thing I did was call my parents. Then, I rushed home to see you."

I pull an arm away from his neck, so I can run a hand through his long raven hair. Looking into his deep brown eyes, I give him a sincere grin. "I bet they were so proud."

"They already knew. Both of them were asked to be in this season," he tells me, surprising me.

"Your mom kept a secret! This has to be the first time ever. You get that trait from somewhere."

"Dad had to watch her to make sure she didn't tell me anything," he admits. I laugh a little bit before pressing my lips against his. The kiss is long and deep, full of meaning. My stomach spins in the best way possible before I pull away.

"We're going out tonight to celebrate. You deserve it."

"Actually, I was hoping that we could stay in. There's no point in going out when we're going to be forced to eat at home. The paparazzi suck," he suggests.

"Good idea. You saw what happened to Kai and Skylor. Now, what is the season about?"

He is beaming, the smile on his face one of the biggest that I've ever seen. "Sit down. It's a lot."

---

Lloyd's POV

"Yeah, I saw that we're all together again. I thought that it was funny," I sit in my dressing room for another tv show I'm currently filming. Right now, other people are filming their scenes, so I was allowed to look at my script for the upcoming season of Ninjago.

Us actors are just as excited to see the new development in the story as the fans. The days leading up to script distribution are like the days leading up to Christmas. We all talk, creating theories about what's going to happen. Our excitement for the script helps spark our energy at the table read, and everything carries over.

"I'm excited. You two are my boys. Plus Kai, of course," Nya's voice comes from my phone.

"How do you feel about Murtessa?" I ask her even though I already know the answer. She'll never admit it, but she's already insanely jealous of her. Nya always hates it when other girls get close to Jay. I doubt this will be an exception, especially since they have a kissing scene.

"Uuuugh," she gives a predictable response that makes me laugh. "Why are you laughing?"

I realize that I laughed a bit too loud. My eyes widen. "Uuuuh, Buddy is being funny." I reference my golden retriever who is at my house, not in the dressing room with me.

"Lloyd."

I sigh. "It was just so predictable. I knew you'd hate her."

"It's unnecessary. She's unnecessary. Jaya are perfectly fine. What does she add to the story? Nothing! She adds absolutely nothing," she reasons.

"Mmmhmmm. Anyways, are you going to the cast party this year? I think everyone else can make it for once," as I talk to her, I highlight my lines with a green highlighter. Leaning back in my seat, I twirl the highlighter between my fingers as I hunt for them.

"Yeah, I think so. Gabe is a wildcard though. I don't know if he's going," at his name, my nose scrunches up.

"You're bringing him to Jay's house? I know he's been there before but..." I drift off. While we all hate Gabe, Jay hates him the most - for valid reasons. Jay is the target of most of Gabe's hatred - also for valid reasons -, which led to the current mess where Nya can barely talk to Jay. He's mean to Jay without fail every single time they see each other. Bringing that into Jay's house on a night that's supposed to be fun isn't the best idea.

"If I tell him he's not allowed, he won't let me go. I need to offer," she tells me. I press my lips together. "No matter what, it's better than staying at my house."

"Anything is better than not seeing you. I miss you."

"I miss you too," she replies, and I can tell she means it.

Suddenly, there's a knock at the door to my dressing room. "I'll call you back. If the producers see me on my phone, they'll go crazy. 'Confidentiality' and all that."

"Alright. Go kill it."

"You know I will," I hang up the phone before getting up to answer the door. I quickly pull it open. Instead of the balding, smelly producer I expect, my gorgeous, kind girlfriend stands at the door.

"If you're trying to keep your calls from the producers, you should talk a bit quieter. I could hear you hating on Gabe all the way down the hallway," she softly laughs. "Gabe slander is always accepted though."

"I've never agreed with a statement more," I reach out to embrace her, pulling her into my chest. "What're you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be working on your newest 'top secret' project."

"I was, buuuut," she wraps her arms around the nape of my neck, "I wrapped up early, so I wanted to stop by and give you a surprise."

"You know you're my favorite surprise."

"Mmmhmm," she stands on her tiptoes to place a soft, delicate kiss on my lips. "Can I come in?"

"Of course. I just got the new script for Ninjago," I tell her, leading her into the dressing room. She quietly shuts the door behind us before we walk over to the couch. I sit down, and she follows suit right next to me before wiggling underneath my arm.

"Oooo, you did? What's it about?" she asks with curiosity. She places a hand on my thigh to rest before leaning her head on my chest.

"Well, I can't tell you too much or else it won't be as fun to watch you watch it," I tell her, making her groan.

"You can at least tell me anything that'll stir the cast pot. I need to be prepared in case something goes down at the cast party," she insists.

"Well, from what I've seen, there are two things that could come up. First, Cole finally has a love interest. I don't know how that'll work out with the whole 'show pairings magic' thing, but knowing Seliel, she might be a biiiit cold towards her..."

"A bit? Seliel knows what she wants, and when something gets in the way of that, there's no stopping her."

"That's the minor one..."

"That's the minor one?" Harumi interrupts me, looking up at me with her eyes wide. "What could the larger one be?"

"Jay has to kiss another girl."

"Yep, that would do it. Nya is going to be fuming. Do you think she'll finally dump Gabe after seeing how upset she'll be?"

"Nope. She's way too stubborn for that," I answer realistically.

"You don't get a new, mysterious lover though, right?" she double checks, warming my heart.

"Nope. I just want you the whole time. It's one of the many things fake Lloyd and real Lloyd have in common."

A/N Finally an update, am I right? I'm sorry y'all. I REALLY dropped the ball on this one. Hopefully I don't take 7 eternities next time. Once we get to the fun stuff, I'll update a lot more frequently

What did you guys think? Hopefully I was able to salvage the chapter enough to make it get the point across. I just didn't want to rewrite it, so I edited what I already had and went from there.

Thank you all so much for reading and waiting! You're all the best. Don't forget to comment, vote, and share!