to rule the world | a ninjago au

[10] the girls rock pretty dresses

nya

"You look pretty," Pixal commented with a smile. Nya laughed, giving her friend a spin of her dress. "Annabella has done a wonderful job."

"She has," Nya echoed, taking a quick glance at herself in the mirror, almost feeling vain until she was stunned by her own reflection. "I think the last time I properly wore a dress was when I was like, five."

Blue had always been her favourite colour. Kai got red, Nya got blue, and now with their powers it felt more symbolic than she'd realised before. Bells really had outdone herself with the ball gown, a different one to the sleek, tight fitting outfit she'd used before. Black actually didn't look too bad on Nya with dark hair and tanned skin, although she would have felt more comfortable in something blue, the dress code was black and white with the Emperor's colours - gold and red.

"Have you seen what they're wearing tonight?" Annabella had fussed, a ruler between her teeth as she'd made more adjustments at yesterday's final fitting. "No way is some cocktail dress going to pass. Lucky for you, someone knows about dress transformations."

"You, I'm guessing?" Nya had grinned, twisting around to peer at the zipper down her back.

"Me," Annabella had agreed amicably. "Just you wait. If you need a quick change of clothes, undo the zipper and you know the pleat on your under dress? Undo that, and you'll be set."

"Okay." Nya had frowned down at her dress somewhat skeptically. How could a ball gown become something else? She could barely run in it. But Nya trusted Annabella, and Pixal did too. They both had these back up dresses under their massive ball gowns.

"I do feel like they might cumber us during fighting, though," Pixal admitted, shaking Nya out of the memory. "Ball gowns are so..."

"Big! I feel like I'm swimming in fabric constantly."

"But they're pretty," Pixal smiled at her own gown, twirling to give the wide skirts a flutter effect. Nya clapped grandly and joined Pixal in ditzy spinning, laughing as they stumbled into each other like kids on a little too much Kool Aid.

"Dresses away!" commanded Annabella, striding into the dorm. "The boys have their tuxes all packed after pretending to be penguins for an hour straight, and they better not be rumpled tomorrow. We still have hair and makeup, final mission briefs and—"

"Ciaga, take a deep breath. You've done a great job on these dresses, I think I've got about twenty hidden knife pockets inside and out. We've been preparing for ages, and the only thing that could potentially kill me are these heels." Nya held up a pair of elegant, black strappy heels, glancing at her sneakered feet underneath her ballgown. No way would she be wearing trainers to the freaking Emperor's Ball, but she also would probably snap her ankles in high heels.

"Alright, fine. Get some rest, you've got to get up nice and early for the first recon mission." Bells admitted with a sigh, looking more relaxed. Nya and Pixal drew their curtains, carefully taking off the ball gowns to hang up on the racks at the end of the dorm. Rema poked her head into the door with a smile, her own black dress swishing as she walked on six-inch high heels flawlessly.

"How?" Nya's jaw dropped in amazement. "Teach me your ways."

o o o

"Delivery guy approaching Roiya and Lotus."

Nya kept her back flat against the brick wall, slouching a little as she raised the rim of the orange juice bottle to her lips and drank slowly. Her part of surveillance was nearly over, a relief since she'd been up since five-thirty that morning and she really wanted a proper break and a good shower. The last preparations for the Emperor's Ball were being carted and carried inside the back entrance of the palace - the commercial side. Brushing down her Master's Supermarket employee jacket, Nya headed for her next spot, heaving a semi-full box of red ribbons into her arms for a prop.