Legends of Ninjago Book 2: Rise of the Serpentine

Chapter 24: A Moment

Cole was still staring at the ground in disbelief. The feeling of scaly lips may still have been fresh in his mind, but all he could think of was how close he had gotten to Ann, and—even worse— how very nearly he had let himself kiss her.
When Scales had given him his order, Cole's brain just completely shut down and refused to reboot. Out of all the embarrassing secrets he could have shared, all the humiliating things he could have done, Scales had to pick the single most utterly-gut-wrenching, below-the-belt-punching, remember-this-for-the-rest-of-your-life-kind-of-humiliating thing on the face of the earth! Cole had heard that snake's pathetic laughter, he could feel his smugness seeping into his subconscious, and right then and there, Cole swore that if he ever broke free of the hypnosis, Scales would be kissing the end of his scythe.
As Cole had felt the shell that was his body get up and walk over to Ann, he was met with a startling realisation: he almost wanted this to happen. It wasn't as though he was doing it on purpose, after all, he was hypnotised right now. He could easily excuse himself and Ann would certainly understand. So what if he just... let it happen? But right as he was kneeling down, he stopped and chastised himself. And had just stood up for him a moment ago. She had risked both their lives by trying to escape the night before. She was being held prisoner and forced into this just as much as he was, and he could tell from her expression that she clearly did not find the idea of locking lips pleasurable in the slightest. As much as he would've wanted to share his first kiss with her, this was not how he had wanted it to go. This was not the type of man he was. Even if he never got the chance to kiss her ever again at least he could always look back and say to himself, "I got that far."
With all of that being said, Cole knew what he had to do. He still obeyed the command—technically—he just happened to push himself up on his legs and accidentally smooched the wrong person by mistake. Either way, it prevented years of awkwardness between him and Ann and distracted Scales long enough for Cole to wipe the last of the Hypnobrai slobber from his mouth.
Still, he was staring down at the ground hardly believing what had just happened. It wasn't just about what he had almost done, or what he had ended up doing, but mainly just the fact that Ann had seen him kiss a Serpentine. Was is there a way, by chance, for them to both get their memories wiped?
The next thing Cole knew, there were flustered voices, and snakes were standing up, and something important must have been going on, otherwise Scales wouldn't have told him to "watch the prisoner at a safe distance" far away from all the important stuff that was happening.
He decided to take Ann to the only campfire which was completely abandoned. He knew he had made the right decision when she visibly began to relax. Actually, now that they were away from the noise and Scales wasn't barking any more orders, Cole began to relax too. Wow, this hadn't happened since... well, since he was back at the monastery. It was so strange... he'd give anything to be there right now. He was sure that everyone else had warm beds to sleep in tonight, and that Sensei Wu was coming up with a plan to rescue them, but in the meantime, he and Ann were stuck sitting here in the dirt and cold; hostages of the Serpentine. If only he'd gone after Kai sooner that day...
Ann gave a gentle sigh and Cole shook out his thoughts. He needed to stay in the moment and make the most of his situation, especially since he had no idea how long this precious window of free time was going to last.

* * *

Ann saw a two headed figures slowly step into the firelight, but was suddenly grabbed by the arms and thrown at Cole who was then ordered to take her away. She quickly swivelled her head around to try and catch another glimpse of the two heads she was sure she had seen, but she couldn't get past the Hypnobrais' massive hoods. Eventually she and Cole were out of earshot of the conversation and there was nothing left to do but unwind and think.
Cole brought her to the only free campfire and she sat down in front of a log, reclining a bit and resting her sore back. "What are we going to do?" she thought, feeling more than a little hopeless. Escaping hadn't worked, and if Wu was planning a rescue mission, he was taking his sweet time with it. Either that, or he had been compromised... Whichever the case, she needed to make the most of her time here by watching, listening, and, if at all possible, dishing out a little bit of sabotage. The only problem was that she didn't know if there was anything for her to sabotage, seeing as how all Lloyd and Slithraa had done so far was ransack a small town and then travelled to an old, abandoned graveyard for who-knows-what purpose. Whoever that two headed thing was, he seemed to be very important, but without further information, there wasn't much of a conclusion she could come to, other than: time is running out.
Ann suddenly noticed Cole shift next to her and she looked him over thoughtfully. The incident from earlier hadn't slipped her mind, and she felt positively awful for him.
"Thank you," she finally said. "For not... you know..." Cole slowly turned his blank face toward her. "I'm sure that must have taken a great deal of effort." There was a small smile in the corner of his lips, but it was well hidden as he turned away again. She still saw it, though, brief as it was. This was a good sign; it meant that Cole was fighting back.
But what were they going to do? What were their options? She needed to stop Lloyd and Slithraa before they did something awful, but she didn't have any advantages! There was no angle she could exploit, no leverage she could use, no resources even. Ann gave a small, frustrated sigh and rested her head against the dirty log, watching the fire as it flicked and vanished into the cold air.
Cole got up just then, and Ann watched him sadly as he walked off, probably fulfilling another one of Scales' orders, but then he came back holding a cloth in his hands. He got down on his knees in front of her and held it out.
"I... could use... some water," he said quietly.
Ann stared at him for a moment. He hadn't demonstrated this much control since Scales was asleep, but given that the snake was awfully distracted at the moment, she wasn't altogether shocked.
She happily made a water sphere manifest, although she had no idea what for, until Cole took the dripping cloth and started wiping away bits of dried blood from her face. Had she really gotten this dirty? When the cloth reached her left temple, her skin stung and she winced.
"S-sorry," Cole said awkwardly.
He went over the area again with much more gentility, while Ann fought to remember what had caused the injury. It was largely a blur, but she thought that she remembered something hitting her.
Ann really appreciated what Cole was doing. It was somewhat sweet, in a way, even if he was probably just trying to make up for "the incident." The soft swish, swish, of the cloth as it slid over her skin, trailing water drops behind it and clearing away all the gunk, felt soothing and comforting, like when... when... she didn't let herself finish that thought. There was no point in dwelling on the past, especially her own.
"Thank you," she said when he was finished. Cole placed the cloth on the log and sat next to her, watching the fire. This had turned out to be the single nicest moment of their entire day, and Ann closed her eyes, listening to the wind, and wishing that it would never end.

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