Ninjago: Reversed Destinies

Chapter 23: Being Unhearded

"Phew! We're almost there." Nya comments as she, Zane and the the Skulkin pair leave the market. "Now we just need to find Mistaké's Teashop."

The girl waits for any additional comentary from Zane, but the boy keeps quiet after giving her a quick glance.

"Uh, is everything alright?" She asked. "You look distracted."

"Oh, sorry." The blonde fastly speaks, embarrassed. "I just noticed that your shirt is very familiar to me. I'm sure I saw it somewhere."

"Oh, it's Jay's." Nya nods. "He let me borrow it. Blue is actually my favorite color, so he offered for me to wear it today."

"That's strange." Nuckal meddles in their conversation. "I never saw you wearing blue. It was always red before."

"Uh... Sure." Nya doesn't know how to respond. "That's because Kai was the one to always buy us clothes, so maybe he really likes red and never really asked for my opinion..."

"I see. You never told us about that." Zane ponders.

"Never saw a reason to talk about it." She shrugs. "I don't like to remember those days. They are a little too much."

They walk in silence for some time before Zane starts talking again. "Sorry for asking, but did something happened before we left the Bounty? I wanted to ask earlier but you seemed really worked up."

Nya sighs. "I guess you're right. Kai and I had an argument, that's all."

"Was there any reason for that?" Her friend gently asks.

"He probably have a lot of reasons." The red ninja grunts. "Apparently Kai doesn't want to see Jay too close with me or something like that."

"Oh." It's all the blonde says, figuring out what happened. "Does Kai noticed the way Jay is acting towards you lately?"

Nya looked at him with wide eyes before she starts giggling. "Zane, do you think before talking?" She comments. "But you got it right again."

"Well, Jay isn't the most subtle person around." Zane rolls his eyes. "What about you then? How do you feel about any of that?"

"Oh, uh..." Nya was caught off with the last question. "I actually don't know. It's not that I don't like Jay. He is cool, and funny, but..." She pauses.

"But?" Zane asks, hoping to sound supportive.

The girl sighs. She didn't expect to talk about this with anyone, and there she was, opening her heart to Zane, no less. "But maybe this isn't that bad." She thought. "Of everyone, Zane is the best listener. I know I can talk with him about it."

"It's just... I don't know. I feel like everything is going so fast." She mumbles. "I grew attached to Kai my whole life. Of course I'm not complaining!" The red ninja adds.

"Don't worry, I understand what you mean." Her friend nods with a gentle smile.

"Thanks." Nya says. "But now I feel like I can finally make my own path, be my own person." She lowers her head. "And I don't want to throw that away just to be attached to someone else again." The girl glances at the shirt she is wearing.

"So you want to be on your own for now, right?" Zane says, comprehensive. Nya nods at him in silence. "As your friend, I say there is nothing wrong with that. You should validate your feelings before anything else."

"Thanks, Zane." Nya shyly smiles. "To be honest, I thought about that after everything in the Bounty today. I felt like I was in the middle of a round of tug-o-war..."

"Oh, look, it's the tea shop!" Zane points to a store at the other side of the road. Kruncha and Nuckal were waving at the pair in the front of the place.