Masked Pain

Just the 2 of us

Jay pov:
"Jay....Jay!" He felt someone shaking him, his eyes were still closed. "Jayyy!!" He groaned as he opened his eyes, looking at the person calling for him. It was Nya, she stopped shaking him upon realizing he was awake. He sat up groggily and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "We uhm-..slept in a little later than expected" she told him, chuckling nervously. He looked at the clock on his nightstand and his eyes widened, it read 12:16am. "Why didn't the others wake us up!?" He asked frantically, turning his head back to Nya "Kai took Lloyd to the comic book store and Cole went with Zane to interrogate the criminals we caught at the museum" she told him tiredly, it seemed like she also just woke up.

He stood up, almost falling over due to his still tired legs "Welp we're awake now, so ima go make some breakfast" he said smiling at her, still half asleep. She laughed a bit "Yeah no, you're barely awake and I don't necessarily feel like putting out a fire right now" she joked also getting up, he didn't want her to have to cook though, he owed her after everything that happened. "But-" "No buts, besides I've been wanting to try out a new way of making waffles anyways" she cut him off, not giving him the chance to respond before walking out of the room.

He sighed in defeat. He remembered the way he and Nya would always fight over who would cook in the lighthouse, not because they wanted to but because they didn't want the other to have to do it. It eventually got to the point they had to take turns, he laughed slightly at the memory.

He opened his wardrobe and picked out some simple clothes for the day, just a grey shirt, light black pants, a jean jacket and a smiley pin to go on top of it to add at least some flair. He proceeded to go into the bathroom, brushing his teeth, brushing his hair, blah blah blah. When he was done he walked into the kitchen, the smell of bacon and waffles causing him to realize just how hungry he was. But that didn't matter, he'd probably just take a bit to not waste food and it's not like he deserved it anyways.

Nya glanced over at him upon his entry, she was currently making the waffles, the bacon was done. "Good morning" she said, smiling at him. He still didn't understand how she could still tolerate being in the same room as him, he knew she was probably faking it but why go out of your way to make breakfast for someone you hate? It didn't make sense to him. "Morning" he replied, his voice slurred a bit from the sleepiness and he tried to return her smile the best he could. He sat down at the table, trying to fully wake himself up. The world around the two drew into comfortable silence.

Nya sat down with two plates and two cups of water, one with two waffles, whipped cream and fudge sauce on them with four pieces of bacon on the side. Another with two waffles, butter and syrup on them with three pieces of bacon on the side. Nya handed him the one with whipped cream along with his water and began eating and drinking her own. He picked his fork up but it slipped out of his hands quickly after due to his glove to his annoyance, he picked it up again as Nya tried to muffle her laughs. "Why do you keep wearing those stupid gloves anyways? They don't do anything for you" Nya asked him, still amused. He froze for a second but quickly played it off, drinking some of his water "Uhm..I'm not sure. It just feels comforting I guess?" He said, trying to make it sound believable. It seemed good enough for Nya, she just hummed to show him that she heard him and then went back to her breakfast.
.  .  .
They finished eating- well rather Nya finished eating and Jay was supposedly full, only having eaten half of his breakfast. He stood up and grabbed all the plates, cups and cutlery and made his way over to the sink to wash the dishes. "Oh, I can do that" Nya told him, moving to stand beside him "Nope you cooked and now I get to do the dishes, like the lighthouse remember?" He said, hoping his voice didn't go higher when he'd said lighthouse.

She giggled at the memory "Finee but only because you need your so called "exercise"" she said, rolling her eyes and then walking off. He laughed as he began doing the dishes, remembering how he'd gotten Nya to agree that he should do the dishes in the lighthouse.
. . .
"C'mon pleaseee?" He asked Nya, trying desperately to get her to let him do the dishes "For the last time, no. You need to rest to let your wounds heal" she told him, annoyed. "But think about it, if whoever doesn't cook does the dishes then I won't strain myself too much doing it after I cook so we could take turns! Not to mention I do need to keep myself moving so think about it like exercise" he said, attempting to sound confident when in reality he was just extremely desperate.

Nya sighed, defeated "Alright fine, you can do the dishes" she said, going to sit back down. "Thank you!" He said excitedly smiling brightly as he almost ran over to the sink to start doing the dishes
. . .
It'd been a couple minutes since Jay had been doing the dishes and the conversation somehow turned into Nya trying to convince Jay that fighting with guns would be so much easier and overall better to use. "Nya we aren't using guns" Jay managed to get out, already dying with laughter "Oh c'mon, it can't be that hard to aim!" She told him, clearly joking yet still sounding confident. "Yeah, tell that to Flintlock" he said, remembering how Lloyd's wish made it impossible for him to aim. Nya broke out in laughter "True true-" she said, in between laughs. The conversation continued like that, light hearted and casual. A nice contrast to the conversations they usually had based on Jays health and what his final wish should be.
. . .
He didn't even realize he'd finished the dishes until he turned the water off, he completely zoned out during that. He dried his hands off and put the dishes back in their rightful places. He felt..weirdly happy to be out of his room. He should really do this more often, though he knew that thought would be completely obliterated as soon as he made it back into his room, which was basically just a depression cave at this point.

He was on his way back to his room before he felt someone grab his wrist lightly, he flinched and looked back but calmed down once he realized it was Nya. "Hey" she started "Did you wanna go to the arcade? It's been boring around here lately and we haven't really gotten the chance to hang out" she asked him, trying to act normal, though he could tell she was nervous. Probably because she didn't actually want to hang out with him but just wanted to be nice, maybe Cole asked her to or something. "Oh it's fine, you don't have to hang out with me if you don't want to!" He told her trying to sound reassuring. She frowned at that, seemingly confused, though her confused expression turned into..pity. Fsm he really hated pity.

The hand on his wrist moved down to his hand "Jay I do want to hang out with you, I miss doing things with you and laughing about stupid things..can't we go back to that?" She said, sounding sincere. But there's no way she could actually mean that, there's no way she doesn't hate him after everything, I mean- she did convince Nada-..the djinn to leave his sword so Jay could get it, meaning she is a good actor. Yeah that's probably it. But he knew her and he knew she wasn't going to give up until he gave in. He sighed in defeat "Alright, let's go" he said as she grinned happily, dragging him out of the monastery to summon their dragons.

Once they got outside and to the edge of the monastery she let go of his hand. He was about to try and summon his dragon before Nya came back over to him. "You remember how you were taught to summon your dragon when you first started learning?" She asked him, "Uhm-..kinda?" He said confused "Maybe you should try summoning it like that, it might be easier" he thought about it and tried to summon it like he used to after a couple seconds of thinking.

He put his right foot back a bit and put both arms in front of him, forming a triangle with his hands. Nya came closer and started adjusting his poor stance, she turned his right foot out slightly, bent the right leg a bit, straightened his arms and took a step back. All the while he just stood there, going into whatever position she desired as he tried to hide his blush. "There, that looks better. Try it now!" She said eagerly, he tried to summon his dragon and it came almost instantly. "Woah..thanks!" He said smiling a genuine big smile as he hopped onto his dragon, Nya following after. He began to forget about all his worries and problems as he and Nya flew to the arcade.