Echoes | Ninjago

3

He wasn't entirely sure when he drifted off, but waking up to someone knocking on the door was enough to startle him out of his deep slumber. The room was cold, he wasn't even covered in the bed sheets. For a moment, he didn't dare to move. His entire body was stiff, his hands aching like they'd never done before.

Twisting his head to see the alarm clock, his barely open eyes read '22:13' in large red letters. How long had he been asleep?

The door didn't knock again, and for a moment he thought he dreamt it all, but once he reached to rub his eyes and felt the sudden shift in his chest, he was quickly reminded of where he was.

Every light in the room was on and when he finally gathered the courage to try to sit up, the brightness of his surroundings finally hit him. He really must've been tired to fall asleep like this.

That was when the door knocked again.

After taking in a sharp breath, clearing his throat, and sitting himself up against the bed frame, he called out for whoever it was to come in. Although, he did have a good idea of who it could be.

He'd been thinking about Cole before drifting off earlier. He never wanted to argue, especially not when he didn't have the energy to, and hurting Cole wasn't what he wanted either. He'd hoped the black ninja would come into the room to check up on him at some point, or at least soon, and whether Cole did come back was completely beyond him, but at least he was here now.

Or so he thought...

The door slowly opened and in stepped a Nindroid, and as much as Jay loved having him around and didn't mind seeing him, it definitely wasn't who he was hoping to see.

"Zane?" Jay frowned, his voice hoarse.

"How are you doing?" Zane closed the door quietly behind him. He gave Jay a soft smile, his gaze holding remorse. That was the last thing Jay wanted.

The lightning ninja got comfortable, taking his hand away from his chest - that he hadn't even noticed he'd had there. Returning Zane's smile, he cleared his throat again.

"I'm good," he nodded, "a million times better. Doesn't even hurt at all."

Zane gave him a sceptical grin, "are you forgetting about my pain chart again?"

For a moment, Jay considered lying again. Zane was usually easy to fool, which sounded bad but it did come in handy when Jay wanted him to get off his back about something. However, Zane, and the team as a whole, took injuries seriously and they'd only blame themselves if Jay ended up more hurt as a result of his lying. Besides, it really wasn't worth the energy he didn't have.

Zane was never one to judge anyway. Jay didn't mind being honest with him.

Jay shrugged, breaking eye contact, "it hurts. Not as much as it did, I guess, but very achy."

"What kind of pain is it?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

"Is it just aching? Are there sharp pains? Does the pain come and go?" Zane asked, sitting down at the foot of the bed.

Jay nodded, "there's a constant aching and there's sharp pains every now and then.. But that's normal, right?"

Zane goes silent for a minute, taking his time to glance over Jay's figure. The nervous pit growing in Jay's stomach was enough to tell him something was wrong, and even though he already knew it wasn't good, seeing Zane's reaction didn't make him feel any better. Typically, whether you were slightly bruised or bleeding out, the ice ninja always reassured you without a second thought. The fact he was taking so long to consider what he was saying, or worse, what state Jay really was in, was nerving.

He didn't look too convinced either.

"Zane?"

The ice ninja still didn't say anything, his eyes resting upon Jay's chest. Jay sat there awkwardly, watching as his friend's eyebrows furrowed. It was hard to tell if it was with worry or confusion. Maybe both?