I Will (Ninjago fanfiction)

Dinner and People

It turns out that the mysterious figure is the famed Sensei Wu. After the his kind, repeated, & suggested offer, I finally give in and agree to have dinner with them. I enter their house following Sensei with the boys tailing me.

"Dinner is not quite done yet, but make yourself at home, uh. . ." Sensei starts, searching for my name.

"Ember," I say for him.

"Yes, Ember. Make yourself comfortable. Get acquainted with our home. Boys, why don't you show her around? I have a feeling she may come to visit again."

"Yes, Sensei," the boys, except for Lloyd, say in unison. Jay leads me around the house, naming everything I see. The other boys flank me randomly. Visit again? I wasn't even that keen on visiting a first time.

I follow Jay around a corner with steam wafting through the air, and good smells entering my nose. "This is the kitchen," he says, fanning out his arm to show me the landscape. There's a girl in red with short black hair standing over by the stove. "And that's Nya, Kai's sister," he says, pointing to the girl at the stove. He walks over to her,"Hi, Nya, how's dinner coming?"

"It's gettin' there," she says, turning to face him & smiling. Her eyes drift and she spots me. "Who's this?"

Cole answers, "This is Ember. We had a run-in with each other at the Dojo. Turns out she lives next door."

"Ah-uh-buh-buh! Cole, I was going to tell Nya who she was!" Jay says, clearly frustrated.

"Oh yeah? Well, you're too slow, Lightning Bug!"

Something's going on between them three, some kind of tension. I'm sure I'll find out at some point. Jay and Cole glare at each other for a few seconds; Nya turns back to the food, clearly unamused by the two boys.

"Come on, Ember, I'll show you the Comfy Room," Kai says, distracting me from the boys' showdown. He leads me through a maze of halls and finally downstairs to a room with fluffy carpeting, some couches, and a bunch of beanbags. Some clothing is strewn across the floor; I don't want to be too specific about what type of clothing, but I'm not really interested in seeing those garments again anytime soon.

Kai rushes to pick up the clothing before I can take a closer look at it, as if I want to. "Please, make yourself comfortable!" He says to me. I sit down on one of the beanbags, but find myself sinking deeper into it, my knees coming up to meet my face. "Oh, sorry about that," Kai says, coming over to look down at my face. "That one's Cole's. He had it specialized so that it's super squishy. We he sits in it, it fills in around him to give him cushioning around his body."

"I see," I say, err, try to say, I'm all scrunched up. I hear footsteps coming down the stairs. It must be Cole & Jay, because Zane followed Kai & I down to the basement. I don't really know where he went after that.

"Uhh," Cole says, clearly having seen me curled together in his beanbag.

"I told her to get comfy," Kai says, walking over to Cole. "She honestly didn't know about your cushiness needs."

"Yeah, no, I didn't. But, I uh. . . I think I'm kinda stuck here," I stutter, drawing their attention back to me.

Jay walks over to me and reaches his hand out to me. I take it, and he pulls me out of Cole's weird beanbag. I brush myself off out of habit, even though nothing was ever really on me. Jay brushes off my back. I look back at him to give him a warning look just as Nya is coming down the stairs.

"Dinner's rea-- oh. Jay. . .?" She pauses, sounding fragile. Jay moves his hand away from my back and looks at her. Cole looks towards Nya, catching her gaze, and raises his eyebrows suggestively, twice. I think I might know what's going on. "Dinner's ready & already on the table. That's all I came down here to say," she finishes, looking at all of us. Then she eyes Jay, "but I guess you had something to say too." She turns around & leaves, apparently not happy at seeing Jay's hands on me. It's not like I asked him to.

We all trek up the stairs and into the dining room. Nya catches my arm and pulls me away from the group before we fully enter the room with the pot roast. "I swear," she starts, whispering into my ear, so the others can't hear her. "If you steal my boy--"

"Then who IS your boy?!" I hiss at her. She clearly hasn't designated who she wants, they're both fighting for her, and she's not progressing. She just makes a sneering face at me & lets go of my arm.

I find a seat at the table next to Zane & Cole. Nya sits in between Cole & Jay, who are, by my interpretation, trying to win her over. Next to Zane is Kai, then Lloyd, and then Sensei Wu, who finishes the circle by also being next to Jay.

I bow my head to say grace, but I hear no one's voice; just the clanking of silverware. "Do you not thank at the table?" I ask them frustratedly, raising my head.

"Thank for what?" Kai asks, his fork with food on it, halfway to his mouth.

"How about for what you have?! What you're given?! How lucky you are?!" I raise my voice.

He doesn't take a bite of his food; instead, he sets the fork back down on the plate with a clatter. "Lucky? We're lucky?! We fight ruthless evil-doers everyday, while Ninjagoans just do normal jobs, eat, sleep and watch TV all day everyday, and you're calling us lucky?!" Kai raises his voice also.

I slap my hand on the table, "At least you have your family! And you don't have to work your butt off to pay rent and keep yourself fed!"

Everyone goes silent. Some of them look at me out of the corners of their eyes, the rest just stare down at their food. I rise from the table. "I'm sorry I raised my voice in your house and at the table. Have a nice evening; now if you'll excuse me," I leave the room and show myself the door. My hand rests on the doorknob when a voice stops me,

"Ember, are you okay?" Zane asks me, concern in his voice.

I don't even look at him. I just turn the knob, open the door and put my hand in his face, saying, "Just don't." Closing the door behind me, I walk down the path, my head bent a little forward and a tear at the edge of my eye. I blink it back and cross my arms, reaching the road & heading to my house, next door.

Don't cry. You don't need to, so don't. You're strong. You survived.

I enter my house. No more tears try to escape.

I am strong.