Transgender Jay : A Ninjago Story

56 - Binder

The sound of the morning song interrupted Jay's deep slumber, gentry prising his fingers from the grip of sleep.

Light streamed into the room through the gaps in the curtains, dispelling the darkness from the blue themed room.

He was warm, and once his eyes cleared, he could clearly see that he was under the covers of the bed.

Jay couldn't remember even getting into them, the events of the previous night seeming hazy in this mind, yet, his father's letter stayed very clear.

Another round of twittering from the birds sent Jay out of bed, yawning and then wincing as his ribs started to hurt. He slept in his binder again... not a good move.

He checked his phone, which was miraculously still on 20% power, and saw that it was pretty early still. 7:23 in the morning. Everybody else would most likely still be asleep, so, an idea came to mind.

He remembered seeing a washing room the previous day, containing a number of washing machines and dryers.

He hadn't washed his binder for a few days now, and alike any other close-to-body piece of clothing, it needed to be washed regularly. The only question was, how would he bulk out the rest of the wash?

A possible idea came to mind.

Jay tip-toed over to the closet in the corner, and pulled a couple of hoodies out of it. They were very clean indeed, however, they had clearly been sitting in that cupboard for a while, and were slightly musty.

Perfect.

On his way down to the wash room, Jay bumped into a familiar, but not entirely welcome face. Kai.

They almost collided as the two of them both rounded a corner, but luckily, Kai jumped out of the way in time.

They looked each other up and down, and Kai gave him an awkward half grimace.

"... what are you doing up so early?" He asked.

Jay raised an eyebrow.

"We're both awake Kai."

Kai looked away, and carried on down the hall. It seemed he was heading towards the kitchen. Jay didn't really care where he was going, as long as the general civility between them continued.

He made his way to the wash room, and began loading up a machine with the clothes.

There were an array of fabric conditioners and detergents in a cupboard on the other side of the room, of which he chose a couple and loaded the machine up with them as well.

The wash was set to a rather quick one, only half an hour, and after he checked that the door was completely closed and nobody would be coming in soon. Once privacy was assured, Jay took a deep breath and closed his eyes, then pulled off his binder.

It was both relieving and dreadful. His lungs gave out and air flooded in, relief filling up his chest, though, an unpleasant twinging at the back of his mind came closer.

He hurried on with the wash to distract himself, shoving the binder in and closing the door, setting the system off to start. Half an hour wasn't too terribly long, so Jay opted to stay in the room and look through his phone.