A blue Spouse (Ninjago Royalty AU)

CHAPTER 40: It's okay to need help

Hey, I'm back!
Thank you guys for your patience, I really needed a break from the weekly updates, it started to get stressful. 

I've got quite a few chapters all ready that I hope you'll enjoy! Thank you for sticking with me and this story ♥

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Forgiveness. Such a long yet simple word. Its meaning so complex that, sometimes, it was hard for humans to wrap their minds around it and just embrace it. Yet the words "I'm sorry" were so easy to pronounce, so much that they risked losing the 'deeper message' depending on the lips they came from. But if spoken from the heart, at the exact right second, they worked their magic, turning things back in time, putting disputes and rivalries behind them and lighting the path to a brighter future.

Brighter future, uh? The corner of Cole's lips twitched with the ghost of a smile. He turned his head to the boy by his side. Jay's face was tight with concentration, his eyes narrowing and almost disappearing in the space between his eyebrows and freckled cheeks. The shiny small pieces of the metal puzzle moving and clinking in his hands as Jay manipulated them, trying to disassemble the parts. Across from them, on the other side of the coffee table, Lloyd held a similar head-scratcher in his small hands. His demeanor as focused as the Jay.

Cole's lips stretched into a wide smile. Just days ago, it seemed impossible he would be able to enjoy a moment like this again; taking a cup of tea, some snacks and just chilling around. All very little things that had been stolen from him for a short while, but that their momentary lack had shattered his heart painfully.

Looking at Lloyd and Jay now, no one would have thought they had been as scared and confused as they did days ago. Forgiveness was indeed magical. Cole was yet somehow flabbergasted at Jay's maturity; he'd known the boy was sagacious, with a kind heart, but several times he'd feared the events of the night of the family party would be an insurmountable obstacle, an abyss too wide to jump over. But Jay had found a way to build a bridge and reach Kai's side, offer him comprehension and a second chance to work their differences. Cole had been aware of his own growing feelings for the boy, but that moment in their room when Jay told him and Zane why he'd decided to put everything behind him and the monarch, Cole was sure he'd fallen in love with Jay —and suspected Zane wasn't much far behind, it was impossible not to love the boy at that point.

"Ah!"

Cole's attention was brought back to the present when Jay gasped. He looked at the boy, Lloyd's gaze rose and stared ahead as well.

"I think I got it," Jay said, holding the puzzle. Lloyd leaned in, supporting himself on his elbows on top of the table and watched Jay's fingers carefully maneuver the metal pieces until one of them 'magically' slid over the other and they were no more stuck together.

Lloyd's eyes opened wide. "I knew it had something to do with that strange gap on the side!" He exclaimed then looked up at Jay's face and smiled softly. "Well done."

Jay's cheeks reddened slightly and he fumbled with the puzzle again, reversing his previous action and restoring the mechanism. He was obviously not used to having direct conversations with Lloyd yet, but he would someday, of that Cole was more than sure.

The blond's attention diverted to the first royal spouse, he giggled, "What about you?"

"Uh?" Cole looked down at his own hands which were holding another tiny puzzle that had long been forgotten by the young man. The mechanism was intact, with no signs of being unlocked anytime soon. Lloyd chuckled low and Cole groaned, dropping the thing on the table. "Don't laugh! This is impossible."