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Prompts: Man-Made Object by Lemon Demon, bring, college, suite, sandwich, opposed, 98 (with a little inspo from The Machine by Lemon Demon)
post-Crystalized, pre-Dragons Rising
Jay leaned back and wiped his arm across his forehead, inspecting his work.
He'd been working on this project for weeks now, but he was nowhere near done. He just had to finish this, and then he'd start writing those letters.
Wait- what was this, 1998? He'd do it online.
But he'd do it after this. It's not like he was avoiding doing it, just... prioritizing.
He got back to work.
-=-
He wasn't sure how long it had been before someone knocked on the door to the makeshift workshop- with the Monastery's basement destroyed, they'd had to set up a temporary workspace while it was being rebuilt.
"Come in!"
Nya walked over to put a plate with a sandwich on it on the table. "I came here to bring you some lunch."
Jay barely glanced up when he said, "Thanks, Nya, I'll get to it in a bit."
Nya sighed. "You've been working on that almost nonstop for ages now. You need to take a break. Do you even know what it is at this point?"
Jay opened his mouth to explain, before closing it. He'd been working on it for so long that he'd kind of lost sight of whatever his original goal had been.
"No."
"Then I think it's time for a break. C'mon."
Nya led him away from the worktable to sit on the floor with her. She offered up the sandwich again, and this time, he took it.
"So, what's bothering you?"
"Noffimg," Jay said through a mouthful of peanut butter.
"Yeah, right. Whenever something's bothering you, you avoid it by throwing yourself into a project. Y'know, like a machine that you can't remember the purpose of."
Jay chewed in silence for a moment, trying to figure out how to put his thoughts together. He swallowed.
"Well, there's no end-of-the-world situation going on right now. Wu said the Overlord isn't gone for good, 'cause he's like, a law of nature or something, but hopefully he'll be gone longer than he was last time... And Kai, Zane, Cole and I don't have our powers anymore."
"You're more than your powers, Jay. You're creative, and smart, and funny. You're my Yin."
Jay put his plate down. "That's- that's not what I meant. I meant- we're kind of, normal, now- and there's no big villain to worry about, and... I've been thinking, about...
"I wanna go to college."
He picked at his jeans where the fabric had worn thin over the knees. "I guess... I was working on this to avoid making applications. It just- feels like too big of a change, y'know? I'm not opposed to it, obviously, but... And- I'd have to move. Making the commute from here to even the closest college every day isn't really feasible."
Nya put her hand on Jay's back. "I think I get what you mean. We've been doing... this for so long that anything else feels wrong, huh?"
"Yeah."
Nya leaned in front of him so he could see her smile. "Well, I say, if you want to, then go for it! We've all worked hard to keep Ninjago safe, I think it's fair for you to do something for you." She punched his shoulder playfully. "Just make sure to invite me over every now and then when you move into the penthouse suite!"
Jay laughed, "I will, I will, don't worry!"
After a moment, Jay's smile softened. "Thanks, Nya."
"No problem. I love you, Jay."
"I love you too."
i hope it was everything you ever dreamed of, Rook! it came out shorter than i intended, but I'm not one to try and force a story to be longer than feels natural. either way, this was fun!