NINJAGO: Amateurs of Adulthood

D1

TW: Homophobic Slurs

While Jay's dreams repeated themselves, Coles mind was somewhere else. Somewhere deep in his past.

The long hallways of his childhood home were a place he could never forget. He watched his little 13 year old self nervously shuffle to the door of his mother's room from behind, his father close by his side

The woman laid peacefully in the bed before bringing her hand uo to cough harshly. When she noticed her son in the doorway, she immediately straightened up and smiled

"Hi, honey..."

Cole watched himself get excited before running straight to the woman and jumping onto the bed with her. "Mom!"

Cole moved from the doorway and walked into the room, he watched his mother laugh with him as she cuddled her son happily. As Cole's past self hung on one side of the bed, the present Cole quietly kneeled down on the other

This was...too much, it was as if he could see her again in real time. Her black, silky hair up in a lovely bun, her wonderfully dark brown eyes, her beautiful brown skin glowed in the natural light that poured out of the window.

"Mama..." He whispered quietly, not caring about the fact that she couldn't hear him

His smaller self embraced his mother tightly as tears threatened to spill from his eyes.

"I don't want you to be sick anymore, mom..."

His mom kept her arms around him as she sighed with a sad smile, "I know, but we don't always get what we want. Do we?"

She let go of Cole and allowed his feet to touch the ground again. A soft but stern look made it's way onto her face as she spoke, "Your father said you got in trouble at school."

Cole hung his head in shame while present Cole chuckled to himself

"Yeah..." Both versions said at the same time

"But it wasn't my fault, they're just kidding! He's just...-He's just a big bully! He's always picking on the little kids and-"

"...And you got in a fight..." His mother finished his sentence for him

Cole remembered this day well, it was some kid from class who would always make fun of him because of how dark he was. That day, Cole caught him harassing a younger girl who had been moved up a grade because of her smarts. Doing stupid things like punching her arm, or stepping all over the books and papers that he had knocked out of her hands, and Cole wasn't having it

All he did was shove the boy out of the way and tell him to leave the girl alone, but pale blonde decided he wanted to hit Cole real bad, and lunged at him. He and Cole were about the same height, but Cole had a slightly stronger build. By the time the teachers got there, it looked like Cole had taken on the boy and the girl for no reason.

"...I'm sorry, mom. I promise, I won't fight anymore, I'll be good from now on, I'll make you proud, and...-and..."

"Oh Cole, don't you see? I am proud." His mother cut him off before taking his bruised hands in her own soft ones

"I want you to promise me, Cole, that you will always stand up to those who are cruel and unjust. Always."

The younger boy choked back his years before taking his mother's hand tightly and embracing her again

"I promise, mom. Always..."

Cole flinched a bit when he felt a drop of liquid make it's way onto his arm. He touched his face and wiped away streaks of tears

"Ah, I'm crying..." He thought to himself. He looked at his mother one more time before getting up off his knees and walking to the doorway. He wasn't going to let HeartBreaker use his own mother against him, but before he could even leave the room, it began to shift into a different memory

He saw his 14 year old self sitting with another little boy at recess while the other kids ran around playing with each other. The two boys sat on the gravel against the brick wall in the shade. Ah, he remembered now, this is when he came out to Jay...

Cole fidgeted with his hands while the smaller redhead beat at the ground with some random stick he found, blabbing on about some nonsense story

"But then Charlie started crying, so I had to go apologize when it wasn't even my fault and Ms. Myers still put me in the corner! Honestly, I think Charlie just likes crying, but I don't know why she just had to open her big mouth-"

"Aye, Jay...?"

The ginger turned to look at Cole with a curious look

"What? Did Charlie get you in trouble too?"

Cole shook his head, he remembered how much he'd rehearsed his "coming out speech" just to start blabbing because he couldn't keep it in any longer

"...Do you...you like ladies, right?" Cole cringed as he watched himself stutter and fidget

Jay stayed still for a while, just staring at Cole in silence. The darker boy started to shift and sweat where he sat, heaving out a heavy sigh when Jay started laughing

" 'Course I like ladies, they're real pretty. Especially that Bella down the hall." Jay smiled turning his attention somewhere else. When Cole looked to follow his gaze, he saw her, Bella, swinging on the swings with some other girls

Even then, Cole tried to see something in Bella, something that would make him not have to give this huge talk or embarrass himself in front of all his friends. He tried to find something in her curly blonde locks, or soft white skin, her warm blue eyes, or in the way the frills of her purple dress flew in the wind. But he couldn't. He couldn't see what he saw in her that he saw in him. Cole's eyes moved just a bit to watch his freckled friend instead. The way his imagination could roam around like an army of men, the way freckles dusted his skin everywhere, the way he always had to blow his pretty red hair out of his eyes, or the way his wide, blue eyes glimmered like a cave of untouched crystals

Cole snapped out of it and paid attention to what he was trying to do in the first place

"What you like about her?" Cole asked, Jay shrugged as he rested his head on his knees

"I don't know. I like her hair, it's real curly, I bet it's soft too. And she smiles a lot. Isn't she pretty?"

Cole turned to look at Bella again. Well of course she was pretty, she was very pretty, but she didn't interest Cole. He knew he had to stop beating around the bush

"You wanna kiss her...?" Cole asked

Jay smiled kinda funny before burying his face in his arms

"In my dreams..."

That hurt.

"Okay...I gotta say it now." Cole spoke to himself

Jay turned to face him with confusion, "Say what?"

"...Just like you, wanna kiss girls...I wanna...I wanna kiss boys."

Silence

"...What...?" Jay asked

"I...I like boys...instead..." Cole whispered, he swore it felt like he was about to cry, laugh, and explode all at the same time. He just silently waited for Jay's response as the two boys stared at each other

Jay finally opened his mouth to speak

"Fag."