Ninja x Gender Neutral Reader

Tell us the Truth

tw: s3@ring, talk of e@ting, and negative self-talk

Word Count: 1,189

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Reader wakes up with a heavy sense of dread. They really didn't want to explain themselves to their friends. They knew they should, but they really didn't want to right now. At least wait a day or two so they can fully formulate what they're gonna say in their head first.

Reader heaves a heavy sigh before throwing the cream-colored sheet off of them and sitting up. They sigh again, dreading the future conversations they're gonna have to have. Reader looks around the room and is surprised to see that they're the only one in there. They hop down from their bed (ladders are for NERDS lmao) and cautiously walks out of their room. Reader tiptoes down the hallway and makes a sigh of relief when they hear laugher from the Dining Room. They slowly walk in and all heads turn to them as they take a seat, their nerves going wild.

"Good morning, Reader!" Nya greets happily to her friend. Reader gives a nervous smile and a quiet, "Hi."

"We saved some breakfast for you!" Jay exclaims before hopping up from his seat and quickly makes his way into the kitchen.

"You did?" Reader asks.

"Yeah! We put it in the fridge because we weren't sure when you were gonna wake up." Jay explains as he walks back over to Reader with a plate in his hand.

"Speaking of...why didn't y'all wake me up?" Reader asks as they remove the plastic wrap covering their plate.

"Well, we wanted you to sleep in after last night." Cole says.

"Oh...well, thank you." Reader says before beginning to eat. As they ate, the air in the room quickly became very tense. Everyone but Reader was looking at each other, just daring them to ask the question. Reader shudders from the awkward tension and tries to only focus on their food, but they don't feel like eating, they're nerves are all up in a frenzy it's making them feel sick.

"Well! I have things I need to get done." Nya says as she taps on the table twice with her hands before standing up and saying, "Come on, Lloyd. You're gonna help me."

"Oh! Uh....okay." Lloyd says nervously before standing up and following Nya. A few seconds pass before Sensei says, "I too have some things I need to attend to." He slowly stands, takes his plate to the kitchen, and makes his leave. Reader looks up (only with their eyes, their head doesn't follow) and watches him leave.

"Oh my! Haha, what a mess! Guess someone should clean it up! Zane! Why don't you help me clean up this big mess?" Jay rambles as he shoots up from his seat and taking all of the plates.

"O-oh! Yes, of course!" Zane says before standing and taking the cups and napkins. Kai sighs before folding his hands up and saying, "So.....you wanna talk about it?" (big brother mod ACTIVATED)

"Not really." Reader whispers.

"Okay, but you do know you're gonna have to sometime."

"I know that. Just not right now, I literally just woke up, give me a minute."

"Alright, but you're gonna have to explain yourself soon, because I wanna know what was going on." Kai gets up and leaves, not letting Reader marinate in his presence. Reader looks over to Cole and asks, "You wanna say anything?"

"Nope." He says before standing up and leaving. Reader watches him leave, then turns back around and drags a hand over their face and groans. They stare at a random part of the wall as they try to think of an explanation. They lift a piece of pancake to their mouth and eats it thoughtfully.

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When Reader was done, they took their plate into the kitchen and placed it in the sink. They sigh as they stand in front of the sink they had just put their plate in.

"There's no need to be so dramatic about this. Just tell them why you were freaking out. That's all you gotta do. That's it. There really is no goddamn reason for you to be so fucking dramatic about this." Reader says to themselves. They walk out to the deck and see the four boys talking and training. They take a deep breath and heads over to a punching bag that's not being used. The boys stop their conversation at the sight of their friend.

As Reader's punching the bag, they can hear the boys whispering, they can't hear what they're saying, but Reader knows they're talking about them. They just decide to ignore the boys. To be honest, when Reader thinks about telling their friends, they feel kinda sick. and they're thinking about telling them right now, so Reader's feeling nauseous at this very moment. How nice.

"Hey Reader!" Kai shouts to his friend. Reader sighs as they stop punching.

"What?" They spit out.

"Woah!" Kai puts his hands up in surrender formation, "Hey, are you okay? If it's that serious, you don't have to tell us."

"No, no. I do. It's just.....I'm terrified of heights. That's why I don't go near the guard rail or when I have to, I have a vice-like grip on it. And that's.....that's why I had a panic attack and couldn't go down the thing with you guys. And why I was acting so weird after our skydiving stunt, is 'cause I had another panic attack."

"Woah.....why didn't you tell us before?"

"I don't know.....I just-I just didn't want you to know. In hindsight, that was a bad idea not telling y'all. But I also kinda forgot."

"What? Telling us or....?"

"Oh, I kinda forgot that I was afraid of heights. I know, it's weird. Even I don't know how I could forget something like that. But I did."

"Wait....so you had two panic attacks.....and didn't think to tell us?" Jay asks as he walks closer to Reader and Kai.

"No, three. I had three." Reader corrects.

"THREE?! WHEN????"

"When I was hallucinating."

"Really? 'Cause for me it wasn't that bad, just some gnomes. What were you seeing?" Kai asks.

"Spiders."

"Ew." Jay comments.

"My thoughts exactly!" Reader exclaims.

"Well, I want to thank you for telling us this. And we'll make sure you never have to experience that again." Kai says as he places his hand on Reader's shoulder. All of the others nod their heads in agreement. Reader smiles and says, "Thanks, but can we get back to training?" Kai takes his hand off of their shoulder and nods.

"You got it." He turns around and heads over to another punching bag, Jay and Cole giving Reader one last smile before walking off to spar, and Zane giving Reader a firm nod before heading toward some random training equipment. Reader smiles again, turns back around, and continues punching the bag. See? It wasn't that hard, so there really was no fucking reason for your stressing over it.

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That's all for this one! Hope you liked this little filler chapter! I wanted there to be a day in between all of the action, so I wrote this.

I just want to mention that I might take a break from writing, but I also might not. So stay the lookout for the next chapter.

Anyway, hope you have a good day, and remember to drink water and to eat something!