Ninja x Gender Neutral Reader

The Comfort You Give

tw: sw3@ring

Word Count: 1,255

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Reader wakes up with a sigh. I really don't want to be awake right now.

Too bad

Ugh

You were gonna have to be awake anyways, so....

Yeah whatever Reader thinks as they roll their eyes. They sit up and look around the room. Hey wait, why is it dark? Reader's eyes drift around the dark room before landing on a small red light. 2:47 am. What?! Why am I awake at 2:47 in the fucking morning?!

I don't know, maybe there's something watching you right now. Look in the corners. Reader turns suddenly fearful eyes towards all four of the corners of the somewhat quiet bedroom. Nothing. They let out a small sigh of relief, glad to not be seeing a figure in the dark corners of the room. There's nothing there

Check behind you Reader whips around to see nothing but darkness. Nothing there either. Why are you making me think there's something there when there isn't?

Because you woke up for a reason, didn't you? And since we're not thirsty, have to pee, or something, the only logical reasoning is that there's something watching us.

Well, why don't we try drinking some water anyway. Could be helpful

Doubt it, but okay Reader takes their legs out from under their sheets and turns to the ladder. They exhale as quiet as they can. This might be a bad idea

Why don't you keep a water bottle at the foot of your bed?

Because, for some reason, we don't have water bottles here

That's stupid

I know! Reader slowly lowers themselves down the wooden ladder and cringes when the floor creaks loudly under their sudden weight. Shut the fuck up before you wake up the entire world

I'm trying! Reader limps as quietly as they can across the bedroom, they don't really fancy waking up the entire universe by using their crutches. They grab the handle of the door, turn it, and pull. The old wooden door makes a loud groaning sound, as if protesting to being used this early in the morning. Reader contorts their face into an expression of pain, as if the mere sound hurts. Which it kinda does.

Once the door is open enough for them to get through, Reader pauses, waiting for the sound of their friends stirring. All they got was Cole's rhythmic snoring and Kai rolling over. Strange, I thought he was a light sleeper, oh well Reader shrugs as they walk out of the bedroom and into the hallway.

What they didn't know, was that Jay was lying awake, watching them, covering his mouth with silent tears rolling down his scaley face.

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Reader quietly limped back into the shared bedroom, finally feeling tired again. Turns out, we did actually need water

Oop- my bad

Yes, it is your bad Reader quietly makes their way back to their bunk and prepares to start climbing the ladder when they hear someone whisper, "Hey." They whip around, suddenly very scared.

"Reader! Get over here!" The voice whisper-yells. Reader looks at Jay's bunk, seeing the smallest ray of light coming from the window in their peripherals. It seems the moon is shy tonight. Reader looked into Jay's shining yellow eyes for a moment before limping over to his bunk. (you know animals? yeah)

"What's up?" Reader whisper-asks once they're right in front of Jay, looking up at him from where he lays.

"C-Could you-um......could you come sssssssit up here with me, please? I'm-uh...having trouble sssssssleeping." Jay whisper-asks back at his friend. (aight, Imma just write "ask" and "said" or whatever normally bc this is getting annoying)

"Sure!" Reader says happily, as if they can't see the pain in Jay's eyes. Which they can't. It's really dark. And yes, I did say that Jay's eyes shine in the dark, but that doesn't mean you can see the emotion in them though.

Anyway-

Jay scoots over to make room for Reader to sit on his bed, their legs dangling from the opening for the ladder. They look over to their friend and say softly, "Is there a particular reason why you can't sleep? Did you have a bad dream or something? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I can just sit here with you if that's what you need." Jay nods and thinks for a minute before saying, "It'sssss a sssssstupid reasssson, but it'sssss becaussssse of the whole sssssnake thing, ya know? I jusssst- I don't know, it jusssst doessssssn't feel right."

Reader places a gentle hand on Jay's knee and says, "It's not a stupid reason. Your body has changed in a very drastic way, your entire appearance has changed in less than a day. It's totally normal and perfectly okay for you to feel like this. However, it's not gonna last forever. You'll get used to it or -somehow- we find some way to change your body into the way it was before. But either way, this feeling isn't gonna last forever. Or at least, not to the same extent. Okay?" Jay nods his head and thinks for a second.

"But what if it doessssss? What if it doesssss lassssst forever? What then?"

Reader moves their hand from Jay's knee to his shoulder. "It won't last forever, that's the thing, it's pretty much impossible for you to be feeling this shitty about your snake situation for the rest of your life. At some point, you're gonna get tired of it. Trust me, you will."

"How can you be sssssso ssssssure?"

"Because, a few years ago, I was completely broken. I was crying myself to sleep almost every night, but guess what? It didn't stay that way. I got better. And that's not to say I don't feel sad about what happened. I do. Pretty often actually, but it's not as bad as it was. And sure, what happened to me is nothing like what has happened to you, but I'm telling you this so that you'll understand. This. Won't. Last. Forever. Capeesh?" Jay nods his head and wipes a stray tear from his face. Reader takes their hand off of Jay's shoulder and places it in their lap. They turn their head toward the glowing red lights in the small alarm clock: 2:55 am. Reader turns their head and opens their mouth to say something but is cut off by Jay quietly asking, "Reader, can I have a hug?"

"Of course!" Reader exclaims, opening their arms wide. Jay smiles slightly and leans into their arms. A few seconds pass and Jay shifts to where he's practically sitting in Reader's lap. They smile and begin to stroke his soft hair.

After a few minutes Reader hears some soft snores coming from their friend. They smile again and try to lay him down and get back to their bed without waking him up. However, considering the fact that Jay keeps tightening his grip on them whenever they try to get away, that might not happen. Reader sighs and lays down. Welp, guess I'm cuddling my friend now. I'll definitely have some explaining to do tomorrow, but that's okay. As long as Jay feels better, I don't mind explaining.

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Hey y'all, um...... sorry about leaving ya hangin there for three months. That's on me, but hey- life happens ya know?

Anyway, this was supposed to be the next episode w/ the royal blacksmiths, but I knew that would take even longer and I didn't want to leave y'all for another three months, so I just went with this little filler chapter. Hope you liked it either way. Um, hopefully I won't take three months to write the next chapter, but I make no promises.

See ya in the next one!