Befriending the Criminal

A Bit of Tension

A flash of blue sped through the door and nearly toppled over Chief Garmadon's desk. He braced his hands on the desk and looked down, gasping for air.

Unamused, the Chief put his fingers to his forehead and massaged that area lightly, sighing. "Jay, when I said 'as soon as possible', I didn't mean, rush all the way here halfway dead."

"Dad, you know how Jay is," Lloyd said with a smirk.

The young man fell back into a seat, still catching his breath.

"Where is Cole?" He heard the Chief ask.

Jay's head popped up. "Cole?" Before Jay could say anymore, there was a loud sound of someone clearing their throat and everyone's attention turned to the door.

There stood Ronin, tab in his hand, and beside the con-man was the person of question. It was quite horrifying, as Cole had a snarl on his face, eyes glaring daggers at Ronin.

"Wait, he was with you?"

"Yes, I'm with him." Cole growled, pushing past Ronin roughly.

"Geez," the con-man muttered, his at tipping forward.

Cole took a seat next to Jay, crossing his legs and arms, a grim expression. Garmadon raised a brow in question at his friend. "What were you doing out there, Ronin? I thought I told you to stay here with Nya and Zane."

"What? You did? Guess I didn't hear you, hahah. Anyways, here's the tab," he told him, placing the tab in the middle of the table. "Well, I gotta get back to the shop - those rare items aren't gonna sell themselves, you know?"

The man started towards the door until Garmadon's cold voice stopped him dead in his tracks. "You, my friend, are staying right here."

"You really sure you don't need me?"

"Go find Nya and bring her in."

"Riiight. Sure then."

They all waited, their eyes following Ronin's every move, until he was out of the room for good. Finally, Garmadon turned to both Jay and Cole and urged for them to scoot their chairs closer. The two of them hesitated for a minute, then willingly agreed and inched closer till the Chief had told them to stop moving forward.

"So Jay, Lloyd's been telling me how he's been giving you responsibility for keeping Cole in check."

"Yeah, it's totally unfair by the way."

Garmadon laughed, a smile on his face, "I can imagine. How's that going for you?"

"Uh, hah, shouldn't you be asking me that when Cole isn't in the same room as us?" He asked, biting the inside of his cheek nervously.

"You don't mind, do you, Cole?"

"Nope. Besides, I wanna hear what the Bluebell has to say."

Jay swallowed, running a hand over his clothed knee. He cast a glance at Cole, realizing he needed to form his thoughts carefully.

"I don't mind," he hurriedly said.

Lloyd face-palmed.

"Come on, Jay, you wouldn't stop complaining about having to deal with him all the time." Lloyd flinched when Cole popped a bubble - he didn't even notice that the other had gum in his mouth.

"Shut up, Lloyd." Jay wrinkled his nose and peered at Lloyd. His friend covered his mouth to hold back from laughing.

"He's actually quite funny-"

Jay froze as if he had been shot in the back suddenly. Slowly, the young man turned around, his eyes finding their way to Cole.

"What?"