Ninjago - One-shots and short Stories

Secret Santa // Jaya

I almost forgot about this one... this draft has been sitting around for a while.

This is the 'missing story' for last year's Secret Santa Story Exchange. It was a request for JamesDyson123 (I hope I got the right name, I alsways get confused when people keep changing their username):

A Secret Santa story where Jay gives Nya something really unimaginative, like a box of chocolates. The request was Show-verse, in season 1, but I've moved it to after Prime Empire. I hope that's okay with you. 

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My not-so-Secret Santa

"And the next one," Lloyd dramatically announced as he took another present from their bag, "is for Jay."

Nya smiled, both knowingly and in anticipation, as the Green Ninja handed a badly wrapped and slightly squished parcel to her boyfriend. While this gift wasn't from her, she had given Cole the idea.

Jay shook the soft parcel. "No sound." He chuckled. "That means it's not broken... I hope." He then sniffed at it. "Smells like tea."

This was no surprise though, as Santa's Bag was actually an old tea sack of Sensei's – although Steep Wisdom had been closed for a while now, Wu still ordered in bulk.

"Ah, c'mon," Kai groaned. "Stop playing and just open it, there are other people here who want to get their present as well."

"Alright," Jay was already ripping open his gift.

"Coooool." He gasped as he unfolded the content – a blue T-shirt with a bright yellow lightning bolt.

As one of their first team building activities, immediately following the fight against Garmadon and his Skulkin army, the four boys had each bought a cheap shirt in their signature colour, and had their element printed onto it – this was long before official Ninja merchandise had become a thing.

Jay had absolutely loved his shirt and he had kept it over the years, even when the colour had started to fade, the print was flaking off, and it had gotten too small (especially at the shoulders, Nya had not failed to notice), and he still liked to wear it, until a few weeks ago-

"Nya told me you were really upset when the dryer destroyed your old one." Cole's voice brought her back to the present.

"The-?" A faint blush dusted the Lightning Master's freckled cheeks. "Oh, yes, the dryer! Just ripped it apart. Temperamental little... uhm... thing, the dryer."

"I don't think I need to know more about your relationship with the dryer." Kai gagged. "Can we please continue with our gifts?"

"Good plan." agreed Lloyd. "This one is for-" he checked the tag on the flat square box, "Nya."

Excitedly, Nya ripped it out of his hand. She knew that it was from her boyfriend. Not only had the usually chatty blue Ninja been unusually tight-lipped in this matter, but she had also managed to exclude everyone else.

The Water Ninja eagerly ripped off the paper and-

Her face fell.

Jay had given her a box of chocolates.

It was nice chocolate, sure, and quite a lot of it – definitely way too much to eat the whole box in one go, which was exactly what Nya had frustratedly just done, after the team had finished their Secret Santa gift exchange.

Now, she was sitting on the roof of the Monastery, staring into the distance, and trying to ignore the slight nausea caused by the lump of chocolate in her stomach.