A huge shoutout again to LorandaLynette for making the amazing new book cover. This cover was by far the most popular one in the poll, and I also find the picture very fitting (even though the characters actually aren't even Nya and Jay).

This is more of a filler chapter because I also wanted to include Nya's POV in this meeting. In the next part, we will finally get to see Ed and Edna meeting their granddaughter 🙂.

--

Chapter 15 (Nya)

Six years and three months ago, a few days before the start of the new term at Sensei Wu's Academy

"...Cole will teach Music and Art. And finally, Kai will be the new History teacher." Wu concludes our staff meeting in the school's teachers' lounge. "I expect you to be perfectly prepared for your classes when our students return next week."

"No way." My brother protests as soon as our wise Sensei has left the room. "Why do I have to teach History?"

"Because you think that you are the most popular out of us." My boyfriend replies smugly. Jay and I are sharing on one of the sofas. Jay is sitting on one end, his arm wrapped around my waist as I am snuggled up against him. "Consider it as a challenge to make even the most boring subject interesting for our students. And if nothing else works, you can always show them videos on historic events." He snickers. "And I think I have an idea how to make those more interesting..."

"Don't mess with my stuff." Kai shoots him a glare. Although we really are not taking up a lot of space, Kai, Cole and Zane have all preferred to share the second lounger. "The former Darkley's kids are gonna give us a tough enough time, we can't work against each other in any way."

"Good point." Cole agrees. "And don't forget, we are supposed to be role models, so no pranking, no cursing,-"

"Crap." Yeah, that's my brother.

"No stealing other people's pudding cups." Jay adds in a warning tone.

"That was only one time." Cole protests.

"One time too many..."

"No arguing in front of our students." Zane silences them.

"And, even more important, no making out in front of them." Kai says in our direction. "And preferably not in front of us either."

Blushing profoundly, Jay and I immediately straighten up. He quickly removes his arm from around me and sheepishly puts his hands in his lap, as I scoot a bit away to create the tiniest gap between us. But it's going to get even worse.

"Would you rather have them make out behind closed doors?" Cole smirks.

"My baby sis is not doing anything behind closed doors with her boyfriend." Kai claims.

If only he knew about all that we've done behind closed doors... although I'd rather not have my brother find out, I'd like my boyfriend to stay alive.

"Can we please stop talking about us and get back to our actual topic?" I demand.

"No objection from me." Kai mumbles. "Well, only to my subject."

I'm fairly sure that, if he hadn't been this uncomfortable, Jay would have laughed out loud over Kai's horrible pun. But right now, he shows no reaction to it at all.

Zane looks at a note in his hand. "We still need to allocate supervision duties during break times."

As we continue, I feel Jay taking my hand and giving it a little squeeze. I turn my head and smile at him.

We need to be more careful in the future if we don't want to get caught. Not by my brother and especially not by our students.

--

Present Day, Temple of Airjitzu

It takes us nearly half an hour until we have finally finished in the lab and we go upstairs to join our children and... well, Seliel snuggles up to her husband, whereas I sit down awkwardly next – but not too close – to my ex-boyfriend.

"Have you missed me?" Sel affectionately kisses the black Ninja's cheek.

"I always miss you, when you're not around." Who would have guessed the usually so stoic Master of Earth can be so poetic? I guess it has just taken the right person for him to show this side – and this person could have never been me.

I am glad that, not long after we apologised to each other and made amends, Cole did indeed meet the right person. He and Seliel are making a wonderful couple, and the pink haired woman has become a great friend and valuable team member.

Although I can't deny that it is sometimes hard to see all these happy couples and families around, no matter how many times I claim that I am perfectly fine with just being a protector of Ninjago and mother to my adorable little girl.

Despite Kai's many failed attempts to set his two 'little siblings' up on dates (not with each other of course, that would have been just weird), Lloyd and I are still – or rather again in my case, it's not like I haven't had and ruined my chance – single.

"Are Zane and Kai not around?" Jay's voice snaps me out of my thoughts.

"What? Are we not good enough for you?" Cole feigns upset.

Jay tenses. "O-of course, you are. I'm j-just..."

"Relax." Cole laughs. "I got ya. Consider it my payback for the Airjitzu comment earlier."

"You'll always be more than just good enough for me." I roll my eyes as Seliel winks at her husband.

"I think I'll need some proof for that later..." Cole retorts.

"Can you please stop that?" I request. "Especially in front of the children."

Is this what the others had to deal with when Jay and I were dating?

"Ah, they're used to it." Kai smirks as he and Skylor enter the room and plop down on the other sofa. "Sorry, we're late, we got stuck in traffic."

"Actually, it was the queue at the checkout." My sister-in-law adds. "We've just spent a fortune at the baby store."

Although they can of course reuse a lot of things, especially furniture and clothing, from Abby and the twins, there's still quite a lot of stuff my bother and his wife need to purchase new themselves. They got a gift card from the team for their baby shower last weekend, which they'd decided to use today.

"Do you need help unloading?" Cole offers.

"We can do that later." Kai replies. "Hopefully, we still have a couple of weeks before we'll actually need all that stuff."

"I hope you are not planning on leaving the things in the van until then." I joke – although, knowing my brother, it is at the same time also a serious piece of advice. "We might need the van before then."

"Speaking of cars, is that your SUV?" My brother addresses Jay, who has been unusually quiet. "Nice one."

"Thanks." Jay blushes. "It belonged to my father. I thought it was the safest car to take Abby here with me."

As our former teammate is obviously a lot more comfortable talking about his birth father's car collection than about baby essentials, Kai and Cole wrap him up in a conversation about all his and our vehicles, to make him feel more welcome. And it works. I still know him well enough to feel Jay gradually relaxing.

We're still nowhere near normality, but we're trying.

I glance over to where Abby is curled up on a bean bag, she looks undecided what to do as her blue eyes are now shifting between the ads on TV and us.

Eventually, she has made up her mind and climbs on the sofa, squeezing herself between Jay and I which helps release even more of the awkward tension between us.

"I'm staaavin'." She complains. "What's for dinner?"

"Uncle Zane and Auntie PIXAL are already making dinner." I first answer Jay's earlier question on the whereabouts of our Nindroid brother. "We're having pie." I add, giving a little smile at my ex who used to be the biggest fan of Zane's pies. "You're staying for dinner, right?"

"I-... uhm... I didn't know if I'm invited..."

"Of course, you are." Cole's firm voice reassures him. "You've just arrived, we're not letting you leave without at least having dinner for us."

Apart from me, Cole has probably missed Jay the most. Not only because he felt partly responsible for what happened, but also because the two of them used to be best friends, inseparable before something – or someone – came in between them.

But they both seem eager to put that time behind them. I just hope that at some point Jay and I will be able to do the same.

--

We're having a fun time at dinner, especially when me and the guys start reminiscing about our mealtimes on the old Destiny's Bounty, which eventually leads to a very competitive pie throwing contest.

Not the best example for our children, sure, but nobody seems to care as we're having too much fun. And luckily, the two Nindroids have actually predicted this outcome and prepared a couple of extra pies.

Of course, the battle is well balanced between our precise throwing skills and super fast reactions, but then suddenly, Jay manages to land a direct hit at my brother's face. While Kai looks just as surprised as the rest of us (and he admittedly looks very funny), Jay reacts in exactly the same way that I remember fondly from back then. He jumps up from his seat, cheering excitedly – and then he scoops me up from my place on the other side of our daughter and spins me around.

And just like I used to do, I wrap my arms around his neck and rest my head against his shoulder, closing my eyes as I inhale the all too familiar scent of milk and honey and...

My eyes snap open as Jay stops abruptly and sets me down. "I-I am s-sorry." He mumbles, looking down with an embarrassed blush on his cheeks.

"Don't be." I say. "I liked it." Way too much.

We awkwardly sit down again to finish our meal in silence.

Well, the silence doesn't last very long because luckily, Abby and the twins are far too excited about what they have just heard and witnessed, and the children keep chatting and throwing bits of crust back and forth until the rest of us are finished.

"I'd better get home now." Jay says reluctantly, as we get up from our seats – this time in a more grown-up manner than before. "I still need to drive back to the city and you're probably going to be busy getting the kids to bed and so on."

"But I want daddy to read me a bedtime stooowyyy." Abby pouts.

"Maybe another time, sweetheart." I tell her, just as Cole offers Jay to stay over. "We have more than enough rooms." He says. "And I'm sure we'll find an unused toothbrush somewhere."

"Thanks." Jay smiles at him. "I'd love to, but maybe not tonight. I haven't brought any spare clothes and I need to go to work tomorrow, and..."

On the attic, there is actually still a box with all the stuff that Jay left behind at the school (minus a few items that I kept when we put his things away), but it wouldn't be right to mention it now just to force him to stay.

Jay looks tired, the last few days have been a lot for him to take, even more than for the rest of us. And although I can see that he is sad to leave, he's just as obviously afraid to rush anything. As am I.

"Be careful." I tell him. "Someone once said that it's dangerous to drive through the desert in the dark. Your headlights are working, right?" I wink at him as I recall my first encounter with his – adoptive, as I now know – parents.

"Don't worry, they are." He reassures me. "So, you're still okay to go visit my mum and dad on the weekend?"

"Of course." I say. "Abby is already very excited to meet them. And I haven't seen them in such a long time."

I just hope they will be as delighted to see me as they were back then.

"Great." He smiles brightly. "They will be so happy. I haven't confirmed with them yet, wouldn't want to disappoint them, just in case something else had come up and you couldn't go – which I'd totally understand, of course, but ..."

"Jay." I place my hand on his forearm as I interrupt his nervous rant. "We've agreed on this together." I say, locking my eyes with his. "Abby is your daughter, and I want you and your parents to be part of her life. I am going with you, because you don't know each other that well yet – but also because I really want to see Ed and Edna."

"They've missed you a lot." He says. "And the others. You have no idea how many times they've told me to get back in touch with you."

"You should listen to your parents." I grin, relieved that they don't seem to be too upset with me and my behaviour towards their son. "I've really missed you." I add in a quieter voice.

"I've missed you too." He gently tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. "Uhm." He clears his throat. "I really gotta go now. You know, snakes and such..." He adds jokingly.

"Goodnight, daddy." Abby, who has watched our conversation with great interest, pipes up. "Dwive safely. And don' forget your seatbells."

"I won't." Jay smiles as he hugs her. "Good night, Abby, and sweet dreams."

As it's almost bedtime for the children already, Zane offers to fly him down to his car – he's they haven't spent too much time with each other anyway – while I go upstairs with Abby.

While she gets changed into her pyjamas and brushes her teeth, I watch the Titanium Dragon with its two passengers flying a few turns around our home before it sets down. Jay's car has already been moved back up to the surface.

They seem to exchange a few more words before they hug. Jay gets into his car and drives away – his headlights are working indeed, although maybe I should tell him next time that they are much less impressive than the ones on his parents' car – while the Nindroid uses Airjitzu to return faster to the floating island.

"Finished." I hear Abby's voice from behind me.

I detach my gaze from the window and turn around to smile at her.

"All done?" I check. "You've brushed all your teeth, especially the new ones in the back?" She nods. "Been to the toilet?" Something she likes to forget and then has to get up during the night.

"All done." She nods again. "Now stooowy."

I tuck my little girl, together with her oversized Unikitty plushie, into her bed before I sit down on the chair next to it.

"Which story do you want me to read you tonight?" I ask.

"Can you tell me one of Gran'pa Ray's stowies about dwagons." She requests. "Pweeeaaase."

"Sure." I smile.

Abby loves almost everything about dragons (my Elemental one being the exception). I've lost count on how may times I've recounted my dad's takes or even our own adventures to her.

Maybe the next time I tell her the story about my own first encounter with a real dragon, I will also mention who else I first met that night at the Fire Temple.