~~~ Somewhere up on the Mountain Of A Million Steps ~~~

The Ninja team was finishing their round of Christmas presents. There was wrapping paper, empty candy wrappers, new clothes, containers of food, anything you can think of was lying somewhere in the common room. Probably on the floor. They were about to call it quits and start cleaning up (courtesy of Wu, sipping from his new mug in his chair), when Lloyd drew their attention to a set of 6 matching gift bags under the tree.

"Hey! Look!" The Green Ninja lived up to his name as he disappeared, crawling under the tree in pursuit of the mysterious bags. He finally emerged, holding 6 green bags with differently colored ribbons on them. Blue, red, purple, orange, yellow, and black. "They say, uh..." Lloyd peered at the names while trying not to trip over the mountains of gifts around him. "Me... Kai... Zane... Jay... Cole... and Nya." He handed each person their bag and sat down with his.

"It doesn't have a sender name. Anybody know who sent these?" He asked. Everyone shook their heads. He shrugged. "Oh well. Let's open them!" Everyone ripped the tissue paper out of their bags. In each of them was a turtle-themed gift.

"Wow. Uh, thanks?" Jay definitely did not sound thankful. He got a green picture frame with purple hearts on the outside. On the back was a purple mask and in the frame was a crumpled slip of paper with 'A+D <3' written on it. The whole thing was quite tacky, to say the least.

"These are such lame gifts!" Kai scowled and tossed the tissue paper aside. "At least I know it wasn't one of you bozos who got me this thing." He rolled his eyes and pulled out a pair of sais and a mini hockey stick, obviously with a puck. Of course, the sai had a red mask logo on each handle and the hockey stick had a mini puck with a skull mask.

Zane raised an eyebrow but otherwise kept his face passive while he calmly took the paper out and set it aside. "They certainly are... unique." He smiled politely and pulled out his object--a green notebook with a purple mask emblem in the center, complete with a matching purple pen. 'Lab Observations. Top Secret! Mikey Stay Out!' It said on the front.

Cole rolled his eyes. "You guys are being such drama queens." He pulled his gift out--a green cookbook with an orange mask in the center. 'Dr. Chefenstein's Recipee Bok!' read the title. Cole scoffed. "Why does EVERYONE feel the need to insult my cooking?!" He huffed and dropped the book back into the bag.

Kai laughed. "NOW you see how it feels big dude!"

Lloyd grinned at his friends as they started to wrestle playfully and tore his bag open. His face turned into a puzzled expression as he pulled his gift from the paper. A green jar of tea powder with a blue mask logo on the silver lid. "Hamato Yoshi's Cure-All Remedy. Recipe from Japan, made December 22, 1965," Lloyd read from the label on the front. He shook it and looked through the opaque green glass. "It's only half-full. Like it was used recently. That's weird."

Nya was the last one to open her gift. Her eyes widened and she grinned. "Well, at least MINE is pretty AND useful!" A glittering silver tessen was pulled from the bag. A white 5 on top of a yellow square was painted on the handle. "Huh. Look, they all have symbols on them." Nya pointed out.

Except when she did, the sky darkened instantly outside, leaving the room in total darkness. A loud CRACK! filled the air and for a second everything was quiet...

Then everyone started talking at once and moving around, trying to find someone else. "EVERYONE JUST SHUT UP!!" Kai shouted after a few seconds and soon the room was illuminated with a flame hovering from each of his palms. "Everyone alright?" When everyone nodded, he continued. "Let's--"

A BANG! from the courtyard shut them all up again, and nobody moved when they heard voices from outside. Muffled, but still there. The sky cleared again and slowly after Kai extinguished his flames, everyone moved to the door so they could surprise the intruders. "3...2...1...go!" Lloyd mouthed before shoving the door open.

~~~ Somewhere In The NYC Sewers (time traveled back a bit) ~~~

Under NYC, the Hamato clan was having their own Christmas party! The final event was the gift swap, which was happening similarly to the Ninjago one. Mikey found the last gifts under their "tree" (their dojo tree covered in handmade ornaments, by Mikey himself of course), nobody knew who sent them, now they were opening them.

Leo opened his to a bright green t-shirt with 'Darkley's Home for Bad Boys--I'm Lloyd Garmadon and I'm Trouble!' written in messy red sharpie across the chest. There was also a glass ball of a green energy type thing, but what it was made of he couldn't say. He scrunched his "eyebrows" together and folded it up to put back in the bag. "Odd." It wasn't sitting right with him that there wouldn't be an address or sender on these packages.

Raph was next, who had a matching bag to Casey's. Both ripped theirs open as fast as they could and groaned. "Dude, really?! Who gives people a book on BLACKSMITHING?! Especially one with a lame fire sticker on it!" Casey pulled the book from the bag and dangled it with two fingers, wrinkling his nose as if it stunk. He dropped it and shivered with a gagging face. "I hate books."

"You think YOURS is bad? Look at this!" Raph pulled out a flint and steel, a fire-starting kit. "If I wanted to start a fire, I would just need to break into Donnie's lab and surprise him. Easy peasy." Raph tossed the stones back in his bag and rolled his eyes, crossing his arms and leaning back at the same time.

"Hey!" Donnie protested. Then deciding against fanning the flames, he dug into his bag instead. He could barely focus since April was right next to him. She was using a different smelling lotion than usual. This one smelled more like peppermint than her usual apple blossom one. He wondered if it was because--

"Don? You there? You kinda froze for a second." April snapped in front of his face and he shook his head to clear it.

"Oh! Uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Let's see what's in here." He pulled out two things--a blue wrench with a handle containing a tube of electricity and a white snowglobe with a faceless figure with platinum hair, seemingly baking cookies in a pink apron. "Huh? How..." He examined the wrench while holding it up to the light. "Amazing!"

Mikey was next. "Ooh! I think I know what this is!" He pulled out a takeout bag, still steaming, full of puffy potstickers. "Huh. I've never seen these before. Bet they'll taste great with some hot 'n' spicy jellybeans!" He dashed back to his room and emerged seconds later with a half-eaten bag of jellybeans.

"Ugh." April wrinkled her nose and shivered. "Just don't offer me any." She focused on opening her bag, which contained a small trident pen and a notebook with 'Property of Nya Smith. Jay stay out!' circled in bright blue ink on the inside cover. "Seriously? An already used notebook? And who's Nya Smith, anyway?"

Mikey perked up at the name. "Nya Smith? That's a girl from a show that used to come on right after Crognard! You guys ever seen Ninjago?" April shook her head and he groaned. "None of you people are cool anymore!" Suddenly, all their presents started floating and in a bright flash of light, the whole room disappeared.

In less than a second, everyone landed in what looked like a courtyard. Japanese-inspired, from the looks of it. "What happened?" Leo asked. It was too dark to see much until the sun broke through a second later. They helped each other up and gathered together to figure out what to do next when a previously unnoticed door flung open.

Six differently colored figures jumped out and streams of different elements were shot at the turtles. "Woah! Evasive maneuvers!" Leo shouted and everyone leaped and twisted to avoid being struck. When it was calm again, everyone stopped to examine the other team in front of them.

"What the heck are you guys doing in Ninjago?!" Kai broke the silence and one of his fists lit on fire. "Tell us NOW! Before I-"

Lloyd stepped in front of him to interrupt. "Hehe, sorry 'bout him. But to ask nicer, who are you, and why are you here? Are you here for the Green Ninja? If you're looking for him, that's me."

"What? No! You brought US here, weirdos!" Raph shot back. "With the flashy lights and the lame gif-"

"Wait, dudes! I know these guys!" Mikey jumped in front and grinned. "They're from the show I was telling you about! Ninjago!" He bounced up and down and ran over to each of the ninjas as he listed them off. "Cole, Master of Earth. Kai, Master of Fiyaaaaah! Zane, Master of Ice, ice baby! Jay, Master of Zaps! Nya, Master of H2 WOAH! And Lloyd, the Green Ninja and Master of... uh, Green, I guess?" He shrugged but then grinned. "I'm a HUGE fan!"

The Ninjago team was stunned. "Whaddya mean, 'show'? We're just us. No cameras." Jay asked. "But YOU guys are in a show! The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! My favorite series! Leonardo, aka Fearless, the blue leader. Raph, resident Kai, red hothead. Donnie, like Zane, purple genius! And Mikey! That's you, the orange goofball! And last but not least, April and Casey. Their human allies and loooooove interests for one of the turtles..." Jay winked at April and turned back to his group. "It's okay, they're safe! They're here for a reason so let's just enjoy it!"

Neither group was terribly excited about it but decided, alright, let's try it. Why not? They decided to each hang with someone from the other group for a while to shake things up. Jay, Zane, and Donnie headed off to Jay and Nya's semi-lab space. Cole and Mikey went to the kitchen because Food. Lloyd and Leo went to borrow some of Sensei's meditation mats. Kai, Raph, and Casey went to the brig training room. Finally, Nya and April went to hang out together in the game room. Which was technically the common room, but living with so many boys, it turned into a video game room.

~~~

In the lab, Jay cleared off some space for them to sit and they all sat quietly for a second. The only talkative one in the room was Jay and he was grinning too widely to talk. For a second.

"Oh my gosh!! I just can't believe I'm meeting one of my all-time favorite tv characters!!" Donnie offered a crooked smile while Jay jumped up and down.

"Yeah. Alright. Thanks, I guess?" He said to the blue blur, who continued right on with his speech.

"Anyway! Nya always said I was crazy for liking that show but I TOLD her it was great! And now you're here and it's so cool! I see you brought Aprillllll with you..." he winked at Donnie. "Did you guys become a thing after the series finale?"

Donnie decided to let the whole series thing go and nodded with a small smile. "Yeah... she's perfect, isn't she?" He could talk all day about April.

"A... thing?" Zane was confused. "Are you referring to the bond between two humans when they are dating as being a 'thing'? Such as Pixal and I?" Donnie hadn't even noticed the metal man in the room with them.

"Yes Zane, we've been over this before." Jay rolled his eyes.

"Fascinating. A totally metal member of your team, like Metalhead." The scientific part of Donnie's brain wanted to take Zane apart to see how he worked but the other part of him knew that would be a bad idea.

"You should see Pixal! She's ZANE'S girlfriend! She's metal like him. A nindroid, if you will. I came up with that name!" Jay interrupted, to which Zane smiled softly.

"Yes, I do enjoy spending time with my beloved. She's quite lovely and she has half of my heart, too." His eyes got a faraway look and the dreamy smile settled onto his face while Jay turned back to Donnie.

"He always talks like that. Anyway! What about you and April? I bet April's super cool but nobody can compare to my Nya! She basically designed this whole place when we redid it last year." He winked and plopped next to Donnie while Zane shook himself out of his trance.

Donnie smiled and a light blush coated his cheeks. He still wasn't used to calling April his girlfriend. They'd only made it official a few days ago.

The next while was spent by each of the trio talking about their girlfriend or their creations. Clearly, the nerds had found their happy place.

~~~

In the kitchen, Mikey and Cole were having a blast! Turns out, Mikey LOVES having someone to teach cooking skills to! "Dude! I knew your cooking was bad but how did you almost ruin a FROZEN PIZZA?!" Mikey shrieked and waved the smoke away. Okay, so LOVED having to teach was a stretch, but still. It was nice having someone willing to try things he wouldn't be able to at home.

"WHY is EVERYONE against my food?!" Cole grunted and put the heels of his hands on his eyes. He sighed and turned back to Mikey. "Also, that's just freaky how you can just know everything about me. I never knew our lives were apparently a kids' show. That's... just weird." He shook his head and Mikey rolled his eyes.

"Dude! They did the same thing to us! Your friend Jay is uber freaky with all those weirdo facts about me." Mikey looked in the fridge to find what else they could use to fix the burnt pizza. "Oh! Syrup! And ooh! Some garlic bread! Not a bad spread! Wait..." he dug around in the back, where a container of takeout from Master Chen's was hidden behind a can of green beans, "what're these?"

Cole snatched the container away and hugged it close to him. "Nothing! It's mine! They're my puffy potstickers from Master Chen's Noodle Shop. Best restaurant in all the 16 Realms!" He popped the top off and let Mikey smell it.

"That smells sooooo good! Like Murikami's from New York! This'll work perfectly!" Mikey snatched one of the potstickers and popped it in his mouth. "Ice Cream Kitty would love these! I've GOT to get Murikami to make them!" When he got a confused look from Cole he clarified. "Oh! I.C.K., she's an ice cream kitty. She got mutated from a normal cat into an ice cream one! She's my bff and she watches Crognard with me all the time!"

"That... actually sounds pretty cool! Who's Murikami, though?" He asked, to which Mikey lit up and started chattering on and on about Murikami, New York, whatever they could think of. It was a funny sight, the bulky Earth Ninja and pipsqueak Orange Ninja Turtle in the kitchen together and chatting away like they were old friends.

~~~

In the training room down in the brig, Kai, Casey, and Raph were two-on-one sparring. This fight had been going on for quite a while, since they'd all been thinking the same thing and wasted no time getting down to business. Surprisingly, Kai was holding his own pretty well against the other two. Of course, using his fire and Spinjitzu probably had something to do with that, but who would know?

Eventually, Kai pinned Raph down with Casey patting out his hockey stick (which was totally not on fire from Kai-). A cocky smirk accompanied by a fistful of fire was met with an angry growl from under his arm. "Fine. You win." Raph growled and Kai released his hold to help him up. Raph reluctantly accepted it and crossed his arms.

"Out of all the fights I've been in, this is one of the most impressive. Congrats. That's not easy to do." Raph offered a genuine half-smile.

"Yeah, dude! That was wicked!" Casey put in his two cents where he was finally not on fire anymore. "How'd you do it?"

Kai shrugged. "Elemental Master of Fire. It's what I do." He let a flame blaze up from his open palm and he grinned cockily with a raised eyebrow. "Those are some sick sais! Where'd you get em?"

Raph spun his sais out and let Kai examine the silver prongs while he explained about Splinter and their mutation. "Sick! That is some sweet blacksmithing, too. Whoever did this was a genius." Kai did some test stabs and handed them back. "Cole would kill to be as great of a swordsman as I am though." He bragged. "Not that you numbskulls look like you'd even be able to handle a sword properly." He teased.

"Why don't you bring him in and we'll have a 2-v-2 then? It'll be even." Raph challenged with a glint in his eye. He loved a good sparring session! "We'll show ya how we do it in NYC!" He pounded his fists together and good-naturedly smirked.

Kai shrugged and raised an eyebrow with an equally cocky smirk. "Alright. Why not? Show you who's really boss, ya jerks!" He stuck his tongue out like a toddler and shot out the door to find Cole. A minute later he returned with a grumpy Cole in tow. Cole wasn't happy about being dragged away from the food but he wasn't going to back down if they wanted a challenge.

The following fight wasn't long but certainly action-packed. Cole and Raph went at it while Casey rushed Kai. It ended when each member had their partner in an undesirable spot, to which they agreed a tie (courtesy of Cole) and helped each other up.

"Nice job, man," Raph clapped the bulky Earth Ninja on the shoulder and offered a genuine grin. Being almost a head shorter was a little intimidating but also comforting in a sense. It made him feel like he was talking to one of his brothers instead.

Cole nodded and smiled back. "Yeah, you too. You wanna go check out some other room? I bet we could steal some of Jay's comics if you're up to it." Kai and Casey chatted happily in the background so Cole wasn't worried about them snitching or being bored.

"Do I? What kinda comics you guys got here?" Raph liked this guy already. Offering to snatch some new comics and he put up a better fight in the dojo than any of his brothers back home. While Kai and Casey kept sparring in the dojo, Cole and Raph spent the next little bit scoping out the best comics from Jay's "secret" spot under his mattress.

The two were actually much more similar than they thought. They both loved comics, were basically the protective older brother of the group (minus Leo, but whatever), and loved food! They weren't as similar as Kai and Raph but they were close. The Intimidating Yet Adorable Under The Exterior Teddy Bears™ of the group, if you will. Most of that afternoon was spent in that room, bonding in their unique way... at least until Mikey claimed Cole back and Raph was sent back to the dojo.

~~~

In a quiet room on the other side of the Bounty sat Lloyd and Leo. The calmest of the bunch so far, they were sharing a pot of jasmine tea, which just so happened to be both of their favorites. Thank Wu for stashing up on so much of it! Surprisingly, Lloyd was actually pretty calm today. His "bouncing-off-the-walls" little kid-ness was replaced by his more mature, Wu-like side.

They'd been talking about their own worlds and teams when they'd gotten onto the subject of past crushes. Neither of them ever had any real luck with them, so this would be interesting.

"So let me get this straight-" Lloyd poured another cup and set some snacks down before sitting crossed-legged on the mat, "-you tried to date someone you didn't know was your sister? Or...half-sister?" Lloyd asked incredulously.

Leo nodded and sighed. "All my brothers laughed at me for it, but I couldn't help it. She's so strong and independent, just my type." He took a long sip of the steaming tea before continuing. "So why did she have to be related to me AND leave us for another human in JAPAN? Sensei was heartbroken but let her go anyway. At least... before he passed. He never saw her return. She still hasn't, even after a year." He looked down into his cup and stared for a few seconds. It was still hard to talk about, even almost a year after Yoshi's death.

"Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry." Lloyd whispered.

Leo shrugged and mumbled, "It's fine," before lifting his head again with a deep breath.

Lloyd felt bad until he thought of something ironic and chuckled. "My dad is an evil warlord set on conquering Ninjago whenever he can get more than five minutes and my mom left me at a boarding school for 10 years. Probably why I get attached so easily and start oversharing everything about my life." He grinned and shook his head with a chuckle.

"Like this one time, we got stuck in the Never Realm, right? Snow, ice, white as far as the eye could see. Well, I found this... girl, I guess, named Akita. Oh, actually she's a Formling. Part wolf, part girl. Anyway, I found her while she was in wolf form and told her my WHOLE life story! Even called her Red since I didn't know her name!" He laughed and Leo offered a small laugh in return.

"Good to know I'm not the only one who gets involved with problematic girls." Leo set his cup down and settled into a more comfortable position.

"Oh, you think that's bad? Let me tell you about Harumi!" Lloyd continued and told Leo all about Harumi and how he'd fallen for her at first sight. "I mean... I guess I'm still feeling like that. If we're being honest, I don't think I could stop if I wanted." He smiled softly at the thought of her. Even through everything, he still loved her, way deep down. He couldn't ever totally hate her, even if she did almost kill him. Multiple times.

"You still feel that way, huh? Well, as long as there's total honesty here... I still feel that way about Karai. I know it's probably wrong... but I can't help it. Even if she doesn't return the feelings, it's just refreshing to know someone doesn't think I'm crazy for harboring these, um, emotions." It was good to know someone didn't think he was totally crazy.

The rest of the afternoon was spent swapping stories of their adventures, different tea recipes, and the like. Seems like these two would get along perfectly!

~~~

April and Nya were hanging in the game room/common room. Nya cleared a spot on the couch for them to sit and talk. It was a little awkward at first but soon both girls realized they were incredibly similar. Both were strong-willed, independent, and unwilling to be in a "boys club" or just "the girl one". They both lost at least one parent young and had protective guardians. For April, her dad. For Nya, her brother Kai.

They swapped funny stories of their boys (and boyfriends!) and their adventures they'd gone on. They also just traded some girl talk, you know the kind, and whatever came to mind. Injustices against women, a funny joke they heard the other day, or whatever new game the boys got on their system. The striking physical differences were the only real differences between them.

"Hey, want me to show you a cool move I learned from Sensei?" April asked, to which Nya nodded eagerly. "Sweet! Let me just grab my-" she reached for her tessen, which was gone. "What?! Where'd it go? I just had it this morning!"

"Looking for what?" Nya asked with concern lacing her tone.

"My tessen! It's silver with a dragon mark on the front."

"Like this one?" Nya pulled the silver tessen from her bag, the one from under the tree.

"Yes, that's it! But how'd it get here?" April gratefully took the tessen back with a smile. When it was returned to her, it glowed brightly. Both women shielded their eyes until it dimmed enough to see, though it was still bright enough to have to put away in its sheath.

"That was weird," Nya commented when a tinkling sound cut through the air. "Oh! Dinner's ready! C'mon, you can sit with me!" She grabbed April's hand and took her with her to the dining room. Everyone had gathered quickly around the extended strand of tables. There would barely be enough room, but that was okay. Better than not having anyone to eat with!

Everyone sat down next to the person they spent the most time with that day and Sensei Wu came out a minute later, bearing desserts. All the turtle's and their team's jaws dropped. They'd never seen Wu since he had been in his room all day. He'd been informed of the situation but had just replied, "I'll meditate on it," per usual.

Once he sat, they snapped out of their trance. After saying grace and starting to serve the food, Leo spoke up. "Um, excuse me? Are you Sensei Wu? I've heard a lot about you from Lloyd." Wu's eyes crinkled up in a smile. So curious.

"Yes, I am. You must be my pupil's friends from another realm. Welcome to our monastery home-away-from-home. This is Destiny's Bounty, if you haven't heard. I'm so glad you're able to stay with us on Christmas Day. Now, let's eat!" What he didn't realize was that all the food they had there was similar to a Japanese array of dishes.

"Oh! This looks like that stuff Murikami and Splinter liked to make!" Mikey exclaimed and dug into his bowl. The table flowed with easy conversation and a few friendly food fights broke out at the end with Jay and Mikey, but other than that it was perfect!

A few minutes later, the turtles wanted to question Wu some more. "Sensei... ah, Wu? How did you find and train these guys, and girls, so well and quickly? You've got to be a master at your art to do that so well! Maybe even as good as Master Splinter!" Donnie asked with a questioning spark in his eye. He loved questions and learning. Any kind of knowledge was worth learning, to him.

Wu explained the legend of the creation of Ninjago, to which all the turtles and April and Casey were in awe of, and then about Elemental Masters. "Woah! No wonder you're so awesome! You're the son of the creator of NINJAGO! I mean... ahem, I already knew that. From watching the show." Mikey added.

"Huh. That's actually super neat." Raph said with a small smirk. A few more questions were asked, powers were demonstrated, the turtles' weapons were shown off (after dinner), and then it was past dark. They cleaned up and all went to the living room, where the nerds gathered at the front.

"We've figured out a way to get everyone back home!" Jay declared. "All we have to do is return each present to their owner and everyone should disappear in a pop! Just like when you got here!"

Everyone found their gifts magically put back under the tree, unwrapped but labeled. They each said goodbye and good luck before exchanging gifts. "We won't forget you!" "Come back soon!" "Be safe!" "Stay groovy, dude!" "Nice to meet you!" and different shouts filled the air as the gifts glowed brighter and brighter. A pop sounded and the NYC-ers disappeared in a flash of light.

It suddenly seemed much too quiet for the Ninjago team. But quiet was good since it was getting late and they were already up so late the night before.

In both worlds, everyone wished the others a good night and went to their own places to sleep. Eventually, what happened that day faded into a dream on both sides, but it was never really forgotten. The beauty of Christmas magic and surprise friendships is always surprising!

~~~

{A/N: Phew! That's my longest oneshot yet! 5.2k words, 19 pages. Sorry it took so long to finish, but hopefully it's worth it! Thanks to one of my friends (gabrieexo) for beta-reading and being my grammar police! XD That wraps up this Xmas series! Thank you to everyone who requested, read, commented, or voted! I enjoyed this immensely! Maybe I can do it again, but probably not soon. Bye lovelies and thank you so much again!}