courage is hard to keep

a/n: i just realised that the troupe for y/n and lloyd is

strangers x friends x almost lovers x strangers x lovers (tehe)

cole's mother is nigerian but can speak italian, cole's father is just italian

(2.8k words)

ALSO, does anyone wanna make some fanart for me?? ;D 

(please please please)

warning: panic attack, some cute stuff that'll make you sick :3, almost crying, angsty?

💚. *. ⋆✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*💚

authors pov

07:21 AM. NEW NINJAGO CITY

nicholas sits in on one of the bleachers. basketball practice is every morning. he doesn't go every morning though. he should. 

"¿qué pasó?" mattias asks, sitting down next to him. "you worried about the game tomorrow?"

yup. they have a game tomorrow. against crestwood height's academy for girls. an all girl school. not as common anymore but there are still a few of them. 

"no, i'm okay," nicholas says, rolling his shoulders. there are a few people in the sports hall. kai's here with lloyd. there's also mikela, ryan, rachel, grace, cole, bryan, damien-cole?!

nicholas does a double take, seeing cole throw a basketball to lloyd who then does a left handed layup. cole laughs, then throwing another ball to kai who does a three throw, it being a swish. 

"¿por qué está cole aquí?" nicholas asks mattias, who looks around for him. mattias dyed his hair purple again, but he cut of his locs. he's had then since he was three, it's time for a change. so right now, mattias is just chilling with a low fade. his four c curls are already coming in. 

"you wanna go talk him?" mattias says with a tease. mattias stands up, ready to walk over to cole before nicholas pulls him back down. "woah! ¿qué hice?"

"déjalo en paz o te haré suicidarte,"

"yikes, no thank you," mattias says. "i know when i am beat, i didn't even look at him, nic," mattias stands up, picking up a basketball from the floor. nicholas rolls his eyes, rolling his neck again. "you got an idea for starting five?"

"yeah..." he looks over to lloyd and kai. "i think so,"

💚

nicholas sits in his economics class, answering a question which is in the text book. his phone buzzes in his pocket, making him look around. mr robinson sits at the front of the class, partly dozing off. his economics' teacher isn't the best. he's pretty old and doesn't hear what students say half the time. but he's cute. 

nicholas takes out his phone, seeing notifications from cole. it's the tenth of february. a monday. valentines day is on friday. this friday. the friday that is coming up. nicholas has panicked, not that he's going to admit it to anyone. he listened to y/n and got some black roses. not real ones just in case cole has hay fever. but not that nicholas knows. but cole does have hay fever. but he still likes flowers. 

theannoyingonethatilike🍰🖤

u didn't come 

& say hi 2 me in d morning 😟

r u okay??

my bad

yeah, yeah

i'm fine

you okay?

yhyh

i'm chilling

in food tec 

tryna not burn the pizza i'm makin

cool

what pizza is it?

MEAT FEAST

[nic🫣🤭reacted to this message🤢]

cuz they r d best!!

i disagree

well, ur opinion doesn't matter anyway 😋

🙄

...when did you last check on it?

abt an hr ago

y?

cole.

IT'S BYURNING

FUCK

HOLD ON

I'LLL TEXT YOU AT BREAK

we can just hang out at break?

or not.

delivered

the fire alarm goes off, making nicholas rolls his eyes with a small chuckle. 

"everyone, up and out!" mr robinson says, waking up abruptly. the class murmurs, getting their belongings, because why would they leave it? is the school going to pay for it if it gets burnt? no but y/n would definitely make that happen. nicholas knows it. 

he puts his backpack on his back, letting everyone trail on infront of him. he watches as everyone in the corridors, follow on, mostly chatter and gossip being spread around. 

fire alarms don't really happen in ninjago high. but there's always a first time for everything. he sees y/n, mattias and elena walking together. y/n smiles, waving at him and nicholas squeezes between some students to get to them. 

"do you know what happened?" she asks him, nicholas nodding. 

"yeah, i think cole was going to burn to place down,"

"what?!"

💚

"i don't even want to know how you did that," kai says as they stand outside in the february cold, waiting for the head teacher to say that the students and the staff are allowed back into the school. "you know how much i hate the cold, bro,"

"it was an accident," cole shrugs, stuffing his hands into his black hoodie. "i was distracted,"

"by nic?" jay says, suggestively, making nya laugh as she puts her arm around jay's waist. zane smiles as he stands with his friends. 

"maybe," cole admits, looking for that certain brown hair in the crowd of students. 

lloyd stuff his chin in his famous green hoodie, trying not to look for y/n. she commented on his post yesterday. why? why did she do that? now, it's all he can think about is her. when he's on patrol, when he's training, when he sees something pink, when he's in the shower, when he's eating. she's the only thing in his brain. 

not even the new prophecy has been taking as much of his mind as y/n l/n; the princess of ninjago has been. 

tell me by wonder girls plays aloud as y/n makes silly dance moves to annoy nicholas. mattias joins in, the two sunshine characters vibing off each other. some students record them, as others watch. y/n doesn't care and neither does mattias. should they even be playing music right now? not really. but who's going to stop them?

nicholas laughs, seeing cole. cole smiles at him as nicholas waves. nicholas really likes this guy. let's hope he has the courage to ask him out for valentines. 

heloves.nicholasramiez

liked by y/nl/n, colebrkstoneblksmith, mattiasscott, samiscool & 163, 765 more

heloves.nicholasramiez she stole my fucking phone

view 10, 753 comments

y/nl/n BUT YOU STILL POSED FOR THE FANS 🥵🥵🥶🥶

¬ heloves.nicholasramiez stfu

¬ y/nisthebest LOVE IT WHEN THE QUUEN DEVOURS

¬ heloves.nicholasramiez can't even fucking spell properly

trynafuc- why r u guys even out of school rn?

¬ y/nl/n fire alarm!!

mattiasscott my favourite animal is nicholas marco ramiez 😍

¬ heloves.nicholasramiez my favourite animal is you shutting up 😍

prettierthanyou He's not even that good looking

¬ colebrkstoneblksmith i dunno abt that 😬

¬ heloves.nicholasramiez oh

¬ mattiasscott AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH @y/nl/n @elenasallow

¬ y/nl/n AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA 🤩🤩🤩

¬ elenasallow Ahhhhhhhhhh

nicholasramiezisdaddy my man! my man! MY MAN!

¬ samiscool he's gay

¬ jennyiscooler & he likes some1 else

¬ colebrkstoneblksmith WHO?

¬ heloves.nicholasramiez none of your business.

bballninjago Future basketballer in the making!

y/nismywife I NEED HERRRRRRRRRRRR

ilovey/n SHE'S MOTHERING

ishipnicandn/n OUR PARENTSS

¬ heloves.nicholasramiez I'M FUCKING GAY.

¬ y/nl/n HE'S GAY.

nicholasramiezisdaddy father of my child 🫄🏿

¬ heloves.nicholasramiez i'm going to start blocking people.

y/nismother IT'S GIVING SHADOW AND AMY FROM SONIC

cole laughs, strolling through nicholas' comments in his instagram posts. people are weird. really weird. thank goodness he doesn't post on instagram. the only ones that do are nya and kai. well, obviously lloyd now too. that one post that y/n commented on. 

cole wants to ask nicholas to be his valentines. he wants it to be really romantic and hopefully, cake will be involved. 

he spots nicholas walking towards the sports hall in his basketball training uniform. yep, they have different ones. one for training. one for away games. and one for home games. y/n did the same thing for the cheer leaders. 

"nic!" he calls out. nicholas hears something taking off his headphones. he spots cole, walking over to him. he didn't realise how small cole was to him. not say that cole isn't tall. he is. nicholas is just taller. "didn't you train in the morning?"

"i did yeah, but we've got a game tomorrow so i just want to put some extra work in," nicholas says. 

"oh, okay. should-"

"do you want to stay?" nicholas asks, interrupting cole. he had a feeling cole would ask him if he wanted him to stay. but if nicholas answered that, he would be teased for days. 

"sure, i'll-" cole's phone buzzes in his pocket, making him reach for it. "sorry, give me a second," nicholas nods, taking a step back to let cole do his thing. "hello? what? wait, dad slow down. i...okay, i'm coming. i'm coming," he ends the call, trying to slow down his breathing. "i..." she's okay. his mother is okay. she just had a fall. there are no injuries but a few bruises. 

"hey breathe," nicholas says, putting his hands on cole's shoulder. "take a breath," cole tries to slow down his breathing but he's not doing very well. so nicholas tries something else. "hey, cole. look at me," cole looks up at him and nicholas puts cole's hands on his chest. nicholas dramatically starts to breath, showing cole what to do. cole copies him, slowing down his breathing and his heart rate. "better?"

"yeah, y-yeah," cole mutters, looking away from nicholas' deep brown eyes. "thank you,"

"no problem," nicholas says. "what's wrong?"

"i just...i need to get to the intensive care unit," cole mutters. how is he going to get there? should he ninja away? but his mother will yell at him for being so reckless. cole did get his elemental power from her. 

"i'll drive you,"

"you will?" cole asks, looking back at nicholas. and you can tell nicholas never stopped looking at him. "but training-your game? i don't-"

"you're too important," cole smiles, watching as nicholas walks off. mattias was right. nicholas' actions speak louder than his words. "are you coming?"

"yeah, yeah, i'm coming!"

now, hopefully one of them will have the courage to ask the other. 

💚

y/n rolls her neck, lightly doing the dance moves at she and the cheer squad are going to perform tomorrow for the basketball match against crestwood height's academy for girls.

her dad is downstairs in a meeting, but they ate dinner together. breakfast for dinner. where they would make waffles or pancakes and just talk about stuff. no phones at the table, just them. even henry joined in. he ate the least about of waffles.  

she hears a knock on her window, making her smile. seeing the green ninja weekly has become a nice normal. if you can even call it that. but that's what she's going to call it. 

she slides the curtains open, smiling as the green ninja gives her a wave. she unlocks the door, walking outside. it's still cold.

"hi," she smiles at him. the green ninja smiles behind his mask, tilting his head at her. 

"hi," he says back. y/n also might start to have the smallest crush on him. "are you okay?"

"i'm doing okay," y/n says. "i was just practicing my cheer routine for tomorrow,"

"yeah? have you got a competition?"

"nope," she says, walking to the barrier of the balcony. she looks up the sky, no stars this time. "just a match. i'm excited though. i have a feeling we will win,"

a silence passes over the two, the green ninja watching her. soulmate. that's his soulmate right in front of him. he sighs quietly, turning away from her. 

"why didn't you join the basketball team?"

"oh...uh..." y/n shrugs. "i just...never really thought about it. my mama was a cheerleader and i wanted to be just like her, so...you know, i do cheerleading, just like she did,"

"and you're the captain,"

"and i'm the captain," y/n repeats, making her and the green ninja laugh. "i wonder what if would have been like if i didn't fit the stereotype of the mayor's daughter,"

"you can change, everyone does," the green ninja says, standing next to her and looking up at the stars. 

"i don't want to change," y/n says, simply. "not that i am not comfortable with change but i like who i am right now. i'm just wondering if i never took it up, if i did politics like my dad, or sociology like...an old friend of mine...anyways! it's just something to think about. like what if you weren't the green ninja?"

the green ninja turns to look at y/n. a universe that he wasn't the green ninja? 

"what if you were a pink ninja?"

"pink? really,"

"hey," y/n laughs, shoving him slightly but he doesn't even move. now she feels embarrased. "it's a colour. what if you were the purple ninja then?"

"no...i think i prefer pink over purple,"

"i think i prefer pink over any colour in the world,"

"even green?" y/n's mind starts to wander to lloyd's green eyes. those beautiful emerald eyes. y/n laughs out a humourless laugh, shaking her head.

"maybe not green,"

💚

"i'm fine," lilly says as cole gives her a bear hug. "se mi stringi ancora più forte, mi ucciderai," she jokes, making cole let go of her immediately. "how did you get here so fast?" lilly looks around, making sure that the nurse who is in the room doesn't hear what she's about to say. "did you...?"

cole shakes his head.

"remember that guy i was telling you about?" lilly nods, waiting for cole to continue. "well, he dropped me off,"

"he's here?!" lilly screeches. "bring him to me!"

"mama-"

"don't even try and hide him from, cole," lilly sniffs, making cole sigh. 

"mama, i don't even know if he's here," cole mutters, smiling at the nurse before sliding the door open. if it wasn't obvious, cole is a mama's boy. him and his dad don't have the best relationship. but that doesn't mean that they're not both trying for it to be better. cole peeks out, seeing nicholas sitting down on the chairs, on his phone. he's here?! he stayed?! cole slides the door shut, lilly looking at him expectedly. "he's still here..."

"then invite him in!"

"mama-"

"cole-"

"i don't-"

"you better!" the two descendants of earth look at each other before cole falters with a sigh. 

"okay," he whispers, groaning. he slides he door open, nicholas looking up. the spanish male stands up walking over to him. "hey,"

"hey, is everything okay?"

"yeah..." cole cries internally before sighing. "my mama wants to meet you,"

"oh," nicholas' face goes warm as he stammers. "y-yeah, okay. i-if that's okay with you,"

"uh yeah," this is too soon. cole does what his mother to meet his boyfriend, i mean, crush but isn't it too soon? oh gosh. cole slides the door open, seeing his mother with a big smile on her face. "this my mama, l-"

"i can introduce myself!" lilly says, making cole's cheeks warm in embarrassment. black people don't blush as easily as people with lighter skin tones do. "hi, i'm cole's mother but you can just call me lilly!"

"uh...i'm nicholas marco ramiez," nicholas' mother brought him up to never say an older person's name unless they give consent to. but even now, nicholas just wants to call lilly cole's mom. "is it okay if i just call you cole's mom?"

"if you want too!" lilly smiles, ushering nicholas to come closer to her. and he does. he looks back at cole for help, but cole just shrugs, leaving nicholas' helpless. "thank you so much for bringing him here," lilly takes nicholas' hands, squeezing them firmly. "please look after my son if something happens to me,"

"mama," cole says, looking at her with tears threatening to fall from his eyes. "nothing is going to happen to you," even if cole had to give up everything, he would. he would do it to keep his mother alive. 

"i promise to look after him," nicholas says, nodding at lilly. lilly relaxes, smiling at nicholas. cole's heart starts to hammer out of his chest. that was devotion. cole is used to being there for people, he forgot people can be there for him too. 

"you are a good son," she says to nicholas. "i can feel it," and he is. his mother thinks so. 

💚 

"thank you," cole says to nicholas as the two of them walk out of the care unit. "for bringing me here and obviously saying high to my mom,"

"it's not a problem," nicholas shrugs, walking to his car. he checks his phone once again, seeing a shopping food list from his mother. yes! they're going to lasagne when he gets home. "where do you live? i'll drop you off,"

"no, thanks," cole bursts out. nicholas' smile falters. "no, i mean, you've already done enough and i just need to go on a walk alone. not that i wouldn't go on a walk with you, i just-"

"need your alone time?" nicholas asks, learning against the car. "no, i get you," he nods. i wishes he could stay with him though. "text me when you get home, yeah? i'll see you tomorrow," nicholas smiles at him, cole waving as the brown haired male gets into the car. nicholas honks as he drives off, smiling to himself as he gets out of the car park. gosh, is this how y/n felt when she hung out with lloyd?

it feels strange. but in a good way. now, all he needs to do it ask cole to be his valentine on friday.