Previously on Tiny Troubles...

He vaguely remembered walking to where Zane was standing in the hall and sitting on the floor next to him, suddenly too tired to even entertain the thought of walking. He thought he remembered Zane picking him up and starting to walk somewhere. He was about to ask where Zane was taking him but ultimately decided that he didn't care and closed his eyes.

It didn't take him long to drift off to sleep.

~~~~

Part 9

When Cole woke up from his impromptu nap, he was lying in his bed with the blankets tangled around his legs and drool trickling out of the corner of his mouth and onto his pillow.

Groaning, Cole sat up and stretched, wiping the drool from his cheek. It took him a few minutes to convince his brain to wake up, and a few more minutes to remember what had caused him to be so sleepy.

Cole groaned again and buried his face in his pillow. "I hate being a kid," he whined, his voice muffled by the pillow. I really hope Sensei got that tea...

Deciding not to wait any longer, Cole kicked off his blankets and got out of the bed. He walked out of the bedroom and down the hall, occasionally tripping over the baggy ends of his pants(thankfully, he didn't faceplant).

Hearing loud voices coming from the game room area, Cole made his way over there. He poked his head into the room and noticed that at some point while he was napping, the others had come back. Now Kai, Jay, and Lloyd were in the middle of an intense game of Mario Kart. And, from the sounds of it, someone had just sent a blue shell after Kai.

"Come on, go faster ya stupid car!" The red ninja shouted, furiously tilting his controller side-to-side.

"Kai, lower your voice," Zane scolded. "You risk the chance of waking up Cole. And yelling is pointless since you cannot avoid the blue shell."

"Can it Frosty! I didn't ask for a backseat driver!" Kai snapped back, only curse as his kart was hit by the blue shell. "Gosh dang it!!! Now I'm in third!"

"Haha, sucks to be you, Kai," Lloyd teased, lightly elbowing the red ninja. "Now watch as I throw this green shell at first place."

"Ha! Green shells suck, Lloyd!" Jay jeered as he raced to the finish line. "There's no way you can hit me!"

Just then, a green shell hit Jay's cart, causing it (and Jay)to flip.

"You were saying?" Lloyd said smugly as he crossed the finish line. "Oh yeah. Who's the best at Mario Kart? This guy, that's who."

"Shut up," Jay groaned, slumping. "And I was so close..."

"Rematch! I demand a rematch!" Kai exclaimed. "I refuse to take this lying down!"

"Are you sure about that?" Lloyd asked, smirking. "You haven't done very well in the past three races."

"That's cause the random one was biased, you intentionally chose your favorite course, and Jay's choice sucked."

"Hey!" Jay protested. "What was wrong with my choice?!"

"Rainbow Road, Jay. You chose freaking Rainbow Road!"

"Cause it's fun!"

"I fell off a dozen times!!!"

"Well, then it's a good thing you didn't choose it huh?"

Kai let out a frustrated scream and tackled Jay to the ground. "Take that back!" He growled.

"Never!" Jay declared, squirming out of Kai's grasp long drought to grab a pillow and smack the red ninja in the face with it.

Zane facepalmed while Lloyd laughed. "Fight, fight, fight!" the green ninja chanted.

A small part of Cole wanted to join in on the chanting, but the leader part of him took over after a few moments. "Okay guys, break it up," he commanded.

The fight continued, however, which made Cole frowned. "Guys," he insisted, speaking a little louder. "Knock it off."

Nobody heard him. Cole scrunched up his face in frustration. Why won't they listen to me?! He thought. This just like...like...

Cole felt his body freeze. His heart started pounding and he started breathing faster. He suddenly wasn't in the game room, he wasn't even on the Bounty anymore. He was in his bedroom, back at his old house. He was sitting on the floor, curled up in a little ball his hands over his ears. But it wasn't enough, it was never enough. He could the arguments, the fighting. It was muffled, but it was still clear enough and loud enough for him to hear. He could hear everything--the mean words, the naughty words that his dad told him to never ever repeat, yet he always said them when he was like this.

"Stop it," he whispered, curling up tighter. "Stop fighting..."

For a second, the arguing seemed to die down. Cole felt a tiny flutter of hope as he uncurled slightly. Maybe they finally stopped fighting...

But the arguing continued. It wasn't quite as loud but it was still there. Cole curled back up. Why wouldn't they stop fighting? Why were they even fighting.

"Stop it, stop it, stop it," he chanted softly, squeezing his eyes shut. "Please, stop it."

They didn't stop, of course they didn't. They never stopped, not unless they noticed that he was listening or in the room with them. And even then, the peace only lasted for a few hours, a day if he was lucky, before the arguing returned with a vengeance.

"Please," Cole whispered, feeling the tears that he had desperately tried to prevent from falling slide down his cheeks. "Please, just stop."

The arguing didn't stop...but now, he thought he heard other voices. They were muffled, but somehow much easier to understand. Someone...someone was saying his name.

"It's okay, Cole," the voice was saying. "We're not fighting anymore."

Cole's shoulders began to shake. "You're lying," he whispered. Because that's what his dad always said. "That was our last fight, Cole." or "we'll never fight again, son." But he lied, heliedheliedhelied...

"Cole," the voice said. "C'mon pal, I'd never lie to you."

'Pal'? His dad never called him that. It was always 'Son' or 'Cole' or sometimes even 'sport'. But 'pal'?

"Cole," the voice insisted. "Look at me."

Cole blinked, and his bedroom faded away. He looked up, and Kai's face-- his worried face--looked down at him. "K-Kai?" the black ninja stuttered, his voice cracking slightly.

Kai breathed out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. Are you okay?" the red ninja asked gently.

"I--I..." Cole sniffled and he abruptly realized two things: one, Kai was hugging him. Two, Cole was crying.

A small part of him wanted to return Kai's hug(because seriously, when does Kai ever hug anyone besides Nya?) and let it all out. But the bigger part of him, the part of him that was, dare he say, afraid, made Cole shove the red ninja away and quickly stand up. "I'm fine," he said firmly, rubbing at his eyes.

He saw Kai scowl out of the corner of his eye while he heard Lloyd scoff and say, "Dude, you are absolutely not fine."

"You looked like you were having a panic attack!" Jay fretted.

"Cole," Kai said, his voice gentle but firm. "What happened?"

You guys were fighting and you wouldn't stop even when I asked you to, and I might have accidentally remembered a part of my past that I'd rather not remember. "Nothing happened, guys," Cole insisted.

"That was not 'nothing' Cole," Zane said sharply, narrowing his eyes at the little ninja. "You were muttering about someone lying to you and yet here you are doing the same." the nindroid's voice softened. "We are worried about you, Cole."

"Yeah," Jay agreed, kneeling down next to Cole and placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "And we really just want to know what made you upset."

Cole stared at the floor, unsure of what to do now. He wanted to tell his teammates, but...something held him back. Before he could decide whether to fib or to just run away, he heard a door open up in the distance. "I'm home!" Sensei's wizened voice declared.

Cole instantly perked up. Finally! Now I don't have to be a little kid anymore! He mentally cheered.

He wiggled out of Jay's grasp and raced towards where Sensei was. "C'mon guys!" he called back without stopping. "Hurry up, I wanna see if Sensei's got that Tomorrow's Tea!"

He turned back around and kept sprinting. Had he looked back, he might have noticed the looks his teammates exchanged before collectively sighing and following him.

~~~~

Sensei was waiting for them in the dining room, sitting down at the head of the table while sipping a cup of tea from his ever-present teapot.

Cole skidded to a stop as he entered the room...which turned out to be a bad idea when Jay, who had caught up to the little ninja first, couldn't stop in time and ended up tripping over Cole.

Which led to Cole getting squished as Jay fell on top of him.

Which led to Kai tripping over Jay's outstretched leg and falling on top of them.

Which led to Lloyd tripping over Kai's leg and falling on top of the pile.

Which led to Zane...calmly walking in and avoiding the pileup altogether. "Good evening, Sensei," he politely greeted their teacher.

Meanwhile, the other four ninja were trying to disentangle themselves from their pileup. "Jay!" Cole squeakily complained. "Get your butt outta my face!"

"Tell Kai to get off my back!" Jay snapped back.

"I would gladly move, when Lloyd freaking gets off my leg!" Kai growled.

"I can't! Someone's on my arm!"

"Well hurry up and figure out who it is! My leg's going numb!"

"At least you're not getting squished by Jay's fat butt!"

"Hey! My butt is not fat!"

"Sure it's not...."

"Quiet Lloyd."

"WILL SOMEONE PLEASE GET OFF?!"

Zane sighed and facepalmed. Sensei Wu just chuckled and got out of his chair. He walked up to the ninja, and thoughtfully hummed.

Then he poked his bamboo staff where the middle of the pile.

Just like that, the four ninja got distangled. Cole sucked in a huge breath of air. "Whoo, finally! I can breathe again!"

"Owwww, pins and needles," Kai complained, standing up and taking careful steps in order to work out the numbness in his leg.

"Thanks Uncle," Lloyd said, slowly sitting up and rubbing his sore arm.

"You are welcome, nephew," Sensei replied. "Though this might have been avoided had you all not been running. Tell me, what was the rush about?"

Cole, reminded of his mission, quickly stood up and raced to stand in front of his teacher. "Did you get the tea Sensei?" he asked, not even bothering to contain his excitement. "Can I finally go back to being a teen?"

Nobody noticed how Sensei's lips twitched ever so slightly before dipping into a frown. He sighed sadly and shook his head. "I am afraid that you will have to remain this way for a little while longer, Cole."

Cole froze, his eyes going wide as it felt like his entire world just stopped. "What?!"

"You must understand, pupils, that Tomorrow's Tea is very rare and very complicated to make," Sensei explained calmly. "And unfortunately, Mystake has not had the time nor the resources to make the tea since we purchased the last of it not too long ago."

"How long until she can make the tea, Sensei?" Zane asked.

Sensei let out another sigh. "At best, she might be able to have some in stock in about a week. At worst...it'll be a month before she has some."

"A MONTH?!" Cole screamed, absolutely horrified. "I have to be a kid for a whole month?!"

"Well, look on the bright side," Jay piped up. "It could be worse."

"THAT'S NOT HELPING! I DON'T WANNA BE A KID FOR ANOTHER MONTH!" Cole practically wailed.

"Try not to worry, Cole," Zane tried to soothe his distressed teammate. "Sensei also said that Mystake might have the tea done within a week."

"Yeah!" Lloyd added. "Besides, being a kid isn't that bad!"

Cole didn't know why that set him off. Maybe because being a kid was that bad; maybe because he was still reeling from the fact that he had to potentially wait a month before he could get turned back into his normal age; maybe it was because of his mini panic attack earlier in the game room. But all of it was too much for the black ninja and his childish instincts decided to take over.

Cole sat down hard on the floor and immediately started bawling.

----

Oh gosh, Cole's crying. What will the ninja do? Will they be able to calm him down? Will they just freak out and make everything worse? Find out...next time! :D

PS: Sorry I'm a day late(again). XD