Archive of Our Own

Laughter echoed up the street as the ninja tumbled around down it like puppies, although some were clearly enjoying the pouring rain more than others. Nya spun around, arms stretched wide as her element washed over her and soaked her loose grey tank top and volleyball shorts. Her natural affinity for water caused the splashes from her black combat boots to bounce extra high around her. Kai scowled at her the same way he always did when they were in the rain. His red sneakers were soggy and wet, and his jacket collar was pulled up to keep the water from dripping horribly down his neck. Like when they were small, he held Nya’s jacket over his head to protect his precious hair, the black leather tossed to him as soon as they got into the rain just like she used to toss him her plasticy blue raincoat in kindergarten. Some things never change.

Middle ground between the diametrically opposed twins, Lloyd hunched his shoulders against the chill but didn’t bother to zip up his green hoodie or put up the hood. Wet blond locks clung to his face. He occasionally jostled against Zane, who was still trying to figure out how to be a normal teen in the rain and had resorted to ‘playful’ shoving. Zane’s practical pale coat’s hood sheltered his own hair from the rain but water still dripped down his face unnoticed. Although he didn’t feel the chill, he was glad for the layer of defence keeping the rain from freezing on too much of his artificial skin. 

Jay’s bright blue jacket trailed from two fingers while he followed a bit behind the others, eyes on Nya’s dancing form but aware of the possible consequences if Kai caught him watching. Khaki-ish cargo pants were weighed down by both water and pockets full of tools and treasures. His habitual orange scarf hung limp and wet over a t-shirt too rain darkened to make out the superhero depicted on it. His usually bright expression darkened when Cole, ever the dancer, swept Nya up and flung her around. 

Cole, for his part, must have skin of stone, because the water didn’t seem to be bothering him any more than it bothered the water ninja. He hadn’t changed after gym class and his dark grey shorts clung to muscular thighs. Black converse splashed alongside combat boots as he pulled the team’s only girl into a wild swing dance that made both laugh. 

That should be me, Jay thought, hands wringing. Why couldn’t he be like that with her?

When they reached the twins’ front yard, Nya stopped. Kai shot her a scowl on his way up to the porch. “No.”

“Since when are you boring?” she teased. 

“I’m not boring. I’m dry.” Under the shelter of the extended roof, he dropped her jacket carelessly to the floor and ran a tentative hand over his hair. 

“Boring,” she mocked. A hacky sack appeared in her hand just as Jay passed by. He froze, blushing, realizing she had to have pulled it from his pocket. The small ball rose and fell from her hand like a juggler. “Surely someone will play with me.”

“In the rain?” Kai protested. “You’re gonna slip around and then wreck your clothes and…” he let his voice drift off when he realized his mother hen attitude was coming out. 

“Last time we played inside we broke the only lamp in the living room.” She turned away from her brother and dropped the sack, wringing out her shirt. “Lloyd? Cole?”

“No way. Mom’s still mad I came home muddy from your last great idea,” Lloyd complained. “I’ll be doing laundry for days if I come home like that again. I swear she’s saving it all up.”

“I’m in.” Cole shoved his dripping locs back off his face and kicked off his slick, flat soled shoes. Nya offered him a high five before shucking off her heavy, waterlogged boots. 

“Zane, you’re out. Sorry.”

He nodded amicably. “Understandable. The sack kept freezing to my hand last time we played in the rain.”

“Last time?” Kai scowled at his sister. 

“What? We can get together without you, you know.”

“Such betrayal.”

Lips pursed, Nya turned to the last member of the group. The one she’d deliberated left until last. “Jay? You wanna play with me? Er, us?”

In spite of the chill rain, his face flushed. He opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by his beefy friend, who was smirking at Jay’s crush.

“Shirts versus skins?” He whipped his tee off over his head, dark muscles shiny in the rain. A rush of jealous frustration flooded Jay. He tried to shove it down, knowing he himself was lean but fit, that all his ninja work paid off even if he wasn’t ripped like the earth ninja. 

“How come I always end up shirts?” Nya protested. “So sexist.”

“Wait, hacky sack isn’t even a-” Kai began to protest. “Nya!” He complained, interrupting himself when he saw his sister’s tank top fly towards the porch without her in it.

“What? It’s just skin.”

Jay could barely keep his eyes in his head. It was not just skin. It was Nya’s skin, smooth and slightly scarred, curved by her gender, honed with muscle by her own determination. His eyes shot to the ground when her hands hooked under the band of her sports bra.

“Nya!” Kai’s sharp voice cut across the lawn in a tone only ever used to corral his wayward sibling. The dreaded older brother (by 7 minutes) voice.

“Kai?” She challenged back. “They’re just nipples. Everyone has them.” The pair stared at one another, exchanging some sort of conversation the others couldn’t understand. Eventually she sighed and let her hands drop. “Can’t believe I have to have soggy chafed pecs while-“

“Technically you have breasts,” Zane interjected. 

“Barely,” she muttered, glancing down. She sighed before turning her attention to the lightning ninja, still lingering in the grass between earth and water. “So, you gonna play, Jay? Not much fun with just two.”

He looked back and forth between his best friend and the girl he definitely didn’t want to be friends with. Did he want to watch her fool around with Cole knowing he could have been right in the middle of it? No, that would suck so so badly. With a sigh, he tugged his shirt off, leaving his scarf, inexplicably, around his neck. 

“You’re gonna choke yourself like that,” she said with a giggle, reaching out and tugging on his tassels. He stuck his tongue out at her, trying not to think about how close her hand had been to his skin. Tugging it off reluctantly, he completely exposed his chest and shoulders to the cold rain and his buff playmates. A shy glance at Nya revealed her sparkling eyes on his skin and a slight smile curling her lips. Could she like what she sees? Emptying his pockets became a welcome distraction as his brain processed the unfamiliar look on her face. 

Thunk. 

The ball bouncing off Jay’s head pulled him back to the present. Both Nya and Cole stared at him expectantly, spread out across the lawn where they weren’t sheltered by the heavy limbs of the twins’ big oak tree. 

“You gonna play or what?” Cole teased, wiggling his eyebrows in a way that showed he knew exactly what (or who) was the cause of Jay’s distraction. He launched the hacky sack at the earth ninja, deliberately avoiding looking towards the master of water, glowing (at least to him) in her own element. As long as he didn’t think about her, or look at her for too long, he could bounce the sack back. 

His lightning fueled coordination failed him a couple of times, first when he pulled off a silly flip kick on his turn that made her laugh delightedly, and caused his bare feet to slide out from under him on the landing. He came down hard, head banging into the ground. It was worth it when he opened his eyes to see her concerned face leaning over him and held her lightly calloused hand as she pulled him to his feet. 

The second time was like something from a cheesy movie, except all wrong. He took off after an errant volley, not wanting one from Nya to hit the ground. His bare feet slid across the wet grass and suddenly he was falling and crashing into something hard. 

Cole. It was Cole. He found himself sprawled out, wet, and leaning over Cole. Just his luck. Of course that was his luck. He could imagine the scene if it were Nya, her hair spread around her on the ground like a dark halo, her dark eyes wide as she gazed up at him in adoration, her plump pink lips parted temptingly… A wistful sigh escaped him, followed quickly by a pained grunt. 

“Get up ya weirdo,” Cole teased, smirking like he knew exactly what was going on in his friend’s head. Jay stumbled to his feet, trying to shake off the embarrassment and ignore how his heavy, soaked pants were pulling on his hips. 

Will nothing go right today? 

Cole had gone onto the porch, just barely out of sight when Nya turned to Jay. He was trying his hardest not to look at her, eyes sliding towards her bare, wet skin before jerking away. And repeat. His face was pale from the chill rain and yet his cheeks were dotted with flushed pink spots around his playful freckles. 

She wanted to kiss him so badly. The water coating his skin cooed to her, highlighting the strength in his deceptively lean body. It was like she could feel his every move, the twitch of his muscles, the turn of his head, his leg taking half a step away towards the boys on the porch, in the smooth movements of her element. No! Her heart jerked, feeling the moment slipping away while she, usually the fearless Nya, stood motionless.

Her actions surprised her as much as they did him when she took a decisive step forward, brought her palm to his chest, and pushed him back into the trunk of the big oak tree. His startled yelp cut off when she followed, trapping him between the tree and her body. His startled gaze met her uncertain brown eyes. 

“Nya?” Jay’s heart was pounding, his breathing suddenly harder than it had been for the whole game of hacky sack. The heavy rise and fall of his chest pressed him into rough bark but also into soft skin over tight muscles and feminine curves. His rain-numbed skin buzzed with anticipation while his eyes searched hers in confusion. 

Nya seemed just as surprised by her actions as he did. A plump, cherry lip gloss covered lip (he’d seen her tuck it into her backpack earlier and wondered what it would taste like) tucked between sharp white teeth, a nervous habit and the only tell the usually confident, assertive girl couldn’t hide. Her hand was still on his chest, the only thing between them. Did she realize how her hips and thighs pressed into his, two soaked and clinging  layers of fabric feeling like nothing between them? He could barely think of anything else. He closed his eyes for a second, wondering if he’d been knocked out during the game and was hallucinating.

“So uh,” he began when he opened his eyes again and she was still deliciously, beautifully there. His voice cracked embarrassingly. Smooth Jay. “Fancy meeting you here, uh under this tree. In your front yard.”

“Stop babbling Jay.” A damp finger, not one from his chest but her other hand, pressed to his lips, stilling them.

He could barely breathe. His hands scraped at the bark behind him in a desperate attempt not to grasp her hips, her waist, any of her damp skin that would surely get him punched, even in this position where she’d brought them. 

“What do I have to do to get you to kiss me?” The words slipped out like a thought she didn’t intend to voice as her eyes dropped to his own lips. He swallowed hard, Adam’s apple bouncing, muscles tensing. His lips parted, reminding him that her finger was pressed there. The tug on his lip as his mouth opened was the best thing he’d ever felt, better than flying the lightning jet, better than discovering his lightning, better than the moment after the secret ninja force’s first fight when she’d spontaneously flung her arms around him in celebration. 

“I, uh, I,” he swallowed. “Can’t kiss you. Kai’ll kick my ass. Or you’ll kick my ass. Or uh, something.” He could barely think with her pressed so close, with her lips right there, eye to eye and hip to hip and... Was she always so tall? Am I just short? “Nope. I’m an idiot but I’m not gonna screw things up. You, oh gosh,” the shift of her leg made him almost short circuit, lightning buzzing dangerously in the rain. “you’re so outta my league and you told Gayle gossip you’d never date a teammate, and, um-”

“Shut up Jay.” It wasn’t harsh like when Kai said it, or mocking like when Cole said it. He’d barely processed the uncharacteristic softness in her words before he was chasing after the finger that left his lips and landing smack against hers. 

Smack. Like the words scrawled around a befuddled comic book Archie when Betty or Veronica kissed him in spite of his idioticy. Is that even a word? Nya was kissing him. Nya was kissing him. Nya was kissing him.

Nya was kissing him and he was frozen like the idiot he was and she was going to think that he didn’t want her to, and never kiss him again because it was the worst kiss ever and he’d never get a chance to try again, and… 

Nya pulled back, her brow furrowed with uncertainty. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have… I mean, crap, I thought it would be cute, but it clearly wasn’t, but that makes sense because I’m not cute, not like… and I don’t mind when you ramble on, it’s cute, you’re cute, and now you know I like you but you clearly don’t like me back and now I’m rambling like I’m the master of blabber and-”

“Nya.” He cupped her face between his hands when he felt the weight of her lifting away from his body, firmly enough to stop her in her tracks, gently enough that she could keep retreating if that was what she wanted. “Do that again.”

“Wha?”

“Please?”

Slowly, tentatively, she leaned in. Her lips met his, the barest brush of one pair on the other instead of the startling, mind numbing press of their first kiss. It was tentative, vulnerable in a way she never let herself be. Jay’s fingers slid into her hair, thumbs stroking over her warming cheeks. Her hand on his chest slid over rain-soaked skin as if her element itself caressed him, until it wrapped around the back of his neck, her other hand resting on his waist and setting off a flurry of small bursts of electricity that she must have felt judging by the twitch of her fingers digging into him. He wanted to apologize, but couldn’t bring himself to part from the sweet feeling of her lips on his. 

“You’re so much better than cute,” Jay mumbled when their lips finally parted, foreheads resting together, breath mingling as though they could breathe one another in. “You’re strong and fierce, and way too pretty for my own good,” he mumbled. 

“You don’t have to compliment me to get me to kiss you again,” she teased, her confident smirk back on her face. 

His hands slipped down to rest lightly on her hips. “Oh please.” 

The sweet, begging tone in his voice lit something inside of her. Her mouth crashed down on his, all teeth and tongue, as if she would devour him right there on the lawn, under the tree, in the rain, where anyone driving by could see them. His mouth opened under hers, eager to be devoured, to be hers in whatever way she wanted. She leaned into him harder, crushing him between the tree and her body, chilled skin heating so the water between them almost sizzled. The only thoughts in her head were Jay and more. 

“Nya!” Kai’s voice broke the bubble around them. “If you’re done fooling around, put your clothes back on!” There was a pause, and then “Jay?”

“Define done fooling around,” Nya muttered against Jay’s lips before pulling back. His responding laughter crackled like pop rocks against her. Damp fingers entwined as they pulled apart, the moment lost. “Finish this later?”

“I dunno. You should at least buy me dinner first,” he teased, fluttering his eyelashes like some ingenue. Her laughter trailed after him beautifully as he pulled her towards the porch and away from the best moment of his life.