Lol I was reading this fic to try and get in the mood to finish it. An I forgot momentarily that it was my own fic and I was like "nooo. Don't stop now!"

anyways, this was already written, I think I like it. It's like half the last chapter but better than nothing.

i got a new job, my dream job. 4 years of hard work finally paid off. I'm happy but I'm also very busy. So I may not be able to finish this one anytime soon, at least until the Xmas holidays. In case I never do, you know what happens next, they bond a little with echo Zane and the pirates come. I wasn't planning another romantic scene between Jay and Nya, just a retell of the fight with the pirates from their point of view, specially that moment when Anya sacrifices herself for him.

thanks for your support and for putting up with my very late updates.

—-

As the first rays of sunshine touched her eyes, Nya contemplated whether to wake up or sleep in. On the one hand, she knew she was well rested- best sleep she'd had in years if she was honest- but on the other hand, her pillow was so soft and warm, almost as if it was designed specially for her. As she though this, she pulled it even closer, her head sinking in further increasing her comfort and drawing a pleasant smile on her face; it didn't hurt that it smelled like her lightning bolt, either. She couldn't remember when, but they must have swapped their pillows at some point, it was the only logical explanation...

The sound of birds chirping outside the window brought back her awareness of her surroundings: Jay's soft breathing, the waves crashing against the shore, her hand softly moving up and down with every breath of her pillow... wait. What?!

She froze for a moment, not daring to open her eyes. Her hand shyly ran through the 'pillow' and to her dismay all her fears were confirmed: instead of soft material, she found strong, well defined muscles- and she had been running her hand through them for the last way too many seconds!- She pulled her hand of him in a swift movement, as if his skin was burning hers even though the only thing on fire were her cheeks.

No. No. No! What did I do?! Her brain frantically revisited the events from the night before: she apologised, they hugged... and that was it. She sighted relieved. Not that it would have been horrible if something had happened, whenever she caught herself thinking about it - only once or twice really, certainly not more than three times- horrible wouldn't be the word she would use to describe it at all - more like magical or wonderful, or amazing at the very least- but she had promised herself to never hurt him again and she wasn't ready to start a relationship with him just yet, let alone that kind of relationship. Besides, knowing Jay he would start choosing flowers for their wedding...

Nya found herself shaking her head to clear it from the stupid fantasies that were menacing to creep into her mind. And that's when she realised her head was still on his shoulder, causing her to jump onto the bed in a scared cat like fashion and waking up her sleep companion.

"Nya? What...?" his brain was trying to make sense of it all as he took in a terrified Nya sitting on his bed. Was there danger? Were the pirates near?

"Nothing happened!" she said a little too loud and too fast.

"I know" he smiled realising she was just panicking because of their sleeping arrangement, relieved that there was no danger... well, except for the furious Water Ninja staring daggers at him.

"You know? You know?!" she yelped, the fire in her eyes reminding the blue ninja that this was indeed Kai's sister in front of him. "So I take it that you saw me fall asleep on you and you didn't say anything?!"

Darn, she knew him well.

"Well, technically" he tried to hold his ground and show her no weakness. He was not apologising for innocent contact that he didn't initiate and that they obviously both enjoyed. "I had another nightmare and didn't want to wake you in the middle of the night... and..." he looked at his hands, his resort faltering for the shortest time under her fierce gaze. But he pressed on, there was so much he wanted, needed to tell her and when he looked back at her, it was with an intensity that wasn't there before. He was so close and it was definitely now or never "Nya... I just..."

She wanted to yell and glare and maybe punch him in the stomach just a little for being way out of line. But when her furious eyes met his heart on his electric gaze all her rage dissolved. Darned, her whole body dissolved.

Oh no. He was making that face. The same face he always made when he was about to say something so sweet, so romantically dorky, so Jay, that she would inevitably loose control over her own body and jump back on that futon with him.

She had never been a heartless monster. She had tried, she really had tried to end thing with him three years ago. Practically cheating on him with his best friend had hardly been her first choice. But every time she tried to tell him he would look at her like that. And she could never help but melting into his embrace, into all the sweet promises she knew very well he intended to keep. It was too easy to momentarily forget how unhappy she really was when they were together.

She tried to focus her attention on her stomach, hoping for her all to familiar fear to come to her rescue, but she found her mind blinded by electric blue and she couldn't really remember where her stomach was, not that it mattered anyway, it had probably melted along with the rest of her body.

"Nya..." He rasped nervously. Only he could make nerves sound so appealing. "Do you smell that?"

And sure enough, the smell touched her nose: a mixture of trash and burnt coal and... blueberries?

"Yes!" she squeaked in relief before heading towards he door as if she had seen a ghost. Saved by the bell was an understatement.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The ninja found the source of the smell in the kitchen, where a flour covered robot was burning what looked like gruel to very charred crisp.

Nya took a moment to take it all in: the splashes of batter on the walls, the blueberry footprints adorning the floor, Gizmo's useless attempts to control the mess.

"Good morning, friends" greeted Echo Zane with a proud smile.

"What happened" Jay managed to gape.

"Yesterday you indicated that my brother Zane has remarkable cooking skills, so I figured I could treat my new friends to a delicious breakfast. Gizmo here showed me his recollection of the food you cooked yesterday and I have replicated it for you."

The Blue Ninja had to suppress a laugh.

AN: I know I used the same joke twice, I apologise. But girls have hormones too and her character is all about equality so I felt it fits.