Archive of Our Own ^beta

Ever since coming to live on the bounty, Nya had left parts of her life behind to stay back in the town she and her brother used to call home. She remembered nights she had spent crying in the dark, trying to bite back any sound. She remembered nights she had spent sneaking out with Kai, planning some kind of future for themselves or watching the raccoons come fish on the water. 

It was a bitter melancholy; shared days they no longer spoke about. As far back as she could remember, that was their life. Facing the cruelty of an unfair life and trying desperately to make a space for themselves. The adults back then talked about their parents; at first Nya didn’t believe that they ever existed. 

One cold night she spent waiting on the front porch of a neighborhood house; the house she and her brother would be calling home for the next month. It wasn’t unusual to move houses, people got sick of them after a while and handed them off to the next unwilling hands. 

She scuffed her shoes on the hard dirt ground, staring into her shadow that stretched out into the road cast by an ancient porchlight, dusty and failing. The sun set earlier in the winter, but she knew it was well into the night, she had counted. She sat waiting for her brother to get home from whatever ‘social program’ they had forced him into this time. 

She would be in trouble if she was found outside past curfew. No one would care if Kai was out all night. It was a clear sky, royal blue held the bright forms of far away stars. The last clear night they had was almost two months ago. Kai had gotten scolded for starting a fight with another kid, and sent home with a ‘note.’ Nya never knew what they wrote in those kinds of notes, but she knew it was something evil. The better people they stayed with would send him to bed without dinner, the worse they stayed with would lock him out of the house if he was lucky. 

Nya tried her best to not be a ‘troubled kid.’ She knew if she came home with one of those notes it would make her brother sad. She could imagine him trying to hide the worried glances he'd give her. Kai always told her to stay out of conflict. She tried. Sometimes the anger would simmer under her skin and eat through her veins, but she would wait until no one could see her and send her home with a note to let it out. It was her that broke the door to the old barn, but she never dared to tell anyone. 

On that last clear night after Kai had been locked out, she snuck through the broken screen in her window. He always climbed up onto the roof after getting in a fight with their caretakers. She once asked him if he was scared, keeping her distance from the edge while he kept his feet halfway off the gutter and tucked his knees to his chest. He told her he was more worried of the consequences if he survived. 

The sound of footsteps on gravel had her absently lifting her head. She only came out of her thoughts when she saw her brother walking down the road. He noticed her waiting and gave a small wave, she assumed he smiled at her too but the shadows hid him well. She ran out from the harsh light, joining him in the dark. 

He met her in a hug, spinning her around as he often did. When she got to plant her feet back on the ground she lifted her head to question him about his lateness. The tired look on his face answered her questions. 

She tried to keep her emotions from showing on her face, “The program ran late, right?” she reasoned. 

He glanced away from her eyes, “yeah.” 

She didn’t miss the growing bruise under his left eye. She knew it happened after the adults left, or he would be dragged back inside by their caretaker. It wasn’t uncommon for him to come home brandishing new wounds, there were even less days when he came home unharmed. That was the other thing she remembered from the beginning, the various scars that would only be replaced the week after they healed. Two constants in her life, her brother, and his injuries. 

“Hey,” he said softly. “Wanna go down to the pond?” 

She nodded. The two took their time trailing down the road, Nya found a half crushed pinecone to kick in front of her. Faint sounds of crickets echoed in the distance. Kai stopped to look behind him when Nya missed a kick and went back to get the pinecone. 

“Did you finish your homework?” He asked. 

She scrunched her face in annoyance and kicked the pinecone hard, sending it sideways and under the stairs of the next house. “Yeah, well, most of it.” 

The two started walking again as Nya abandoned the cone, not wanting to fish under the stairs for it. Kai sighed, “I don’t want you failing your classes.” 

“I know I know,” Nya crossed her arms. “But it’s not like you do schoolwork.” 

Kai shrugged, turning his attention back to the road. The sound of riparian animals grew louder. They passed the last building, stepping onto the small deer trail that led down the slope to the water. It wasn’t a big pond, the opposite shore was clear in view, but it went deep. The bank turned to a drop after only two feet. Nya found that out the hard way. 

The dark water rippled with small fish as they jumped for nighttime insects. The small waves reflected the starlight back, shimmering as it held the sky. The banks were muddy, filled with silt and organic matter. If you got unlucky it had sharp rocks and plant thistles. Nya always found the movement of it calming, the edge and flow, cold water shifting back and forth. 

Kai had been uncomfortable around water for a while, it wasn’t always that way, but she never found out what changed. It didn’t stop him from bringing her to the pond, or even going alone. She guessed some part of him saw it the same way she did. Even if he stayed back on the grass. 

She plunged her hand into the water; a bone cold chill washing over her arm. The initial movement scared the small swimming minnows away, they were quick to return, eating floating specks with their small mouths. Nya was careful to stay still, watching as they swam over her fingers. 

She could hear her brother settle down nearby; the short, tough grass was uncomfortable, she refused to sit on it without using her jacket as a barrier. She turned to glance back at him. 

“Did you at least eat before staying out all night?” Kai noticed her looking. 

He was talking about a proper meal. She ate the cereal bar she saved from lunch only two hours before dinner time. How early food could be called dinner was an ongoing debate in her head at the time. “I ate after school,” is what she decided to say. 

They let the ambience fill the space. Soft buzzing insect wings covered the surface of the water. They had spent many nights sitting out in the dark, listening to the wind and animals. Nya fell asleep often. Kai always woke her up for school or to move them to the old barn. A hideout space they went to when they stayed out too late to go back inside.  

She felt her eyelids growing heavier, the movement of the minnows lulling her. The soft sounds of the pond were gradually overtaken by the sound of a group walking back towards the town. Even her groggy tired mind recognized them. She pulled her hand out of the pond, water dripping back to the surface. She turned to face the trail. 

Her brother was already up. He held himself carefully, the erratic movement of his eyes scanning the scene betrayed his anxieties. The three kids walking their way had certainly noticed them. 

Achan was the oldest, a grade higher than Kai. The two following him were his younger siblings, Mariel and Alon. They were the same age as Nya, and taller than Kai. The smaller two went around pestering others. Achan was the one you had to worry about. Mariel and Alon would start fights and steal, but Achan never wanted anything out of it; he never stole money or took bribes. He had a sick idea of fun, Nya would call him a sadist. 

Alon turned to Mariel, grinning, “The short one’s playing in the water.” 

“She’d better be careful,” Mariel turned her gaze towards Nya. “I hear witches melt.” 

Nya would have liked to punch them, but she was half their size, and Achan would take it as an invite to fight. She heard stories from Kai and the older kids at school about crimes he would shamelessly commit. Ignacia didn’t have police, let alone a jail; Nya doubted they would ever be used if they did exist. Here you stuck to your groups and dealt with others on your own. 

She remembered a time Kai had come home halfway covered in his own blood. He was left to clean his wounds alone. He hadn’t told Nya much, she was younger at the time, but he had run into Achan that day. That was when Nya found out he always carried a switchblade. 

“Maybe they picked it up from their parents,” Alon chided. 

Mariel crossed her arms and with a sneer said, “Watch out, they might curse you.” 

Nya kept her hands steady in her lap, trying to keep her cool. She focused on the water behind her, steady and still. If she kept ignoring them she wouldn’t get in any trouble. The two weren't done.

“Maybe that's why their parents ran away,” one of them said, Nya didn’t care who. “They found out they had changeling children and left.” 

“I bet it was him,” the other said. “Can’t ever play nice, not even with dear old mom and dad!” 

Nya stood up, to hell with keeping out of trouble; she couldn’t let them stand there and get away with beating them down, especially her brother, “You two better watch yourselves!” 

Alon and Mariel raised their eyebrows at her, not expecting the ‘small one’ to speak up. It wasn’t the reaction she wanted. She saw Achan smile at her outburst. 

“You hear that?” He said. “I think she wants a fight.” 

The other two looked at each other and grinned, turning back to them with an unwarranted amount of confidence. She noticed her brother subtly step between her and them. Nya kept her eyes on Achan's every move. She watched as he took something out of his pocket; with a flick of his wrist it opened, and a blade glinted in the starlight. 

Her view of the weapon went sideways as Mariel rounded on her. She hit cold muddy ground. Nya flung herself back onto her feet, a new anxiety growing in the pit of her stomach. She had no advantage here. Mariel knocked her over again, landing on sharp rocks and sticks. 

The wet mud soaked into her clothes, the shadow of Mariel about to land a hit raised her heart beat. She shut her eyes; and reached down into the silt. The grip Mariel had on her slipped as the piece of sandy bank hit her. Nya scrambled away while Mariel rubbed at her face, cursing. 

Her eyes pulled away from her own opponent. The other two had gone after her brother—an arm around his side; surrounded on the ground. Something dark mixed into the shallow water, swirling into the dirt. Nya’s thoughts of Mariel vanished, the glint of metal back in view. 

The blade in Achan's hand dripped. Their deaths wouldn’t even make the news. She felt her hands meet his back as she threw him into the water; hoping desperately he wouldn’t make the surface. The pond stilled. Quiet. She held her breath. 

Alon took a step back behind her, wide eyed. Nya slowly turned to him. Maybe the water would swallow him too. Mariel picked herself up off the floor and grabbed her brother by the arm, yanking him back to the trail. The two ran into town. 

Nya looked back to Kai, his hand still gripping his side, glaring into the pond. She reached out a hand; helping him back to his feet. He grimaced slightly as he held himself upright. 

“Lets get out of here, yeah?” His voice wavered. 

She looked away from the blood, meeting his eyes. She nodded. Achan didn’t drown that night. He would be absent from public for a week. The two went where they always did; the old barn sat surrounded by long grass and thistles in its abandoned yard, tree shadows reaching inwards towards it. 

The inside was dusty, starlight reaching in through the broken door and rotten walls. It didn’t belong to anyone, not anymore. Nya sat down on one of the old pillows that covered the floor. The energy was starting to wear off, and she felt a bone deep weariness seep in. She flopped backwards with a sigh, sending dust clouds into the air. 

Kai joined her on the floor after properly bandaging himself. The two looked out into the night. Grass swayed in a gentle breeze, shadows shifting underneath rolling forming clouds. Nya could feel the soreness of new bruises on her shoulder blades, her muscles tight and uncomfortable. 

She turned tired eyes towards her brother, “Kai?” 

He turned towards her awkwardly, trying to avoid agitating his wounds. 

“What if our parents did run away.” 

He shook his head, “No,” he said firmly. “There's no way anyone would ever leave you.” 

She blinked up towards the ceiling, half rat chewed rafters looked back at her. The image of the broken barn door showed in her mind. “Even if I’m trouble?” 

“Even if you’re trouble,” Kai ruffled her hair. 

Nya thought she didn’t need parents, it was always her and Kai, and that was enough. She closed her eyes, listening to the wind outside. Nights were theirs, no adults around to berate them, no kids in the fields to bother them. Just the calm and the animals. 

The night would always be theirs, even into the days when the responsibility of Ninjago weighed them down through the day. Things kept changing from when they were young, but certain things she could remember from the beginning. The memories of these nights she kept to herself, a selfish action to keep a part of them untouched. It would be another two years until neighboring kids burned the barn down.