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puddingpawprints · 1 year

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Countdown

Jay gets bored during a workout with Cole. It’s safe to say neither of them make much progress as a result.

Hello!!!!!!!!! This is my first tk fic, hope you enjoy!! this is intended to be platonic but you can see it as romantic if you’d like, whatever floats your boat :3

(takes place a while after Season 11 for those that care fjdksfds)

Wordcount: 3384

Safe for Work

This is a tickle fanfic! If that’s not your thing, scroll away.

. . . . .‿︵‿︵‿୨🍮୧︵‿︵‿︵. . . . .

“43! 44! 45!” Jay cheers, watching his best friend power through a set of pull-ups, sweat shining on his pinched brow.

Cole raises his chin above the steel bar with visible effort, reaching the end of his endurance after the past 2 hours of training their bodies with weights and various exercises. He hangs on the bar and breathes hard, flipping the hair damp with exertion out of his eyes.

“How many left?” He says between deep inhales, his chest rising and falling.

The ginger quickly counts on his fingers, “5, 45 was your set last week.” Cole groans and throws his head back.

“Dude come on! It’s just 5! That’s like, a little more than 3. You can do 3 more and then some!”

“But I don’t wannaaaaaaa…” The other whines, slowly kicking his legs in the air like a child on the monkey bars being told they have to leave.

“I’ll give you one of my pudding cups if you do 55,” Jay says with a salesman’s smirk. Cole looks up quickly, a drop of sweat flying from the speed.

“50.” He bargains, baring his sweet tooth with a small smile.

“53.”

“51.”

“Deal,” Jay says, confident that given how tired the other already is, he won’t be able to win the bet.

The black ninja adjusts his grip and takes a deep breath, gathering himself before pulling himself up with a strained grunt.

“46!” Jay resumes his rallying as he watches his friend’s chin slowly go past the bar. “47!”

Cole’s mouth is twisted into a grimace as he shakes with strain, becoming more and more aware of how heavy his body is. “48! Come on Cole!” The motivation from the other was starting to get annoying, but he knew that the minute he asked Jay to stop talking, the ginger would either start talking even more just to mess with him or Cole’s stamina would

disappear. He couldn’t explain how it worked, like how he couldn’t explain the difference between baking soda and baking powder. They were both white, went into the batter, and had ‘baking’ in the name, why don’t they work the same??

“49!! You’re so close, dude!” Jay’s enthusiasm was a little odd considering how defensive he could be of his sweets. If anybody had a bigger sweet tooth than the guy who was famous for eating cake, it would be Jay. The only one who could beat them both in that area would be Lloyd. The sweaty man didn’t think much of it, the taxing action of pulling himself up demanding his focus.

Cole hung from the bar to catch his breath again, panting hard from the burning in his arms and core.

“Dude don’t stop now, you got 2 left-“

“I know, Jay! Doing this shit is hard,” He interrupted, huffing and flipping the pesky strands of sticky hair out of his eyes again. “I just need a minute.”

“Ok. 1, 2, 3-“

“Oh First Master, you big baby.” Cole laughed as he lightly kicked at the other man, “You need to work with Wu on your patience.”

“And you need to do 2 more pull-ups, chop chop!” Jay retorted sassily, poking Cole’s side with a finger to make his point known and felt.

“Knock it off!” Cole laughed while squirming on the bar. “I can’t focus if you’re acting like a toddler.”

“But you can focus on Ninja Kart when Lloyd is screaming in all our ears about the game being rigged?”

“That’s different.”

“Not really.”

“Is too!”

“Is not!”

“I’ll argue about this later.” Cole shook his head, adjusting his hands.

“When? After your hands fuse to the bar from hanging there so long?”

“After you can do the same amount of pushups as me.” The black ninja looked down with an obnoxious smile.

“Wow. That’s low.” Jay remarked, crossing his arms and staring with the expression of a bratty child being told ‘no’.

“Not as low as you should be on your pushups.”

“Ok, you know what?!” The ginger huffed, “You’ve lost your pudding privileges!” Cole’s mouth opened in fake shock and disappointment, letting go of the bar seeing that his friend had stopped counting in favor of falling into the argument trap.

“I’ll just have to steal one when you aren’t looking.” The other smiled mischievously as he slowly windmilled his arms, quickly getting a furious glare. “Do we have anything else on the workout regime today?” He asked as he crouched to take a swig from his water bottle. Jay pulled his phone from the pocket of his loose gym shorts and looked through the list of exercises he had written down from Wu. Skimming the ones the pair had already done, he reaches the bottom of the list, and lets out an obnoxious groan. “What?” Cole questions with a raised eyebrow, wiping his neck with a small towel.

“We have to do a plank for 2 minutes or more,” Jay complains.

“Planks are easy, though.” The earth ninja said.

“Says you mountain man! Not all of us have the core strength of a literal continent.” Jay shoots back, his nose scrunching in aggravation with his hands on his hips.

“Sucks to suck, doesn’t it triple A?”

“Shut up and get on the floor, dirt boy.” Jay shot back, getting a timer ready on his phone as Cole laughed. The earth ninja took another drink of his water before shutting the cap and lying stomach down on the tatami mat, letting a curt moan slip as his propped elbows stretched his upper back. “Ok, ready?” The other sat beside Cole, crossing his legs with his thumb over the start button.

“Yup.” The ninja on the floor answered, shifting his arms to hold his weight better. With a ‘Go’ from Jay, Cole tightened his core and raised his middle, inhaling deeply and closing his eyes in concentration.

The lightning ninja watched the seconds tick by on his phone, occasionally flicking his eyes to make sure Cole’s back was straight. 6, 7, 8, 9…

And now Jay was bored.

“Coooooole, I’m bored.” He said out loud, laying on his back. Cole responded by letting out a long exhale. “Wow, rude. You won’t even answer your best friend’s immediate suffering. Right next to you!”

“Shut up, Jay,” Cole warned, not opening his eyes. “Count the threads in the mat or something.” The ginger huffed, holding up his phone over his head to recheck the timer. 18, 19, 20… He sat back up to stare at Cole’s back. The loose black tank top he was wearing hung from his torso, showing a bit of his sides and stomach. Jay looked back to Cole’s face, still tightly knit with focus.

There was a seed of an idea, one Cole might hate him for. The black ninja did not like being interrupted; napping, eating, drawing, and working out were all things the noiret would prefer to not be taken away from if it could be helped. Training especially was a way for him to take his mind off of the outside world, and he was always working to make himself stronger and better at fighting. It was admirable, but it could lead to some unhealthy expectations…

Jay scooched himself to face Cole’s side, placing his chin on his palm as he watched a few more seconds go by. A smile crawled its way on his face as the idea became more and more appealing, and he tried to hide it with his hand despite the fact the other’s eyes were still closed and facing away from him anyway. Another glance at the phone told him Cole was 35 seconds into his plank.

“Hey Cole, your form is incorrect.” The blue ninja lied, trying not to let his smile become obvious. That got his best friend to react, turning his head and giving Jay a confused look. “Raise your back riiiiight…here.” He reached a pointed finger towards Cole’s exposed side, repeating his earlier action when Cole was hanging on the pull-up bar. A snort, and a quick inhale.

“Jay- don’t.” The other protested, trying to keep a stern voice.

“What? I’m just trying to help.” He knew it was a bullshit lie, especially coming from him, but Jay was having too much fun. “You need to fix your form here too.” He continued prodding at Cole’s side, moving up to his ribs. The black ninja was beginning to shake now, a combination of strained effort and giggles.

“Duhude! I can’t- my forhorm is fihihine!” Cole laughed, now completely unable to keep a serious face as Jay lightly tickled him. The other was frankly impressed that he hadn’t collapsed yet, especially when he began to trace lines on the exposed small of his back, the laughter going up in pitch. “Jahahay!”

“Wow Cole, I didn't think your plank would be this bad. We should work on doing planks more often so you can get out of this bad habit.” Jay paid zero attention to Cole’s crumbling endurance and was having the time of his life doing so. “You need to raise your hips too, they’re way low.” Cole let out a short shriek as Jay squeezed his hip.

“AAH! Dickhehehead!” He laughed, trying to breathe through his tight stomach and the giggles at the same time.

“Hey, it's not my fault your form needs correcting!”

Cole’s endurance finally emptied, and he collapsed onto the floor, now able to try and squirm away from Jay’s evil hands. “This is nohohohot cohorrectihihihihing! You ahahahahass!!” He yelled, curling in on himself on his side to try and avoid the tickles.

“Awww man! You didn’t make the time.” The ginger huffed with mock disappointment, latching his fingers to random ribs and tasing them. The reaction was immediate, Cole’s belly laugh coming solid and loud as he thrashed on the tatami mats under his best friend. “Consider this payback for being rude when I was just trying to help!”

“YOUHOUHOU DID NOHOHOHOT HEHEHEHELP!” The earth ninja exclaimed between laughs, his own hands trying and failing to pry the others from his sides.

“Help comes in many forms, Cole. You need to be a little more open-minded.” Jay retorted, channeling his element to send harmless shocks through his fingers to tickle the ninja’s ribs even more. “Like right now, I’m helping you get used to my electricity.”

“JAHAHAHAHAHAY!!” He was fighting for his life now, throwing himself from one side to the other to try and buck the other off. It was proving to be a difficult task, as Jay had somehow managed to straddle Cole’s hips as he lay on his stomach, scrabbling at the floor to try and crawl away from the tickling. “MERCYHEEHEEHEEHEEHEE!”

“I’ll grant mercy if you promise not to steal any of my pudding.” The blue ninja offered, stopping the shocks but keeping his fingers scribbling at the same speed. The black ninja

continued to writhe under his friend, trying to reach his hands behind to shoo Jay’s hands away. But when Jay shoved his fingers into his armpits and began scratching, a renewal of energy made Cole buck and screech.

“FUHUHUHUCK! I WOHOHOHOHON’T!”

“You woooooon't?” Jay pestered, tilting his head as he dragged the word out and diving his hand into the scrunched crevice of his friend’s neck to scribble at.

“I WON’T STEHEHEHEAL YOUR PUHUHUHUDDIHIHIHIHING!” Cole managed to get out, gulping air as Jay stopped. He let his body lay completely flat on the cool floor, his back twitching while residual giggles leaked out in between breaths. His best friend crawled off his hips and pushed his water bottle to him across the floor. Cole looked at the bottle, and then at Jay. “Dick.” He said sourly.

“In the flesh.” Jay acknowledged with obnoxious triumph, crossing his legs and turning off the timer as Cole turned on his back to sit up and drink his water. “You had 17 seconds left! You could’ve made that.”

“I could’ve if you weren’t being a total jackass.” Cole said while rolling his eyes, putting his water down, and grabbing his phone from the floor, tossed aside in the roughhousing. His friend chortled with fake innocence and laid down for his plank, staring at the intricate patterns of the threading while the timer was readied.

“Ok, are you all set?” The taller man said, patiently biding his time while Jay nodded. He started the timer, and the ginger held up his body while taking a deep breath. Cole watched the numbers on the timer slowly ticking down, already figuring out what the best way to get back at his best friend would be.

He cracked his knuckles absently and watched Jay struggle to hold his plank. Although the master of lightning was still an incredibly strong fighter, he had been teased by the others for his weak core strength. He didn’t have abs like Kai or Nya, instead having lean muscles. Although this worked to his advantage so he could move faster in fights, it also meant he didn’t have that much endurance when it came to these kinds of exercises.

“Jay, will you do me a favor?” Cole asked, not even trying to fight a huge smile as he plotted. The other hummed, taking a shaky breath. “Hold still.” The reaction was immediate; Jay whipped his head to stare at Cole with eyes the size of Zane’s shurikens. He noticed that Cole had moved his hand to hover under his stomach, his fingers in a claw form.

“Wait- Waitwaitwait Cole you don’t have to-” The hand hadn’t even touched his stomach yet and he was already trying to reason for his life in between nervous giggles. He knew that Cole would always get any of them back for that kinda stuff, but he didn’t think his teammate would do it this soon.

“No, I think I do, Jay. Fair’s fair after all, right?” He gave a condescending smile as Jay’s trembling increased. Cole reached his still hand up, just touching down on the black tank top that covered the planking torso. The blue ninja let out a small shriek, now realizing that he had backed himself into a very dangerous corner.

“What? I’m just helping with your form after all.” Cole said with a mocking tone, slowly moving his fingers and taking great joy in the way his friend sucked in a breath to stop himself from laughing. Strained snorts prompted Cole to move his hand in a circular motion around where his belly button would be. Jay immediately folded inward, cackling as Cole’s fingers picked up speed.

“AHAHahaha- IhI’m sorry! WAHAHAAAIT- Cohohohole please!” He tried to negotiate, even if he knew that once Cole started, he wasn’t going to until he had made his point clear.

“You know? I don’t think you are. I don’t think you’re sorry at all.” His tickler retorted casually, effortlessly pulling him into his lap so he could reach better. Cole wrapped an arm around his chest and scribbled his fingers into the top of his ribs, tickling his stomach with his other hand as if it were not ‘agony’ for the blue ninja. Jay’s laughter went up in pitch as he tried to pull himself free of Cole’s arm, kicking his legs and hitting the floor with his heels.

“NONONOHOHOHO! Cohohohole plehehehease!! UhuhuhUHUNCLE!!” He laughed with a touch of hysteria.

“I don’t think your uncle’s coming to save you.” Cole teased playfully, his tone becoming dark as his smile turned sinister through his cheeks. “The only person who’s here is…”

“DOHOHOhohon’t!! Don’t sahahahay ihihit!” Jay pleaded as he flushed, his face already warm from how hard he was laughing.

“Don’t say what?” Cole asked, his smile growing with mischief. “Don’t say…the tickle monster?!”

Jay’s fate had been sealed as Cole’s hands swiped under his tank top, quickly scribbling all over the ticklish skin. Jay squealed and thrashed in his friend’s hold, a rush of adrenaline washing his energy back into him. He laughed even harder as he felt tiny raspberries on his neck and shoulders, his supposed best friend continuing to tickle him out of his mind.

“COHOHOHOHOHOHLE! NOHOHO MOHOHOHOHORE!” He tried to beg through snorts and chortles, shaking his head as if trying to wiggle the tickles out of his body.

“No can do, you’ve got-” He leaned over to look at his phone, still tickling his squirming target. “A minute and 18 seconds left.” The black ninja smiled, squeezing the man’s hip with one hand and his opposite side with the other. Jay’s mirth went up in pitch again as he tried rocking his body to get out of the stone-stiff hold.

“GYAHAHAHAHA! YOUHOU DIHIHIHIHICK!!” The ginger argued as if he were not in the worst position ever to do so. Still fighting against his friend’s arms, he reached for the other’s knees and flailed to grab them, trying to push himself forward. This escape attempt backfired when a hand immediately began scratching at one of the exposed armpits, making Jay snap his arms down and fall back against his friend’s chest.

“Not so fast bud, gotta finish your time.” Cole said, looking down at his friend with a smile, taking a little too much enjoyment out of his squirming.

“I CAHAHAHAHAHAN’T! PLEHEHEHEASE NOHOHO-”

“So what exactly is going on here?” A different voice interrupted, making both look to the sliding door. Nya stood with a hand on her hip, her other hand holding the door open as she watched with a vaguely confused expression.

“Oh, hey Nya. We’re finishing our workout, what’s up?�� The earth ninja said calmly, not stopping his fingers or acknowledging Jay on the brink of falling apart from laughing so hard.

“NYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HEHEHEHELP MEHEHEHEHEHE!” He begged, looking at his girlfriend with small tears in his eyes. His expectation that the water ninja would jump in to save him was soundly destroyed when Nya only gave a small smile as if his torture was endearing to her.

“Wu said lunch is ready. Come to the table when you’re done, ok?” She said loudly over the laughter, taking mental notes on where Cole’s hands were and how badly Jay was laughing. She’d abuse that information another day.

“Sure thing, thanks Nya!” The taller man said chipperly, spidering his hands up and down Jay’s sides as he gave a blameless smile, watching Nya huff out a chuckle and walk away. Mercifully, and because his best friend was starting to wheeze, he stopped his hands and let them come to the floor to support himself while leaning back. Taking the opportunity, Jay weakly rolled out of the ninja’s lap as his chest heaved, pulling down his raised tank top that exposed his giant tickle spot of a stomach. “You didn’t make your time either. We’re even.” His ‘friend’ said cooly, looking down at him with a smug grin. Jay tried and failed to muster up a glare, the residual giggles and ghostly tingles forcing him to shuffle away toward his water bottle as he kept his eyes on Cole, who was turning off the timer on his phone.

“You’re..still…a dick.” He said between large inhales, gulping his water down as if he were going to die otherwise.

“What? Fair’s fair, right?” Cole teased, wiggling his fingers before folding them into a fist and holding it out. A peace offering, which the other squinted at suspiciously over the cap of his bottle. He wasn’t new to Cole’s tricks, being best friends with him taught Jay to be on his guard the hard way. “I promise I’m done. Swear on my chili.” The black ninja tried, moving his still fist a little closer. He watched his teammate think for a bit, and then hold up his hand to make it into a fist, bumping the dark knuckles against his freckled ones.

“Truce. No takebacks.” The blue ninja said quickly, eyeing his friend with lighthearted distrust.

“Sure, I’ll just take a pudding cup as a bargaining chip.” Cole snarked, quickly taking off and running down the hall where Nya had gone earlier.

“YOU MOUNTAIN CLIMBING CUNT!” Jay screeched, stumbling to his feet and speeding after his friend, laughter following the two of them all the way to the dining room, where Wu scolded the both of them for running in the halls.

. . . . .‿︵‿︵‿୨🍮୧︵‿︵‿︵. . . . .

hello again :3 feel free to leave constructive criticism!!

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