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The sun began to set a brilliant orange behind the oddly shaped trees. The twisted trunks reminded Nya of her first attempts of forging silverware with her dad when she was little. The scent of melted titanium and silver, the proud smiling faces of her parents, and the rough callouses on her hands from gripping the blacksmithing tools too hard were so familiar that it felt as though the days of her childhood were only yesterday. She remembered aspiring to be just like her parents and create things just like they did, and even though Kai thought her forks were misshapen pocket knives, Nya was proud of her handiwork. Her parents were proud too.
In the blink of an eye, those peaceful days of bliss and childhood vanished.
At the time, Nya hoped that the disappearance of her parents would be the only loss she would face in her life, but being born to two elemental masters meant that her life was incapable of ever being considered peaceful.
Now, Nya was in the same position that she was all those years ago–wandering through the world, taking care of herself, and praying that she would find the people she lost. But this time instead of searching for her parents, she was searching for the love of her life. And this time, she was doing it alone.
No older brother to watch her back, smother her, and lighten the mood with his sickening humor. No, Nya was alone.
She had been walking this path for quite a while. The sun had already made a full rotation since she left the tournament, and there was still no sign as to where the boy she spent the past few years wishing would reappear in her life ran off to.
Any sane person would realize that this quest was pointless, and that the odds of actually finding Jay were too slim to waste so much time and energy on. And any sane person would know that the odds of Jay actually wanting to talk to Nya after what he said to her the other day were even slimmer. But Nya had lost too many people, had triumphed over too many challenges that should have defeated her, and had witnessed too many miracles that made each day worth living for to be considered sane anymore–for only insanity could get her past the trials she was forced to overcome.
Every time Nya came across a mountain she couldn’t get past, she didn’t give up, but instead she found a secret passageway through it. Sometimes she had to forge the path herself, but other times she just had to have faith that a way around it would be revealed–even if she had to wait endlessly for the miracle to happen.
After the merge, Nya found herself constantly having to stay put rather than to dictate fate with her own hands. No matter how hard she tried, she could never make her loved ones appear out of thin air.
Those desolate, lonely years of hoping someone–anyone–she knew would show up tested her patience more than anything else ever had. The time stuck alone with no one but her thoughts forced her to find new ways to cope with the constant looming anxieties that kept growing with each passing day.
It might seem stupid, but those strange looking trees reminded Nya to pause in her tiresome expedition and take a deep breath. The reminder of the sweetness she once knew back when she wasn’t alone caused her to reflect on how she was really doing.
Even though Nya was capable of trekking through the merged lands until her feet snapped underneath the weight of her exhausted body, she knew that her soul was overwhelmed and worn out. She needed an outlet–a way to cope with the despair she faced as she waited for a miracle to emerge from the ashes of her life.
A clearing was just up ahead–a lovely field with wide open spaces, soft grass that only went up a little past Nya’s toes, and a magnificent sunset that made the sight seem like it came straight out of a movie premiere.
As Nya made her way over to the spot, she began to hum. She played an old melody in her head that she used to listen to all of the time: it was an elegant piece of classical music that her mom had an old record of before she left. Her mother might have been gone, but the music wasn’t. Despite knowing that she was just fine without the nurturing hands of her parents, Nya always clinged to the old record like it was her most prized possession.
Nya would play it whenever she felt too much of an emotion: angry, scared, sad, bored–you name it. She would close her eyes and let the music take her on a rollercoaster of feeling.
By the end of the song, Nya had a clean slate. She was no longer confined by her emotions, but instead she felt her way through new broadened horizons. And over time the song that once was her mother’s was now hers.
Nya remembered how she used to wish she could dance to the song in a way that perfectly matched the elegance of the music, but she never quite had the gracefulness that she dreamed of.
Maybe that’s why she was so excited when she realized that dancing is a requirement to being Jay Walker’s girlfriend.
He was always a natural at it in the way that Nya wasn’t–it made sense though, considering the fact that his birth dad was a performer. At first, Nya was jealous of the way he so effortlessly moved his feet across the dance floor. She thought she would never be able to keep up.
But Jay met her where she was. He started with the basics–the five positions of ballet, the turnout of the feet, the transfer of weight from one foot to the other. Eventually, they advanced, and Nya found that she actually was capable of dancing to her favorite song.
Sure her dancing wasn’t perfect, but it felt good. The kind of good that is only experienced when something beautiful is created from something that caused nothing but agony.
So Nya began to dance to the song each time she felt too much.
And that’s what she did in the picturesque clearing when she saw those stupid trees; she danced.
Humming the soft tune, and lifting up her arms, Nya began to waltz by herself.
One, two, three.
One, two, three.
She floated through the field, feet in perfect harmony with the music in her mind. Her body knew what to do, and the emotions buried in Nya behind all of the determination and grit shone like the rays of sunlight illuminating the grass beneath her feet. Her arms were delicate and held out as if she had a partner sharing the waltz with her, but there was no one there–only the empty space in between her arms where a certain master of lightning should have been.
The hole in her dance was one she was forced to grow accustomed to ever since the merge happened, but no matter how many times she tried to look past the thought of her duet turning into a solo, Nya could never seem to completely forgo the fixation on that empty space.
Unlike the people in her life, the space was always present. At this point it had become a part of the dance. The emptiness glided with her as she tried to focus on the relevé of her toes rather than the memory of the last time she saw her old dance partner’s face.
Nya tried to forget about the hatred in his eyes, and the cold distance in his voice. Despite how much he’d changed, Nya didn’t think she could even fully accept that the guy who taught her how to waltz was no longer existent.
Suddenly, Nya stopped dead in her tracks.
What was she doing?
Dancing was supposed to help her forget about her worries–not stress about them more.
Nya took a long, deep breath trying to get back on center.
Maybe she just had to try again.
Maybe this time she should focus solely on the steps and the musicality of the dance. There would be no room for any stray thoughts–only dancing.
As Nya lifted up her chin to the sky, sucked in a breath of preparation, and held out her arms to begin again, something behind the strange trees caught her eye.
No, it wasn’t something; it was someone.
From far away, it was hard to make out the person lurking in the trees. From what Nya could tell, the person was wearing royal blue. It was the kind of blue that Nya saw in her dreams on a cold, lonely night when she started to believe that she was cursed to be abandoned and alone for the rest of her life. It was the color of blue that belonged to the love of her life.
“Jay?” She called out, racing towards the figure in the trees, hoping that she wasn’t mistaken into believing a stranger was the guy who stole her heart.
“Nya?” A familiar, squeaky voice called back, making Nya’s heart stop beating.
She hadn’t heard that voice in years. Sure she had heard Jay’s voice, but she had yet to hear her Jay’s voice since the merge. It was a sound that made Nya grin bigger than anything else in life, and she would do anything to keep that voice with her forever. She wanted to never lose it again.
And then, she saw his face emerge from the oddly twisted trees. His beautiful eyes that lit up when he laughed, his adorable freckles that perfectly decorated his cheeks, his everlasting smile that lifted up the spirits of all of his teammates, no matter what they were up against. All of him was there, right in front of Nya.
Without thinking twice, Nya crashed into Jay, arms hugging him tight–and he hugged her back. They squeezed the life out of each other, as Nya tried to hold back her tears of joy.
“Is it really you?” she asked.
“Uhh, I think so?” Jay pulled back a little to get a good look at Nya’s face. The way he admired her made Nya blush like a little kid with a fever.
“Do you…”Nya trailed off, afraid to voice her question.
“Do I what?” Jay asked, brushing his fingers through the piece of hair sticking out from her ears. “You can ask me anything.”
“Do you…rememeber me?” Nya almost whispered it, barely loud enough for her voice to reach Jay’s ears.
Jay started laughing, startling Nya. It was a soft, joyous laugh that she had longed to hear for many years, and now he was finally here–laughing.
“Nya, how could I ever forget you?” He said, kissing her forehead. “You’re the most special person I’ve ever met. I knew it since the day I first saw your face. I knew you were different, and I knew that there was no other girl I would rather spend the rest of my days with.”
Nya almost smiled, but she caught herself. This whole thing was too weird. It didn’t make sense. Just the other day Jay swore he had never met Nya in her life, and now he was hugging her, kissing her, and declaring his love for her.
It felt too good to be true.
“This isn’t real is it?” She asked. “You aren’t supposed to have your memory. Jay, when was the last time I saw you?”
“Yesterday at the Tournament of Sources. I fought you,” Jay looked away from Nya, pain shrouding his eyes. “It was terrible. I couldn’t remember you. I couldn’t remember anything before the merge.”
Jay then squeezed Nya’s hands, looking back at her with eyes filled with hope. “But now I do. I remember you, and the ninja. I remember all of the great pranks I played on Cole, and the hard times that we’ve endured through the years. Don’t worry Nya, I’m back and I’m never going away again.”
Nya wanted to believe Jay. She really did, but she had been fooled a few too many times to have any ounce of gullibility inside of her. She had long forgotten how to dive straight into anything without enough evidence. She knew only how to slowly wade herself into the waters of trust.
“But, how? How did you get your memories back? They’ve been gone for years, and now all of a sudden they’re back? I don’t understand,” Nya asked.
“It’s because of you, Nya,” Jay said, his face lighting up in admiration once again. “When you told me you loved me at the tournament, that was the first chip away at the ice, and while I wandered through the woods, trying to find a new purpose since Raz discarded me, I couldn’t get my mind off of you. It’s hard to explain, but it kind of felt like you were the missing piece of the puzzle. So, I turned around to come back and find you, and then I did. I saw you out in that field dancing. Nya, I remembered dancing with you. I remembered me and you. I remembered everything.” Jay squeezed Nya in another giant hug, engulfing Nya in love.
My dancing brought him back, she thought. I brought my Jay back.
Nya pulled a little away from the hug, grabbed Jay’s face, and pressed her lips softly onto his.
Jay kissed Nya back, and the two found themselves lost in the feeling of having one another back after all of these years.
Nya wanted to never let go of Jay ever again. She wanted to hold his hand, hug him tight, and kiss his lips forever and ever. But there’s one more thing she wanted to do with him too.
“Jay Walker,” Nya said, a devious smile spreading on her lips, “May I have this dance?”
“It would be my pleasure," Jay gave Nya a bow, as she curtsied before getting into a dance position with Nya.
He gently placed his left hand around her waist, pulled her in close, and grabbed onto her left hand with his right.
As if they were sharing one brain, the two of them began humming in sync with each other, playing that song that Nya loved so much, and they began to waltz.
The pair glided through the field of green and gold, as the sun bid its final farewell to the earth for the day. Their feet stepped in perfect timing, and the more they spun around and dragged across the grass, the closer the two got to each other.
Soon, their proximity was so close that Nya couldn’t help but take note of every gracing detail of her long lost lover who she finally had back in her arms. She missed the unruly mess of his brown hair, and the lingering scent of burnt electricity that followed him. She missed that he was only a little bit taller than Nya, and got mad whenever she wore heels. She missed the way he’d crash out over any small inconvenience, and how he always had a knack for putting on a performance. She missed him.
But now she didn’t have to miss him anymore. Now Nya was waltzing into the sunset with him filling in the space that she had become so used to seeing every day. Now, there was no more empty space–only Jay and his large personality to fill it up for the rest of her days.
Nya closed her eyes, as Jay led her through the waltz, vowing to herself to never let Jay leave her side ever again.
Nya couldn’t bear another day apart from him. She’d go mad without him beside her.
Nya opened her eyes again to look at her beautiful ying’s face once more. Except, Jay’s face had vanished.
Nya stopped moving her feet, terror filling her heart as she frantically looked around the field.
“Jay!’ she called out. “Where are you?” This had to be some sort of prank. Jay loved pranks, and Nya wouldn’t put it past him to pull one on her this soon into finally meeting up again for the first time in years.
But, no. That didn’t feel right. Sure, Jay was a prankster, but he never made a joke that hit too close to home. He had boundaries.
Jay wouldn’t leave her standing here in the field by herself as a joke. Right?
“Jay?” She called out again, starting to lose steam.
Part of Nya wanted to search the entire wood until she found him, but deep down she knew it was pointless.
The real Jay would come back to her when she called. No. He’d come back to her before she even had to call.
“Jay, please come back,” Nya whispered to herself, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. She crumpled into a ball on the soft grass that the moon was now shining on.
“I need you,” she pleaded, letting the night sky encompass her as she curled into herself, wishing that the universe would stop torturing her.
Her tears escaped with a broken sob, and soon Nya was back exactly where she was all of those years ago on the night when her parents disappeared, on the night where Kai disappeared, and on the night the Jay disappeared: cold, crying, and alone in the emptiness of the dark night sky.