Touchy

"Oh, come on!" Nick Jay blurted out, not able to stop his blush and actually averting his eyes upon walking into the other Ninjas' Warehouse.

"What are you talking about?" grumbled Luh-Loyd, yawning and making to climb out of the dogpile of exhausted Ninja. As usual, he'd been one of the ones near the bottom and center.

Buddy Kai grumbled about not wanting to wake up yet and grabbed his baby brother around the waist, cuddling close, Cyan Nya still asleep curled in on his other side. Freckles Jay woke with a grumble from the loss of his pillow and movement at his sides, but when he started fidgeting, Cole's large arm flung over him to drag him back down. Pep was actually wide awake, snuggled under one of Cole's sprawled legs and with Nya's back to his.

"It's warm!" was the happy Nindroid's reply.

"Like, seriously, maybe this sort of thing is fine for kids, but..."

Spike Kai was right behind Nick Jay, and opened his mouth to ask what was up when he saw the Ninja pile. He started laughing, which only prompted a series of groans from the still sleeping, or trying to, Ninja.

"We just came to find Lil'Loyd," explained Spike.

"He's sleeping. We're all sleeping. Come back later," grumbled Buddy. Even as a happy voice from somewhere under or between him and Cole chirped up, "Under here!"

Everyone except Pep, who had maneuvered to help a burrowing Lil'Loyd find his way out of the tangle of limbs, bodies, and blankets, grumbled as the movement and speech finally started pulling them out of dreamland.

Lil'Loyd managed to escape, not before a noogie from a sleepy Cole and a clingy hug from a mostly asleep Buddy and a chuckle and backrub from his counterpart, who was also taking advantage of all this movement to make his own escape.

"You guys are way too touchy-feely," blurted out Nick, taking a step back as Buddy and Cyan turned sleepy, mischievous grins his way. He had no desire to be yanked into the Ninja nap pile.

"It is kinda weird," commented Spike, who was checking over Lil'Loyd for injury after that crazy day yesterday. Not that he didn't trust their counterparts to take care of him, but still. It calmed his nerves.

Secretly, he was a bit jealous for Buddy being able to sleep so soundly, safe in the knowledge his family was all right there in touching distance.

"Is this about that 'the talk' thing again?" groaned Luh-Loyd. "Ugh, we're not doing anything like that. This is just an after extra long days thing. And we make sure Nya and Jay don't end up next to each other."

"Hey!" shouted the couple in question.

"Not that you'd do anything," pacified Cole, in his eternally stable way that instantly wound the two back down. "Just to calm your parents down when they hear we all slept together."

"That sounds so wrong," Nick Jay tried to muffle his voice, but it was still pretty clear. Eight glares turned his way, but after a moment they all chose to ignore him.

Luh-Loyd had also made his way over to Spike and gave him a sleepy hug in greeting. He would've given one to Nick too, but Jay's counterpart was being irritating this morning.

"He's fine, we're fine, everything's good," Luh-Loyd reassured his friend, being able to see the signs of stress all over Spike. One perk of nearly identical friends - if you can read one like a book, the counterpart is pretty easy too.

Plus, it should just be a given that either Kai would be panicking to hear that the Lloyds had gotten in trouble again when he wasn't there to protect them. But Luh-Loyd's team had taken care of all that and it was over, with no one the worse for wear. At least this time. Buddy Kai had always needed physical reassurance that everything, everyone, was okay, so it made sense Spike did too. At least to Luh-Loyd.

To some degree, to be honest, they all needed that reassurance. Thus the ninja pile they found themselves sleeping in on rough days, when the bullying against Lloyd had gotten physical or when Cole's mom took a turn for the worse or Jay had a bad anxiety attack or Zane just had that existential crisis look in his eyes. It was the one sure fire preventative for nightmares. And not just for the one dealing with the issue, but for all their friends that had been forced to watch and just had no words that could possibly ever be enough. They weren't even sure when the habit had started.

Their counterparts, with the exception of Lil'Loyd, didn't understand. Perhaps due to them not all being the same age, or maybe how they had all had their own lives before they were thrown together. Or maybe just not being, feeling, as completely isolated from society in general... Actually, it probably is a lot simpler than that, and had more to do with how Lil'Loyd had only come into their lives relatively recently.

But Luh-Loyd could see the longing on their faces whenever they walked in on a scene like Nick had this morning, even as they teased or complained that his team needed to grow up already. The desire for that kind of comfort and reassurance, without having to worry about all this 'too old' garbage.

So it was no surprise when Buddy and Nya gave Spike a hug, and Cole and Freckles playfully tackled Nick, and Pep picked up a giggling Lil'Loyd to set him on his shoulders.

His team would win them over, just like they'd won each other one by one over the years. They needed each other. It was that simple.