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Ray typically considered himself a morning person. It comes with the job, waking up early to prep the shop for opening. Of course, spending his formative years training in the early mornings helped develop that habit as well.
The point is, Ray is used to waking up just before dawn. He’s spent many mornings at the forge, watching as the sun began to peak over the horizon.
This is not one of those times.
Ray can not remember the last full night of sleep he’d gotten. Not since they brought Nya home. Possibly even before that. With Kai’s sudden fever and having to keep his heavily pregnant wife away from their boy (at least, until they realized he wasn’t contagious), Ray felt like he’d been run ragged.
And now Nya’s here, and don’t get it twisted, Ray adores his daughter, however her arrival had been much more hectic than his son’s. As terrifying as it’d been to raise a newborn the first time, Kai had been much easier to handle than his sister. It didn’t take much to keep him content, and it seemed like he’d wanted to be entertained more than anything else. Ray and Maya were always happy to oblige.
They can never tell what Nya wants. Not at first.
They have to cycle through all the possible things she could want. Food? Diaper? Mom? Dad? Kai? Elephant toy? Giraffe toy? The lid to the coffee beans… sure… He’d once had to go all the way to Lilly’s only to realize Nya had wanted to be held by Lou all along. Lou! How could she even remember him! He’d held her for maybe five minutes in the hospital.
Right now though, Nya just wants her dad. Nya runs a little cold and Ray is warm enough keep her asleep through most of the night. And that’s great, truly. First Master knows Maya needs a break. Which is why she’s getting some much needed sleep in the bedroom and Ray’s propped up on the couch, trying to get whatever hours he can before Nya gets hungry.
It's also why the shrill of the landline wakes him up.
He scowled as he was forcefully pulled from his sleep. His neck and back ached from sleeping on the couch, and he had to rush to hang the phone up before it woke Nya up. Of course, he still had to be careful or else all the jostling would also wake Nya up. It was torture, trying to stand from the couch without moving his arms or upper body too much, speed walking all the way to the wall with the phone on it. Ooh, if its a telemarketer, Ray’s gonna– Not do what he wants to do, because his entire family is trying to sleep, one of which is currently resting in his arms.
“Hello,” he grumbled into the receiver. He tried not to croak too loudly, but his throat might betray him.
“Ray…?”
He was very much awake now because that was Lilly on the other end and oh shit, Lilly was crying. After everything they’d been through together, Ray knew it was hard to get Lilly to that point, so someone must be dying.
“Lilly? What’s wrong?” he asked, wincing a bit as his voice rose with concern, but depending on the situation, he might be depositing Nya with Maya and hightailing it to Lilly’s. In which case, they’re both definitely waking up and there’s no salvaging the night.
“I messed up,” Lilly wheezed, “and I don’t know how to fix it…”
“Fix what, Lil?” between the lack of sleep and sudden emotional whiplash, Ray bordered on hysterics, “You can’t keep me in suspense like this.”
“It’s Cole, I– he won’t sleep.”
Oh. That was it? The tension melted from his shoulders immediately. Ray could certainly relate having raised one infant and currently raising a second. But Cole was the oldest of all of them. He should’ve outgrown that long before now.
“Oh yeah? What’s keepin’ him all riled up?” he sighed, leaning back against the wall. Seems like Lilly was just overwhelmed. And yeah, kids are overwhelming. Ray would know, his kids have had him so busy, he hasn’t been able to check in with his best friend. He desperately tries to remember if Lou’s traveling right now (i.e. not able to be there for his wife ), but he can’t even remember what day it is.
“Um… It’s stupid. It– It was supposed to be harmless?” And there was the self doubt, meaning Lilly was taking this all very personally. Well, Ray’s glad she called him. She obviously needs a brother right now and he’s had years of experience being one. This he knows how to do.
“Hey. It’s not stupid. Keep talkin’ to me, Lil. What’s goin’ on?”
“I, um… I gave my son nightmares…”
Ray had to fight the chuckle in the back of his throat, both for his daughter and his sister’s sakes. It’s just absurd. Lilly was a lot of things, but not nightmare worthy. She was kind and patient and a damn good mom. Sure, if she wanted to be feared, she could easily make it so (Ray hopes he’s never on the receiving end of one of her death glares ever again), but not to her son.
She’d never hurt her son, that he knew for certain.
“And how did you do that?”
“I told him about Shintaro…”
“YOU WH–” Nya stirred, letting out a soft whine. Ray hunched his shoulders apologetically, “You what?” he whispered.
“I didn’t tell him tell him, obviously. He doesn’t know I was there. He doesn’t even know the place is called Shintaro, buuuuut… I just– I’ve been telling him stories before bed! You know how it is!” And he did, he tells Kai (and Nya, though she obviously doesn’t understand) stories of his adventures all the time. It helps that they can be pretty fantastical, the kid would never suspect his old man once controlled fire and ran around with his friends to help people.
But Shintaro… It wasn’t a bad mission, per se. In fact, the mission itself was a huge success. But it was also the reason Lilly quit and by proxy, the reason Ray quit. After everything with her shoulder and the time it took to heal and the fact that she almost wasn't able to climb out of that hole in the first place! Lilly was completely cut off from not only Ninjago, but from the surface as a whole. He still hasn't heard the full story. He knows Lou just about had an aneurism while she was gone and it wasn't much better after she came back, covered in injuries, not the least of which being her arm. Popped out of its socket and torn to pieces. She's lucky she can use her hand, what with the nerve damage.
And then she quit, because this job is– was dangerous and she was living proof of that. And then Ray quit because he can't be the only one left. And they'd just had Kai, and he can't risk not coming home one day.
So yeah, Shintaro wouldn't be Ray's first pick for bedtime.
But… it was pretty fantastical. Kingdoms in the sky, societies underground, dragons–
“Was it the dragon?” he asked, getting a better picture of the whole mess.
“It was the dragon,” Lilly sighed, “You can imagine how Cole took it to hear his favorite heroine was almost taken out by a giant monster.”
Ray chuckled, “Out of all the dragon stories–”
“I knooooow…” she said in a half sob, “I didn’t think he’d take it so hard. And he can’t sleep through the night any more and he comes in sobbing. And it's all my fault. And–”
“Lilly.” he stopped her spiral, “Where’s Cole right now?”
“Lou’s trying to calm him down,” she sniffed, “He’s been crying for hours.”
“So have you, it seems,”
“Yeah… It’s pathetic,”
“Lil, you can’t blame yourself for this.” he stopped her before she could interrupt, “I don’t wanna hear it. We don’t know what’s gonna scare our kids. Kai’s afraid of christmas elves. We don’t even celebrate christmas. Good thing too, ‘cause he can’t even look at the things.”
He omitted the part where Kai witnessed one of the mall’s animatronic elves’ face melt off… And that he had a sneaking suspicion that Kai may have accidentally caused that, in which case, there may be a very serious conversation coming much sooner than he planned.
“He’s gonna outgrow it, I promise,” Ray whispered, “Right now, he just needs his mom.”
“I don’t think I’m enough…”
“That’s… so untrue, Lilly. I don’t even know how to express that,” he shook his head in disbelief. This was nothing new for her, though. “You’re Cole’s hero. You know it. You’ve said it. Even if he doesn’t know it, you’re exactly what he needs. You slayed that dragon, Lilly. You can take on a dream one, can’t you?”
She sniffed wetly, but he could hear how much lighter her voice was, “Yeah.”
“You’ve got nothin’ prove, Lil. You’ve already done it.”
“I know.”
“You better,” he smiled, “Now get back to your son.”
“I will. I’ll talk to you later, Ray,”
“In daylight hours, please,”
“Right… Right, during the day. Love you.”
“Love you too, Lil.”
And then they hung up. And Ray was once again left in a dark, silent house with his daughter in his arms.
He let out a soft sigh as he looked down at her. Nya had miraculously slept through the entire exchange. If it had been Kai, he'd have been up as soon as Ray stood up from the couch. Just proves that every kid is different and there’s no right way to parent. Lilly would be just fine. And so would he.
He was just about to push away from the wall and try to get a few more hours of shut eye before the phone let out a shrill. With no distance between her and the noise, Nya was rudely pulled from her slumber, face scrunching up before she let out an ear-piercing cry.
Ray could only do so much to soothe her and ripped the phone off the wall to silence it. He held the receiver between his shoulder and his ear as he rocked his daughter in a futile attempt to calm her.
“Lilly?”
“Hi! This is Paul with Ninjago Health and Lif–”
“Oh, you mother–”