Title: Stupid Box
Prompt: "At least this can't get any worse!"
A/N: I'm addicted to broken up jaya. It's a disease, send help! Takes place between Season 4 and 5. I dusted off something old for this one. From the Journal of Master Wu:

s h i n y o b j e c t s

Jay sighed and let his back slide down the wall of his makeshift prison.  He couldn't believe how cliché the situation was.

He was stuck in a box, and he wasn't alone.

He was stuck in a box.

With her.

Of all people to be stuck in a magical box with, it had to be her.

Jay sighed again, then dared a glance at his cellmate.  She crossed her arms and huffed, turning her head away from him, clearly annoyed.

Fantastic.

"This is all your fault, you know," she stated bluntly, inspecting the invisible wall that was randomly throbbing with ancient text lit up in various colors. 

Jay eyed her incredulously.  "Excuse me? You are the one who tripped into me, pushing me into the display."   

"And you were the one who was distracted by shiny objects."

Jay rolled his eyes and scoffed, then slid all the way down the wall into a sitting position. 

"Excuse me for appreciating the fine art of ancient artifacts," he sassed back and she snapped her head towards him.  "Besides," Jay continued, " what were you distracted by that you walked right into me?"

Nya opened her mouth to retort then slammed it shut and turned her head away from him again.  Jay was almost certain he saw her cheeks turn pink.

Interesting.

"I was focusing on the mission. Unlike you."

Jay scoffed again.  Ten minutes ago found the team sneaking through the Ninjago Museum of Natural History.  There had been a series of break ins but nothing stolen, which was extremely odd. The ninja were asked to investigate and Lloyd had the grand idea they should have a stakeout.  Except, everyone got bored. Really fast. Especially Jay.

What? He couldn't help it that the displays of artifacts were full of shiny things. 

Two moments later and Nya was also clearly distracted by something because she uncharacteristically smacked into him, resulting in them both flying into the golden box that was part of the ancient Serpentine display.  It was if the box ate them, then spat them out into an invisible force field on the museum floor.  One that was apparently not see-through as they banged on the walls for ten minutes shouting to get their teammates attention.  They could see Kai, Cole, Lloyd and Zane walk around confused as to where they had disappeared to.

"So," she crossed her arms, "what's the plan?"

"What plan?"

"The plan to get out of here!"

"Why do I have to come up with the plan? You were the one who started all of this." He crossed his arms as well.

"No you started it with because you couldn't stay focused on the mission." She rolled her eyes.

"Obviously if I knew how to get out of here we wouldn't be stuck in this stupid box anymore."

"Oh please Jay, yo-" she was interrupted by a jolt from the walls, causing them to fly into each other.

"Ugh, get off me!"

"You get off me!"

At least it couldn't get any worse, right?

The walls were closing in . . . their bickering was slowly diminishing in wit . . .

"No seriously, we need a plan." After an uncomfortable rearrangement, the two sat side by side against the back wall, with arms crossed and chins stuck up.

"No really? I thought we could sit here all night and gossip about our secrets," Jay rebuked. Nya tried not to sigh too loudly.

The walls jerked again and she fell into him. Her shoulder, a hot point of flesh on his bicep, and her hand rested awkwardly on his thigh.

"Sorry," she muttered, absentmindedly.

"You're excused," he grinned.

Nya quickly stiffened upright and moved herself to the adjacent wall. She refused to give him the satisfaction of glaring at him.

Apparently, it could get worse.

Yeah, he shut her up good, but now she wasn't even helping him brainstorm ideas on how to get out of the box.

"Hey," he said, noticing how her tabi boots were painfully pressing into his leg, "sit on my lap."

That finally got a response out of her. "Excuse me?"

"Fine, get crushed between me and the wall. See if I care."

She simply slumped down the wall further and pressed her boots deeper into his leg.

Did he mention it was getting hot in there?

As a matter of fact, yes, it was.

As the walls closed in, the air inside was also getting compressed and higher air pressure meant higher temperatures. Jay couldn't decide which was worse: getting crushed to death or getting boiled to death.

Begrudgingly accepting defeat, Nya now sat in Jay's lap.

"Wow," she mused, "looks like your ingenious plan is working. I can almost taste the fresh air from outside." She crossed her arms and leaned back, her head resting under the tip of Jay's chin. He tried not to squirm.

Both of his arms were stretched out on either side, pushing against the walls, tensed to the max.

"I'm pushing, alright? Geez."

Heat plus cramped quarters equals irritated prisoners: this was an equation Jay was getting to know very quickly.

"Push harder," she demanded.

Jay huffed out a growl.

Ex-girlfriend or not, she was still a woman.

And he was still a man.

And she was still sitting on him cramped together in a very hot box.

And it was still very, very awkward.

And it didn't help matters that they were both starting to sweat.

"I'm pushing side to side and front to back, why don't you help by pushing up and down?" Jay callously suggested.

"Fine, maybe I will," she conceded as the sweat caused her to slide down his stomach. Fortunately for Jay, his cheeks were already flushed from the heat.

She sat up, placed her feet between his legs and palms on the ceiling, and then pushed.

"Gahh!" Jay gasped out in pain. "Without crushing my ribs!"

"My bad." But she didn't sound very sorry. Repositioning her legs, she straddled his midsection and bent her head down so that both her palms and neck were pressing against the ceiling. This left Jay with an unavoidable view of her firm bum right in his face.

Hot? Check.

Incredibly awkward? Big. Red. Check.

"Hey," Jay panted, trying to look anywhere but directly in front of him. "Isn't that text on the walls ancient Serpentine?"

Nya snapped her head and studied the wall. "I think so."

"Can you translate?"

"I can't but Samurai X might."  She fiddled with the control on her bracelet.

"Try reading it out loud."

"Why?" she questioned, "that had nothing to do with us getting stuck in here."

"It might have. Just say it again," he encouraged.

"Or it might collapse the box even further," she countered.

"Better than getting slowly crushed and boiled to death." He had a point.

Nya sighed then read the words. Nothing happened.

"See, it didn't work." She almost added an 'I told you so.'

"Say it backwards," he commanded.

"What? Why?"

"Because some spells work like that. Just say it backwards."

"Wow, I'm impressed, ninja. You finally came up with a plan," she chided.

"Just say the stupid words!"

She repeated the words, reversing each syllable. Again, nothing happened.

"I told you-" But before she could finish her insult, the walls lurched forward with alarming speed. Nya lost her footing and fell back on top of Jay, who also lost his grip on the opposing walls. His arms instinctively circled around her as he felt pressure from every wall painfully crush him. But, as quickly as the walls compressed forward, they halted, and then blew away and gracefully dissolved into the nighttime air.

Because it finally couldn't get any worse, it got better.

They were free!

From that stupid, stupid box.

Jay laid sprawled on the ground, breathing deeply. "Sweet, beautiful, merciful cool air," he exhaled. Nya also lay sprawled on top of him, deeply breathing in the cool air. Jay suddenly noticed her chest rising and falling with his, and his arms were still around her waist. He quickly dropped his hands to the side.

She sat up and looked him square in the eye.

"Well," he said, expectantly.

"You were right," she mumbled quietly.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you over my own self gloating," he said with a cocky grin. She punched him in the ribs.

"You were right!" she shouted resentfully. She crossed her arms and pouted.

"And?"

"Guys! Where were you?"  Lloyd came running towards them.

Jay looked up and answered, "Long story," then collapsed back on the ground.

He grinned like a fool. Yeah, things could only get better.