That night, Jay managed to sleep more consistently than he had in a long time. Although, not for the whole night, he did sleep uninterrupted for a few hours and that was a significant amount of progress. Still, Kai's words and insistence that he relax in a hot bath weren't enough to quell the nightmares - the memories.

Every time he tried to sleep, the same memories flooded his dreams. Him, struggling to breathe with water in his lungs for hours; watching Nya leave out that door, thinking she would be coming back. Her not coming back. The guilt. If he hadn't got stuck under the water like that, managed to break himself out or even held his breath for just a tiny bit longer - she wouldn't have needed to do what she had done to save him. They could have found another way to beat Kalmaar and Wojira.

Deep down he knew there probably wasn't any other way, but he felt guilty - and even a little selfish for wishing he still had Nya there, even if that meant possibly not being able to win that battle. All of these feelings haunted his dreams, only adding to the heaviness of the scenes that played out to him every time he closed his eyes. So much so that he would force himself to go days without sleep, if only to avoid seeing it all again. It had taken him ages to recover mentally from the trauma Nadakhan brought upon him, and this all only felt like a repeat of that. Except for the fact that he couldn't just make a wish and all of this be undone like he had back then, to save Nya. No, this time it was permanent.

Jay hadn't even realised he'd been pacing until he heard a knock on the door, followed by a soft, familiar voice.

"Hey, are you okay? I can hear you pacing from down the hall."

Cole, head of black locks poking through the opened door, dark eyes full of concern for his best friend. Suddenly, Jay felt a twinge of guilt in his heart. He hadn't spoken to his best friend in weeks. The poor guy was clearly worried to the ends of the earth!

"Ah, sorry. Did it wake you up?" He knew it wouldn't have; Cole had always been a deep sleeper. Once the big lug was asleep, he was pretty much dead to the world until his internal clock decided it was awake time.

"No, it's fine- I was uh, getting a snack, that's all." The earth master explained, almost urgently - to not make the already clearly upset Jay feel anymore upset. He stepped inside of his friends bedroom, gently closing the door behind himself, for the best if they were going to talk; don't want to wake anyone else up, after all.

Cole's gentle eyes stayed on his best friend, concerned but unmoving. Searching for any signs that Jay wanted to be left alone, but instead what he got was probably the most clearance he'd been given on how the other was feeling for the last few months. Those sad eyes, and despite having just woken up a few minutes prior, he still looked exhausted. The poor guy looked like a kicked puppy and Cole couldn't remember the last time he ever saw his friend this way.

"Oh, Jay. . ." Cole didn't even realise he had spoken, until said male's eyes moved to the floor and didn't look back up.

"I'm- sorry i haven't. . . been around much, lately. I guess I've just been- not entirely here, mentally or emotionally." The blue ninja explained what his friend had already pieced together.

"Hey, bud, it's okay. Just- please tell me you haven't been, y'know..." He hoped Jay got what he was saying, dark eyes drifting to his friends arms momentarily - unable to bring himself to actually say the words. Thankfully, it seemed as though he did get what Cole was saying - eyes wide, head shaking in denial immediately as he brought his arms up to cross over his chest defensively.

"No, no. I promise. But, I've- been having therapy sessions with Master Wu. He was worried so he forced me to." A soft, nervous laugh left the blue ninja, followed by a similar relieved laugh from the black one. He was relieved, of course. Cole would never wish anything like that upon anyone; to feel so horrible about yourself that you would - harm yourself in any way on purpose.

The best friends looked at eachother, the first conversation they had in weeks, before Cole pulled Jay into a half-hug, ruffling his hair.

"I'm glad you're okay, in that sense, then. Just- promise me you'll try and sleep, yeah?" His gruff 'just woke up' voice sounded out, Jay's complaints about the noogie he was currently receiving the only other noise until he was let go.

"Ugh, okay fine. I'll try and sleep more, but i can only guarantee that as much as you can guarantee to go one night without a midnight snack." Jay joked back, glad to seemingly be able to socialise with people once again; albeit only Kai and Cole so far, but progress was progress and he'd made a lot of that in the last few hours.

As Cole was heading out the door, he paused, hand tapping gently on the door frame. He looked back at his friend, who was climbing back into bed now, before asking softly,
"Hey, Jay. . .?"

"Yeah?"

"Think you can join us all for breakfast in the morning?" His voice was hopeful, though he wouldn't push it if the other expressed not being ready for that yet.

After a short moment of thoughtful silence, a small huff of agreement sounded from the blue ninja, followed by a small agreement.
"I'll try my best and see how i feel."

That was enough to put a smile on Cole's face. With a curt nod, he gently closed the door and headed off back in the direction of his room - midnight snack already forgotten about. He was just glad to have his best friend back.

"How is he?" A soft voice came as Cole was opening his own bedroom door, dark eyes glancing to the owner of said voice;  Kai, head poking out from his own bedroom door, eyebrows knitted together in mild concern. Clearly he had heard the pacing around, too.

"He's fine now, we talked and he's going back to sleep. Said he might join us all for breakfast." He almost couldn't contain his excitement to hopefully have Jay eating with them once again, finally.

He could see the fire masters similar excitement even in the dark hallway, enhanced by the obvious smile in his voice when he responded.
"That's great!" A soft hum of agreement from Cole, before Kai was yawning, muttering a soft goodnight and closing his door. Cole wasn't long to follow, closing his own door and getting back into his warm bed. He dozed off without much issue, comforted by the knowledge that Jay was seemingly doing better, having made more progress in one night than he had in the last four months.