Chapter Text
Kai knew the ways of life. How to find peace even in the darkest and rowdiest of times, where to look to see a light, and how to not let his temper get the best of him.
He could handle fight after fight, war after war.
He could handle having patience for centuries. He could handle extreme pressure and stress every single time.
But he could NOT handle one small son of a demon child that had crawled his way into their lives.
That’s just gone too far.
To be honest, Kai didn’t know what issue the little green gremlin had with him. He was always the centre of pranks, always the one Lloyd would target, always the one he would pester.
And he hadn’t even DONE anything to the little kid yet!
When he looked around, it seemed the other ninja didn’t have the same problem he did. In fact, it seemed as if they had worse.
Lloyd avoided Nya as if she were the plague. He and Jay couldn’t be caught dead looking at one another, let alone talking. Lloyd seemed to like Cole a little, although you wouldn’t be able to see it unless you look really hard.
But Zane and Lloyd were always together. Well, not always. But nonetheless.
They seemed to have gained a connection. Maybe it was because Zane never reacted to his pranks, maybe it was because Zane took him out on little nature walks whenever
Lloyd got too fidgety.
Kai had no idea. He didn’t want to know.
What he did know was that he would sacrifice his fire power, if it meant never seeing Lloyd again.
At least, that’s what he thought.
It’s funny, how one person’s opinion can change so quickly, after hearing from another.
It was a normal morning for Kai.
And when he says normal-?
Walking out of his bedroom door just to have a bucket of- is that kinetic sand-?- onto his newly gelled hair.
Yep, normal.
The fire ninja heard the familiar cackle of a certain golden-haired kid and he glared at the disappearing red eyes, before a lump of green covered his vision.
He wiped the sand off his brow with a shaking hand and turned away, stalking back into his room to get a new shower, and maybe just to kill himself.
“Zane! How do you do it, man!?”
The metallic man straightened up at this question, in the process of trying to tame Cole’s hair.
Cole, indefinitely, had fallen asleep, head lolled to the side and Zane’s fingers still brushing out the curls.
Kai tried to ignore the fondness he received when he looked at Cole, and tried to pay all his attention to the confused robot ice ninja.
“Do what?” He asks and resumes the brushing.
“Put up with Lloyd! He’s like a demon spawn. And a big ol’ brat,” Kai replies, exasperated and annoyed.
Zane tilts his head a little, as if not understanding what he was saying.
“Whatever do you mean?” He asks again, Kai tried to look for any sense of sarcasm in his eyes and gasped when he found nothing but sincerity.
“Lloyd. The demon brat spawn. You know? The kid? The annoying kid? The annoying bully-”
“Yes, Kai. I know Lloyd. What I don’t understand is the ‘demon-spawn-annoying-bully-brat part,” Zane smiled.
The fire ninja slumped and fell backwards onto the carpet. He rubbed his hands down his face and groaned.
“You frustrate me so much, Zane…” he says weakly.
Zane, taking some pity on him, smiles once again and his voice is perky and questioning from behind Kai’s eyelids.
“You know, he isn’t so bad once you get to know him,” he says slyly and Kai shot back up and pointed a finger to his chest.
“Don’t give me that crap. Wu has been telling me that too. What he doesn’t know is that it took a SERPENTINE ARRIVAL FOR HIM TO REALISE LLOYD IS ALIVE,” he scoffed.
“Some uncle he is.”
Zane looked sympathetically at Kai, who was gazing at the sleeping Cole, almost dreamily.
A knowing look sparkled in his eyes but he pressed on.
“I’m serious, Kai. Have you ever tried talking to him?”
The red ninja raised a hand pointedly to his hair, which still had some traces of the green kinetic sand from this morning.
“Does this answer your question?”
Zane laughed, soft to not awake the black ninja’s rest.
“He’s just a kid, Kai. A ten year old boy.”
He let that information sink in a bit, before continuing.
“He was abandoned by his mom, left in a school made to grow villains and then abandoned all over again. Do you really think this wouldn’t influence or change him?”
And there was the guilt, slamming straight into Kai’s chest and he swallowed deeply.
Zane’s eyes crinkled at the corners and there was a little dull sparkle in them.
“He likes you, y’know,” he says and laughs again at the look on Kai’s face.
“It’s true! He told me himself.”
Kai leaned forward, eager to hear this new refreshing news.
“Really? What else did he say?”
Suddenly, the robot’s expression grew dim, and he looked down at Cole’s hair.
“He doesn’t really know how to express himself. Lack of parental roles in your life so early does that to a kid.”
Zane looked back to Kai, who stared expectantly.
“Why don’t you try talking to him? Physical affection might work too. Who knows? You don’t know unless you try.”
Kai already knew it was gonna be some long couple of weeks.
Nya hated the kid, now everyone knew that. And if they didn’t, they would’ve figured it out by the first day.
She just didn’t understand why they had opened their home to the kid of their SWORN MORTAL ENEMY. There’s also the fact that he opened all the Serpentine tombs and unleashed great havoc on all of Ninjago but eh-. Who cares?
Nya does.
Lloyd the gremlin Garmadon would never be welcome in her life as long as she lived, no matter what.
Which is why whenever she saw him, Nya would give him sneers so deadly that a normal person would collapse. Everytime they brushed past each other in the corridors, she made sure she shoved him slightly, a reminder that she absolutely despised him.
And it wasn’t like Lloyd was a priceless little angel. The kid was a monster. And he always had such a mouth on him!
Whenever they went to the store, for some reason Nya was always in charge of him. So she does what any normal person would do and tries to lose him.
He’s like a terrible boomerang.
He always comes back.
Lloyd would be left with Nya when the ninja went out on missions. You’d think that some bonding would happen during those moments?
No.
Nada.
Zilch.
To be fair, Lloyd did try once, and that was only because Zane had forced him to, but Nya’s hateful glare had him out the door in moments.
Maybe she should be a little easier on the kid?
Nah.
Nya never really minded the quiet. It was the best time to work on her machinery.
The only quiet she ever got was when the ninja were away on missions, or an early morning/late night.
She loved moments like these, when she could just curl up and do whatever she wanted, with no one to pester her with.
Nya was drawing now, blue pencil moving frantically across the page, as she came up with design after design, creation after creation.
She didn’t really know what exactly she was drawing, she was just moving the pencil around until all the pieces came together.
It was coming out beautiful (whatever it was) and the last thing Nya wanted to do was stop, but the gods forbid-.
“N-Nya..?”
She jumped at the sudden voice and turned to the doorway, where a small silhouette stood, knees knocked together in a fetal position, hands touching each other.
She groaned out loud and rolled her eyes, already annoyed.
“What?”
She saw Lloyd shrink back at her harsh tone and a seed of guilt bloomed in her chest. She threw it away though and continued to eye the kid as he made his way inside.
“Could you help me reach the cups?” He said, not reaching her eyes and one hand digging deep into the other.
Nya tapped her pencil against the desk.
“What else-?” She raised an eyebrow.
She saw Lloyd think about this for a moment, obviously confused before something clicked and he spoke up hesitantly.
“P-Please?”
She nods and gets up, walking fast towards the door and not waiting for the little gremlin to follow.
The hidden samurai heard steps scurrying behind her after a moment, and she huffed.
The kitchen wasn’t far away from where they were, and Nya almost considered taking the long way around.
But their walk ended all too soon and she reached up to grab one of the plastic cups they kept, a green one.
She tossed it towards Lloyd’s head and winced a little when it hit his cheek and clattered to the floor.
He hastily took it and kept his head down.
“Thank you,” his voice was soft and she wouldn’t have heard it unless it was drop-dead quiet, like now.
She frowned at his meekness.
He never acted like this, was he trying to prank her or something?
That’s what it was. Or he did something. What could he have done though? It was Lloyd, and Nya wasn’t taking any chances.
“What did you do?” She asks sternly and Lloyd flinches.
“N-Nothing. I did nothing. Why would you say that?” He stammers and grips tighter on the green cup in his hands.
Nya narrowed her eyes at the small gremlin in front of her. Oh so he was gonna go THAT way, huh?
“Lloyd,” she said and there was no room for argument.
The kid shrunk down on himself.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered and his hands started to tremble.
So he DID do something! Nya knew it. And if he was apologising then that meant he did something terrible.
“What did you do, you little brat?” She hissed and he trembled even more, pressing himself as far away as possible from her.
“I’m sorry I opened the Serpentine tombs,” he cried. “I’m sorry for dooming all of Ninjago. I’m sorry for trying to steal that candy. I’m sorry for doing pranks on all of you. I’m sorry for being so useless that I can’t get a stinking glass from the shelf. I’m sorry I bothered you. I’m sorry Kai hates me. I’m sorry YOU hate me!”
Nya stared down at the sobbing child, who shook with each breath and clutching the glass so hard his fingertips turned white.
She was at a loss for words. The hidden samurai was never really good at comfort, her brother was the one who got that talent.
But still, she sank down to her knees and placed a hand on his shoulder.
Lloyd flinched at the touch and peeked up at her through his hair, a beautiful red compared to the silvery blonde.
Nya felt a stab in her heart, looking into those eyes. He was so small. When had he ever been this small?
And who was she, to bully him, ridicule him and avoid him as if he were some sort of pest.
Never again.
“Lloyd…” she started gently, her voice soft as she slumped a little, so the little Garmadon could look down at her instead of up.
And he did, big teary eyes looking at her, watching her as if she was the only thing in this world.
When Nya thought about it, he looked at everyone that way.
She felt her own tears spike her eyes.
“You’re just a little boy,” she didn’t let them fall.
And Lloyd was brought to sobs, heart-wrenching wails that had the samurai scooping him up in her arms and holding her close, head against her chest and her back against the kitchen wall.
She ran fingers through his hair and pressed kisses on his forehead, to try and unburden the weight of it all.
“Why’d you do it though? Serpentine is a big kind of revenge,” she tried to joke but it came out miserably.
“I thought- I thought that if maybe I did something b-bad then my m-mom would come back for m-me! Or maybe my d-dad would take me with him-m.”
He curled up more around her, trying to anchor himself in this storm of anguish.
“I just want to be wanted,” he mumbled and that almost broke the dam Nya built in her eyes.
She sucked in a breath and held onto him tighter.
“I want you.”
Lloyd froze up, and looked up at her. She grabbed his face in her hands and looked stubbornly into his eyes.
“I want you, okay? I will always want you,” her voice was stern and sad and gentle and Lloyd just wanted to cry again. But this time, for a completely different reason.
“P-Promise..?” He was trembling.
“I promise,” Nya confirmed and then Lloyd was hugging her.
She placed kiss after kiss on his head and rubbed his back soothingly.
“I won’t let you go,” and those words could’ve meant something deeper but they wouldn’t know.
All Lloyd knew was that he felt wanted.
He felt wanted.
And after, when the little boy was tucked safely in her bed, passed out from the exhaustion and hugging Nya’s old dragon plush with one hand, the secret samurai found herself smiling fondly, before making her way back to the study.
Hit by a sudden idea streak, she raced back to her pen and picked it up, halfway into the movement of frantically drawing all over the paper.
Her head empty, she simply followed her hands, until they paused and she gasped.
Stepping back, eyes fixated on the drawing.
It was Lloyd.
Well that feeling of wantingness lasted the night and most of the morning when it finally dissolved when Kai had shoved Lloyd quite harshly through the doorway.
The fire ninja had hesitated for a second before frowning and turning away, resuming his conversation with Jay.
Lloyd thought about kicking Kai in the shins but it seemed like beat him to it.
He didn’t see Nya move but he heard the strangled cry that came from behind him and the minute he turned around, he brought his hands to his mouth to muffle his laugh.
Kai was on the floor, on his stomach and Nya had one foot on his back.
Jay was screeching with laughter in front of him and Lloyd gladly joined in.
The samurai walked back to him, ruffled his hair and took his hand again, as they resumed their journey to the dojo, not before the both of them stuck their tongues out at him.
Lloyd kept smiling like an idiot, but it slowly faded as he thought about his big brother Kai.
His steps had lost his jump and now he just walked along sadly.
Nya noticed the sudden mood change and squeezed his hand.
“Hey kiddo, what’s wrong?”
The child looked to the floor, not meeting her eyes and she sighed.
She knelt down again, a memory of the night before, and asked again.
“Kai still doesn’t like me,” he mumbled and looked up at her. Nya gave him a small smile and looked behind him as if to reference her brother.
“Give him a while, he’s sure to warm up,” she winked at her pun and Lloyd gave a small giggle.
“Yeah,” he replied softly and took her hand once more when she stood to leave.
And as they turned, Lloyd missed the small thumbs up that Nya hid behind her back, directed to one of the very few people he was attached with.
Kai sighed and turned his head away from the sight of his baby sister and little brother.
He was slumped against the wall, hands deep in his pockets, brow furrowed and clearly in some deep thought.
He was thinking so hard that he almost missed it when Zane asked him a question, which resulted in a startled look and pained expression when said robot ninja threw a book at
his face.
“Kai!” He yelled and smiled when the red ninja gave him a glare.
“What was that for!” An exasperated response came and Kai frowned when his (hot, handsome, totally attractive, not gay) best friend laughed loudly beside him.
“Dude, you totally had that one coming,” Cole (said best friend) chuckled and wrapped an arm around Kai’s shoulders, oblivious to the fact that his ‘friend’s’ face quite literally
erupted into flames.
“Kai, I can tell you are thinking very hard about some matter. Do you wish to discuss this with us?” Zane asked, the book he was reading in his hands closed and attention clearly
directed to him.
Now all eyes were on him and the red ninja swallowed.
Jay sat with his legs criss-crossed, looking at him with a confused expression. Zane sat in front of him, book sitting on his lap and a small smile on his face. Kai leaned towards
Cole’s embrace a little and the black ninja squeezed his shoulders.
“Remember what you said? Before?” He asked Zane, who looked at him questioningly.
“About what?”
“About, Lloyd..”
Zane hums a smile and leans back. He nods and gestures for Kai to continue.
“Well, I’ve been thinking about it, y’know? And I just..I dunno,” he paused and looked down, rubbing his neck and contemplating his next few words.
“Maybe you’re right..” he mutters and multiple things happen at once.
His head shoots up when both Cole and Jay groan, fumble with their pockets and smash a twenty dollar bill each into Zane’s expectant hand, the robot donning himself a smug
grin.
And when Cole turns back to Kai, he bursts into laughter cause however Kai looked at the moment was nothing but funny (Kai tried to ignore the flutter in his stomach).
“Zane, what-?”
“I bet that you would realise I’m right and they said no,” Zane explained with a proud expression, and the two neatly pressed notes slid into his own pocket.
Cole slumped against Kai, defeated and then Jay slumped onto Cole, disregarding the fact that Kai now was struggling to hold on.
Zane gave a sly smile and moved.
The red ninja followed him with his eyes, which widened when he realised what the white ninja intended.
“No, no, no Zane- please no-” he gave a strangled cry as Zane moved closer to Jay, ignoring Kai’s pleas.
Jay and Cole motivated him on with a chant that was quiet at first, but grew louder and louder with each passing movement.
“Zane! Zane! Zane! ZANE! ZANE! ZANE!”
“No no NO- ZANE STOP IT NO-”
And the red ninja, master of fire and everything that burns, collapses because of his fatass friends.
The ice wielder laughed as he put all his weight onto Jay, which created a domino effect as they collapsed one by one, everyone falling onto Kai.
He gave a ‘oof!’ of shock and just layed there in defeat. Cole was close to him, really close and his mouth touched the tips of his ears.
“Don’t worry, Kai. We’ll help you with Lloyd,” came a quiet but sincere voice and he smiled, flushed.
“I know.”
It was gonna take a while for Lloyd to warm up to him. Or for Kai to warm up to Lloyd. It was obvious to see.
They avoided each other, even worse than Jay (which sprouted a indistinct scoff from the latter) and if Kai looked carefully, it seemed as if the little boy was AFRAID of him.
Which was stupid because what part of Kai was scary.
Cole sat peacefully beside the table, inhaling his bowl of cereal and having a contest with Jay on who could finish their bowl first. Zane was watching them respectfully, smiling,
and here and then turning back to his book. Nya stood in the kitchen, flipping her dozenth pancake and waiting for the arrival of the youngest, and her brother sat on the
kitchen bench (which was usually Lloyd’s spot), scoffing down his pancakes, all the while drenching them with syrup. A couple minutes later, Lloyd appeared in the doorway, hair mussed up and eyes still bleary with sleep.
He made his way to the kitchen bench to his usual spot but paused when he saw Kai there instead.
Too tired to care, Lloyd shot an annoyed glare his way that barely reached and just sat beside him instead.
Nya nodded at him and ruffled his hair as if he were a dog, but Lloyd simply closed his eyes and smiled at her touch of affection.
Kai paused his choking and his eyes lit up at his genuine smile.
Hair ruffles huh?
He could do those.
He debated going in now with his sticky syrup hands or later, and raised he would rather not have an angry Lloyd with syrup in his hair.
Kai went double time on his pancakes, eating more and more to hurry up and finish it as soon as possible.
The little Garmadon watched him with hidden enthusiasm, interest peaked in his eyes and a barely concealed laugh.
The fire ninja heaved dryly at his empty plate and leaned back, absolutely stuffed.
Lloyd snickered and went back to his own plate, taking careful bites and Kai frowned at that.
Why so slowly?
But he shrugged it off and went to wash his plate, hands sticky and all.
Nya took the plate from him and splashed some water in his face, winking. Kai jabbed her side and she shrieked. Jay leaped up at her yell and glared daggers at her brother, who simply grinned.
“No worries, Romeo. Ur princess is alright,” he said and then made a show of thinking very hard.
“Although… Jay fits more into the princess role rather than Romeo-”
He laughed at the lightning ninja’s ultimate look of betrayal and Nya’s blush when she whacked him on the head.
He clambered out of the kitchen, but paused slightly to ruffle Lloyd’s hair in a swift movement that left the room in silence.
Cole was gaping at him, Jay was staring, but Zane and Nya were smiling at him proudly.
Lloyd himself had paused his eating, and was supposedly having a staring contest with his plate, bleariness gone from his widened eyes and hair mussed up very much.
Kai forced a smile on his face and walked out of the room, ignoring the tears that puddled up in his eyes.
This was gonna take a while.
He sighs, tired already and passes a hand over his brow.
He could feel a headache coming already-
“Kai!”
Said ninja stopped in his tracks at the sound of a whiny voice he had grown to hate so much.
Wait, why did he hate him again?
Oh yeah, cause he’s the ENEMY’S SON.
He spun around on his heel, quite reluctantly if he was honest, and frowned down at the small, panting kid, who bent over and placed his hands on his knees to catch his breath.
“K-Kai…” Lloyd gasped.
“W-Why’d you, huff, do that?”
The red ninja frowned once again and shrugged.
“Do what-?”
“The hair ruffle thing, you idiot! Why’d you do that?”
Lloyd was glaring up at him. Arms crossed, looking oddly threatening and Kai found himself taking a step back.
He shrugged once more, trying to put it off as nothing.
“It was nothing.”
The little Garmadon blinked, arms unfolding themselves and suddenly, seeming very vulnerable at the moment.
“N-Nothing..?” He asked, voice quite meek and Kai almost got whiplash at the change.
“Yeah?” But the word came out as a question rather than a statement. He watched Lloyd’s tough guy expression crumble up for a second before he plastered an even tougher expression on.
He blew a raspberry at the exasperated red ninja and spun on his heel, marching back towards the kitchen and leaving a very confused Kai behind.
But what he didn’t know was that Lloyd ran right into Nya’s open arms, tears streaming down his face and crying the same word over and over again.
‘Nothing.’
“You insensitive, vile, annoying, heartless BULLY.”
Kai did a somersault in the air, dodging Nya’s attacks and he screamed.
“Sis! What-”
“NO!.”
Nya threw attack after attack upon a gi donned Kai who dodged and dodged, leaped and leaped to not get throttled by his angry sister.
“Nya, talk to me!” He tried to reason with her but it was no use. She was genuinely upset and Kai could feel it within him too.
“How could you just bring his hopes up, then just DESTROY THEM?!” She yelled and succeeded in pinning him against the Bounty’s wall, hands grasping at the hem of Kai’s gi.
Kai glanced behind him, a long drop standing there if Nya pushed him a little more. He gave pleading eyes towards his sister, who glared daggers at him.
His expression softened at her obvious displeasement.
“I-Is this about Lloyd..?” He asks softly, placing his own hands on top of hers.
She crumbles up and he’s shocked to see tears building up in her eyes.
“K-Kai. You don’t understand!”
“Then make me understand,” he replies, gently taking her hands into his own.
They sat together, backs against the Bounty’s deck, Kai’s head on Nya’s shoulder and hands holding one another's.
“He likes you, you know? I don’t know why you can’t see it. All these pranks, all these actions he does are just to get your attention. I’m actually friends with him, that’s why I
don't get pranked as much. So is Zane and Cole. We actually acknowledge his existence, not like you and Jay.”
She fumbles with his fingers, tugging harshly with each word.
“Zane already told you his growing up lifestyle, if you even call it that.”
Kai hung his head low.
Being abandoned by his mother, growing up in a school made for evil, then being abandoned once more. How’d he even survive?
“Did you actually expect a fully grown mature adult to waltz into your life?”
The fire ninja clenched his hand, and unclenched it.
It was true, what she said. The only times he ever talked to Lloyd was to scold or yell at him.
He felt guilt puddle up in his chest, and he let it drip to the rest of his body.
“He’s a good kid, y’know?”
Nya ran her fingers softly through his hair.
“You’d like him.”
It was a full moon tonight, and Kai closed his eyes at the gentle sea-breeze that tugged his hair a caressed his skin.
There was a frog, as weird as it was, on the railing beside him, and a pigeon nestled gently in his lap.
The sea-breeze made his skin sticky and he winced at the dryness he felt when he smiled.
Nightmares were nothing new to him, as familiar as his late night fridge raidings (don’t tell Cole that). But usually, a breath of fresh air was all he needed. It seems that wasn’t
the case tonight.
He couldn’t shake the image out of his head, and it was a dastardly one. A fearful one and Kai sucked in a breath.
He had lost his parents when he was younger, he had no memories of him, they were hardly family. But Nya, Cole, even whiny Jay. Master Wu. Zane. They were all his family,
found family, they called it.
How could he sleep on, when he dreamt of all their lifeless bodies?
Tears sparked in Kai’s eyes and he curled forward.
Jay, a deep stab mark in his stomach, blood still gushing out. Master Wu’s beard torn apart, his hat discarded. Zane’s nindroid arm casted away, parts of him missing and never
found. Cole, his hands broken, blood still pouring from his eyes. Nya…Nya, glazed over stare at the ceiling, leg crooked and her throat slit-
He broke off and coughed, suddenly not able to breathe.
He clawed at his throat, scaring the poor pigeon who screeched and jumped off his lap, when Kai started making these horrible choking sounds.
Why couldn’t he breathe? WHY COULDN’T HE BREATHE?
His lungs burned from the lack of oxygen, his heart thudded wildly in his chest, eyes bulging and he sobbed.
But then warmth, warmth that came from his hands, that were pulled away from his throat and into something so incredibly soft.
Voices, voices in his head, in his heart, telling him to breathe in, to calm down.
A new heartbeat joined his own frantic one, and he matched his breathing to it.
In, out.
And once more.
And once more.
Until his vision returned and he looked up to see who had come and saved him.
But instead he found himself looking down at a small blonde kid who had spun his way into Kai’s life.
“Kai!” He said, eyes furrowed in concern and the red ninja felt himself loosen up.
He tugged their joined hands together and Lloyd made a very undignified yelp as he fell forward into Kai’s open arms.
The older dug his nose into the crevice of the kid’s neck and hugged him.
“K-Kai?” Lloyd asked uncertainty, before stringing his arms around his neck, placing his head on his shoulder.
He felt the kid hum a song and tap rhythmically on Kai’s back, and the red ninja found himself holding back a smile.
He was such a child, how could he not love that?
“What’re you doing up so late, kiddo?” He asked gently, as to not poke at the very calm bear.
Lloyd hesitated for a moment and then spoke in the soft voice Kai had grown to adore.
“Couldn’t sleep. Then I saw you come outside,” Lloyd pulled away from the hug but didn’t make a move to get off of Kai’s lap.
Kai frowned at the dark circles that outlined the boy’s eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he said all of a sudden and Kai’s own eyes widened.
“For what?” he asked, properly confused and a bit taken aback.
The kid was chewing on his bottom lip, actually more like gnawing on it.
“For upsetting you, you big stupid head.”
And there he is.
Kai smiled and did that hair ruffle thing once more.
“It’s alright kiddo. Gave me a scare there. Almost didn’t recognise you.”
Lloyd batted his hands away and looked down. He curled in on himself and fell forward into Kai’s chest.
“Had a nigh’mare,” he mumbled and Kai hummed, wrapping his arms around the smaller figure.
“Y’know, I did too,” he replied, voice soft and just for him.
“What was yours about?”
Kai ran his fingers through Lloyd’s hair, like Nya did for him.
“Everyone I love had died,” he explained shortly. “I saw them all.”
“That’s terrible…” Lloyd mumbled back, clutching a bit harder at Kai’s shirt and the eldest smiled.
“Yeah, but it was just that. A nightmare.” He planted a kiss on Lloyd’s head. “No use crying over spilled milk. My family is strong.”
The little Garmadon hummed and nuzzled closer. The cold was getting to him, and Kai was very very warm.
Kai traced a finger up and down his back, thinking the conversation was over.
But a small soft voice piped up in the silence and Kai felt himself still.
“I don’t want to wake up from this dream,” Lloyd admitted.
Frowning, he squeezed the boy tighter.
“What dream?”
“This dream,” Lloyd sighed. “It feels nice being loved.”
“But I know I will wake up, still hanging from the pole you put me on when you first met me.”
Kai pulled away to look Lloyd in the eyes.
“Hey, you know this isn’t a dream right?” He asked truthfully concerned and cupped his face with his hands.
“I sure hope not,” the boy mumbled and Kai flicked his forehead.
“Ow!”
“See? It hurt. That means you're not dreaming!”
Lloyd pouted, rubbing the spot where Kai had hit. But he looked down just as quick, wiping his cheek with one hand.
“Oh, Lloyd…”
Kai brought him closer once again, letting the little Garmadon soak his shirt.
He sniffled and dug his face deeper.
“It’s weird.” Lloyd had muffled, reluctantly.
“What’s weird?”
“M’ not supposed to like you guys, let alone love. It's not fair.”
Kai felt his heart thud.
“Why not?”
“Cause. ‘M supposed to be your enemy. ‘M supposed to be like my father.”
“No, Lloyd.”
“But-”
“No.”
Lloyd quieted.
“You, are nothing like your father,” Kai whispered.
“You are funny, and cool, and so full of love and most importantly, you’re good. Okay?”
He felt the little Garmadon relax against him.
“You are so full of good.”
Lloyd had fallen asleep against him, breathing slowly and amazingly calm. Kai had a million thoughts racing through his mind.
But when he felt Lloyd hum and curl into him more, his arms automatically flew to him.
There was only one thought in mind now.
‘I will always love you, little brother.’
“Okayyyyyy soooooooooo, who do I owe five bucks to again?” Jay asked, absolutely exasperated and terribly annoyed, whilst taking in the scene before him.
Kai had finally collapsed asleep, and in his lap, was the little Garmadon, sound asleep and being protected by Kai’s arms.
Cole whined.
“I so wanna be Lloyd right now,” he mumbled.
Zane was smiling very warmly at them and held an outstretched hand. Jay and Cole groaned and slapped a five dollar bill each.
Nya debated whether to take a picture of the two and blackmail them later on, or drop a bucket of water on the two to wake them up.
In the end, she chose both.