Chapter Text
The garbage depot that housed the resistance was drafty and cold and probably the best place they could’ve hidden, besides wherever the rest of Lloyd’s family was — the First Realm — Mystake had said.
He was still adjusting to having her around. Having an “old mentor” figure, that is. Wu had been gone for a year and a half, his father for longer, and it’s not like Misako was stepping up to the plate anytime soon.
“So,” Lloyd started, swirling the tea in his cup around. “I know I — we, need to endure.”
“Yes.” The old lady hummed, pouring her own cup. Earl gray, she’d said. Uncle Wu had always favored chamomile.
“And I was wondering, maybe, if you had any tips or…?”
Mystake smiles at him from behind her tea, and Lloyd swears he can see her eyes flash a bright pink before she sets her cup down. “There is much I can teach you, Young Garmadon. About yourself. About your ancestors.”
“Oh. Okay?”
“First: close your eyes. All the way! Close them entirely.” Mystake started, piping up when Lloyd peeked. “Relax. Feel yourself from the tip of your head to your toes. You are all of you. You are so much more, Young Garmadon.”
Lloyd relaxed, trying to go to that place he went whenever he meditated with his uncle. Calm, collected, detached in a way.
“Now. I want you to focus on the tea.”
Was this a patience metaphor then? Lloyd focused on the heat on the tip of his fingers.
“The water is hot, yes? Ready for change. The tea leaves begin to dissolve, releasing the flavors. It dissipates, it changes slowly.” There was a shuffling from the elder, then she started again. “Breathe in. Now, release your breath. Let yourself dissipate, Young Garmadon.”
Like the tea. Like the tea…
Lloyd let himself slump forward, relax, and dissipate? He definitely felt like dissipating, if the new chill on his fingertips meant anything.
“Now you can open your eyes.”
Again, he followed her instructions to a T. “Miss Mystake, I don’t think that did anything — FIRST MASTER!” His hands were not his hands, repeat, they were not his hands. They were sharp and dark, and it was SPREADING—
Lloyd moved to spring up, but something threw him off balance and he tumbled down again.
“Uh, Mystake?” He did not like how high pitched his voice was now, shit, shit shit! He fumbled and just barely caught his tea before setting it down. With his hands.
His hands.
His not human, non flesh-colored hands—
“Hm?”
“Did you put something in the tea? Like a hallucinogen? A hallucinogen to help me face my greatest fear or something? Is this fear training?”
To his horror, the old lady laughed. “I did not put anything in our drinks. You are seeing something real, why would I need to drug you to show you something that you already have?”
He bristled. “Just because I have it, doesn’t mean I want—“
“Calm down, Young Garmadon.” Mystake reached over and placed her hand — her claws, too? — over Lloyd’s. “I thought you learned long ago that there is nothing evil about genetics, of all things.”
“It’s, it’s just a big change — another big change. And it reminds me of him.” Lloyd felt the words tumble out of his mouth easily, his — yep, that was a tail — moving to circle around him protectively.
“With luck, it will soon remind you of you.” Mystake took another sip of her tea. “There is more to Lloyd Garmadon than the Green Ninja. Who said the Resistance had to be helmed by a one trick pony?”
Lucky them, lucky them, the second they lost The Destiny’s Bounty was the second Fall started to set in.
They hurried to get an apartment before September ended, then struggled to keep the heating, as awful as it was, on as the weather got colder and colder. Everyone took up more shifts, longer hours, asked for more they could take on, all while managing to train Lloyd every hour of the day.
It was exhausting. For everyone involved.
For mid-October, it also happened to be freezing.
Nya was first. It wasn’t like she hadn’t snuck into her brother’s bed for warmth before, this time wasn’t any different.
Kai’s roused briefly. Nya shushes him. The siblings fall back to sleep.
Not ten minutes later, they’re joined by more.
“Hey, uhm,” The Blue Ninja whispers. “I’m freezing, and—“
“Move over, bluebell, or I’m claiming a spot by Kai before you can.” Cole rumbles softly from behind Jay, and there’s a quiet dash to the bed for the best spot.
Cole victoriously cuddles up close to the Master of Fire, while Jay instead nestles into Nya, letting out a content hiss he hopes no one else can hear.
And Lloyd…
Lloyd was witness to it all from his cot. He’d been awake from the cold even before Nya. He’d been curled into the tightest ball long before that, hoping his shoddy blanket-nest would help.
It did not.
But he’s okay, he’s fine! He’s survived way worse than this. He should be thankful he’s lucky enough to have a roof over his head and people that don’t hate him now, unlike last winter—
Last winter. Just the thought of it sends another shiver through Lloyd’s bones.
He huffs, and shifts in his bed again. He’s just gotta make it through the night…
Lloyd’s almost asleep again when hands gently pick him up from behind. Managing to muffle a yelp, he turns to face his attacker.
Zane looks back, a gentle — not pitying, never pitying — look in his kinda-glowing blue eyes. Without a word, he carries the Green Ninja over to Kai’s crowded bed, and sets him smack dab in the middle of the cuddle pile, before joining himself, on the outskirts.
Lloyd tenses for one, two, three, before Cole shifts to throw an arm over him and Nya stretches to pull Lloyd into a semi hug too and he’s almost entirely on top of Kai, who only radiates the heat Lloyd’s been craving for so long.
Somewhere between settling in and falling asleep, Lloyd goes limp entirely and begins to purr.
It’s not like he’d been shy about growling, hissing, even baring his fangs when he wanted to, but this was different. It wasn’t something that struck fear in the hearts of common men or anything.
It was loud, embarrassing, and totally content. Lucky for Lloyd, the second thing was the furthest from his mind at the moment.
And no one said anything the next night it happened again, nor the one after that.
And what if Lloyd started to seek out the other ninja, his siblings, to nestle into? And what if they welcomed his presence, carding their fingers through his hair until he melted against them, purring? Lloyd Garmadon, former warlord-in-training and current Green-Ninja-in-training would never seek out such simple pleasures.
Lloyd Garmadon (or Smith, Brookstone, Walker, or Julien, whoever felt like claiming him at the moment), Starfarer extraordinaire, gaming expert, and admittedly pretty decent tailor, might.
Maybe just this once.
He caught Nya staring out the window again. Her ponytail was askew, like she’d fallen asleep with it in again. The bags under her eyes were impressive and she was in a mashup of her civilian clothes (from a food run earlier) and her brand new “resistance” gi.
Outside, it looked like rain.
“Hey, Nya?”
“Hm?” She turned, and hazel eyes widened. “Oh. So that’s what Mystake wanted to ‘unlock.’”
Lloyd’s hands — claws, he had claws instead of hands — flew to his brand-new non-human parts. He pressed them to the just-visible beginnings of dark green horns, then curled his tail forward to fiddle with its blond-furred tip anxiously. “You aren’t more surprised?”
“You’re acting like we always thought you were human, green bean.” She beckoned him forward, and he obliged, sitting next to her on one of the many ratty old couches they’d scored for the resistance. They slumped into each other. Lloyd fought the urge to purr. “Like, I know that you spent the first week on The Bounty hiding from the guys and trying to bite me whenever I found you. You’d just, give me this Look — yes, just like that!”
“Nya, I’m just looking at you normally. You’re supposed to look at people when they’re talking to you, right?”
“No no, it's A Look, and it’s what’s happening right now,” She chuckled, and Lloyd couldn’t help but beam back. His sister was here. Nya was still here.
“Do… do you think they’ll be any help?” He said, holding up his claws.
Nya took them for a moment, careful around their points. Then her hands flew to his horn nubs, and he shuddered at the new sensation. “I mean, it looks like it’s just the beginning. I mean, when he was — Garm — your dad was a beast. He kicked everyone’s ass, so many times,”
He smiled slightly. “So you’re saying: I could kick your ass now?”
“Ha! You wish.”