Chapter Text
Lloyd knocked hesitantly at Jay’s door, waiting for the quiet ‘come in’. He squeaked it open, and waited for his eyes to adjust rather than flipping on the light. Jay had been ‘recovering’ for six days, and everyone knew that it had switched to ‘sulking’ some time ago. But nobody knew how to address the issue, or what they could possibly do to cheer him up. The situation didn’t exactly lend itself to cheer.
“Hey, Kiwi,” Jay greeted hoarsely.
“Hey Starfruit,” Lloyd smiled, crossing the room and inviting himself to sit on the foot of the bed. Jay was buried under the covers, just his eyeballs poking up.
“...What?” Jay frowned, sitting up at the weird new nickname.
“Starfruit,” Lloyd repeated, holding out his hands and presenting Jay with the project he’d been working on for the past week.
Jay stared at the yellow gi in Lloyd’s hands, and he couldn’t quite put a name to the feelings that it sparked in his chest. He had been pretty clear when he’d told the others, a few days ago when they’d tried to drag him out of his room, that he didn’t want to be a ninja. He was tired, and he was powerless, and there wasn’t any point. It irritated him that the others hadn’t let it drop. But he couldn’t bring himself to be irritated now. Not when it was so obvious that Lloyd had made this for him.
It was surprisingly well done, if a little sloppy in places. Lloyd wasn’t the master of tailoring, but he had done his best. It was stitched neatly, with his initials embroidered in the front.
He carefully took it, pretending like his hands were shaking because he’d been electrocuted a week ago. He held it up and turned it around, breath catching painfully in his throat when he saw the back. Lloyd had definitely gotten help, because he wasn’t that crafty, and it looked incredible. Intricately stitched in a tasteful shade of orange - a perfect depiction of the junkyard.
“You shouldn’t be ashamed of who you are, Jay,” Lloyd said quietly, and Jay bit his lip harshly and forcefully blinked back tears. “And I think you should be downright proud of where you came from.”
Jay didn’t look at Lloyd - kept staring at his gift, not caring that much when he lost the battle and tears sprung from his eyes at light speed.
“You don’t need powers to be a ninja,” Lloyd continued. “You’re a whole lot more than your ability to zap people. You’re good at what you do, powers or no. And I know we all really, really want you to stay and keep doing it. But, we want you to be happy. If it’ll make you happy to leave, and go open a junkyard, then...we’re with you. But Ninjago would miss you. You were voted first place in the ‘best squishy cinnamon roll contest’, afterall.”
Jay blinked. “The what?”
“I don’t know, I saw it online,” Lloyd shrugged, scooting up to sit beside Jay and knock their shoulders together. “Whaddaya say? Wanna be the best dang yellow ninja to ever live?”
Jay laughed, weak and watery. “Fine,” he agreed, trying to sound more annoyed than he was. “Can’t have you do all this for nothing. I’ll give it a week.”
Lloyd beamed, and Jay reached over to ruffle his hair. “Thanks, Greenie. It really means a lot.”
“Of course,” Lloyd grinned. “Us villain spawn gotta stick together, y’know.”
Jay snorted, and finally relaxed against Lloyd. If Lloyd could be the son of Garmadon and still turn out to be the best Ninja Ninjago had ever known, then maybe -just maybe- Jay could turn out pretty okay too.
He smiled softly and gently traced the outline of the junkyard. He was proud to be a Walker. And maybe, at the end of the day, that’s all that mattered. Not Libber, not some duty to be the next blue ninja, not some overrated lightning powers that he didn’t even have anymore. Maybe it was enough, to be the boy from the junkyard who looked at a hurting world and decided to help it, however he could. He was doing his best - and maybe that’s what all of them were doing. Even Lloyd, the fabled Green Ninja. They were just kids, when all of this started. Just a handful of kids against a world that was far too cruel to them. But they had each other. And right here, right now, that was enough.