Chapter Text
When Lloyd woke up again he was alone. There was a glass of water and cold soup on his bedside table with a note telling him to rest and call PIXAL if he needs anything.
The Green Ninja sat up on his bed and drank the glass of water. He hasn't been this thirsty for a long time.
He looked at the food. He didn't want to eat it. It made him nauseous.
He promised himself to try to eat something later.
Lloyd got slowly up and decided to look around a bit. He wanted to go down and maybe help Pix with fixing the vehicles.
He took the elevator down.
When he entered the hangar bay he didn't see PIXAL anywhere. He continued further inside and was checking under the vehicles to see where she was working.
He found her under Cole's car.
“Need any help?” Lloyd spoke up.
PIXAL almost jumped from under the car. She rolled out on her creeper.
“Lloyd.” She said surprised, wiping off the oil on her hands and standing up. “What are you doing here? You should be resting.”
“I'm fine. I wanted to see if there is anything I can help with.” Lloyd brushed it off.
“You should be in bed resting.” PIXAL gave him a suspicious look. “Did you eat the soup?”
“A little bit.” Lloyd lied. “I'm gonna finish it later. I'm not hungry.” That was just partially a lie. That's okay, right?
“Hm…” PIXAL muttered.
“So do you have anything I can help you with?” Lloyd asked, trying to shift the attention from him.
“Not in this state.” PIXAL said and laid down on her creeper.
“Come on, Pix. Let me help you.” Lloyd said earnestly.
She gave him a long look.
“Okay. But,” she continued before Lloyd could get too excited. “You have to tell me if you feel any worse and will only do work that lets you sit.”
“Deal.” Lloyd said happily, relieved that he could be of any use to his friends.
—
Zane, Cole, Jay, Kai and Nya walked into the Hangar bay.
“Lloyd? What are you doing here? You should be resting.” Jay said, staggered.
Their little brother was sitting behind a table, organizing screws and bolts.
“I can't just lie in bed. I want to help.” Lloyd responded without stopping his work.
“Jay is right. You should be recovering.” Zane added.
Lloyd finally paused his work and looked up. “I'm fine, really. Don't worry about me.” He looked down to continue with his task. “Where have you been?”
The ninja tensed up. “We went on a mission… Just some minor disturbances. Nothing interesting.” Kai said carefully.
PIXAL came to join the conversation. “I think I got it from here. Thanks, Lloyd.”
The Green Ninja looked up at her suddenly looking like the boy he is. “But I want to help.”
“You've helped more than enough. It's time for rest.” Cole stepped in.
Lloyd muttered something and got up.
The other ninja surrounded the monitors and began discussing their last adventure.
Lloyd was angry but he understood why they told him to go rest. They cared about him but it was completely unnecessary. He was doing fine.
The ninja were already deep in their conversation when they heard him fall. The first one to respond was Kai.
He ran to the boy, laying unconscious on the ground.
“Stubborn ninja.” He murmured.
—
Lloyd woke up. This time there wasn't just Kai there with him. All of the ninja were in his room doing their own thing. Jay was talking to Nya, Cole was eating, Zane was staring into nothing and Kai was staring at Lloyd.
“Okay, this has to stop.” Kai said before Lloyd managed to say anything. “You can't just ignore all of your problems. You have to face them. Or they will keep hunting you forever.”
Lloyd just stared at him, flabbergasted.
“Maybe we haven't picked up on all the clues but that doesn't mean we don't care about you. You don't have to do everything alone, Lloyd. You've got us.” Jay added.
“We are your family and we stand by you. So if you ever get hurt again or there is simply just something on your mind you are telling us.” Cole announced.
“If you ever do something like this again I'm going to make you regret it later.” Nya threatened and Lloyd knew she wasn't joking.
There was an awkward moment of silence before Lloyd spoke.
“Okay. I'll keep that all in mind. Thank you, guys.”
Jay walked to him and hugged him. Then Kai and his sister. And then Cole and Zane.
Lloyd knew that things won't change overnight. That it will take a lot of time and a lot of hard work. But he had his family that wanted to help him and would support him through all of it.
And he would never let go of that.