Chapter Text
Making a bucket list of things to do with his newly resurrected cousin who had repeatedly attempted murder on him was not on Lloyd’s bingo card this year.
But then again, over the course of his life, he’d done weirder things. This probably wasn’t even in the top 10.
To be on the safe side though...he decided to keep this a secret from the others for now. Especially Kai. Everyone else had begun to pretty much accept Morro as a part of the team—granted, with a bit of tension—but Kai was still as stone hearted to him as he was the day he first joined. While it wasn’t ideal, Lloyd couldn’t really blame him. He knew the whole possession incident gave Kai a few gray hairs, courtesy of his constant worry and fear for his little brother.
Morro had been able to adjust well enough with the other ninja. ‘Well enough’ meaning he can be in the same room as one of them and won’t be glared at with knife-like eyes. That was...good enough. The main thing that bothered Lloyd though—and the reason he’s doing this awfully thought out and practically insane idea in the first place— was his stubborn refusal to going literally anywhere unless it was deemed ‘necessary‘ by him. Apparently, his standards for necessity were sky-high, somewhere within the realm of 'if it won't kill someone, or me again, to not go there, then no I can't be bothered.'
...Okay, that was a tiny bit of an overexaggeration, but still!
Seriously, he’s been alive again for nearly half a year now, and the only places he’s been to beside the monastery have been the police station and the city streets! Both of which were exclusively for missions too, might he add.
He never visited any shops, never went to any parks, never joined any arcade visits with the guys—goodness sake, never even considered a jog for fresh air. He was stubborn, Lloyd gave him that.
Morro’s been dead for 40 years. If Lloyd was him, he’d explore everywhere just to see how things have changed since then.
But, he suspected, that's probably the reason he doesn’t want to see the outside world.
Lloyd didn’t have personal experience with exactly what Morro was going through per se, but strangely enough he could still sympathize. He could tell that Morro didn’t exactly like that everything was different now compared to before. Wow, shocker. That's why he was avoiding leaving the monastery. It was the only familiar thing to him, so he was clinging onto it like life support, all the while evading everything that’s unfamiliar. AKA: Everything outside. His mindset was sort of: ‘out of sight, out of mind.’
That, Lloyd had personal experience with.
When Lloyd first moved in with the ninja, he was scared and skeptical. He’d been brought up in a place where nothing good came without a price, and if you weren’t useful to your so-called ‘benefactors’, you’d be discarded like a piece of trash. Boarding school of the year!
So, being thrown into this new environment where he could have shelter, be fed, AND be trained all at the price of just ‘be good’ unsettled him in more ways than one. And don’t even get him started on the whole ‘unconditional love’ thing. It was weird. Wonderful, but still weird. And very hard to get used to, because apparently paranoia just loooves to take its sweet time leaving when you’ve been in its claws for your entire existence.
Setting that all aside, new homes just suck. Even if it's for the better, which in Lloyd’s case it definitely was, it takes forever to adjust because what do you mean the lights are golden and not silver? What do you mean it’s slightly colder than what he’s used to? What do you mean he’s living on a flying ship? It’s all so confusing!
So, amidst all the change, Lloyd needed something familiar to ground himself with. He found that familiarity within his treasured black hoodie. He’d had it for a good chunk of time, and he loved it. Painted the ribs on it himself (which explains why they looked a bit off, but still, the work was pretty good for someone his age.) By the time he was living with the ninja, it certainly looked like it had seen better days—it was mildly tattered, the strings were chewed out, and the fabric was tainted withan array of bloodstains which Lloyd pointedly refused to explain. Still, he wore it almost every single day, only ever swapping it out when it needed washing; with the one pair of pj’s he owned from Darkly’s. Sure, his clinging was childish, but seeing as he was a child, the other ninja tried their best to keep their patience through the tantrums he threw when one of them would insist he let them get him new clothes.
Only after he got his green ninja gi did he realize how comfortable clothes were when their fabric was fully in tact, and so allowed himself to slowly (and the word is not being used lightly here) transition out of his constant hoodie usage.
All in all, Lloyd guessed that Morro was feeling the same way he did back then. Obviously, the magnitude of his situation was way larger—a little more than simply a new home, and avoiding a little more than just new clothes—so he’s probably taking a lot larger of a hit from it, but it’s something that Lloyd could relate to at its core.
Which made him the best candidate to get Morro out of his little funk! Because yes, he was in a funk. Plus, other than Wu, he technically knew Morro the most, given at one point he was stuck with him 24/7 for a whole week.
Lloyd tried to push aside all the horrible thoughts that came with recalling the event.
Thinking back, Lloyd never actually expected himself to be able to forgive Morro. It shocked him even more than it did the others; probably because he was the only one who actually knew the full extent of how badly Morro scarred him. As the one who lived through it, forgiving him felt almost absurd.
But he still did. Because after all, that’s just the kind of person he is. Always trying to see the kindness in others- digging through a withered garden for any chance at finding a good seed amidst the brush.
And once he finds that seed of goodness, he can never stop himself from wanting to see it bloom.
Lloyd made a face when he realized he was subconsciously using metaphors.
Hey, it’s not his fault that he lives with an uncle that speaks in analogies instead of words! He was bound to have it rub off on him! Like uncle like nephew...?
Weird as it was though, Lloyd decided to just roll with it.
Morro’s having trouble adjusting, and unfortunately for him, Lloyd has a stubborn streak too.
I watered that seed and I will make sure it grows.
Because apparently Morro is a plant now.
There were definitely better ways to have gone about this than by making a bucket list filled with whatever whimsical musings popped into his head; Lloyd surmised.
But at the same time, it’s not like anything else came to mind. What’s that saying… “always follow your guts”? Lloyd was guessing that would be a reasonable course of action in this situation. Probably.
Not all the items were Lloyd’s original ideas—most of them were, but he figured the others would have valuable suggestions, so he did ask them for recommendations. Of course though, he inquired under the guise of simple ‘curiosity’ as to what his super interesting and imaginative friends would put on a bucket list of things to do with a pal.
Wow, how slick, He sarcastically thought. So much for being a sly ninja or whatever. Maybe the others were right about him having terrible acting skills. At least only Zane seemed to have caught on, but now that he thinks about it, Nya did raise an eyebrow to the question, so maybe she did too.
None of Kai’s ideas made it to the list, which was definitely expected.
Sorry Kai, nothing personal. Just don’t think arson is what Morro needs right now. Or ever.
His concern was more to do with Morro potentially enjoying it than potentially getting hurt.
Lots of Nya’s activities involved tinkering with electronics, a no-go for them, but she did have a few that didn’t require you to be an inventing genius, which was pretty sweet. Why are so many of them so technical? Maybe she made a few like-minded friends at that part-time job she had at the auto body shop. Lloyd made a mental note to ask her about it later.
Jay and Cole had the most entertaining suggestions of the lot, although some of them were somehow almost on Kai level of reckless, so that lost them some points from Lloyd. Zane’s ideas were the simplest and frankly, the least interesting to Lloyd, but they all had a sense of homeyness to them that he thought Morro would benefit from, so he still took a couple.
Lloyd looked at the finished product, and overall, there was nothing too crazy on it. Enough to get Morro out of his comfort zone, but not enough to completely deter himfrom enjoying it.
It was at that moment Lloyd finally decided that he would stop putting off the impossible task that was figuring out how to convince Morro to actually come along.
Aww man... The boring part...
Okay, time to stop procrastinating and start thinking of how to make this less impossible. Thought the logical part of himself.
....Eh, at the same time... I could just wing it. Thought the not-so-logical part.
Take a guess as to which side he listened to.
As Lloyd walked towards his pseudo-cousin’s room, he already had in mind which item he was going to get Morro to cross off first with him. The activity was probably the most simple and low effort on the list, and something he had been thinking about for ages.
Arriving at the door, he felt the urge to brace himself for reasons he was beyond figuring out. At the mental count of three, he knocked.
“Hey uh, it’s Lloyd.”
Silence.
Being the over thinker he is, in his head Lloyd instantly ran through all the possible reasons as to why he wasn’t getting an immediate answer.
As it turns out though, Morro wasn’t unable to hear him, and he wasn’t ignoring him because he’s super mad at him, and he wasn’t dead. Because after a few moments he replied.
“Uh, d’you need something?”
Lloyd wasn’t sure why it took him so long to respond, but he decided not to pay it much heed.
“C’mon, is it really so hard to believe I might just want to talk to you?”
In Morro’s defense, he did overhear Lloyd speaking to the others about ‘giving him space’ back when he first moved in, so he wasn’t exactly expecting to be casually conversed with on a random whatever-day-it-currently-was. Not that he could use that defense though, considering he wasn’t supposed to hear that. Oh well, guess he’ll just have to use offense as his defense.
“Lloyd, no offense", Morro mentally snickered at his own inconsistent word choice, “but you’re terrible at small talk.”
“HEY!” Lloyd snaps, then realizes he could use this to his advantage like the evil little demon spawn he was.“Tch, obviously you would know, you memory-stalker.”
Morro is instantly caught off guard, which is actually an impressive feat on Lloyd’s part, especially this early into a conversation.
“Excuse me?!” Morro sputters.
"Yeah. Memory-stalker, that's what you are." Lloyd repeated with increasing pride.
Ha! Memory-stalker! Totally nailed it with that one.
Morro couldn't even defend himself, because as much as he hated to admit, and as much as he felt horrible about it, and as much as it was stupid how proud Lloyd was at himself for coming up with that, it was...accurate, to say the least.
Morro was just about to fall back into the all-so-familiar pit of ruminating once again on his past mistakes when Lloyd decided he was going to rudely interrupt his brooding.
“So can I come in or am I just gonna continue talking to the door?” Knowing Morro, Lloyd had a 50/50 chance with that.
Snapping back into reality, Morro sneers. “Wow, looks like someone’s grown an attitude.”
“For your information, I was always like this.”
“A brat? Alright, that checks.”
Lloyd sighs. “Do you always have to bite?”
“That’s my trademark, a very endearing quality if you ask me.” Morro says with a little theatrical edge.
It seemed that when Morro left the departed realm, he made sure to bring his vanity back with him too.
Lloyd scoffed. “Whatever floats your boat. Now will you let me in?”
“Impatient much? Just wait.”
From the room Lloyd could hear a whole lot of rustling that definitely wasn’t Morro scrambling to take down all the drawings he’s framed on his walls.
The door opened and he was let inside. Reluctantly, but still. A win’s a win.
Lloyd doesn’t know why, but he was expecting the walls to be painted black, band posters to be put up everywhere, and a huge mess.
At the very least, he was right about the mess.
Morro’s room was in complete disarray. Clothes were strewn across the floor carelessly, random scraps of paper littered the area around his desk, and his bedsheet was barely even on his bed, wrinkled and hanging on to dear life. You would think decluttering his room would be a higher priority than making sure Lloyd doesn’t see his drawings, but apparently not. Although once again in Morro’s defense, before he died —when he was young and directly training under Wu—he rarely ever spent time in his room, so he never really needed to tidy it up.
Lloyd raised an eyebrow. “I have…questions.”
Morro points a finger at him. “Yeah, well stay curious.”
Other than the disordered state of the room, it was pretty plain and basically exactly how it was when he first moved in. Huh. Thought he’d be more into ‘self-expression’ and what-not.
Put off by the jumble, Lloyd starts to tidy up.
“I don’t remember requesting room service.”
“I don’t remember asking.”
Morro retaliates. “I can do it myself, parasite.”
Lloyd clutches his chest in over-exaggerated offense. “Ouch. Hurtful words for someone who’s trying to help you.”
“Didn’t realise you were so sensitive.”
He snatches the top Lloyd was in the middle of folding, undoing all the progress. He begins to ‘do it himself.’
Geez, he didn’t have to be so aggressive about it.
Lloyd resorts to looking around the room, and Morro silently prays he won’t notice the suspiciously nail-sized holes spread across the wall. He doesn’t. Instead, he backtracks to the lack of expression in the room.
“I gave you permission to personalize your space y’know.” Lloyd exclaims. “Just a reminder. You can let your inner edgelord out or whatever.”
Morro pauses, looking dumbfounded. “What in the 16 realms is an edgelord?” He suddenly felt as old as he technically was.
Lloyd looks at Morro and cackles.
Morro scowls. “The hell are you laughing for?!” It was evident by his slightly reddened cheeks that he felt somewhat embarrassed. One, by his lack of knowledge on modern terms, and two, because that vexing pain-in-the-neck was laughing at him.
A glare was shot Lloyd’s way. “So, are you bothering me just to discuss room décor or did you have something actually useful to say? Get to the point.”
“Impatient much?” Oh, the joys of using one's words against them.
Morro deadpans. “I’m going to throw you across the room.”
“Like how you did back at the museum?”
Morro winces.
Despite the mild one-sided arguing, Lloyd knew Morro had a point. He was stalling.
Okay, I can do this.
“So…” Lloyd tries to be nonchalant. Not his forte. “I don’t suppose you have any plans, right?”
“I don’t like where this is going.”
“Well, I was thinking… you haven’t really gone anywhere for a while.” ‘A while’ was a huge understatement, but details weren’t important here Morro assumed.
“And…? What, are you gonna force me on a world tour or something?”
“Not exactly…. But I do have plans.”
Morro groans.
“Oh come on, it’ll be fun!” Lloyd pleads
Morro takes the now-folded pile of clothes and shoves it into his closet, which causes the neat freak in the room to grimace.
“Fun in your book maybe. Not mine though.” Morro says flatly. "And plus, why does it even matter if I'm not going outside?"
“Okay look, I know it doesn’t seem like that big of a problem to you, but—”
“Have you thought that maybe the reason it doesn’t seem like that big of a problem is because it isn’t? Occam’s razor, or whatever.”
“Whose what?” Lloyd blurted.
Morro rolled his eyes. “Never mind.”
He flopped onto his now tidied bed. “Why do you care so much? It’s not like you’ll benefit from me venturing out, so it shouldn’t matter to you.”
Lloyd frowns. “Why should it matter whether or not it benefits me?”
For goodness sake, how dense is he?
“Because altruism is stupid. All you’re doing is wasting your time. I’m sure the green ninja—“ A dramatic emphasis was used on those words. “—has better things to be doing than whatever this is.” Morro was lying through his teeth. In honesty, he didn’t think altruism was completely foolish, and he knows that Lloyd has a concerning amount of free time despite his major position. He really just wanted the green ninja to leave him alone.
Or maybe it's just because, the more he was with him, the more his eyes subconsciously darted to the black roots in Lloyd's hair that he shouldn't have, and the array of scars on his hands that weren't there before a certain ghost used and abused them.
Lloyd grins. “Oh, don’t you even worry about that."
Oh right, the conversation.
"I have enough time to make sure you—” Lloyd stops himself from saying ‘touch grass’, and switches to a chronically-offline-friendly alternative. “...get some fresh air.”
“Right. Because you have plans.”
“I sure do!” Lloyd beams.
“Dare I ask.”
Big mistake.
“Okay so I have this whole bucket list I want you to do with me, with a bunch of fun activities to help you settle in with the world because I know you probably don’t have a very positive view on it— oh and don’t worry, you don’t have to do much today, just come with me to get ice cream—wait do I need to explain ice cream to you because I dunno if that’s a foreign concept for someone of your era. Oh but I heard that it’s been around since even before the serpentine wars so at the very least you probably know what it is. That’s good because I genuinely have no clue how I would explain ice cream to someone who’s never seen it. Cold…sweet…cream...?Eugh. That just sounds weird. Anyways, I’m guessing you haven’t tried it before, so this’ll be your first time!” Lloyd was rambling with the glee of a child on their way to the candy store. Semi-accurate, in some ways.
Morro didn’t seem to share the same excitement.
He looked at Lloyd dead in the eye, pinching the bridge of his nose with such strain that Lloyd was a little worried he would crush it.
“Do you...do you just say everything that pops into your head?"
Lloyd deflates a little.
"Ah, uh... No... "
Morro raises an eyebrow but feels a tinge of guilt at seeing Lloyd slightly disheartened.
"Anyhow, what even makes you think I'd ever agree to this?"
Morro knew that he had a very valid reason to force him to go but was desperately hoping Lloyd wouldn’t pull that card.
“Because I’m asking nicely.”
Morro lets out a laugh. “Wow. You’re like, actually horrible at negotiating.”
Lloyd clutches his chest in mock hurt once again. “How rude! Is my sincerity not reason enough for you?”
“Uh, no. Try again.”
Please don’t try again. Please just leave. I know what you're gonna say.
“Ugh, really? You know, you should be grateful I'm trying to get your permission.”
“And why’s that?”
Please don’t explain. Please just leave. I know what you're gonna say.
“I could just force you. You do owe a lot to me.”
Morro feels a pang in his chest.
The card has been pulled.
And Morro then knew that there was no getting out of this.