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Lloyd recognized the footsteps approaching as soon as they were within earshot,and despite the fact that he'd much rather be anywhere than here, standing outside of Borg tower with his back against the wall, he was grateful for the interruption from his swirling head of thoughts.
"How's Skylor?"
"She's gonna be okay, but Master Wu said that it's probably for the better if she stays with us while she recovers," Kai explained, leaning against the wall beside him, "Nya's gonna be okay too. Her shoulder is dislocated, but she's more upset about having to take it easy then anything else."
Lloyd couldn't hold back a chuckle at the mental image of Nya arguing with Kai about staying down, only because it was so normal for the two siblings to bicker; with everything that had happened, he wasn't sure they'd ever get back to normal.
"Everyone else okay?"
"Cole and I need stitches, and Jay has some level of a concussion, but yeah," Lloyd nodded and directed his attention to the night sky, "are you okay?"
Lloyd bit his lower lip, his eyes still fixated on the stars; he knew the correct answer was no, because who would be okay after watching their first...Rumi die when they could've stopped it, only to have to turn around and accept that what they just locked up in Kryptarium prison wasn't their resurrected father and had to use the technique they learned from him to defeat him, but at the same time...everyone around him was hurting too.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he shot Kai what he hoped was a reassuring smile before cracking a joke, "we should help the police clean up if we ever want this place to be tourist friendly again."
Before he got a chance to talk, Lloyd already made his way to the commissioner so he could get an idea of where he was needed. 'Thank the master for adrenaline.'
•••
It wasn't that Kai wasn't thankful that Cole's father was letting them stay at his house while they started to restore the Monastery, it was the opposite actually; he was so relieved that all ten of them were able to be together again, albeit a little cramped, and that they were all getting towards okay.
But there was something that felt off to him; he didn't know if it was the creaking floorboards, the nearly consistent sound of someone turning over in their bed, or the occasional sound of Skylor taking a sharp intake of breath in her sleep.
All he could do was shut his eyes and try to get himself to drift off to sleep.
"Kai." A whisper broke through the soft continuous noise; he rolled over to get away from the voice trying to get his attention.
"Kaiii." The voice spoke more urgently this time, and he felt his heart drop. If Nya was anything, it was persistent and even though he had enough stubbornness to fight it off, she probably genuinely needed something.
"Kai, I need help."
That got him sitting up, rubbing his eyes so they could adjust and focus on his little sister, her arm tightly secured to his chest with her eyes full of both tears and worry; definitely not normal.
"What's wrong?" He asked, pulling himself away from Skylor and planting his feet on the creaking floorboards, trying to avoid waking his girlfriend when she obviously needed the sleep.
"It's Lloyd."
Kai narrowly avoided cussing to his sister about how 'Lloyd insisted he was fine' because he knew he should've pressed him harder about definitely not being fine after the hell they had all been through and settled with following Nya into the room where she had been sleeping instead, lighting his hand up so he could see.
Zane, PIXAL and Jay were still sleeping in their beds, and there was an obvious mess of blankets where Nya had been, but on the pull out couch was Lloyd, an arm draped around his torso as he looked straight up at the ceiling.
He barely heard his sisters soft, reassuring whispers as she ran a hand through Lloyd's hair as he approached, taking in what he could in the dark room.
He lit his hand just enough so he could get some light without waking the others, and once again had to bite his tongue to keep from swearing; no longer covered head to toe in the suit, Lloyd's loose fitting pajamas gave just a small idea of how many cuts, gashes and bruises aligned his body.
With how pained the young ninja's face was, he could only imagine what was under his shirt and the urge to go to Kryptarium and give Garmadon a piece of his mind was strong, but he turned to his sister, trying his best to keep his voice steady, "Go wake up Cole and ask if he knows where the first aid kit is. I'm gonna bring him into the room I'm staying in so I can turn on the light."
Nya nodded before standing up and leaving, giving Kai a chance to get down beside Lloyd, "hey, we're gonna move you to my room, okay? Just so I can see what I'm doing and help you feel better."
Lloyd stayed silent with no movement, still staring at the ceiling. 'Probably just the amount of pain he's in.' Kai tried to assure himself but that's when the choking voice broke through, and he kicked himself when he realized that what made Lloyd's face so reflective in the fire light was obviously tears.
"I want my mom."
'Of course he wants his mom. After how fucked up this entire experience has been, he obviously wants his mom.'
"Okay, I'll have Nya get her for you," Kai insisted, extinguishing his hand before reaching forward to gently brush the tears off of Lloyd's cheeks even though he knew that more would quickly take their place, "but we gotta move you first."
Lloyd pulled himself up, letting out an involuntary hiss through his teeth, before draping his arm over Kai's shoulders.
Kai made sure he had a decent hold on Lloyd before the two of them slowly made their way out of the room. Luckily, the house was small and before he knew it, the two of them made it back to the other room and Kai was able to slowly lower Lloyd onto Cole's bed before making eye contact with Nya.
"Can you go get Misako?"
"Yeah, I'm on it." Nya nodded, leaving the room just as Cole came in, first aid kit in hand as he turned on the overhead lights.
"Thanks," Kai muttered and opened it before turning to Lloyd, "do you want me to wait till your mom gets in here?"
Lloyd shook his head, slowly taking off his shirt before laying back down and grasping Cole's outstretched hand, "just get it over with, please."
He swallowed harshly as he finally got a good look at the amount of bruising that covered Lloyd's chest and ribs; Kai had patched himself and Nya up multiple times in their childhood, but this was something that one of them would've taken the other one to the hospital over because of how bad it was.
"Kai? Are you okay?" A voice asked, and he snapped back to the present.
Nya and Skylor both had their hands on his shoulders and he was now sitting at the table with a orange blanket wrapped around his shoulders that he had definitely seen Cole use before.
"What happened?" He asked, his voice coming out as a choke.
"Once you saw how bad Lloyd's wounds were, you went into shock," Nya spoke softly, gently squeezing his hand, "Misako, Master Wu and I came in just as Cole had woken Skylor up because you were frozen in place."
"Lloyd-"
"Zane and Master Wu are taking care of him," Skylor insisted as she gently rubbed his shoulder, "even though Zane insisted that you have some sort of concussion, hence the shock."
Kai nodded before resting his head against his arms, sleep already threatening to take over now that he was no longer having to be stoic for Lloyd and Nya.
"You should probably lay down on the couch if you're gonna fall asleep, Kai." His girlfriend's voice insisted before he was lifted from the table and walked over to the couch, the blanket being draped over him.
He wanted to stay awake, he really did...but he hardly had gotten any sleep in the First Realm for fear of something happening to his brothers, and now that he was on something soft, he couldn't stop it.
•••
Nya couldn't stop the tears coming down her face as soon as Kai's breathing evened out and indicated that he was sleeping.
Her shoulder throbbed whenever she moved it, her eyes were trying to shut without her trying to sleep, Kai was obviously in over his head since that was the first time she had seen him go still like that since he had nearly cut his eye open so many years ago in the blacksmith shop, and Lloyd…
She had sworn to protect him, she promised him that she would keep him safe and now he was hiding everything from her until he couldn't do it any more.
'I wonder what else he's hiding from me…'
"Nya, maybe you should get some sleep. You can see Lloyd tomorrow." Skylor suggested, but Nya shrugged her off, pulling her good arm out of her grasp.
"I can't sleep, my arm hurts too much." She insisted without looking back at Skylor, even though her arm was only part of the problem; Lloyd had woken her up, and she'd see to it that he was okay.
Luckily, that's when Master Wu and Zane exited the room with serious but relieved expressions on their faces.
'Thank the Master.' Nya thought to herself as she made eye contact with Zane, who gave her a quick but reassuring nod; if she hadn't already been crying, she definitely would have started.
"-need to get some sleep. We have all had a rough few weeks." Wu explained with a calm, steady tone, despite the fact he looked ready to fall asleep standing; he didn't even finish speaking before Zane went back to their room.
She didn't know if she would ever get used to how young her master looked, but from what Jay had told her just hours earlier, he would be back to his old self sooner rather than later.
"I don't think you're going to be able to move Kai from the couch."
"No, it is best to leave him there, he definitely needs the rest," Wu glanced over at her brother before returning eye contact with the two of them, "We should leave Lloyd in Cole's bed as well. I really want him to avoid moving until his injuries heal some."
The girls nodded and watched as Wu retreated to one of the three rooms, Skylor disappearing behind the door that held her and Lloyd shortly after, leaving Nya behind in the dark main room.
She walked over to the cabinet and dry swallowed two ibuprofen before walking over to her sleeping brother. She adjusted the blanket over his shoulders before walking into her room, seeing Cole in Lloyd's spot before getting back in bed, feeling Jay's warm arm around her.
"Everything okay?" He mumbled, clearly having just woken up, which struck her as weird since Jay was the lightest sleeper she knew.
"Yeah," she mumbled, curling closer to her boyfriend and the blankets he had pulled over himself in her absence, finally letting her eyes shut while speaking, "everything's okay."
Nya wished so desperately that she was telling him the truth, even if he wouldn't remember it in the morning.
•••
The next morning was chaotic to say the least; Cole's father had left before the rest had woken up to stock up on food but still hadn't returned.
The kitchen was a mess with Zane trying to make breakfast with the limited amount of food while everyone else was trying to get tea, coffee, water, painkillers, or all of the above.
But despite that, Nya couldn't wipe the smile off her face even when Jay accidentally collided with her bad arm followed by a rambling apology; because after the days and weeks had blurred together in a mix of grief and preparing, they were all together again.
She was brought out of her thoughts with Kai gently tapping on her good shoulder with two mugs in his hands, handing her the one containing the dark brown coffee that he had obviously just put a touch of sugar in. "Thanks." She smiled, seeing the tired grin on her brother's face as he sipped at his tea.
"You know, this couch is pretty comfy."
"It's supposed to fold out into a bed, you just crashed before you got the chance to experience it's full comfort," She joked, gently nudging him with her shoulder before the laugh died out in her throat, "how's Lloyd?"
"Skylor said he's still out, but Master Wu said he's probably just exhausted," Kai explained, taking another drink before continuing, "it's not every day you have to fight your dad, after all."
Nya nodded as she took another sip of her coffee; when the ultimate battle had happened, Lloyd had nearly slept for two days, only waking up to eat or use the restroom. Maybe it was the fact that they had spent weeks in hiding, but there was something different about this time, she just couldn't put a finger on it.
"You know, we can go check on him. We just have to avoid waking him up." Kai explained, swallowing the last of his tea.
She nodded, gulping down the rest of the coffee before standing, wincing at the pang in her shoulder which Kai obviously noticed since he added.
"Maybe we should get some more ibuprofen in you first."
Nya couldn't stop herself from pulling her older brother into a tight hug, never wanting to let go of him again. It had only been a few weeks, and usually she would protest against it, but it felt so nice not having to take care of herself and everyone else. "I missed you so much."
She felt Kai tuck his head against her good shoulder, squeezing extra tight, "I missed you too, Nya."
They broke the hug off and made their way to the room tucked away in the corner, the farthest from the chaos. 'Probably the best place for Lloyd to rest.'
Her brother reached forward and slowly opened the door, the two of them grimacing at the creaking before slowly making their way in, closing the door and the outside light out with it.
Nya gently wrapped her hand around Lloyd's, squeezing it just a hair before letting her head rest against the edge of the bed even though it involved putting pressure on her shoulder. 'I am not leaving him again.'
She waited for Kai to protest against the position of her arm, but when she looked back up at him, he was already asleep with his head against the edge of the mattress.
Nya smirked at the sight of her brother before letting her own eyes close. Finally, all of her family was together again. And if she had any say in it, that's how it was going to stay for a very long time.