Work Text:
"Are you sure about this?" Lloyd couldn't keep his voice from trembling as he looked up at the large four-headed dragon, "cause Ultra is really big and-"
"You'll be fine, punk," Cole insisted as he finished adjusting the saddle before jumping down and putting his hand on Lloyd's shoulder, "I'll be there the whole time if you need me to take the reins."
"I don't know..." Lloyd trailed off as the dragon huffed at him.
"It's okay, Lloyd. I used to be scared of them too," Cole admitted as his hand reached up to gently scratch at one of the four noses, "but Rocky changed that for me and Ultra won't hurt you. After all, one day, he'll be all yours."
Lloyd looked down at his hands, obviously trying to avoid Cole's gaze.
"Hey, punk?" Cole asked, waiting until he saw the green and red eyes looking back up at him and held back his internal wince because 'he's so young and we're training him to fight his dad', "you trust me, right?"
He hesitated for a moment before nodding in agreement and Cole couldn't help but smile as he crouched down so Lloyd could use his hands as a step to mount the dragon, "then lets go."
Cole made sure that Lloyd was fully seated before passing him the large reins that put him in charge of the dragon and only briefly having thoughts of adding some sort of makeshift seatbelt before he spoke.
"Now, you only need to flick the reins hard once in order to get him to fly. After that, no sudden movements, okay? Wisp has a tendency to swan dive and take the others with him."
"I've got it," Lloyd nodded, his knuckles turning white from the grip on the reins.
'We don't have time for slow training. Gotta throw the punk in the deep end.' Cole reminded himself before offering the youngest ninja a grin.
"Then let's see what you got!"
...
Cole could admit when he had said the wrong thing and telling a child to go headfirst into riding a dragon was definitely the wrong thing to say because they had to stop halfway back to Dareth's Dojo so he could throw up in a bush.
"I'm really sorry, Cole." Lloyd apologized when Cole emerged from getting sick, still sitting on the saddle.
"No, it was your first time," Cole spoke with a burp, his stomach still queasy from all of the unintentional swan dives and barrel rolls, "you'll get better at it, we all did."
"I'm guessing you wanna take the reins the rest of the way?"
"Oh, I am definitely taking the reins the rest of the way."
When Cole's stomach finally settled long enough that he could drive, however, he couldn't help but smile when he saw Lloyd's full grin as he gently scratched at Rocky's neck, muttering "good boy" under his breath.
'He's got this.'