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Harumi hardly believes her eyes at the state of the prince's room. She's seen those same posters in Jay's room, even if one is torn to hell and back. Or the crumbs and candy wrappers on the floor. On the carpet, too! Or, the prince himself, crawling around the floor in a washed-out black hoodie.
He freezes at the crinkle of a wrapper beneath her feet.
"Your highness? Are you alright?" Despite her disdain for it, Harumi is quite adept at polite conversation. And, well, perhaps the prince's behaviour is concerning.
His back remains to her, but one bright green eye fixes on her reflection in the balcony door's window. The other eye he hurridly covers with his hand.
"Just lost my contact lens," he grits out. "Be careful, or you'll step on it."
What a polite way to tell her to screw off. Harumi, keeping her eyes on her feet, walks closer. "I'll help you look. I've got sharp eyes." Sharp enough to spot the lost lens glinting in the moonlight.
Sharp enough to tell the lens is colored.
"Thank you!" The prince snatches it from her. In the brief window between him uncovering his eye and popping the contact back in, Harumi catches a flash of red.
"You're welcome, your highness." Assured the prince hasn't been mauled and with no excuse to stay, Harumi takes her leave.
She'd come back soon enough when she hears the balcony door open.
It's empty. The room's empty. Harumi just lost the prince in five seconds flat and the guards are going to have her head.
Logically, Harumi jumps out of the balcony door after him. She did not lie about her eagle eyes, and quickly locks on to the dark blur hopping across the palace roof and into an alley. For a pampered prince, the prince runs fast. Nonetheless, Harumi's training allows her to keep up easily.
He climbs up a fire escape onto a nearby building. Her chase takes Harumi away from the palace, away from the big houses and empty yards reserved for Ninjago's upper crust. Paint starts chipping and rust creeps up around her when they stop.
The prince hunches over and holds out a hand for her to stop. "Gotta... catch my breath for a second. Man, you ninja are quick."
"We are Ninja, after all."
"Yeah, I got that, oh legendary Green Ninja."
She furrows her brows. "And what is the little princeling doing in the part of town reserved for us plebians?"
He straightens with one final deep breath. "Oh, you know," he shrugs. "I was going to hit up the arcade? Wanna come with?"
Harumi, legendary green ninja, does not attack the prince when he obliterates her in a fighting game for the third time in a row, because that is assault, and also maybe treason, and would get her arrested. Harumi does not do illegal things anymore because it would disappoint her friends. Unless they are doing illegal things with her, which makes it fine.
"Alright!" The prince high fives her in a moment of distraction. The prince of Ninjago, everybody! Patched up clothes, messy hair, bags under his eyes, playing video games with the Green Ninja.
How did she get here.
He starts up the next round before she can further contemplate throttling him, so her attention returns to the screen. Never has she pressed buttons so fast. Never has she faced so fierce an opponent. This is it. The final battle of all time.
"Stop blocking!" She yells at him.
"Never!" He yells back, and counters her beautiful combo. Too bad she saved her special for this! Only to miss.
"So? Having fun?" His expression is giddy, so unlike the flat look he wore in the palace. There's a smug glint to his eyes, no doubt reveling in having bested the Green Ninja herself in one form of combat.
And, despite herself, Harumi replies with "Yes, I am."
"Great, because I'm showing you Dance of Doom next. Get your moves on!"
"As if I don't always have my moves on." Lame comeback, but her competitive spirit burns bright enough to make up for it.
The prince slams his infinite amount of quarters into the machine,- isn't it great to know that's probably tax money,- and picks the most difficult song on the list. It's a song she recognizes, the one with the five thousand remixes on the radio.
Sure, Harumi hasn't danced in some six years or so, but how hard can it be with all her training? She can lick her elbow! Try that, Lloyd!
Soon, their frenetic dancing (and freely flowing insults) draw a snall crowd of arcade-goes. Some cheer for Lloyd by name, must be a regular here, Harumi thinks, and others holler for the Green Ninja's success.
During a slower part of the beatmap, Lloyd reaches over the hip-height divider between them and shoves her. She misses her next step, but she's not one to be defeated so easily! Simply put, she shoves him back. His arms flay about as he regathers his balance in time for the next chorus.
Her victory is decided when Lloyd stumbles over his own feet after a particularly complex step sequence.
His tumble to the floor ends with a bruised knee. She mirrors his smug glint back at that fighting game. As he groans and holds his knee, Harumi kneels to his level and reaches out a hand to hoist him up. "What? Did you get your moves off?"
"Alright, you got me. Whoever could've guesses a ninja's more agile than me." Even the bout of pain doesn't completely wipe the smile from his face. And the way he smiles, and how his hair falls, tugs at the back of her mind. She's seen a smile like that before. Who does he remind Harumi of? Who is it?
Lloyd lets go of her, standing on his own. He tests out his gravely injured leg, and finds it fine. "That's enough games for me. Let's go somewhere else," he says.
Recollection forgotten, her stomach prompts her to suggest getting a bite to eat, and Lloyd offers "the perfect place for times like this."
The illustrious restaurant chosen by the guy with infinite money is... Chen's Noodles.
"I was eight, no I was nine, I was nine when I first ate here." Before the change in ownership, then, "not here, in the restaurant itself, but takeout, I guess."
"Riveting." Harumi contemplates the menu, and then orders her regular.
"Yeah, I was living on the street at that point, and I tried to stab the empress on TV."
"You did... what?? You tried to stab the empress??"
"I wasn't prince back then, obviously. After I got arrested, the empress comes in, tries to get me to talk, right? And when I won't, she orders her guy to get me some food, and he comes back with noodles. To nine year old me, this was gourmet. Five star stuff. But now... it's just Chen's Noodles."
"I know that feeling." She gives her order to the waitress, and Lloyd gives his. From a distance, Harumi waves to Skylor. Skylor waves back. "When I first joined the Ninja, I was so amazed by the quality of their futons because I camped in the wild for two months."
"That's hardcore. And look how far we've both come!" He raises his glass of water. Harumi clinks hers against his.
"Cheers. To only formerly being homeless!"
Lloyd sips on his water, and that spark of joy dulls. "Hah, yeah. How far we've come..."
When did "the prince" become "Lloyd"?
Their noodles arrive. Harumi thanks the waitress, who disappears without another word, though Harumi spots her gossiping with Skylor. They'll talk later.
Lloyd twirls his noodles around his chopsticks. He's moping.
"Lloyd. What's up?"
Immediatly, he perks up. "That's the first time you called me by name, Harumi!"
She retorts after a bite of chicken, "And that's the first time you called me by name, too."
"I guess I started thinking about *how* I got here."
"By stabbing the empress?"
"No!" A drop of broth spills when he slams the table. He mops it up with his napkin. "Not the stabbing part. How I ended up on the street."
This is a minefield, and she knows it. Kids like him, and kids like *her*, don't end up where they did without a sob story attached. When she was out there, talking about her loss was the last thing on her mind.
But she did talk about it, with people she trusts. And... it helped. It helped, until she lost someone again, and again.
"How did you?"
"You're an orphan, right?" She nods. "I'm not. I don't think I am, at least. My parents ditched me."
"That's cruel of them."
"Right? I heard my dad kicked the bucket, but my mom might still be out there. I loved my dad. He.. tried, to be there for me."
"But he failed."
Lloyd slurps his noodles. His gaze remains fixed on his chopsticks, so Harumi eats, too.
If she thinks about it too hard, Garmadon and Wu failed. They both left, after all, even if not fully voluntarily. Now Harumi is all that's left to lead her team. She hates them for it sometimes.
"I know how that feels," Harumi says, "it's hard being the Green Ninja sometimes. When I lose people, it always feels like my fault."
"Like if you were good enough, they'd still be here?"
"Yes."
They lapse into silence from there, both preoccupying themselves with their meal. What an evening it's been. In just a few hours, she's learned a lot about Lloyd, like his tendency to overshare. That honesty is one she has not seen in some time. Not the untold secrets of mentors, or undue secrets of teammates.
That's why she let some things slip, too, she thinks. He's her age. Her entire team is older than her, even if she barely qualifies as leader. It's nice to have.. a peer. Someone with similar circumstances and similar burdens.
But... who is he, really? Can she trust Lloyd not to put on an act? Which faces of his are ones? The troubled boy before her now? The excited boy from the arcade? Or the red-eyed glare in the dark?
And.. who is Harumi, really? Is she only the legendary Green Ninja, savior of all, or still just a child slurping noodles past curfew?
Harumi hasn't been a child for years.