Chapter Text
Lloyd’s official, government-issued papers say he is a Neutral, part of the classification that the majority of the population has.
If you met him, you wouldn’t see any sign to doubt that Neutral status. At the first glance that is.
Darkley’s Boarding School for Bad Boys only accepts Neutrals, and Caregivers sometimes, only under very special circumstances. After all, a helpless Little could never be a successful conquering warlord. They need to be babied and have someone to look after them.
Errors in paperwork regarding someone’s classification have a history of happening for decades. Why would a boarding school for future villains be any different?
You see, Lloyd Garmadon has always been and will always be (unless destiny changes its mind again) a Little. He is also part of a team now. A team that was full of Neutrals and Caregivers. You can see what the problem is with this.
A small, dark part of him absolutely despises his Little side. But even that part couldn’t disagree that this helped. That it helped to relieve his stress.
He’s a Neutral. His papers say so. Thus he should act like one, even if he isn’t a Neutral.
Littles couldn’t do anything themselves, they had to be looked after by caregivers. And some caregivers made them be little 24-7. They couldn’t be trusted to do important jobs.
Lloyd is the destined Green Ninja. The Green Ninja is supposed to protect the people of Ninjago. A little wouldn’t be able to do that.
So he’s just hidden his true classification from the team and Nya. It wasn’t too hard in the start, his headspace then wasn’t too far from his actual age.
But then the Tomorrow’s Tea incident happened, and then his headspace began sliding younger and younger.
At this point, he’s content (no he isn’t) having his team believe their leader is a Neutral.
Lloyd would surely die if any of the others found out, well except for Kai (actually that was just his little side over-exaggerating the situation).
Actually, he kind of wanted the Fire Master to know his true classification…
One day, while the rest of the Ninja (barring Lloyd and Kai) were still out on various errands, outings, or patrol, Lloyd found himself climbing into the piled mess that was his blanket which he had stuffed into a corner of his closet.
Within the folds of the blanket was an old green dragon plushie that looked vaguely like his elemental dragon. He’d had that plushie for years, it was one of the only things that he had managed to keep with him all these years.
While he had been out getting the groceries earlier that day, Lloyd had caught sight of someone with long white hair who looked far too much like Her for his peace and comfort.
Instantly, the panic set in. He had gotten out of that store, out of New Ninjago City, and back to the monastery as fast as he could. In his panic, he had forgotten and had flown back on his elemental dragon.
When Lloyd had gotten back to the monastery, he muttered something that he hoped was intelligible to the others before disappearing into his room. It had been over half an hour since then and the panic still hadn’t lessened.
There was no way that lady could be anyone but her. There was no mistaking her face. His heart sank.
Oh no…if he’d seen her, then she’d definitely seen him.
Then she would be coming for him. She was probably well on her way to the monastery now.
In his panic, he didn’t notice that his thumb had slipped into his mouth.
The swirling panic was tightening a copper band around his lungs and tears had started sneaking their way out of his eyes to wet the blanket that he had pulled around himself. Lost in this state, Lloyd didn’t hear Kai enter his room.
The Fire Master had been on their way to his and Zane’s room when they caught the sound of someone trying to cry quietly. The only other one who was home now was Lloyd so it had to be him.
The Green Ninja’s door was open slightly so they pushed it open further to be able to enter the room.
Strange, he didn’t seem to be in here but they could still hear crying.
Hold on, the closet door was open…
Just when Lloyd was sure that he would surely die from panic, the closet door slid further open.
Somehow, through his tears, he saw Kai kneeling just in front of the closet.
If the adult part had been in control of his brain just then, maybe he would have had more control and wouldn’t have done what he was about to do.
But Lloyd had been slipping into littlespace so often recently and the urge to be held was far too overpowering. So he soon found himself throwing himself toward Kai.
The Master of Fire hadn’t been expecting Lloyd to launch himself full-on at them. Nonetheless, they still managed to catch their little brother. They could feel the spot where Lloyd’s face was squished against their shirt getting soaked from his tears.
Without any context whatsoever, Kai had no idea what had gotten the blond so upset and worked up.
But First Master be damned, they were going to do something about it. Whether that be getting Lloyd happy again, finding out what exactly was the cause or even some mixture of both. Unfortunately, the second one would have to wait for the time being. Lloyd was far too worked up right now for them to do anything but work on calming the blond down.
Why were their caregiver instincts reacting to Lloyd? Their instincts were screaming at them to take care of him. It didn’t make any sense, the blond was a Neutral.
The older elemental master shifted so that their legs wouldn’t fall asleep on them and so that they could get up without dropping Lloyd. They move to sit on the kid’s bed although not before grabbing the green blanket from inside the closet. Lloyd was still crying, although the tears were slowing down now.
“Hey, Lloyd,” they said. “Do you want some tea?” Kai asked.
Despite the irony of the Green Ninja liking green tea, the youngest member of the ninja team actually liked that particular kind of tea. Liked it enough to prefer it over hot chocolate in times of needing comfort.
Their brother nods against their chest. “Don’t leave me!” he blurted out, his voice sounding a little odd. Those three words were in contradiction to the previous action.
Now wasn’t that confusing, Kai hadn’t moved at all since they had asked about the tea.
“I’m not planning on doing so, Green Bean,” they told him. “Do you want to come with me to make tea?”
Lloyd’s answer was a very resounding yes. So the pair got up and headed that way. Lloyd’s arms wrapped around them.
When they got there, Kai readjusted their brother’s arms so that they could grab a mug out of the cupboard. Specifically the green dino-patterned one.
In the kitchen cupboards were two different forms of tea: the loose-leaf version and the tea bag version. Tea bags made less mess and were quicker to have.
They let Lloyd be the one to put the teabag into the mug while they filled up the kettle and set it to boil. Once the tea was ready Lloyd, like the impatient team leader that he was, took a sip and promptly burnt his mouth.
“Ow,” he whined at the uncomfortable feeling of scalding skin.
Before Kai could do anything about it, a small chunk of ice formed on his tongue. The surprised ninja looked up to see Zane standing in the doorway to the kitchen.
“Scalded mouths are painful, aren’t they?” the Ice Master asked as Z entered the kitchen properly.
“Yeah…” Lloyd said, unhappily.
Kai caught the nindroid’s eye; the latter had come to the same conclusion that they had and by association had the same questions.
Kai dealt with the unused boiled water by transferring it to the rice cooker to be used in cooking the rice for dinner while Zane waved a hand over Lloyd’s mug and small fragments of ice appeared in the tea cooling it down to a more acceptable temperature.
“It should be a better temperature now,” Z told Lloyd. This time, he was much more hesitant to take a sip. When he did have some of the tea, he found that it didn’t scald his mouth again.
“Thank you, Zane!” Lloyd thanked, his voice clearly giving away that he was Little.
“You’re welcome, Lloyd,”
“Thanks for that, Z,” Kai said while Lloyd was preoccupied with his tea.
“I was passing by and could not continue on without doing something to soothe a distressed Little,” Zane told them.
“Yeah, that tracks,” they agreed. “So you’ve also realised what’s going on?” Kai asked.
The Ice Master nodded. “I have. Although I am a bit confused about why this situation arose in the first place; why would Lloyd’s papers be incorrect?”
“Your guess is as good as mine, knowing Lloyd it’s possible that there’s more than one reason,” they said.
“Of course,” Z agreed.
“I wish you were my caregiver,” Lloyd muttered sometime later. The warmth of the tea had made him drowsy now, the warmth of the blank he was curled up in only added to that. Zane had left some minutes ago to go hang out a load of laundry that finished a cycle.
It sounded like Lloyd hadn’t really realized that he had even said anything.
Kai almost didn’t hear it, nor did they believe their ears. If there was any doubt before that Lloyd was a Neutral, that was certainly gone now. They needed to have a conversation™ with their brother later when he was in a bigger headspace.