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A painful, agonising banging corrupted his head as he woke, cursing under his breath as he noticed the time - 12pm. Stumbling out of his sheets, he rushed to the bathroom, grabbing the first pain relief medication he discovered before brushing his teeth.
To any other teenager, sleeping in until lunchtime would be normal; but Lloyd wasn’t a normal teenager. His strict schedule - courtesy to his Uncle - would condemn him had he woken up later than six in the morning, so natural panic from his extra six hours of sleep was excusable.
Lazily, he changed into his gi, ignoring breakfast as he hurried to reach the courtyard in record time. His taunting headache limited his speed, but he succeeded, opening the door and scanning the area for any sign of Wu.
He hoped he could pretend that he didn’t accidentally sleep in.
The first to notice him enter the courtyard was Nya. Ditching her punching bag, she darted over to him, shouting a delighted "Lloyd!" on the way.
Embracing him in a warm hug, she leant back, grabbing him by the shoulders before ushering him towards the rest of the team.
"Hey Lloyd, Good to see you up!" Zane exclaimed, slowing down the swing of the punching bag that Nya deserted.
"Yeah dude, we thought you died in your sleep!” Jay chimed, smiling wide before receiving a jab in the ribs from Nya.
“He’s kidding,” Kai stepped forward, ruffling the blonde’s hair as a welcome. “Wu’s been out since early this morning, so we decided to let you sleep in.”
“Oh, thank the FSM,” Lloyd ran his fingers through his hair, attempting to fix the damage Kai just made. “I was preparing for one of his ‘talks’ about being on time. They’re repetitive, you know- I bet I could recite the entire thing.”
“As much as we’d love to hear that,” Nya grimaced, “We’re about to do some sparring, you awake enough to join?”
To this, Lloyd beamed. He needed to let off some steam from the stressful awakening, and fighting may just be the key to it. Obviously he wouldn't hurt them, he knew his strength and limits, but even holding back he found relief in the activity. "Yeah, yeah alright. Who are the pairs?"
Zane faltered for a while, clearly working something out in his mind. "I have generated random pairs, those not fighting will judge each pair and give criticism for the next time we do this activity. First person knocked down for three seconds loses."
The whole team looked at each other, smiling deviously.
"Cole and Jay, will go first. Followed by Nya and I. The last pair fighting will be Kai and Lloyd."
Every pair got closer, criticising each other like siblings playing a video game. Lloyd even heard Jay thanking the FSM that he wasn't fighting Nya, as he wouldn't have the guts to.
There was something about Lloyd, however, that was making him drowsy. Whether it was the headache, or the unusual sleep schedule, he still worried that it would impact his performance against Kai. He’d never lost against Kai before - only when he was young - purely due to the fact he didn’t want to hear him boast about it forever. He refused to let today be the day that changed.
Zane grabbed a chalk, drawing a large circle with it to represent the grounds of an arena. "Jay and Cole, if you will step into the arena."
The pair growled. Staring one another in the eye to show dominance. The two often battled when sparring, so both just found an element of humour in it after a while.
"Three.." Began Zane. Lloyd watched the duo get into their positions, squinting their eyes in threat. "Two.. One.. Begin!"
Immediately, Jay jumped in the air, taking Cole by surprise as he ducked past the streak of lighting that flew by him. Without warning, Cole retaliated, bolting towards Jay and throwing a fist towards his face, leaving him to catch it with a whimper. Both taking a step back, they charged. Jay was suddenly knocked to the ground by Cole who jumped on top of him, causing those watching to laugh.
Jay wasn't ready to quit, rising up again in an instant and trying to kick Cole in the chest - which was dodged quickly. The raven responded with annoyance, punching the ground and causing a ripple, leaving Jay to return to his floor position. This time, however, Jay groaned; admitting defeat before Cole held out a hand to assist Jay up and out the arena.
"Cole is the winner!" Zane proclaimed. Cheers emitted around the courtyard, leaving Jay to cross his arms like a child. "Next up, Nya and I."
Everyone looked towards one another, smirking. The outcome of this fight was hard to predict by anyone; Zane had the skills, but Nya was stubborn. Lloyd took his guess.
The countdown ended as quickly as it began, and Nya was the first to attack, jumping over and behind Zane before shooting water at her foe. Zane spun around, freezing it before it even reached him, resulting in a grunt of anger from the girl. Every attack the pair made was deflected in some way, leading to the fight dragging on for some while.
That was until Nya jumped up once again, a similar motion to Jay's first attack on Cole. The girl reached her hand out, summoning a large amount of water and knocking the nindroid to the ground violently; Nya had won fairly, just as Lloyd assumed.
Zane chuckled, before rising again and leaving the arena with Nya by his side. "Very good, Nya, I need to improve my tactics."
Nya put an arm over Zane, feeling slight guilt for winning, yet swimming in the achievement. "Don't sweat it, Zane. I just don't think Water and Robots mix too well." Zane erupted with laughter, before turning his attention to the final fighters.
"Lloyd and Kai, please enter the arena."
Entering the circle, the two didn't exchange eye contact once, leaving the rest of the team to share concerned glances. Lloyd assumed Kai would go down quite quickly, but Lloyd wasn’t in his best fighting mindset. The lack of confidence he had concerned him; he was supposed to be the best ninja on the team, but at that moment, he was feeling weak.
The blonde was so caught up in his thought that he didn't even notice Zane say 'begin' , nor did he predict Kai charging towards him.
It only took a glance to see the fire in Kai's eyes as Lloyd dodged the punch with one elegant step. Easy. Lloyd sighed, flipping over the brunette with such ease and kicking him in a gut, resulting in cringes from the crowd. To this, Kai was pissed. Sprinting towards him, and stopping with about a metre distance, the red-ninja threw punch after punch, most being dodged by Lloyd with barely any effort at all.
That was until Kai began to hit his target.
Slowly, Lloyd failed to dodge the punches, his exhaustion getting the better of him. With no other thoughts, the teen started to panic, getting more tense with his attacks and fights.
It only took a few moments for his conscience to lose touch with the side of mercy, and begin to feel only anger. His only wish was to beat Kai.
Without even realising, Lloyd's hands started to glow. The amount of green coating them made his hands practically invisible as he slowly looked up to face Kai, ready to charge. He balled his hands into fists, the portion of pure energy flowing through him actually causing his feet to leave the ground, resulting in him towering above the fire ninja.
Kai only smirked, summoning his own elemental power in return. The lack of surprise at Lloyd’s technique enraged him, leaving him only to see red. His sudden burst of anger seemed unprovoked, but as it rose in vigour, so did his headache. Eventually, he broke.
The blonde raised his hands, creating an energy ball that was deadly to any mortal being. Before he could release it, Lloyd felt as if he heard shouts all around him, but he brushed them off. This amount of energy would undoubtedly have effects on the user, yet the teen had never felt so powerful.
He liked it a lot.
As the energy ball matched the size of his skull, he prepared to let it go as he aimed for Kai's head. Unpredictably, a strong tug on his leg caught him off guard, causing him to release the energy, yet miss the head. Instead, it only hit the right of Kai's chest, the rest of it dispersing on the ground behind him and engulfing that area in bright green flames.
Lloyd looked to the ground momentarily, before feeling a violent blow to his head. His position in the sky was disturbed, and soon he was sprawled along the ground. His headache assaulted him even more than it did minutes prior, burning into his mind.
The flaming green area of the courtyard was still burning strong, but all Lloyd cared about was the fact Kai was down. Lloyd prepared himself for the warm congrats he was about to be embraced with, but instead, his team ran the opposite direction towards the foe he had just defeated.
Horrified looks were thrown towards the blonde as he watched Kai stir and groan on the ground. Shouts were illuminating the courtyard, none of which Lloyd understood with his head spinning from whatever hit him- or who ever hit him.
"What are you doing?" Lloyd cried, stumbling over to the group with a limp. "I won, I beat him!" Every face turned to stare at Lloyd, all besides that of Nya’s, sticking with her brother and mumbling reassuring words to him.
"O-okay buddy.. let's all just take a breather, yeah? No need to freak out." Cole put his arms out in front of the team, forming a protective barrier. "Can you tell me five things you see? Can you do that for me, Lloyd?"
What?
Did they think he was crazy?
No- they can't-
They-
..they were scared of him..
As Cole took a careful step forward, Lloyd violently stepped back, almost tripping on his feet as he did so. Panicked faces arose as Kai began to sit up, rubbing his temples with his palms.
The two exchanged eye contact, forcing everyone to pause momentarily, wondering what was about to unfold.
Finally, out of nowhere, Lloyd began to cry.
Small, silent tears quickly became rivers as he released all his bottled up emotions. Stunned, the team didn't move.
Lloyd never cried. The blonde had been through Hell, but not once had he cried in front of the team. Sure, his lip occasionally trembled, and his eyes sometimes watered, but none of the ninja had ever seen any of his tears actually fall - even in all the years they'd known each other.
Everybody was silent, everyone except Kai. The brunette scrambled to his feet, grunting in pain with every movement, but making as much of an effort as possible to reach Lloyd. Pushing past the others, Kai latched onto the teen, supporting him as he dropped to his knees and threw his head in his hands.
Watching both boys on the floor - Lloyd crying into Kai’s shoulder like a little kid whilst they embraced one another for dear life - the rest of the team simply had no idea what to do. Two people who had almost battled to the death minutes before now engulfed in each other's comfort was not a usual occurrence.
"I’m so sorry,” Lloyd wept, not letting go of the older boy, “I don’t know what’s going on with me today- I’m-”
“You're sick, Lloyd.” Kai stated bluntly, pushing Lloyd back and holding only his shoulders instead. “You have a fever, your emotions are haywire, and your powers are out of control.”
The other ninja shared glances of recognition, smiling to themselves as they finally understood the situation.
“What?” Lloyd tilted his head, wiping his eye vigorously, “How- How do you even know that?”
“The same thing happened to you when you were a kid. You almost burnt Cole’s hair off!” The brunette laughed, reminiscing.
Cole huffed sarcastically, “I still don’t forgive you for that.”
“I also may have seen you pick up some painkillers earlier. You got a headache?” Kai asked, his voice low and soft.
“Yeah, it’s not ideal.” The blonde raised a hand to his forehead, feeling the heat radiate from it.
“Go to bed, Lloyd.”
Lloyd’s jaw dropped, shocked. “I just got up!”
“You heard me.”
“Kai!” Lloyd groaned, wiping the remainders of tears from his eyes as the ninja watched from afar.
“Lloyd.”
“Fine.” The teen rose from the ground, slumping past the ninja as they all waved empathetic goodbyes to him. He sniffed, wondering to himself what the point of getting out of bed was at all.
A stern command was thrown before he shut the monastery doors, Kai’s voice echoing across the mountain tops. “And I swear to the FSM, Lloyd, If I find you out of bed, I’ll burn all of your clothes.”
Lloyd didn’t plan to keep that promise; he needed new clothes anyways.