Work Text:
Morro tapped the pencil in his hand against his bed. As he bent down to his sketchbook, a strand of hair fell from behind his ear. He shook his head, freeing the rest of it.
A flash of green caught his eye. His hair. He didn’t know where the green streak had come from, only that it had been there, ever-present in the corner of his vision, for as long as he could remember. It didn’t bother him most days, but sometimes all he could think about was the green of his ghostly form, the green of the Cursed Realm, the green of the Preeminent. Her green.
Shit. No matter how hard he tried to convince himself that it was his green, the thoughts kept coming back. He needed to get the green out of his hair, and he needed to do it now.
He crept into the ninja’s room, looking for anybody who seemed awake. Cole was already knocked out, Jay and Nya weren’t even there, probably off tinkering with something, and he didn’t trust Kai around his hair. Zane was likely to ask questions.
So, Lloyd.
He tiptoed over to the green ninja’s bunk, careful not to wake any of the others. He shook Lloyd awake, silently thanking the First Spinjitzu Master that he didn’t wake anybody else.
“I need your help with something.”
——
“We have to bleach it first, otherwise the color won’t show up right,” Lloyd explained, mixing together the bleach and the developer. “Then we can add color.”
“And you’re sure this won’t burn my hair off?” Morro asked, eyeing the bowl of bleach. “It smells weird.”
“Trust me, I’m pretty much an expert. If there’s anyone who knows how to bleach hair, it’s me.”
“And why do you have so much hair dye?” Morro rifled through the bathroom cabinet, pulling out a stained bottle of purple dye.
“You think you’re the only one who’s had an identity crisis?” Lloyd grinned, setting down the bleach. “Nya had red streaks in her hair for months after becoming the water ninja. Jay once tried to bleach his hair and it felt like straw until it grew out again. Did you think this was my natural hair color?”
Now that he thought about it, Morro had noticed Lloyd’s roots slowly growing out during his time with the ninja, but he hadn’t really thought about it before. “Yeah? I didn’t think you guys did that kind of stuff.”
Lloyd laughed. “Morro, my entire life has pretty much been one big identity crisis. I’ve been bleaching my hair since I found out I was the Green Ninja.” Before Morro could process that slightly concerning statement, Lloyd grabbed the bleach again. “Ready?”
The wind master took a deep breath, then started coughing at the chemical smell permeating the bathroom. “Sure,” he wheezed.
Lloyd’s normally shaky hands were much steadier applying the bleach, which Morro was grateful for. He was already wary of soaking one strip of his hair in chemicals, he didn’t need it anywhere else.
Morro felt something in his chest go tight as Lloyd applied the bleach, but he let out a breath and the feeling eased. He’s had the green so long it feels like a part of him, but at the same time, it’s a reminder of what he can’t have, what he’ll never be, and all the terrible things he did to possess that color. Despite the anxious feeling taking up residence in his stomach, it was time for the green to go.
“Done!” Lloyd exclaimed, covering the streak in foil so it could process. “That has to sit for 45 minutes, so…”
Morro groaned, knowing what Lloyd was about to say. “Starfarer?”
“Wow, Morro, I thought you’d never ask!” Lloyd was basically vibrating with excitement. Morro couldn’t deny that it was nice to have someone be so excited about spending time with him, or be so eager to help him out.
“But only if I get to pick,” the wind master continued. He didn’t want to get stuck watching Starfarer 4, which he knew was Lloyd’s favorite, but was also incredibly boring by Morro’s standards and would put him to sleep.
“Fiiiiiiine,” Lloyd complained, making his way to the living room with Morro. “Which one do you want to watch?”
“2,” Morro replied confidently. Lloyd and Jay complained constantly about the convoluted plot and inconsistencies from the comics, but it was violent and interesting, and that was good enough for him.
“Fine, we can watch 2, even if you have questionable taste in movies.” Lloyd crossed the room to put the DVD in, looking over their shoulder to continue bickering with Morro.
“It’s not my fault your favorite is so boring! Maybe I’d want to watch it more if it didn’t put me to sleep,” Morro countered.
Lloyd gasped indignantly. “How dare you. Starfarer 4 is a cinematic masterpiece.”
“It’s boring,” Morro said as Lloyd finished setting up the DVD and joined him on the couch. “And you and Jay have bad taste.”
“How dare you.” Lloyd elbowed Morro in the side, but they both settled in to watch the movie once the theme song started and the opening credits rolled.
That 45 minutes was pretty uneventful, interrupted only by Jay wandering into the living room, lured from his bedroom by the Starfarer theme. He joined them on the couch, curling up against the armrest and only occasionally complaining about the complicated plot.
Jay jumped at Lloyd’s phone alarm going off, signaling that it was time to rinse out the bleach. They paused the movie and left Jay on the couch, heading back to the bathroom.
“We’ll be back, Jay. Gotta finish getting all the tragic backstory off Morro,” Lloyd called over his shoulder, earning an elbow in the ribs from the wind master. They quickly rinsed the bleach from Morro’s hair, leaving the rest of it blessedly dry. Morro silently thanked the First Master for that. He could handle necessary contact with water, but he wasn’t quite ready to embrace it. Baby steps.
Lloyd pulled a towel from the cabinet, but Morro just grinned at them and summoned a small gust of wind, drying his hair in seconds.
“Show-off,” Lloyd muttered, grabbing the purple dye from where Morro had left it.
“You’re just jealous,” Morro taunted, sitting on the edge of the bathtub but careful not to fall in.
“Of you?” Lloyd scoffed. “Sure. Windbag, you’re the one crisis dying your hair at midnight.”
“It’s not a crisis if it’s thought out ahead of time.”
“Whatever helps you sleep at night.” Lloyd pulled on a pair of plastic gloves and began squeezing the dye into Morro’s hair, evenly coating the streak. “This is gonna look so good, Morro.”
“It better, after all the work we put in,” the wind master replied.
“You mean the work I put in?” Lloyd shot back. “All you’ve done is sit there. Without me, you probably would’ve burned your hair off.”
“You offered to help.”
“Only because you asked me to.” Lloyd finished with the dye and put it back in the cabinet, then peeled the gloves off his hands. “You have to let the dye sit too. We can probably finish the movie and then wash it out.” He dumped the gloves in the trash can and tossed the bleach bowl into the sink to be washed later.
The two ninja returned to the living room, where Jay had fallen asleep on the couch. They decided to let him sleep, and turned the movie down so they could still watch the last half.
The rest of the movie passed in a blur of action and drama. Even though Morro had seen this movie many times before, it still kept his attention the whole way through, even distracting him from the feeling of the wet dye on his head. Eventually, the end credits rolled, and Morro headed to the bathroom while Lloyd tried to wake Jay.
He managed to rinse the dye out of his hair without much mess, only getting a little bit on his clothes and skin. After he was done, he dried his hair with a little more help from his elemental powers and looked in the mirror, eager to see the results.
Morro studied his altered appearance in the mirror. The purple streak was definitely less jarring than the green, surrounded by the black of his natural hair. It almost looked natural, like it belonged there. The purple felt more like him than the green ever did, despite how much his younger self wanted the opposite to be true. In fact, he realized he could hardly recognize his old self when he looked in the mirror. It felt as if he was finally at home in his own skin, no longer trying to force something that didn’t fit.