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Lloyd flicks through his remaining cards, shuffling them. A set of already played uno cards, plus a few other ones sits in front of the round table, the spare monastery game room lit up with fluorescent lights to keep the darkness of the night away.
Lloyd estimates it's nine p.m. They’ve been playing this for thirty minutes, and none of them have gotten to a single card yet. Neither son nor father will give up. Garmadon has five left. Lloyd has three.
His father looks at the pile, slipping down a green card. Lloyd puts down another green card. It's peaceful.
Truth be told, it's been a long time since he just got to sit down and relax. Brush away all his worries as the Green ninja, his duties to protect Ninjago from villains. Most recent one being the crystal council.
After fighting the Overlord for the third time–seriously, why did he keep getting revived–Harumi getting sent to jail after her crimes against Ninjago city and Garmadon teaching him about his Oni side, all was better than Lloyd could've expected.
A lot better.
He still had a lot to know about his Oni blood, considering his transformation during the fight with the Crystal King. Speaking of, his eyes flick to Garmadon, who is intently staring back and forth to the cards in his hand and the one Lloyd just put down.
His father's hair was messy without his signature helmet, a pile of white floof tied into a lazy ponytail. It looks like he was using a blue velvet ribbon as a hair tie. Probably gifted from Koko. His mother and father were making up after Garmadon’s resurrection, much faster than he expected.
Hard metal and arm plates gone and a soft, fuzzy cardigan in its place. He looks nothing like the crazy emperor terrorizing the city a year or two ago. Well, shortly crazy emperor. Kai always said that Lloyd's 'sunshine-ness' managed to tear Garmadon out of his reign, whatever that meant.
And now they were playing a game of uno. It reminds Lloyd of the ninja family game nights they used to play when his father was still Sensei Garmadon. Except, it was just the two of them.
For now. Lloyd expects Koko to join them once she gets back from her archeologist trip. His mother was really amazing. Despite being older, with wrinkles showing age, she was still as good at fighting as when she was known as Lady Iron Dragon.
“Plus four.” Lloyd says, and Garmadon's face pulls into a betrayed scowl.
“I cannot believe my own flesh and blood would pull this on me,” He grumbles, reluctantly pulling them from the leftover stack. Lloyd reaches for his mug of chocolate milk. It was Zane's special recipe–even better than any store bought version–and took a sip. “After all the pain I took upon to bring you into this world.”
“What are you talking about?” Lloyd frowns, mid-sip. Was Garmadon seriously bringing up Lloyd's birth because he used plus four? He was making it sound like Garmadon was the one to give birth to him, which was frankly not even possible.
Garmadon hums as a matter of fact. “Hm. Didn't you know it was me who gave birth to you?”
Lloyd spits out his chocolate milk, coughing. Garmadon sits at his chair unfazed, raising an eyebrow as Lloyd tries to compose himself. He wipes his mouth with his sleeve. Surely, he didn't hear that right?
“Right.” Lloyd tries for a nervous laugh, barely paying attention as he lays another card down, pushing his mug to the side of the table. “You're joking right? You're joking.”
His father blinks, as if he hadn't just said something completely unexpected. “I'm not joking.”
Lloyd rubs his forehead, eyes wide. His world just got turned in the most randomest way possible and was giving him way more questions than answers. “Wait, what? How’s that–is that even possible?”
"What did you expect, son? Koko is trans and I'm an Oni.” Garmadon explains, looking at Lloyd expectantly. Only then does Lloyd realize they're in the middle of playing uno during this confusing conversation and takes another card to put down.
His father laughs that boisterous laugh that Lloyd also has, which he desperately tries to hide in front of people with a soft chuckle. Lloyd never grew out of that evil laugh he did when he was younger to emulate his dear father. Its not that he doesn't want to emulate his beloved father, but it always throws people off. “All Oni's have both male and female biology. Which means that I was the one who had the duty of carrying you.”
“Right…” He mutters slowly.
Garmadon muses. “It was a pain too. You were such a feisty little cub.”
Okay.
So his father gave birth to him.
FSM, oh Grandfather, why was this happening to him? He just wanted to play a regular old game of uno with his own father.
Was this why he was so much like his father compared to Koko? Because Garmadon was the one who gave birth to him?
Was that even how human genetics worked? How Oni genetics actually worked? Did Wu know!? He didn't even want to think about it anymore, but questions kept popping up in his head.
Maybe he should've started going to school when he was younger. At the very least, he should've known human biology before being explained Oni ones.
Lloyd guesses he should be more…thankful for his father now for, well, experiencing that for Lloyd. He's too shocked to be thankful. Garmadon was paying no heed to Lloyd's frustration, still focused on the game.
FSM, Lloyd was part Oni. He wasn't going to…going to ever go through what Garmadon did, was he? Lloyd's dragon parts probably overran it. Probably. He really needed to talk to his uncle about this. Master Wu was far more dragon than Oni.
This is fine. He's fine–
“Uno.” Garmadon confidently holds the single card he has left, placing it down. Lloyd glances down at the stack. The conversation made him lose track of the game.
“I have won!" Garmadon stands up, hands on hips with a victorious grin on his face. “I shall go call and tell Koko about this victory.”
His father walks out the door to where the monastery's phone is–Garmadon keeps breaking his own–leaving Lloyd to contemplate everything that just happened. Dear FSM, he loved his dad to bits but did he really just have to info-bomb that piece of unneeded information?
Lloyd sighs, grabs his mug, and downs the chocolate milk.