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Chapter Text

Morro wasn't sure how he'd gotten here. Yes, he could remember the events clearly, but that didn't mean he understood what had just happened. He was still mentally stuck on the baby.

The literal, actual living baby that was sound asleep bundled up in the arms of the dark-haired man who had summoned him for- well, Morro was still working on that.

"You summoned me, a random spirit from the literal Cursed Realm, and bound me to your literal baby, as a bodyguard?!"

The weird red-eyed man that looked strangely familiar in a way Morro did not want to think about sighed, but answered like he had the last two times Morro had asked. "Not you specifically. I would have preferred one of the Anacondrai generals there to be the one to guard my son, but the ritual didn't work quite as I expected. Obviously."

Morro stared at him as the words sunk in again. There were so many things wrong with this scenario, Morro didn't know how he should react. "And you're sure there's no way to break the bond?"

"Lloyd is the only one who will be able to break the bond between you two. However, you are merely a contingency."

"Whoopee. I always wanted to be a contingency." Morro scowled as he tried to think through this logically. He didn't want to be a babysitter for FSM-knew how long. He didn't want to be a contingency, whatever that was.

But... he didn't really have a choice. Of course. Just like almost every other big decision in his life, his choice had been made for him. He was stuck. And even if he could get out of this, where would he go? Back to Her the monastery? Not happening. So. Not getting out of this. Not unless he wanted to potentially rip his soul to shreds. The man had made that potential consequence of trying to get out of the bond very clear.

He heaved a pretend sigh, imagining for a second that he could actually feel the wind moving with him instead of through him. "So. You got your tyke a ghost. Now what?"

The man looked up from his son, as if he'd forgotten the whole reason he was here. "Now I suppose I ask who exactly I bound to my son."

"Morro. Master of Wind. And who exactly did I get bound to?"

Almost like asking about him had woken him, the baby heaved a sigh that seemed too big for the tiny body. The man looked down at the kid and smiled, his (FSM, were those fangs???) unusually sharp teeth on full display, then shifted a bit and Morro could see the baby clearly for the first time.

The infant had fine, almost white hair. That was about the only thing Morro noticed before the baby's eyes focused on Morro. His eyes blinked sleepily, but something almost danced in them. Morro wasn't sure if you could tell how mischievous a kid was at the ripe old age of 'baby', but he was pretty sure this kid was going to be a gremlin.

"This is Lloyd Garmadon, my son." Morro was going to make some sort of snarky comment but the kid's stare distracted him.

Something about the baby's gaze made Morro wonder just how different this kid would grow up to be. (Maybe the kid's dad had a good idea, getting a ghost to watch over him. Different wasn't good unless you could hide it or protect yourself. Different meant you were a target. Different got you killed in trouble.)

A chuckle shook Morro out of his accidental staring contest with the literal infant. "I think you and my son will get along well."

Morro scowled at him. But if he drifted a little closer to the ki- Lloyd, well, it must have been the bond between them complaining about the distance.

Chapter Text

Morro wished his life (death?) would get less crazy soon.

He didn't know how the man (He told Morro to call him Lord Garmadon. Like that was ever happening) had managed to turn himself into a shadow. He didn't know why he did that. And honestly, Morro didn't care. He'd only shown up once in the past three months, he didn't get a say in anything.

Morro just wanted to get through Lloyd's (the kid's, he couldn't get attached, remember?) childhood so that he could get out of this and be free. He hadn't ever expected or thought that this would be how he'd get out of the Cursed Realm, but hey, he wasn't going to look a gift baby in the mouth... metaphorically.

"Just open! Open your stupid mouth, you baby!" Morro scowled as he tried to pry open the infant's stubborn jaws to free whatever small knickknack the kid had grabbed this time.

You would think after the fifth time this had happened in front of the kid's mom, she would have wised up and moved her random rocks and junk to safer ground. But no, Morro was stuck wrestling a slobbery, sticky seven-month-old while Lloyd's mom was somewhere else entirely.

Lloyd squirmed ferociously in his grip, arms flailing. His slobber was creeping up Morro's fingers, but Morro ignored the stinging sensation.

Carefully, he worked the tyke's mouth open enough for him to snatch the object, then quickly retreated before the kid could use his four brand-new teeth on Morro's fingers any more than he already had. Ugh, the pendant again. Of course. Just the right kind of sparkly to attract Lloyd's attention, and apparently important enough that Lloyd's mom kept taking it down from the high shelves Morro stashes it on, but not so important she'd put it away afterwards.

Whatever. If she cared about it, she'd put it away properly before leaving for... Actually, how long had she been gone? Morro looked outside and was startled to see the sky starting to dim as the sun set. Getting the pendant away from Lloyd must have taken longer than he thought. A piercing scream from the baby behind him quickly reminded him Lloyd was still mad about his food teething toy getting taken away. Hooray.

Morro wiped the pendant and his fingers off on Lloyd's blanket, then winced as Lloyd decided to screech a note even higher than the ones before. The kid was gonna break his voice that way. Or Morro's eardrums.

"Ugh, I get it; I get it! Just give me a moment!" Morro floated up to the top shelf then pettily dropped the pendant in the very back. There. Let her wonder how it got up there. Morro didn't care. "Alright, hold your horses, I'm coming, you little tornado siren." He dropped down to Lloyd, using the blanket as a protective guard against the tears and drool. There was no way Morro was going back to the Cursed Realm because of Lloyd's snot. The kid rubbed his face against the blanket and Morro grimaced. Why did babies have to be so... wet?

Lloyd quieted down to hiccuping sobs as Morro held him, but continued struggling against the blanket's cruel, cruel entrapment. Morro rolled his eyes, but bounced Lloyd slightly as he moved to the kitchen to see what they still had that was safe to feed him. Lloyd's mom hadn't gone shopping in a while, so Morro was running a little low on mushy baby food to give Lloyd that didn't require pre-planning so Morro didn't accidentally kill himself again.

He found a singular jar of mashed carrots. After a very eventful feeding, Morro finally managed to wrangle Lloyd into clean clothes with minimal fear for his own life death. He did his best to wipe the carrots off Lloyd, but there was only so much that could be done without a bath, and Morro wasn't that desperate. His mom could take care of that when she got home. Whenever that was. Morro was used to her disappearing for hours at a time, if not all day, but it was starting to get ridiculous. it was dark and she'd never been gone overnight. Without hiring some other idiot babysitter at least.

She wouldn't leave her baby here alone, would she? Well, not that Lloyd really was alone, but she clearly didn't know about her kid's ghostly babysitter. Not that that meant anything. She wasn't here, and Lloyd was starting to get cranky. Morro sighed as he paced back and forth, trying to get the kid to settle down.

"It's okay. It's okay, dust devil. Your mom will be here in a little bit and then we can both get a break from each other, okay? Can you, can you just calm down a bit?"

Lloyd could not calm down apparently, and made it very clear to anyone in a five-mile radius, whether they wanted to know or not.

Morro groaned as he bounced Lloyd, trying to think of a way to get him to calm down over the overwhelming squalling. How did anybody do this? Taking care of an infant sucked. Then again, it'd probably be even slightly better if Morro wasn't also deathly allergic to water. That would help. And Lloyd deciding to shut up would also help. A lot.

The front door opened, and Morro hastily put Lloyd down, wincing at the very vocal protest. Lloyd's mom hurried into the room, quickly picking him up. The screaming died down and Morro heaved a silent sigh of relief. Finally.

Mikako or whatever her name was hummed a little tune as she rocked Lloyd, who snuggled into his mom and already looked halfway to sleep. Traitor. Not like Morro had tried to get him to take a nap for two whole hours this afternoon and utterly failed or anything.

Rolling his eyes at the loving scene in front of him, Morro decided he deserved a break and left the room, phasing through the closed door. Let Lloyd's mom actually do some mom-ing for once. Morro was gonna go up to the roof and pretend he could feel the wind like he was alive again plot how he was going to wreak revenge on Wu when he got free. Maybe show up behind Wu when the man was looking in a mirror, but then vanish before he turned around? Move half of all the furniture two and a half inches to the right and the rest of it to the left? Morro imagined Wu stubbing his toe and stumbling back into the corner of his tea table and laughed. It would serve him right.

It would. It would serve him right.

But... would it?

Morro scowled into the night, hating himself for thinking that. Of course Wu deserved it! He'd kicked him out! No, he hadn't. Morro's annoying little voice said. You left.

Well, of course Morro left! Wu hated him! Once they'd discovered that Morro wasn't the Green Ninja, there wasn't any reason to keep Morro around. Why bother training him any further when he was never going to be the Green Ninja? Sure, he had powers, but they weren't the Green Ninja powers, so they clearly didn't actually mean anything. Not like there was any reason for Morro to stick around otherwise.

Isn't wanting to stay reason enough?

He didn't want to stay. He wanted to be the Green Ninja. He wanted to prove himself. Now, he just wanted to forget his worst memories. The happy ones. Wu teaching him. Laughing at something clever Morro had said. Wu's smile and his laugh and-

"Shut up!" Morro growled to himself. None of that mattered. Wu dropped him the moment it was clear Morro wasn't the Green Ninja. And trying to change that had only caused Morro more pain than he had ever thought possible.

Chapter Text

If Morro thought he could provide everything Lloyd needed entirely on his own, there would be two bodies lying on the floor right now. But he didn't, so instead he just seethed as Mirako led the babysitter around the house, pointing out the diapers and the baby food and everything, as if she'd been the one taking care of Lloyd every day.

Jealousy isn't something a ninja feels. A ninja is calm, collected, and-

Someone in the kitchen accidentally banged a couple pots. Morro's eye twitched.

He was not jealous. He was just... Angry. Because there was a stranger in the other room here to watch Lloyd when Morro was perfectly capable of watching him alone.

Lloyd hit his leg then reached up, demanding to be held with a little grunt. Morro glanced down at him. The little tornado was one now, or at least that's what Mirako had said as she'd rushed out the door a week ago.

She'd been gone the entire day as Morro panicked over realizing that people still celebrated birthdays and he didn't know how (old he was) to celebrate a toddler's birthday or even how to do birthdays at all. Wu didn't even celebrate his own birthday, much less the birthday of the random kid he was training as the Green Ninja. Even if Morro had known his own birthday, Wu wouldn't have done anything for him.

Yes he would have, some part of him whispered. Wu would have wished you a happy birthday if you'd told him it was your birthday. Morro ignored it. He wouldn't have. And even if he would have, it would have required Morro to know his own birthday, which he didn't.

Lloyd screeched loudly, making Morro jump and his thoughts scatter like leaves. Miskoko entered as the old lady poked her head out of the hallway.

As she came and knelt in front of his pen, Lloyd's mom sighed. "Calm down, Lloyd. It's just overnight."

Lloyd ignored her, giving an excellent pout. His mom heaved another sigh, but quickly got up and continued with the tour.

Morro looked down at his kid (no, no, the kid, because there's no connection, remember? You just take care of him, you don't actually care about him) who looked up at him, still pouting. "Chill, you squaller. You'll be fine. It's not the first time your mom's been gone." Not even the hundredth time, he added mentally. He doesn't think he's ever seen her be home during the day except for the few times Lloyd's been sick.

Melako walked through the hallway towards the living room, holding her things. The babysitter followed her and there was the low murmur of them exchanging pleasantries. Morro rolled his eyes as he heard the front door close. "Well, at least she's out of our hair again, huh Lloyd?"

"Mah!" Lloyd exclaimed, his face screwing up as the short amount of hair he had somehow managed to fall into his face.

Morro heard footsteps and the old lady peered into the room again. "Did you say something, young man?"

Lloyd scowled, reaching for Morro like he did the last time the woman made her presence known. At least Morro could rest secure that he was higher in Lloyd's affection than a woman he met ten minutes ago. Though said affection came with strings of drool on the toddler's hands that he couldn't get at to wipe away. Yay.

The old woman frowned a little and stepped into the room fully. Lloyd clung tightly to Morro's gi. She came over to Lloyd, who squirmed as far away from her as he could while keeping hold of Morro. She reached down to Lloyd, her hand and arm going right through Morro, who shuddered at the strange feeling. She lifted Lloyd into her arms. Lloyd was not happy with this.

He squealed angrily, kicking and twisting to get away from her. The old lady tried to keep a hold on him, but after he managed to get a good bite to her arm, she yelped and put him down again. Morro definitely wasn't proud of his kid. Definitely. Biting people was bad.

Lloyd scooted away from the lady as she put him down, nearly tumbling over and whacking his head against the bars. Luckily Morro caught him before that happened again. The last time it happened Lloyd had screamed for what felt like an hour as Morro tried to calm him while keeping the baby's tears as far away from himself as possible.

The babysitter made some unusual noise, so Morro glanced at her, only to see her staring at Lloyd. He looked down at Lloyd. Nothing out of the ordinary. Blond hair, slightly chubby limbs. Nothing broken or newly bruised. There were a couple bruises along his forehead from Lloyd practicing how to walk, but those were a day or two old and fading quickly. The kid stared up at him, his deep red eyes seeming to say Is this really the best my mom could do?

Or maybe Morro was just pushing his own thoughts onto the kid. Seriously speaking, he had no idea why Moroko decided some withered old woman was the best choice. If there was a natural disaster or they were attacked or something, she wouldn't be able to really do anything to protect Lloyd. Strategically, she was more of a liability than anything else.

Lloyd babbled something out as the old lady frowned, then shook her head and left the room, heading towards the kitchen. Morro sighed. "Well, guess we're stuck with her for the next little bit, huh?"

Wrinkling his nose into a mock frown, Lloyd solemnly jabbered a few meaningless words. Morro pretended he understood the baby. "Oh yeah? Is that so?" Lloyd instantly cheered up, happy Morro was answering back to him. He gabbled some more nonsense then laughed. Morro chuckled along, the contagious laughter affecting him. "And then what?"

Lloyd jabbered a little bit more, and they spent some time in a back and forth. They both ignored the old lady shuffling back and forth between the pantry and the kitchen, who occasionally peeked in with a frown.

After probably an hour or so of this and various other simple games, the babysitter came and stood in the doorway, her brows knit. Lloyd stopped babbling to Morro, instead staring at her with wide eyes.

She glanced around the room, but seeing nothing, came in and picked Lloyd up again. This time when he squealed in anger, she ignored it, carrying him into the kitchen. Morro followed, as always, smirking a little as she nervously glanced over her shoulder, feeling something behind her. He was passive-aggressive like that.

Morro's jealousy anger had died down as he played with Lloyd, but it was back in full force as he watched her carry Lloyd . He scowled. Then an idea hit him.

He could feel an evil grin growing as he thought about it. Yeah... That could work.

Lloyd whined a little as the old woman set him down in his high chair and fumbled with the straps. He stretched out his arms to Morro, who saw an opportunity. But he wanted to start smaller. He shook his head. "Not right now, pipsqueak. We've got an audience."

The old woman finished buckling him in, then seeing Lloyd scowling and reaching out to something, turned and looked right through Morro. Morro chuckled dryly. "Sorry, Lloyd, not happening. But hey, good job creeping her out. Playing your part perfectly." Lloyd pouted and Morro chuckled, purposely reaching out to ruffle his hair. Lloyd huffed a little, but giggled as Morro smiled at him. Fight him, the kid was cute.

The old woman whipped her head back to Lloyd, staring at him again. Then she turned and left to the living room. Morro snorted. No way. She was leaving already? But he was just getting started!

She came back into the kitchen, this time wearing something around her neck that Morro was pretty sure was a religious symbol of some kind. Morro rolled his eyes.

"Oh yeah, that'll work." He sat back to wait for the next opportunity to freak the old lady out.

It didn't take long. She was old and starting to lose some of her reflexes. So when Morro brushed past her, forcing himself to hold enough tangibility to be felt by anyone besides Lloyd (his best guess was the bond made him able to interact with Lloyd no matter what), she dropped the spoon she was holding. Morro quickly caught it, snickering slightly as he put it back on the countertop and watched her get down on her hands and knees to look for it on the floor.

This was the most he'd ever interacted with anyone besides Lloyd in ages. Minnako didn't pay near enough attention for him to actually enjoy pranking her like this.

About three hours passed, and the old woman was quickly becoming a nervous wreck. Morro hadn't had this much fun in his life. Lloyd was enjoying it too, watching the babysitter's eyes grow bigger every time Morro moved something when she wasn't looking.

Morro grabbed the baby spoon again while she was fussing with Lloyd's bib and cackled with glee as the old lady peered around for it only to spot it in the random pot with dirt sitting on the window sill... for the third time.

Lloyd joined in as the babysitter sighed and reached for the spoon only to get mud all over her hand from where Morro had managed to pour water into the soil. The babysitter anxiously glanced back at the giggling baby. Then she stared out the window, as if contemplating whether it was worth it to leave a baby alone in a house overnight. Lloyd didn't let her think for long, though.

With the hilariously impeccable timing only a toddler could pull off, the kiddo pushed his bowl off his tray. It clattered to the floor, throwing chunks of food everywhere and making the woman shriek. She spun around and stared at Lloyd, who was giggling away with all his might.

Morro grinned at Lloyd, who was laughing as he mushed what looked like it might have been a piece of celery once upon a time. "Good job, Lloyd." Lloyd looked up at the sound of his name, catching an innocent carrot in the line of fire. Morro huffed a laugh, floating over the carnage to briefly ruffle the back of his head, where Lloyd had yet to mash food into his hair. So of course Lloyd reached up for his hand and smeared the food all over where Morro's hand had been three seconds earlier.

Morro groaned, but couldn't help laughing again. Then the old lady grabbed his attention as she exited the room faster than he'd seen her move all evening. He followed her out to the living room, where she gathered her bag and other things, then opened the front door. There she paused for a moment, then shakily whispered into the empty room. "May the First Spinjitzu Master protect the child... because I won't anymore!" Then, still visibly shaken, she hurried out, not bothering to finish closing the door behind her.

Laughing a little at finally being rid of her, Morro floated back into the kitchen and grabbed the hand towel to wipe some of the food off the kid's head, lightly tugging on one of Lloyd's slightly pointed ears as he did so. "Hey squirt. Did ya hear her? We're on our own again." Not disturbed by having a towel obstruct his vision in the slightest, Lloyd reached up to grab at Morro's hand, but he just caught the chubby hands in the towel to clean them as well. Indignantly, Lloyd glared up at him and Morro snorted. "Silly goose."

After he released Lloyd's hands from their fabric prison, Morro let Lloyd grab his fingers. "There we go, all clean. I don't know why she let you have mushy foods. Do you?"

"Fababa!" Lloyd proudly announced, then giggled as Morro shook his hands playfully.

Morro lifted Lloyd out of his seat, grateful that he'd somehow managed to avoid getting mush all over his clothes, and carried him back to his bedroom, putting him down on an abandoned blanket that someone (probably Mipako) had left on the floor beside the dresser.

Lloyd whined a little upon being put down, grabbing Morro as he sat down (well, 'sat down' as in 'floated in a sitting position a couple inches above the floor') and attempting to stand. "Muh!"

Morro let him grab onto the collar of his gi, watching as the toddler attempted to stand on his pudgy feet. Finally, Lloyd got himself to a standing position and Morro carefully clapped his hands together a couple of times in celebration, trying to keep from jostling him too much. Lloyd laughed at that. "Moh! Mo. Momo!"

Morro froze, unsure if he'd heard right. No way. Was that... Lloyd must have found his expression hilarious, because he giggled. "Momo! Momo!" He patted Morro's face as he spoke, and Morro gave out a sharp laugh as he felt the little baby hands on his cheeks, reaching up to take them in his own hands in a daze. Lloyd's first word. Lloyd actually talked. He was Lloyd's first word. Not 'mom', not 'dad', not even 'shark', like Lloyd's favorite stuffed animal. Morro. Well, Momo, but Lloyd had meant him specifically.

Morro let out another laugh, feeling something weird in his chest. Like something was getting looser and tighter at the same time. He was Lloyd's first word. No one else. Lloyd wanted Morro. He was important to Lloyd. Lloyd didn't care about destiny or ninjas, no matter what color the gi was. And why would he? He was a toddler with someone looking after him; he didn't have to care about any of that. He cared who was there for him when he woke up crying, when he was hungry or bored or exhausted. He cared about Morro. And Morro cared about Lloyd.

Surging to his feet, Morro picked up the- no, his. He was done trying to pretend. He picked up his kid and spun him around a few times, laughing along with Lloyd as he squealed in delight. "Momo! Momo!"

Morro laughed and teasingly responded, "Lolo! Lolo!" Lloyd burst out cackling at that, and Morro joined in, laughter coming easily, even though it never felt quite right. (No air in his lungs to expel, no laughing until he couldn't breathe, no cackling until his head was light and he felt dizzy)

But his laughter was genuine enough that he could forget all that. And for that one evening, as they spun around and around in a lonely, empty house with no one around but each other... nothing else mattered.

Chapter Text

Never having been to school, Morro could safely say he had no idea what getting a real education was like. Morro had never had the opportunity nor inclination to set foot inside a public school before and it wasn't like Wu he was inclined to teach him that sort of thing instead of how to defeat a man in five seconds. All things considered though, he was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to start this young.

He trailed along behind Lloyd (now fully in his 'terrible twos' stage and loving it) and his mom as they walked up the long staircase. And if the 'built on a mountain' wasn't enough like Wu's monastery, well, the insane amount of stairs was drawing a lot of uncomfortable parallels that Morro would rather not think about.

Well, Lloyd's mom walked. Morro didn't have to walk (one of the very few upsides of being dead) and Lloyd was drowsily napping against her as she dragged a suitcase behind with one hand (and of course Morro wasn't jealous that she was holding him, that would be ridiculous, it was Lloyd's mom, not some random stranger though she practically was a stranger to Lloyd at this point)

Morro looked up as he drifted upwards, saw the roof pointing to the sky like some sort of temple, and scowled. Why she thought this place was a good school was beyond him. The entire place practically screamed that it was untrustworthy. He didn't know how Miskoko found this place, what with it being in the middle of nowhere, and he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

They reached the top of the stairs, finally, and Lloyd's mother blew out a sigh of relief. Morro didn't share her sentiment.

The building loomed over them, and Morro just knew if he was alive, his skin would be crawling with the feeling of being watched. His internal complaints died away as his mind sharpened, going on high alert. Lloyd groaned sleepily, drawing Morro's attention back to his kid charge. The kid rubbed at his eyes, quickly waking up from his impromptu nap. Miwako whispered something to him and then walked through the archway into the courtyard. Morro followed along, glaring up at the windows. The sunlight glared right back at him, reflecting back at him like it had some sort of personal vendetta.

A middle-aged man came out to meet them, but Morro decided to ignore anything that came out of his mouth after the first three words. His voice was annoying. And his face. It looked all stretched, like he'd forgotten how to smile.

Minoko started saying something too, but Morro ignored her too. She was a lot easier to ignore. Morro had been doing it for years.

Lloyd tried to wriggle his way to the ground, but his mom ignored it, keeping a firm hold on him. Lloyd scowled. "Down!"

His mom sighed as she began bouncing him slightly, the man looking bemused. "Not yet, sweetie. Mommy's talking to the nice man right now. Do you want to say hi?"

Lloyd didn't even bother to look at the man. "No! Down! Want down now!"

Midako sighed again. "Forgive Lloyd, he just woke up." The man chuckled, but it sounded strained.

"Oh, there's no problem. After all, children will be children. Now, ah, we were discussing payment..." The two adults went back to their conversation, ignoring Lloyd. Lloyd struggled a bit more in his mom's arms and let out a few screeches, which were also ignored. Then Lloyd spotted Morro.

"Momo! Down!" Lloyd looked at him expectantly, like a prince waiting for his lackey to obey him. Morro crushed the little prince's dreams ruthlessly.

"No."

Lloyd screwed up his face and inhaled. Morro had just enough time to cover his ears before Lloyd threw himself into a full blown temper tantrum.

Half an hour later, Lloyd was happily playing in some unfortunate mud puddle while his mother apologized to the man, who was wincing and brushing dirt from when Lloyd got in a few good kicks to his ankle.

Morro grinned. His kid was a good judge of character. Lloyd presented him with a very wet double handful of mud. "Momo! 'ook, it's mud!"

Quickly, Morro backed away out of dripping distance. "That's great, Lolo, but remember what I've been telling you? I can't get wet, it hurts me."

Lloyd's smile instantly turned into a frown and he pulled his muddy hands back towards himself. "Sarry, Momo."

That made Morro curse internally. He didn't mean to scare him. So he leaned in to ruffle his kid's hair. "It's okay. I'll remind you when you forget. And look, you didn't hurt me, see?" He spread his arms wide and did a spin in place.

Lloyd giggled at that. Then Mosako called Lloyd over, said her few goodbyes, and walked out of the courtyard, leaving her two-year-old son in the hands of complete strangers and his ghostly caretaker.

One could at least hope that with the trust Mowiki was showing in Darkley's School For Bad Boys, they would at least try to keep her definitely-too-young son from being bullied by the other boys. Unfortunately, it turned out that instead of being a reformation sort of school, it was a training school.

Morro quickly learned to avoid doorways after the second near-death (near-return?) experience involving wet substances getting dropped. There were multiple times when he straight up grabbed Lloyd and took him around the school from the outside. That didn't stop the boys, and the teachers were no help. In fact, many of them would enlist the boys to torment their fellow teachers, turning the entire school into a prank battlefield. Lloyd was guaranteed to end up covered in something at least once a day, more if Morro tried to clean him up any time before dinner time.

That one kid, Brat or Bread or whatever, he was pretty nice at first, giving Lloyd little tips and stuff, (Morro was definitely going to remind the toddler about them later because no way a two-year-old was going to remember all that) but then he kept showing up with the redhead with glasses and being a doormat in general, so Morro didn't have a great opinion of him.

Overall, Morro kinda wished Mesalo had just decided to take off and leave Morro and Lloyd in one of the many apartments they'd lived in prior to this. Sure, they ran the risk of getting caught and Lloyd would be in danger more often, but it'd be quiet. Or, well, quieter.

He wasn't sure how he'd managed to escape being slimed or doused so far, though he'd taken a glitter cannon to keep it from hitting Lloyd close range a week ago. He was now covered in pink glitter and it sucked. Thankfully being a ghost seemed to keep everyone from noticing the floating glitter, and there were always people hit with glitter wandering around, so the trails of glitter he left behind weren't suspicious. Probably. Well, at least Lloyd liked it. (And if it helped to look in a mirror and see pink instead of green, well, he's been stuck wearing the same thing he died in for who-knows how long, he deserves a change. And no, it's not just because he's starting to wonder if he ever really wanted the Green Ninja gi or if it was all to make Wu proud of him, shut up)

Well, soon it'd wear off and Morro could go back. Back to being the Green Ninja reject. Back to being the bitter ghost stuck in the past. The way things were supposed to be.

Chapter Text

There were many things Morro expected to happen as Lloyd got older. He expected the other boys to continue being bullies, even when Lloyd grew old enough to start retaliating. He expected the teachers to continue encouraging that kind of behavior. This, however, was one thing he hadn't (couldn't have) expected.

This being Wu, years older than the last time Morro saw him, standing in the principal's office as Lloyd and Morro entered. Morro stopped dead at seeing him, but Lloyd just looked curious and a little confused. "Who are you?"

Wu turned from whatever he'd been discussing with the principal, then crouched down to meet Lloyd's eyes. "A pleasure to meet you."

He extended his hand, but Lloyd, stung one too many times by palm buzzers, stuck his hands behind his back and rocked back to look at the principal over Wu's shoulder. The principal cleared his throat a little bit. "This is your uncle."

Morro wanted to scream. What?? Wu was Lloyd's uncle? Wu? Looking at the two of them together, he could kind of see it, but...

Lloyd's question knocked Morro back to reality. "My mom?"

Wu nodded, straightening with the help of that dumb staff Morro had never seen him without. "Your mother believes she has made a breakthrough in her research. She asked me to come in her stead to renew your boarding contract."

Of course she did. Mokolo couldn't take the time to come check on her own son, even if she was the one to put him here in the first place. Sounds about right.

He clung to the familiar feeling of indignant anger on Lloyd's behalf, trying to keep away from the even more familiar lethal cocktail of feelings Wu was dredging up.

Thankfully, it appeared that Wu had already read and signed the new contract, he just wanted to see his nephew (and if Wu standing next to Lloyd, the two parts of himself Morro thought would never meet, made something in him ache, well, he was still mad at Wu for lying to him for years and for making him feel that being the Green Ninja was the only part of him worth anything) and soon he left with few parting words, disappearing from the room as soon as the other living occupants looked away from him. His favorite thing to do. Come like a ghost, leave like one. Hah. If he only knew...

That night, Morro was helping Lloyd prepare for bed. Lloyd, in his usual fashion, decided to completely upend Morro's tentative peace of mind.

"What's love?"

Morro's mind went blank. "What?"

Lloyd twisted his fingers together, fiddling with them and the blanket. "The old man said he loved me. What's that mean?"

If Morro had still had blood, it would have run cold. Lloyd... How had he missed this? Did Lloyd not feel loved? Had Morro ever told him he loved him? Had Morro screwed up so badly that Lloyd had never felt loved?

Numbly, he realized that Lloyd was starting to shrink into himself slightly, worried he'd said something wrong. He forced his mind to try and stay on topic. Emotional breakdown later. Comforting Lloyd now.

He reached out and pulled Lloyd into a hug. "Love is.... It's like..." Crap, how do you explain love to a five-year-old? "It's caring about someone, wanting them to do well. Trying to keep them safe and helping them be happy."

Lloyd considered this for a moment. "Like you."

Morro... Morro wasn't sure what he was feeling. Besides relief. He knew that one. He hadn't completely screwed up raising his kid.

Lloyd kept talking, as if Morro would stop him to say he didn't love him if he didn't get it all out at once. "You care about me and help me. You teach me stuff when the teachers don't let me catch up and-and-and... And you know everything. An' if you don't, you go and find it for me. That's love, right?"

Morro shoved down the knots making themselves known in his non-existent throat and nodded. "Yeah." It came out a little strangled, but Lloyd didn't notice.

Lloyd grinned. "You love me." Then his smile dropped a bit, and he looked up, almost nervously. "Can I love you too?" He was asking for permission. He wanted to love Morro. Morro couldn't help squeezing him a little tighter. "Of course you can." Lloyd squeezed back, his grin back in full force.

"You love me and I love you!" He kept going, switching topics faster than he could breathe, but Morro couldn't focus on it. Lloyd said it so easily, like it was fact. The ground was down. The sky was blue. Morro loved Lloyd. Lloyd loved Morro. It was that simple. And Lloyd was the first one to say it. He shouldn't have had to say it first. He should've known what love was. He should've grown up knowing. Well, he was still five. He had more growing up to do. Morro was going to make sure he never questioned if he was loved. (Not like Morro still wondered if Wu had ever loved him.)

As Lloyd was getting tucked into bed that night (he was still just five, and he was nothing like Morro, he could still be a kid), Morro hesitated a bit. "Hey, Lloyd?"

Lloyd looked up at him, his wild blond hair falling in front of one of his eyes. "Yeah?"

Morro couldn't help a smile as he leaned down to brush the hair out of his face. "You know I..."

He hesitated. He'd never really had a reason to love before. He didn't know what he was doing, what if he was screwing up and Lloyd would be hurt? What if he didn't actually love Lloyd?

He chased that thought away. Lloyd said Morro loved him, so he knew that he was loved. But Morro needed to do better. He needed to be telling Lloyd, not just showing him. "You know I love you, right?"

Lloyd perked up. "Uh huh!" He said it so easily. Morro was jealous.

He couldn't help but laugh a little, though. "That's good. But you reminded me today that I need to be saying it more. So... I love you. I love you so much, Lolo." The old nickname slipped out before he realized what he was saying.

Lloyd giggled, snuggling into the bed. "Love you too, Momo."

Chapter Text

Things had been going strangely well so far. Or at least as well as Morro could expect given the fact that Lloyd was being raised in a boarding school meant to make kids evil. So of course things had to get complicated again.

Lloyd and Morro had been working on Lloyd's Crime Lords Through The Ages homework when one of the shadows on the wall rippled strangely then turned into Lloyd's father. Lloyd had been a little scared at first, and Morro had just been annoyed, because they'd finally gotten into a good rhythm with homework and now Lloyd was gonna be distracted all night and it would be up to Morro to recall everything without his kid's surprisingly good memory so the homework would get done before class tomorrow, because as awful as the teachers were, they were so much worse when homework wasn't done.

But after the shadow man introduced himself as Lord Garmadon, Lloyd's dad, and Morro reluctantly confirmed he wasn't gonna hurt Lloyd (on purpose), Lloyd took surprisingly well to the idea that his father was a shadow.

Morro blamed the other boys. They were always going on about some form of dark magic or another. Then Lloyd's dad explained that, no, he wasn't a shadow, he just looked like a shadow because of the type of communication he was using. That got Lloyd interested in the story behind that. So Garmagone gave him a (Morro suspected highly sanitized) story of how he'd fought a skeleton general to become King of the Underworld.

Since that's where he was. Apparently.

From there, one story led to another, and then another. And then another. Morro ignored the majority of them, occasionally glancing up at Lloyd to keep an eye on him. But aside from that, he tuned them out, trying to focus on the homework and remember whether Fangpyre Serpentine were the ones that could grow a second head or the ones that could drill through solid rock. Or wait, were those the same tribe?? He scowled at the worksheet.

Okay, so he knew the Hypnobrai were the ones to hypnotize people, it was in their name. That one was easy. So if he connected those two, that eliminated those as options for the other four so... He glanced up as he finished scribbling the last Serpentine tribe's name into the box. Lloyd was still enthralled as Garmadon mimed fighting... Was he mimicking an octopus?

Morro rolled his eyes. He wasn't gonna ask. He glanced at Lloyd. His kid yawned, then yawned again. His dad didn't notice, still going on about something or another. Lloyd blinked sluggishly. Then he yawned again. Morro decided it was time to intervene.

"Sorry to interrupt, but Lloyd's got school tomorrow." He cut off Lloyd's whining before it could gain any traction. "No, I know kid. But I've already let you stay up way too late anyway. C'mon. Bed." With a couple more groans and a sworn promise from the shadow to visit again as soon as he could, Lloyd obeyed, climbing into bed as Morro moved forward to tuck him in.

Garmadon slipped out of the room as they went through their nightly routine. Lloyd had stayed up late enough he dropped off fairly soon. When he was sure Lloyd was asleep, Morro spent some time tidying up and making sure Lloyd's homework was somewhere the other boys wouldn't be able to find or reach easily so it wouldn't get destroyed before class tomorrow.

Eventually he had to bite the bullet though. He left the room and found Garmadon waiting in the hallway. The lights were dim, just enough for him to see the vague outline and the man's shining red eyes, brighter than Lloyd's deep scarlet. Morro crossed his arms. "The Underworld? Wasn't aware becoming a king was higher in your priorities than your son."

Garmadon's eyes narrowed. "It's not. My brother trapped me here. I would give anything in my possession to be with my son." Morro scowled at him.

"Well then maybe you should have been here instead of vanishing for months, showing up once, and then disappearing for six years."

There was a faint growl behind the man's words as he retorted. "I did show up. There was an empty house. Misako hid him from me."

Morro raised an eyebrow. "Or she just moved. We did a lot of that."

Garmadon huffed. "Yes, to hide him. But believe me, if I had known where he was, I would have been there!" Morro couldn't help an eye roll.

"Whatever." Morro didn't care enough to deal with Lloyd's absentee parents instead of letting them work out their own issues. He needed to start checking the school, clearing the dusty hallways Lloyd used of any traps the other boys might have set over the last day. He didn't need sleep, so might as well do something useful with his time instead of arguing with a shadow in the middle of the school hallway.

When he came back to check on Lloyd half an hour later, the man was gone.

He showed up again the next week, while they were working on the next assignment. Morro hid his surprise at the man actually holding to his promise (not like anyone else ever did) but he didn't say anything. He just took Lloyd's homework and wordlessly started working on it alone as Lloyd sat in front of the wall, animatedly telling his father about his day and his week (and his life in general) and everything under the sun. To his credit, the man listened intently, apparently fully invested in Lloyd's dramatic retelling of how he evilly got the drop on that snippy redhead Grant and soaked him in motor oil.

Morro held back a snort as Lloyd mimicked the kid's spluttering. That had actually been funny. Lloyd had been the one to come up with the idea, but Morro had been the one to get the motor oil. That had been a pain and a half, but it was worth it to see Lloyd's grin at their success. Lloyd was definitely turning out to be a gremlin. A blond, gap-toothed little gremlin of an eight-year-old. Morro couldn't be prouder of him.

Lloyd looked back at him. "And-and Morro's been teaching me how to do an evil laugh! Morro, can I try again?"

Morro laughed a little. "No problem. I'm not stopping you. You need the practice."

"Hey!" Morro snorted, leaving the homework to ruffle Lloyd's unfortunate bowl cut instead, curling around his shoulders comfortingly.

"Go ahead, you hurricane." Lloyd bounced a little, beaming up at Morro. Then he turned back to his dad. Garmadon nodded encouragingly.

Lloyd puffed up a little, then gave his best maniacal laugh. It was far and beyond the deep-throated cackle the teacher had taught the whole class a month ago. Morro didn't exactly want his kid to be evil, but like. If he was gonna be mischievous, he'd better have a good laugh to occasionally scare people with. And besides, Morro wasn't the peak of righteousness anyways, what did good or evil matter compared to survival?

Lloyd turned back to Morro for approval. Morro smirked a little. "Nice job, kiddo. A lot better than last time." Lloyd grinned.

"Really?!! Did I do it perfectly?"

Morro snorted. "Get a little more raspy, and you still need to tone down on saying 'muahaha' instead of just laughing. Then we'll see." Lloyd nodded.

Garmadon was appropriately proud of Lloyd's budding evil laugh, and the topic of conversation soon moved on. Morro wandered back to the desk, trying to continue homework until Lloyd was ready for bed. It didn't go very well. Lloyd kept roping him into the conversation, and Morro couldn't stop himself from feeling pleased that even though Lloyd's dad was here, Lloyd still looked to Morro for praise. But eventually, the little gremlin was yawning more than blinking, and it was time for sleep.

After putting his kid to bed, he left the room to find Garmadon waiting for him again. Morro couldn't help raising an eyebrow.

"Dooo you want anything?" Garmadon studied him, and Morro didn't know what he was looking for.

"My son cares about you." And cue the obvious. Yes, Lloyd loved Morro. Someone give the man a prize for stating fact.

"Yeah." Anything else you'd like to add to the Duh Train?

Garmadon tilted his head, as if Morro would make more sense from a different angle. Morro had barely interacted with him and he was already done with this. If he wanted something, he was gonna have to say it. Morro didn't have the brainpower to spare on figuring out what his kid's dad was thinking. Neither he nor Garmadon bothered saying goodbye as he left.