Chapter Text
If someone were to tell Sora that her best friend’s dream would be coming true two days ago, she wouldn’t have believed it.
Call her crazy, but part of it would’ve been because she didn’t believe the ninja were actually alive since the Merge happened — or if they were even real. She’d heard many great stories about Ninjago, mainly about the realm’s protectors, but ever since the Merge, people had begun to lose hope that the ninja were still alive.
Sora had quickly lost hope as well after first hearing the stories about the ninja. Sure, every other Ninjagain person she’d met knew the ninja, whether from watching the news or seeing them in person when they crashed in to save Ninjago, but why believe what you never see?
When she and Arin were taken captive yesterday on the train back to Imperium, for a moment she swore she saw her life flash before her eyes; hometown wasn’t exactly the greatest vacation, especially with a visitor who knew nothing about it. But then the legendary Green Ninja jumped into their lives and led them on an adventure no one else would have ever gotten to see. It was fate, Arin had said yesterday. It was fate that they would be trained to become ninja.
To be honest, Sora didn’t really know what a ninja was. But wherever Arin went, Sora went, too.
After the fight at the Land of the Three Mountains today, all Sora wanted to do was sleep. The past two days had been a wild ride, going from meeting Riyu to meeting Lloyd and fighting off the Claws of Imperium while they were at it. On the trip to the Three Mountains, Sora had gotten a grand total of two hours of sleep, and she’d suspected Arin hadn’t slept at all from his excitement about being on the new Destiny’s Bounty.
But no, they had to get dinner, and Lloyd was exhausted after getting a power boost from the Matriarch, so he insisted that Arin and Sora should make their way down to the Crossroads for dinner without him so he could rest up and have their room ready. “After all, you’ll be living at the Monastery now,” Lloyd added as he parked the Bounty in its place in the hangar bay.
“Living at the Monastery?” Arin repeated incredulously. “You mean, we’re gonna be living at the actual Monastery of Spinjitzu?”
“If that's what you want, yes,” he replied. “Unless you’d prefer taking a million stairs up every morning.”
Sora couldn’t help but marvel at the mechs as they walked down the aisle, running scenarios through her head of what pieces and parts were built together to create such beautiful machines. She suddenly gasped, asking, “Are those underwater mechs?” and pointing at two rusted mechs further away from the aisle, bearing oxygen tanks on the back. “You guys do underwater missions, too?”
Lloyd’s long braid swung behind him as he abruptly turned his head in the direction Sora was pointing at. “That was for a… critical mission,” he answered, averting her gaze and now focused on Riyu, who was staring up at him curiously. “We’ve got engineers right in our team, though Pixal’s our main mechanic — she’s the best. Did you know that she made five undercover vehicles in thirteen hours?” he added and turned to Sora, whose jaw dropped in shock. “No one knows how she ever did it! I tried to get Master Wu, my uncle, to tell me, but he never tells me a word.”
“Thirteen hours?” Sora repeated in disbelief, shaking her head once they got into the elevator. “My own race mechs take days, weeks to build, and even then I still have to plan it!” And find time to steal from the junkyard for parts. “Where do you get all your materials?”
Lloyd pressed a button to the main floor. “That’s a secret with the ninja,” he replied with a smile, “but now that you two will be on the team, I’ll share it with you soon.”
They reentered the relaxation room, and Lloyd crossed his arms in thought as he led them into the hallway. “We can spend the first week moving your stuff over to the Monastery and settling in before we start training,” he said. “In the meanwhile, I’ll start getting your rooms ready.”
Arin shared a look with Sora. “Would it be possible to… share a room?” he asked hesitantly. “It helps to be in the same room ’cause of… um…”
“We’re used to sharing a room back at our penthouse,” Sora jumped in easily.
“Of course,” Lloyd agreed. “I’ll get a room ready for you two then. And would it be okay with you guys if you had dinner at the Crossroads?” he added, briefly tilting his head backwards.
“Sure,” replied Sora as they entered the courtyard. “Any reason why?”
“Low on groceries, but I’ll make a stop tomorrow morning,” he reassured, waving a nonchalant hand. “Riyu can stay with me. I don’t trust that the Claws of Imperium are completely gone yet.”
“Okay,” they agreed simultaneously.
“See you in a couple hours then, Riyu,” said Arin, crouching down to pet Riyu. He rubbed his head against Arin’s hand, purring. “Dragons can purr?” he asked surprisingly, glancing up at Sora and Lloyd for any confirmation, who both shrugged in response.
“See you, Riyu,” Sora added, petting the little dragon as well. She smiled when his rough tongue licked her hand.
They bid their goodbyes and they passed the gates of the Monastery. Lloyd was right about the stairs, Sora remembered, as they started to make their way down to the bottom. “I’m so glad he’s letting us move into the Monastery,” she voiced out loud, “because there’s no way in hell I’m climbing these stairs up and down every day just for training.”
“Plus with the commute between the Crossroads and the Monastery, it’d take hours to reach the top,” Arin pitched in.
The sun was still high in the sky, but if they kept up their slow pace, it’d take forever to reach the bottom. “Race you to the bottom!” Sora shouted suddenly, sprinting down the stairs as quickly as she could.
“Hey, you could’a warned me first!”
————————————————————
Sushi rolls and ramen were the best.
After a good dinner at the Crossroads, they’d made their way back to the penthouse to pack the important things they’d need; pajamas, toiletries, spare change of clothes and water bottles (just in case), et cetera. The takeout bags weighed their arms down and the heavy backpacks on their shoulders made an even more unnecessary workout as they climbed up the stairs of the Monastery of Spinjitzu.
“It’s good practice, though!” Arin encouraged, sprinting up the stairs with Sora at his heels. “Come on, Sora, you’re so slow!”
“Not everyone… joins… a running club… at their school,” Sora protested, clutching her side and heaving for breaths. “You need to… slow down…”
Even with Arin Encouragement (trademarked), it took another hour to climb up the Monastery stairs. By then, the two moons had risen in the sky, the golden sunset ready to dissipate into darkness. Arin waited for Sora to catch her breath before he knocked loudly on the Monastery doors.
It didn’t take long for the doors to open. “Hey, you two,” Lloyd greeted with a smile, carrying a sleepy Riyu in his arms; his long hair was now in a low ponytail falling just above his waist, a contrast to his earlier braid. “Something smells good,” he added, looking down at the takeout bags.
“It’s traditional Ninjagai ramen and sushi!” Arin replied, grinning brightly as they followed Lloyd into the kitchen. “I mean, you’ve had it before, right?” he added, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.
“’Course I have,” he confirmed, “though maybe not the restaurant style.” Arin and Sora set the takeout bags onto the counter, and Riyu leaped into Arin’s arms as soon as his hands were free, licking his face affectionately with his rough tongue (“Hey, that tickles!”). “Unless you went to Skylor’s Noodle House?”
“It was closed today ’cause of some leaks in the kitchen, but we’ve been there before,” Sora explained. “The Crossroads has all different kinds of restaurants, but I gotta say, Skylor’s is my favorite.”
“I’m sure she’d be glad to hear that.”
They stopped in front of the relaxation room. “Most of the original stuff is still there…” Lloyd grinned, pushing the doors open, “with a few additions.”
Arin and Sora gasped in shock. In addition to the TV and the couch, the room was decorated with floor plants and stacked shelves with books and scrolls, and even a collection of comic books that Sora didn’t recognize. The ceiling was now decorated with glow-in-the-dark stars, and the lamps gave a nice, warm light to the large room. By the doorway, there hung a hammock that was stuffed with comfortable pillows and blankets, and next to it was a bed with a blue duvet with extra pillows piled at the foot of the bed. “Sorry if it’s not—”
“I call the hammock!”
Arin and Sora stared at each other for a moment, before Arin rushed over to claim the hammock, followed by Sora at his heels. “Get off! The hammock’s mine!” laughed Arin, trying to push Sora off the swinging hammock, who landed on her bottom when he kicked her off.
“Okay, okay, fine!” Sora resigned, taking off her backpack and setting it down behind the couch. She and Arin briefly glanced in Lloyd’s direction with a shared embarrassment of their play-wrestling in front of him, but by the small smile tugging Lloyd’s lips, he didn’t seem to mind — in fact, his gaze seemed… longing.
Lloyd then shook his head to himself. “We can go to the Crossroads tomorrow to move the rest of your stuff here. Sorry for such a late notice…”
“Don’t worry about it, Lloyd, this is amazing,” Sora interrupted authentically.
“Thanks so much for doing this,” Arin piped in.
Lloyd blinked in surprise. “Oh. Uh, yeah, I’m glad you like it,” he replied quickly, averting his gaze from the two teenagers. “Um. What was I gonna say…?”
Sora shot a quick, confused glance in Arin’s direction. Though she had to cut him some slack — after all, moving two teenagers into your home within two days of meeting them was a pretty big change — it was a bit strange to see an awkward personality on Lloyd compared to the professional fighter and hero she’d known since yesterday. Not that it was a bad thing, however.
He snapped his fingers, catching the teenagers’ attention again. “Right! Once we’ve got your stuff moved over here, you can decorate this place however you want. If you’ve got any preferred pots and pans in the kitchens or any plants you wanna grow, whatever makes you feel more comfortable. I uh, I know it’s a big move. Um. Do you two need anything?” he asked quickly. “Toothbrushes, towels, extra blankets?”
“Already got those.” Sora gestured at her backpack.
“Great!” Lloyd clapped his hands together. “I’ll give you a tour tomorrow morning once there’s more light, but could you two stay in this wing of the Monastery until then? To avoid getting lost?”
“’Course we can,” Arin replied.
“Where’s the bathroom?”
“First door to your left,” Lloyd answered, followed by a ‘thanks’ from Sora as she picked up her backpack. “Well, if you two don’t need anything else, I’ll leave you to it.”
“Good night, Mast— I mean, Lloyd!”
“’Night, Lloyd!”
“Good night!”
————————————————————
“Do you think Lloyd’ll let us bring in the swing?”
Sora snorted, pulling her navy blue hair tie out of her hair that fell down below her shoulders. “I don’t think he’ll mind,” she replied honestly, smiling at the thought of the wooden porch swing in their room. She was wearing a baggy shirt with a print of a cat rolling in a field of flowers, a gift from Arin for her birthday a few months ago, and her regular sweatpants, while Arin was in shorts and a white tee. Riyu tilted his head at Sora’s new look, and she crouched down to scratch the little dragon behind his ears.
She then pulled the blue duvet back and sat down on the mattress, pleasantly surprised at its firmness — she liked the bed, though as she ran her hands across the blanket, it was a bit itchy. “I don’t like this blanket,” she muttered, now fluffing up the pillows.
“Lloyd probably has some extra blankets in one of the closets,” Arin suggested, sitting up in his hammock. “Want me to go find some?”
“That’d be great, thanks.”
Once Arin left the room, Sora kicked the duvet off of the bed and laid flat on her back. It still felt like a fever dream sitting in the ninjas’ Monastery, even if she’d never seen any of the ninja in person. It must’ve been even more surreal for Arin, and she smiled to herself at the thought — he was a big dreamer, but even more so ambitious. He’d become a great ninja. As for me…
She shook her head with a sigh. Now wasn’t the time to get deep into her thoughts.
“A collection of blankets, Your Highness!” A pile of blankets and comforters then dropped at the foot of her bed, with a grinning Arin to top it off. Murmuring thanks, Sora picked herself off the bed and weaved through the pile, eventually holding up a weighted blanket that distinctly smelled like evergreen and wood. She lowered the blanket to let Riyu take a sniff, and the dragon practically tackled the blanket, rolling around comfortably in the soft fabric.
Sora laughed softly. “Guess you like that one, too?”
After a bit of difficulty locating which light switch was the correct one to turn out the main lights (“Why do they have a switch that turns on the TV…?”), they settled into their new beds and bade each other goodnight. Riyu slipped underneath Sora’s borrowed weighted blanket and the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling were now turned on. It was comfortable laying there — the mattress was firm under her body, and the pillows had been fluffed up and the weighted blanket was pulled up to her shoulders, but she still felt… tense. This wasn’t her blanket, and this bed wasn’t hers either. The ceiling was too different from their home at the penthouse as she traced the unfamiliar wood patterns above her with her eyes.
It must’ve been a half hour later when she realized Arin wasn’t snoring. “You awake, Arin?”
She heard a sigh. “Yeah,” he whispered, sitting up in the hammock.
Sora sat up as well, careful not to wake up Riyu, who was sleeping next to her. “Why’re you up this time?” she asked softly.
Arin picked at the silky fabric of the hammock. “It feels weird to be sleeping in a hammock,” he admitted quietly. “I like it,” he quickly clarified, “but it feels weird. Unfamiliar.”
“I’ll trade you the bed for the hammock any day,” Sora offered immediately.
“Not in a million years.”
Sora rolled her eyes teasingly. She slipped out of her bed to sit down next to Arin on the hammock. “It’s been a wild two days, that’s for sure,” she said, resting her elbows on her knees. “I just wish I could sleep.”
“That makes both of us, then.”
Sora chuckled. “We aren’t sleeping tonight then, are we?”
Arin smiled gratefully at Sora, and he laid down in the hammock with her, falling into a comfortable silence. She thought about Lloyd’s strange behavior earlier; his longing look after they’d wrestled for the hammock, and the way he dropped his professionalism for just a moment. He was a bit strange, that was for sure…
“What do you think about Lloyd?” she asked, turning to face Arin.
“He’s amazing!” he answered brightly. “You saw the way he fought the Claws of the Imperium! His battle instincts are second to none, and his movements are so smooth when he fights! And the way he swings that sword?! It’s even cooler to see it in person!”
Arin turned to face her, frowning at her distant look. “It’s not about that, is it?”
Sora sighed, crossing her arms as she tried to get her thoughts in order. There was something about Lloyd that she wanted to talk about as well… “If Lloyd’s been here all this time, why hasn’t he shown face?” she asked, her eyebrows knitted. “I mean, if I were a symbol of hope all across Ninjago, I’d try to show up a couple of times so the people know that even one of us is still alive. But I guess when you think about it another way, do people rely on the ninja too much? Look at the Crossroads — it was built from nothing to the beautiful city it is because we all worked together to help each other, and without the ninja.”
Arin nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe he could’ve been super busy with other things?” he suggested. “The ninja do a lot of things, not just saving the world. Figuring out villain backstories, getting stuck in a video game—”
“You say that like it happens all the time.”
“It doesn’t, but weird things like that happen all the time,” Arin clarified. “But I… kind of get what you mean, though,” he added with a sigh. “It’s been almost five years since the Merge and almost everyone believes the ninja are dead. There’s even memorials for the ninja — that’s how much they’re respected by Ninjago. I wonder if Lloyd ever got to see those…”
“Doubt it. Someone would’ve seen him if he did.”
Arin hummed in agreement. “Hope he’s having a better time sleeping than we are,” he said absentmindedly.
Sora chuckled softly. “Yeah, ’specially after getting our room set up.” She looked back up at the ceiling, smiling at the stars stuck on the wood. “I’ve never had glow-in-the-dark lights before,” she said out loud.
“Yeah, me neither,” Arin replied quietly. “I remember when my ma would take me grocery shopping I’d beg her to let me get LED lights for my room ’cause they used to sell them at the store we’d go to, but she always said no.” He chuckled half-heartedly at the memory. “I wonder how my parents are doing…”
Sora wrapped her arm around his shoulder, squeezing his shoulder in comfort. “I think they’d be super proud of how you’ve turned out,” she said, and Arin glanced at her. “I mean, sure, we’ve had to steal—”
“Borrow without permission,” Arin corrected pointedly.
“—some things in order to get to where we are today, but it’s part of survival, you know? And now we live in the Monastery of the ninja. That was your dream! I think your parents would be super proud of that. And I’m proud of you, Arin,” she added, putting a finger to his chest with a smile.
Arin smiled softly in return. “Thanks, Sora. I’m proud of you, too.”
Hours passed by, the silence filled with quiet chatting and muffled laughter. At some point, probably at the ungodly hour of four a.m., Arin eventually yawned, closing his eyes. Sora smiled fondly as she pulled the blanket over him, like she’d done a thousand times before. “’Night, Arin,” she said quietly.
“G’night, Sora,” he muttered.
Sora slipped out of the hammock and got back into her own bed, careful not to wake up Riyu. She pulled the weighted blanket over herself, and she drifted off to sleep.