Chapter Text
By the time morning had settled in the sky, Lloyd was already well awake in the kitchen standing over the stove with a long wooden spoon dipped into a bowl of steeping soup.
The soup itself did not share the typical appearance of even the vast variety of soups known throughout cultures; the "soup" was more of a concoction between a chicken and steak soup with two types of tea thrown in to help treat and soothe illnesses, headaches and even stomach issues..
Lloyd sighed audibly as the stench wafted past his face and into his nose, the smell drifting throughout the house in an overwhelming blend between tea leaves and cooking meat. Upon brief inspection, the liquid of the food was thick and creamy, a comparison that while accurate nearly made Lloyd chuckle childishly like he knew his father would have had he been in lighter spirits and a kinder body..
Considering his father, Lloyd recalled the restless morning when he had awoken to find the oni rummaging through drawers in the bathroom just outside his bedroom. Garmadon had been searching for his ever beloved Vaporub- a medicine applied to the chests, backs and sometimes even the feet of a person to help clear the passageways of their nose for easier breathing; It was a very soothing medicine that Lloyd himself favoured when he felt clogged up too, but now Garmadon couldn't last five minutes without its cold touch on his chest and soothing scent constantly easing his stuffy snout.
Honestly, Lloyd was less annoyed than he'd like to have been having been awoken at the dead of morning to a noisy clattering as boxes of pills and plastic bottles of medicine were tossed aside in search of the oni's saving grace.
~.~
"What on earth are you doing now?" Lloyd groaned, dragging his hand down his face as he faced the tall, yet cowering, figure of his sniffling father who barely stifled a scratchy cough. The golden-green eyed young man stared up at his dad with a half managed scowl, his tired gaze melting into that of concern when he spied the abundance of medicine held in the weary paws of the quivering fool posing as a lord.
The green ninja rolled his eyes as he reached out for the things from the clumsy oni, stealing the countless cluttered objects from his father's arms and setting them aside to search for what the oni could possibly have been looking for..
"So, what are you after?" Lloyd asked as he examined the boxes and jars.
Garmadon huffed loudly, snivelling quickly before pointing at a dark blue container with a seaweed coloured lid. Lloyd sighed again as he recognised the substance; Vaporub, or Vic as Kai called it. Why did he have to be so reliant on the damn thing? Like Lloyd could be arsed to ask! He just wanted to sleep.
"Right." Lloyd huffed, his features softened as he found his sympathy. "You're all clogged up again, hey?" Lloyd asked with a cautious tone as he tidied up the other medicines, ignoring the soft sounds of his father's clumsy claws unscrewing the lid. Garmadon grunted loudly in agreement, a throaty cough exploding from his scratchy throat. "Yes." He choked out, his vermillion scowl inspecting the rub suspiciously before he dragged his talon across the solution.
The balm had come off on his claw with ease but the rest of the feat was far from menial. The oni pressed his index finger against his chest, having to push it down his shirt to apply it upon his steep collar bones. Beside the oni, Lloyd finished tidying all the stray objects, his emerald eyes flashing to the sad mess he often perceived as his sick and helpless father.
~.~
The memory was fresh in his recollection, having only happened the early morning before the present. Still, he wondered how difficult Garmadon could have possibly made it for himself to simply wear some stupid - yes useful - balm. Honestly, it probably took him five minutes to actually apply any! Still, Lloyd stifled a smile; He couldn't allow himself to fall so easily for his father's ruse of confusion and helplessness, but try as he might Lloyd couldn't keep the softness from his expression.
His focus was once again turned to the bowl of soup on the counter, the odd concoction finally seeming to be ready for consumption. As one could assume, it was not for Lloyd. It was for his father.
Careful hands wrapped with a small towel picked up the bowl, briefly sidetracking to a noisy search through the draws for a proper spoon to replace the wooden ladle he had equipped and discarded mere moments before.
With bowl and spoon in a wrapped hand, Lloyd made his way through the monastery to find his father - hoping the oni was still lazing about on the sofa. However, as Lloyd entered, he was struck with fear when he couldn't see his dad amidst the darkened room. The air was hot, hotter than the hall leading to said room; it was stuffy, and irritating, so much so that Lloyd was quickly forced to understand why his father may have fled to another room for refuge.
The green ninja discarded the soup on the small side-table, noting it would stay at its scalding temperature long enough for him to hunt down his old man, flinging the hand towel around the back of his neck before chasing down his instincts. Soon enough, the blonde hybrid quickly found his father laying under a table, the cold floor flush with his feverish, furry skin. Ignoring the bout of frustration bubbling inside of him, Lloyd pulled his father out from under the table with a tenderness he hadn't believed he could allow the oni.
Garmadon groaned loudly as he was dragged along the floor gently, his eyelids twitching as Lloyd put his hand to Garmadon's searing brow. Burning. "Jeez, old man. Really?" Lloyd grumbled as he then tucked his hand under Garmadon's head gingerly, his father's hair prickling his hand. Lloyd’s words died on his tongue as his gaze settled on the lines of sweat that ran down Garmadon's face, unable to tear his eyes from the pale complexion of the oni sprawled out on the floor.
With a warm hand beneath Garmadon's skull and another now under Garmadon's hips, pressing into his back; Lloyd pushed his strength into his arms as he heaved the oni up as easily as he could; his arms shaking and his face flushing slightly at the limp mass weighing on his arms.. "You are absolutely useless when you're sick," Lloyd mumbled, his arms buckling further while he pushed himself towards the living room where he dropped Garmadon back onto the sofa where he belonged, cringing as he realised Garmadon's tarnished, scrawny wings had taken most of the impact; the oni groaned as the warmth of the room hit his fevered skin before he was met with the cushions of the furniture he was confined to.
Lloyd was steady when tucking his sweating father back under the thin blanket, his smooth fingers brushing against the weathered, hairy skin of his father's arm; Garmadon's hide reminded Lloyd of a certain creature. "You remind me of a pig-" the blonde mused quietly- "No offence, old man." He smiled softly, his thumb gently running over Garmadon's pronounced brow, wiping sweat from his face, the oni smiled warmly at Lloyd’s teasing comparison with his fangs poking over his bottom lip.
Garmadon tilted his head while Lloyd patted him down on his makeshift bed. "Is that so..?" He whispered, his usually stoic voice was left breathy and raspy with light traces of a building cough that was yet to escape him.
Lloyd nodded, his hand patting Garmadon's arm warmly. "Yeah, but I don't mean it to be rude," he reassured, his smile growing softer as he recalled the days he and his parents would visit the farmer and his stock before the winter, how he used to sit on the backs of the pigs while laughing with the 3 adults watching him carefully. He missed those days of simplicity. In a way, he was thankful that Garmadon's rough skin was more piglike than reptilian like it used to be before Garmadon's reign ended as a false Emperor..
Lloyd, of course, ignored his father's unresponsive wheezing of breaths, just as he ignored the bubbling of emotion beneath his ribs at the thought of the past; his green eyes wandered across Garmadon's alabaster hair in its tangled mess that clung to his throat in messy strands. "I made you that soup mom told me about," Lloyd smiled while he gingerly pulled the ivory hair from Garmadon's neck.
"It might not smell that great but it should be warm and soothing, And-" Lloyd turned around to grab the soup, showing it to his father with an encouraging gaze- "-It's chicken and steak!" He grinned as Garmadon's eyes lit up at the news! Clearly he was too out of it to have smelt the food, putting his previous warning of the stench to rest.
Garmadon at first struggled to sit upright, his arms buckling beneath his exhausted figure before he found his grip upon the cushioned sofa, his secondary pair of arms quivering as he reached out for the bowl hopefully.
Lloyd sat by Garmadon's side as he wrapped the bowl with the tea towel he had since forgotten was still hanging from his neck since he had fled to find his dad. Once the bowl was safely covered with the fabric, the soup found itself in Garmadon's paws, the spoon falling gently against the large fingers of the inhuman.
"Thank you.." Garmadon mumbled, sounding uncertain with his response, still groggy with his restless sleep.
Lloyd simply smiled at his father, one hand waited ready near the bowl in case it slipped from his father's unsteady grasp.
After a moment of unmoving silence, Lloyd picked up the spoon himself with an uncertain frown. "Look, don't pay attention to the smell, it tastes nice." He tried to encourage him. He brought the spoon close to his dads face only for the oni to recoil with a somewhat disgusted expression, just as Lloyd had expected. The blonde sighed, his brows lowering as he took the spoon away and back into the bowl. "Garmadon, please."
The oni pulled away, hands quivering slightly as he tried to pass the bowl back to Lloyd like some disgruntled toddler. "I'll leave it here for you while I go grab some bread." Lloyd sighed, keeping the bowl pressed into Garmadon's palms before he arose and wandered off to the kitchen with a quick stride.
Lloyd slowly creeped away from the room, hoping that his dad would take initiative to eat the soup on his own accord now that Lloyd wasn't there to fuss over him.. reaching the kitchen, Lloyd searched the bread bin for the loaf he saved for his dad specifically. Upon retrieving the few slices left, he then departed back to his sickened ally.
Thankfully, upon re-entry, Lloyd found his dad very gingerly drinking the soup concoction from short spoonfuls, his tired features now content with the actual taste of the unusual broth. When Garmadon spotted his son, his eyes softened and his tail twitched with some lingering, delusional excitement of having his spawn deliver yet another thing of interest.
Lloyd sat down, tearing a piece of the bread's crust before dipping it into the soup for his own tasting. The dish itself was that of the aforementioned chicken and steak he had thrown in like usual but the Teas had mixed and tarnished the flavour in a way that he wasn't sure was unappealing but just simply odd. "Well, it's not the worst thing I've tasted." He said looking down at the bowl while his father kept spooning mouthfuls slowly. "Hm." Garmadon hummed in agreement, unable to admit his own liking of the unusual food..
After a while, the crusts of bread had disappeared and the bowl of soup was empty. Garmadon looked as exhausted as Lloyd expected having found the delirious fool underneath the table earlier; his expectations weren't high to say the least. "I'll let you rest now, okay? Just try not to wander off back under any tables, alright?" Lloyd smiled weakly but warmly, unable to resist the tender expression as it encroached across his features from the youthful twinkle in his eye. Garmadon nodded, his fingers clinging to the bowl with fragile composure and draining energy. Lloyd watched as the bowl nearly slipped from Garmadon's defeated grasp before he snatched it from his father's hand.
Garmadon tried to smile at his son but found himself unable to, only giving him the frailest of glances before twisting his body around to lay down as Lloyd stood up from the sofa and made his return to the kitchen, bowl and spoon in hand.
"I'll be right back, just get comfortable and I'll check in on you in a bit." And then Lloyd dipped out of the living room doorway and back into the kitchen.
The ninja was quick to quickly wash the ceramic bowl and spoon, tidying up any stray ingredients he had forgotten to sto away from his earlier cooking, his mind never truly leaving the thought of his snivelling, sick father. Still the day would go on with menial tasks thrown in between while he waited for the next day to arrive and, in turn, the Ninja to return from their longest Mission yet - he was not sure if they had been consumed by some voidrealm yet with how often they say they'd be "just another day and we'll be back, green bean!" As Lloyd often recounted with a defeated sigh and a bright grin. His family did make him laugh.
. ~ .
When night had rolled around again, Lloyd was sitting in bed listening to music and scribbling down sketches of his family and, more recently, his father as he had been during the tournament of elements and not as he was now. Of course, even just thinking about his father hurt Lloyd just a little bit more but since Garmadon had been sick, it was a lot easier to ignore his fear just to have mercy on his sluggish dad.
Lloyd sighed, a smile tickling at the corner of his mouth while he adjusted his headphones with one hand and reached for the pencil sharpener with the other, leaning across his bed to grab it before a sudden thump shook through the floor. Lloyd groaned a little, tucking his hands beneath him to shove himself off the bed, kicking on some slippers on his way to the door.
At first, he poked his head out down the hall to double check if he truly had heard anything by scanning for any visual abnormalities of his environment. He of course hadn't seen any and, for a moment, he considered resuming his doodles until a glassy smash rang from the living room area!
With his heart leaping into his throat, Lloyd dashed down the hall, nearly stumbling and losing his slippers in the rush before he crashed into the doorway! He ripped open the door and encroached into his father's stuffy sanctuary before finding the source of his late night woes:
The glass of water he had poured his father had been pushed off the side of the nearby table, barely empty, discarded on the floor from the ruckus- Garmadon's frantic tossing and turning from upon the sofa disturbing the long awaited peace that came with the night!
The green ninja rushed forward to his father side in the blink of an eye- he did his best to ease the oni with what little he could, one hand restraining the shaking, balled fist that he could catch with one hand while his other frantically pressed a stray hand towel against his father's sweating complexion. "Hey, hey! Garmadon, you're alright.." he whispered harshly, ignoring the sweat rolling down his brow and the rush of his drumming heart.
Garmadon groaned as he rolled onto his front, his fragile wings twitching erratically at the loss of pressure from the previous position. He growled, his foot kicking at the air for a moment before he settled back into restless dithering. Lloyd repositioned the hand towel onto the back of Garmadon's neck, his other hand moving to the front of Garmadon's face that had been awkwardly pressed against the sweatridden pillows; Garmadon's breath was inconsistent in its contact to Lloyd’s palm, the stuffy sound of a clogged up nose warning him of the reason why- the oni let out a grunt as he forced a breath from his mouth before retracting it back through his nose, to little success. Quite simply, the evil incarnate was struggling.
Lloyd frowned at the thought of his dad, despite all his past horrors, struggling to breath while sleep was upon him, especially considering how restless he had appeared just a moment ago. He imagined any other version of his father having the same struggle and it melted his heart just enough to spare the oni.
The ninja took a minute of quiet to retreat back down the hall to the bathroom where he snatched the ever-loved Vaporub up from the draw and turned back around to return once more to his father's side.
With the Vic balm in hand, Lloyd rushed back to the room of which he had left the evil incarnate with a fluttering hope that the night would pass without incident.
Garmadon was still grumbling and twisting his body every which way, spasming occasionally with a fevered judder as he fought to seek comfort amidst his pillow-y nest that otherwise would have been heaven. "Ll-oyd?" Ah, he was conscious enough to notice his son after all.
Lloyd leant down, unscrewing the lid to the tub in hand before dragging a small bit of it across his forefingers. "Hold on, I think this will help." He whispered softly, despite the nagging headache swelling somewhere in the region of his brows. Garmadon let out a hearty moan; unable to bring himself to rise from his position. "Just hold still, I'm going to try and apply the thingy to your back, okay?" Lloyd warned the oni before placing his fingers onto the back of Garmadon's neck, just above the shoulder bones.
Garmadon jolted a little, evidently having not comprehended the warning ahead of time, but relaxed nonetheless.
The balm wasn't thin or sticky or wet and slimy, just slightly thick and greasy against smoother skin but against Garmadon's rough back it felt like a moisturiser against tree bark; It came off Lloyd’s fingers easily, the light smell already giving Lloyd a sense of peace and clarity amidst the endless parade of headaches and anxiety that had been burdening him for weeks up until that point. Honestly, he wasn't surprised that Garmadon had been clinging to it in the middle of the night, it smelt comforting and even cleansing, like his sinuses were clearer already; all in all, it was a good smell, and Garmadon knew it too.
Still, as Lloyd very gingerly massaged the balm into Garmadon's shoulders, he was met with a displeased hiss from the oni who had attempted to pull himself away from the contact as though he had been scratched. One glance at Garmadon's expression exposed the crease in Garmadon's nose as he contorted his features into that of a repulsed, reputable and respected emperor outraged by the audacity of the ninja for daring to touch him! despite the clear evidence that he was nothing but a fevered fool now.
Lloyd coughed up a sound that must have been a laughter in another realm.
"It's just Vic, don't worry." He rolled his eyes gently, his hand still massaging the balm into Garmadon's neck until he was utterly satisfied. Garmadon had tried to pull himself away during the short procedure with the grace of some indolent lion, his large paws tenderly swatting at his son in disgust! Garmadon let out some rumbling sound that shook his frame, the weird moan of discomfort was shortly followed by Garmadon attempting to toss himself onto his back only to be stored by Lloyd the moment he got too close to tumbling off the sofa! He growled at his new position before his features softened and he let himself relax between shivers.
"And now your front." Lloyd said to himself and rubbed some more Vaporub onto his forefingers where he reached over to the front of his father's neck, very gingerly massaging the balm into his collarbones just as he had with his shoulder blades. "Not so bad now." He hummed quietly. Garmadon nodded slowly, nearly conscious. "Thank you.." the oni mumbled softly.
After a while, Lloyd's hand had wandered back to Garmadon's back, his youthful, hard working hands drawing shapes and lines between his father's bare shoulders, careful to avoid the scrawny little wings that had remained behind after the Overlord's possession from the ultimate battle.. Even now, the wings remained behind like scars to remind them all of the twisting horror that was Garmadon's ever changing form. Only nowadays Garmadon was able to use them with his oni form by making them larger and stronger but until that point they had been useless chicken-bones stuck onto the onis back.
"You are good.. to me..." Lloyd startled at the sound of his father's tired voice- he looked down towards Garmadon's face; his usual harsh features were soft, just as he often saw during Garmadon's uncharacteristic week of sickness, his brows knitted together in what looked to be a proud expression, that snaggletooth of his catching his curved lips.
"Just doing what you would have wanted me to do." Lloyd sighed.
Garmadon grinned warmly but slowly fell limp again, consumed by sleep the moment his eyelids fluttered closed.
Lloyd sighed quietly to himself and grabbed the discarded glass of water and random hand towel he had honestly forgotten about until he arrived into the room for the fuss only moments ago.
But when he left the room, Lloyd looked back over his shoulder at his father, unable to see the monster that had hurt him in the man's curled frame. "Sleep well, dad. One of these days we'll be alright."