Work Text:
Brad walked down the streets of Ninjago city, tugging absently at the sleeve of his black hoodie. His feet slashed in puddles, soaking his socks but he didn’t really care. He looked up at the sky, the sun would be setting soon. Better get home. Even if the ninja were protecting the city that didn’t mean bad people weren’t still out there. He may not care about his health but he'd rather not be dead.
He turned his attention back down to the concrete ahead of him as he continued to walk home. The light of a restaurant broke the darkness, along with the sound of a TV. Brad looked up, brushing his black hair out of his eyes. On the counter inside were a few simple tiny forget-me-nots. What a lovely flower. But there on the glitching TV was the Green Ninja, aka Lloyd Garmadon son of a man who brought fear into the hearts of anyone who knew his name, being interviewed by a reporter about the most recent villain attack. It was hard to tell what he was saying through the muffling glass. The Red Ninja, Kai, popped up with a smile beside Lloyd and helped him answer the questions cause he was obviously nervous.
He couldn’t help but think about the blond boy, how much he’d changed since they met. He hadn’t actually spoken to him since Sensei Wu’s reform school had shut down due to essentially none of the staff actually being legally qualified.
It's been years hasn't it. You've probably forgotten me. Wasn’t like I was a good person last time you saw me anyways.
Then why is it so hard to forget you?
Somewhere inside him, he felt his heart ache. And as if on queue his ears started ringing in the silence.
Brad turned his head back to the street, took a shaky breath, then kept walking. His head hurt but he tried to ignore it.
He was snapped from his zoning out from his phone buzzing, with some reluctance he pulled it out. The light hurt his eyes for a sec. It was a text from Gene, one of the few people he’d bothered to keep in contact with.
Mr. Smartass: You still coming over? It’s getting late.
prob
just gimme a few minutes tho
Mr. Smartass: Ok
He stuck his phone back in the pocket. It wasn’t a lie really. He just didn’t really plan on going, not yet at least. Not with the thought of him still trailing like a ghost.
The sky was getting darker still but it wasn’t much farther. A few minutes passed of nothing until a little shop caught his eye.
It was closed but inside were beautifully arranged flowers. Hydrangeas, red tulips, sweet peas, roses, some green carnations, the small blue flowers from the restaurant counter, and many others.
It hurt seeing all of them now. A few years ago he would’ve loved to work at a place like that, surrounded by all those colors. But life had other plans and had been doing it’s best to make everything shitty for a while now. He’d almost forgotten about that dream of his until now.
He snapped out his thoughts and realized there were tears in his eyes.
What was he doing? Getting sentimental over some guy and some stupid flowers? Thinking about this was making things worse than it needed to be.
He just needed to get home and there he could close the door, leaving all of this outside. His feet tapped against the concrete and all he could think about was his headache. It felt like it was just getting worse.
After what felt like forever he saw the apartment complex, a rundown mess of a building but still decently functional none the less. There was someone in the ally as he walked by but he couldn’t bother to pay much attention.
He trudged up the stairs, each step feeling harder than the last.
Finally, Brad opened the door, stepping into his empty apartment. The door clicked shut behind him and he plopped down on the couch. He didn’t know how he felt. His chest ached, his ears were ringing, his head wouldn’t stop hurting. He just wanted it to stop. What good did it do to miss someone who forgot you existed?
The light flickered in the corner of his eye. He’d kept forgetting it fix that damn thing.
He could barely hear anything over the ringing in his ears. It was so loud it almost hurt. Brad grabbed a bottle off the table and brought it up to his face. He stared at the orange plastic and tinted white pills. Light shone through it even in the darkened apartment. It wasn’t like it’d kill him. Just make it stop hurting for a minute, like all the other times it did.
Right?
The pill bottle opened with a pop and Brad threw a few in his mouth. He laid there, waiting as his vision blurred. His head stopped hurting, the thoughts of the blond boy finally left, his ears were still ringing but he didn’t notice anymore. He finally felt fine. Something other than numb.
Though still, at the back of his mind he still felt sick. Still felt that nagging longing. The suffocating loneliness he’d drowned in before.
Unconsciously he popped in another to shoo it away. This time it actually worked. Though now he could barely see. The ceiling spun nauseously even in the dark. Time felt slowed. His mouth tugged into a dopy smile.
Brad felt like his lungs were being choaked by weeds. His breath was shaky and came in short gasps. But his brain was too distracted to care, too distracted to try to stop it. His vision swam with sickly colors. Green, blue, red, static.
He heard a soft knock- maybe it was loud he couldn’t tell- before his eyes couldn’t focus from the swimming colors anymore, everything was going black. His hand twitched. Another knock, ricocheting in his brain this time like a bullet. Again. And again…
Forget-me-nots are pretty… aren’t they…
---
Lloyd stood in the kitchen filling a bowl with cereal. He rubbed his eye with the back of his hand and put the box back in the pantry. He was still groggy from a lack of sleep and to be fair it was still early. Nobody else was even awake yet, most of the others having stayed up late playing videogames.
He walked over to the couch and sat with a yawn. He turned on the news channel expecting something relatively calm cause it was still pretty early. But the world just loves to fuck him over don’t it.
On the screen was a picture of his old classmate.