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I.
It's not too long after the Mergequake that they find themselves huddled on the couch again. Lloyd had sent Arin and Sora off to bed, it's not late exactly, but the kids should still go to bed at a decent time, so Lloyd is still up in his room, working quietly, as the others sleep in Kai’s room next door.
The scrolls Kai has sent since he’s been gone sit along his desk, on the floor, places he didn’t even realize they’d rolled off to, and cause his room to look like a total disaster. He’s not usually this mess, not that his room is ever really clean either, just organized chaos. This, however, looks like he hasn’t left in weeks. (He hadn’t. Not before meeting the kids that is.)
Nothing Kai has found has gotten them any closer to solving what happened to the realms, why everything went catastrophic with no outward sign. Why Sensei Wu is the only one to have known and yet, not even he told Lloyd or Kai or anyone that this would happen. The hell is a ‘coalescence’ anyway? It’s not like he has a dictionary laying around, and Wu’s notes all being destroyed is what started this venture in the first place.
He’s just about to give up and call it a night when he hears a loud thump from the room over. The ninja had somewhat soundproofed their rooms a little while back, not a lot, just enough that they could play music or have conversations without being able to hear each other through the walls. The kids are young though, and while they can definitely be loud enough to break through a little soundproofing, it's odd Lloyd only heard a one off noise.
He stands and turns to his bedroom door, once he’s opened it he hears a soft ‘oh!’ and looks down.
“Arin? I heard a noise. Did something happen?” It’s dark, and a little hard to see, but moonlight filters through some of the monastery halls, so Lloyd can make out the boy's facial features. There’s a sniff.
“I just…wanted to ask you a question.” Arin whispers.
“Okay, why don’t we get something warm to drink while we talk, yeah?” Lloyd asks, calm as he can. Arin nods and follows him to the kitchen.
Lloyd is worried. Terrified. Scared. Whatever you want to call it. It’s one thing to give a team speech, or talk to his big brother back when Nya was gone and they’d had a whole funeral (when they all left), or hang out with Nya back when they were little and forced to watch as the ninja endangered their lives from destruction of Lloyd’s own creation.
This is different. This is a little kid Lloyd’s only known for about two weeks. He knows his name, that he’s a ninja nerd, that he lost his parents to the Merge, and that he can make pie. Holy shit Lloyd is terrified.
They sit in silence as Lloyd puts together tea, for himself, and hot chocolate for Arin. As much as Lloyd has a sweet tooth, the tea has become somewhat sentimental to him, thanks to Wu and Nya. Lloyd has no idea if Arin likes tea, but he doesn’t want to be the first to ruin the quiet they’ve got going, so hot chocolate felt like a safe option. The right one too, if Arin’s face is anything to go by. Once they’ve got their drinks they head in the direction of the living room and sit side by side on the couch. Lloyd waits patiently, mind running a mile a minute, he’s not sure if he’s doing this right. Should he be the one to say something first? Should he divert the topic until the kid’s ready? What if he changed his mind and actually doesn’t want to tell Lloyd-
“I had a nightmare,” Arin whispers, “About my parents. When the house was taken.”
Lloyd…still isn’t sure what to say, but he wants the kid to know he’s at least listening. So he shifts his body a little knee on the couch so he’s facing Arin.
“When we met…you said we’d look for my parents once Kai comes back. I don’t-” he looks for the right words, “Are you sure-”
Lloyd decides to help him out, “We’ll go looking. We will. I’m not entirely sure when Kai will come back, but I’m already looking through his messages and the scrolls we have here at the monastery. Kid, we’re gonna find your parents. I promise.” He still doesn’t think that’s exactly what he wants to say, or that it’s even what the kid was really looking to hear, but Arin looks him in the eye for a good minute before reaching out his pinky,
“Promise,” Arin whispers. Lloyd links their pinky and seals it, as all promises should be. Arin leans into his side and Lloyd gently rubs his hand up and down the kid’s trapezius. Nya used to do the same, back when he couldn’t sleep, or when she was self soothing at night. When he looks down, Arin has totally fallen asleep, air leaving his mouth in gentle puffs as Lloyd guides the kid’s head to his lap. He doesn’t want him to wake up sore, he’s only 11.
As Lloyd stares, he debates the logistics of simply picking Arin up and taking him to Kai’s room. He’s pretty sure the kid isn’t a light sleeper, honestly the kid could probably sleep through most things if that last time he tried to wake him up for lunch after their impromptu nap is anything to go by. He’s also not worried about carrying him. FSM’s sake he carried both Arin and Sora up to the monastery the day they met. He’s more worried about waking up Sora. She, unlike Arin, actually is a somewhat light sleeper.
He’s saved from making a plan as he hears a click and then footsteps enter the living room. Sora steps around the couch and stares at the two of them, Lloyd simply gives her a smile, “Hey, Kiddo,” he whispers and pats the spot next to him on the other side of the couch. She hesitates slightly, but ultimately decides to sit next to Lloyd, her head on his shoulder, and it’s not long before she’s out too. Lloyd is content for the first time in a long time as he drifts off with them.
II.
Lloyd is a lot of things. Stressed currently being one of them. Kai hasn’t sent a scroll in almost a year. It had started with him sending one every two weeks, then every month, then every two. And now, three years later, Kai has somehow worn him down to not receiving a scroll for an entire year. Lloyd can’t tell if this is planned or not. What if he goes rushing out to find him only to receive a new scroll while he’s away. What if he doesn’t go and Lloyd never sees Kai again. Kai hadn’t found any of the others yet, so there's no telling if they’re even alive either.
It’s so infuriating. Lloyd can barely even do anything. He’s got the Mergequakes and his kids to think of. (Not your kids, Lloyd. They won’t want to stay with you forever.) He can’t just pack everything and go without a plan anymore, not like before. It puts him in a mood. He doesn’t want Arin or Sora to notice, so he does their normal. Makes breakfast before they wake up, works with Arin on his spinjitsu while Sora messes with some scrap metal nearby. He sends the kids off to the junkyard, they’re getting parts to improve their mech for their next race. He’d offered some of what Nya and Pixal had scraps of, but they said they wanna keep doing it their way and Lloyd is honestly so proud to hear that. He would’ve been proud no matter what, but he’s glad they’re sticking to their guns and working hard.
When they come back they have lunch together before separating to do their own things throughout the monastery.
Lloyd returns to his room. He has to make a plan. He wants to find Kai. Since he can’t go out and do that, however, he’s going to instead reread every scroll the man has sent him. Like a maniac. ‘That’s years worth of writing Lloyd,’ he reminds himself. And yet there’s still not an overbearing amount that Lloyd could probably finish them within the next two or three days. Especially if he stays up to read them.
He gets lost in it. Sentences jumble and make new words, he’s not sure he’s even comprehending what’s written anymore. All he knows is that Kai’s tone of writing has shifted again and again as the years go by. Sometimes he sounds desperate, others clear minded. Of course, Lloyd will never know why exactly, because Kai refuses to write down any words that would send Lloyd frantically in search of him, worried off his ass. At this point Lloyd is worried by Kai’s lack of words. It’s weird not having rambles from Kai’s head that make only the slightest bit more sense than Jay’s own rambling. Even if it’s in the form of ink on paper.
“Maybe we should’ve waited until someone reinvented phones before sending him off,” Lloyd grumbles to himself as he leans back in his chair. So far that the front two feet come off the ground.
“LLOYD!” Sora yells from his, now wide open, bedroom door. It’s Lloyd’s moment of despair and brooding, he hadn’t heard her or Arin running towards his room and his chair sends him careening towards the floor with an undignified yelp.
Lloyd stares at the ceiling and the kids just stare at him before he hears it. Snickering.
“I swear. You guys are trying to give me a heart attack!” he complains as he gets up, fixing his chair in the process.
“If that’s all it takes to give you a heart attack, you really are an old man!” Arin full on laughs from where he stands behind Sora.
“Guys, I’m only 23!” He cries and follows them out of his room. The kids snicker all the way to the kitchen, Lloyd only really half paying attention to where they’re going. Once he gets there he realizes what time it is. ‘7:30? Geez no wonder they were yelling at me.’ He cringes. They’ve usually started dinner, or even completely eaten by now.
“Have you guys had anything yet?” He asks, opening the cabinet.
“No, that’s why we came to get you. So we could cook,” Sora explains.
They’ve got this sort of ritual. Lloyd made breakfast well before the others woke up, and would grab them out of bed when it was done so they could all eat it together. For lunch, it centered around if he needed to run errands, if the kids were busy, or if everyone was home, but usually Lloyd made it on his own, sometimes Arin took over the kitchen because he’d convinced them to have pie for lunch. Dinner, however, was a family endeavor. (Because they might not be his kids, but they were family.) They took a break from what they were doing to head in the kitchen and make something. They’d picked it up back when Lloyd was first learning how to make edible meals for two kids from the streets. Thinking about what he would have liked when the ninja first picked him up.
It’s also probably his second favorite family activity. So he definitely feels the weight of knowing they were waiting this long all because he couldn’t keep himself in check.
They don’t point it out to him, however, so he grabs the ingredients for the dinner he’d originally planned to have tonight and they each get started on their own task. The best part about them all cooking means the process goes by much faster. If a bit messy from when they do eventually get off task. (There is definitely flour in Lloyd’s hair, but doesn’t really care to get rid of it right now, basking in the calm of his kids chatting just across the kitchen.)
When they’ve finally eaten and cleaned up after themselves, Arin and Sora opt to watch a movie. Seated on the couch, Lloyd grabs a few blankets and pillows for them to curl into. FSM knows they’ll end up asleep out here, so might as well make sure they’re comfortable.
As he turns away to head back to his room Arin calls out to him, “Lloyd? Where are you going? You gotta watch too!”
Well, if Arin says he does, why not? Lloyd laughs and turns around, jumping on the couch with the duo, probably smooshing them both as he does, but they just laugh and don’t seem to care. Having done this so many times before, the duo curl around Lloyd, who’s laying flat on his back. Arin on his chest, Sora on his side, she’s curled toward him and gives no effort to pretend she’s even listening to the movie. The three of them slowly fall into a peaceful sleep.
This has become Lloyd's favorite family activity
III.
Lloyd doesn’t have the clearest memory of what happened. He knows they were being chased and hiding in the new monastery that literally sprouted from the ground with Zane and Nya in tow. He knows he made a promise to the Source Dragon that lived under it. And he knows that whatever the Source Dragon did, it was enough to get them back home.
Lloyd just doesn’t know what exactly he did. He does know, as he wakes up, that his body is certainly paying for it. It aches and jumping out of bed is not the wisest decision he’s ever made. Adrenalin is only his friend in the most dire of moments, and this is not one of them, thank you.
He sits back in bed and goes over everything that just happened, and everything that he just saw. (Graves. Why were there graves? Oh FSM-) The room is dark, and Lloyd's almost grateful because it means everyone else is likely asleep or simply not around and he can keep to himself as he tries to pick up the pieces.
When he finally feels somewhat better, he gets out of bed and starts moving towards the door. He needs to see that everyone is here, that they’re all okay. That his kids are in bed, sleeping well. (His kids. No escaping it. He’s too attached.) He pads his way through the monastery halls. He starts with Kai’s room. Unsure if he’ll find Arin there, Arin and Sora, or if Kai will have claimed back his room after years of Arin using it. When he pushes the door open, though, no one is there. It sets Lloyd on edge. Someone should be sleeping in there, shouldn’t they? He tries Nya’s room, where Sora is usually sleeping, but no one is in there either. He walks a little faster down the hall, and as he passes Cole’s room he hears snoring. ‘Found Kai,’ he laughs to himself, but takes a peak inside just to make sure.
Sure enough, the man is asleep on top of Cole’s covers, as if he’d just toppled over as soon as he walked into the room. Unsurprising. He wasn’t a heavy sleeper, not like Cole who could sleep like a log when he wanted, but never let it be said Kai wasn’t a good sleeper. He peaks into Jay’s room, just next door, and finds Nya, wrapped in his blankets. He sighs before checking Zane’s own room to see him in there with his eyes closed.
Still, where are Sora and Arin? At least he knows they started in their same rooms, if Kai being in Cole’s is anything to go by, but at some point they both left. He continues through the monastery listening in for any sound of his kids up when they aren’t supposed to be. He turns the corner when he hears slight noises in the living room.
There on the couch, curled next to each other with the TV on but the sound off, are Sora and Arin. From here, Lloyd can’t see if they’re awake, so he knocks on the doorway gently, just twice. Both of them jump a little before quickly turning, not looking at him, sheepish smiles. This must not be the first time someone has caught them up, which also means Lloyd’s been asleep longer than he ever likes.
“What are we watching tonight?” He asks, both eyes jump to look at him. Arin gives Lloyd his gigawatt smile as he rushes to hug Lloyd, and Sora freezes so harshly Lloyd thinks she might have gone into shock. Arin isn’t particularly in a mood to let go of him, so he drags them both to where Sora still sits on the couch. “Hey Sora, can you hear me?” He whispers, not touching her just yet.
“Dad,” she nearly sobs out before completely melting into him.
Lloyd is left frozen. Time and space stands still around him because this amazing, brave, young girl just called him ‘Dad’. She’s deemed Lloyd Gardmadon, son of the evil Lord Garmadon and world renowned mistake, good enough to be her dad. Lloyd himself might just start sobbing tonight.
“I’m here Sora, I’m so sorry, I’m here now,” he cards his fingers through her hair as Arin sits still attached to his other side. They sit there curled together, it’s just the three of them, just as it had been the last four and a half years. Their small family and their couch. Tomorrow Lloyd will have to find out what all happened, how long he’s been asleep, what was up with that monastery, and reconnect with Zane, Kai, and Nya now that they’re officially all back in their home.
For now however, Lloyd ignores the sound of what he assumes are Kai, Nya, and Zane standing in the hallway and lays down with his kids on the couch, just as they’ve always done. Now it’s just them and the dreams they’ll have of each other.
IV.
Lloyd felt like utter shit. Something about being the Elemental Master of Energy is that when he gets exhausted, loses sleep, loses energy it spirals downhill until he’s reminded why he does at least try to sleep a full eight hours. He’s sitting in the kitchen as Arin prattles on about something or other, down the hall he could hear Wydlfyre’s shouts and he thinks a groan from Kai. The man loves his newly adopted daughter, but Lloyd can attest to the sudden moments of dread when they do or say something that gives you a heart attack. Kai seems to get them often.
This all to say, it’s kind of loud. No one around him is yelling or shouting, and Wyldfyre is too far away to actually cause anyone a true disturbance, but it’s like it's all too much. This has happened before, and it's usually pretty easy to curb the drained feeling that comes from not sleeping enough….by sleeping. But between his visions and the Source Dragons and FSM the nightmares it’s kind of hard to keep up with how much he has properly slept recently. He’s holding out hope that they’ll randomly just stop for a few hours and he’ll be good to go the next morning. A voice in his head (that sounds suspiciously like Kai) tells him how stupid that sounds, and Lloyd chooses to ignore it like the mature adult he’s become.
Lloyd sits his head down on the table and tries to tune back into the conversation happening between Nya, Sora, and Arin, but he’s met with silence. Confused, he picks his head back up and sees only Nya still at the table and staring back at him. She’s got that twitch in her face, the one that he knows means she’s watching him, that she’s trying to figure him out. It smoothes out into another face Lloyd recognizes as she sighs.
“Come on, Lloyd,” she stands and grabs his arm. He’s not really thinking about it, simply following her down the hall and to the living room. She directs him to sit on the couch before walking away. While she’s gone Lloyd looks around the room. There’s a few weapons left in the corner, Sora’s got some pieces she was working with and forgot to clean up laying a few feet away.
There are more spots like this. A sock Lloyd knows belongs to Arin, and that he’s pretty sure he asked the boy to pick up yesterday. A pink hair tie that has to be Sora’s because he doubts Nya had time to buy cutely colored hair accessories while missing for five years, and no ones really had any down time recently either. There are however a few tools laying by the TV that he’s seen Nya work with for years on end. Scuffed and loved and a few extremely tiny doodles Jay did a while back. Kai and Wyldfyre don’t leave anything behind, not right now that is, but there are definitely a few burn marks around the room.
There’s more, from the others still here, but Lloyd's head starts bugging him again and he groans as he lays it back against the cushions. He hears footsteps and isn’t surprised when a blanket is dropped on his lap.
“Take this and lay down, no getting up for today, got it?” She's firm, knowing he’ll listen better that way. He sticks out a hand for whatever she has to give him and downs it in one go.
“Okay, you definitely weren’t supposed to take all of them at once,” she cringes and he shrugs. If it helps him sleep, it doesn’t matter how many he’s taking. She sighs before sitting below him on the floor back against the couch, Lloyd shuffles so their heads are leaning against the same side and he has room to stretch his whole body.
He’s quiet as she picks a new movie to turn on. As it continues his eyes start to feel heavier and he can’t make out what the plot was anymore. He finally closes his eyes.
It’s only 10 minutes before he opens them again.
“Nya,” he grumbles, upset. She hums in acknowledgement but doesn’t give any other attention to it. “Nyaaaaaaa,” he whines again. This gets her to look at him, she’s smirking and her eyes are soft.
“What is it Lloyd?” she asks, laughing. This isn’t the time to laugh however. Lloyd is feeling a terrible, terrible dread. He glares at her (he thinks he does, what Nya sees reminds her of a ruffled cat), then looks around the room, seeing the same objects as he did the first time he sat here.
“Nya, my kids are missing!” He complains. He doesn’t see them anywhere, he sees their stuff but they’re not here. He huffs and tries to sit up, wobbly as he does. “Nya, where are my kids!” She doesn’t give a response but she does look confused.
“Lloyd, what are you talking about?” He kind of wants to cry, he just wants his kids. They’re missing and he can’t find them and he can’t lose his kids, he’ll be devastated. Where are his kids?
“Nya, my kids, my babies, where are they?” his lip is twitching, he can feel it. Nya starts to look a little more panicked, which sends Lloyd panicking, “You don’t know, do you? You can’t find them either? Nya what if they’re hurt, or Ras got them, or worse!” His tongue is kind of heavy and he doesn’t know if he said all of it right, but he thinks she probably gets the jist of it.
Just as he’s about to say something more, Kai walks in.
“Big brother!” Wow, he’d only meant to think that, but it gets his attention pretty quickly.
“Greenie?” he looks anxious and stops in front of Lloyd at the couch, “What’s wrong?” he turns and asks Nya. She shakes her head, mumbles something he can’t hear about energy and sleeping and oh yeah, he’s supposed to be taking a nap to fix his little headache, but he can’t do that without his babies! He’s on the couch for crying out loud!
“He’s never had a problem with this before,” Kai mutters to himself, eyes scanning him up and down.
Lloyd turns to Kai with a pout, “Kai. I need my babies. Where are they?”
“Your babies? Lloyd, what do you mean?”
Lloyd is so frustrated right now, luckily Nya answers him, “Something about needing his kids…”
Kai perks up at that, “One second, Greenbean.” His brother disappears into the hall and around the corner, he better come back with Lloyd’s kids. He can’t nap otherwise.
When Kai returns he’s got Wyldfyre, Sora, and Arin in tow. Lloyd absolutely beams.
“Sora! Arin! You’re here!” he exclaims, he still can’t really sit up on his own, but he can stick his arms out for a hug. They comply, Arin jumping on top of Lloyd and Sora snuggling into his side.
“Heard you needed us, Dad,” Arin laughs into his shirt.
“I can’t nap without you on the couch, that’s not allowed!” Lloyd squeezes his arms around the two until all of them stop squirming. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Kai take a photo, Wyldfyre nodding her head in approval, and Nya looks so fond Lloyd thinks she might be trying not to cry.
“Can’t sleep without your medicine, Old Man?” Sora asks him, quietly.
“Best medicine,” Lloyd replies, and it’s not long before he’s sleeping. His kids in his arms, and the whispers of his siblings and niece fading into the back of his mind.
.
.
.
Lloyd can’t sleep. He’s supposed to, he knows, or he’ll have a rerun of that day with Nya and Kai and the kids. But that’s just it. This time, his kids really are missing. He has no idea where they are. And worse, just as he’d feared in some loopy sleep-addled talk, they’re running around with Ras. In search of Arin’s parents. Arin’s real parents. Lloyd told himself they needed to be independent, to make their own decisions. It’s his goal as their teacher (dad) to make sure they explore all options and take control of their destinies. They’re not bound to limitations, not in the way he was when his name was written into that prophecy, long ago.
He also knows he should have expected this. How long ago has he learned to never count on people staying? Not his mom, his dad, not even Wu. Of course the kids would leave eventually. He thought he was prepared for that. He thought, back when he took them in, that he wouldn’t make a big fuss over it, he was grown now, a proper adult. He could handle love and loss just as he could handle fighting every day of his life.
The problem is, he hasn’t had to fight in the last five years. Not in the way he usually does. He fights with himself daily. What to make for lunch, what to focus on for training, what activity will bore the kids the least, is he doing this right, is he doing that wrong, is there even a right way to do it? It’s that domesticity that he’s come to hold near and dear to his heart that makes this goodbye so much more painful. That he’s still fighting with himself, but now there's nothing he can even do about it.
He turns to ask Sora a question, only to realize she’s not there, and that’s his breaking point. He doesn’t move from where he stands, just crouches towards the ground raising his hands to scrub at his face.
“Lloyd? Buddy, look at me,” it’s Cole. Lloyd groans into his hands, scrubbing at his face harder before finally lifting his head towards his older brother.
“Cole,” he says, he’s not crying but his voice sounds like he has been for days. It’s scratchy and rough, reminding him of how it sounded that night he met Arin and Sora.
“Come on, Kid,” Cole extends a hand out to Lloyd. He takes it and they move towards the living room.
Sitting on the couch in silence for a minute, Lloyd decides to bite the bullet.
“I know I didn’t do anything right,” he whispers.
“What do you mean?” Cole asks, eyes focused on Lloyd, but Lloyd refuses to return his gaze.
“I know I wasn’t a good guardian for them. FSM Cole, it took so long for me to learn how to cook their favorite meals, I couldn’t get them actual bedrooms to call their own, they just used Kai and Nya’s. It’s the worst. Not having a place to call your own, and I knew that. I should be one of us few who knows it the best. They deserve so much. Those kids? They deserve so much better than me,” he trails off.
Cole looks at him, like he wants to say something, but he has no idea how Lloyd will take it.
“I don’t think so,” he looks away from Lloyd. “Something about the Merge, Lloyd, is that it left no one unscathed. It shook us all in ways we never thought would be possible. But what it also did? It gave us all family. I love my kids, I love Fritz and Spritz as if they were my own flesh and blood, Frak grows on me more and more each day, Bonzle is like my sister, and Geo, FSM he got me through the worst of it. Still does, sometimes. Kai would never have met Wyldfyre. Would never have met his twinflame of a daughter, I never thought I’d meet someone so much like him in my life. He taught you a lot as a kid, but you definitely got your smarts from your time with Nya, and your mischief was too perfect to have been taught, that’s a natural born trait.” Cole huffs a laugh, “The Merge did us dirty, just like everyone else. It did all of our kids dirty. But Lloyd, the one thing it got right was bringing those two to you.”
Lloyd’s eyes start to water. It’s been so long. Five years with Sora and Arin, his only support being Mr. Frohicky down at the Crossroads. Lloyd took what advice he had whenever he could. Soaked it in like a sponge and did his best to implement it into taking care of his kids.
“But I wasn’t enough,” he mutters, looking down at his hands in his lap, fiddling with the corner of his hoodie sleeve.
“You were more than enough Lloyd. I never met them when they were on their own, but I see how they look at you. You’re their guidance, they respect you so much, and they don’t want to disappoint you. You went out of your way to learn to make their favorite meals, despite how hard it was. You gave them a place to call home, somewhere to come back to. You do know how it feels, and you acknowledged that when taking care of them. Lloyd, you’re their dad. Those kids didn’t have to give you that title, but they did. They both did. You are enough, Lloyd.” Cole has taken Lloyd’s hands into his own, the smallest smile on his face as he begs Lloyd to understand what he’s trying to say. Lloyd tucks his head into Cole’s shoulder and they sit in silence.
He understands. Lloyd does. He really does. He knows that five years of taking care of them hadn’t meant nothing. They could have left whenever they wanted, they had others in the Crossroads they could go to, but they chose to stay. Without them here though, Lloyd is left in a discontent array of emotions, if he just knew if they were okay, that they were safe, that they weren’t separated somehow and were still together, that he hadn’t failed them as a father by letting them go, maybe he’d be okay with them being gone.
All he has left to trust are his visions, and he’s never trusted those.
He feels Cole’s weight against him, heavier than it was before, breathe even. Just as Cole can sleep like a log, he passes out pretty quickly, especially now as Lloyd hears stories of his family from the Land of Lost Things. Cole is happy, and content, his family is safe back in their home.
Lloyd’s is not. He gets up from the couch, gently guiding Cole into a more comfortable position.
Lloyd can’t sleep here, not without his kids.
.
.
.
V.
Lloyd finally has his kids back. (Thank FSM they’re back, and alive, and under the same roof again.) Sora and Arin, Cole and his family, Kai, Nya, and Wyldyre, Zane and Pixal, all under the same roof. Jay is here too, he only really listens to Nya, but sometimes Lloyd can catch him on his own and they’ll talk for short periods of time over Jay’s newest video games, which he played while working under the Administration. Usually it’s just Lloyd listening, once Jay starts loosening up around him, due to the lack of video games he’s played recently. Mostly taking care of Arin and Sora, playing or watching whatever games they played, none of his own interests.
Arin and Sora. It’s been a week since everything ended. Not everything is fixed. Ras is still out there, no one has any answers for the Merge other than that Sensei Wu caused it. (Something Cole backed up, not that long ago at the tournament. Lloyd trusts Arin, but the kid is young and Lloyd was still naive at 16 himself.) None of their problems have exactly been solved, Lloyd still worries for when the visions will come back. Because they will, he can feel it. He doesn’t want to know what they’ll show him about his kids next. Perilous danger was something he hadn’t prepared them for, and something he doesn’t want to see them go through again.
Arin and Sora were back though. No longer with Ras and safe under the monastery’s roof, with their extended family and Arin’s biological parents around to keep them company. Lloyd hasn’t been this content since before they rushed off in search of Kai after the Bounty returned.
He’s seated on the couch, unlike their normal routine of piling on top of each other to lay across it horizontally, they’re sitting straight up as a movie plays and the other ninja and their families pile together around the living room. They’re on movie, like, four by this point, and Lloyds tired, but he stays up, just to hear the soft breathing of both Sora and Arin as they sleep uninterrupted in his arms.
Everyone is asleep as Lloyd stares down at them.
He’s so happy. He didn’t want to admit it, when he talked to Cole. Because if he did he felt like he’d forgiven the Merge and all the damage it caused in order to give him this happiness. It felt like a betrayal to his siblings, to Arin’s parents, to Ninjago and the 16 realms. Here, in the center of his family, which is even bigger than he ever thought it could be, back at 9 years old and alone in the city, he reminds himself that with darkness comes light.
He wants to keep this family, he will fight for them, to keep them safe. To keep the kids in his arms another day longer.
Zane, the only one left standing besides Lloyd himself in their impromptu monastery wide sleepover, steps behind the couch. He and Pixal must be on their way to bed. Zane stares for a moment before whispering in Lloyd’s ear,
“These kids are yours. They’re back, they’re safe, and you have done a wonderful job being there for them all these years,” and with that, the nindroid steps away with his wife, through those ever open doors to the living room.
Lloyd cries himself to sleep, right there on the couch, full of relief.
His children are home.