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Waffles was missing. Who was responsible for that? Probably him.
But facts didn't matter right now.
What actually mattered was finding Waffles before he got into a shitload of trouble with either his mom, his dad, or Sally. She fucking loved Waffles and would quite literally kill him if he lost Waffles.
Which is why, at precisely 3:27 in the fucking morning, Brad Tudabone was running full sprint, looking for any sign of his beloved Waffles. Caution was out of the window as the noiret ran through streets, sidewalks, parks, nearly anywhere as he occasionally shouted Waffles' name.
Not that Waffles would come anyway.
That's when Brad remembered a key detail: whenever he would take Waffles on a walk, they had to stop at the fountain in the park at the City Center because Waffles would whine incessantly unless they did. Brad had no clue why. Maybe Waffles liked resting on the -- somehow always cold -- limestone of the fountain, or maybe Waffles just liked pawing at the water of the fountain.
Whatever the reason was, that's where Brad probably had to go. Due to being in the dark for so long and Ninjago City Center not having that many street lamps in the park, Brad's eyes were able to spot a flash of ginger fur at the fountain before a hooded figure walked over to Waffles and gently picked him up. Then the hooded figure started stroking Waffles' fur.
Want to know the one thought racing through Brad's mind? 'Who does this fucking person think they are?'
And, without any second thought, Brad marched straight over to this hooded stranger and... tapped him on the shoulder.
The hooded figure turned around sharply, nearly shouting, "Who are you?" They were still petting the cat, mind you. Bonus points as well because they were in a defensive stance while doing so. Brad immediately shot his hands up for reasons unknown -- even to himself -- and backed up.
"That's my cat," Brad replied, pointing to Waffles. "And I would appreciate it if you gave him back."
"How do I know you're a good owner? After all, he was out here at 3 in the goddamn morning!" The stranger replied, holding Waffles closer. Brad thought he recognized the voice, but he shrugged it off, pinning it on paranoia and the dark. Another odd thing -- the second one of the night -- was that Waffles was very snuggly with the stranger. Usually, Waffles hated other people besides him, Sally, and his parents. Even then Waffles bit Brad from time to time. But right now? Waffles looked completely content with everything going in the world.
The noiret scoffed, explaining, "How would I be a bad owner? I know everything there is to know about Waffles! His birthday is March 4th, adoption date was July 28th, and Waffles has an allergy to dairy -- which is a lot more severe than your normal domesticated feline." The stranger did not seem impressed.
"And what do you actively do about this allergy?"
"Buy goat milk. It's supposed to be a good source of probiotics for cats." The stranger looked down at Waffles, then back up again at Brad and reluctantly gave the noiret Waffles back. "Thank you."
"It's called 'being a good-doer of Ninjago.' It is quite literally my job," the stranger shrugged. Brad turned around and prepared to walk away when suddenly a chirp was heard nearby, and before anyone knew it, Waffles sprang out of Brad's arms, successfully managing to spring his legs out so much that it pushed the noiret over, into the stranger, and into the fountain.
Brad sputtered for a moment before getting a footing on the bottom of the fountain and standing up. The stranger stood up as well, accidentally letting their hood fall down, revealing bright green eyes and now soaking-wet platinum blonde hair.
"Son of a-" The stranger -- or rather, the maybe stranger? -- looked down at their sopping went clothes and groaned in annoyance. Brad, on the other hand, could care less about his clothes being wet and was more focused on the person in front of him. Basically bleach-blonde hair, vibrant green eyes. Yep, there was nearly only one person in all of Ninjago that could be standing in front of him.
"Lloyd?" Brad questioned, still staring in confusion. The stranger --n ow revealed to be none other than the Lloyd Garmadon, famed green ninja -- realized his situation and attempted to climb out of the fountain and walk away from the situation, which only resulted in him slipping on the wet limestone and falling back into the fountain. The blonde immediately sat straight up, shivering due to the cold water, combined with the cold air that came with being outside at three in the morning. Brad rolled his eyes, safely got out of the fountain, then pulled Lloyd out as well, as much as the blonde protested that he could do it himself.
Yeah, no.
Lloyd grumbled a bit and took off his jacket, still violently shivering. Brad took off his as well, shaking it out as much as he could before handing it over to Lloyd and walking away to go look for Waffles... again. The blonde stared at the jacket in his hands for a second before putting it on and chasing after Brad.
"T-thanks," Lloyd stuttered, trying to find the right words. "Y'know, for, uh, pulling me out of the fountain."
"No problem. It's all about 'being a good-doer of Ninjago,' right?" Brad replied with a smirk.
Caught off guard by the non-hostility, Lloyd hesitated before saying, "Uhm, can I, uh, help you search for... Waffles?"
"Yes, his name is Waffles, and I don't know. How would you be able to help?" Brad asked, continuing to walk through the streets of the city.
"Enhanced senses," Lloyd smirked. "Like so."
"Like wha-" Brad cut himself off as he turned around and saw a completely different version of the Lloyd he had just seen two seconds ago. This one had mini horns, vibrantly pink colored eyes, a fucking tail, and dragon-esque ears instead of normal ones.
He must've had a pretty dumbfounded reaction to whatever this was, because Lloyd's smirk only widened when he said, "You're talking to the grandson of the First Spinjitzu Master. Dragon, Oni, human. What's not to like?" Brad just stared some more, feeling his face flush at the question Lloyd had asked. Truth be told, he was right. Brad could not list anything that was not to like about Lloyd.
- Hero of ninjago
- kind
- funny
- yes even the stupid-ass bowl cut he had when he was 10 (Brad had one too)
- etc
- etc
The list goes on.
Anyways, Lloyd just continued on walking past the noiret and began staring intently at the ground. Suddenly, the blonde spoke up, concluding, "Waffles went back to your house. Or apartment. Whichever."
"How do you-"
"Smell of satisfaction. You live on the East side of the city, right? Also I think Waffles killed a bird. That's what he's satisfied with."
"Yeah? Also wha-" Brad replied.
"Paw prints lead in that direction."
"How can you-"
"See the paw prints?" Lloyd cut Brad off once more. "Enhanced vision, buddy." The blonde walked past Brad and patted him on the shoulder, before saying, "Now lead the way to your humble abode. I wanna say goodbye to Waffles."
"Uh, okay then," the noiret started walking, hearing Lloyd behind him as he did so. Checking his watch, the time said 4:13. Shit. He'd been gone for almost an hour. And he left his phone at home. Great. Surely nobody would have noticed, right?
Wrong.
Dead wrong.
Brad and Lloyd reached the noiret's home about ten minutes later, and Brad -- silently as possible -- unlocked the door and opened it.
"Might wanna..." Brad trailed off before thinking of the right words, "put away that whole... display." Lloyd, getting the hint, returned to his normal human form and waited patiently by the door.
Unfortunately for Brad, he was dragged right into the house by one very worried Sally who was coincidentally sleeping over that night.
"Where have you been?" She nearly yelled in his face.
"Hello to you too, Sally. Uhm," Brad stuttered, thinking of a good explanation. "Places?" Of course, it was at this exact moment in time when a curious and impatient Lloyd poked his head through the still-open door.
"Where's Waffles-" he immediately retracted his head when he saw the fuming and concerned pink-and-brown-haired girl in the entryway. However, his presence did not go unnoticed.
Sally immediately dropped the collar of Brad's shirt and opened the door wider, stepping out onto the porch, widening her eyes when she saw Lloyd. She nearly screamed, "OMG! It's the green ninja!!!" until Lloyd shoved a hand over her mouth before she even got to the green ninja part. To any part beyond the 'OMG,' really.
"Shush!" Lloyd hissed. "I took a walk at three in the morning to feel like a normal person for once, so do not ruin that for me." Sally nodded and Lloyd slowly released her face from his grip, only to be dragged inside like Brad had been moments earlier.
"Why are you two drenched?" Sally inquired, taking a full look at the two of them.
"Long story or short story?" Brad replied, putting a hand through his drying hair.
Sally considered her options before saying, "Short. So that we can help Lloyd here in his endeavor to feel normal tonight!"
"Wait wha-"
"Okay so," Brad said, explaining, "Waffles somehow escaped-"
"HE WHAT!?"
"Calm down, he escaped, so I left to go find him. I went to the fountain, had a run-in with Lloyd here which turned into a pet-owner interrogation, I got Waffles back, Waffles pushed me into Lloyd and into the fountain. Lloyd then helped me track Waffles back here, and wouldn't take no for an answer when he followed me back to say goodbye to Waffles."
"Speaking of," Lloyd interrupted, bending down on his knees, "Waffles!" Instantaneously, the ginger-furred cat appeared from behind a corner and came prancing up to Lloyd, who fully sat down on the floor and began to drown Waffles in cuddles.
Not that Waffles was complaining.
"How..?" Sally asked, pointing to Lloyd.
"Don't ask me," Brad shrugged.
"I am one with the cats."
Sally turned away, saying, "Ooookay then. Anyways, there's still a few games out. Wanna play since it's worthless to try and salvage sleep at this point?"
"Sure!" The blonde cheered from his spot on the floor.
Out of nowhere, a yawn and soft footsteps were heard from the hallway off to the side, along with, "Whas goin' on here?"
"Go back to bed Gene," Sally droned, going to the living room to get a game ready. Lloyd shot his head up at the mention of the other, staring at Brad with a 'Really? This guy?' expression. Brad just shrugged. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately. To be fair, life has been very confusing for the past hour.
Lloyd finally decided to stand up -- not without Waffles in his arms of course -- and walked to the living room, passing by Gene on the way and saying, "Looks like the 'Darkley's gang' is back together." Brad had to contain his laughter at seeing Gene's confused face as he followed the blonde into the living room.
"Okayokayokay," Sally beamed with excitement as she held a deck of cards in her hand. "This is a card game we have called 'Truth or Dare.' Basically, everybody gets dealt 7 cards, and each turn, you pick a card from your hand and either ask a person a question on the green cards that they must answer truthfully, or tell them to do the dare on the red cards. If the person fails to do a dare or answer a question truthfully or refuse to answer at all, they must draw a card from the pile. I can tell when you're lying." Brad had a scared look on his face as he was dealt his cards.
"She's right, y'know," Brad muttered to Lloyd.
Lloyd looked skeptical, but started the game, saying, "Alright, I'll go first. Okay, uhm, Sally, what's the biggest lie you've ever told?"
"Oh this one's pretty recent. I told both Brad and Gene that we were out of Twinkies when in reality, there was an entire box left. The reason this is the biggest lie was because they both acted like it," Sally explained, gesturing wildly with her hands the whole time. After she finished, Lloyd put the truth card down face-up in the discard pile.
"Is it my turn?" Brad asked, receiving a firm nod from Sally. "Okay, uh, Lloyd, if you were to summarize your life in one sentence, what would that sentence be?"
Lloyd took a second to think, petting Waffles thoughtfully before responding, "I'll do you one better. A word. Trauma." The blonde did jazz hands before starting to pet Waffles again after Sally and Brad stared at him in confusion mixed with concern. "Sally's turn, right?" the other two nodded and Sally selected a card from her hand with a smile on her face.
"Brad. What is your guilty pleasure?" Sally asked.
Without missing a beat, Brad replied with a smirk, "Eating peanut butter straight out of the jar with a spoon."
"Uh, question outside of the game," Lloyd chimed in. "What does peanut butter taste like? One of the other ninjas has an allergy so we never keep it in the monastery." Sally and Brad both stared at him, again, and then Sally stood up without a word and went and got the jar of peanut butter and a spoon.
"Here."
"Uh... thanks?" Lloyd accepted the jar and spoon and tentatively ate a spoonful of it. Surprisingly, after he swallowed, he had a look of disgust on his face. "Never again. It fucking stuck to the roof of my mouth. Anyways, my turn now. Brad. I dare you to read the last text you sent out loud."
Brad groaned in annoyance before setting his cards down. He pulled out his phone and clicked the screen a couple times before saying, "The last text I sent to someone was sent to Gene yesterday. 'when tf are you getting back here with the groceries bc I want my fucking Coco puffs'." The noiret pocketed his phone again and selected a card from his hand, grinning. "Okay, Lloyd. As revenge for that, I dare you to be someone's pet for the next 20 minutes."
"Fine with me," Lloyd shrugged and gently set Waffles down from his lap before shifting back into the 'form' he was in earlier. Horns, differently colored eyes, tail, ears, the whole shabang.
Sally, instead of being weirded out or terrified, just uttered, "Damn. That's cool."
"But, as revenge for that," the blonde smirked from where he was sitting, "I am going to be your obnoxious cat for the next 20 minutes besides when it's my turn, Brad." The noiret had an instant look of regret as the 20 minute cycle began of Lloyd endlessly poking, prodding, pawing, and just being -- as he said he would be -- obnoxious. But Brad thought it was pretty funny and cute. Lloyd did as well, though the two would never admit that out loud.
The night went on like this for another two hours, with funny, lighthearted dares and truths, until Lloyd's phone began to ring.
"Shit," He muttered before slowly lifting the phone away from his ear, only to immediately retract it as a loud voice came from the other end.
"Lloyd!? WHERE ARE YOU?"
"Uhm," Lloyd shot Brad and Sally a nervous look before responding, "a friend's house?"
"Awww, Lloyd made an actual friend Kai!"
"Waitwaitwait, is everybody else on this call?" Lloyd asked.
"Yes, Lloyd. Also, you do realize your phone has tracing on it, correct?"
Lloyd had a stunned look of shock before he said, "What?"
"Mhm. Oh, yeah, Kai also immediately left the monastery after Zane said that."
"Are you eating something, Cole?"
"Yep."
"Great. Well, see you guys in a bit," Lloyd hurriedly hung up before saying to Brad and Sally, "Well, I should probably go, unless you want this house to go up in flames because of my older brother."
"Yeah, no," Sally replied, cleaning up the game.
Brad had a disappointed look on his face as Lloyd got up and headed towards the door, waving a quick goodbye before leaving. However, the noiret noticed that Lloyd had left his phone.
"I'm gonna go get this back to Lloyd before he goes, 'kay Sally?"
"Don't die!" was the last thing that Sally said before Brad ran through the door to look for Lloyd. Thankfully, the blonde hadn't gotten far and so Brad began to run on the sidewalk towards him. That is, until a hot, giant set of claws pinned him to the ground.
Great.
Lloyd immediately turned around at the thump behind him, and then realized that he had forgotten his phone back at Brad's house.
He started running towards Kai, Kai's elemental dragon, and Brad -- who was pinned under Kai's elemental dragon. He could see that Kai had already dismounted his dragon and was holding a sword to Brad's throat -- which was not a good thing. A conversation was happening between the two, but it looked more like Kai was either accusing or interrogating Brad, both of which were equally as bad.
"Kai, wait!" Lloyd shouted before any damage could be done. The brunette immediately turned around at the sound of Lloyd's voice and crossed his arms.
"And where have you been?" Kai asked, raising an eyebrow.
Lloyd sighed as he approached the red ninja, replying, "As I said before, a friend's house. And you just so happen to have one of those friends pinned under your dragon, so I would appreciate it if you let him go."
"Then why was he chasing you?"
"Because he was returning my phone, dumbass!" Lloyd shouted at Kai, walking past him to Brad and dragging him out from under the fire dragon's talons.
Brad inhaled deeply, mostly unaware that the dragon had been pushing the breath out of him until he had gotten up. After regaining his breath, he straightened his posture and stuck out a hand towards Kai with an attempted smile, saying, "Hi, uhm, I'm Brad."
"Hold up, wait a minute, are you that kid from Darkley's ten years ago?" Kai asked, eyeing Brad up and down.
"Maybe? There were a ton of kids at Darkley's when you and the other ninja came," Brad admitted, rubbing the back of his head. "But probably, since I was one of the only ones that Lloyd introduced to you."
"Didn't you guys kidnap him?" Kai asked, skeptical.
Brad didn't know how to respond to that, so luckily, Lloyd did that for him, responding, "Yeah, but he was the first one to say that the kidnapping was wrong. Plus, he was one of the main helpers when we saved your asses from your duplicates. He basically sewed nearly all of the suits." Kai now looked like he regretted the past five minutes, so he hopped back onto his dragon.
"Come on, Lloyd. Time to get back to the monastery," the brunette ordered. "And since I'm nice, I'll let you ride your own dragon, just don't fall behind."
"Alright. Give me a second. You go on ahead and I swear I'll catch up," Lloyd replied. Kai gave him a skeptical look but eventually rolled his eyes and took off.
Brad hesitated for a moment after Kai was gone, then said, "Wanna keep in touch? I don't want to lose contact again and then reunite 12 years later when my cat escapes."
"Only on the condition that you send daily pictures of Waffles," Lloyd demanded with a smile. "And yeah, I would like to avoid that again."
"Great! Uh, can you hand me your phone so I can put my number into it?" Brad asked. Lloyd obliged and the noiret took a moment while putting his number into the blonde's phone before handing it back. "Done! I'll uh, see you later?"
"Definitely."
"Uh, then, goodbye I guess!"
"Bye!" Lloyd shouted before summoning his elemental dragon and taking off into the air.
---
When Lloyd returned to the monastery, there was definitely some uproar about him leaving at three in the morning, but it calmed down after a little bit, and now the blonde was relaxing in his room, setting up the contact in his phone.
You: hola
soy dora [9:07]
brad📯🦴: wussup [9:10]
You: waffles.
waffles NOW [9:10]
brad📯🦴: hes being difficult
gimme a damn second [9:12]
You: I SAID NOW PEASANT [9:12]
brad📯🦴: fsm chill its sending [9:14]
Lloyd waited as patiently as he could -- he was not patient -- before the notification ding sounded and he hurriedly opened his phone to see a picture of Waffles.
brad📯🦴: Attachment: 1 Image [9:16]
You: akjxbsvhjarsn [9:16]
brad📯🦴: i take it you are satisfied my liege [9:16]
You: yes i am
you have done well peasant :3 [9:17]
brad📯🦴: ❤️
wait
shit
sorry
i clicked on the wrong emoji
👍 [9:19]
You: sureeeeeee :) [9:19]
brad📯🦴: leave me alone [9:21]
You: wait
brad no
don't leave me :( [9:21]
You: come backkkk
im sorryy [9:22]
Shit.
He had fucked up.
Thinking quickly -- but not at all clearly -- Lloyd jumped out of his bed and ran out of the monastery and then summoned his elemental dragon, taking flight as soon as he boarded. He flew over the city until he spotted the apartment/house/whatever. Dissipating his elemental dragon, Lloyd fell down to the near-empty sidewalk. He walked up to the door and knocked twice before the door slammed open.
"Who are you and what do you wa-" Sally cut herself off upon seeing Lloyd. "Oh, hi Lloyd! Are you here about the text message thing?"
"Y-you know about that?"
"Not details, just a bit of Brad muttering about how fucking stupid he is then locking himself in his room. Also I take that as a yes, then?"
"Uh, yeah. Can I come in?" Lloyd asked. Without warning, Sally basically dragged him inside and to Brad's room's door.
"Good luck!" She half-shouted before heading off to who knows where inside the house.
Lloyd knocked hesitantly on the door, hearing a muffled 'come in' before opening it.
"Heyyyy Brad," he hesitantly said before shutting the door, enveloping the room in a calming almost-darkness. The noiret was sitting on his floor, knees hugged to his face.
"Did Sally send you?" he asked. "Because I'm not leaving this room, Gene."
Okay. So. Brad thought Lloyd was someone else. He could work with this.
Immediately, his mind thought of something. He left the room and quickly found Waffles, then went back to Brad's room. At the sound of Waffles meowing, Brad shifted his head a little and questioned, "Gene, how did you manage to get Waffles? He hates-" he cut himself off when his gaze caught onto the person that was definitely not Gene. He bolted up from the floor in surprise and spun around to completely face Lloyd -- who still had Waffles in his arms.
"Lloyd."
"Brad."
"I-I'm sorry-"
"I know. That's why I'm here. You tend to beat yourself up over minor slip-ups, at least from what I can remember."
"How do you remember that? It's literally been years."
"I have a good memory, what can I say? Now," Lloyd sat down and patted the space in front of him, "talk."
Brad took a deep breath and sat down, despite all the stress and anxiety pent up inside of him telling him not to.
And the two began to talk.
Talk about simple things, like morning routines.
Talk about how the people they each lived with would get angry over the simplest of things.
Talk about themselves.
Talk about fears; worries.
Talk about the feelings that threatened to overwhelm the both of them.
Talk about nothing at all.
~~
It had been about an hour or so since Sally had basically dragged Lloyd inside and shoved him at Brad's door. She didn't know what became of it, but she never saw the green ninja leave, so she went to go check on... whatever.
When she opened Brad's bedroom door, she did so softly, since there was next to no light in the room, and to her, that meant the environment you were entering was supposed to be peaceful, and she liked to keep it that way.
She opened the door a crack, then slipped her head in to survey the room. It took a second, but once her eyes adjusted, she might've very well exploded.
Brad was sitting in his office chair -- he found those comfortable for First Master knows what reason -- legs crossed, and asleep, with his head leaning against the back of the chair. Lloyd was in a similar position, cross-legged on the ground--asleep as well -- but his head was leaned up against the crook where Brad's legs folded in. Waffles was asleep, nestled in Lloyd's lap, the blonde's hands resting on top of the cat.
Adorable: Lloyd was in his dragon-esque form, ears and tail twitching every so often.
Even more adorable: Brad had one of his hands on Lloyd's head, settled in between stands of blonde hair.
Yeah, no. Sally was not interrupting this, but she could at least get some blackmail. Quickly, she pulled out her phone and snapped a photo, making sure that night mode was on so that she didn't have to use the flash.
She shut the door and went back to the living room, where she stumbled across Lloyd's phone that had fallen out of his pocket. Considering what happened last night, Sally picked up the phone and scrolled through the contacts until she reached the ice ninja's contact -- validly labeled 'Elsa 2.0' -- and copied the number into her own phone.
A few quick texts to the Ice Ninja and ten minutes later, Sally heard a knock on the door. She opened it and a floating droid came into the house, greeting, "Hello citizen! I am MiniPix7. I have been sent to confirm Lloyd Garmadon's location at this address. Will you please show me to him?" Sally nodded her head, pink curls bouncing a bit, and led the MiniPix to Brad's door, opening it ever so slightly so that the droid could see into the room.
"See? Safe and sound," Sally said once they were back in the entrance hallway.
"Thank you for your cooperation," the MiniPix replied. "I will see to it that the report of location confirmation for Lloyd Garmadon gets safely back to the ninja."
Sally waved at the droid leaving the house and called out, "Bye MiniPix!"
~~
The ice ninja sat at their desk, working on blueprints for a new vehicle. A beeping and a whirring alerted them that the MiniPix had returned. Zane plugged the droid into the small computer in front of them and accessed the footage from the visit, pausing to analyze the picture of the room that Lloyd was said to have been in.
A small smile creeped upon the nindroid's face as they viewed the image closer.
"I think I'll keep this bit away from the others," Zane whispered to themself. "He needs this."