Work Text:
I.
It’s safe to say, Cole is arguably the least surprised when he hears it. Five years is a long time, a long time to be separated, a long time to be alone, a long time to not be alone, and all the ninja can attest to how different it was from only being separated for a year with at least some form of contact in place.
Cole doesn’t really know what happened between the explosions and waking up in the Lost. He just knows the time he spent alone until the Finders, well, found him. It was kind of like that time when he was a ghost. When no one could hear or see him, and all he could do was move forward on his own.
Maybe that's why it was so easy for him to get attached to the Finders.
His mother always said he had a big heart, that fighting to protect others was a strength of his. He lets those words fill his thoughts often, because he saw in Shintaro just how alike he was to her for the first time since her death.
He wanted to fight for the Finders. To protect them. Just as he did when he met a nervous Jay, a confused Zane, an anxiously overwhelmed Kai, stubborn Nya, and when he finally let himself meet Lloyd.
He wanted his family.
So he made one. Not to replace the others, but to share the love he knew they would want him to give, and maybe, just maybe, to fill the void he always feels when he’s utterly alone.
The ninja gave him his family, but the Finders made him a dad.
He’s been a big brother for years, and it's not exactly the same, but he thinks there are definitely enough similarities for him to feel like he’s trained for this role. Not that he’s prepared, but that he surprises himself when he does something right.
Maybe that’s why the first time Spitz called him ‘papa!’ one morning in a fit of excitement, it never even crossed his mind that the role wouldn’t belong to him, or to think what Geo, who they already called dad, would say the next time they were alone, and why Bonzle sat in that same brother-father limbo he’s seen Lloyd trifle through all these years whenever he goes to the ninja for anything.
Maybe it’s that time spent growing up with Lloyd that really changed things. He’s seen the kid go from world’s most misunderstood kid to Ninjago’s savior. Watched as he faced horrors, death, possession, all before anyone would ever consider him an adult. He’s seen how much his little brother cares. How much caring for him has made Cole want to care for others. How much Cole just knows Lloyd will never not care, not when he has his siblings to go back to.
Cole thinks he worried for Lloyd the most in his absence.
Lloyd was never meant to be alone. He had spent too much time like that as a kid, and it's obvious he never wants to do it again. While Cole doesn’t really believe in your first love being your ending, the way Harumi affected Lloyd made him think he’d never get to experience the same joy Cole feels now. Cole treasures these kids with his every being, the world reminds them too often that it could all be taken away.
Maybe that’s why he isn’t surprised when the words come out of his mouth.
Cole and his family are at the Monastery of Spinjitzu, safe for the time being as they wait for whatever Ras plans next, the kids, his husband, his siblings. All here. That’s what really matters.
He lets the calm soothe what it can, the Earth isn’t screaming as it once was, but it isn’t entirely gone either. Something will happen, and all they can do is wait. So he takes what he can get, shuffling his way through the halls, listening to laughter and bickering, enjoying the fact that they finally aren’t empty after all these years.
Not that they were too empty. Lloyd had taken Sora and Arin in half a year after the Merge. The thoughts warms Cole’s heart to know his brother wasn’t alone for too long, and that Kai had found him and did what he could to keep in touch. That Lloyd was able to feel genuinely happy like Cole had, even while the rest of their family was missing.
Their relationship is interesting. Lloyd is the same worry wart he always has been when others get hurt, but it's seemingly tenfold. He thinks things through much more thoroughly when the two are involved than Cole has ever seen him do before, less rash and full steam ahead. He’s always had a good head on his shoulders, he’s their leader for a reason, but he’s emotional just like the rest of them. When he speaks of their achievement his face is so fond, Cole finds himself smiling every time, even if he was right next to Lloyd the moment it first happened.
Cole doesn’t pay much mind to any of this though, he simply watches.
He makes it to the kitchen, intent to find a snack. There’s no cake, which is fine, he’s gone this long without it, he can wait till everything settles down before he has any again, but they’re bound to have something. Lloyd mentioned he was ‘getting really good at grocery shopping.’
Speaking of, he’s the first person Cole sees as he walks into the kitchen.
“Hey Cole! What’s up?” Lloyd asks, turning away from the vegetables laying on the counter, Sora has her head in the fridge, and Arin is by the stove.
“Not much, just thought I’d get up and get a snack, was kind of hungry.” He mentions, going towards a cupboard.
Sora grabs something wrapped in tinfoil and turns with a smile on her face, “We’re helping Dad make dinner, want first dibs?”
What confuses Cole in that moment is, “Lloyd learned how to cook?” Because last he checked, the kid could burn water. (Nya and Kai were always the most impressed with that feat.)
“Of course I can-”
“Kind of,” Arin interrupts, “but we’re here, so we promise it’ll taste good!”
“Well if it tastes good, you bet I want in!” Cole laughs, Lloyd is still trying to defend himself in the corner. “Don’t worry Lloyd, my kids won’t let me forget the time I was trying to fix our sink and I forgot to turn off the water.”
Lloyd groans, “I’m never getting free from you two.”
“Of course not!” Arin cheers.
“Looks like you’re stuck with us,” Sora says, hands on her hip before reminding Lloyd of some step he almost skipped.
It’s not until he’s finished tucking in Fitz and Spitz, on his way down the hall with Geo that he sees Lloyd saying goodnight to Sora and Arin and thinks, ‘Jeez, he’s such a dad.’ before violently remembering, ‘Holy shit, he literally is a dad!’
He wonders why the universe forced their family to once again miss seeing Lloyd truly grow up.
II.
Nya is far more surprised than she has any right to be, she thinks. She’s known Lloyd since she was young. Even after his age jump, they were still tied for the youngest on the team, and despite all odds, they’ve always gotten along extremely well. He tells her a lot, some things he’d never tell the boys, and their time while the others were in the First Realm only helped to strengthen that bond. It broke her heart, coming back from the sea and hearing the state he’d left in. She never wants to see him like that, not her baby brother, so full of hope, so caring, and kind, and loyal.
When she woke up after the Merge, she always wondered how the others were doing, but each of them had spent time taking care of themselves, in different ways doing different things, but Lloyd was so young when he was last alone. Hell the kid released a bunch of vengeful snakes he was so alone. Even before he realized it, all he wanted was someone to care for him the way he cared for them. All he’s ever been is a kid working to prove himself. He’d done it tenfold before he even was recognized as the Green Ninja.
So she was worried.
She was even more worried when she realized Lloyd had been taking care of Sora and Arin while they were all away.
While she’s glad Lloyd wasn’t alone, she knows there must have been an undeniable pressure that sat on his mind over those years. Kai never really speaks on it these days, but the little he did always made Nya grateful for her big brother more and more. Hearing everything he gave up just so Nya could be happy, could eat, could stay clean with proper hygiene. It's no wonder his becoming a ninja ultimately fell back on something to do with her, even if she doesn’t remember it quite the way he does. Whatever he changed, it must have been pretty detrimental.
For Lloyd, thinking of the boy who gave up so much, continuing to give up more for other children, it was a lot to take in. If she knew anything though, it was that Lloyd looked up to Kai and he’d never turn away from two kids in need.
They’re kind. The biggest sweethearts she’s met in a while, and nothing like little Lloyd was. They fit so perfectly into their dysfunctional little family, Nya can’t help but immediately accept her new…siblings? As soon as she meets them. Whatever Lloyd and them had gone through, it seems they’re all happier for it. Lloyd looks lighter than she expected, not just because he found her and Kai, but because he genuinely just seems happy when the kids are around. There’s only one problem.
‘Siblings’ doesn’t quite feel right. She thinks about it. But she can’t figure out why it doesn’t feel right. While they’ve always been siblings, Lloyd has always been a strong connecting factor. She doesn’t know that the others would have ever been in the same place at the same time after Zane’s death to the Overlord had it not been for her younger brother.
And maybe that's why it took her so long to understand what had happened in those five years. Lloyd has always been the younger, the one she looks out for, the one with a bleeding heart that others like to use and abuse no matter how hard her and boys try to protect him. They’ve always been the ones taking care of him. In no world did she ever consider him taking care of anyone else in a way different to which they had done for him.
She watches the three of them interact, if she can’t figure this out on her own, maybe she just needs a bit more evidence.
She sees the trio when they’re making dinner, how they move around not particularly in sync, but with enough familiarity that makes her think they’re all learning some new dynamic in the kitchen. Lloyd mentioned that they’re only newly ninja, he hadn’t been training them until this whole ordeal started and forced him to, so it must have something to do with that. Is he not sure how to treat them now that they’re his students or something?
They train, but it's a lot less than Nya expected. Not that this is disappointing, she’s actually quite proud of Lloyd. He’d been their master once before, but this is different, he never taught them from scratch. She sees the nods to Wu’s training, how it's still ingrained in him, but he pushes on and adjusts when he remembers to, and Nya wonders when he came to the realization that Wu’s training wouldn’t work for them. How he did. It’s so odd, seeing a boy she once knew, and it feels like there's so much she doesn’t know about him anymore.
Wasn’t she meant to be here, to tell him off when he’s too much like his uncle, to advise him when he needs help in the kitchen, to provide support whenever he needs it. How can five years cost her so much?
She’s walking down the monastery’s halls. Her head feels cloudy, and she’s not quite sure how to clear her thoughts this time. She hears Lloyd’s voice. It’s coming from Arin and Sora’s room. She moves forward, intent to send them all to bed, they all need to be up early the next day. Before she fully makes it to the door, however, she hears a quiet, “Night, Dad,” chorus from two voices.
She stops in her tracks. ‘Dad,’ she thinks, ‘they call him Dad.’ Her eyes are a little hazy, and she’s not quite sure when that started, but she quickly wipes them away as the door slides, open, then, closed. She looks at Lloyd, he’s still staring at the door, eyes soft and a content smile on his face. He stretches his arms above his head before he turns to her.
She looks at him, really looks at him, and sees a grown man standing in front of her. Last they’d lived under the same roof, he was still a child she needed to protect, but the man in front of her is a father. He worries, he deathly worries for those kids, it's why he was able to understand the rigorous training he went through as a kid, why he adjusted it for these two, and why he continues to pay attention to it so he can avoid as many mistakes as possible. Simply to keep them safe.
Their dynamic in the kitchen is silly, but it's not because of the change to student, rather that's just who they are. Who they’ve always been even before this ninja stuff came into play. She’s just so used to it being the base for so many of her and her siblings interactions, a cause for a lot of their odd habits, that she never considered the imperfections to be their own form of normal.
They’re not new siblings, they're her niece and nephew. And wow is that insane to think, the baby of their group having kids. Is he the first? She doesn’t have any more surprise nieces or nephews, does she? She can’t imagine Zane having kids, maybe Cole, but he’s taken this long to date. Someone other than herself or Vania wouldn’t be around, right? And she refuses to even consider Jay. He would never.
She’s been staring at Lloyd a long time now, he looks at her, concerned.
“Nya? Something wrong?”
Nya walks up to him, trying to keep the earlier tears at bay until she gets to her own room.
“Nah Greenie, get yourself to bed would you? You’ve got two kids to train,” she laughs.
Lloyd rolls his eyes, but walks with her towards their rooms, she’s about to turn into her own before Lloyd stops her, "I really missed you.” He whispers, another hug, more bone crushing than the last.
“Missed you too, little bro,” she hugs him. As he steps away she grabs her door handle, “Lloyd, one more thing,” Lloyd turns towards her, confused, “I’m really proud of you.”
And she closes her door.
Sitting in her room she realizes her little brother is no longer the baby of the family, not in the way he was before, and Nya will always be full of regret that she couldn’t do more to support him.
III.
Rogue is perfectly aware that the green one is a grown adult. He seems kind of immature, but an adult nonetheless. He’s about as pushy as Nya, but he’s got the ability to be reasoned with. Whatever the case, it doesn’t matter to Jay.
He’s not entirely sure how he feels about the colorful ninja. They’re honestly more annoying than Ras, and he thinks the sincerity with which they speak to him may be just as infuriating. He doesn’t distinctly remember a time before he ‘shattered his goodness.’ Not because it doesn’t exist, but because all that seemed to fill it when he tried was desperation and hope. It sounds to him like he was a loser with some tragic story. Now, he’s made a name and he’s making money. It doesn’t matter what Nya and her merry band of siblings say, he’s happy with himself the way he is now and he doesn’t understand why they have to keep bothering him with it.
‘Jay’ will never be as good as he is, and was never good enough for Nya.
It’s with these thoughts that Rogue ducks his way out of the monastery late one night.
Apparently there's some kind of party down at the Crossroads. He’s not quite sure what there is to even celebrate. Don’t these people even realize how many times their worlds almost ended in these last few weeks? All because of some psycho cat man and the people he initiated the release of?
People are too sentimental, and Jay isn’t feeding into it. Like green boy and that kid with the hoodie.
Speaking of.
Jay pushes through the people, adamant to find a spot alone when he thinks he’s finally found one. It’s on the outskirts of town, it's like the celebration wants to stop here but the people have pushed it forwards beyond where it's supposed to reach. He turns a corner between two buildings, it seems lonely enough from afar.
Except, apparently it's not.
“Jay?”
Green boy. Oh, and that girl with pink hair. The ones who want him to find the other kid’s parents. Geez, of all the people he could run into. Why can’t he ever just be alone?
(Maybe it’s because we were before Ras. Because the reason you can’t remember them is because you couldn’t stand being alone. He promised to find someone. Or maybe because you knew the whole time that the Administration was lying to you. That it couldn’t simply end there.)
He rolls his eyes at the duo, passes them to get farther into the space, closer to the back corner.
“What are you doing?” the girl asks him. The two are sat against the wall, side by side. Her head on his shoulder and his arm around hers, like he’s keeping the whole world from seeing her. Like he is ready to move at the single disturbance.
It makes him wonder why he wasn’t jumped as soon as he’d stepped into their space.
“What’s it matter? You ninja are everywhere, it's not like I can get away from you,” Rogue scoffs. He sees both of them wince, but neither make an effort to continue the conversation, so he takes it as a win. His own head leaned back against the stone of the wall behind him, it almost feels like he’s alone. Almost.
“We’ll get him back, Sora. And when we do, we’ll make him do extra drills so that he never leaves again.”
He refuses to open his eyes.
“But what if he doesn’t want to come back. I mean, it's my fault he left. Wyldfyre was right, I shouldn’t have let him think he did that objectjitsu and then never told him when we were safe afterwards.”
“Sora, look at me,” there's movement, “It is not your fault Arin left. That was his choice. You guys have your ups and downs, all siblings always do. You did it with good intentions, and while you’re going to have to apologize, you need to understand that it was not, by any means, the catalyst for Arin leaving. Maybe he was feeling a little heated so it made him do something more brash than we expected. At the end of the day, you two are my responsibility. You always have been. It’s my job to talk to you and make sure things like this don’t happen. It’s what I promised myself when I took you in.”
Siblings? Took them in? How long have those brats been here?
“You do though, Dad. You have talked to us, and when you don’t it's always been reasonable…Arin used to tell me stories of how Wu would spring surprises on the ninja, people he’s met, secrets he’s kept. It’s never felt like that with you. I trust you, Lloyd.”
“And I’m glad you feel that way, but I’m not perfect. There’s a lot I could’ve changed over these years, a lot I could’ve done if I hadn’t been so scared. I make new mistakes all the time, and they never seem to stop. I won’t let this be another one. No matter what happens, I promise you, Arin will come home. He’ll see his parents. We’ll stop Ras. This promise, I know I can keep, a ninja never quits.”
“I know you won’t, Dad.”
Rogue doesn’t know when he opened his eyes to look at the two, but their arms are wrapped around each other and he can hear sniffling. He wonders why they came out to this random alleyway of all places to discuss this, then quickly shuts it down.
He quietly returns to the monastery that night, and when he wakes in the morning to see the two laying on the couch, he may or may not go out of his way not to wake them up. Not for their sakes, but so he can enjoy the quiet for a little longer.
IV.
Zane is, unsurprisingly, the first to figure it out. He is also, surprisingly, not required to put the pieces together himself, this time.
Zane has always been ‘odd’ as others would say. Even after learning his status as a Nindroid, however, he’s never really understood why. He does things differently, but so don’t Kai and Nya, Lloyd does, Cole and Jay, even Master Wu. None of them are inherently the same.
Zane is who his father built him to be, who he taught him to be, and who Zane himself wanted to become.
So really, everyone is odd and everyone is different. He likes those differences about his family. He thinks it's a part of why it was so easy for them to accept him and why he in turn has never questioned them.
It's why, after hearing he’d missed another five years (after spending decades as a wandering amnesiac, and then decades more an evil emperor), nothing really fit into his perception of ‘normal’ anymore. Jay and Cole were still gone, there were now three new students in the monastery, and if their actions are anything to go by, it doesn’t seem like the rest of his siblings are quite as used to being around each other as they used to be. They still move together, but it's just the slightest bit off. It’s odd. But Zane supposes, they always have been, they always will be, and this is his new normal as they all find where they fit again.
Although, Zane didn’t think he’d see Lloyd in the teacher position so soon. He’s young, and Zane can identify all the ways he’s still immature in mind, but even younger Lloyd was good at keeping them together, at teaching them lessons. Something Zane is grateful for when he thinks back to Chen’s. Either way, knowing and seeing are two different things.
It suits him, though.
Zane knows just how dedicated his youngest brother can be when it comes to family. They’re all the same, and Lloyd easily picked it up from their own self-sacrificial tendencies over the years. It’s no surprise at all when the man asks Zane to join him to find the power source under the newest monastery in Imperium.
Zane hopes, though a quick analysis tells him he probably shouldn’t, that the energy source is something simple, electronic, and possibly hackable. That Zane is the one who can do something in this very moment to charge their path home.
Hoping is too much.
Of course, it's a dragon. The sight worries him. Dragons have always represented a change for them, in some way. That something big will, or is currently, occurring. He thinks there's been quite a few large changes in the time he was powered down, and that his family does not deserve the force in which they keep shooting towards them.
Of course, as with all of the First Spinjitsu Master’s family, the dragon is best connected with Lloyd.
Zane is unsurprised, and doesn’t even look at the calculator circling in the corner of his vision. He doesn’t need to know the odds of Lloyd taking on something big from the dragon in front of them. It’s Lloyd, he will do it no matter what Zane says, and all Zane can do is worry and protect his little brother to the best of his abilities.
Even if that means watching as the man pushes himself to exhaustion from using a power never intended for human kind. Catching the man from falling out of the sky. Carrying his limp body back to his bedroom and painstakingly taking care of him as he waits for him to wake up.
With nothing left to do but watch.
It’s in this state, these few days of Lloyd’s (commonly occurring, oh how Zane wishes his family would stop falling into) coma, that Zane learns the information.
He makes a routine of checking in on his brother, wiping sweat from the obvious dreams that seem to keep him in distress, even as he sleeps. It’s not a first, and it certainly won’t be the last. Just a part of Zane’s normal that not even the Merge could steal away.
When people ask how he’s doing, all Zane can say is that he’s physically healthy and all they are able to do to help is wait. To maybe work with the dragons downstairs. To train and show Lloyd what they’ve been up to when he’s able to see it for himself.
There’s not much Zane can advise, at this moment.
Maybe therapy. But they have no therapy. Or a licensed therapist. Zane doesn’t have all the modules for that installed, and even if he did, he’s too close to the source to be an outlet for them. (And shutting off your emotions probably isn’t something he can suggest normal humans to do. It wasn’t even healthy for him to do it.)
It’s during this routine that he stops himself from entering Lloyd’s room. There’s someone already in there, and they’re speaking softly. Not soft enough for Zane to ignore, however.
“I know you said it when I took on this role.” They say, the voice is young, male. He identifies it quickly as a match to Arin. One of Lloyd’s students. “I know you said it was dangerous. That it wasn’t just about fighting, looking cool, that being a ninja meant sacrifice. I said I was alright with that. That it was okay, but I was only thinking about myself.”
Zane listens, maybe he shouldn’t. If it were any other ninja, he’d scold them for eavesdropping and send them on their way. There’s just something about this conversation…
“I thought…I thought that if it was me getting hurt, that would be fine. But Dad…I never thought to consider I’d see you hurt.”
There’s sniffing, something sounds like a cough.
‘Dad.’ Zane thinks, ‘A dad.’
“I know, technically, there's no injuries, and you’re physically in the same shape you were in before you passed out, but what if it was worse?”
And after all this time. After everything that has happened. Every new ‘odd’ that Zane has had to refit into ‘normal’.
This isn’t odd at all.
He’s barely spent any time at all with them. He knows nothing of their interests, their dislikes, where they’re from. But he knows they’re comfortable here, been here a while. He’s seen their room, it implies at least two years of stay. The way they move in the kitchen. The way they lay on the couch, but never seemed to fall asleep, even when their eyes drooped low after the events of Imperium.
To Zane, this all feels perfectly like normal. And that's the oddest thing about this situation.
“I can’t lose another dad.”
It’s so quiet, Zane isn’t sure his sensors truly picked it up, but they’re working without fail, so that must be what the boy said.
Normal isn’t so bad, Zane decides.
He’ll revisit Lloyd later.
V.
Kai doesn’t know how he went this long without knowing. Like, maybe he knew and he didn’t realize it, maybe he was too busy, but he thinks he probably should’ve picked it up way earlier than any of the other ninja had.
Or maybe not.
One thing about raising himself and Nya, is that even after all these years he’s not entirely sure what a parent is. Sure, his came back, after so so long they came back. He’s thankful for it too, don’t get him wrong. It doesn’t take away from the fact that the most important years of his life were taken away from him by two greedy men. The most important of Nya’s life. So maybe he wouldn’t notice. He only knows what it's like to take care, not be taken care of. Kai wouldn’t trust Wu much, not even after he and Nya moved in. The guy was old and pushy, and Kai felt like his life had been ripped right out from under him. But he was still taking care of himself.
There was a lot he had to learn about others. A lot he still has to learn. His brothers used to teach him something new everyday for years on end. When that suddenly stopped, the Merge reminded Kai exactly what it meant to take care of himself. To only have himself to rely on. He desperately wanted to return, to call the others, he’d let it be used against him.
They could all take care of themselves, in one way or another, but they never should have had to.
When he thought of Lloyd while they were split, those first three months, he worried. Constantly hoping that there was just one other person with him. That maybe Kai was the only one split up. When his hopes were dashed, he was almost scared to leave his brother alone. He was already smaller than he was before, and Kai knew that even though he’d scolded the other, Kai leaving wouldn’t help anything. He makes sure to send scrolls, because he’s not sure what would happen otherwise.
They’re not the same without each other, and Kai hates to see what could happen if someone drives them too close to that edge. They’ve all been close, way too many times. Now that they’re alone, it would be much easier. Kai never wants to see the others like that. Never wants them to know firsthand what he went through as a kid. Not while he can help it.
And maybe that's why he never considered it going differently for someone else.
Unlike the others, it’s not Arin or Sora calling Lloyd their dad that tipped him off. He thought (as any sane person would, might he add) they had been doing it as a joke. His brother was way too young to have any kids! Biological or adopted.
No, Kai isn’t aware until he sees it.
Sora goes with Ras and Arin.
They had to watch as the kids walked away, as Lloyd let them walk away. And Sora, before leaving, “Lloyd? I’m sorry too,” before running after Arin. Lloyd flinches, and when Kai looks at him it’s not Sora he’s looking at, but Arin.
For a moment, Kai thinks of Cole, wonders what he’d say to Lloyd here and now. Thinks he’s the only person who really understands what's happening with his brother. So Kai asks, “Are you seriously going to let Ras leave with them?”
“They’re free to make their own decisions. That’s the difference between us and Ras.” Lloyd is still staring.
“And you’re not worried about them?” Frak asks, his eyes concerned.
“I didn’t say that,” Lloyd whispers.
“But you’re their family. They call you ‘Dad’.” Wyldfyre retorts, Kai can see she’s anxious, “I wouldn’t leave Kai like that.” She mutters to herself, and that's a can of worms Kai will open later, but it does something.
It clicks things into place.
If to Wyldfyre, he’s like a dad, then Lloyd to Sora and Arin, and those two in turn…Lloyd’s been taking care of them for years. Of course they weren’t joking when they called him dad. He is their dad. They were always his kids.
As he listens to an amnesiac Jay’s rambles, Wyldfyre hanging off his shoulder, he thinks. If Wyldfyre were to leave right now, how would he feel? If she turned away with Ras in hopes to find her biological parents, never looking him in the eye as she walks away.
The thought kills him.
He doesn’t know exactly the kind of relationship he has with her, but he knows how important a person she’s become in his life these few months. It was difficult at first, but so wasn’t Nya, Lloyd tested his patience every time they were in the same room. But it doesn’t diminish the love he’s felt for all of them. He’s not sure it even comes close to what Lloyd must be feeling, though. Maybe one day, he’ll understand it better, but for now, he feels like he’s watching through a glass.
It’s Cole’s eyes that really drive it home for him.
When they return to see a party, Kai’s own mood lightens, he lets Wyldfyre off with Roby, and speaks with Cole and his unlimited stomach.
“And still no Arin?” Cole asks.
“He and Sora went with Ras,” Lloyd responds.
Cole and Lloyd lock eyes, it's a silent conversation Kai can only pick the smallest of details from, one of them being ‘I’m sorry’.
“Dead? I know for a fact that Arin kid’s parents are alive.”
Lloyd speaks for them all when he says, “What?”
+1
They celebrate. A little prematurely, they haven’t won anything and they aren’t even close to winning, but a good moral boost never hurt anyone.
Arin’s birth parents are back, all the ninja (including an unhappy and unpaid Jay) are in the monastery, and at the moment, Ras isn’t bothering them.
So no, no battle has been won, but their family is here and that's all anyone can hope for right now.
Arin moves around the space, it's so cool to see everyone, and even cooler to introduce his parents to them. A lot has happened recently. He’s had some regrets, and he can see Lloyd has had some of his own. Sora, from the moment they started their adventure with Ras, though never voicing them, seemed like she did as well.
He wants to make up for it all, he plans to, and he’s going to do it by helping them from here on out. Helping his dad, his friends, his new family.
He walks up to his parents, they look a little lost in all the chaos that comes with being one huge ninja family, but happy to see others interacting and getting along, even if it’ll go back to normal the moment they wake up.
“Mom, Dad!” Arin says, smiling.
His parents look towards him, “Son, this is amazing!” his dad says. His mom, with something watery in her eyes, pulls him closer for a hug.
“I’m so happy that you got to meet your ninja! And I'm happier they proved to be the people you always admired. I’m so proud of how far you’ve come, honey.”
That makes Arin smile. Even now, when he’s doing something so dangerous, and being reckless on his own volition, his mom is proud of him.
Sora comes running past, “Arin, have you seen Dad?” She asks, out of breath, before he hears a loud–
“Sora, get back here!”
Sora takes off. Arin can’t hold in his laughter as he sees her face pale. It’s a rare sight he sees her so terrified without it being something actually dangerous.
Then again, “You’ll pay for ruining my super awesome gift from Roby!” Maybe it is actually dangerous. For her.
His parents stand behind him still, eyes soft, “Speaking of, I know you technically already met, but there’s someone I wanna introduce you to. Personally.”
“Who?” his dad asks.
“He took us in, back when the Merge first happened. I don’t know where we would be without him. Even if he wasn’t very sure of himself back then, he was always there for us. Scolding us when we did something stupid, made sure we didn’t overdo it. Wouldn’t even let me touch ninja training until I hit 15 on the mark.” Arin chuckled.
He does his own work, walking around the monastery, to find Lloyd. He’s not as frantic as Sora is, so he’s not surprised to still see her hiding behind a beam while Wyldfyre sniffs the air, as if that actually works.
(Maybe it does. This is Wyldfyre we’re talking about.)
He finds Nya, Kai, Jay, Zane, and even Cole standing as a group. None look up when he enters the kitchen as they work together around a small counter, like there's even enough room for them all there to begin with.
“What…are you doing?” Arin asks.
“Making your uncle a cake, seeing as he still can’t bake,” Nya says, looking at Kai as he measures some liquid. Like she knows if he looks away the measurement will be wrong.
“I can too! I’ve made plenty of food for the Finders while I was away,” Cole scolds, arms crossed leaning against the counter and away from the other residents in the kitchen.
“Yes, but cooking and baking seem to require different skill levels, as some people have stated. I’ve seen quite a few accounts of others struggling with one but excelling at the other. Seeing as your cooking is likely mediocre, I’m not sure you should be trusted with baking. Not since the last…incident.”
“Zane!”
Kai bursts out laughing, and even Jay seems to roll his eyes from where he stands in the corner, watching.
“Yeah, I couldn’t really cook much, but neither could Dad. Sora and I kind of learned with him,” Arin remarks.
He doesn’t notice the way his parents look to each other behind him, nor do the occupied ninja.
“Kid, your dad definitely learned out of necessity once he met you. I’ve been trying to get him to cook way more over the years, not even Zane could get him to do it!” Kai grumbles.
“Yeah, you’re doing us all a favor,” Nya comments.
“He was always quite reluctant, despite having a stomach that rivaled Cole’s,” Zane hums to himself, turning towards the fridge for…something.
“Okay, we’re only supposed to bully Kai like this!” Cole pleads with the others to stop.
“No can do, Rocky, that kid's dad could never eat as much as you from what I’ve seen,” even Jay comments.
Cole lays his head on the table.
“Speaking of, have any of you seen Dad?” Arin asks.
“Yeah, one sec,” Kai says, “Lloyd! Your kid is looking for you!”
“Sora is too, actually-”
Cole jumps in, “BOTH of your kids are looking for you!”
Nya turns to Kai, “Speaking of, where are your kids?”
“Not a clue,” Kai shrugs off.
“With Geo. I think,” Cole says.
“You’re both horrible.”
Around the corner, Lloyd’s head pops in.
-
“You needed me?” Lloyd asks before fully recognizing who he’s speaking to.
He heard his name, something about his kid, and that's about it. He kind of wasn’t expecting to see his kid…and his kid’s parents when he came around the corner.
Of course, no one else seems bothered by this. Lloyd, despite all this time, is terrified.
“Hey, Dad! I wanted you to meet my mom and….dad?” Arin stops, looking between the two men. The ninja freeze, all watching with a bated breath to see who will speak first.
Lloyd knows he had this talk with Arin already. That it was up to him to call Lloyd whatever he felt best fit their relationship, Lloyd would give no say, unless it genuinely made him feel queasy or something, and he’d accept whatever title Arin gave him. (Except master. He couldn’t take that, not when he wasn’t sure if it's what his uncle would even want.) He’s probably going to lose that title now, though.
“Okay wait.” It’s Arin, unsurprisingly, “I can’t call you both dad…That’s confusing.”
Lloyd can see the others smiling. He’s not sure why, but they return to their overpacked baking endeavors.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Barry, if he’s remembering correctly, steps forward, arm stretched out.
Lloyd steps forward too, his opposite arm out, smiling the best that he can, and he’s suddenly pulled into a bone crushing hug. How can one man that’s not Cole be this strong? He’s panicking a little, if only because this is the absolute last thing he expected, before Arin's mom (Jenny?) joins in.
“Thank you, thank you so much for looking out for our son. For taking care of him. When he was sick. When he was healthy. For not making him a ninja right out the gate,” she whispers.
“Thank you, Lloyd, for being his dad,” Barry joins in, “For being the man I could not be. I am proud to say I get to share this role with you.”
Lloyd can’t breathe. He can’t speak. He can’t even cry. He feels bad, because somewhere along the line he forgot he’s supposed to return hugs. He’s just staring at the ceiling behind Barry’s head.
“I got it!” Arin shouts, Barry and Jenny turn to their son. “Papa is pretty common, right? It’s what Fritz and Spitz call Cole!” He doesn’t make it long in his cheer before he rescinds his idea, “Actually, no, that doesn’t suit you at all, does it. Cole is like a papa bear, so he definitely makes sense, but you…” He stares at Lloyd, then Barry, like now maybe he’s considering giving the new name to him and wow, that’s a lot to take in.
Lloyd walks up to his kid, puts a hand on his shoulder and smiles, “Same as before, I’m whoever you want me to be, doesn’t exactly need a label if it doesn’t feel like it fits anymore. You’ve got the control here.”
The kid smiles at him, then at his parents behind Lloyd. Nods his head, and immediately looks like he’s going to ask his mom what she thinks could be possible new name ideas.
As he walks off, Sora barges through the doorway, out of breath. Her stamina has improved so much these last few months, she must have been running around for a while.
“DAD,” she shouts, before jumping at his arms. Lloyd catches her, used to her antics, and can’t help how his smile continues to grow.
“What’s the matter?”
“Where’s Kai? Dad, you’ve got to save me!”
“From Kai?” He questions.
“No, from his daughter. She’s going to kill me,” she groans into his chest.
“What did you do?”
“Okay, apparently, Roby gave her a nail. A. Nail. Like, the one you hammer into a wall. And apparently, I used said nail earlier today. Now, she wants it back. I don’t know what nail she’s talking about, or when I used it, or how she even knows the ones I keep giving her aren’t the one from Roby. It’s like she can smell it!” The girl complains.
“She probably can,” Kai comments from the kitchen, they’re finally mixing the batter they’ve made. Took them long enough. “I really wouldn’t put it past that girl.”
“Look, I’ll help you find the nail. It probably smells like Roby, so it might take a while, but it’s possible.” Lloyd laughs, thinking about the fact Wyldfyre was probably entirely right that none of them were the nail she was looking for. He looks up at the sounds of yelling coming from outside, and two small voices with it.
“Is that Fritz and Spitz?” He asks.
“She convinced them to join her cause.” Sora deadpans.
Lloyd watches out of the corner of his eye as Cole and Kai slowly look towards each other.
“Shit.” They say in unison, before running out the door.
“You think we’d be like that if we had cousins?” Nya asks.
“You already are, and that’s just with your siblings,” Jay responds.
“Correct,” Zane reassures.
When Lloyd hears Arin laughing at the window, arms still wrapped around his daughter, he makes eye contact with Barry. The man is smiling softly as he looks at him.
“Kids,” the man mouths. Lloyd laughs in return.
He’s still their dad, and he always will be.