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It was midnight and Lloyd couldn't sleep, not after today. The tournament had ended, but so had his faith in himself. Arin was gone, and it was all his fault, a permanent bullet hole was left in his team and in his heart and he wasn't sure if it would ever patch itself up. Lloyd sat in front of the large photo of his late uncle and now the smaller picture of Arin that was set on the mini table in front of Wu. The green ninja was in a cross-legged position, just observing the two pictures and the flickering flame that was caught in a cylinder of wax.
Suddenly, he was broken out of his observations as he heard a door creak behind him, he turned around to see his last student, 'Sora' who rubbed her barely-open eyes and slowly moved towards him. She stopped when she got to him and asked, "Can't sleep either?" Lloyd gave a silent chuckle and shook his head. "You wanna sit with me?" He offered, nudging himself to the left so she had space to sit and then tapped his hand on the carpet next to him. Sora gave him a weak smile and sat down with her knees up to her chin and her arms wrapped around them to try and protect against the unforgiving cold that whistled through the air.
"How you holding up?" Lloyd asked Sora, she looked at him with sorrow and boredom as she knew Lloyd already knew the answer to his own question. "Me neither." Lloyd looked lost and guilty as he realized that he not only failed Arin, his uncle, and now he had failed Sora too.
"What is this?" Sora asked, looking at the photos in front of Lloyd, her voice was muffled due to her chin up to her nose being buried in her knees. "Well, it was a place for me to seek guidance. But now it's more of a reminder of the people I let down... Guess I should put you on there shouldn't I?" Lloyd replied, mixtures of sarcasm and seriousness in his face.
Sora looked at him with her left eyebrow raised in confusion. "Why? You never let me down Lloyd." She told him reassuringly, moving closer to him and loosely wrapping her hand around his arm with gentleness.
"Yeah but, Arin's gone and it's all my fault, he's your best friend and I'm responsible for him going missing." The green ninja explained, crushing his palm and barely shaking his head. Sora tutted and sighed. "If anything it's my fault Lloyd, I drove Arin away when I lied to him, I just wanted him to feel good but instead I made him feel incapable."
Sora looked blue, regret swallowing her like a vacuum sucking up a bunch of autumn leaves, piece by piece, second by second she got worse and worse. "I swear, we're gonna find him." Lloyd reassured, noticing Sora's melancholy face. He decided to move his arm around to her left shoulder and brought them closer to eachother, Sora resting her face on his ribcage. "Yeah, and we'll find Jay too." She responded, looking up at Lloyd, he smiled at her and she unwillingly smiled back cheesily.
They sat there for a little while until Sora began to shiver vividly from the killer frost. "Let's go inside." Lloyd suggested, beginning to pick himself and Sora up by her shoulders then wrapped himself around her to try and keep his student warm. "Okay." Sora replied and smiled as they went inside the Monastery.
As they walked through the halls, Sora yawned and cleared her throat then rubbed her eyes. Taking notice of this, Lloyd turned them to the left. "Let's get you to bed." He said.
Lloyd tucked Sora into her soft bed, neatly placing a warm, pink blanket over her bed sheets. He knelt down on one knee and rested his an arm on the other, looking at her, "Do you want me to leave or stay with you until you fall asleep?" He asked smiling. "I don't wanna be a burden but... Can we play video games on the couch?" Sora stuttered, embarrassed. Lloyd stood up and smirked, "Come on, let's go."
- ✦ -
Lloyd passed Sora a controller and sat down on the couch next to her holding his own. "By the way, since when did you play video games?" He asked, When Sora requested that they played, it confused him as she had never taken interest in video games as far as he knew. "I always wanted to play with you guys but I didn't really know how to ask and just decided to keep to myself and build things." She explained, looking down at the controller then at Lloyd.
"Sora, you need to stop thinking that being treated like a normal human makes you annoying or a burden." Lloyd said and put a firm hand on Sora's shoulder with a long face.
Sora sighed and sank into the couch. "M'kay, but can we just play now?" She asked bored, clicking random buttons on the controller for low-level entertainment. "Sure." Lloyd replied, he looked at the time on the clock above the TV. "It's almost one in the morning so keep it a little quiet, okay?"
Two Hours Later...
"HAH! I WON AGAIN SUCK IT OLD MAN!" Sora screamed in excitement and laughed, pointing at him. "Zane told me Sub-Zero was good, but he's absolute trash!" Lloyd fought, making a sorry excuse for his loss streak of nineteen. "Scorpions just better gramps'!" Sora joked and let out a howl of laughter once again.
"I'm not that old! I'm still mentally around your age!" Lloyd defended, now laughing with Sora. "Yeah yeah whatever... LET'S RUN IT BACK!" Sora screamed but Lloyd put a finger on his lips and whispered while laughing, "Okay, okay but keep it down you're gonna wake everyone up!"
"Okay, okay!" Sora whispered teasingly and smirked for a second, but it suddenly diminished when she gave out a loud yawn. "Oh man, I'm getting tired." The girl muttered wearily. Lloyd chuckled and once again looked up at the clock above the TV. "It's almost three, I'm surprised you aren't fast asleep." Lloyd said, but then felt a heavy weight on his shoulder...
It was Sora's head, she had fallen asleep, her body rested on Lloyd's. He smiled and pulled a blanket from behind the couch over both of them and stroked Sora's untied, long, pastel pink hair until he heard her snore and her body unconsciously wrapped it's arms around Lloyd's waist, fully leaning into him. Eventually he felt his eyes start to collapse and his vision began to fade and with almost no resistance he fell asleep himself besides her.
The Next Morning...
Sora's eyes began to flicker open like a broken lightbulb until she saw and felt the material a brown trench coat that her right cheek was resting on. She yawned and then came to her senses, sitting up and seeing her Master Lloyd besides her, already awake. Lloyd turned his head to her and smiled. "Good morning Sora, did you sleep well?" He asked gently. Sora gave him a smile back and replied with, "Yeah."
Sora edged slightly closer to him. "By the way Lloyd-thanks for last night, I was honestly hoping it wouldn't end." Lloyd shrugged his shoulders. "Well, it doesn't really have to... I mean we could just do it occasionally, not everyday though because you need to sleep."
"Do you really mean that?" Sora asked, her eyes sparkling and popping out like a little kid on Christmas. "Sure." Lloyd replied. Hearing this, Sora threw herself into Lloyd and hugged him tightly, he hugged back, feeling a lot better than he had yesterday.
"Okay let's go eat breakfast, we're already late for training!" Lloyd instructed after they finished their hug. "Okay!" Sora grinned, standing up and running towards the table. "Hey, slow down!" Lloyd demanded in a joking manor and chased after her. "Can't catch me old man!" Sora teased, making them both laugh.