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The sun was warm and bright, filtering onto Kai's bed in stripes from the blinds.
He groaned and rolled over again, pulling the covers over his head. Too bright. His sinuses were clogged, and he could only breathe through his mouth and one nostril. His throat felt scratchy and red, although that didn't really make sense, how could you feel a color…
He let that thought trail off. It was too early in the morning for brain activity. Save that for the mental torture known to man as “school.”
…Or just plain old torture, for a certain unfortunate greenish soul who would strongly object to this fact. Whatever. He didn't care what Lloyd said. The kid was stuck with him now.
…But not this instant. Kai burrowed deeper under the covers, trying to escape reality and whatever bug he'd caught for just a few more minutes of sleep. It wasn't fair that the sun had woken him up, his alarm hadn't even rung yet…
Somebody began to rub his shoulders, gently nudging him back into consciousness. Kai groaned. He felt like dumpster sludge.
“Morning, sleepyhead.” He could see his mom’s gentle, slightly amused smile through his closed eyelids. That didn't make sense. “I made you some breakfast. Would you come to the kitchen? I’m not letting the syrup in your bed.”
…Breakfast? Syrup? On a weekday? (It was Thursday, right?)
Cold, crunchy cereal was the only way to go before school (sogginess was blasphemy). That or maybe like a granola bar or something.
His mother laughed lightly at the confusion scrunching his eyebrows when she peeled off the covers. “Don't worry, Kai. No school for you today. Though I'm sure your teachers would appreciate it if you turned in your online homework.”
…No school?
He was sick. The sun was too bright. His mom had made him breakfast—
He'd missed school.
Oh no.
His stomach turned, and not just because of the mucus dripping down his throat.
Lloyd!
Kai sat bolt upright, then grimaced as his head ached and spun with the sudden movement. Bleary eyes glued shut, he fumbled blind for his phone charging on the nightstand. Something clattered to the ground.
“Whoa! Settle down, Kai. It's only pancakes.”
“‘S’not that,” he slurred, finally prying the sticky eyelids apart. “I's Lloyd.”
“...Who?” Maya repeated, confused.
“The-the kid. The green one. Monster kid. Garmadon's—kid. Everyone hates him? I gotta…I gotta make sure…make sure nobody beats him up.”
Kai paused. He blinked twice in the sunlight, scrunched up his face, and sneezed three times.
“Uhhh… could I…could I have a, a—”
“A tissue?” Maya suggested.
“...My phone?” Kai finished sheepishly.
“...How about both.” She pushed the box of Kleenex into one of his hands and, after bending down, the device in the other. “Don't fry your eyeballs on that thing,” she warned, before getting up to leave the room. “And come eat soon. Your food will get cold.”
“OK, mom,” Kai answered stuffily, already unlocking the screen. “Thanks.”
Green Bean
DUDE
Bro.
B l o n d i e .
Ru alive???
I got sick what happened
U ok?
im fine Kai
U can stop worrying
I do not trust your definition of fine lloyd
I need evidence
📸
no.
also im in class rn
Gonna get in trouble
You said youre sick ru ok?
Lloyd I got like 12 hrs of sleep
And I'm eating chocolate chip pancakes
With syrup
I don't think I'm the one we need to worry about here
Oh
I thought you like
Turned sane and ditched me or smth
Idk
I would never
Turn sane
How dare you
:(
Don't give me that face
:P
Sry gtg
Gonna get detention if they catch me sooo
ttyl porcupine
Hope u get better
…Well, that was uninformative. Kai groaned and rubbed his temples.
He'd just have to try another source.
Little Sis
Hey Nya
Nya
Nya
Nyyyyyyaaaaaaaaa
What's up Kai
Ur finally awake
Shocker
Hahaha very funny
Quick question
Did Lloyd G get beat up today???
…Um yeah why?
Agh
Oh no reason
Just like, basic human decency or smth weird like that
???
Hes not human
Yeah Idc
Hey Nya can I ask u a favor???
Sure.
Can u like
Just
Make sure he doesn't get murdered?
Or anything?
Cause I'd rlly appreciate that
No way
And I'll give you 20 bucks
25
…Fine.
You got a deal, bro
But since when have you been hanging out with Lloyd Garmadon???
He's, like, evil.
He's really not
And Idk I guess I just randomly grew a conscience or something?
It's been a while lol u must've been pretty busy with all those smartypants extracurriculars :P
Also do a good job please it's harder than it looks
He's really slippery
…You need a hobby
No thx I like bodyguarding :)
Nobody else is gonna do it lol
Unless you pay them 25 dollars
Plus he's actually pretty cool. A total dork tho.
Would be a shame if he got death by cheerleaders.
Who knows you might actually like him
Ewww no.
Not like that XP He's got little bro vibes.
Trust me
I think I'll just do my job thank you
*Goodbye*
Thx.
Phew.
Kai sighed with relief. Nya would take care of things. His work here was done.
He ate the last few bites of his pancakes in peace, and slid the sticky plate into the sink.
“I…I think I'm going to go back to bed,” he announced to no one, before careening dizzily back to his room.
When Nya came back from school, she was unusually thoughtful.
“You know what, Kai?” she asked, holding out her hand for the cash.
“...What?” he asked groggily, half-reluctantly counting it out.
Ugh, math. He thought he'd left it at school.
“...I think a lot of us have been really, really stupid,” she finished at last.
“Good to know.” He gave a big, cheesy grin and slapped the bills into her palm.
Green Bean
Uhhh Kai?
I think your sister followed me around all day
And not in the, like, ‘I'm gonna kill you for brainwashing my brother vengeance is mine’ kind of way.
Did you pay her or smth???
Yeah, why
Um
no reason…
The next day, Kai slept in late again. He jolted awake with a congested growl when he realized that the sun's rays were too bright and too golden once more, but when he reached for his phone there was a sticky note stuck to the top. He had to blink at it for a while before his vision un-blurred enough to read it.
Don't worry, bro—I've got him covered.
U don't have to pay me this time. I know you're broke :)
—#1 Big Sister Nya
Kai furrowed his brows in thought for a moment.
…She’s still younger than me, right?
Oh.
A smile took over his face.
He flopped back down on the bed in peace.
Green Bean
Bro
Your sister's kind of cool
Ikr 😎
…Dont tell her I said that
Haha
LLYOD NO—
On Saturday, Nya burst into Kai's room with a grin.
“You have a visitor!” she sang, plucking off the pillow he'd shoved onto his face at her entry.
“Ugh, make it stop…” Kai groaned, turning to face-plant the one underneath him.
“Uh… Kai?” came a gentle, hesitant voice he hadn't heard in three days.
“Lloyd?” Kai sat up immediately, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
There he was in the doorway, wearing that signature green jacket he never seemed to take off and holding something red and paper in his hands.
A couple scrapes and bruises were scattered across his face, along with a two-day-old black eye.
(To Nya's credit, there didn't seem to be anything more recent than that.)
“H-hey, Kai.” He gave one of those awkward half-smiles, a slight flash of fangs. “Uh, I was just wondering how you were doing, and, uh, Nya said I could stop by, so…”
“Little bro!” Kai exclaimed, having thrown off the covers. He tackled him in a hug.
“Aah!” Lloyd reacted as usual, going stiff with green eyes wide before relaxing again, the pointy red object held out of harm's way. “Careful!” he scolded, setting it down on the dresser. “...I'm never going to get used to that…”
“Sorry, little buddy.” Kai laughed and ruffled his hair. He picked up the thing on the dresser. “Hey, did you make this?” He examined the folds of shiny paper, one eyebrow raised. It looked like a tiny red dragon—wings, horns, and all. “That's so cool!”
“Y-yeah, I did.” Lloyd blushed. “I don't know, I thought you might like it…”
“Thanks!” Kai beamed. He set it back on the dresser, perched atop the big chunk of lava rock his dad said he'd gotten from a volcano. Then he had to sneeze again. Twice. He grimaced, eyes watering as he remembered his illness. “Uhh...You sure you should've come here? I don't wanna get you sick…”
“Eh, I'm not really that worried.” He shrugged. “I think I caught it last month. What's the worst that could happen? No school for a few days?” He laughed awkwardly and dragged a hand through his hair.
Kai could've objected—he couldn't imagine getting pummeled was any more pleasant while coughing your guts out—but it looked a lot like he had two guardians now.
He shouldn't be getting pummeled at all any time soon.
Lloyd cleared his throat. “Soo… uh. I guess I should be, uh, going now…” He toed the ground with his borrowed pair of Kai's house slippers. “See you later, porcupine.” He smiled a little and slipped out the door.
There was a pause.
Nya snorted.
“...Porcupine???”
Kai groaned and slammed his face into the pillow.
“Just you wait,” he muttered, words muffled through the fluff. “I bet yours is gonna be even worse...”
“Nuh-uh. No way.” Nya shook her head and kept on laughing.
One successful week of bodyguarding later, the bells of the Dairy Dragon chimed merrily as its door swung open again. Nya emerged from the building triumphant with three cones in hand. Two waffle, one cake.
(The boys were waiting outside. Lloyd tended to make getting service…difficult...and Kai preferred not to leave him alone.
Besides, it was Nya's money to spend. $24.91 in cash, nine cents left over.)
She handed Kai his double scoop of Mango Morro in its suitably crunchy shell, and kept the black raspberry with hot fudge for herself. Lloyd was presented his mint chocolate chip in the cake cone with whipped cream and an excess of colorful sprinkles.
“Can't believe you actually like those things,” she remarked as she handed it over, very pointedly taking a crunchy bite of her own waffle cone. “They taste like Styrofoam.”
“And they get super soggy!” Kai threw in his own two cents with a passion. “Seriously—how?!”
Lloyd shrugged and licked his ice cream. “I dunno. I just do.”
This answer did not satisfy him, and Kai spent the rest of the short walk to the park expounding on the vices and virtues of the two different—(and one vastly superior)—edible holders of frozen desserts.
Lloyd merely smiled, content to lick off all his sprinkles while Kai went on so long without catching a breath that his own cone began to drip.
“This—this does not prove anything!” he insisted, finally quitting the argument to stop the flow of molten yellowish orange with his tongue.
Even Nya, on his side, rolled her eyes fondly a little as she offered him a small stack of napkins.
“Come on, leave the kid alone. He can have poor taste if he wants to.”
“—Hey!” Lloyd protested at his sister's betrayal, mock-offended at last. “I let you two stick around, don't I? What does that say about you, huh?”
“...Hate to break it to you, bro, but between the bribes and Kai's “conscience?” I don't think you really had a choice,” Nya said.
“Mmm…That's fair.” Lloyd shrugged and crunched thoughtfully on a chocolate chip. “You guys aren't half bad, though. Real persistent, actually. ...Have you ever considered becoming ninjas?”
He said it so casually dead-serious that Kai nearly choked on his ice cream.
“I-I'm sorry, becoming what now???”