Chapter Text
It had only been a little over a month since Wu found Morro rummaging through his garbage and a month since the boy first walked into the monastery.
Wu wasn’t sure what to expect when he invited Morro into his home. It wasn’t that the dreaded silence in the monastery would cease to exist. The halls were once again filled with laughter. Wu didn’t know he missed the noise.
It was a morning as any other, the two had fallen into a routine over the last couple of weeks. After breakfast Wu would teach Morro how to read and write as well as teaching many other things until it was time for lunch and a short break. After that break Morro’s favorite time of the day began. Training. Morro had a lot of energy and Wu knew how to get the boy to use it all up.
It didn’t take Morro to get down the basics. Wu had to admit, his boy was a protégé. Wu couldn’t help but feel proud of the boy.
“You need a bath Morro.”, Wu said to the exhausted boy, “Both of us do.”
As any child his age, Morro grumbled but reluctantly agreed to the bath.
While Wu let the water fill the bath, Morro was already cleaning his body. Wu stood behind the boy and started to clean his hair. For a boy who had spent the last few years on the street his hair was very healthy and very thick, nothing like Wu’s think hair.
When Wu had convinced Morro of his first bath Wu was almost certain the green streak in his hair was dirk or something else stuck in it. But as he cleaned it the dull green streak became a bright green, one that reminded Wu of the green gi in the back of his closet. Why Morro’s hair was like this was a mystery to both of them, but who was Wu to judge, a little green hair was far less odd than the horns and tail Wu had always hiding.
Before Wu let Morro into the warm bath, he braided the boy hair. Morro never understood why Wu kept doing that. Morro’s hair wasn’t long enough to be fully braided. Half the boy’s hair wasn’t in the braid anyway, but Morro let Wu do it anyway. Morro wondered if he should let his hair grow longer.
Morro thought Wu was odd. It started with the way he looked. There was something about him that made him look different from other adults. Morro wasn’t sure what it was but he found it comforting in a way. People always looked at Morro weird because of his hair, Wu never did that. At the same time Wu acted different from anyone Morro ever had in his life. Then again, he only remembered his mother and she wasn’t nice to him. Wu acted like the adults that loved their kids did. The ones Morro used to watch when he was still living on the street. Morro wondered if living here was what having a home was like, what having a father was like. Even if it wasn’t that, it was nice and Morro preferred it here over being on the street again.
Morro loved his lessons with Wu, his training and even the baths were nice. But Morro’s absolute favorite thing was when they had eaten their dinner and were sitting together drinking tea and Wu was telling Morro all kinds of stories. Tales from his childhood about his father and brother, legends from before even Wu had been born or stories from his and his brothers travels over the years. Morro adores them all. Morro hoped that one day he could tell Wu about his own adventures, when he big and strong, just like Wu!
That’s why Morro trained so hard! He wants to be like Wu. Wu was strong and kind to everyone they met. Be it the people in town or even the weird old lady that kept talking in riddles where they picked up their tea.
While Wu was telling him another story, something about him and his brother meeting people that lived in the sea, Morro leaned closer to Wu and yawned.
“Looks like someone is ready to sleep.”, he chuckled.
“Nooo, I want to hear the rest of the story!”, Morro protested.
“I can finish it tomorrow, now come on.”, Wu stood up but Morro didn’t budge an inch. The boy was stubborn as a no other. Only one way to handle this.
Wu settled down next to Morro again, the boy’s eyes light up, thinking he had won for once. Instead of continuing his story, Wu started to tickled the boy’s sides. The boy started laughing.
“Noo- that’s- pfft- that’s unfair!”, he said between laughs.
Wu joined the laughing boy in his joy but didn’t top just yet. He did eventually stop tickling the boy and let him catch his breath for a bit.
“Ready for bed now?”, Wu asked.
“No, I’m not tired.”, Morro still insisted but was betrayed by a yawn.
Wu sighed and picked up the boy. Morro instinctively wrapped his arms around the man. Wu couldn’t help but think about the first time he picked up Morro, the boy had been so terrified of leaving the ground. Now it was almost second nature to the boy. Wu wanted to make use of Morro still being small. There might be a day where Wu can’t pick up his son student anymore.
Wu carried Morro to his room and tucked the child into his bed. Morro immediately reached for the little dragon toy Wu had gotten him a week ago. Wu tugged the boy into bed making sure he wouldn’t get cold during the night.
“Goodnight, Morro.”, Wu said.
“Goodnight-“, Morro mumbles something Wu couldn’t quite hear but the boy quickly added “Sensei.”, before the started to drift off to sleep. Something felt wrong about saying Sensei. It often did, but the boy couldn’t quite place why he often had to fight saying something else.
When the boy was fast asleep, Wu pushed the boy’s dark bangs out of his face and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead. Wu couldn’t help but wonder if this is how his father felt when he looked at Wu and Garmadon.