Chapter Text
Seven-year-old Lloyd Garmadon crouched behind the bean bags in the library. Usually, his bullies didn’t follow him into the library, because they were too scared of the old librarian. But today she was out sick and there was some girl in her twenties scrolling through her phone at the front desk. And she didn’t look ready to protect Lloyd from any bullies.
The two boys walked into the library, looking at the books, casually making their way over to Lloyd’s hiding spot. Lloyd tried to make himself smaller. He wished he could turn invisible, so that he could leave and just go home to his uncle, big brothers, and sisters. They would protect him.
The two boys were a couple of grades ahead of Lloyd, so they were bigger, faster, stronger. They bullied Lloyd as payback for scaring one of the boys’ younger brother.
Lloyd hadn’t meant to scare his younger brother, it just happened. They were all playing tag during recess and Lloyd got a little excited. And maybe his eyes started to glow red. And maybe his fangs came out. The other boy had started crying and had apparently told his older brother about the “demon in his class.”
Being called demon hurt Lloyd.
The bell rang and the two boys looked up at the ceiling. They looked to Lloyd’s hiding spot.
“We’ll get him later.” They ran off to class.
Lloyd really hoped Kai came to get him before later came.
The girl at the front desk looked up from her phone and towards Lloyd’s hiding spot. “Hey, kid,” she called out. “You want me to go get your backpack so that you can hang out here for the rest of the day?’
Lloyd poked his head up over the bean bags. He studied her for a moment. He finally nodded his head and started to sink back down behind the bean bags before she stopped him.
“What room is your classroom?”
“13.”
She nodded and Lloyd sank back down. He sat curled up behind the bean bags before she returned and dropped Lloyd’s bag beside him. He mumbled a quiet thank you.
She sat down on a bean bag and held up a book. “You mind if I read here?”
Lloyd shook his head.
“Hardy Boys used to be one of my favorites when I was younger. When I was your age, my older sister would read them to me, but then I learned to read really good, and I would read them to myself. You want to hear a couple of chapters?”
Lloyd nodded again. He liked being read to, even if some of the other kids thought it was babyish.
The girl started to read, and Lloyd thought she wasn’t so bad.
And maybe he could convince Kai to read Hardy Boys to him, too.
**************************
Lloyd quickly walked down the hall after the last bell rang. He wanted to get out of the school as soon as possible.
The nice girl, Clara, had checked the Hardy Boys book out for him right before the bell rang so that Lloyd could get a head start on the other students. He couldn’t wait to show the book to his siblings.
Right now, he walked down the halls as quickly as he could without running. He eyed the students coming out of the classrooms nervously.
When he passed by his classroom, his teacher, unfortunately, saw him and gestured for Lloyd to stop. Lloyd did, but he shifted from foot to foot anxiously, his eyes darting around.
His teacher stared him down for a moment before handing an envelope out to Lloyd.
“Make sure that gets to your parents, Lloyd,” she said cooly. “I will not be pleased if I find out that you didn’t give that to them. I’ll be calling your home to make sure they received it.”
Lloyd gave a stiff nod and a quiet yes ma’am.
He quickly continued on his journey out of the school and towards the gates. He really hoped one of his siblings were there, so that he wouldn’t have to wait.
Lloyd could see his bullies coming towards him out of the corner of his eye, but he also saw Kai, in his red hoodie, spiked hair that Nya said needed to be cut, and the scar that covered his eye.
Lloyd gave a sigh of relief. His big brother would protect him.
Lloyd ran forward, not caring who he ran into or accidentally brushed against. He collided into Kai and wrapped his arms around his waist. Kai wouldn’t let anything, or anyone hurt him.
Kai ruffled Lloyd’s hair with a chuckle, hiding his concern and confusion. Lloyd had clearly had a bad day and while Kai wanted to know what had happened, he wasn’t going to push the issue right now. That could wait until they got home.
“Hey, bud!” Kai said brightly. “How was your day?”
Ok, so maybe Kai would push the issue a little bit right now. He wanted to know what had upset his little brother so bad. You couldn’t really blame a guy for that.
“It was okay,” Lloyd mumbled.
Kai frowned. Okay, so Lloyd’s day was bad enough that he was going to lie about it. Cool.
Kai quickly pulled out his phone and sent a code red in the group chat. The others would know what to do.
“Can I have a piggyback ride, Kai?”
Kai quickly changed his frown into a smile, a real one. “Sure thing, bud.”
**********************************
Lloyd had fallen asleep on the way home, his arms dangling around Kai’s neck and his head on his shoulder.
Kai huffed. “You’ve gained some weight, kid.”
Not that Kai minded. Lloyd was actually under the growth charts compared to other kids his age. They had been trying to get him to put on some weight. Which had been a battle in itself because Lloyd was a picky eater, except when it came to candy.
Kai opened the door to the monastery and was assaulted with cameras. He sighed. Almost three years had gone by since Lloyd had started living with them, and his siblings still took blackmail photos every chance they got.
“Send it to me,” was mumbled wearily.
“That defeats the purpose of it being blackmail material, Kai,” Nya said teasingly.
Cole pulled Lloyd off of Kai’s back and Jay helped get Lloyd’s backpack off. Cole shifted Lloyd so that he was cradled in his arms. Cole was the only one that could still cradle Lloyd like he was still a toddler, because of his large frame. Kai refused to admit that it made him jealous. Because it didn’t.
“Man, little guy’s worn out,” Cole muttered.
“Yeah, he had a rough day,” Kai said with a frown.
“Did he say what happened?” Zane asked.
Kai shook his head. “No, but he was just off when I picked him up. And he lied and said his day was okay.”
Nya hummed. “Are you sure you weren’t just overreacting?”
“He asked if he could have a piggyback ride while we were at the gates. He didn’t even fuss when I picked him up in front of everybody.”
Lloyd had firmly insisted that he was a big boy now and that he didn’t need his siblings to coddle him anymore. In fact, he would push whoever dropped him off at school away, because he “doesn’t want to look like a baby in front of my friends!” when they tried to hug him.
Nya hummed again. “We’ll have to question him about it when he wakes up.”
“He’s been asleep for a while, so we should wake him up in a bit,” Kai said. “I don’t want to be up with him at two in the morning because he napped for too long and can’t settle down. Again.”
Cole laughed. “But you’re such a good child wrangler, Kai!”
“Shut up, Cole.”