TW: mentions of blood, it's been a while since we've been horny on main so here

"Can I help interrogate the bad guy?" I asked Lloyd as we flew through the air, wind whistling past as I sat tall behind him with my hands on his shoulders, shivering. "Can you be the good cop and I be the bad cop? Here, listen to my bad cop voice; 'why'd you do it, punk?!'"

"Very cute," Lloyd said from over the wind. I frowned and settled back into the saddle, resting my cheek against his warm back (Lloyd upped his body temperature when he realised I was cold - my very own personal heater, bless him) with a harrumph.
"I was going for intimidating," I grumbled. I felt his body shake with a quiet chuckle.
It was evening by the time we arrived in Ninjago City. I quietened, watching the tall buildings drift past as we flew above the capitol. Lloyd led the way, guiding the small convoy of elemental dragons to the quieter side of the city.
We landed outside a quaint tea shop and Bentley gave me an affectionate nudge goodbye before he disappeared. Cole stretched his arms over his head. Jay sent Lloyd a confused look.
"Uh, I thought we were in a hurry to get to the police?" the lightning master asked as Lloyd pulled the sliding doors open.
"A quick stop," he reasoned. "Dad already called ahead. If the perp won't talk, maybe Mistaké has something to loosen his lips."
"Magic tea," Cole grinned at me as we entered. "It's always fun."
"Not necessarily, Cole," Zane replied as he pulled up behind us. "Recall the time when you stole some of Master Wu's tea and you began to glow red?"
"You began to what?" I asked in bewilderment, mouth gaping. Cole sent Zane the stink eye.
"We promised not to talk about that, Zane," Cole hissed. He groaned and turned back to me with a put-off scowl. "We were fifteen and dumb."
"Correction, you're still dumb," I chortled. "What kind of tea makes someone glow red?"
"I suppose when you need a stop light," Lloyd answered before shutting the door behind us. "Is Mistaké here?"

The old lady that stood before a massive collection of jars of tea leaves clambered down the stool she was standing upon at our entrance. I stared around the shop with wide eyes - it'd been a while since I'd been in a place like the tea shop, aside from the monastery; all old wood and faded tapestries. I wanted to run my hands down every single one of them.
"Never heard of her!" the lady snapped and turned with a sneer. It immediately dropped as soon as her eyes settled upon the masked ninja and then her mouth was warming into a wise smile. "Ooh! Apologies, young Lloyd Garmadon. I didn't recognize your voice."
"What is it with my voice that's making people go weird?" Lloyd asked under his breath before taking off his mask. I shrugged and pulled my own one off, too. I stuffed it into my pocket.
"It does sound deeper," I reasoned.
"I don't talk for two months and suddenly everyone's crazy," he said with a sigh.
"Oh, it's so good to see you again," Mistaké continued. "It's been years. And Y/n, too! How the both of you have grown since I saw you last."
Lloyd fell into caring smile. I grinned back, finally remembering the old lady and putting a face to the name - she was the one who supplied the ninja with their healing teas and the like.
"Hello, Mistaké," Lloyd gently replied. Mistaké placed her hands on the counter she stood behind and sent Lloyd a sympathetic look. Jay held onto my arm as he hid behind me. I sent him a confused pinch of my eyes, and his smile was sheepish in response, hiding further behind me.
"I'm sorry to hear about Master Wu," Mistaké murmured, making my attention turn back to her. She was giving Lloyd a look of utter sympathy. "He was a dear friend."

"'Was?' We haven't given up on him," Cole interjected, brows pulled tight. "... we just have more urgent problems."
"Indeed," Zane said as he stepped forward. Mistaké's eyes jumped to him. "We seek-"
"The Tea of Truth!" Mistaké answered for him, hissing. I jumped at her loud exclamation and Jay's hands tightened around my arms. Zane blinked.
"She's good," Zane said.
"Garmadon called before to order some," Mistaké explained. Zane's amazed expression fell.
"Ah."
"But be forewarned..." Mistaké continued, eyes narrowed as they scoured each of us. "The truth can be... dangerous."
"She's also creepy," Jay whimpered as he ducked his face into my shoulder.
"Par for the course in a mystical tea shop, Jay," Cole muttered. The lightning ninja shot him an annoyed look, and I patted his curls in an attempt to soothe his erratic irritability before he began to spark and set an electrical fire.
"Behave, please," Lloyd pleaded as he sent the two butting heads a warning look.
"I'll get the jar that I had set aside for you," Mistaké offered before her eyes sharpened. "But don't... touch... any... thing."
Her threat was punctured with a sweet smile. And then she whisked herself away into the back, bead curtain jangling. I stared at the beads in confuddlement. I supposed that Jay wasn't the only eccentric one in the room.
"Like I said," Jay whispered into my shoulder. "Cree-pee."

"Mistaké, wait!" Lloyd called just as the old lady returned with a jar of tea leaves. He was staring past her with his brows furrowed, troubled. "That painting..."
I followed his gaze, through the bead curtain, past Mistaké, over the small table. On the back wall of the room behind the front counter was a massive mural, an ancient painting in aged black ink on yellowed thread drapery.
"Ah, yes," Mistaké hummed as she looked over her shoulder. "The Oni and the Dragon. But you are not ready for that tale. Not even your own father knows about it."
Oni. Oni mask. The mural was of an oni and a dragon with a tree stood between them. I felt my heart leap into my throat and a familiar thirst, a drive for knowledge consumed me right down to my toes. I wanted to reach out and grasp onto the facts. I wanted to hold the story in my hands and feel its weight.
I glanced at Lloyd. He was already staring at me, as if awaiting my opinion. At this point, with the limited amount that we know about the oni, anything could be useful.
I nodded.
"Please," Lloyd insisted as he turned back to Mistaké. "We need to know."
Mistaké pursed her lips and regarded Lloyd with a thoughtful, scrutinising gaze. She tapped her hands on the counter and sighed.
"It is a long tale," she warned. "Do you have the time?"

"Lloyd," Zane said quietly as he placed his hand on the leader's shoulder. "The gang member will be released in approximately forty-six minutes. We only had time for a quick stop."
Lloyd sucked a breath through his teeth and muttered a curse. I swallowed.
"I'll stay," I said, staring at the mural. "I'll relay anything that's important. You go, you need to get everything you can out of the guy in custody."
I could feel Lloyd considering my proposition. Mistaké, however, didn't like my suggestion.
"No," she snapped, making me jump and rip my attention away from the mural. "This is a story that pertains Lloyd. He must hear it directly."
"We can come back," Cole offered.
"This might be our only chance," Lloyd argued. "This could be vital information!"
"We are wasting precious time," Zane said.
"Fine!" I exclaimed, fuse growing short from the time waster of a debate and glared at the team. I grabbed the jar of tea leaves and pushed it into Zane's hands. "Cole and Zane, go to the police with this truth tea stuff and find out who's giving Axon's orders. Lloyd, Jay and I will stay here to learn more."
Cole, Zane and Lloyd stared at me in surprise. Jay began to whine.
"Alright, miss team leader," Cole said in stunned amusement before he clapped the nindroid on the back. "Let's go, Zane."
"Why do I have to stay?" Jay complained.
"Just in case the Sons of Garmadon catch us off guard on the way back," I answered, gently pulling his clenched hands from my arm and giving them a supportive squeeze. "And also it's funny watching you be afraid of Mistaké."
Jay's face fell into a look of betrayed fury. Mistaké chuckled into her cardigan.

"Come, my childs," Mistaké said, pulling aside the bead curtain and letting us file inside. Her eyes twinkled in amusement when I passed. "To know the tale, you must drink the tea."
Crates of stock sat in the corners of the room that displayed the mural in its mighty beauty. I stared at it, wondering why it seemed too familiar before taking a seat at the chabudai - the small tea table that sat in the centre of the room.
Curiously enough, four places had already been set out, tea steeped to perfection. I shared a look with Lloyd; Mistaké had predicted this. This conversation we were about to have felt so important that I could feel its metaphorical weight in my chest.
Movement caught my gaze and my eyes sharpened to the tea set that sat innocently on the table before us. The design - that's what felt familiar - it was of oni and dragons, the same tea set that was served when I first met Garmadon and he helped calm me down from a panic attack.
I sucked in a gentle gasp as I found the designs of the dragons and onis drifting across the glossy surface of the tea pot, movements hazy and subtle but definitely there. I looked around the table, but the others didn't seem to notice it, too enraptured by staring at the massive mural.
"Have some tea," Mistaké offered as she sat down herself. "It will calm you."
Jay eagerly grabbed the cup and began to intermittently sip at the hot drink. He sighed in delight. I hesitantly took a sip myself and was pleasantly surprised by the floral, delicious taste that imploded along my tongue. It tasted like how parchment and pressed flowers smelt.

"Thank you for the tea," Jay said with a bright smile. "You were right, it really calmed my nerves. I feel so... warm and fuzzy."
Lloyd rolled his eyes in amusement at his teammate's antics. I hummed a laugh into my cup.
"Good. Then the Tea of Enlightenment is working," Mistaké said. Our three pairs of eyes shot to her and she fixed us with a sly, secretive smile. "To help you see the tale, the original tale, The Tale of the Oni and the Dragon."
Jay gasped.
"You lied? Mistaké, why would you do that? I thought we were friends."
I leant into Lloyd. "Did she just drug us?" I asked him.
"What are we supposed to see?" Lloyd asked as he leant forward, too invested in when this tale would begin to answer me.

"See... the beginning..." Mistaké said slowly, dramatically, and a haze of foggy white obscured my vision.

I gasped, frightened by my lost sense and grabbed at Lloyd's hand to assure myself. He squeezed his fingers around mine.
The fog settled into an ivory landscape, of desert plains with rolling hills and momiji trees and cloudy skies. It was like the world was covered by a film of pearl white.
I could still feel me sitting, still feel the tatami flooring beneath me, but when I looked down I could see cotton-white grass strands poking between my toes. I could still feel Lloyd's hand in mine, but when I looked at him, I realised that he didn't stand there. Instead, a towering creature held my hand in a gentle grasp; a beast with reptilian wings and tusks as long as my arm. With bowed legs like a goat's and startling red eyes - such burgundy, that it pierced through the white, filmy veil and became the only colour in this world. My heart stopped.
"What is this?" I whispered as I stared at the being.
"You are looking into the past," Mistaké said, and her voice carried over the mountains and washed through the sky, surrounding in my head and doing circles. "Into the First Land, the beginning of life itself. Do not be frightened of what you see, for nothing can hurt you here."
The creature's red eyes roved our surroundings before dropping to to me. I found comfort in the fact that its gaze was gentle and calm.

"Long before time had a name, there was the Realm of the Oni and the Dragon," Mistaké began. As if on cue, a gargantuan, monstrous beast ambled from the momiji forest and a dragon arched over the mountains and curled in the sky. I watched them with my heart in my throat, eyes wide. That was what an oni looked like. And a real dragon - so much more massive than even the biggest elemental dragons that I had seen.
The dragon and oni's power soaked up the world around it, making me feel incredibly tiny.
It was terrifying.
"One of the Sixteen Realms?" Lloyd asked. His voice joined Mistaké's, making laps behind my eyes.
"Not 'one of!'" Mistaké snapped. Her voice rang in my ears and I winced. "The first. The Dragon had the power to create-" the dragon's head reared up and a tree was born, sprouting from the ground and bursting to life, trunk curling into thin air and leaves thrusting into existence. "The Oni had the power to destroy."
The Oni raised its leg and brought its foot down, sending tremors through the earth and making the tree disintegrate into nothing. The dragon screeched and the oni roared, and I watched in sick horror as the two launched at each other and began a vicious battle.

"Their war was never ending," Mistaké continued, voice solemn, and I could picture her watching this battle with the weary eyes of someone who's seen them kill each other time and time again. The dragon and oni's circling fighting grew so vicious that they both seemed to disappear into each other, spraying a fine mist of darkness that settled over the land.
The dark mist that swam over the grass pulled itself together, sweeping into a pivot and building itself up until it took the form of a blundering, stumbling beast. Its horns swiped through the air, its wings twitched, before the creature's form gave a shudder and sunk into the silhouette of a young man - he looked to have been no older than seventeen.
"But a child arrived, born of both worlds," Mistaké said. The boy looked around this desolate, empty existence forged on endless creation and destruction, of hate and malice and spite. He dropped his eyes to his hands, staring at his palms, as if shocked by the fact that he was alive. "The dragon and oni's hate intensified over the millennia, building and manifesting into a form nobody had ever seen before - a human."
A dragon and oni returned, circling the human and sniffing at its body. They flinched back in surprise when the boy raised his palms and from them burst sizzling energy - one pure and startling white, the other dark and dangerous black.
"The child understood the power of both," Mistaké said. "Without one, you could not have the other. But when the Oni and the Dragon fought over which side the child should choose..."
I watched, fascinated, as the child stepped back from the squabbling beasts and with a flash of light... disappeared.
"The child abandoned their world to start a new one called Ninjago."

The scenery melted away into a foggy white once again, and with it, my surprise mounted and mounted until I couldn't feel my own body.
That was Uchū. That was Lloyd's grandfather.
Uchū's part oni and dragon.
"... are you telling me the child born from both worlds was my grandfather?" Lloyd hesitantly asked. I felt numb.
Lloyd's part oni and dragon.
Jay gasped, his voice ringing in my ears.
"That means you're part Oni and Dragon too!" he exclaimed excitedly. My head whipped around to face the beast beside me, still veiled in white aside from his maroon-blood eyes and I felt any bit of breath left escape my body.
It was a hybrid. It was an oni and dragon hybrid.
It was Lloyd.
The wings, the tusks, the inhuman face, the massive body, the horns, the claws - it was Lloyd, it was all Lloyd, it was him. It's him.
"Like I said," Mistaké said quietly as I stared at the startled face of the oni-dragon beside me. "The truth can be dangerous."
"I don't..." Lloyd began, sounding just as lost as I felt. "But..."
"We must continue," Mistaké said, giving Lloyd no time to freak out. A new world was created before us, a colourful domain of bustling forests, cragged mountains, beautiful oceans. A village had sprouted within a valley, and tiny little people milled about, unaware of their audience.
Beside me, this version of Lloyd bled into colour - all black and gold scales, dark wings that tipped into purple, colossal horns rimmed with a dark violet. His red eyes remained unchanged.

Uchū appeared, stood before us as he watched his world with a look of content fondness. The tale continued.
"After the First Spinjitzu Master created Ninjago, he fathered two sons of his own."
Wu and Garmadon, both only young boys, appeared on the scene. They ran up to Uchū and I watched in distracted delight as he bent down to pull his sons into a massive bear hug. "He thought he could escape the war. But he saw the evil of the Oni was waiting to be unleashed in the elder of his sons, Garmadon."
Garmadon pulled back, suddenly aged, and clutched at his arm with a look of agony. When he pulled hand away, the bite mark of a snake could be seen, his green eyes chopping between red.
"It was up to Master Wu to control his brother's undying thirst to destroy, and with some help-"
"Hey!" Jay laughed when five indistinct, fuzzy figures of red, white, blue, black and green appeared behind Wu. "That's us!"
"Have some more tea," Mistaké said dryly. "Lord Garmadon was destroyed by the most powerful force of all..."
The green figure stepped towards the silhouette of Lord Garmadon. He held out his hand.
"The love of his own son."
Lloyd's clawed hand tightened over mine. The scenery melted away once more, and suddenly I was blinking away the brightness of Mistaké's storage room, back where we began. The hand in my own became just that - a human hand, once again.

Lloyd was blinking hard, too, face set in a scowl as he stared at the table. The magic of the tea had worn off, and it left us with a stagnant aftertaste; the revelation of a question that we had been asking for years.
Lloyd didn't like the answer.
He shoved against the table and stood, dropping my hand, before storming out of the room faster than I could blink. I stared after him as he slammed the door to the front of the tea shop shut after him. Glass jars rattled on their shelves.
Mistaké sighed.
"The truth has always been a hard burden to handle," she murmured. "It may take him a while to digest this new information."
"But it's so cool," Jay groaned. "Being part dragon? That's so wicked!"
I swallowed sharply. My concern was rocking my conscience from side to side. "I better go after him."
Mistaké nodded and I stood.
"Oh-okay," Jay called to my retreating figure. "I'll just- I'll just stay here, then."

I slowly pushed the door open and stepped into the darkened alleyway. The only light was from the neon sign to Mistaké's tea shop, and it illuminated the man before me as he leant against the brick wall in a violent shade of blue.
"Hey," I said quietly, avoiding a puddle as I made my way towards him. I stared down the street apprehensively, hyper aware of the fact that Lloyd was in his gi without his mask.
"They were right," he said shallowly as he tilted his chin up to stare at the cloudy sky. A nighttime chill had rolled in and I slightly shivered. "They were all right. Your grandpa, everyone who hates me, the entire city. I am a demon."
I felt my chest sink at the malice in his words.
"Lloyd, you have to-"
"Everything they called me," Lloyd continued, chest heaving as he dropped his head to face me. I grimaced at the look in his eyes - of complete sorrow. "Everything I tried to convince myself I wasn't - I am! I am a monster."
"Lloyd, baby, come back inside-"
"Why?" he said, throwing his arms into the sky as he pulled himself up from the wall. "What's the point?"
"You're exposed out here," I insisted, eyeing the alleyway warily. I grabbed his hands. "Come back inside and we can talk this out."
He pulled himself from me, gently, but enough to dislodge my hold. He shook his head. His breathing was laboured. He was panicking.
"I'm vile," he cried through steep inhales. "And I'm a monster, and your grandfather is right. Us Garmadon's are just a bunch of devils-"

I silenced whatever insult he was about to spew out next by lifting myself on my toes and capturing him in a firm hug. His response was instantaneous, hands grappling for desperate purchase along my back as if it were his lifeline with a choke from his throat. Lloyd pushed his face into the crook of my shoulder and his breaths, still short and anxious, brushed against my skin.
"I'm sorry," I whispered, and he tightened his body around mine. "I'm so sorry."
He shook his head.
"I wanted to- to know," he stuttered, voice catching in his throat. "I don't want to know anymore."
"It's okay," I slowly breathed.
"It's not."
"This doesn't change anything," I reassured. His inhale was shuttering.
"It does," he disagreed. "It changes everything."
I pulled my head away to send him the most sure look I could manage while being the midst of a crisis myself.
"It doesn't," I professed, pressing my palms against his cheeks and guiding his gaze to mine. "You're still you, Lloyd. You're still the same man I fell in love with when I was seventeen."
"No- I-"
"Hey," I soothed, brushing my fingertips down the side of his face and hiding the alarm I felt building in my chest at how short his breathing had become. He was sending himself into a fit. "You're okay. Breathe with me."

Lloyd made a struggling attempt to calm his breathing, matching it in time with my own exaggerated cycle. His eyelashes fluttered as he dropped his forehead to my shoulder.
"You're okay," I whispered and pressed a kiss to the tip of his ear. "You're okay. This doesn't change you. You're still you, Lloyd. You're still a good person and you're still the best thing that's ever happened to this stupid little city. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me."
My knees buckled a little under his weight as he slumped against me. My eyes widened at the sudden effort of keeping both myself and a whole ass ninja upright, but it was fine, because Lloyd had finally calmed down from his attack.
The severity of it - the quickness in how it snagged him wholly. I swallowed, my throat dry. Lloyd didn't have panic attacks often, but when be did, they hit him hard.
Little pats of rain drops began to fall from the cloudy night sky. We were still in this secluded little alleyway, still illuminated by the ferocious blue of the tea shop's sign, the green ninja was still leaning against me with his hood off.
Lloyd straightened with a loud sniffle. He looked like a little boy as he stood before me, shoulders slumped, eyes ringed with anxious tears.
"Sorry," he murmured, voice breaking off into a silent rasp halfway through. A drop of rain traced his cheek.
"Don't be," I said with a shake of my head. "Are you..?" stupid question, Y/n, of course he's not okay. "Do you..?"

A watery smile pulled at his lips. He pressed a kiss to my forehead.
"I'm okay," he said, and while I didn't quite believe it, I accepted it with a hesitant nod. "We should go back inside before anybody sees us."
"Yes," I rushed, sliding my hands into his and pulling him back into the shop. "We already have the SOG assholes to deal with, we don't need any more drama."
When we came back to the table where Mistaké and Jay sat at, we found them in the midst of an awkward silence. Jay was making a tower out of the empty tea cups. Mistaké was watching him with the stink eye.
They both straightened at our entrance, concerned and curious. Mistaké fixed me with a pointed look and I smiled sadly in return. She was right; the truth was hard to handle.
"Tell me more," Lloyd said as soon as he sat down. His grip on me was tight and short and I realised with an embarrassed start that I may as well have been sitting on his knee, considering how close he had pulled me to him.
"Are you sure you wish to continue?" Mistaké asked.
"Yes," Lloyd replied with a sure nod. He threaded his fingers through mine and I gave them a supportive squeeze. "I'm ready."

Mistaké gave a single, slow nod before removing Jay's tower. He whined.
"You are part oni and part dragon, young Lloyd," she said lowly as she set the tea cups neatly on the table. Jay pouted. "Now that you know, you must have many questions."
"How did my father not know about this?" Lloyd asked, eyes narrowed in clear confusion. "I understand that I've been affected by it more than he or Wu did, but I can't believe that they seriously had no idea."
Mistaké sighed a hum as she watched her finger trace the rim of a cup. "Your grandfather despised his origins; to be created from such hate, from the embodiment of a war itself - it shamed him deeply. He wanted to never think of it again, so he kept his heritage a secret."
"Why does it affect me more than than his sons?" Lloyd pressed after a short silence digesting the last answer, and Mistaké could only shrug in return.
"Does anybody really ever know fate's design?" she asked. "Your uncle, perhaps, but even Wu did not know everything."
"And our heightened senses - that's because of the dragon and oni in us as well?"
Mistaké nodded. Lloyd leant back with a loaded, weighty sigh and quietly began to siphon through this new information.
"These genes," I began slowly, making the three look at me. "The oni ones, specifically, I guess. Did they make Garmadon more susceptible to the Great Devourer's venom?"
"Yes, I believe it did," Mistaké said with a small nod. Her sharp eyes jumped back to Lloyd. "Tell me, child, have you noticed anything odd about yourself?"

"Uh, yeah, he's odd," Jay interjected. "They guy can purr."
Mistaké shot him a warning glare. Lloyd nodded tentatively.
"Yeah, I have," he murmured. "Powers that go beyond what I thought I should have. It's... it's so controlling, sometimes. But I've gotten better at keeping myself in line."
"You're talking of your instincts?"
Lloyd nodded, eyes wide. Mistaké hummed in deep thought before she reached out and yanked my sweatshirt down my shoulder. I yelped and snatched the hem back.
"Wow, hey!" I squealed in embarrassed surprise as I held the sweatshirt tightly to myself. "A little warning, please!"
But Mistaké ignored my squawking and gave a small smile. Lloyd stared between Mistaké and I, flabbergasted. Jay was watching on with wide eyes.
"You are developing well, Lloyd," she said. "You are right on track, judging by that mark."
Lloyd's bulging eyes turned back to Mistaké. His entire body had squeezed into a tense position.
"Why are you so pissbaby?" the old lady snapped at him. "That is an oni mark. Very rare, very lucky. Only used when an oni finds their life mate."
Lloyd was clearly not going to investigate further, too caught in the throes of the nonsense inside his head. I inched forward instead, hand still clutching my shoulder.
"Life mate?" I asked, promoting further knowledge.

"Life mate," Mistaké replied with a stiff nod. "A very special oni tradition. It is a bond deeper than marriage - it runs through your very being, your very soul. To be bit is to have the greatest happiness one could ever hope for."
"This?" Lloyd asked, voice pitched in desperate anger. He gestured to my shoulder. "This is the greatest happiness for an oni?"
Mistaké's eyes narrowed.
"Careful. You do not know what you are insulting, young man," she said dangerously. "Oni customs are very different than human."
"But it was painful!" Lloyd argued. "Why would - how could somebody ever hurt the person they're in love with?! What, just to show others that they belong to them?!"
"Oni have different customs than humans," Mistaké repeated, and her voice was almost a snarl. "They do not have rings to prove marriage. An Oni mark is a declaration of loyalty and love for all years."
"It's a show of territory and possession!" Lloyd bit back. I shared a look with Jay - this was going downhill fast.
"Territory?" Mistaké spluttered in outrage. "Possession? If Y/n were of oni blood, she would've done the same to you!"
I raised my brows at that revelation. Well, it was nice to know that the oni were on equal footing ground when it came to partnerships.
Lloyd was about to argue more, but I clasped my hand over his mouth to prevent the conversation from spiralling even more into a verbal death match.

"Okay, so, Lloyd's an everyday wattpad werewolf man," I said, shutting down the branch of conversation. "We're one half of an oni soulmate duo, cool. What about the, uh... the marking? The scent stuff."
Mistaké sniffed as she composed herself. Lloyd pulled my hand away from his mouth.
"Yes," the old lady grumbled. "The scent marking. That is from your dragon lineage. Dragons, unlike oni, do not have life mates. But they were loyal to their chosen partners 'till death and as such, each scent is very important. It was how they knew which pride a dragon came from."
"So when Lloyd gets frustrated about how I smell, it's because I don't smell like his family?" I asked. Lloyd huffed from beside me and tightly crossed his arms. Mistaké nodded.
"Precisely."
"That's... that's kind of cute," I said in surprise. Lloyd shot me a bewildered look. "It is! And the imprint? The tugging?"
"That is the effect of the prophecies," Mistaké answered.
"And his powers, why don't his powers hurt me?" I asked hurriedly, excited by the fact that for the first time ever since meeting Lloyd, I was getting answers.
"That is a combination," Mistaké said tiredly.
"And the elemental dragons acting the way they do?" I asked in a exhilarated squeak.
"The same," she snapped. "Do you not need information of the oni masks?"
I went to plow the tea lady with more questions anyway, but I settled when Lloyd placed a hand on my shoulder. My research would have to wait.
"We do," Lloyd said. "We do need information."
"Then shut up," Mistaké ordered.
I frowned in longing. There were still so many questions that I wanted answers to.

"Ninjago is a land built on balance," Mistaké said, and held a tea cup in each hand - perfectly balanced and at the same height. "You cannot have light without shadow, darkness without evil. When Lord Garmadon was rescued from the evil that resided inside of him, a void was created. A new darkness has arisen."
Mistaké spun the cup on her right hand with her thumb. I stiffened at the design festering on the blue swirls and patterns - they made the shape of Lord Garmadon's insignia. I heard Lloyd swallow.
"The Sons of Garmadon," he muttered.
"The three Oni Masks are relics from the first realm, and they wield tremendous power," Mistaké said, and I watched in fascination as the insignia transformed into a deformed face of a demon. "The power to deceive. The power of vengeance. The power to hate."
"These oni guys sound like they'd be fun at a party," Jay murmured. It was such a contrast to the tense atmosphere that had settled in the little tea shop that I had to smack my hand to my mouth and snort.
Lloyd looked up at Mistaké from the cup, ignoring Jay's quip.
"What happens when they're united?"
Mistaké slammed the cups down onto the table with a demanding sneer.
"You cannot let that happen!" she exclaimed. Lloyd leant forward, staring at the old lady with an adamant glint in his green eyes.
"Tell me, Mistaké," he pleaded. "What happens when the three masks are united?"

Mistaké broke her glare off with a sigh. Her voice was quiet and, if I could believe it, frightened.
"The three masks are the embodiments of the Oni's worst traits," she murmured. "Reunited, they have the power to imbue those traits into a person at a concentrated effect of pure evil. Purer than even the Great Devourer itself."
Jay, suddenly serious, sat up. His eyes widened in fear, and if he was scared by what Mistaké was saying, then I should've been downright terrified. Lloyd had paled. I was looking between the two men, at a total loss, not at all on the same page that they were on.
"Don't tell me..." Jay whispered.
"If the Sons of Garmadon reunite the three masks, they will have the power to resurrect Lord Garmadon in your father," Mistaké said to Lloyd gravely, and I was hit by why the two men on either side of me had frozen. "But this time, the love of his son will not be enough to heal him."
Lloyd sucked in a breath. His grip on me was almost bruising.

"This time," Mistaké continued, voice dark and grim and striking a horrendous amount of fear directly into my chest. "There will be no light left in him at all."

🍃🍂🍁🍂🍃

"I mean, you've defeated him once before," I said as Lloyd and I sat on the top of a tall building while Jay went to secure some snacks from a corner store on the street below. "Surely you can do it again... if it comes down to it."

Lloyd shook his head. He'd been staring out at the city for the past ten minutes with a lost, almost dazed look while the reality of everything that had occurred in the past hour settled in. There was a lot of information to sift through. And the news about Garmadon...
The rest of Lloyd's face was hidden by his mask , but I'd gotten pretty good at reading his eyes from over the years.
He was terrified. He was so scared.
"You heard Mistaké," Lloyd murmured, voice just audible from over the wind. "He won't be like how he was."
"I- I know," I stammered. My hands were anxiously rubbing my thighs as my legs swung over the edge of the roof. "But... he's Garm. Really, how on earth can he..."
I bit my lip, not knowing how to end my sentence. Lloyd sighed.
"You weren't there when the Overlord possessed my father," he said, eyes reflecting the lights of the city. He looked to be lost in memories. "What Mistaké's saying... he could be even worse than that. Garmadon won't - he won't be himself anymore."
A sadness swallowed my stomach. I brought my knees to my chest and rested my chin, watching the mulling street below. The people, the cars, the laughter and the conversations. It made me smile, though it felt as if I didn't quite reach my eyes.
"There's something sad about the human race being born out of hate," I murmured. Lloyd's red eyes finally turned to me. "But then again, it doesn't really make me surprised."

"Yeah," he rasped as he stared down at the street. "The more you learn, the more you realise just how shitty the world really is."
"It's not so bad," I mumbled. I peeked a look at him from over my arm, smile hidden by my knees. "Dragon boy."
His eyes drifted to mine. My grin doubled in size.
"And to think, I was calling you dragon boy without even realising that you are a dragon boy," I snickered. "I truly am the best comedian."
Lloyd rolled his eyes, but it was lighthearted and in small amusement. My smile faded at the worried look in his eyes that still held on tight.
"You're the oni one for me," I tried again. Lloyd groaned.
"Please, stop," he said.
"Okay," I replied, turning to face the city. "But oni because you asked me to."
"Y/n."
"Alright, alright, I'm sorry," I chuckled. "You're right, they're starting to drag-on."
Lloyd made an undignified sound from the back of his throat before pushing my shoulder. I toppled to the side with a squealed giggle, delighted in the genuine laughs that came from his mask.
"You are awful!" he exclaimed, watching in beguiled disdain as I laid on the rooftop, prisoner to my own laughing. With an exasperated grunt, he pulled me back up to face him, head lolling while chortles slipped from between my grinning lips. "How do you always do this?"

Still giggling, I huffed into the mask to settle myself. I tilted my head.
"Do what?"
"Make me feel better," Lloyd said with a shake of his head. "You always know what to do."
I shrugged, and another giggle fell from my mask without my consent.
"I dunno," I replied with a lofty, amused sigh. "You always make me feel better. Maybe it's a soulmate thing."
Lloyd's brow furrowed. His fingers touched the hem of my crewneck, but he didn't dare dip them further.
"Do you really believe Mistaké about that?" he murmured, staring at my shoulder. "About the oni life mate thing."
"You don't?"
"I have no idea," he confessed in a large breath. "I just can't get over the... the biting part of it. I don't like the idea of hurting you. I don't like the idea of people who're supposed to be in love hurting each other."
I fell silent. He was valid in his concern, of course, and I definitely shared the sentiment. I would never want to hurt Lloyd. Still...
"Lloyd," I said quietly as I shifted to kneel. He sat before me, crossed legged, and I stared at him with wide, unsure eyes. "About the bite..."
His attention turned to me, gaze shrouded. I bit my lip.
"I like it," I blurted. "I think it looks cool."

He stared at me. And I stared back, chewing harder on my lips as embarrassment and regret rocketed through me. Lloyd tilted his head in confusion.
"You like it?"
I could only answer with a single, sharp nod. His eyebrows piqued, unsure of where to stand on this platform I had provided. We sat, facing each other, and the words swum circles around us.
"But I hurt you."
"It didn't... it didn't hurt as much as I think you think it did." Even my own sentence had me confused, but I had said it, and the implication of it was out in the open between us.
"But I hurt you," Lloyd repeated, voice harder. A car honked a few blocks away. Laughter rose from an open apartment window just down the street. The vent on the roof behind us hummed steadily.
"And I like it," I said, balling my fists in an attempt to gain more confidence. "And I've already forgiven you for it... you're the only one who won't let it go, Lloyd."
Lloyd sprung to his feet, and the swift movement drew my breath out with it. He paced the rooftop and I watched him while slowly gathering myself to my feet, too.
"So, you're saying that you're okay with me hurting you?" Lloyd asked as he spun around to face me, brows scrunched.
"That's not quite what I said-"
"I could've torn your shoulder off!"
"No, you wouldn't have. That's not how the oni marks work," I patiently explained. His pacing was making my collectiveness wane. "Lloyd, just-"

"Are you saying that you'd let me do that to you again?" he asked, voice near on hissing in incredulity and confusion. "You'd let me hurt you? You'd let me make you bleed-?"
"God - YES," I shouted as my patience slipped faster than I had anticipated, and he stopped in surprise. "Yes, I would, okay! I liked the bite! At first I was shocked because yeah, you bit me and I didn't know how to react and yes, it kind of did hurt a bit because you have fucking fangs which isn't a bad thing, it's actually a really good thing because I like them and they're cute but that's not the point because after a couple of days I said to myself 'wait, maybe I'm kinda into that' which is weird and embarrassing and-" I caught Lloyd's stunned gaze and began to immediately break down to even more of a rambling mess "- Jesus Christ, stop looking at me like that, why can't I shut up? Please shut up, I said too much, why do I always say too much, I'm sorry-"
I was cut off by Lloyd grabbing my hands that had gone to cradle my head when I tried to hide myself from utter humiliation. The words felt caught in a bubble in my throat. I didn't dare look up at him. The shame was written clearly on my face.
But his curled index lifted my chin to face him and I had to come to terms that I had said what I had said (or word vomited them, at least) and I would have to live with it, no matter how much I wished I could swallow them back up.

"Why didn't you tell me?"
My eyes bulged.
"I DID," I exclaimed in disbelief. "What, was me asking you to bite me when we're making out not big enough of a hint for you? Do you want me to make a billboard for it? Do you want me to tattoo it to my cheeks?"
Lloyd fell into a stupefied laugh. I closed my eyes, ready for the torrent of tease that was surely headed my way. Just do it, already. Kink shame me, call me a horny little gnome, tell me that I could repel the nuns from my old catholic girls school with a mere glance-
"I'll bite you, if you want."
My eyes shot open. I stared at his eyes, crinkled by a masked smile, and waited for the offer to set in.
"What." I shook my head to clear it and straightened. "Hold on, no, you don't like to... you didn't... I thought- I thought you were afraid to..." I stared at him helplessly as my mind turned to mush. "Huh?"
Lloyd's red eyes sheepishly drifted to the side. He rubbed the back of his neck and turned on his heel to pave the roof again, just so he could have something to do. I watched him listlessly. I could probably be considered brain dead by that point.
"I was- I am afraid," he admitted, staring down at the street with his hand still on the nape of his neck. "I thought you were only pretending it was okay for my sake. I didn't want to hurt you, or make you uncomfortable. But if you really did like it-"
"I did," my zombified self interjected. Lloyd sent me an amused, hesitant smile.
"- then I guess we better start practising my self-control."

"Okay," I breathed. "Now? Can we start now?"
Lloyd looked back out at the city and sighed, contemplating, weighing my suggestion. He looked so beautiful standing there, like king of the city, gi fluttering in the wind. He looked like he belonged on a throne. I wanted to sit beside him.
The next thing I knew, my back was being slammed into the box vent strong enough to make me gasp out any bit of air I had in my lungs. I was still coming to terms with the incredible feat of speed when Lloyd snatched me from under my thigh and curled my leg around his waist. I was left in scrambles trying to catch up to him, breaths short and panting, heart drumming. When he pressed his body tight to mine, moulding me into the tight space between his chest and the vent, I thought I was going to faint from how I still hadn't managed to suck in a breath.
"You tell me if it gets too much," Lloyd growled, just as Jay arrived back with an "oh my god, guys, they have cheeseburger flavoured popcorn! It sounds disgusting but I really want to try... it..."
Jay's words trailed off. Lloyd and I had stilled, brains definitely very not working enough to pull ourselves away before our friend could see something he really didn't want to. But the fogginess was slow to leave, so we remained there, against the vent, and oh fuck, I really wanted to die instead of face Jay who had become, unsurprising and uncharacteristically, silent.

"... did I come back at a bad time?" he asked quietly and I had to unwrap my arms from around Lloyd's neck to bury my face into my palms.
"Yes, Jay, you came back at a bad time," Lloyd snapped as he turned to send the lightning master a glare over his shoulder. His grip under my thigh tightened.
"Okay, 'cause like, we're all out in the open, you know, and the last time you guys got caught snogging on a rooftop it trended on Twitter for a month and-"
"Alright!" Lloyd exclaimed as he dropped my leg. My foot fell to the ground with a slap of my sneaker. "Okay, let's start heading back."
I peeked between my fingers just in time to catch Jay give a relieving nod and summon his dragon. Sparkplug took off back in the direction towards where the Bounty was, clearly eager to leave.
Lloyd heaved a disappointed sigh. With Jay gone, the mortification of being caught had left with him, and a massive, shit-eating grin had taken its place on my lips instead.
"Sorry," he grumbled as he stepped back to give me some room. I stood up from the vent and found in surprising delight that there was a subtle ache from where my back had hit the metal. "You okay?"
I nodded. "You?"
Lloyd gave a dramatic exhale as he began adjusting his rumpled robe. "I would've been better, if we weren't interrupted."

I giggled, savouring this elated lightness that had my heart feeling all airy and fluttery.
"He's right, though. We are out in the open."
Lloyd's red eyes squinted to the side in annoyance, but his silence told me that he reluctantly agreed. His gaze jumped down to me and he bent down to gently knock his forehead to mine.
"We can continue this later."
The intent behind his words sent a shiver up my spine. My eyes lidded.
"Is that a promise, little dragon?"
Lloyd pulled me into his chest. His hands couldn't seem to get enough of me, and my own itched to explore him the same.
"How good are you at keeping quiet?"

I grinned.
"Let's find out."