Twerps
••• Simple Feelings •••

baby, time will make it easier
cause i fade, i faded a long time
you were hot you were cold you weren't always so bold
i was done, you had one, it had only just begun

•••••

rip skateboard 😔

TW: accidental harm, blood

When Lloyd was younger, he wanted to be just like his father. He wanted to be like his father so much that he got into trouble with the ninja for it.

He made mortal enemies with them; a group of fourteen-year-old, hastily trained and overpowered kids in bright-coloured suits with a destiny too big for their young shoulders.

He was only ten himself.

The irony? Lloyd's father - the great and terrible Lord Garmadon - didn't even know that he existed for the first ten years of his life. The tyrannical man had been missing since before the kid was born, having been lost to the Underworld just a few weeks before his wife found out that she was pregnant.

Lloyd didn't know the whole story about his father. He didn't know about the agonising battle against the evil poison that had slowly been altering his DNA, one sequence at a time, since he was a child. He didn't know about his father's fear of becoming something he hated, he didn't know about his grandfather's frantic and fruitless search for a remedy, and he didn't know about his mother's steadfast will to stand by her husband, or his uncle's guilt of it all. An entire story lay untold.

When eight-year-old Lloyd found out from his mother that his father was Lord Garmadon and wanted to take over the world, he only cared about two things;

One - he wanted to finally meet his father.

And two - he wanted to stand by his side at the top of the world.

It wasn't the power, or the four arms, or the way that people shivered in fear whenever Lord Garmadon's name was mentioned that made Lloyd want to be like him. He just thought he was cool to have as a father, and, much to his mother's horror, wanted to follow exactly in his footsteps.

As soon as that idea blossomed in his head, his mother, Misako, had placed him in a boarding school while she scoured the world for something, anything to stop the impending battle that was doomed to hurt her family. Lloyd was bitter with her decision, but she knew something that even his wise, old uncle didn't;

Misako knew that Lloyd was the Green Ninja. She knew that one day, her son and her husband would have to fight.

It was foretold by prophecy, and despite the impossibility of stopping it, Misako was determined to try. Surely there was a way to turn Garmadon back? Surely there was something to prevent such a horrific battle from happening between her two most beloved people in the world?

While Misako searched every museum and every archeological site she could get access to (and every one she wasn't allowed in), Lloyd's boarding school got overtaken by the awful students that he called classmates. He tried to join in on the festivities as they paraded around the school, but it all made his tummy churn with guilt.

He was kicked out by the other kids and was homeless at ten. His mother still believed that he was in the boarding school. He resented her for that.

Then he may have released some snakes. It wasn't a good idea, but then again, he wasn't exactly trying to be good. He just managed to cause more trouble for his arch enemies the ninja, and that was great until he was betrayed. Then his enemies suddenly became his babysitters.

Then, finally, after he'd tried to get back at the serpentine and got caught, Lloyd met his father. Their reunion was less full of evil laughter and more awkward than how Lloyd had imagined it over and over again when he laid in bed at night.

He imagined that his father would be overjoyed at the thought of having a son. He thought that his father would've been like one of those cool dads that would visit the other kids in the boarding school - all slick and rich-looking and making secret handshakes with their sons. He thought that he would've brought him in for a hug and give him a noogie and then tell him all the ways to incapacitate a man.

Instead, Lord Garmadon looked sick. It made little Lloyd panic.

Was it the red eyes? Lloyd had thought that Lord Garmadon would like his red eyes - they looked just like his! Or maybe it was the small, stubby fangs that showed off when he smiled? They were hardly as sharp as his father's, sure, but they were definitely there!

But maybe he didn't like the red eyes and fangs, much like how everyone else Lloyd met didn't? When his father stared at him with a still, pale expression, Lloyd desperately mustered back his green eyes, but his fear of not being accepted by his father kept causing them to slip back into a frightened red.

But then, the cruel and awful Lord Garmadon did something that Lloyd never thought he would do;

He cried.

Lloyd stiffened when the maniacal tyrant pulled him into a hug, clutching at his small body as he sobbed. He glanced at Wu, but his uncle just stood to the side and watched with a forlorn, lost expression.

"I'm sorry," Lloyd heard Lord Garmadon weep. Lloyd was so lost, so confused. "I'm so sorry for making you look like a monster."

And now, folks, that's not really anybody should say to a ten-year-old boy who'd already suffered from the hand of bullies due to his inhuman looks. Lloyd knew that he was weird. He knew that he was different. He was called a monster by kids his age, sure, but to be called one by his own father?

Despite that first, initial mishap, it turned out that Lord Garmadon, while being the embodiment of evil, furiously loved his son. He was awkward and unsure to begin with, having missed out on the past ten years of practise, but the effort to spend time with Lloyd was there, even though he didn't really get to spend time with him at all.

Lloyd was content, finally. He got to have a dad.

And then, in a cruel twist of fate, he discovered that he was the legendary Green Ninja. He was born to defeat his own father.

Lloyd was a child soldier, a fighting machine designed by fate itself. He lost any semblance of childhood that remained and found himself thrown into training. The Green Ninja was a mantle far too big for Lloyd to even comprehend - so much so that it was believed that the very fate of the world depended on a now eleven-year-old's shoulders.

Lloyd lost himself.

He fought for fate. He did it relentlessly, always there when called upon, always willing to take the fall, to lose out, to do whatever was needed to be done so long as the prophecies demanded it. And when he went to school, the same people who he saved bullied him relentlessly. It was a dreary existence.

Still, Lloyd Garmadon was a b̶o̶y̶ man of many talents. He had a number of accomplishments somebody his age shouldn't be able to have. He'd seen more things, experienced more life, tackled more world-threatening situations than anybody even twice his age had combined. He had no choice. His life was chosen for him, and he had to walk the path carved for his steps.

Ninjago's saviour - protector of the people and leader of the Secret Ninja Force.

Lloyd Garmadon - the hated social outcast.

What a joke.

"Why don't you just drop out of high school?" Jay would ask. "If it's causing you so much misery, why don't you just leave? You've got enough going on already, haven't you?"

But as much as Lloyd hated being pushed around by the peers of his high school, he found himself enjoying the brief sense of mundane normalcy that those school days gave him. They were easy. There was no world to save in pre-calc.

Yes, he had to dodge thrown wads of chewing gum and avoid getting his head dunked in the toilet, but at least he got to pretend that his worries stemmed no further than the test that he had in a week's time. It made it easy to forget that the government was breathing down the ninja force's necks and wanted to eradicate them from the city.

Sometimes he just got tired from saving Ninjago from threat after threat. Sometimes it just got overwhelming. It was why it was refreshing to just be Lloyd Garmadon sometimes - he was simply a boy with a dad that used to be an overlord, no biggie.

At least Lloyd could be sure that his identity would remain safe, because who in their right mind would think that the boy all of society hated was the ninja that all of social media adored? Somebody that good, to have been born to somebody that evil?

Lloyd tried his best to brush off the insults and the scornful remarks tossed his way as he went about his mundane life, trying to make the best out of a stale situation. That was what he wanted, right? That was what good people did, right? Sometimes he wasn't so sure. Sometimes, it got difficult.

Lloyd knew he was good. His family knew he was good. His closest friends knew he was good, too. Hell, his father turned back to the good side after his evilness was eradicated, but that may as well have never happened so long as society was concerned. They liked to have a common enemy to berate, and that common enemy were the Garmadons.

Lloyd had been faced with those scowls of disgust so often that could still see them when he closed his eyes. They haunted him at night, littered amongst the ends of the world from his faults and the deaths of his friends from his mishaps.

They were the same faces of disgust that everyone stared at him with, wherever he walked, without fail.

Almost everyone.

He lost to a game of paper, scissors, rock and grumbled under his breath as he went off to grab his team's drink orders.

It was the first day of summer break and the team wanted to take advantage of the warmth and peace by hanging out at the park and pretending to be normal teenagers. Anybody could've looked at them and not realised that they were the legendary ninja force, their futures riddled with prophecies and gifted with elemental powers that had been carried down from their lineage. Instead, they only saw the Garmaboy squad.

  (It really wasn't a creative insult, but everybody still used it, anyway)

Lloyd could feel her stare as soon as he entered the café. At first, he ignored it. After all, she wasn't the only one in the café staring - especially not while the blue-haired barista kicked up such a fuss. Being stared at, unfortunately, was simply the norm for him.

But she was still staring even after the café's patrons went back to pretending to ignore the hovering Garmadon boy. Her face was partly hidden by a book, but Lloyd's senses were sharp enough to notice her only using it as a pretence to stare at him.

So he met her gaze. At first, it was out of pettiness - a challenge. He was surprised, however, when he found a flash genuine intrigue in her eyes before she hid them in her book that she was definitely not reading.

Lloyd's interest was piqued, now. He turned his attention back to the café's interiors and felt her gaze slowly drift back to stare at him.

It was as bewildering as it was amusing. Who was this chick?

Enough said, he was immediately taken with the girl who was probably thinking that she was being real slick.

He caught her gaze again, just to let her know that, actually, she wasn't all that when it came to peeping on people. She hid behind the book again. Her ears turned red, and Lloyd felt himself smile in pleasant surprise.

It was certainly refreshing to have somebody look at him without their lips curling in disgust or eyes narrowing in hate.

He grinned at her through the window after receiving the drinks for the team. He was surprised by the shift in his chest - a demand for him to go back and introduce himself. He ignored it.

Maybe she was new in town? He couldn't tarnish her new reputation and let people think that she was seen with him. He couldn't think of a quicker way to ruin a stranger's life.

Lloyd grimaced as he walked to the park. The sudden, foreign tugging in his chest was growing more insistent the further he walked away from her. The feeling of it was strange and unusual, but he was steadfast; no going back. This odd stranger didn't need his baggage.

But, lo and behold, Lloyd saw her sitting on a bench as he lounged in the sun with his team. He was immediately distracted, staring at the girl as she played on her phone, all alone on a park bench.

Whatever this feeling was, it had him hooked, which was why when he saw her leave her drink on the bench, he took off after her to return it. He'd ignored his own advice from just a few minutes prior.

It was just to work out what was so different about her, he told himself.

Yeah, right, the realistic part of him scoffed.

"I'll meet you guys at home!" Lloyd had quickly exclaimed, abandoning his precious apple juice to pursue after the girl. The calls of confused protests from his team fell on deaf ears as he swiped the half-drunken hot chocolate from the bench and carried after her.

She was already a bit ahead, but Lloyd was an expert tracker after years of experience, easily spotted the top of her head as she leisurely meandered down the busy path. He hurried after her, ignoring the sneers sent his way by other, less interesting strangers.

Less interesting, alright. Lloyd was sure that any of the other park-goers wouldn't have accidentally tried to give him a concussion.

How was he supposed to tell the others? The legendary green ninja; defeated by a spooked girl with a grandma of a skateboard? She'd even made him bleed.

Needless to say, he was impressed.

Lloyd sat on the ground, half-stunned from the shock of being hit and more shocked by the girl who was stumbling over her own words as she apologised to him.

He stared up at her in bewilderment. She's pretty.

Her hands fretted over him, teeth biting her bottom lip in guilt and shock and sheepishness. She really didn't know who he was.

After reassuring her that no, he'd be fine, yes, he's dealt with worse, no, he's not going to die, Lloyd found himself with a girl's number and the two halves of her broken skateboard. He couldn't believe his luck. He'd just gotten a girl's number.

Yeah, he didn't catch her name, but he'd gotten a girl's phone number.

And sure, it's because she took his hoody to get it washed and he took her board to get it repaired, but still - he'd gotten a girl's number.

"Is the world ending?" Lloyd sarcastically asked himself as he summoned his dragon once he reached a secluded enough part of the city. He flew the rest of the way home.

The monastery was set deep within the forest that boarded one side of Ninjago City and sat against the base of the Wailing Alps. The building was older than Garmadon himself was (and Garmadon was old), as it was the home of the First Spinjitzu Master. Beside it, a little further into the trees, was a large garage where the Bounty lived when it wasn't being used for missions.

Lloyd landed his dragon on the gravelled driveway. He walked past the pond and up the steps, before hesitating at the front door; how was he supposed to tell anyone about what happened? As far as Lloyd was concerned, they were all confused by him suddenly running off without telling them why.

Lloyd lifted his fingers to his gash and grimaced at the amount of blood that stained his fingertips. He sent the doors a reluctant glance.

  Zane wouldn't make fun of me, right?
 
Yeah, Lloyd thought to himself as he pulled out his phone to shoot the ice ninja a text. He won't make me feel like an idiot. He's good at keeping secrets.

But the monastery was also a home for the unpowered monks that had helped serve Lloyd's lineage in protecting Ninjago since the First Spinjitsu Master, which meant that they'd also have to be avoided. Those monks were nothing more than a bunch of gossips.

Lloyd was never one to back down from a challenge. All he had to do was slip through to the medbay undetected. Easy! It was what ninja did.

He squared his shoulders, plastered on a stern face, and opened the front door, ready to sneak through the large expanse of the Monastery without attracting attention.

Only to be met with Cole.

Subjectively, the biggest gossip of all.

Lloyd's shoulders fell.

"What happened to you?" Cole pulled a face.

Lloyd could only imagine what a mess he was - blood dribbling down to his chin, hair messy from that morning's training, hot chocolate staining his shirt from where it soaked through his missing hoody and a broken skateboard in tow. Cole's gaze grew more suspicious as he took him in.

Curse the fates above, Lloyd bitterly sniped to himself. It was only going to be a matter of minutes before the entirety of the monastery would know about his condition, which would cause his parents to come running to make sure that their baby boy was still in working order.

Cole was already subtly taking his phone out of his pocket, most likely to text Kai, who would then tell Nya, who would spill to Jay, who would blab to Zane, who would inform the adults and so forth. A chain reaction purely made up of Lloyd's embarrassment.

Lloyd hoisted the two halves of the board up under his arm and decided that the truth would be the easiest route. His embarrassment was preorchestrated at this point, anyway.

"I got smacked with a skateboard," he said blandly, lifting the two halves for Cole to see. The earth ninja eyed them blankly before narrowing his eyes into a shitty glare.

"By who?" Cole asked. "Some punk that I need to punch the lights out of?"

"Like you would," Lloyd snorted, sliding past him and sighing at the welcoming embrace of the air conditioning - truly the best upgrade that the monastery had gotten. "Nah. A girl."

Cole scoffed as he followed, door slamming shut behind them.

"A girl?" he chuckled.

"Something wrong with girls?" Lloyd challenged, with an expectant look shot at Cole from over his shoulder. "I'm sure Nya would love to hear your reasoning."

Cole grinned sheepishly and lifted his shoulders in truce. "Point taken, touché. Where's your hoody?"

"Got spilled with hot chocolate."

"Man," Cole sighed. "This hasn't been your day."

"An understatement," Lloyd mumbled in agreement, but found himself internally debating whether or not it had been such a terrible day - the centre of the perfect storm was the girl's face, of course, and he almost laughed at how repulsed he would've been at the thought of being so caught up by a pretty girl only a few years ago.

"What's that look on your face?" Cole chimed, striding forward to stop Lloyd in his tracks. The blond tilted his head.

"What?"

"That expression." Cole pointed at his pink cheeks. "You look flushed."

Lloyd scoffed. "Since when were you an expert in body language? That's Zane's department."

"Since about a second ago," Cole quickly replied before dismissing it. He smugly grinned. "You met someone, didn't you? Who was it? That girl?"

Lloyd instinctively grimaced at his probing question, paused, and then masked his thoughtfulness with another grimace. Cole's smirk bloomed.

"It's not like that," Lloyd dismissed. "I probably just hit my head too hard. Which is why I'm trying to get to Zane so he can fix me up."

"No way," Cole persisted, stepping in front of Lloyd again when he tried to continue down the hall. The earth ninja laughed at Lloyd's ire. "You have a crush! Little Lloydie's got a crush!"

"I don't have a crush!" he snapped, roiled up by Cole's teasing and how easily he was being seen through. "I don't even know her!"

"Then why do you have her board?" Cole raised a brow.

Lloyd knew that he didn't have to take the board. He could've just brushed off the incident and been on his way, but taking the board and swapping it for his hoody was a surefire ticket to see her again. They'd have to meet up to swap items - maybe then Lloyd could get more of a read of this girl that had him so intrigued - and test this weird tugging sensation on his chest a bit more.

"I took it because I felt bad," he said, and he wasn't exactly lying, but he wasn't telling the full truth, either. He had to somehow save face and keep what remained of his dignity intact, after all. "It was my fault she freaked out and hit me with her board. She took my hoody to get washed, so it's only fair."

Cole lifted his brows in doubt. "Sure."

"It's the truth!" Lloyd raised his arms in indignation. Half of the truth.

"Alright." Cole rolled his eyes, totally and absolutely unconvinced. They set off down the long hallway again, passing by closed doors as they headed to the med bay. "What's her name?"

He didn't answer. Cole's smile fell as he sent a fidgeting Lloyd a disbelieving look.

"You didn't even ask her for her name?" he asked in disbelief. "You took her skateboard and you didn't ask for her name? Dude, that's like the one thing people do."

Lloyd shifted uncomfortably, rubbing the back of his neck.

Truth be told, he didn't forget. He just didn't want to ask for her name because then, out of courtesy, he'd have to tell her his. And although she didn't seem to know his face, she might've known his name. His name didn't exactly have very clean connotations.

He was a little put off by having to do that, so he purposefully didn't. Though, by taking her broken board as an excuse to see her again he knew that eventually they'd have to share names. He'd like to avoid that for as long as he could.

But what did she think she knew about Lloyd Garmadon? What if it was bad? He was so mystified by how he reacted to her that he didn't want her to run to the hills as soon as the name 'Garmadon' slipped from his mouth.

He wanted to know why his body told him to follow her when she forgot her drink. He wanted to know why he smiled when he caught her staring. This had never happened before - it was like he wasn't in control of his own body, like it was fate pulling him by a string. It was so weird and different and he just wanted to know why.

And the only way to find out why was to see her again.

So Lloyd feigned a groan and used his free hand to smack his cheek.

"I forgot to ask her her for her name," he echoed Cole, but layered on the disappointment.

Now he really was lying and yeah, he felt guilty about it - but Cole wouldn't understand what his thought process of this weird situation was, and then he'd tell everyone and then everyone would know about the girl that made him act with a totally blank mind.

And god, the teasing? It would be relentless. He just wanted to figure it out for himself first without telling anyone about it.

Cole snorted, shaking his head and making his black locks sway, totally buying the lie.

"Well done, Green Ninja," he teased, elbowing him and making him grunt. "Ninjago's saviour can't even ask a girl for her name."

"It's not that I couldn't ask her!" Lloyd defended as Cole laughed. Still better than what it could be if they found out. "I just forgot."

Sure. Forgot.

"Yeah." Cole nodded, totally not being the jerky older brother or anything. "Keep telling yourself that, kid."

Lloyd rolled his eyes.

Then the conversation took a more serious turn.

"Does she know who you are..?" Cole asked warily as they slowly walked down the hall. Lloyd stiffened, and stared dead ahead. "Like, who your..?"

"I don't know," Lloyd replied curtly. The medbay was only a few more steps away. "I don't think she does."

Cole heaved a loaded sigh and brushed the back of his head with his hand. "Damn," was all he had to say, and it seemed to be enough.

"Yep." Lloyd popped the p.

Zane was in the med bay when they arrived, most likely alerted by Cole's gabbing mouth more so than Lloyd's text. He steered the boy into a seat as soon as he set foot in the bay and began his check up.

Although Zane, as a citizen, didn't have any official doctor training, he was a walking computer and knew basically everything ever according to Lloyd, so it was pretty much the same thing.

"Say 'ah,'" ordered Zane.

"Ah," said Lloyd.

"Longer."

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh- hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-"

"You may stop now."

"Okay."

"How bad is it doc?" Cole woefully asked. He placed a hand on Lloyd's shoulder. "Is he gonna live?"

Zane stepped back, not catching Cole's sarcasm or, more likely, simply ignoring it. "He will be fine. It is only superficial."

"I told you to stop being a drama queen!" Cole shot at Lloyd, who then lifted his arms up in exaggerated disbelief.

"What!" Lloyd barked. Zane patched up the disgruntled boy's injury and then stared at him.

"Yes, Lloyd," he said in a monotonous voice. "Don't be a drama queen."

Cole laughed so hard and suddenly that he choked on his own spit. Lloyd crossed his arms, sending the two an unhappy frown. Zane turned away to busy himself with unboxing the new shipment of gauze wrap with a small smile. Even he liked to join in on the teasing sometimes.

"You know, I'm starting to feel less like the team leader and more like the baby of the family," Lloyd complained.

"That is because you are," Zane replied, his back still turned.

Lloyd scoffed. Cole snorted again. Zane continued to calmly restock the shelf above the little sink.

"Lloyd?" A voice interrupted the chaos as Wu entered the medbay. "Mind telling me what's going on in here?"

"They're bullying me, Sensei," Lloyd grumbled to his uncle. Jay appeared out of thin air and pointed an accusing finger over Sensei Wu's shoulder at Lloyd.

"Where have you been?!" he yelled. "You left us! Ninja never leave a ninja behind, wasn't that our code?!"

"I've never heard of that," Cole said.

"It's totally the code!" Jay insisted.

Never in his life had Lloyd wanted a vacation more. Maybe he'd escape into the woods for a few nights just to catch a break.

"Something wrong, nephew?" Wu asked again.

"Nothing's wrong." Lloyd groaned into his hands.

Wu skeptically raised an eyebrow as he switched his attention to the broken skateboard that lay forgotten on the ground.

"I beg to differ," Wu replied dryly, turning his gaze back to Lloyd. "What happened?"

Lloyd sighed and began recounting that morning. He maybe skipped out the parts about feeling attached like a magnet to the girl.

He definitely skipped out those parts.

By the time he'd finished telling and retelling the story, the rest of his team and parents had crowded around his seat in the med bay. He was well beyond tired and annoyed.

"Can I go, now?" Lloyd begged.

"You want to fix that?" Kai asked in disbelief, sending a narrowed look at the split skateboard.

"Yeah. Can I go?"

"Like hell." Nya was gently tapped by Misako at her language. "Sorry. Yeah, there's no way to fix that."

"Really?" Lloyd's shoulders slumped in disappointment.

"Really," Nya emphasised.

Lloyd exhaled through his nose in disappointment. Well, that was a promise down the drain. What to do now?

"I trust you got the girl's contact number?" Wu asked. Lloyd nodded. "You must tell her."

"Yeah, but... can I just text her like that?" Lloyd asked. This was starting to feel like some weird family meeting.

"Of course," Garmadon said, before backpedaling and glancing amongst the younger generation unsurely. "... right?"

"What, you scared?" Kai snorted.

"No!" Lloyd bit back. "I just... don't want to be weird."

"I suggest you to tell her of the news through your cellular device." Wu stared at Lloyd with a rare, mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "Certainly you are not afraid to do that."

"I'm not afraid!" Lloyd snapped before recoiling in on himself. "Sorry."

Wu just grinned at his brother, who rolled his eyes back at him. They may have been old, but it was still fun to tease the youngest.

"God, just-" Lloyd said, starting to feel suffocated. "Leave me alone. I'm going to bed."

His family snickered at his red face as he fled the scene of the crime (the victim; Lloyd's dignity).

He pulled out his phone and stared at the unnamed girl's number, frowning as he walked through the monastery to his bedroom.

Afraid? He was the Green Ninja for pete's sake, he wasn't afraid. He'd faced far worse enemies than the pitiful nerves from texting a girl.

But he still found himself hesitating.