Art mine, that's why it sucks :D You'll get an explanation to what the picture is supposed to be later in the chapter.
Edit: The picture didn't show at first for some reason. Now it should be there.
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"Kai... time to wake up."
Kai awoke to the feeling of Nya poking his arm. He muttered something under his breath and simply turned to lie on his other side, facing the little blond slumbering beside him.
"Kai, Lloyd, we need to hurry," Nya ordered. She then seemingly started shaking Lloyd. "Little L, wakey wakey."
"Mamama..." the 4-year-old Lloyd mumbled and wriggled in his sleep.
"Lloyd, time to get up!" Nya shouted.
Kai nearly allowed himself to drift off to his lands of slumber again, being able to already feel the comfort he experienced in his sleep. However, he didn't quite reach that state since the next thing he felt was Lloyd landing on top of him, squeezing a grunt out of him.
"Whoopsie," Lloyd whispered and crawled off of his brother.
Well, at least Kai was awake now. With a sigh, he got up to start getting ready like Nya was already.
Not a lot of visible change had occurred during the last three years the siblings had spent together. No outsider could see a lot of difference, but that did not mean absolutely nothing had changed. In fact, life had improved a little for Kai and Nya since Little Lloyd had joined their sibling squad. He was definitely the small candle shining through the dark and always made his older siblings feel better. That was, whenever Gargoyle was not around. Ever since he had come, they had cared for him in every single way, from dealing with his chronically runny nose to taking the blame for him whenever he'd done anything to anger Rita. In return, Lloyd always delighted the two with some of his silly antics and sudden cuddles.
The siblings all got ready and dressed, the older ones helping the youngling. Lloyd's ankles were always sore in the morning, so it was difficult for him to move around. For that very reason, it was usually Kai who dressed him up in his one and only attire: a green sweatshirt and green shorts. Those were the only clothes Lloyd owned as Rita still believed in her One Attire -policy.
This morning, Nya was in charge of breakfast while Kai went to feed the dogs. Lloyd was never asked to do anything with the dogs since, it turned out, he was allergic to them. That was the sole reason he was always rubbing his eyes and had a runny nose.
Did Rita do anything about it, though? No. She just told Lloyd to suck it up and be a man.
Therefore, in the morning, Lloyd was normally put to sit on a stool and occasionally hand different things to his siblings or taste test the food, the latter being his favorite job. He wasn't exactly helpful with housework anyway and required a lot of Kai and Nya's time, but the two loved taking care of him.
"Sugar, Cotton," Kai called out as he entered the dog's territory. "Food."
The two dogs didn't react much but lazily lay on the soft couch at the back of the room, just watching as Kai poured food into their bowls. Kai was a little confused over the dogs' behavior since they usually bolted to fill their stomachs with that overpriced dog food, but now it seemed to be the least of their interests.
However, soon both of the dogs suddenly shot up and ran out into the kitchen. Upon hearing a shriek right afterwards, Kai sprang over to find the dogs basically jumping against the stool Lloyd was sitting on. Nya, who was now trying to push the dogs away, had given Lloyd a steamed bun to taste test.
"Stop!" Kai exclaimed, coming to block the dogs from doing anything to Lloyd and Nya.
The dogs barked loudly, even growling and baring their teeth a few times. Kai tried to usher them back into their own palace of a room, but not quickly enough.
"What is going on?"
Kai looked up to see Rita coming downstairs, looking quite messy and hungover.
"What did you do to them?" Rita demanded as she quickly stumbled to her two dogs, picking them up.
"Nothing! They nearly attacked Lloyd!" Kai replied hastily.
Lloyd whimpered quietly and sneezed, clutching the hood of Kai's shirt.
"They would never attack anyone," Rita scoffed. "You were being too loud for them." She then proceeded to give both of the spoiled Pomeranians lots of cuddles. "My little angels would never hurt anyone."
Rita really loved her dogs to a weird extent, but the children had already learnt not to question it.
Once the gargoyle had left to take the dogs back into their room, Nya went back to cook the food while Kai comforted Little Lloyd, whose nose was runnier than in a while.
"Kai," Lloyd whimpered, wiping his nose in his sleeve. "My nose icky."
Lloyd's word for 'itchy'.
"I know. It'll stop soon," Kai consoled. Technically he was lying, because Lloyd's runny nose was chronic by now, all because of the dogs.
"Kai, have you done your homework?" Nya suddenly asked.
Kai blinked. "Um... yeah. Of course!"
"No, he hasn't," Lloyd mumbled innocently.
"You little snitch!" Kai groaned.
Nya gave her brother a reproachful look. "Kai, not all children can even go to school. The least you can do to appreciate that privilege is put a little effort into your schoolwork."
"You sound like a mom," Kai retorted.
"How would you know? We don't have a mom."
"But you make it feel like we did."
"Well, you make it feel like we had a big baby."
"Oh well, you-" Kai never managed to finish his sentence as Lloyd grabbed him by the sleeve and pulled him towards himself to regain his attention.
"Kai," Lloyd whined, sniffling.
"Fine, you little attention addict," Kai chuckled, gladly giving all of his attention to his nicer sibling.
"Even Lloyd is more mature than you," Nya sniped.
Kai gave his sister a questioning look, nodding towards Lloyd, who was now ripping apart the piece of paper towel he had found and dropping it on himself as if to play it was snowing.
"Okay, fine," Nya grumbled.
🔥-🔥-🔥
The day was hotter than any other so far. The sun was shining brightly in the sky and there was hardly any shade on the siblings' way to school. The asphalt was like solid lava they had to walk on, and there was nowhere they could cool down.
Kai and Nya were walking bravely along the highway, their backpacks weighing uncomfortably on their backs, chafing their shoulders. They were constantly glancing over their shoulders to make sure Lloyd was not walking in the middle of the road or lagging too much behind.
The next time Kai checked, he was doing the latter.
"Lloyd, keep up!" Kai yelled.
Lloyd didn't listen, but sat down on the ground and started picking dandelions which grew on the roadside. He did that everytime he was too tired to continue. The journey to school was no fit for a small 4-year-old.
"Lloyd, come," Kai repeated, marching over to pick the little one up from the ground.
Lloyd didn't say anything, but hung his head low as he was being dragged by the hand by his older brother. His steps were heavy and his feet were very unsteady.
"Kai," Lloyd whimpered, tugging on Kai's hand.
"Just a bit longer, Little L," Kai comforted.
"No walky anymowe..." Lloyd whimpered. His speech wasn't that clear or far developed yet, which often resulted in his teacher scolding him.
"He's going to collapse soon," Nya worried, clearly seeing how red Lloyd's cheeks were becoming.
Kai sighed and stopped. He then squatted down, which gave Lloyd the opportunity to climb on his back. The little brother wrapped his arms around the older brother's neck and rested his head against his back.
"Better?" Kai asked over his shoulder.
Lloyd nodded exhaustedly, closing his eyes.
"Don't fall asleep, okay? We still need you to spot any snakes," Kai said. Yes, there were lots of dangers on their way to school. Not only was the road the main passage for massive trucks and speeding motorcycles that didn't know of any traffic rules, but there were also snakes often slithering on the hot asphalt. All of that together with the burning heat made the way to school dangerous and arduous.
And Lloyd fell asleep.
"Lloyd!" Nya hissed, shaking the little one.
Lloyd let out some sleepy sounds and squeezed his eyes shut. "No yet, Ninny..."
Kai snorted. "Ninny" was what Lloyd had used to call Nya back when he'd been unable to pronounce her name. Similarly, he had called Kai "Bai-Bai", but that was something everyone was prohibited from mentioning again.
"Come on, let's try to spot some geckos," Nya tried, shaking the blond again.
Lloyd started to snore quietly, making Nya sigh.
"Probably didn't sleep much last night," Kai suggested.
"No wonder. Gargoyle was being so loud." Nya shook her head.
"Mhm... fly ship..." Lloyd mumbled in his sleep.
The two older siblings snickered. When Rita was absent, Lloyd was so talkative he couldn't stop talking even when he was asleep.
All of a sudden, a very old ambulance pulled stopped by and the driver rolled down the window. "Need a ride, kids?"
"Yes, please!" Kai and Nya exclaimed. This was one of the rare treats they could get: a ride to school. Lots of cars passed by them on their way to school, but only few of them ever stopped to help.
"Lloyd, look! We just got a ride!" Kai exclaimed, poking his brother.
Lloyd's eyes fluttered open as the siblings climbed into the back of the ambulance. "Mm... bamboolance," he mumbled. It was another word of his own invention: bamboolance. He gazed around the car for a moment, seemed content... and fell back asleep.
"A real koala we have for a brother," Nya grinned.
💧~💧~💧
When the clock hit noon and the teachers rang the lunch bell, all students bursted out of the school building, rushing to have lunch. Kai and Nya too hurried out of their classroom, just in time to meet Little Lloyd outside.
"Hungry?" Kai asked, grabbing Lloyd's hand to prevent him from running away.
Lloyd smiled widely, nodding.
Another good part about going to school was that the siblings got a nice, free lunch they didn't have to make themselves. The Ninjargon government made sure every student was granted a free meal in every school, which was pretty much all the government did to help, but which helped the Smiths and Lloyd a lot. There was no way Rita would've ever paid for a school lunch or let the siblings pack leftovers to take with them. The free school lunch was the only way they got to eat.
"I bet it's rice and roasted beans again," Nya commented, feeling how her stomach was rumbling.
"It would be nice to get some fish again. That one time we had fish and crackers was awesome!" Kai smiled.
"Fishy," Lloyd cooed, swinging off Kai's arm.
"And remember that time we had chips? On the first day of school?" Nya asked.
Lloyd nodded ecstatically.
The siblings made their way to the lunch line. It was basically all of the children just lining up in front of a separate, small house where one of the teachers gave everyone a bowl of rice and beans and a cup of water to enjoy outdoors. Such things as lunch tables or canteens did not exist to them.
"Lloyd!"
Nya's and Kai's eyes had left Lloyd for literally a few seconds and the little one was already wandering off closer to where he could smell the food. He wasn't the only one; lots of small children were too impatient to wait in line.
"Lloyd, come on!" Nya hissed, gesturing to her brother to come.
Lloyd stood still, smiling mischievously. He was usually obedient, but school somehow brought out his negative age.
"Lloyd Smith, back in the line!" Mr. Neuro called out. Lloyd was, by his own request, often called Lloyd Smith since he had no surname of his own and he wanted to be like his older siblings.
Upon hearing the call of who was "the scary and tall teacher" in his eyes, Lloyd ran back to Kai and Nya, clutching his sister's arm.
"Nya," Lloyd whispered.
"Yeah?"
"I smelled fishy!" Lloyd squeaked quietly.
Kai and Nya snorted. Lloyd's rather peculiar sentences often tended to turn into something funny, all unintentionally. He wasn't really aware of it, but liked it when he got his brother and sister in a good mood.
🔥-🔥-🔥
The end of the school day was only one lesson away when Kai found himself quite alone during recess. Nya had gone to play with her own friends and they had a "no boys allowed" policy. Kai's own buddies were busy playing by the river, which Kai himself was definitely not going to take part in. Instead, he opted to look for his baby brother, who had run out of the building a bit earlier than him. He expected to be able to spot him immediately, but was surprised to find Lloyd nowhere in sight.
Kai went to check the old swingset that Lloyd loved over everything. It was basically the only place Lloyd ever went alone without his siblings, since he was scared of getting picked on by the bigger boys.
But this time, Lloyd was not there.
Kai was starting to become a little worried already. Lloyd never went anywhere else in the schoolyard without either him or Nya, so it was unlikely he would've spontaneously gone anywhere now. Kai was aware of the dangers surrounding even a place like their school, those being mainly the river and the train tracks. Kai had heard of multiple children that had run off and either drowned or gotten run over. The thought of the same happening to poor unsuspecting Lloyd made Kai feel a little queasy. He may have been worrying for no reason, but couldn't help it either.
Kai came to the side of the schoolyard in search of Lloyd, reaching the fairly rundown basketball court. There, he also came face to face with a horrifying sight. There were all in all three older boys shoving Little Lloyd around, occasionally pushing him to the ground and mocking him.
"Look how weak he is!" One of the boys, Jim, laughed and practically threw Lloyd to the two other boys.
Kai felt something he had never felt before watching this all take place. It was some type of immense fury that just burst inside of him like flames in gasoline.
"What are you gonna do, brat? Cry for mommy?" Another boy mocked.
Just then, Jim grabbed Lloyd by the hair, which made the little one shriek in pain.
And that was when Kai did it. He completely lost it. He went and fiercely shoved all three boys away from Lloyd, who curled up in a ball on the asphalt. He then marched up to Jim and threw him on the ground.
"Don't hurt my brother!" Kai yelled with rage, his eyes burning as though they were on fire. He grabbed Jim by the collar and pulled him up with one swift swoop, glaring daggers at him.
"Let go of me!" Jim screamed, looking genuinely scared.
Kai felt the two other boys attack him from behind in an attempt to help Jim, but that only infuriated him more. He dropped Jim and turned around to tackle the two others to the ground, right beside the trunk of a tall tree.
Only when Kai heard Lloyd screech again, he noticed what had actually just happened.
The tree right above him and the boys was quickly engulfed in flames. All the children, except for the two siblings, ran away in complete panic. Newly alarmed teachers also ran out to see what was going on.
Kai quickly rushed over to Lloyd and picked him up, running away from the fire with him. He came over to where Nya was standing horrorstruck.
"What happened?" Nya inquired.
"I don't know! It just... lit itself on fire!" Kai stammered, holding the wriggling Lloyd.
"Kai, don't wanna hewe!" Lloyd squeaked, hiding his face in his hands. "Wanna go away!"
The older siblings glanced at each other before retreating from the basketball court to where the rest of the school was. They could hear teachers shouting to each other and trying to deal with the fire, as well as the other children wondering where on Earth the flames had come from.
Then, once the scene was over, the worst happened.
"Which absolutely foolish child set the tree on fire?" The principal, Mr. Derek, demanded.
No one said anything, most likely for the very reason that nobody knew. None of the children had set the tree on fire. It had just... done it by itself.
"If one of you doesn't confess now, there will be severe consequences to all of you!" Mr. Derek shouted.
Kai and Nya glanced at each other, worry written all over their faces. 'Severe consequences' often meant notifying the guardians and handing out punishments that took hours out of their freetime. The siblings could not afford to stay at school longer than usual to complete a punishment, and if Rita ever heard that there was a possibility that they had done something bad at school, she would've lost it entirely.
Then, Jim raised his hand and pointed at Kai. "It was him! He attacked us and set the tree on fire! That's why he and those two were standing there!"
Nya gaped at Jim - but then turned to stare at Kai as well.
"I didn't do it!" Kai hissed at her. "I mean, I did attack them, but..."
"Kai Smith, Nya Smith and Lloyd Smith, come here right now," the principal ordered.
The three siblings slowly stepped out of the crowd, looking up at the principal guiltily, even though they had done nothing.
"In my office, now."
🔥-🔥-🔥
"Get in there and don't even dream of coming out until tomorrow!" Rita shouted as she threw the children into the basement. She slammed the door shut and, by the sounds of it, locked it and placed a chair in front of it.
It was quite dark and chilly in the basement. It was strange how cold it could be underground when it was very hot above. There were no lamps or heaters, so the siblings had to make the best of what they had; a flashlight, a single, probably moldy mattress and a dusty blanket. Kai placed the makeshift bed near the staircase, hoping the spot would be a tiny bit warmer than the rest of the basement. Nya then brought herself and Lloyd over, placing the little one down on the mattress.
"We won't be able to do our housework," Nya pointed out gloomily. She and Kai knew very well that this didn't mean they would get excused from their work, but would only have to work twice as hard the following day.
Well, now they didn't have school to attend, so they'd at least have time to work. They would have more time than ever for they had been suspended.
"What are we going to do?" Nya asked, fiddling with her hands. "We just got suspended. It's going to show on our record and we'll never be able to work good jobs because no one will hire us."
"We'll figure something out," Kai said, sounding more optimistic than he felt. He gazed down at Lloyd, who had curled up in a small ball. "We'll be fine."
"Mm..." Nya hummed.
"I'm bowed," Lloyd whined.
"I know," Kai sighed, looking around. "Wanna explore?"
Lloyd shook his head and pushed his bottom lip forward. He was starting to look very discomforted, which Kai and Nya knew to lead to a tantrum.
"Lloyd, come on, let's see what we can find!" Nya encouraged, coming to pick the little one up. "We could find diamonds or gold... or lava monsters!"
A glint of excitement lit up in Lloyd's eyes and he screeched with joy. Grabbing Nya's hand, he dragged her and Kai to look for all those diamonds and lava monsters.
"Nya," Kai whispered, gaining his sister's attention. He gestured to Nya to distract Lloyd while he did something else. The sister did as she was told and pretended to have seen a diamond in one of the corners of the room, making Lloyd run to see it.
In the meantime, Kai pulled out an old table cloth that smelled and looked quite moldy, but worked well as a costume.
"No diamond," Lloyd mumbled with disappointment, crawling back from under an old table.
"No, but look!" Nya gasped at the sight of Kai, pointing at him and the tablecloth he had pulled over himself. "A monster!"
Lloyd squealed and ran away, Kai chasing him and growling like a scary beast. He quickly cornered Lloyd, who started to shriek repeatedly again and look around for an escape route.
Kai, smiling under the tablecloth, took slow steps towards the terrified Lloyd. Then, catching Kai by surprise, Lloyd suddenly lunged at him and threw him to the ground. He crawled on top of his older brother's chest, sat down and started to smack him with a dusty pillow.
Kai felt so proud. Lloyd was definitely his brother, protecting himself with a pillow rather than all of those tin cans and books that would've caused much more damage.
Kai tried to squirm and fight as though it wasn't entirely in his power to just simply push Lloyd off of him.
"Nya! Look! It got Kai's shoe!" Lloyd suddenly shouted, pointing at the red shoe peeking out from under the cloth.
Kai withdrew his foot and swiftly but gently pinned Lloyd to the ground. The little brother screeched and squirmed so violently his knee actually hit Kai's chin pretty painfully, but was unable to free himself from the monster's hold.
Kai was just about to let Lloyd run away to be chased again, when suddenly there was a loud bang at the door.
"Shut up, rats!" Echoed Rita's furious voice.
Lloyd squeaked quietly and, surprisingly enough, came right under the tablecloth to hug Kai tightly. Amused but a little shaken too, Kai threw the cloth off of them both and stood up with Lloyd still clinging to him.
"It's okay. She left already," Nya reassured, coming to pat Lloyd's back.
The older siblings quickly moved on, partly not to let the gargoyle bring Lloyd's mood down any more than she already had. They went to look for entertainment and, soon enough, found a collection of cans of paint from an old wardrobe. There were bright colors like blue, yellow, red and so on.
That gave them a nice idea.
Not a moment later, the three siblings were on the floor, painting the tablecloth in bright colors. Kai, the one with the best handwriting, was the one to write something on the cloth while Nya decorated it with colors. Lloyd, on the other hand, was just splashing paint everywhere, falling on the cloth every once in a while and leaving his handprints all over it.
"The R... G... B... Siblings?" Nya read, raising an eyebrow at Kai.
"Yeah, that's us," Kai smiled, preventing Lloyd from stumbling on a can of green paint. "I thought that since we and Lloyd don't share a surname or blood, we could call ourselves that. The RGB comes from our favorite colors: red, green and blue!"
Nya grinned. "Well, then, we should hang this up on the pantry wall."
"If we ever get out of here, that is," Kai muttered.
"Whoopsie..."
Kai and Nya turned around to see Lloyd having drowned his entire foot in a can of green paint. He carefully pulled it out only to lose his balance and step right on the tablecloth with it, leaving a little footprint below the letter G.
"Lloyd would be good as making cave paintings," Nya chuckled, catching Lloyd before he could fall over again.
By the time "the RGB siblings" had moved the tablecloth aside to dry and had managed to wipe all the paint off of their hands and Lloyd's foot, the temperature in the basement had fallen drastically. It was now so cold the three were shivering, their lips turning purple.
"Cold," Lloyd squeaked, tears in his eyes.
"I know, but we just need to manage," Nya sympathized and wrapped the blanket tightly around Lloyd. "Better?"
Lloyd sniffed and shook his head. He was still tearing up and now his nose was runny too. He looked all in all miserable.
"Want a hug?" Kai asked with a smile.
He didn't need to ask twice. Lloyd basically attacked him, seeking warmth and comfort from the sheltering embrace of his brother's arms.
"Huggy," Lloyd mumbled and closed his eyes, still trembling a little but less than before.
After a while of trying to stay warm and chatting about whatever, the trio started to look around the basement for anything to warm them up more efficiently. Kai searched all the shelves as the tallest of the siblings, Nya went through all the stacks of old furniture, and Lloyd crawled to check underneath all the boxes and small objects as if anything could have fit in there. He was the worst at hide and seek, which also showed in his ability to look for stuff. He would've looked for a chopstick from a bedside drawer.
"Blankey!" Lloyd suddenly screeched. Kai and Nya turned to see him pull a thick blanket out from under an armchair, creating a cloud of dust in the process. He coughed but held up the absolute treasure happily.
Either it was good luck or maybe Lloyd wasn't that bad after all.
"Well done, L!" Kai exclaimed as he and Nya ran over. That blanket was going to save them from freezing to death.
The siblings didn't spend much time looking for anything else but preferred to hide themselves under the dusty blankets, trying their very best to stay warm. Kai, as usual, was like a human heater, but Nya and Lloyd were rather cold. Nya was shivering slightly and Little Lloyd's lips were already purple.
"Cold," Lloyd mumbled.
"Lloyd, think about a sunny meadow," Nya whispered. "The sun is shining, warming you up. There are butterflies flying around you and bees buzzing in the flowers."
Lloyd smiled a little. His imagination was limitless, so imagining himself in a meadow was no issue. But, there were lots of distractions.
"I'm hungy," Lloyd mumbled.
"Maybe Rita will let us out in the morning," Nya comforted, petting Lloyd's hair.
"She'll have to. We need to make breakfast and clean," Kai pointed out.
"I not wanna clean..." Lloyd whimpered.
"We'll clean. You can taste test the food again," Nya grinned at her brothers.
Lloyd smiled and covered his eyes with his little hands. He always did that when he was happy. Everyone but Nya and Kai found it strange, because only they knew all of his habits. Lloyd felt shy about being happy sometimes, so he preferred to cover his face whenever he smiled.
The siblings lay on their mattresses, downhearted but comforted by each other's presence. None of them could've taken such life alone, but as long as they had each other, they'd survive.
"Kai."
Once Lloyd had fallen asleep, Kai heard Nya whisper his name. He opened his eyes to find his sister gazing at him worriedly.
"How did the tree catch fire like that?" She asked.
Kai shrugged. "No idea. I didn't even... even notice before Lloyd shrieked. And there was no one who could've lit it up. It was just us two and those idiots there."
"Mm," Nya hummed.
"Fiwe swowd..." Lloyd mumbled in his sleep, smiling. "Dwegon..."
Kai and Nya chuckled quietly. At least Lloyd was content with no burning trees or fights weighing on his little mind.