The Cure
••• A Forest •••
come closer and see
see into the trees
find the girl
while you can
•••••
Artist: dissonance
Dont @ me I'm still bad at lighting
TW: being lost, injury
psa: uhhh don't go hiking alone lol
Lloyd hesitated outside the door to the monastery's scroll room.
He could hear his parents and uncle inside, deciphering the next inevitable battle the Green Ninja would have to face. The shuffle of old paper and murmuring of low voices told him so - they only spoke that quiet when they didn't want Lloyd to overhear them.
Lloyd understood that his father and uncle knew that he hovered outside the door. It was their lineage, after all, that his own heightened senses came from. They would've heard the crunch of gravel on the driveway from when his dragon landed. They could probably hear how fast his heart was racing, too.
He closed his eyes at the memory of kissing Y/n's forehead. It frightened the hell out of him, but the expression on her face was worth it. She looked like pure sunshine.
His heart picked up the pace.
"Lloyd, please," he heard his father grumble from the room. "You're making me nervous."
"Sorry," Lloyd apologised, before opening the door and entering.
The scroll room was as it's named - a room covered floor-to-ceiling in shelves of scrolls containing prophecies, ancient training techniques, and probably a misplaced grocery list or two. In the middle was a small table with a tea set, and sat around that were his parents and his uncle.
"Hey, honey," his mother greeted, pausing her search through the very book Lloyd had retrieved the day before. "Are you okay?"
"Uh... yeah," Lloyd nodded. He'd been trying to find the time to talk to his parents and Wu, but life just kept getting in the way. Evil never slept, even just to give an eighteen-year-old demigod five minutes with his elders.
Lloyd linked his fingers together and tried to think of how to broach the subject - his parents didn't even know that he was... dating(?) seeing(??) this girl, and now there he was, probably about to drop the bombshell of bombshells upon them.
Garmadon narrowed his eyes at his son and Lloyd knew that he was being read like a book. He loved his dad, he really did, but sometimes his heightened senses felt... a little invasive. No matter how hard Lloyd tried to control his reactions, he could never fool them.
Though, to be fair, the three adults before him were almost immortal, the eldest of the Elemental Masters. It took a lot to fool them - far more than what Lloyd had in him.
"Is there something you'd like to say?" Garmadon asked. "You're anxious."
Deeply and madly head over heels, actually.
"Yeah, there is," Lloyd said shakily. Wu and Garmadon stared at him expectantly and, feeling quickly overwhelmed, he took a seat before the table and poured himself a cup of tea. It was jasmine. He was stalling.
"Well?" Wu encouraged.
Lloyd stared at his reflection on the surface of the tea. His eyes were red again, focus having slipped. He wondered how he was going to explain his red eyes to Y/n, and if he'd ever get to that point.
"I'm... kinda seeing this girl," he murmured. He lifted the cup to his lips. "And her mother got a message from Uchū." Then he quickly downed the hot tea.
The book Misako was holding fell to the ground. He looked up.
"What?" Lloyd asked, because all three of them were in identical states of shock. "What does it mean?"
Misako slowly turned her gaze to her husband, who matched her stare right back. Lloyd looked between his parents impatiently.
"What is it?" he asked again. "Is- is Y/n in danger?"
"No! No." His father leapt to reassure him. "That is not why we are... surprised."
'Surprised' looked an awful lot like worry to Lloyd, but he digressed.
"How much did her mother tell you?" Wu asked.
"Nothing," Lloyd said. "She said she wasn't allowed to say anything."
Misako gave a sigh of relief. Garmadon and Wu shared a look, one that Lloyd wasn't able to decipher, and it only raised his frustration.
"What's going on?" he insisted.
"In due time, son," Garmadon said. "Until then, don't you have a training session to attend?"
Lloyd gave his father a look of disbelief. "Are you really not going to tell me what's happening?"
"There are some things you have to discover on your own," his father said soothingly. "It'll meet you when you are ready."
Lloyd got to his feet and looked between his three elders. "But what about Y/n?"
"It'll come to meet her, too," his father answered. "Don't stress too much about it, Lloyd. There is no use worrying over inevitables."
"Well, now I'm worried!" Lloyd declared.
"Garm," Misako sighed.
"What?" Garmadon looked to his wife. "Did I say something wrong?"
Misako gestured to Lloyd, who was watching them all with panicked eyes. "Yes."
"Oh," Garmadon said guiltily. He'd quickly found that there was no getting used to the role of being a father - words would always be difficult for him. "My bad."
Misako sidestepped her husband and cradled her son's cheeks. "Don't think too hard about it, honey. It's just like everything else; we take it one step at a time."
Lloyd's tight brow softened. His relationship with his mother might have had its iffiness over the years, but he couldn't deny that she knew what to say in most situations. He released a slow sigh.
"Okay," he murmured. He pulled his head back from his mother's hold and tried not to look too disappointed. They never told him anything, he shouldn't be surprised. "I need to get ready for training."
"Good idea," Misako said, and Lloyd caught her expression drop into worry once more just as he turned away.
Sorry, Y/n, Lloyd thought to himself. I guess either way, you're caught up in my shit.
🍃🍂🍁🍂🍃
The main dojo that the ninja used for training was a beautiful room with tatami flooring and decorated rice walls. Shock pads lined parts of the floor. Training dummies stood like soldiers to one side.
The doors of the dojo opened out into the Sakura-Maple tree garden where the rain was dribbling from the clouds above, attended to by some of the monks that also called the monastery home. Frogs croaked in the bamboo-lined ponds.
Lloyd could feel Nya's gaze on him as he stretched for their training session. He ignored it for the most part, but once it hit the ten minute mark and he could still feel her expectancy breathing down his neck, he turned to her with a frown.
"What?" he asked.
Nya poked her head up from where she was stretching out her hamstrings. "Have you heard from Y/n?"
Lloyd winced so acutely that his head ducked into his chest. Kai's attention was immediately stolen, chin pinging up from where he was rolling his shoulders from across the dojo.
"What?" he asked, amber eyes wide. "Y/n? Who's Y/n?"
"It's the girl who hit Lloyd with her skateboard," Cole answered.
"And her car!" Jay chimed in. Lloyd shrunk a little further into himself and wished that the tatami flooring would swallow him whole. "You saw her again? What's she like? I wanna meet her!"
"I want to meet the girl who could pull one over on the mighty Green Ninja, too," Kai snickered.
"You can't," Lloyd snapped as he tried to focus on warming up his calves. "Not yet. She doesn't like meeting a lot of people at once, so back off."
A silence followed and Lloyd, foolishly, thought that the teasing was over.
"My god," Kai said loudly, pulling five pairs of eyes to him. He was pointing at Lloyd with an expression of disbelief. "You even know her nuances."
"That's a good sign, right? Right?" Jay chirped, looking around at the others.
"How do you know that, huh?" Cole grinned devilishly. "You been out on a date?"
"Thanks, Nya," Lloyd said dryly. The water ninja gave a sharp grin and shrugged her shoulders in nonchalance.
"You still haven't answered my question," she pointed out.
"I don't think you deserve an answer."
"Your grave," Nya said, before completely shattering Lloyd's trust; "he flirted with her over text."
"WHAT?!" Kai leapt to his feet. "Without my help?!"
Cole burst into a peel of shocked laughter. Jay crawled forward across the tatami flooring with wide eyes.
"What'd you say? What'd you say?"
"Thanks, Nya," Lloyd said again, though this time there was a snarl to the edge of his voice. She grinned, unabashed, as she merrily continued her stretches.
"Is she your girlfriend?" Jay grabbed Lloyd's shoulders and shook them. "Answer me, Lloyd!"
"She's not my girlfriend," Lloyd complained before pushing Jay off.
"Yeah, well, she's a bit more than a friend, isn't she?" Nya countered with a grin. "'Keep my hoodie, it looks good on you.'"
"Would you stop. talking," Lloyd hissed.
Jay gasped. "You said that?"
"Wait, you went to my sister for advice instead of me?!" Kai seethed furiously. He crossed his arms with a scowl. "Oh- oh, this is betrayal. I'm taking myself out of our Smash Bros. team!"
"Oh, please," Nya scoffed. "We all know it was Skylor who pulled, not you."
"Double betrayal!" Kai threw his hands into the air. "It's like we're not even a team anymore."
Lloyd dropped his head into his hands. Somehow, this was even worse than he feared. And it was only the beginning.
"Well, Zane?" Lloyd looked towards the white ninja, who'd been contently meditating in the corner throughout the chaos. The nindroid opened his ice-blue eyes. "Are you going to say something? Give me a jab, too?"
"I have no need to," Zane replied with a polite smile. "I have already concluded my thorough investigation on Y/n L/n."
Lloyd stared at Zane with a bland look.
"You're all terrible," he decided.
"Okay, okay," Cole said between chuckles, holding up his hands in a placating manner. "Settle down." The Master of Earth shook his head at Lloyd. "Why didn't you tell us, man? We're your team."
Lloyd looked at him incredulously. "Because you'd all react like this?!"
"That's fair," Jay said.
"I'm scorned," Kai tsk'd.
"Guys, shut up," Cole said. He took a seat before Lloyd and offered one of his famous placating smiles. Lloyd felt himself relax without his volition. "We've all got it out of our system."
"I haven't," Kai muttered, only to yelp when a rock went flying through the open doors of the dojo and hit him in the back of the head. "Cole!"
"Tell us everything," Cole said sincerely.
Lloyd eyed Cole warily. At his nod of encouragement, he sighed.
"Fine," he said. "We hung out Saturday-"
"All day," Nya inputted. Lloyd sent her the stink eye, betrayal still fresh.
"Yes, Nya, thank you," he grumbled. "I guess it went pretty well, because she kissed me on the cheek before I left."
Jay gasped again.
"I bumped into her yesterday at the library," Lloyd continued. He began picking at his socks, cheeks pink as he remembered their coincidental hangout that had left him with a fuzzy mind all afternoon. "... kissed her on the forehead. Said it was payback."
Kai uncrossed his arms. "Okay," he relented. "That's smooth."
"Ohmigosh," Jay whimpered as he swiped away a fake tear. "Our baby's growing up."
Lloyd rolled his eyes.
"Does she know about the whole... last name situation, yet?" Cole asked. Lloyd wiped a hand down his face.
"I don't think so."
"And... how are you going to tell her about the 'Green Ninja' thing?" he asked again. "If you keep talking to her as both Lloyd and the Green Ninja, she's going to put two and two together eventually."
Lloyd sighed. "I don't know."
"What about your weird age?" Jay butted in. "How old is she?"
"She's in our year - I don't know," Lloyd repeated.
"What about the red eyes and the fangs?" Kai asked.
"Look - can we all just assume that there are a lot of things I haven't wrapped my head around, yet?" Lloyd argued. "I don't know, okay? Don't we have training to do?"
A few of them shared concerned looks. Nevertheless, they peeled away into their own corners again to finish their warm-ups. By the time they were limber and ready to go, Sensei Wu arrived at the dojo.
Lloyd's mind was heavy throughout the entire kata and if Wu noticed, he didn't bring it up. It was an unusual day for everyone. He caught his uncle's conflicted gaze on more than one occasion throughout the session.
An hour on and slathered with sweat from the intense one-on-ones (which Lloyd was terribly distracted through), he wiped a towel over his forehead. Just as he was about to retreat for a shower, he felt that strange sensation in his gut again.
He paused. The only other times he'd felt that weird sensation was when he was around Y/n. He felt his heart rate pick up - but Y/n couldn't possibly have found her way out here. The monastery was settled deep within the forest and was boarded by charms that the Master of the Mind had put in place to keep out and confuse unwanted visitors.
Then why was he feeling the tug?
Lloyd's brows knotted as he followed its direction - out of the dojo, into the garden. The gentle rain began to spit onto his green shirt. He heard Cole's call from behind him.
"Dude, where are you going? It's raining."
"A walk," Lloyd replied. He didn't bother to elaborate before disappearing into the forest that boarded the monastery's boundaries.
🍃🍂🍁🍂🍃
I pulled my jacket tighter around myself as I watched my shoes traverse the outskirts of the city.
I didn't know how long I'd been walking for, too occupied by thoughts of Lloyd and Lord Garmadon and how they were connected to one another. It weighed me down with questions and confusion, and I meandered in a daze.
Jamanakai had been attacked a handful of times while I lived there, sure, but certainly not as much as Ninjago City. The capitol felt like a magnet that drew every attack imaginable - the Overlord had based himself in downtown once, and a Stone Warrior the size of a giraffe had once rampaged through the museum. Because this was all happening so far away, it almost felt like fiction to me; some convoluted fairytale.
Jamanakai had never been attacked directly by Lord Garmadon, but that didn't mean his rampages and the times he almost plunged the entire world into darkness were forgivable. It didn't mean that it was all fake just because I never looked into his red eyes while he ordered the destruction of my home. What felt like fiction to me was this entire city's reality.
And that was Lloyd's dad.
The rain grew a little harder, drumming my hood and pattering onto the sidewalk until it had completely darkened with wet. The smell of petrichor surrounded me and reminded me of Lloyd's unnatural spring-like scent. The migraine that tickled behind my eyes only grew.
Was that why he smelt weird? Because he's... half of what Lord Garmadon was? What even was Lord Garmadon? Was Lloyd human?
I stuffed my hands deeper into my pockets. The look on his face after he kissed my forehead found me again, and my knees briefly wobbled under my stride. How could somebody so perfect and good be born from something so... not.
Unless he bewitched me.
I shook my head. No, god, that wasn't even a thing. I hoped.
My chin ducked tighter into my chest. I wished I could just ask Lloyd these questions upfront without turning tail in fear. I had a lot of questions to ask him, the crave for knowledge scratching at the inside of my head.
My eyes closed in conflict. Every time I bumped into Lloyd, I was left astounded by how kind and warm he was. Even his friends were nice. Claire was wrong; people that good couldn't be evil.
I could understand why the entire human population hated Lloyd for what his father did, but that didn't mean it was right, and it certainly didn't make it fair. Naomi said it before - he wasn't his father, so why hate him as though he were? Why did he have to bear the weight of his father's sins?
It was an easy question to answer. People were cruel. People loved to jump at the chance to hurt people, to disown someone from society. It was a chance to be horrible without the consequences thereof. Lloyd was the unfortunate target of all that rationalised malice.
It made me feel sick.
My steps came to a stop when I realised that foliage began to be the ground my shoes were walking on, no longer concrete. I looked up for the first time since I started my walk and startled at being confronted by the first massive pine trees of the Forest of Tranquility.
Fog hung thick to the towering treetops, sprinkled by the faint rainfall. I blinked away drops of water from my lashes as I gazed at the deep green of the pines above, wondering how I'd walked so far and why my legs took me here.
It was then when I noticed the faint pull in my gut that urged me forward. It had probably been pulling me along the entire time. I let my chin drop and stared through the boundary of the trees, eyes roving over the short bushes of vegetation and the yellowed pine-needle floor.
It's haunted, Lloyd had said. Full of ghosts.
My legs carried me through the trees. My mind had blanked. I was working on autopilot, as if this urge in my gut had turned my brain off. It took me through the forest, drizzled on by the occasional break in the canopy, and I was a mere passenger, delirious with fog in my brain as thick as it was above.
A chill had begun to take me through my jacket. It was only a windbreaker, not meant to stave off long showers and not what I would've chosen if I'd known I was going to get mind-controlled into going for a hike. The thin material started to stick to my skin. A faint sense of disturbance began to settle in at the base of my skull. What was going on? Why was I walking through here?
My shoes continued their march forward, collecting pine needles on its wet canvas. They took me over small hills, through small glades, wading through a shallow river, as if there were a destination the tugging was determined to take me. I could no longer comprehend time. I had no idea how long I'd been walking in this trance.
A rustle to the side broke the control's concentration and I lifted my head with a gasp. A deer matched my frightened gaze before darting off and disappearing around the corner of a thick trunk. The tugging had vanished completely. Clarity was terrifying.
A violent shiver rattled through my body and I sucked in a cold breath through my teeth. I turned on my spot, dull panic sharpening into something great and all-consuming. I tried to spot a hint of civilisation. Trees upon trees was all I could see.
I released a shaky exhale and struggled for my phone, zipper of the pocket catching for a brief moment. When it was free I turned on it and cursed at my lack of signal. I held it up as high as I could, staring desperately at my bars. They refused to catch.
"Come on," I whispered. "Come on, please. Dying of hypothermia is so lame."
I slowly lowered my phone when nothing came of light. I looked around with trembling lips, flinching at every deep groan and cracks the forest would make as it swayed with the wind. My heart began to beat faster. I couldn't even pick which direction I came from - everything looked the same.
The tug had all but abandoned me in the middle of Ninjago's biggest forests. I didn't even know why it took me out here. Maybe I was sick - maybe it was a parasite, and it brought me out here to die.
Now you're just catastrophising, Y/n. Breathe. Breathe. You can't think when you're panicking.
I closed my eyes and steadied myself. I'd done lessons in wilderness trainings with my godfather before and I tried to reach back into my memories to retrieve what knowledge I had. Granted, they were from when I was nine and I could barely remember what I had for breakfast this morning, but maybe I could remember them if I tried hard enough.
"Moss grows on the north..?" I questioned, and my voice broke with unease. "Or was it the south?" I peered at the trunks surrounding me and a cry of disbelief slipped from my lips. "There's not even any moss!"
A flutter of wings from branches above had me jumping. It was starting to get dark, the sun lowering in the afternoon. Pretty soon, it was going to become freezing. Then I'd definitely catch hypothermia. And then I'd definitely die a lame death.
I picked a direction and began walking.
It was foolish, probably, to keep moving even while being lost. I could quite possibly be only taking myself deeper into the woods, but it was either chance a rescue when nobody knew I was in the woods or chance the fifty/fifty of finding my way back out.
Maybe fifty/fifty was being generous for a forest of that size. Maybe it was more like... ten/ninety.
I shivered again and tucked the bottom of my face into the wet hem of my windbreaker. A cold breeze had picked up, sliding through the trees and piercing me right through the skin. The migraine from before had returned with vengeance, and I felt so sore and headachy that I was growing nauseous.
"You're going to be okay," I whispered to myself, and envisioned that it was my mother saying those words. My eyes began to sting - from the chill or from tears, I couldn't tell. "It's okay. You're okay."
I'd been lost before when I was younger, having gotten myself through a crowd when I thought my mother was right behind me. I'd turned to where I thought she was only to find myself alone; that was when I first realised how small I was in comparison to the world. This was the exact same feeling; absolute and debilitating fear.
I pushed myself forward. The rain fell heavier, fat drops breaking through the needles and ruining any chance I had of drying off. The fog grew thicker, curling in from all directions. The forest floor was getting more and more precarious to traverse.
I stopped when I heard the faint sound of rushing water. My eyes widened. I remembered one thing; following a river normally takes you to some kind of settlement. Settlements generally meant phone service. And dry clothes.
Picking up the pace, I followed the sound of bubbling water. A break through the trees showed me a small river and I wanted to weep with relief. I made a vow to myself right then; I was never, ever going into a forest ever again.
My relief was destined to be short-lived, however, as on my way down the grassy bank to reach the river's side, my foot hit a slippery rock wrong and twisted out from under me.
A sharp flash of pain in my ankle had me falling hard. A pained gasp tore through me as I hit the rocks, and I was so stunned for a second that I didn't even register the agony crawling a fire up my leg.
I stared at the rocks in disbelief. This was it. I was going to die. If it wasn't going to be starvation, then it was going to be of hypothermia or pneumonia or some other illness. Then the forest critters would feast on my body and I'd never get to return my library books.
No. Come on, Y/n. It wasn't that bad. I could still make it.
A cry escaped me when I pulled myself upright. The pain in my ankle was burning, and my panic had all but grown in tenfold. It was that bad. I was downed and in the middle of nowhere - there was no way I could walk on that ankle. I couldn't even find it in me to crawl my way back up the bank to find a stick to use as a crutch.
"Fuck," I cried, dropping my head onto the bank behind me. Tears of helplessness came at me with force. Stupid maybe-parasite. Stupid brain for panicking and making me want to take a walk. My teeth began to chatter. My nose was already running.
I pulled out my phone, just incase I was lucky enough to get some reception. No dice.
Shoving my phone back into my pocket, I stared at the river through watery lashes. At least I had a source of water to drag myself too, but the rain had turned into a downpour and, at the riverbank, there were no trees to shelter me. I curled my good leg tighter against me and closed my eyes to cry louder than the rain that taunted me.
"Hello?"
My eyes shot open. I stilled, sobs hitched, just in case it was only a desperate trick of my ears.
"Is there someone there?" the man's voice called again.
I gave a whimper of relief. I'd never craved my warm bed as much as I did right then.
"I'm over here," I tried to say loudly, but it came out as a sickly croak. Miraculously, my saviour must've been able to catch it over the rain. Or maybe I spoke louder than I thought I did, and my brain was growing soggy.
"Hold on, Y/n - I'll be there soon."
"Okay," I weepingly replied. I tried to wipe away my tears, but my wet sleeves did nothing.
I paused. Wait, how did he know my name? Who the hell was my saviour?
A man dropped onto the rocky riverside beside me and I flinched back. My neck craned up, and - oh, hell no, my saviour was a pervert.
"Where is your shirt?" I whispered in horror as I stared up at the bare-chested stranger. It was on his head, obviously, if the lump of green fabric wrapped around it was anything to go by. Equally green eyes stared down at me.
"Good to know that your priorities are still in check," he said. "What are you doing all the way out here?"
I blinked through the water in my lashes as I stared up the stranger. He sounded familiar, and I wracked my brain as to why. My eyes widened.
"Oh, my god," I said. "Oh, my god, no. It's not you."
"It's me," the Green Ninja said with a bit of mirth to his voice. "Why is it that we always bump into one another when you're about to get yourself killed?"
My retort was lost in a sneeze. His teasing was quickly washed away with the rain.
"You look terrible," he said.
"I'm swooning," I muttered, and held up my arms. "Can you help me up?"
His warms hands grabbed the soaked arms of my jacket and he swiftly pulled me to my feet. I wasn't expecting his ease and gasped, stumbling forward on one foot.
"Whoa, there," he chuckled as I barrelled into him with a squeak. His hand steadied me by my waist. "What'd you do to yourself?"
I pulled myself back with a grunt and held out my arms for balance. "I slipped." I looked up from my shoes and faltered. His bare chest was staring me right in the face.
And I could honestly say that it wasn't his - god, his sculpted abs that made me pause. I'd been doing my best to ignore them, truly, since I had this whole thing with Lloyd going on, but my attention was caught by something else.
A large slash crossed down over his torso, right over his heart, from collarbone to hip. It'd healed and scarred long ago, but it was gnarly enough to leave the skin ridged and bumpy. The rain only made it look worse, glistening against the valleys.
My mouth opened - in shock? Because I wanted to say something? Nothing came out though, so I was left gaping like an idiot at his massive scar. I felt my own chest ache in sympathy.
The Green Ninja shifted beneath my ogle. "Look, sweetheart, I know I'm handsome but my eyes are up here."
I was too shocked by his scar that I didn't even have it in me to match his energy. "I'm sorry." I sneezed again.
He released a slow breath. "Let's get you out of this rain."
"Please," I mumbled, giving another involuntary shiver as my eyes closed again. "I'm so cold."
"You look cold," he said, stepping closer. My eyes snapped open. "Your lips are turning blue."
"Whoa - what are you doing?" I held up my hand to keep the distance. He halted and pulled a confused look.
"I'm going to carry you," he said simply, as if it'd already been agreed upon, or was simply common sense. I spared another look at his bare chest before forcing my eyes back up.
"I can walk," I said.
His brows raised in doubt. "Can you?"
"Yes, I can," I stubbornly insisted. I put my weight down on my sore ankle and pain shot though me so fast that I teetered over again. His hands snatched out to stop my fall before I could face plant into the rocks. I held onto him with wide eyes. "Ow."
"Very convincing," the Green Ninja said. His eyes bored into mine. "The longer you stay out here, the more sick you're going to be. It already looks like you're going to be dealing with a killer cold."
"No-" I hobbled back when he went to pick me up. My head was already spinning from the chill, but the thought of being held against his bare chest had it spinning all the more faster. "You're shirtless."
"And?"
"And I-" I seethed. There was no way I was letting myself be held by the equivalent of a shirtless Vogue model when I was already struggling with my thoughts of Lloyd. "-I am a Woman of God."
"Oh." The Green Ninja stared at me. "So, you've gone looney."
I pulled myself away with a limp, arm out in warding. I channeled the Sisters from my old private school.
"Three metres for the Holy Spirit!" I demanded, before feeling my weight fall backwards. The Green Ninja's eyes widened and he leapt to catch me for the third time that evening.
My face erupted into an ashamed blush as he held me up from hitting the ground. His hands seemed to almost burn through the waist of my jacket - or maybe that was the frostbite setting in.
"I know you probably went to a catholic school, but this is ridiculous," he muttered as he pulled me upright again. "We can stay here forever debating, or I get you somewhere warm and dry."
I scowled. My stomach grumbled.
"I'll even throw in some dinner," he bargained.
Well, now that - that sweetened the deal. I didn't realise how hungry I was until he mentioned it, but now my stomach was practically crawling up my insides looking for something to eat. I dropped my head back with a sigh and a sniffle.
"Fine," I caved. "But - all this." I pointed between us. "Is platonic."
Greenie blinked in surprise. "Obviously. I'm off-limits."
"Me, too."
His gaze softened. "I'm glad we got that sorted out. Ready?"
I sullenly wrapped my arms around his neck. I sniffled again. Great, now my nose was blocked. "Yes."
"Oh, no," he said in faux sympathy before hoisting me up as easily as picking up a carton of milk. "Your holy spirit's been squashed."
I went to make a retort but stopped when I noticed how warm he was. He felt like a sauna, and I couldn't stop myself from seeking the heat of his skin. I pressed my cold cheek against his chest and felt my eyes close.
"You alright, there?" His quiet voice vibrated against me.
"You're so warm," I whispered. "How are you so warm?"
"A perk of controlling fire," he explained. His voice sounded louder - he'd bent his head over to keep the rain from soaking me any more than it already had - though it wouldn't have made a difference at that point. "You're - you're really cold, Y/n."
"It's almost as if I've been out in the rain," I mumbled.
"You get grumpy when you're sick."
"I hope I get you sick," I said grouchily, though it sounded a lot less threatening when I had to sneeze right after - or maybe that made my threat more true.
"Ouch!" he chuckled. The swaying of his walk was almost rocking me to sleep. "You never answered me when I asked how you got out here."
"That was on purpose," I murmured.
"Y/n," the Green Ninja warned. I peeled open my eyes at his tone. His brows knitted together in worry. "Was it that tugging thing again?"
I dropped my gaze from his. "Yeah."
"I felt it, too."
I turned my head to him. "What do you mean you felt it too?"
He shrugged. "Just did. It's how I found you."
"What is it?" I asked. My voice lowered. "Is- is it some kind of parasite?"
The Green Ninja laughed. "No! No, it's not a parasite. It's just... a weird me thing."
"What does that mean?"
"I'm not entirely too sure, myself," he admitted before ducking under a low-hanging branch. "But I'd wager that's how you got through the charmed defence around my monastery."
My eyes widened. "Monastery? There's a monastery here?"
"Yeah," he answered. "You got pretty close. It's impressive, honestly. The barrier should've turned you around miles ago." He looked down at me. "How long were you walking for?"
"I don't know," I answered. "I left home around twelve."
His stare turned concerned. "It's seven in the evening."
"No wonder why I'm so hungry," I figured. Another brush of cold wind had me trembling and curling deeper into the Green Ninja's warmth.
"I think I might have to take you there," he worried. "You're too cold and the rain isn't letting up. Is that okay?"
"I don't care," I whispered against his shoulder. My head was beginning to really throb.
"I think you should absolutely care when someone you don't know asks to take you to an unknown location."
"I do know you, though," I said. "And I trust you."
I heard his breath hitch. An awkward silence passed, and the last thing I wanted was for me to fall asleep in his arms or anything cliché like that, so I pulled up a new topic of conversation.
"So... you said you were off-limits," I recalled. "Is there a Mrs. Green Ninja, then?"
He gave an amused huff. "Not yet. Maybe one day, though."
"Wait, how old even are you?" I asked.
"I'm eighteen."
"You're eighteen?!" I spluttered, pulling myself upright as best as I could in his arms. His green eyes shot to me at my outburst. My head swam as my shock calmed. "You're- so much younger than I thought."
His brows twitched with humour. "How old did you think I was?"
"I dunno." I shivered again and sought his warmth. "Twenty?"
"Twenty's not old."
"I know, but..." I shook my head against his chest. "You've done so much, I just assumed you were a few years older than me - I mean, you still are older than me. I'm seventeen."
"Aww," he teased. "You're just a little baby."
"If it weren't for the laws of this world," I muttered. He laughed loudly, and the sound of it carried over the rain. I smiled a little at my own joke.
He walked in silence once his laughter calmed down. The rock of his walk was once again nearly putting me to sleep. I probably would've already if it weren't for the discomfort of one side of my body still feeling like it was freezing itself off.
"What's it like?" I asked. "Being the Green Ninja? Does it ever get too much?"
He stayed quiet for a bit. Even his footsteps were silent, I realised. The brush of the wind through the pine trees overhead was the only noise - that and his heartbeat, which I could feel from his chest.
"Sometimes," he admitted. "Sometimes, I'm... faced with difficult things."
Faced with difficult things. Yeah, like Lloyd's dad. My lips downturned at the reminder. In all the commotion, I'd forgotten that he'd lied to me about that.
"You do know Lloyd Garmadon, don't you?" I asked. He stiffened at my accusation. "You fought his dad. You lied to me."
He released a shaky breath. "I'm sorry."
"Why did you lie to me?"
He struggled to find an answer. I waited patiently, too tired to open my eyes and discern the look in his.
"I... don't know," he confessed, voice wavering. "When- when did you find out?"
"Today," I murmured. The overwhelmed feelings retuned and I felt my throat get heavy with something more than an impending sickness. "He's... he's a good guy, right?"
"I think he's as good as he can be," the Green Ninja answered slowly. "Do you think he's a good guy?"
I exhaled as I cycled through my thoughts. I remembered the looks on Claire and Aaliyah's faces, as well as the faces of the people who'd hated Lloyd. But I trusted Naomi, and I also trusted my own gut.
"Yeah... I think so," I decided quietly.
He didn't reply to that, but I didn't blame him. An awkward tension had settled over us like the forest's fog that persisted, thick and heavy, and my head hurt too much to look for a new ice breaker.
I needed to say it, though. And to be told that the Green Ninja himself thought that Lloyd wasn't a bad guy, then... that was pretty reassuring. My chest felt lighter than it had in hours, even with sickness pushed down on me from all fronts.
I felt the ground level out and heard the distant sound of people talking. I peeked my eyes open at the building that stretched on before us and felt my breath escape me.
"Well, Y/n, you have a privilege not many get," the Green Ninja said. "Welcome to the Monastery."