"Cole hand me the remote," whined Kai and attacked the other playfully and grabbed for the hard plastic controller the best he could. It was Zane's turn to teach Lloyd how to control the ice that the green ninja could also control easily with practice, like the other three elements.
Before the raven-haired could respond, there was a ring of the doorbell. The bowl-haired called out that he wanted to get it and sprinted quickly to it before any others could really attempt. He opened the door eagerly, and then his face was shocked at seeing who was there.
It was silent until a smaller voice voiced, "H-hey Lloyd," the dark-haired slightly younger boy shifted from foot to foot nervously, "Can I come in?"
The blond moved to the side and allowed the other to walk into the dojo, "Hey Brad, what are you doing here?" It wasn't a harsh question, more on the soft side actually, but the opposing male flinched visibly, "Hey, I didn't mean to… I mean I haven't seen you in awhile…"
"It's okay," the suppressed giggle wasn't concealed too well, "I was just visiting."
By now the other ninjas entered the main room carefully, but then realized it was a boy from bad-turned-good school. They were wary because of the rotten trick the school kids played, even though they themselves had enjoyed the arts of extreme pranks and their doubles never originally were in the mostly harmless idea.
Brad looked startled and moved back to nearly the doorframe slowly, a bit afraid of the older boys quite clearly. Lloyd noticed this, and something in him felt protective, "Come on guys, he's nice."
There were a few unbelieving glance, but eventually all but Zane had left. Jay came back into the room and grabbed his arm after a few moments of realizing his android boyfriend was, in fact, not getting the hint to leave them be. It was pretty silent until the shorter boy moved back up to his (obvious, yet somehow) secret crush's side after the other ninjas had fully left. "It took me awhile to find out where you were… So how are you?"
It startled Lloyd, and the green ninja ran and reached up a hand and ran it through the back of his hair thoughtfully, "Pretty good, I mean, I've been training a lot… Boring!" Voiced the boy with a grin.
The other had a sparkly look in his eye and blushed lightly, "Can I see how you train? I guess I'm not ninja material, but I'm still curious."
"Why do you want to see me train?" It wasn't as singling out, as most other people would've been like, but more of an innocent curiosity.
'Is he that oblivious?' Brad fought the urge to blurt it out right then and there, and settled for a sweet smile, "Because you're the green ninja… and he's supposed to be the strongest, fastest, nicest…" as they began to make their way to the training room, "…Cutest…~"
It was the bright blonde's turn to blush in something he was somewhat familiar with. Ignoring the figurative butterflies flying around in his stomach, he moved so he was across from a punching bag that was hung up by a tough string. Getting into an offensive stance and glanced over to the nearly-sickly pale boy sitting by the wall, waving despite himself, then feeling dorky as he got a giggle in return. Ignoring the heat rising up into his face, the ninja in training turned back to the bag and bowed with his hands together in respect. Backing up, he blocked an imaginary arm raining down on him and settled to kick right in front of the bag. He grinned with a bit of a cocky attitude and was light on his feet, knocking his fist into the bag as a sneak attack.
It went back and he looked back at the lightly clapping raven-haired, but the sand filled monstrosity reared back forward and practically slammed the ten-year-old to the floor. Lloyd looked up to see a figure with dizzy vision, the line of sights woozy and he realized he was merely hit, not knocked out as he could finally make out the sharper thin face of Brad. His friend disappeared from view and heard feet flying down the hallway, but he felt light as air…
~~
He awoke in the guest bed and sat up almost immediately and turned his head to be inches away from a guilty looking Bradley. There had been a wooden kitchen chair placed where the dark-haired boy was perched and it was obvious the teenagers had helped in some way, probably only making sure it wasn't a serious injury in any way and carrying his limp form to the closest bed, grabbing a chair for his old school friend.
"Lloyd, you worried me," but before the green ninja could back up and rest back into the soft-feeling warmth of the bed, he got a harsh and somehow calming hug. "…I wish we were closer to each other… Like you still went to the school, or my dad would finally agree to move me to a school around here."
Still somehow not putting this together, the blond returned the hug and asked, "Why?"
"Because I l… I really want to… We should, go o…" sighing and closing the gap between them quickly as his indecision of how to disclose how he truly felt about the other male. There was no struggling or freaking out, but the other lips were warm but unmoving. Not sure how to figure that out anyways, Brad moved back into the chair and tried to read the opposing ten-year-old boy's face, which was pretty bland. Feeling rejected, the schoolboy stood up and muttered a fake apology, until a hand grabbed his arm.
"Don't leave me," murmured Lloyd uncharacteristically being quieter, causing the shorter to sit back down and pay attention to the other, as there was covers rustling as the blue-eyed boy moved back down into the covers and sighed with relief for him head. Turning so he could stare back at his confusing friend easily, "I think you should be here."
Brad's heart fluttered, "Really? Will you help me convince my dad?" Sighing, he scooted back the chair so he rests his elbows on the higher up bed and head of his lithe hands. "I don't like boarding school anyways, Sheen is still pretty bad and always pulls pranks on me…"
Noticing the distress, Lloyd nodded eagerly, but regretted it as it felt like his mind melting in lava, "Yep," he painfully sounded out as an alternative.
"Scoot over," gently chided Brad, when he got his "boyfriend" (he figured there a bit too young yet to truly date) to scoot over enough, he got onto the bed and sat on the covers and made sure they were evenly matched once he laid down. He turned to face the pained boy and gingerly pecked the pinkish forehead, causing the face to grow a bit red to match his own. Laughing lightly, they moved so they were on their backs and stared up at the strange patterns on the ceilings and pointed out what they saw, until the sun on them caused them to fall asleep; Brad scooting a bit down to gently wedge his head in the space between Lloyd's head and shoulder blade.
~~
After a bit Dareth walked in slowly at the mostly shut door to see the scene before him. He laughed lightly and placed the brownies he had made on the side table, careful not to make his presence known for once. The brunet made his way out, but a creak sounded and caused a whisper, "Dareth?"
"Yes?" he answered Lloyd in equal vocals.
It took a while, but before he could fully leave them room at last, he heard, "Can you find out where Mister Doodlebomb lives around here?"
Catching on, the dojo owner nodded in response and glanced back to see the blond already back asleep and Brad moving to only curl up so his knees lightly graced the thicker covers that shielded from the knobby knees easily. Neither of the boys had gotten in a better few hours of the nap, then any true night of sleep as of late. Maybe they found the key to it they'd been looking for.