"Okay Lloyd, just watch me and then afterwards you can try," Jay instructed the younger ninja, then he got into a pre-running stance in front of the long dining table of Dareth's. At the other end was Zane, waiting patiently and slowly bringing up his hands, palms facing up on either side of his face. Taking a gentle breath the blue ninja closed his eyes, then opened them quickly to hop up onto the table and brought up his hood so only his eyes could be seen, going into a dead run on the cleared table with agility trained to be the perfect speed. Then when the expanse of the wood ended, Jay moved like he were doing a back flip onto the ready hands, but kept it like a hand stand. It was a specialty move that didn't require elemental powers, but the physical moves were what Lloyd was clearly troubled with.
Zane looked appreciatively up to the other, "You ready for one hand only?"
The electric-wielder grinned and winked, "Born ready," and one of his arms left it's perch on the hand and was held out to the side with much concentration. His body was getting a little agitated by this and shook slightly as it started to refuse to keep balance, but it wasn't too bad, "Now Lloyd, you need to know how to use this combo move; or by itself, incase you're getting into a crowd of Serpentine… or your father is nearby; then let your fist, legs and elements attack some of them, and while they start to act like dominos, get out of it quickly." Jay smiled and lowered himself onto the bamboo floor, pulling down the hood like a jacket's. "Do you need another run-through?"
The bowl-haired child shook his head quickly, "No, I can do this!" Then moved to be across from the bleach blond eagerly, who moved his finger slightly to avoid locking of position, "Okay… Here goes!" Though as he leapt up on the table to stopped to pull on his mask, causing lightning to flicker around him slightly. Looking curiously over at the cause of it, he learned that he was getting a shake of the head.
"You can't do that, Lloyd, no stops or you'll be in big trouble during a fight," He ignored the boy's pout and excuses and waved his hand to signal a start over.
The ten-year-old felt guilty for making them waste their time on him, but this time he'd do it right. Firstly, he put of the head-piece, then sprung into a agile jog along the table, hoping he was doing it better, then when he was a few inches from the edge, he tried the back flip and surprisingly landed in the stance that would almost end it. He took a breather of nervousness, not wanting to try with only one hand. He knew the end result. Then again, he should prove his worth to be the green ninja, remembering to go slowly, he brought his arm out and looked straight ahead. It was silent as he actually did this perfectly, but it was short-lived when he tilted forward; but was quickly saved by strong arms flipping him so was chest-to-chest with Zane. "Thank you, Zane," gushed the younger blushing.
"Okay, looks like my lesson's over for the day," he glanced over the boy and the android. Jay nearly let out a sigh of relief when Lloyd was let go and Zane walked over to him for a hug eagerly, kissing his cheek.
The boy looked a bit down, but it disappeared, as he looked eager, "What's my next lesson?"
The 'nindroid' among them spoke up, "It would be my turn; to teach you patience," earning a shrug from the blond child.
"So? That's not very difficult," accused Lloyd with a scoff, as he tugged down his darker green hood.
Before the ice ninja could kindly retort, Cole walked in with a batch of warm cookies, trailed by his red-clad boyfriend eagerly, clearly smelling the scent as well. It was set down at the end of the table were the green ninja now was and the earth ninja moved back and sighed, "I would've liked using handmade ones better."
It was lost on them though, and then Zane smiled and picked a rather large one up, "Now Lloyd, be silent and do not eat one until I say it is alright."
The smaller pretended to not catch wind of the delectable scent, "Okay, easy."
Handing the largest of the batch to his near-drooling boyfriend, the android then grabbed one and motioned the other two to get one, which it didn't take more than once. The four original ninja ate their own cookie, causing the youngest to whine gently, clearly wanting to taste the chocolate he bet they were. It wasn't until they all finished that Zane glanced over, "You may have one now." Noticing the boy grab a few he shook his head, "One, Lloyd."
"But Zane, you guys got two or three!" earning snickers from nearly all the others at the comical whining.
"You need to learn how things work; you should know it is not always going to work out your favor," noticing the face the other was set on making he shook his head with a slight chuckle, "Alright, have them, but not too many... Your next activities may cause you to get a stomach ache."
Lloyd curiously looked over at the two remaining ninja choices, and Kai smiled and nodded. The boy got up after putting back his last cookie, to excited to eat anymore, "So what's up today? First was balance, then patience… What could be next?"
The fire-maker stated, "Well, you haven't had offensive yet today, so time to learn new combinations." Leading the green ninja out of the room, kissing his boyfriend on the way out. They made their way to the main room that had the actual equipment and he bent down to get the thick glove-like blocking bars that could have hands slip into the indented backs. Getting into a perfected defensive, Kai brought one glove back and forth to signal for a start, though this would be a quick warm-up. Lloyd thought of the warm-up moves in a loop in the back of his mind (cross jab, cross jab, then round kick) and put the moves to work in reality, really bringing his power out each time. "Good job, but try a new combination this time, Lloyd."
This surprised the younger male, never really doing it his way before, "Okay, but get ready for it." Crowed the chosen one in a fake taunt, earning a laugh as he began to think up different three-patterned ways to practice with. His mind grew blank, only taking in the different ideas (kick, jump kick, focus punch) or perhaps a random one (side chop, knee, elbow). After a bit he grew tired and he looked apologetically at Kai, "I-I'm tired now… can I leave it here for today."
"Except you need to go to Cole now and tell him, but after that rest all you want," and he patted the exhausted boy in front of them. The time had flew past a half an hour by now, so no wonder…
Lloyd trudged out and went to go find Cole in the meditation room, doing so, "Um Cole… I'm tired," he tried lamely, hoping the older dark-haired boy would understand.
Said male looked over and nodded and rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah, I bet, I forgot all about it anyways." 'So it worked out after all,' thought the black-adorned ninja with relief.
Nodding gently, the boy practically raced back to the colorful guest bedroom (used if the ninjas were too tired to travel back home sometimes) and climbed into the uninhabited bed and tugged the covers over himself, dropping the covered katana on the side table as a second thought. Then he drifted to sleep, hoping that he be one step closer to his own full potential and being included in their fights for once. Thankfully it was an empty dream so he didn't have to go over the possible terrible ending to the final battle between him and his own father.