Hey guys! I know, I did say that this story would be up by the 25th. I'm a failure when it comes to deadlines LOL.

But it's finally here, so read on and enjoy! (And leave a comment!)

Happy Belated Christmas!


Lloyd opened his eyes and yawned loudly, stretching his arms out on either side of his body, then up into the air. He finished the yawn with a loud exhale and flung his feet over the side of the bed.

Go figure. No one else was awake yet. After all, it was only nine in the morning. They weren't late in the least. No indeed, breakfast wasn't supposed to be until at least seven.

He debated waking them up, but decided against it. Better to let them sleep in extra late. After all, it was Christmas. There was no training today. The gang was free to do as they pleased without Sensei's direction, as the elderly man was away for the Christmas season with Garmadon and Misako.

He jumped out of bed quietly and tiptoed to the dresser. He looked inside his small drawer and rummaged through his clothes, finally deciding to wear his regular golden ninja outfit. At least until he was finished with his morning rituals. He quietly went to the bathroom and changed into the suit.

"Where is my comb?" He mumbled to himself as he rummaged through the cluttered drawer. "Did Zane take it agai- oh." His fingers found the sharp pick and he pulled it out of the bottomless abyss of a drawer. "There you are. Underneath Zane's hair gel." He squinted into the mirror and looked at his reflexion closely, frowning a bit. He had mixed feelings about his new body. He missed being a kid more than he was willing to admit at times. "Less worries, less random aches," he pulled the pick through his light blond hair with a sigh. "And less hair."

He pulled at the tangled mess for several minutes before he was satisfied with the result. He washed his face and quietly ran up to the deck of the Bounty.

It was very chilly outside. He looked around the deck and noticed the fresh coating of snow. He made a grimace as he stepped into the crunchy material. Snow was not his 'cup of tea', as Wu might say. Snow meant snowball fights, which Lloyd tried his best to avoid at all costs. Cole had a mean swing, and had a habit of hurdling forty pound snowballs at their faces more frequently than Lloyd would ever care to mention.

He sighed and closed his eyes, enjoying the brisk breeze that blew through his hair. This was what he liked. He enjoyed a nice, easy twenty degrees with a light wind. Zane preferred something closer to zero, but that was just Zane being...Zane.

He began his stretches, moving his arms and legs in perfect synch with the rhythm in his head. He closed his eyes, knowing that he needed more practice with his balance, and continued.

"What am I doing today?" He thought to himself. "Nothing." He sighed closed his eyes, enjoying the pure rejuvenating energy that flowed through him as the seconds ticked by into minutes.

He relaxed his muscles and opened his eyes slowly, sending the world spinning and dark spots to his eyes from the sun's reflexion off the snow. He ran to the training room and began his routine. Jumping on the planks, punching dummies, not getting bruised by the spinning weapons, it was all getting a little repetitive. But he had to do it, if only just to keep in shape.

"Good morning, Lloyd!" Jay appeared behind him suddenly, making the golden ninja jump and shout, nearly relieving Jay's head from its shoulders with a swing from his sword.

"Jay!" He said, pulling the sword back just in time. "Don't do that!" He put the weapon away and went for a handful of shurikens.
Jay grabbed a few more of the small stars and followed Lloyd to the target dummies. "Sorry." He threw one, hitting the wooden head with a resounding thud.

Lloyd threw one straight into the dummies' heart. "You just about made me sorry." He weighed another star in his hand before throwing it with all his strength, putting a little grunt into it. The silver shuriken went straight through the target and landed in the chest of the one behind it.

Jay mumbled something under his breath before throwing another. "And a merry Christmas to you too, Lloyd." He said with a sarcastic tone and a sigh.

"Thank you, Jay." Lloyd threw several in quick succession, planting each deep in the wood on different select body parts on the target. He held up his hands. "I'm all out. And I'm done." He smiled at Jay before turning to the door. "I'm going to go put on my ugly Christmas sweater and get the day started.

"You could always wear a pink apron!" He heard Jay's voice through the closed door. "That would count as an ugly sweater, right?"

He rolled his eyes and walked away. That comment didn't deserve an answer.

He went back to he bedroom and saw that Kai was still asleep. Cole was standing next to him, looking rather thoughtful.

Lloyd walked up to where Cole stood. "Hey."

Cole looked at him. "G'mornin." He whispered back.

Lloyd smiled. "How should we wake him up?"

Cole smirked back. "Tap his shoulder and shake him gently?"

Lloyd shook his head. "Naw. Too easy. Not enough scream."

Cole nodded thoughtfully. "Agreed. Hmmm..." He snapped his fingers. "Let's go get Zane. He'd know."

Lloyd nodded and quickly tiptoed out of the room to find him. He knocked on the closed bathroom door. "Hey, Zane." He said quietly.

"Are you in there?"

The door opened and revealed a messy-haired Zane holding a comb.

He smiled. "Greetings, Lloyd. How may I help you?" He looked into the mirror and quickly did his hair up.

Lloyd smiled. "You got your funny switch on?" He asked deviously.

Zane gave him a sidelong glance curiously. "What do you have in mind?"

Lloyd pointed down the hall. "Kai is still sleeping."

Zane smiled. "I'll be there in a moment." He reached into a drawer and sprayed some hair gel into his palm. "I've got an idea. Just wait right there." He quickly ran his fingers though his hair and got the stray strands taken care of quickly.
Then he started grabbing supplies out of several drawers.

Lloyd wasn't sure where this was going, but was sure that it would be good. "You want some help carrying some of that?"

Zane nodded and pointed at the counter. "Grab that lotion and my hair gel please." He reached into Nya's drawer and grabbed her makeup bag. "Let's get started." He had an evil glint in his eyes as he looked at Lloyd with a maniacal smile and began walking down the hall.

Lloyd suddenly had a feeling of pity for Kai. Whatever Zane had planned, it was sure to be terrible.

"Ah!" Zane stopped short when he saw his sister. "Pixal!" Perfect. I have a job for you."

Pixal set down her load of folded towels and looked at him expectantly. "Yes, Zane?"

Zane smiled. "Do you remember that prank idea you came up with a while back? The one with the lotion and..." He waited for her to finish the sentence.

Pixal nodded and mimicked her brother's devious smile. "Who's the lucky victim?"

Zane waved her forward. "Kai. Come on. But be quiet."

Pixal and Lloyd followed Zane as instructed.

Zane opened the door with his free hand and went in quietly.

Cole, who was still next to the bed, looked at the three of them expectantly. "What have you got, Zane?" He whispered.

Zane took the hair gel out of Lloyd's hands. "Everything."

Cole looked pleased. "What should I do?"

Zane squirted a large helping of the sticky gel into his hands and rubbed them together, making a bunch of froth. "Nothing right now. Just watch." He carefully ran his fingers through Kai's hair, then squirted more gel onto his fingers. He repeated the process several times, making sure that Kai's hair was thoroughly stiff. Another smile escaped his lips as he took the makeup off the nightstand and began giving the fire ninja a complete makeover.

Lloyd leaned toward Cole's ear and whispered. "How is he not waking up?"

Cole shrugged. "It's Zane, Lloyd. Zane can do anything and you wouldn't know until it was too late."

Zane put the makeup on the back nightstand and looked at the others with a smile. "Ready for the last part?" He whispered.

Cole nodded and had to try really hard to keep from laughing and spoiling it. "How do we wake him up?"

Zane nodded at Pixal. "Your turn, sister."

The female droid nodded and took the bottle of lotion from Lloyd's fingers. She pumped a small drop of the stuff on her pointer and middle fingers, then rubbed them together until the lotion dissolved into a greasy mess on the tips of her fingers. "Camera rolling?" Her voice was hushed.

Zane nodded. "I've had my internal camera on for a while now, Pixal."

She nodded and reached her clean, non-greasy hand toward Kai's sleeping form. She shook his shoulders gently. "Kai." Her voice was singsongy and sweet. "Time to wake up, Kai." She pressed her greasy fingers onto Kai's lips and made a loud kissing noise with her own. She drew her hand away and jumped back quickly to avoid getting hurt.

Kai shouted loudly and jumped straight out of the bed, wiping the greasy stuff from his lips. He looked at his hand, which was red from the lipstick Zane had applied. But he had no idea that the lipstick came from his own lips and not Pixal's.

Kai looked around the room wildly, eyes blazing with anger. It looked quite comical.

They couldn't contain their laughter anymore. Lloyd cracked first, followed by Zane, Pixal, then Cole.

Kai glared at them, completely oblivious to his new look. "Pixal!" He screamed. "What on earth!" He continued wiping away at his mouth until all the lipstick was gone. "If I didn't have a code against punching girls, I'd be giving you a landing in the stomach you'd never forget."

Pixal clutched her stomach and doubled over from the laughter. "Yeah. Be glad we didn't make Lloyd do it!"

Kai suddenly went pale. "Oh, geez. Please don't tell me you were seriously considering it. Also, that's not exactly what I meant by 'if you weren't a girl.'"

Lloyd stuck out his tongue and grimaced. "Oh, no."

Jay suddenly threw the door open. "Hey, guys. What's going on?" He stopped mid-step when he saw Kai's painted face and even more wild hair. He burst out laughing. "Kai!" He exclaimed.

Kai suddenly felt defensive. "What? Do I still have some of that woman's lipstick on my face?" He pointed at Pixal accusingly.

Jay suddenly stopped laughing and looked at the four pranksters incredulously. "For real? Or was that just another part of the prank."

Pixal smiled innocently. "No clue what he's talking about." She said, purposely looking guilty as she held up the lotion bottle at her side.

Jay started laughing all over again. He had read about that prank a while ago. "Oh, Kai." He put his hand on the fire ninja's shoulder, then drew it away quickly. Kai was getting really warm from his anger. Jay smiled and blew on his hand. "You need to look in the mirror."

Kai turned and looked in the mirror on the wall with dread. He screamed all over again as he grabbed a washcloth and tried to rub away the sticky makeup. But it only smeared. He moaned and sank to the floor.

Zane and Pixal did a high five and continued laughing.

Kai glared at them and threw the wet rag in Pixal's direction, but Zane caught it and threw it back in his face.

Nya walked through the open door. "What's up?" She saw Kai on the floor and gasped. She started laughing as she grabbed the washcloth off the floor, where it had landed after bouncing off of Kai's face. "Serves you right. You slept in about four hours later than you should have. It's well after ten." She giggled as she rubbed the rag across his face, effectively wiping away all the gunk. "But all the same, this was rather mean of you guys." She glared at the four ninja and Pixal with a wink. "Anything else happen this morning that I should help clean up?" She deadpanned as she got to her feet.

Kai pointed at Pixal. "She...Kissed me!" He was obviously repulsed by the thought.

Pixal feigned a hurt look. "And that's bad?" She twirled her fingers through her silver hair all too innocently.

Kai hesitated a moment, making everyone laugh all aver again.

"Thought so!" Cole smiled.

Pixal walked over to Kai and helped the halfway clean ninja to his feet. "We were joking, Kai. It really was only a prank. I did not really kiss you."

Kai looked confused. He accepted Pixal's hand up and got to his feet. "Okay, then." He cleared his throat and tried to run his fingers through his hair. He eventually stopped trying and sighed. "If it wasn't real, then okay." He nodded his head slowly and started chuckling. His eyes locked on Zane's. The white ninja made fleeting glances toward the door.

"This was your idea, wasn't it?" Kai popped his knuckles.

Zane smiled nervously and held his arm up. He opened his small arm panel and pressed a switch. "This has been fun, but I really must get breakfast started." He shut the panel, gave a thumbs up to Pixal, and left the room quickly.

Kai rolled his eyes. "Oh, great." He said. "Zane was recording the whole thing?"

Pixal nodded. "Every bit."

Kai went to the door. "Well. I hope you all had fun. But I'm going to take a shower. Maybe my hair will stop feeling like concrete after a good soak." He left the room and slammed the door behind him.