It had been two days since Quinn's banishment. I hated Wu at the moment for not thinking twice about what he was doing.
Sure, Garmadon getting a hold of the weapons was bad, but he didn't need to be thrown in the underworld because of it. He and I both knew that my husband's actions weren't entirely under his control.
I was still crying. Tears running down my face, knowing I would never see him again. It didn't help that Wu had suddenly disappeared, finding places to hide the weapons away from Quinn's reach. No amount of grieving on his part. No remorse that his brother was gone forever. He seemed to only care about the weapons, not about our family.
Lloyd also knew something was wrong. He'd cry day and night, crying from his little sea green eyes that Quinn had always loved and adored, staring at them for hours on end. But it hurt to go and calm Lloyd down. Every time I held him in my arms, I'd see Quinn's smile smiling back at me. His blonde tousled hair was arranged exactly as Quinn's would be, even though Quinn's hair was never blond. His was a handsome chocolate brown.
Just thinking of him put sharp pains in my chest, forcing more tears to spill onto my cheeks, making me gasp for air. He was gone. Just like how he could go anywhere he wanted to with a puff of smoke. He was gone. Except this time, he hadn't meant to disappear.
I was slowly starting to calm down, slowing my distressed breathing, when I heard Lloyd's crying abruptly stop in the upstairs nursery. I immediately shut my mouth, and wiped off the tears. Something was wrong. Lloyd, bless his soul, never stopped crying on his own.
I tiptoed up the first two stairs. There was an dent in the wood step, where Quinn had accidently thrown a tennis ball a little too hard while playing with the dog.
Over the railing, I could see the door to the nursery open. Nothing out of the ordinary, seeing as how I had left it like that. But his window was open, and the lace green curtains were flowing carelessly in the draft coming through the window. I had never recalled opening that window. In fact, I never opened his window once. I started to tiptoe farther up the stairs when I saw something move in Lloyd's room. A figure.
By the outline of the dark figure against the moonlight that was seeping through the open window, it looked to be a man. The man had hair that closely resembled that of someone who was being electrically shocked. It stuck straight up. I could not see the face however, for he was facing the window with something in his arms.
Something with blond hair.
Lloyd.
I tiptoed up the rest of the stairs, and snuck towards the open room. I could truly see what was happening now.
Lloyd had the man's thumb in his mouth, gnawing at it with his gums. Just as he would do to Quinn. Every once and awhile, the man would look down at the baby and smile, and look back at the moon, which was rising slowly in the sky. He looked to be breathing deeply. To smell the fresh air or to calm down, I did not know. It reminded me of Quinn, how he would always breath in deeply because of a sudden evil thought he was trying to restrain.
And as I took a step forward, the floorboard creaked underneath me.
My eyes grew huge with fright as the figure slowly turned to face me. The man's red eyes looked into mine with an expression of surprise and heartbreak.
It was Quinn.
His red eyes grew huge, and he ran over to Lloyd's crib. He hurriedly put Lloyd in his crib, and backed up towards the window.
"Now listen here. I mean no harm. I'm just going to hop out this window and you'll never see my face again. Nothing ever happened here." Quinn said, backing up with his hands in the air. He sounded nervous and scared.
I stepped in the way of the window, making it so he couldn't escape. He started backing up into the wall.
"You are NOT leaving. You're staying right here." I said, through falling tears, weakly advancing towards him.
"Misako, I'm not even technically here. I can't be. If you haven't heard, my stupid, idiotic brother has-" Quinn began.
"Don't talk about Wu that way! He loves you!" I protested.
"Oh yeah! Sure! You say that, but have you heard he banished me into the underworld recently? OH YES, HE LOVES ME QUITE A LOT!" Quinn yelled. His eyes started gleaming a darker shade of crimson red. A sign I had learned to take as a warning.
"Quinn. Don't lose it. Lloyd's in here." I said, as the blond baby watched his father with curiosity.
"I'll loose it when I want to, thanks! FREE COUNTRY, AS I RECALL!" Yelled Quinn. "I DON'T FEEL EXACTLY FREE RIGHT NOW!"
His hands began to pulse with purple electricity. I knew just what to do.
I started to step forward again.
"OH NO YOU DON'T! NU UH!" He yelled, as I started to bring my hands up to his neck. He knew me well enough. He started to try and push me away, but I was strong, and held on.
The thing about him being evil was that he easily wore himself out. He could get tired very quickly.
His resistance started waning, and he started to look like he was going to collapse on the ground.
"Off... me... now..." He said, huffing, feebly trying to get away from me.
"Quinn, when are you coming back."
"Why.. does it matter..." He said, looking like he had just ran a marathon.
I kissed him softly.
"When are you coming back." I said again.
"Do not... question.. Lord Garmadon.." He huffed again.
I kissed him yet again.
"When are you coming back." I asked. I saw him start to crumble, and I knew I had won.
"Ne..ver." He said, breathing hard.
I kissed him once more, with all the sweetness I could muster.
"When are you coming back?"
"I already answered you, woman. Unless I think of something, I will stay in the Underworld forever." Quinn said.
Evil people also regain energy very fast. I would have to tread lightly, for it was out of luck he had not exploded. But he didn't seem to be fighting, as he talked to me, wrapping his arms around my neck as well.
"For... forever?" I stuttered, feeling the tears arise in my eyes.
"Shh.. Don't cry. I could come and try and visit you. But it comes to a point where it's not healthy to be around me, Misako. I'm not a good influence on Lloyd, either. Maybe it's for the best. Even if I don't like being away from either of you." He said, stroking my hair.
I nodded my head, knowing what he was talking about. I understood, but that didn't mean I liked it. I cuddled my head into his chest, and he suddenly swooped me up into his arms, carrying me down stairs into the living room.
"Have you had something to eat or drink lately?" He said, becoming the carrying husband I knew he was. It was hard to believe he was really banished in the underworld.
"No."
He set me on the couch.
"Well, that's no good. Let me get something." He said, getting up off the couch and going into the kitchen.
I sat there, glad Lloyd had finally been able to stop crying. He seemed to have fallen asleep.
"Lloyd's been feed, correct?" I heard Quinn say from the kitchen.
"Correct." I answered back. There was a couple moments of silence before he talked again.
"All Right, Mrs. Herbivore. What vegetarian meal would you like today?" He asked as I heard him open the refrigerator door.
"I'll just have some tofu stir fry. You can just heat it up." I said.
I heard a little chuckle, and then the sound of dangerous purple electricity.
"NO! I meant in the microwave. I still don't think it's safe for you to warm food up with your electricity." I said
He chuckled once more, before placing it in the microwave and heating the bowl up. He then opened the refrigerator once more in search of more food.
"You should get rid of all this condensed evil. I don't think you're going to eat it." He said.
"You never know. I might just try it." I said. I wanted to keep it in there, just to tell myself he could come back at any moment. For when he would come back. It was nasty stuff, I'll admit. No regular human could possibly keep it down. It was repulsive looking, too. Sometimes, when I would watch Quinn eat it, I swore I would see it moving from time to time.
I heard him open the microwave door, heard it slam, and then I heard him search through the kitchen drawers for a pair of chopsticks. He walked back into the room with a steaming bowl of Tofu Stir Fry, with chopsticks sticking out of it.
"Is that so." He said, handing me the warm bowl while smoothly putting his arm over my shoulder.
"It is." I said, taking a bite of the stir fry.
"Well, I'll just have to ask you what you thought of it when you do end up trying it." He said, smiling.
I smiled back and ate the stir fry slowly. A couple of times, I would see a hand shoot into my bowl and pick out a piece of rice or tofu, and watch as the food disappeared within Quinn's mouth. He'd smile, and I would roll my eyes. It felt like any regular night. With Lloyd in bed, and Quinn being mischievous and naughty. I felt back to normal. But I knew this would not last.
"So... What's the underworld like?"
"Horrible. No sun. Drop dead freezing. Skeletons everywhere. However, being their ruler means I get to stay away from th-"
"YOU'RE THE RULER OF THE UNDERWORLD?!" I screeched, dropping my chopsticks onto the carpet.
Quinn rolled his eyes and picked the chopsticks, washing them off with only a snap of his fingers.
"Yes, Misako. Samukai, the King of the Skeletons, and I had a... disagreement. It didn't go that well between the two of us." Quinn said, winking.
"You're ruler of dead people."
"It's not that bad. I mean, yes, skeletons aren't the best things to socialize with. Really stupid. They don't have brains, obviously. But they don't bother me that much, so I don't bother them."
I looked at my husband in amazement, something he never ceased to do to me. He smirked at me, displaying his razor sharp teeth, which had a piece of tofu stuck inside them. I giggled, and snuggled into him closer, with my bowl of tofu stir-fry in my lap.
After a few moments of silence, I asked another question,
"So.. What happened Quinn? Wu won't tell me. He disappeared to hide the weapons..." I mumbled. The weapons in question were very, very powerful objects, made by my husband's and Wu's father. Ever since Quinn had been injected with poison that slowly made him evil, he's been obsessed with obtaining them, and using them for his own diabolical purposes. This night had been one of many attempts to steal them away.
Quinn's eyes immediately went dark in anger. "I tried to take them again. Two of the four weapons were in my hands, and I was about to escape, when Wu caught me. We fought... And Wu cursed me. A lightning bolt hit me to stun me, hence my stunning hair-do and the fact that my skin looks coal black, like it's been burnt to a nice crisp. And then I was gone. Poof. Vanished." My husband recalled, his teeth gritting together in frustration.
"Wu would never do that.. He loves you." I whispered, disbelief in my every word. Quinn growled at this.
"Yeah, well, he's not the saint you think he is, Misako. I've been trying to tell you that for a while now."
I sat there in silence, in disbelief, that my childhood friend would do something so cruel to his older brother. Suddenly, without warning, my husband's arm around my shoulder vanished for a couple of seconds, to return again as if it had never happened. Quinn jumped off the couch, and I watched as he began to flicker once more.
"My time is up. I'm losing power. I have to go back." My love said sadly, as his hands began to flicker more frequently.
"No!" I protested, jumping off the couch as well. My bowl fell and flung tofu bits everywhere, but I didn't care. Only Quinn mattered to me at that moment.
"I have to go, Misako. Tell Lloyd I love him. Daddy loves his boy." Quinn said, as a tear began to snake down his cheek. I grasped his shoulders in desperation, shaking him violently.
"You'll be able to tell him yourself! Quinn, don't go! Please!" I screamed. Now I was crying as well. My husband looked down at me, with a sad smile on his face, tears falling from his red crimson eyes. The wind was picking up around us in our living room, as the underworld took my life back from me.
"I was never good for you, Misako." Quinn said sadly, "It's time you move on with Lloyd."
I couldn't stop crying, but I had to be there for Quinn. For Lloyd. For me.
"I love you." I promised, and crushed my lips to his in one, final goodbye, before he disappeared from my hands forever.
Upstairs, in the nursery, Lloyd began to cry again.
