Lloyd watched the raindrops slide down the window as he organized the boxes of teas on the kitchen counter. "You know, Dad," he murmured, "I almost fell down a well yesterday." He looked over his shoulder at his father, who was busily typing away on his laptop. His father rarely gave his real name out to anyone, so he was known simply as Garmadon to anyone outside the family.

"…Oh, yeah?" he said, not looking up from the screen.

Frowning, Lloyd stacked another box in the earl grey pile. "I could've died. Or broken my leg."

"…That's nice." Garmadon still did not look up.

He tried not to huff at his father's lack of concern. "So…can I go outside today? I wanted to take a walk through that garden we have out back. Or maybe go into town and see what there is to look at." He looked eagerly at his father.

"No, Lloyd. It's raining outside. Rain leads to mud, and mud leads to messes." Once again, he didn't make any eye contact with Lloyd.

"But I thought you and Mom needed the rest of the teas for the shop," Lloyd insisted. "Maybe they delivered them to the wrong place? I can go and check, and maybe I can buy more teas that are better than all this boring stuff. I mean, you wanted to have a more 'interesting' and 'unique' tea shop, right?"

Garmadon sighed. "Yes, Lloyd. But then," he finally looked up, and pointed to his neck brace, "we had the accident."

"It wasn't my fault you hit a tree!"

"I didn't say it was." Garmadon went back to his laptop. "The orders for the teas will come in. They're just late, is all. And with those hospital bills, we're behind our payments for the shop's lease…"

Lloyd rolled his eyes, leaning back against the counter. "You and mom decided to open up a tea shop in the middle of nowhere, and you're supposed to open up in like, a week…but you don't even like tea."

"I'm only going to say this once: I don't have time for you right now, Lloyd." He peered up over his laptop, a steely glare in his eyes. "And you still have unpacking to do. Lots of unpacking."

"Wow, what a dream come true. Unpacking." Lloyd made sure to put every ounce of sarcasm into his voice.

After a brief moment of cold silence, Garmadon reached under his chair. "I almost forgot to mention, a boy came around this morning and left this on the front porch for you." He held up something wrapped in newspaper, a little sticky note attached to it.

Raising an eyebrow, Lloyd walked over and took it, picking the sticky note off and reading it to himself.

Hey, Garmaboy, look what I found in my grandpa's trunk. Look familiar?

-Kai

Lloyd carefully unraveled the newspaper, his eyes widening when he saw what was inside. A little doll, with pale skin and blond hair, wearing a green jacket over a paler green shirt, tan-coloured pants, and black shoes stared back up at him with big, black button eyes. If he wasn't mistaken, Lloyd would say the doll looked almost exactly like he did yesterday when he met Kai.

"It's…a little me…?" he whispered, quietly so his father didn't hear. "That's just weird…" He crumpled up the newspaper and sticky note, tossing them in the trash.

"What's his name, anyway?" Garmadon asked. "Is he a friend?"

He scoffed. "No. His name's Kai." As he made his way out of the kitchen, still holding the doll, he grumbled, "Of course he would give me a doll. He thinks I'm a baby."

Nonetheless, he carried it with him to his mother's study. She wasn't as secretive with her name as his father was; she was known as Misako. Her back faced Lloyd when he entered, her greying hair tied in a messy braid. The entire room smelled strongly of coffee. There was a decade-old computer on her desk; Garmadon tried to convince her to buy a new one, but she insisted it was reliable.

"Hey, Mom," Lloyd said, standing in the doorway. "How're the payments coming along?"

Misako didn't answer him, still tapping away on her keyboard. Lloyd sighed, trying to lean in a way where he could be seen in the reflection of her computer monitor. "Mom?"

After a long moment, she finally spoke in a tired tone, "Hello, Lloyd, and Lloyd…doll?" She turned around, her glasses low on the bridge of her nose as she stared at the doll in Lloyd's hands. She shrugged, turning back to her computer.

"So…is there anything you want me to buy in town?"

Misako paused for only a second, listening to the rain pattering against the window. "It's pouring out there, isn't it?"

He scoffed. "It's just a little rain."

"What did your father say?"

"'Don't even think about going outside, you dirty little boy'," Lloyd said, in as mocking of a voice as he could muster.

He saw Misako's smile in the reflection of her computer monitor. "Then I suppose you won't need to go to town."

Lloyd groaned, and held the doorknob as he leaned back. He pulled the door with him, making it creak. Smiling at the noise, he leaned forward, then back again, then forward again, the door squeaking with every movement. He could see Misako growing irritated, but continued to make the door creak, until she spun around in her chair.

"Lloyd, this house is almost one hundred and fifty years old," she said, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.

"So?"

"So explore it!" She picked up a notepad and a pencil, and pushed them into Lloyd's hands. "Count the doors and windows, then write it down! Draw out what you want your room to look like, or write down everything that's blue!" She sighed, the bags in her eyes looking heavier than ever. "You're fourteen years old now. You don't need me and your father to entertain you. Now please, just let me work, okay?"

As she spun back around, Lloyd sighed, tucking the doll under his arm as he made his way out of her study. He walked down the hallway towards the laundry room, until he nearly tripped over a bump in the rug. Frowning, he stomped on it, only for it to move behind him. Stepping on it again, it divided into two bumps. He gave up, and simply continued on his way.

The windows in the laundry room were tall and ornate, misted and leaking somewhat. He wiped away the condensation so he could peer outside. He looked down at the doll, and wiped away some more so the doll could "see" out. He didn't know why he did it; he just felt like it was necessary. The old car was parked outside in the driveway, several suitcases still strapped to the roof of it.

Lloyd counted the windows, and wrote the number down on the notepad. Then, he turned away and went upstairs to see what else he could find.

He found his way into his parents' room, and saw that even they still had quite a bit of unpacking to do, judging from all the boxes stacked around the room. He then made his way into their bathroom, which had rather unappealing mustard-yellow wallpaper.

Lloyd pulled back the shower curtain, but jumped back in alarm when he saw several earwigs crawling along the walls and floor of the tub. He immediately went to work in killing the bugs, crushing them under his hands and feet while being careful not to slip. Upon seeing the bug remains on his hands, he gagged, and tried to turn the tub faucet on to wash it off, only to get sprayed in the back of the head from the shower head.

His hair still somewhat damp after attempting to towel-dry it, he made his way back down the stairs. When he saw the bumps in the hallway rug, he jumped on them both, finally leaving none behind. The action, however, managed to creak open the door to a hall closet, right beside his mother's study.

Poking his head in, Lloyd saw it was a tiny, dimly-lit room, with nothing too significant other than a rusted boiler. Shrugging, he turned the light off, and saw that the lights in the entire house flickered. Suddenly, he heard his mother crying out in alarm, and he peeked into her room to see her clutching her computer monitor, the screen flickering until it turned off.

He bit his lip, and noticed a piece of paper that had been taped above the light switch. "DON'T PUSH!" was written in big letters. Lloyd turned the light back on, and quietly slipped out of the room, shutting the door behind him. He quickly made a note of the light under his notes about the bugs and the boiler, before tiptoeing away from the closet.

Lloyd walked into the parlour, the walls painted a soft baby blue colour. There were even more windows, and a small fireplace at the far side of the room. He looked over at the box on the coffee table, and saw it was full of old souvenirs that his parents collected over the years. He put the doll down on the table beside the box.

Well, Dad did say I need to do some unpacking, he thought, and began to pull out several snow globes and other trinkets, placing them on the fireplace mantel. One in particular caught his eye; a bronze teapot, which his family hadn't used once. Garmadon insisted it was because it was too fancy for tea, but Lloyd knew it was because his father wouldn't drink tea even if someone paid him.

Once he was done, he looked up at the painting above the fireplace. It depicted a little boy in a sailor suit, crying over a fallen ice cream. Lloyd raised an eyebrow, and spoke out loud as he wrote on his notepad.

"One boring blue boy, in a painfully boring painting…" He counted the windows. "… Four, incredibly boring windows, and no more doors…" When he reached down to pick the doll up off the table, his hands met only empty air.

Lloyd frowned, looking around. "Alright, Little Me…where are you hiding?" After a few moments of searching, he found the doll peeking out from behind the box the painting was packed in. He kneeled down, about to pick the doll up, when something behind the box caught his eye.

He pushed it out of the way, revealing a tiny door behind a layer of wallpaper, the outline of a keyhole able to be seen. Lloyd guessed if he walked on his hands and knees, he would probably be able to fit through it.

"Hey, Dad?" he called. "Where does this door lead?"

"I'm really, really busy!" Garmadon called back.

"I think it's locked!" Lloyd waited for another response. When he got none, he lifted his head and yelled, "Pleeeeease?!"

He heard a groan from Garmadon, who soon stomped into the parlour, glaring at Lloyd, and then the door. He folded his arms across his chest as he stared at Lloyd. "Will you stop pestering me if I unlock it for you?"

Lloyd pouted, nodding as he whimpered like a puppy.

"Fine!" Garmadon left the room, leaving Lloyd to guess what could be behind the door. A secret passageway into the next home? A storage area for everything they wouldn't need? He couldn't help but smile in anticipation.

Garmadon soon returned, holding a black key with what looked like a button design at the one end. He cut the wallpaper surrounding the door, and Lloyd watched excitedly as Garmadon poked it through into the keyhole, turned the key, and opened the door to reveal…

"Bricks?!" Lloyd gasped, the entrance of the door showing nothing but a brick wall. "I don't get it!"

"They must have closed it off when they divided up the house," Garmadon said, pulling the key out of the hole and standing back up.

"Seriously?" Lloyd complained. "Then why's the door so small?"

Garmadon whipped around, impatience lighting his glare. "We made a deal! Zip it!" He marched out of the room without another word.

Lloyd bit his lip, staring at the wall of bricks. "You forgot to lock it." His father gave an aggravated yell, but he didn't come back. He merely heard the slam of the kitchen drawer as Garmadon returned to his work.

Sighing, Lloyd closed the little door, picking the doll back up as he hung his head. "So much for having something interesting in this house, huh?" he said to the doll. Its black button eyes just stared back up at him. He rolled his eyes. "Can't believe I'm even talking to this thing."

~o~o~o~o~

Misako sang a song off-key as she served Lloyd a heaping helping of her casserole, the only identifiable ingredients in it being black olives and onions. He gagged at the sight and smell of it, pushing his plate away.

"How come you never cook, Dad?" Lloyd asked, slouching in his seat. He had dragged an empty chair over for the doll earlier. He didn't know why he did it, but he would have felt bad if he just left it up in his room.

"We've been over this, Lloyd," Garmadon said with a sigh. "Your mother cooks, I clean, and you stay out of the way." When Lloyd rolled his eyes, he continued, "I swear, as soon as we're done getting all of the problems with the tea shop sorted, I'll go food shopping." He pushed a bowl towards Lloyd. "Try some of the chard, it's good for you."

Misako scooped some of the leafy vegetable out, plopping it onto Lloyd's plate. He wrinkled his nose, lifting some up with his fork. "It looks more like slime to me."

"Well, you can either eat your 'slime'," Misako said, serving herself some chard and casserole, "or you can consider it bedtime. Your choice, honey."

Lloyd looked over at the doll, cradling its head with one hand. "Think they're trying to poison me?" he asked it. He made it nod 'yes', and picked it up. He stared up at the ceiling, leaning back in his chair, before picking the doll up and heading up to his room in a huff.

Can't pay attention to me, can't cook, can't be interested in something that's actually interesting… What I wouldn't do for better parents…


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