Annnd the Kai and Lloyd chapter is the longest one so far. Of course.

A few days late with this one, I've been crazy busy unfortunately - lots of people like to have weddings in December, I guess? But I really do want to try to have this finished up by Christmas, or at least the end of December, so hopefully I can keep updates fairly regular! (And to all of you really, really kind people who have told me not to stress about updating fast, which I really appreciate! I wrote about half of this in November for nanowrimo, so it's mostly just editing and filling in missing chapters now :D)

I'm also just really hoping to get them out of the hospital soon, so I can start on the Garmadon angst, heheh...

As always, thank you so much to all the kind people who review! I'm behind on replies, but I promise I'm getting to them soon!


"No, mom, I don't — I literally ran away from school with like, a sweatshirt, a bunch of dumb papers were kind of the last thing I'd think of."

Kai watches in amusement as Lloyd makes an overdramatic an expression as he's seen him, shifting his grip on the phone as he continues to talk into it.

"Okay, okay, sorry — yeah, I know a birth certificate isn't a dumb paper, but I'm trying to say that it's — a what? I don't even know what that is, can we just - can we just stick with the birth certificate for now?"

Kai lounges back on Jay's empty bed, briefly checking his own phone before looking back across at Lloyd as he talks with his mother. He's already been shushed more than once for making smart comments, so he's trying to entertain himself by counting how many times Lloyd's jaw ticks each minute, debating whether it's getting faster or not.

"-yeah, I had plenty of time to hop downtown and get my birth certificate rewritten while the Overlord was trying to kill me, that was definitely my priority."

Kai cringes as Lloyd does — he can't quite hear what Misako is saying over the phone, but he can hear the tone she's using.

"Sorry, sorry, that was — I'm sorry," Lloyd amends, looking chastised. "I just- I don't know, can't they just take your word for it?"

Lloyd goes silent, his eyebrows furrowing as he listens. He gives a sharp breath of frustration. "But I don't — mom, I don't have that kind of ID, I didn't get aged up that much…I think….What? No, I never got a fake ID, for real? I mean, I could make one, if you wanted-" Lloyd winces, quickly clarifying. "That was a joke, mom!"

Kai snickers, though he makes a mental note to keep an eye on that particular skill. Not that he thinks Lloyd's about to create a fake ID for the usual rebellious teen stuff, but Kai can definitely see him using it to like, invest in a credit card so he can buy half the animal shelter, or the entire candy shop, or get a new car, or something.

…come to think of it, does Lloyd even have his license?

"-I'm the Green Ninja, mom, I don't need a license-"

Kai gives Lloyd an incredulous, pointed look. Lloyd rolls his eyes, waving him off. Kai narrows his own eyes, trying to convey we're-not-dropping-this looks. Lloyd makes a face, before turning his attention back to his mother, and Kai tries not to groan. Add that to the growing list of things he needed to take care of a while ago, then.

"-and I don't — what? No! I did not burn my birth certificate, I wasn't that bad a kid!"

Kai raises his eyebrows at him, and Lloyd glares back. "You keep your mouth shut," he says, briefly leaning away from the phone. Kai just smirks, mouthing training pranks at him, and Lloyd makes a cutthroat motion before returning to his call.

"Uh, sorry - Kai's in the room with me, that was for him." Lloyd pauses, his expression dropping as he listens. Kai straightens, narrowing his eyes.

"I'm fine, mom," Lloyd sighs. "I just — yeah, yeah, I know, I'm going to, I — what do you mean, another week? No, the doctor said the end of this one — I'm not lying, I swear — okay, okay, fine. …yes, I'm going to see him. Just a little busy right now. Okay. I love you too, bye."

Lloyd punches the end call button, scowling at his phone before tossing it down the bed. His expression tightens in frustration, and he throws himself back, flopping onto the pillows as dramatically as possible. Kai winces in sympathy as he immediately clutches his side, wheezing.

"How do you keep forgetting you need to watch that," Kai mutters, frantically trying to get at Lloyd's shirt. If he's torn the stitches, Kai's going to have another mental break-

"Just dumb, I guess," Lloyd breathes, shoving Kai's hands away. "I'm fine, I'm fine! It's cold in here, stop."

Kai narrows his eyes at him. "You know that the sooner you sit still and let them heal, the sooner you can get out."

Lloyd makes a face at him, but he slumps back against the pillows again — more gently, this time. "Ugh, I know," he mutters, downcast. "This is taking forever though. I dunno why Uncle Wu won't just hit me with more magic tea again."

"Tea isn't gonna fix that," Kai says.

"Yeah, I guess," Lloyd sighs, looking sadly at the bandages that are poking out beneath the hem of his sweatshirt.

Kai glances over to where Lloyd's phone is laying on the couch. "Is, uh, is everything okay with your mom?" he asks, hesitantly.

Lloyd glares at the wall. "Yeah, she's — she's just worried, I guess," he mutters. "Wants me to stay in longer, just in case. Which I'm not, obviously, the second I get the all-clear, I'm out of here."

"Ah." Kai notices Lloyd carefully avoiding any mention of "going to see him", but he lets it go.

It's not like Kai's eagerly looking forward to talking about Garmadon, anyways.

"Also, did you know that like, the hospital needs all your medical records and your identification stuff?" Lloyd says, looking perturbed. "Tamara - she's the head nurse, you know? She's been breathing down our necks about it all day. Something about, like, insurance and stuff?"

"I mean, it's not like any of us have been great about medical records," Kai scoffs. "Cole's got one pretty obvious blank spot. And I don't even wanna think about Zane."

"Well, yeah," Lloyd says. "But none of you have to explain why your birthdate on record is 'highly suspicious because of it's glaring inaccuracy'." He scowls. "What am I supposed to say? Yeah, sorry about that, you can take it up with the tea leaves?"

Kai stifles a laugh. "Just tell them you had a really dramatic growth spurt."

Lloyd gives him a flat look. "Yeah, that'll solve everything. Then I can really forget getting my license, because I won't even be legal yet...probably."

"Hey, it'll work out, okay?" Kai says, kicking Lloyd's leg lightly where it hangs off the bed. "Nya can always blackmail Ronin into drawing you a fake one up, if we need to. Stop looking so broody and moody."

Lloyd rolls his eyes again, but the expression is a little softer. "I know, I — I just wanna get out of here already," he mutters. His eyebrows draw into a glare. "It's not fair that Cole let Jay bounce early, can you believe-"

"He's not letting him bounce, Jay's gonna be right back in the second he finishes…whatever he's doing," Kai says, trying to pacify Lloyd before he gets on this train again. Cole really owes him for defending him this much, Kai thinks, sourly. Especially when he doesn't even agree with it himself. Realizing Lloyd doesn't look any happier, Kai aims for a weak spot instead. "Don't be a five year-old about it."

"I'm not a five year-old," Lloyd whines into his pillow, stuffing it over his face as if to smother himself. "I'm a grown adult."

"Yeah, sure, a grown adult who doesn't even have a driver's license," Kai snorts. He shakes his head, finally standing up from the bed and making his way over to Lloyd's.

"Hey, look," Kai says, lifting the pillow up so Lloyd can glare at him in all his rat's nest-hair glory. "We'll just hang out until he gets back. I'll stay the night again and we can watch another season of Starfarer, 'kay?"

Lloyd squints at him. "But you don't even like Starfarer."

"Yeah," Kai says, as he lightly shoves Lloyd over on the bed so there's room for him to clamber on. "But I like you, so I can suffer through it."

"Wow, you're just a hero," Lloyd says, but he's smiling now, brighter than Kai's seen in a while.

He's missed that dumb smile.

"Well, y'know, I guess even I can be useful every once in a while," Kai says wryly, tapping at the remote to turn the TV on. "What season were we on, again?"

Lloyd doesn't respond to that — he's looking at him with a weird expression on his face, instead. Kai blinks. "What?"

Lloyd frowns. "What do you mean, 'useful every once in a while'?" he says. "You're very useful. All the time."

Kai looks away, rubbing the back of his neck. Yeah, he was real useful when Nya got cornered by that one Oni, or when Jay got knocked through a wall, or when Lloyd decided to-

"Stop looking like that!" Lloyd is in his face now, sounding stubborn and slightly pained. "I know what you're thinking, and it's not true."

It's Kai's turn to make a face, giving him a flat look. "Yeah, yeah, okay."

Lloyd's expression scrunches up. "I'm serious, don't - don't put yourself down like that," he says, a bit quietly. "You're…whenever I go to make plans in my head, they don't work without you. I don't wanna work without you. So just…stop. Thinking, like that."

Kai looks at him — really looks at him, and feels something in his heart twist.

"Okay," he says, his own voice quiet. "You got it. No more self-deprecating tonight."

"No more self-deprecating ever," Lloyd says, but he looks slightly pacified. "Now look, I'm not gonna be able to tease you about looking like the villain this season."

"I bet he's not even half as attractive, anyways," Kai says, and Lloyd snorts, elbowing him as the Starfarer titles pull up on the TV. Settling back in the bed, Kai goes quiet, and starts mentally gambling how long it's gonna take him to get Lloyd to fall asleep.

Naturally, Kai falls asleep first.


Kai wakes up to Lloyd's hair in his face and the worst ache in his neck ever. He groans, sitting up slightly, careful not to wake Lloyd. Darn, he thinks, glancing up at the TV screen, which is probably going through its hundredth re-run of the Starfarer DVD opening logos. He really didn't mean to fall asleep in some horrible, awkward position again.

Well, at least Lloyd's finally sleeping, Kai muses, looking down in amusement to where he's sprawled half on top of him, snoring softly. Kai frowns, glancing at the numbers on the clock across from them. Come to think of it, why is he awake? Normally it takes something bigger to wake him up than-

"I said hello, Mr. Ninja."

Kai jumps half a foot out of bed, stifling a shriek as he whirls. A tiny, dark-haired girl in hospital garb is standing by the side of the bed, her arms crossed as she stares at him. Kai looks from the open door to her, then back to the door again. How did she — she's not supposed to be in here, right?

"I walked from the kid's common room," the girl sniffs, and Kai belatedly realizes that he's said that out loud. "It's at the end of the hall. I heard he was here, and I wanted to see all the ninja," she says, eyeing Lloyd where he sleeps with curious eyes.

Kai carefully sits up, pulling Lloyd's arm off of him as he rubs his eyes, trying to wake himself up enough to deal with this. On the one hand, some escaped sick kid is a lot better to get jumped by than say, a vicious enemy, or somebody a few rooms down, but on the other hand-

Kai really doesn't know how to deal with room-crashing little hospital escapees who come up to his knee. Where'd his experience from Nya and Lloyd go? Come back, he needs it.

"Uh, well, he's kinda asleep right now, sorry," Kai says, awkwardly. "Maybe you can come back-"

"Oh, that's alright," the girl says, walking over to him and — just hopping up on the bed before he can say anything, looking perfectly at home. "I can talk with you! I'm Suyin, by the way."

"Uh, hi," Kai says, weakly. "I'm Kai."

"Duh," Suyin says, squinting at him. "I know that! You're the easy one to spot. 'Cause of your hair, you know?"

"Oh?" Kai's not sure if he should be insulted or not.

"Yeah," Suyin looks eager. "I wanted to ask you if you could do mine. It's super boring here-"

Kai almost snorts. Oh, she and Lloyd are gonna get along so we- wait, what did she ask him?

"If you can do my hair like yours!" Suyin says, cheerfully. "I wanna look cool, like you, so all the other kids get jealous. You can cut it with your sword and stuff, right?"

"Woah, woah, I don't-" Kai blinks rapidly, trying to get the image of him hacking this tiny little girl's hair off with his very sharp katana out of his head. "I, uh - I don't know - about that. It might not be the best idea, you know?"

"Oh," Suyin looks down, deflating.

Kai bounces his leg awkwardly, looking around. The girl is still staring at the ground with those big eyes, tugging slightly on her hospital bracelet. Kai feel something in his heart twist. It wasn't that long ago Nya was this small. And he…he did okay with her, right?

"So I probably can't do that," Kai says, sucking in a breath and shelving his dignity for the day. "But there is something I can do."

Suyin looks up at him in delight.


As is Kai's luck, Lloyd happens to wake up just as he's finishing off the second fishtail braid in Suyin's hair.

"I didn't know this was part of the great fire ninja's skill set," Lloyd says, and Kai can hear the grin in his voice. "How come you didn't teach me this when you were training me?"

Kai flushes, but he schools his expression, not letting go of the strands of hair in his hands. "Har har," he says. "I'll have you know that braiding hair is an extremely difficult art, one only the greatest of hair masters can achieve."

"Well then, excuse me," Lloyd says, coming into Kai's vision as he sits next to Suyin. "Hi, I'm Lloyd," he says, with all his natural, cheery Lloyd-ness. "Who are you?"

"I'm Suyin, and I know who you are," she says, shaking his hand a little too enthusiastically, and Kai almost loses his grip. "Your hair looks different than it does in the pictures. It looks kinda crazy now."

Lloyd blinks, and Kai stifles a snort. He finishes off the braid, snapping the hot pink elastic band Suyin's given him around it.

"There you go," Kai says, handing Suyin his phone. "If you hold it like this, you can see what it looks like."

Suyin bounces in front of the mirror, adjusting the phone camera, and her face lights up. "It's so pretty!" she says, her eyes bright and happy as she trails a hand down one long braid. "How'd you do that?"

Kai leans back, pleased with himself. "Ninja," he says winking at her. Lloyd and Suyin both giggle at that.

Suyin pauses, hopping back over to Lloyd and squinting up at him. He goes still, letting her tug at a lock of his wavy blond hair. Suyin looks at Kai. "Now him," she says, firmly. "He needs braids too."

"Oh no," Lloyd sputters, raising his hands as Kai approaches him, grinning like a shark. "No, no no, my hair's too short-"

"Uh-huh," Kai says. "Y'know, I seem to remember someone running from the scissors because they wanted to keep growing it out."

"No, wait-" Lloyd glances between Kai and Suyin, and finally deflates, realizing it's a lost battle. "Alright," he mutters, glaring at the wall. "Have at it."

Kai grins at Suyin, taking the little purple elastic from her, and attacks.

The end result is comically disastrous, as Lloyd's hair is only long enough to allow tiny little braids, but thanks to Suyin's meddling he ends up with several small braids that hang over his ears, or trail down his neck. Lloyd is, for the first time since he's been in the hospital, a good sport about it, though, so by the time Tamara comes to collect her latest escapee, he simply grins cheekily as she glares at him.

"Make sure he stays," Tamara tells Kai, giving Lloyd one last side-eye before she leaves with Suyin in hand, who waves despondently at them.

"Come visit me and the other kids!" she calls. The minute they're gone, Lloyd shoots Kai a narrow-eyed look.

"You owe me for this."

"Uh-huh," Kai grins, already thumbing at his phone. "Here, smile for the camera, Nya's gonna love this-"

"No!" Lloyd yelps, whacking Kai solidly across the face with a pillow as he cackles. He finally surrenders the phone, letting Lloyd flip through the pictures with a stubborn pout on his face. Kai leans back against the pillows, trying to figure out how he's already tired again. Didn't he just get a half-night's sleep? That oughtta make up for all the nights he's missed, right?

"Kai?"

He glances over, Lloyd's inquiry so quiet he almost misses it. "Yeah?"

"Thanks for staying with me," Lloyd says, no longer looking at the phone.

Kai smiles, folding his arms behind his head as he yawns. "Never have'ta thank me for that, green machine."

"And thanks for…for everything else." Kai cracks one eye open, studying Lloyd as he tugs at the edge of his hoodie, looking down.

"I, uh, I know I'm not…easy. And I'm…I'm sorry," Lloyd murmurs. "For…for everything. I didn't mean for…I don't wanna stress you out anymore. And I hate that I'm the reason you're so-"

"Lloyd," Kai says, sitting up so he grab his shoulders and force Lloyd to look at him properly. "You - geez. Do we have to do this every time?"

Lloyd shrugs, his eyes flicking away as he bites his lip. "This time was really bad, though," he says, quietly.

Kai shakes his head. "That just means I'm gonna care more. Whatever - stress, or some nonsense you've thought up this time - I go through, it's worth it. Worth you, and I know what you told Nya the other day, so just-"

Lloyd cuts him off by ramming into his chest, wrapping his arms tightly around him, but Kai decides that's good enough for him. He rubs a hand across his shoulders, smirking slightly at the tiny braid that just reaches the collar of Lloyd's shirt.

"Thanks," Lloyd whispers, muffled.

"Just promise me something," Kai says.

Lloyd looks up at him. "Yeah?"

"You never do anything like this again."

"Geez, you're acting like I stabbed myself-"

"Lloyd."

"…promise."

And Kai knows it's not the kind of promise that's made to last, because he knows their family, and he knows Lloyd, but...who knows. A Christmas miracle, maybe?

He's just gonna hope for it, this time.