Sensei waited until Zane had dashed off to go back in and wake his nephew up. He sat down where Zane had slept, and found that the bed was still warm. Wu gently shook Lloyd's shoulder, and the blonde groaned, turning over to face away from his uncle.
"Five more minutes," Lloyd pleaded, still half asleep, but Sensei wouldn't take no for an answer.
"Rise and shine, there is much to do today," Wu tried to encourage the boy, but it didn't really seem to help, as Lloyd grumbled, smooshing his head into the pillow case even farther.
"What do you want this early anyway?" The child mumbled, giving in.
"This is how early we wake up on the Bounty. Also, what was Zane doing in here with you?"
"Nothin'," Lloyd huffed, and Sensei simply waited for an answer, silently sitting next to Lloyd on his bed. The tween realized he wasn't going to win pretty quickly. "Fine... I had a nightmare, ok?"
Sensei gently rubbed the kid's shoulder, and Lloyd relaxed a little. "That is nothing to be ashamed of, nephew. You cannot control your dreams. How did Zane help you?"
"He didn't leave me alone," Lloyd grumbled, but both he and Wu knew he only half meant it. "Made me talk about stuff."
"You were able to communicate effectively?"
"Not very well, but we made it work," Lloyd was fully awake now, sitting up in bed. "Sign language is a lot easier than I thought!"
"Really?" Wu raised an eyebrow. "Why don't you give me a demonstration?"
Lloyd signed talk and dream, then stopped and looked at Sensei expectantly, as if searching for praise.
"While you have those two memorized, there is still much to learn. Maybe Zane will even teach you some more over breakfast," Wu offered, knowing very well the Ice Ninja had never agreed to this, only feeling the slightest bit of remorse when Lloyd practically leapt out of bed to go and harass the teen while he made breakfast.
Lloyd, being the prankster that he was, decided that the residents of the Bounty were the perfect candidates for his jokes after a week of hanging around the ninja crew. First he had put food coloring in Kai's hair gel so his hair was tinted green for the day. Next, he had downloaded a mod onto Jay's video game so all of the character's skins were replaced with large rectangles of black pixels, which had made the Lightning Ninja so mad he hoarded his games for a month. His latest prank involved loading up an air horn sound on Cole's phone, which he had borrowed for "educational purposes", and was waiting for the Ice Ninja to walk by the game room. Granted, it wasn't up to par with a lot of his creative work, but it would have to do.
He heard the light footsteps approaching, and made sure the volume was turned all the way up when Zane passed the doorway. He jumped, pressing play as the speaker passed Zane's ear, and the Ice Ninja startled so badly that he dropped the platter he had been carrying onto the ground, the ceramic shattering into pieces that scattered across the wooden floor.
Zane stared, frozen to the spot. Lloyd cackled, not caring about the plate. He kept laughing as Nya and Cole rushed in from the deck, surprised by the crash.
"What was- Zane! Are you ok?" Cole ran over, careful to stop before the shattered pieces. Kai and Jay ran out from the bedroom behind Zane, just as startled as the rest. Jay ran up next to Zane, looking at the shattered ceramic, and then at the Ice Ninja's face. It was even paler than normal, and when Jay went to rest a hand on his shoulder, he flinched away even harder than usual, taking a step back. Jay's expression darkened.
"Cole, take Lloyd back into the game room. Kai, Nya, get a broom and pick this up. I'll take Zane," Jay ordered, and the others, who usually would've mocked the Lightning Ninja, nodded solemnly.
"Lloyd, come on, let's go-"
"No! Why do I have to-"
"Lloyd. Now," Cole huffed, pulling the child inside the room with him. He shut the door, the tension high as the Earth Ninja sat down on the couch, running his hands through his hair.
"Why are you so mad at me? You didn't get nearly as mad when I dyed Kai's hair green."
"That was funny and harmless. It washed out after a day. The stunt you pulled out there," Cole raised his gaze to look at Lloyd. "was not harmless, nor was it funny."
"Oh come on. I didn't hurt anybody."
Cole didn't respond, sitting back so his head was resting against a cushion.
"Lloyd, I need you to understand why that wasn't acceptable. Jay, Kai, Nya, or I could handle a scare like that. Zane can't."
"But why-"
"Not important," Cole grit his teeth, and Lloyd huffed.
"C'mon, you can tell me!" Lloyd pleaded, sitting next to the Earth Ninja, who looked at him with a sadness in his eyes that Lloyd couldn't decipher.
"Lloyd, trust me on this one," Cole said, his voice soft. "I know you're curious, but now's not the time. That's up for Zane to decide. Also, I think you're too young anyway."
"Am not!" The child protested, crossing his arms. "I'm eleven!"
"Glad you see you can count," Cole rolled his eyes. "But that's still too young."
"But Zane's fifteen. He's only four years older than I am," Lloyd noticed the young adult tense at the fact.
"Don't remind me," Cole grumbled. "He's too young too."
"That doesn't make any sense," Lloyd retorted, but Cole didn't make a snarky comment back. He turned his gaze down to the kid sitting next to him, and sighed softly.
"Listen, Lloyd, I know you're gonna want to ask Zane a lot of questions after this, but don't. Ok? Zane just needs his space for a little," Cole danced around everything he wished he could tell Lloyd, all the explanations he wanted to give the curious child. But for Zane's sake, he kept his mouth shut.
"Fine," Lloyd slumped in his seat. Silence overtook the two of them for a few minutes, but Lloyd's boredom soon made itself known. "When can I leave?"
"Let me check," Cole stood, taking great care to shut the door quietly behind him. He found Nya and Kai leaning outside of the bedroom, where the door was shut tightly, the ground free of ceramic pieces.
"How's it going?" Cole asked, and Kai shrugged.
"Don't know. We heard Jay mumble a bit at the beginning, but we haven't heard him in a bit," Kai looked like he wanted to go in, but kept his feet planted on the ground. Nya didn't look as stressed.
"Can I go in?" The Earth Ninja asked, and Nya stepped away from the doorknob.
"Worth a shot. Kai and I are just really bad with dealing with stuff like this," She kept her voice low as Cole cracked open the door, slipping inside. He found Jay sitting on the ground, back up against the opposite wall, a shaky but coherent Zane in between his legs with his arms wrapped around the Lightning Ninja.
Jay looked up and met eyes with Cole, who silently asked for permission to stay. Jay nodded slightly, and mumbled something to Zane that Cole couldn't hear. The Ice Ninja lifted his head up, releasing Jay, and turned around to face Cole, not moving from in between Jay's knees.
"Hey Zane. Feeling a little better?" Cole asked softly, sitting in front of Jay's feet. Zane nodded, tucking his arms inside of the sweater he was wearing, a clear signal that he was not up for chatting. The Ice Ninja yawned, and Jay shifted, sitting up to ease the cramps in his legs.
"You can take a nap in here, Zane. I won't let anyone come in," Jay offered, and Zane gladly took him up on the offer, standing somewhat awkwardly with his lack of arms, and falling back onto his bed.
"Sweet dreams, Frosty," Cole smiled as he and Jay left, but as soon as they shut the door, Jay's calm and collected look turned angry.
"I swear, if I ever meet this guy, I'm gonna shock him so hard his hair will stand up for a year," Jay threatened quietly, lightning crackling at his fingertips.
"I mean, I know why, but why specifically?" Nya asked, and Jay motioned them away from the door, into the kitchen.
"Look, Zane dropped a plate and thought we were going to "correct" him, if you catch my drift. Do you know how many times I had to promise him I wasn't going to hit him before he let me get within five feet of him? Even then, he didn't fully trust me. He only let me hug him like that within the last minute before Cole came in," Jay snarled, and Cole had to dig his nails into his hand to control his anger.
"What did you tell Lloyd?" Kai asked, and the Earth Ninja could see he was holding back some choice words.
"I just told him that Zane couldn't handle scared like that. Nothing else," Cole's eyes widened. "Lloyd!"
Cole ran back to the game room, where Lloyd was angrily bouncing his foot on the floor.
"It's about time!" He huffed, and Cole winced.
"Sorry. Tell you what, we have some ice cream in the freezer if you want some."
"Really? Yup, you're forgiven. Bye!" Lloyd dashed out of the room, and Cole sighed. Having Lloyd on the Bounty was going to be a lot harder than he thought.