So I wanted, so badly, for this to be 25 chapters. I actually planned the whole thing out down to each individual chapter, which is unheard of for me. And I went into this chapter planning on it to be the last one, but then it...kind of...ended up going over 10K, and at that point it felt like it should be two separate chapters, so I have finally stopped fighting it and given up, there's going to be one more chapter after this (which will be posted a WHOLE lot sooner than this one was, because I already have it written out) :'D

A big thank you as always to all of you wonderful people who keep up with this! I hope you're all having a great holiday so far, and a good Christmas break if you get that! (I'm enjoying mine a bit too much in terms of getting lazy, but that's what it's for, I guess XD)

Wu loves his students. He does, truly, and he loves it even more when they're happy, as opposed to moping off to their respective hiding places to internalize things again, which has become a disturbingly popular habit (though he, of all people, supposes he has very little room to talk). And he appreciates the return of the Bounty more than he can express, of course. The ship has become a home to him more than anywhere else in Ninjago can claim, and no one will hear him breath a word otherwise.

However. In his time alone at the monastery with only Misako and Garmadon for company, he may have forgotten just how loud his students can get, particularly when they're enthusiastic.

And, as they're starting in on their fourth rendition of an upbeat holiday song, they are highly enthusiastic at the moment.

"No more Mariah Carey, Jay, I swear, if I have to hear that one more time—"

"Just give me the speaker next, I wanna play Last Christmas for Lloyd — 'cause you know, it's therapeutic and stuff, after—"

"Y'know what? How about we play Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, except we swap out Kai for the grandma."

Anther scuffle breaks out over the music, and Wu resists the urge to stuff his hands over his ears.

Mind him, this is not to say that he isn't overwhelmingly grateful to hear his students' voices ringing through the ship, loud and happy as they are. It's a stark reminder to what the alternative could have been, and Wu will gladly take Jay's off-key, high-pitched singing over any missing voices.

But if the others could simply find it in themselves to join in at a slightly lower volume.

"Tis the season to stealZane'scookies, fa la-la-la—agh!"

Wu watches with a mix of despairing amusement as Cole tears down the hall, stuffing the remnants of a cookie in his mouth even as Zane trails hot in pursuit.

"I trusted you!" Zane cries, sounding wounded as he brandishes the mixing spoon like a sword. "Cole, you traitor, how could you—"

"They're your Christmas cookies, what did you expect?" Nya calls as they streak past, from where she's precariously balanced on a ladder against their Christmas tree, attempting to squash the top branches down enough that they don't stab through the roof. "Everyone knows they're the best in Ninja—woah, Lloyd, hold it steady, hold it steady!"

"I am," Lloyd grunts from where he's braced against the ladder, practically hugging the base as it wobbles. "You're moving around too much!"

"S'not my fault the tree's so tall," Nya bites back, gritting her teeth. Wu winces as she snaps one of the top branches in half with a splintering crack. At least he won't have to worry about them losing their strength over the break too much, he thinks, half-heartedly. If Nya approaches her enemies as she does this tree, Wu will have other things to worry about than her safety.

Nya shoves the tree again, jerking to the side, and Lloyd barely avoids being whacked in the face as the ladder jerks with her.

"Nya—"

"Hold on, hold on, I've almost got it — there!"

Nya grins proudly, shoving back from the tree to survey her handiwork. Unfortunately, it appears that Wu will need to worry about their balance, because the movement knocks the ladder off its already-precarious tilt. Wu opens his mouth to warn his nephew, then promptly shuts it as the ladder goes toppling, taking both Lloyd and Nya down with it in a chorus of screaming.

Again, there was something to be said for that quiet monastery, Wu despairs, as he darts over to make sure neither of them have fractured anything. If Lloyd's gone and damaged his still-healing side with this, Wu will never let him hear the end of it.

And his brother won't let him hear the end of it, so Lloyd best not have injured himself again, at all.

Kai seems to be on the same wavelength as he approaches from the other side, having dramatically dropped the entire box of ornaments he'd been holding to rush to his siblings' aid.

"What did I say," he's scolding, as he hauls both Lloyd and Nya up from where they're sprawled on the floor. "What did I say about the ladder, I told you ten times it was the bad one, but did you listen? No, FSM forbid—"

"Oh, put a sock in it, Kai," Nya mutters, rubbing her head. Lloyd is snickering unapologetically, and Wu feels a part of him relax in relief as he rises easily, his hand never once straying to his side. He shakes his head, biting back a sigh. His nephew has always been one to keep Wu on his toes, but Lloyd has been pushing the limits of his sanity lately — as well as the limits of the rest of his team.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, promise," Lloyd assures Kai as he frets over him, rolling his eyes. "I wasn't even on the ladder."

"Yeah, you were supposed to be holding it," Nya glares at him. Lloyd shoots her a gesture back that Wu simply decides he did not see.

"Maybe he sabotaged you," Jay suggests as he parades into the room, almost entirely swamped by cords of Christmas lights, tiny bulbs rattling on the floor where they drag behind him. "Gettin' into a little Darkley's Christmas spirit for the holidays, maybe?"

"Like Darkley's even knew what a holiday was," Lloyd mutters, darkly. He realizes his mistake a second too late, eyes going wide as both Kai and Nya descend on him with twin expressions of furious concern. "Guys, no, it's not — it was a while ago, not a big deal, we can just let it go—"

"I'll let it go when we finally hunt down your old teachers, and teach them a lesson or two."

"Seriously, guys, we've been though this like six times—"

"Kai and Nya, if you would listen to Lloyd, please," he sighs. Kai and Nya look mildly chastised, though the murderous glint has yet to leave their eyes. Wu can sympathize, certainly, but while he is…not necessarily against hunting down Lloyd's old school teachers, voicing this would go against much of what he strives to teach. He leaves the three of them to pick up the mess and turns his attention back to Jay, before he creates a fire hazard their first night back on the ship.

Pixal appears to be thinking similarly, eyeing Jay with trepidation. "Those are entirely too many lights," she says disdainfully, ignoring the others as she watches Jay nearly trip over his lengths of Christmas lights.

"No such thing!" he tells her cheerfully, as he continues to bustle past unruffled. "Hey, by the way, have you seen Zane? I wanted to ask him if he knows where the extra lights are."

"The extra lights? There are more?"

"I believe he has roped Cole into frosting his cookies, as…penance," Wu answers instead, darting forward to knock a strand of lights from Jay's path before he trips over them.

"Oops, thanks Sensei," Jay says with a laugh, completing ignoring Pixal's look of vague horror. "Penance, haha. Yeah, I was wondering when Zane was gonna catch on to who was stealing all the cookie dough."

"Oh, that was not Cole," Pixal says, her eyes glinting as she carefully flicks something from her fingernail.

Jay gapes at her in disbelief. "You've been stealing Zane's cookies too?"

"With help," Lloyd adds, sliding up next to her, a full-sized snowman cookie in hand. He stares at them, considering, then breaks it in half, offering Wu the now-decapitated snowman head. "Want this one, Uncle Wu?"

"Ah, I think I'll pass," he says, remembering the look on his oldest student's face from earlier. "Thank you, though."

Lloyd just shrugs, then stuffs the head in his mouth, chewing happily. "More fo' me, d'en."

"Hey, share with the team." Kai snatches up the bottom half of the snowman cookie before Lloyd can dart away. "Ooh, d'ese are d'e good kind," he adds, through his own mouthful of cookie.

Jay just shakes his head, disapproving from behind his mountain of lights. "Zane's gonna kill all of you, I hope you realize that. And I'm going to sit back and watch."

"Technically, we didn't steal them," Pixal sniffs, as if the idea of Zane blaming her is ridiculous. Which, Wu will admit, is a fair assumption.

"Yeah, Echo's been our inside plug," Lloyd adds. "He's been slipping us 'em from the kitchen, 'cause Zane thinks he's too innocent to suspect him."

"You're all horrible, corrupting him like that," Nya scolds, but Wu does not fail to notice her wiping cookie crumbs from the corner of her mouth. "Besides, we can't keep wasting time on cookies. We gotta start decorating. We haven't even gotten the lights up, and people are gonna be arriving any—"

"Hey kids, did you mean to leave all these boxes in the doorway?"

"Speak of the devil," Nya mutters.

Kai pales. "The ornaments!" he yelps. "Ronin, don't step on them!"

Wu does not quite succeed at holding back a weary sigh this time.

The sky outside is purpling into darkness as Ronin arrives with Dareth, Ray and Maya in tow, and Garmadon and Misako not far behind, so it would have been pleasant to have the lights up by now. Wu's brother gives him a wry look as he gingerly steps over the boxes strewn across the doorway, and Wu just shakes his head.

"Were you honestly expecting anything else?"

Garmadon's eyes sweep across the Bounty living room, watching where the ninja are split between arguing over the tree lights and arguing over the cookies. "Seems about right," he snorts.

"Oh, go help your son," Misako shoos him toward the tree. She smiles at Wu, holding out the boxes she's stacked in her arms. "We brought dumplings and coffee. Lots of coffee."

"As always, I am in your debt," Wu breathes in relief, taking the boxes from her.

Something shatters from behind him, and he winces as loud voices erupt across the room. Misako's mouth quirks. "I'll have a cup of that too, if you don't mind."

"Of course," Wu sighs, weaving his way through the living room, ducking one of Nya's flailing arms as she accosts Ronin.

"I said bring caramel popcorn, not that cheap kettle stuff! Have you ever even made popcorn strands before?"

"Oh, are you paying for it now?"

Fortunately for the sake of decorating, Skylor shows up about five minutes later, having stubbornly insisted she'd walk there herself, despite Kai's offer to pick her up. She looks a good deal happier than Wu has seen her in a while, though, shiny green ribbons glinting where they're braided all throughout her red hair. Kai stares at her for a good minute before he's clocked in the side by both Nya and Lloyd's elbows, leaving him wheezing as he sputters to regain his composure.

"How can I help?" Skylor asks, after staring at the mass of tangled lights and boxes for a beat.

"You can help us get this mess untangled, for starters," Cole scowls, light cords wrapped around his fingers where he struggles to pull them apart. "Since someone decided to play twister with them."

"Oh, would you chill out," Jay says, trying to place a hand on his hip, and frowning as he's unable to find it in the tangle of light cords wrapped around him. "C'mon, have a little Christmas spirit, Cole. Or your stocking's gonna end up stuffed with—"

"Don't you dare," Cole threatens.

"What, with coal?" Pixal finishes, with an easy smirk. Cole gives her a wounded look of betrayal.

"Oh!" Echo exclaims, his eyes lighting up from where he stands, Kai and Zane grouped around him as they try to figure out where the Christmas lights wrapped around him begin and end. "I understand. Your name is Cole, like the coal bad people get for Christmas. That is why the joke is funny."

"Right on, bud," Jay beams. Cole looks rather as if he'd like to use the lights to strangle him, but Wu is sure it won't devolve into a physical fight.

…not yet, at least. He has faith in his students, but he's no fool.

He turns his attention back to his family, where Garmadon is tearing old duct tape from the cardboard boxes before handing them to Lloyd, who's carefully unpacking them with Nya.

"Oh, hey, I remember these!" Lloyd says, eyes lighting up as he pulls an ornament from one of the boxes. He turns the tiny, transparent sphere around, glitter dust sparkling inside it. "We made these my first Christmas with you guys, I didn't know we kept them."

"I thought they got blown up," Nya says, leaning over him and snatching one of the handmade ornaments. She runs her finger over her own scribbled signature on the bottom of one, a look of nostalgia on her face.

"We do own a storage unit, you know," Zane sighs. "Some of us just had the foresight to actually put things in there."

"I'm surprised that hasn't been blown up too, honestly," Cole mutters.

"Hey," Kai calls, having somehow tangled himself in lights right next to Echo, where Skylor is now struggling to tug him free. "Do we still have those pictures from Lloyd's first Christmas here? Y'know, the one where we tried to introduce him to the mall Santa, and he—"

"No, we do not," Lloyd hisses, glaring at Kai as he carefully lays the ornaments in a neat little lines. "But thank you for bringing up that particularly traumatizing memory."

Kai puts his hands up, defensively. "How were we supposed to know what stories they'd told you at Darkley's? S'not our fault you thought Santa was an axe murderer."

"I didn't think he was an axe murderer," Lloyd mutters. "Just a creep."

"I'm with the kid," Ronin chimes in, eating the popcorn that is most definitely supposed to be used for decoration. "The whole Santa charade's a big scam, if you ask me."

"You're calling someone a scam?" Nya smirks.

Ronin shrugs. "Takes one to know one."

"I like Christmas with you guys," Skylor says, a grin pulling at the corner of her mouth. "This is way more entertaining than cheesy holiday movies."

"Oh, just wait until we start caroling," Jay assures her. "It's anarchy."

"'Cause you're all tuneless heathens," Cole huffs. "Lloyd, you're replacing Jay in our Christmas choir, by the way."

Lloyd's eyes widen, and he shakes his head. "I am not singing," he tells Cole stubbornly, as he starts on a snarled strand of lights, untangling the end of them. "No way."

"You have to," Cole insists. "You're the only one that can hit the high notes."

"My voice changed! It's lower now!"

"Yeah, but it's not that low. And like, comparatively, you can still hit the highest pitches, so…"

"You hit the highest pitches, use your screaming voice," Lloyd grumbles under his breath. "I've heard you hit high notes." He glares at the lights in his hands, which have become only more tangled. With a tug, he yanks savagely at the cords, expression contorting. "Oh come on, who," —yank— "-tangled," —yank— "-these in the first place, I'm gonna strangle them."

Cole doesn't respond, too busy staring at him, and one by one everyone else's attention is caught. Nya gives a quiet snicker, and Lloyd finally realizes the eyes that are on him, pausing.

"What?"

Nya shakes her head, gesturing to the strings of lights swamped around him. Lloyd looks down, and his eyes widen. The tiny light bulbs have turned from a warm yellow to an eerie shade of green, blinking sporadically as if to some unseen pulse, slowly spreading to the rest of the lights near him.

"Oh." Lloyd blinks. "Oops…?"

"Woah, that's cool," Jay says, looking delighted. "Can you do that with the whole tree?"

"Um…maybe?" Lloyd says, tentatively holding the light strand up, watching the lights sputter and blink in his hold.

"Can you sync them to like, an actual music beat?" Cole says, eyes lighting up in curiosity.

"Make 'em change other colors," Kai demands.

"I'm not sure if that's good idea," Zane interjects hastily. "These aren't exactly built for—"

"Hold on, hold on," Lloyd says, waving them off. He squints at the lights, eyebrows furrowing in concentration. "I think I can, if I just…"

Wu, foreseeing disaster, steps forward quickly to intervene. "Lloyd, I do not think—"

Too late. Lloyd's fingers spark, and the Christmas lights blink, sputter once, and go dark — before they all burst back to life in a sudden, blinding display that leaves everyone shielding their eyes.

This is fortunate, because a second later, the tiny bulbs burst, smattering them all in a clinking rain of busted glass.

Zane gives a long, weary sigh, and buries his face in his hands. Wu is tempted to do the same, but he's even more tempted to smack his brother, who has dissolved into cackling laughter along with the rest of them.

Well, Wu can admit that the look on Lloyd's face warrants laughter, at least.

"Oh no," Lloyd moans, holding the massacred Christmas lights like a fallen comrade, looking crestfallen. "I killed all our lights."

Jay is laughing to hard to respond properly. "They died a noble death at your hands, you light murderer."

"Who have you become," Kai shakes his head, swiping tiny glass shards from his sweater. Skylor leans over to dust bits of glass from his hair, simply shaking her head and smirking. It appears she's accustomed to their antics, at least.

"Zane tried to warn you," Pixal huffs.

"I'll fetch the broom," Wu sighs. It looks as if they'll be buying more Christmas lights after all.

Despite the few hiccups in decorating — which are due mostly to Lloyd and Kai holding up a very put-out cashier who just wanted to close the store already while they picked up another six boxes of Christmas lights — the Bounty ends up looking rather nice, which is more of a testament to Misako and Maya's handiwork than it is anyone else's.

And poor Zane's, of course. Wu cannot overlook his student's contribution, even if it did consist mostly of him convincing Cole to wrangle the rest of them in line.

But they clean up nicely, the food prepared and the lights blinking cheerily on their own volition, so Wu will take what he can get. It's not a moment too soon, either, because a mere minute after they get the last of the glass swept up, the rest of their guests arrive.

"How many people did we invite?" Cole gapes, watching as Lloyd's old schoolmate — Brad, he believes — drags in a ginger-haired kid with glasses, followed by another girl with equally orange hair. They're about the fifth wave of guests they've had, the first four consisting of Cole's father, Jay's parents, and various huddlings of elemental masters who's names Wu has forgotten.

"We brought offerings," the orange-haired girl placates him, holding out a large tupperware container with what looks like frosted brownies inside. "I'm Mina, by the way — Gene's cousin. I didn't go to Darkley's, but I heard it was a riot."

Lloyd and Brad cough in unison, and Gene fiddles with the end of his glasses.

"That's one way to put it," Brad mutters.

Wu wisely decides he'll leave them to reminisce, narrowing his eyes at the doorway instead. The young girl who dragged his nephew to a dance the other evening is huddled over something with Kai on the doorstep, glancing furtively around before handing it off to him. Kai vanishes before Wu can start toward him, and the girl hurries back inside, nervously tucking her hair back into its unruly bun before making for the others.

Hm. Wu doesn't like the look of that. As Lloyd's friend, Rachel is far from a deadly enemy, but there are other ways to pose a threat. One of which is undermining his influence by aiding—

"Hey Sensei, you did say we could use that tea you had stashed in the back, right? That, uh, wasn't the off-limits kind, was it?"

—on second thought, Wu has bigger problems to deal with at the moment.

"Don't worry. I made sure to hide your more…powerful teas in the back," Garmadon assures him, as he sips from what he knows full well is Wu's favorite tea collection.

"You're thoughtful as always, brother," Wu grumbles, snatching the tea box from Misako before he's bled dry. She merely grins at him, slipping the tea cup from her husband.

"It's the season of giving, Wu," she pats him on the back. "Live a little."

"That's rich," Garmadon mutters, staring sadly at his now-empty hands.

Wu, in all his infinite wisdom, decides, quite wisely, to give up. There is a time to pick a battle with Misako, and there is a time to let her march off to finish decorating with his favorite tea in hand.

It is Christmas, after all, and he's fairly sure he saw Lloyd and Zane making off with his tea earlier, so at this point he should likely just be thankful no one's gotten into the Musicali-Tea again (he's been watching Cole).

Tea or not, the rest of the evening goes smoothly, which is a term rarely applied to them, but Wu finds it fits here. There are quite a few more people than he's used to crammed into the Bounty's living room, but the loud conversations and laughter leave it warmer than Wu's felt in a while. The beaming smiles he's able to spot cropping up on his students' faces don't hurt either, he'll admit.

There's a good bit of tussling over the food, particularly Zane's cookies — which Echo seems to have claimed the most of — but for the most part, the atmosphere remains peaceful. As peaceful as it can get with their collection of people, of course, and with Lloyd and Brad's… revised caroling, which they claim came from their only actual Darkley's holiday traditions, so no one's stepped up to put a stop to them yet.

"Deck the halls with gasoline, fa-la-la-la-la, la-la, la-la. Light a match and watch it gleam—"

On second thought, perhaps Wu really ought to put a stop to it.

"No, go on, this is getting good," Kai says, grinning.

Lloyd seems to have gotten over his initial ire at being made to sing, and continues to match Brad's voice with enthusiasm. "—watch the schoolhouse burn to ashes, fa-la-la-la—"

"These songs are much more exciting than you told me," Echo tells Zane, beaming. Zane merely buries his face in his hands again, muffling laughter. Pixal pats him on the back, before joining in the raucous singing herself.

Garmadon throws him a pained sort of smile from across the room, occasionally wincing at the louder voices, and Wu shakes his head. But he can't help the growing smile on his lips as he watches Cole organize the room into proper singing groups, his father looking on proudly. It's chaotic, of course, no question about it. But despite his brother's claims, Wu does, deep down, have an appreciation for chaos, and since it's only been heightened as of late, he's able to enjoy it fully.

This is, perhaps, less due to his fondness of chaos and more to his fondness for the family they've built, but this does nothing to lessen his ability to enjoy it. Because he's proud of it— he's proud of what they've built, him and Garmadon, and no amount of chaos will ruin that.

Family has always been a nebulous concept for Wu, defined by cryptic riddles and heartbreak and rare moments of joy he's clung to over the many years, so many of which he's spent alone. After his father's passing, his mother a mere memory captured in Garmadon's stories of her, family had been him and Garmadon, alone against the world. And Wu had been content with that, even if he'd known his days with his brother were numbered. He'd taught himself to be happy with one, a single person to attach himself to in the world his father had left them in. The Green Ninja had merely been a title at the time, its protectors a concept. Students was only a term, just like lightning and ice and earth and fire and water were — a faceless collection of warriors he'd have to train some day. Nothing more, nothing less.

Once upon a time, he'd been content with that.

But now.

Now Wu has done himself in. Because now lightning is Jay, bright and loud and bursting with personality. Now ice is Zane, calm and perceptive and unceasingly kind. Now earth is Cole, steady and strong and open-hearted, fire is Kai, passionate and loving and protective, water is Nya, clear-eyed and headstrong and smart. The Green Ninja is family, is nephew, is Lloyd, loyal and learned and bursting with love for anyone, even those who do not deserve it.

Once upon a time, Wu could see himself easily parting with his future students. Now, the idea cuts worse than any knife. He knows his father would pity him for such attachment, just as he had Garmadon when he'd sworn himself to Misako.

Oddly enough, Wu can't find it in himself to care much of what his father would think. Not even when the party's died down and the guests have left, leaving the Bounty a cluttered mess of popcorn strands and broken lights and strewn pillows, not even when he's found that his favorite tea has, tragically, entirely disappeared.

No, Wu thinks, as he strays absently from the kitchen, having finished the last of the leftover dishes. He can only find it in himself to be content.

Now, if only his students could find it in themselves to do the same, he thinks wryly, catching the quiet press of footsteps from the living room. He follows the sound wearily, guided by the dim light cast from the tree. They've left the lights on for the night, gleaming and casting bright rainbows of colors across the dark living room. Wu has to admit that they look rather pretty in the end — even if the star on top of the tree appears rather crushed, though he supposes it's the best he could hope for.

The lights suddenly flicker, much like they had earlier, before lighting up green, then flickering off again. Wu feels more than hears the familiar energy humming from the room, and he sighs, mentally preparing himself to send his nephew off to bed yet again.

He's beaten out, however, by Cole.

"Those are our last set, you know." Cole emerges from the hallway, staring hard at Lloyd where he sits cross-legged by the tree, a mug in his lap. "You better not blow them up, too."

Wu shuts his mouth, pausing in the hallway, knowing full well that Lloyd will listen to Cole better than he would his uncle.

Lloyd shakes his head, tapping his fingers against his lap. The lights flicker back on. "I figured out what I did wrong earlier. Not gonna happen this time."

Cole snorts, trailing closer, his socks sliding against the cold floor. He frowns at the mug in Lloyd's lap, and Wu realizes that it is not, in fact, tea for sleeping like he expected, but rather steaming hot chocolate with entirely too many marshmallows in it.

Perhaps he should have expected that.

Cole sighs. "You know what time it is, right?"

"Mm-hm."

"You know you should be in bed, right?"

"Shh, I'm practicing," Lloyd murmurs, eyebrows furrowed. The lights suddenly blink out, before the top row lights up. Lloyd's fingers twitch, and the lights continue to flicker back on, snaking down the tree like a fountain.

"Wow," Cole whistles, blinking. "You're gonna give Jay a run for his money at this rate."

Lloyd shakes his head, letting the lights flicker back to normal. "Nah," he says, huffing a laugh. "I've got nowhere near the technical know-how he does. I can turn them off and on, but that's about it."

"Don't put yourself down," Cole assures him. "You're a solid emergency generator if we ever need one. Our own little energizer bunny."

Lloyd's eyebrows turn downward. "Do you want me to share the hot chocolate with you, or just pour it on your foot?"

"Hey, watch it — no! Give me the hot chocolate, I'm sitting, geez."

A smile tugs on Wu's lips as he watches the two settle on the floor, and he shakes his head, relenting. He'll let his nephew have this one. Again, it's the holidays, after all, and he's sure the both of them will pass out. Eventually.

He turns, preparing to tune out their murmured conversation and return to his room, when Cole's voice suddenly falters, turning serious. Concerned, Wu halts. While its not an immediate sign of alarm, with how things have been lately… Wu's promised himself he'll keep a better eye on his students, not just in matters of their physical safety. So he listens quietly, careful not to interrupt where they sit within the small, shared sphere of light cast by the tree.

"Do you—" Cole sounds uncertain, shaking his head. "Never mind."

Lloyd tilts his head at him curiously. "Do I what?"

Cole looks away, blowing his breath out. Then, almost as if regretting the words before they're spoken — "Do you ever wish you'd never taken up leading?"

Wu goes still at the same time Lloyd does. He watches the way his nephew's fingers tighten around his mug, his eyes shadowed.

"Why do you ask?" he finally replies, quietly.

"Because I did," Cole says bluntly, sounding ashamed with himself. "After losing Zane — I didn't want to be leader anymore. I couldn't. I couldn't step up again, not after —" Cole bites his lip, tightly. "Not when I'd lead one of us to that."

Wu's heart sinks, and Lloyd's expression creases in sympathy. "Cole—"

"I couldn't keep pretending like I knew what I was doing," Cole continues over him, bitterly. "It was easier, before I understood how high the cost of failing was. After that—" He cuts off, swallowing. "We keep going out there, again and again, playing heroes like we're invincible. Like we'll always win, but we won't, because we've lost before and if we lose again, and it's on me again—"

"It's not on you, Cole," Lloyd says, firmly. "What happened with Zane, what happened with the Jay and I — it wasn't your fault. You can't put that on yourself."

"No, and that's the worst part," Cole spits, his eyes flashing. "Because now you're in that spot, and you're the one putting it on yourself, and I left you there."

Lloyd sucks in a breath at that, before falling quiet. Wu looks down. He'd never meant to hand Lloyd leadership like he did. He'd never meant to place that burden on either of them. But Wu isn't who he used to be, and he's never lied to himself. He'd never be able to keep up with his students. They've always needed a leader, if only to step up when necessary. And after Zane's death, when Cole had crippled under the weight, and his students had fallen away one by one, and darkness seemed all the heavier — Lloyd was the lone spark to step up in the void. He was the one who took command, who stepped into that role as if he was born for it, and Wu had never once questioned it.

It's occurred to Wu before, that Lloyd hadn't had much of a choice, but he's never had to face the fact so bluntly before.

Lloyd looks down, blond curls falling over his eyes. "Harumi said something to me," he finally says, the name unusually steady from his lips. "When I first figured out who she really was. She asked me how we could be so naive, pretending to be heroes when we failed to save so many people."

Cole's eyes soften even as they flash in pain, and he lays a gentle hand on Lloyd's shoulder. Lloyd bites his lip, his expression creasing into something stubborn.

"But that can't be all there is to it," he says, fiercely. "It has to mean something. It has to, right? Because if we aren't out there, fighting back, who is?" His voice wavers, a hint of desperation in his tone. "Maybe we do fail, and maybe there are consequences, but — but if we didn't fight back against the Overlord, if we didn't band together to stop Chen, if we didn't destroy the Preeminent, if we never do anything — then who does?"

Lloyd huddles in on himself, shaking his head. "It has to be better than nothing," he murmurs. "It has to be."

Cole stares at him, his dark eyes unreadable in the glimmering lights of the tree. He finally sighs, the tension ebbing out of his shoulders. "It has to be," he echoes, and his voice doesn't falter this time. "I mean. It's gotta be better than standing around, right?"

"Right," Lloyd nods, his tight expression easing a bit. He straightens, eyeing Cole. "And you definitely weren't standing around during that battle, so give yourself some credit already, geez."

Cole blinks rapidly, before letting out a startled huff. "Hey, that's my line."

"You needed it this time," Lloyd brandishes his mug at him. "As one of the resident experts, blaming yourself gets you nowhere, trust me."

Cole snorts out a laugh, and Wu finds himself relaxing. He's not exactly thrilled to hear the conversation — they'll certainly need to have another conversation about this conversation later — but for now, the two seem to have it handled.

So he really does mean to head back to his room, to quit eavesdropping and leave them in peace, when Cole mutters something along the lines of "—have to step up now, since Sensei and your dad don't have powers anymore," and he has to turn around at that, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

Lloyd saves him the correction. "Oh!" he breathes out a laugh, shaking his head. "No, they still have their powers."

Cole looks perplexed, frowning. "But — your dad—"

Lloyd shifts, a little guilty. "Ah, yeah, I…probably should've said something," he says.

Apparently, he should have too, Wu thinks, wondering how Cole came to that conclusion. To be fair, he hasn't exactly explained…anything, but he could have sworn he had at least—

Well, apparently not.

"But, in my defense, I didn't know until my dad told me," Lloyd continues. "Which was like, a few days ago, 'cause we've kinda been…you know…for a while."

"Something about what?" Cole ignores the falter, seemingly determined not to let Lloyd wriggle out of this one.

"Their powers," Lloyd replies, as if it's obvious. "They split 'em."

And this is why Wu should have simply done the explaining himself, he thinks wearily, running a hand across his forehead.

"Wha—how?" Cole gapes at him.

"I dunno. Magic." Cole gives Lloyd a look, and he sighs. "Okay, best I can understand, it's like this," he says, sliding his mug across the floor until it's in front of them. He places the bag of marshmallows next to it, shaking them. "So this was Uncle Wu, right? He got the dragon side, so he was all creation." He drops the bag, and gestures to the mug of hot chocolate. "And this was my dad. He got the Oni, so. All destruction."

"Nice props."

"Hush," Lloyd says, glaring at him. "I'm trying to explain this to you." He huffs, then grabs the marshmallow bag again. "But the problem with that is, it leaves them pretty polarized, you know? They balanced each other out, but there isn't any balance in themselves, like there is in me."

Wu begins rubbing his temples. He really ought to be explaining this himself, he thinks in vain. But Lloyd is doing the job decently enough, and he can't very well expose himself now, having listened into the better part of their conversation.

"So, it's like—" Lloyd dumps a handful of marshmallows in the hot chocolate, then gestures at it. "Tada. Now there's balance."

Cole stares at the mug, then back up at Lloyd. "And Sensei…wanted this? And you dad was actually…on board?"

"It was their choice," Lloyd says, with a tiny shrug, and Wu can't quite decipher any particular emotions in his voice. "I think that was pretty important to them. So now they can both kind of choose from a…"

"Balanced perspective?" Cole offers, realization dawning in his eyes.

Lloyd's mouth quirks. "Yeah."

"Huh."

Cole goes quiet, as does Lloyd. Wu's breathing feels unnaturally loud in the silence, along with the mental catalogue he's running of everything he needs to remember to explain to the team. This is…a big one, probably. But it was he and his brother's decision, and it is something they've needed to figure out themselves.

Still need to, Wu thinks wryly, keenly reminded how he's yet to use his powers since the Oni attack.

"It's a good idea, you know," Cole finally says thoughtfully, swirling his own hot chocolate, watching the marshmallows shift around. "The balance thing. Tell you what, what if you and I tried that?"

Lloyd eyes him, carefully. "Like…with the leader thing?"

"Yeah," Cole says, nodding. "What if we split the stress, balanced it out. Y'know, like co-leaders."

"Co-leaders," Lloyd echoes, as if testing the word out. "And we could cover for each other, whenever one of us gets hit with, um…with something personal."

"Exactly," Cole grins wryly.

Lloyd's mouth quirks up. "I could go for that."

"Great." Cole smiles this time, holding his mug up. "So, co-leaders?"

Lloyd smiles back, a full, relieved sort of smile, and taps his own mug against his. "Co-leaders," he says. They both fall quiet, sipping at their hot chocolate and watching the tree lights blink, and Wu feels something fond settling in his chest. Next to each other as they are, the contrast between the two is thrown into definition, Cole's dark hair to Lloyd's lighter locks, Cole's larger frame to Lloyd's smaller one.

Not quite so small anymore, Wu thinks with a pang. They've grown, all of them, so much from when he'd first taken them in. The reminder hits heavy, with a spark of pain. They will only continue to grow, wiser and older, and while Wu couldn't be prouder, eventually—

No. He shakes his head at the thought, banishing it. Tonight is not a time for such things. And it will never be a time for regret.

No, Wu thinks again, finally leaving his two students in peace, the tree lights flickering once again, wavering back and forth. He will never find it in himself to regret letting the word students come to mean family.

Regardless of whatever comes in the future.