Jay had always been a light sleeper.
His mom said that ever since he was a baby, a crash from something falling on the other side of the junkyard would wake him up out of a deep sleep almost instantly.
It was the one thing that never went away, and while it was good in case of emergencies, when he was just trying to sleep after fighting Samukai, finding out Cole was human again and the others were screaming on the other side of the Bounty was definitely not good.
Not to mention they were moving everything into the Airjitzu temple tomorrow, which he still had the feeling was haunted.
Jay rolled onto his left side, away from the door, and closed his eyes, trying to get comfortable on the bed and tune them out. 'Just think about Nya. Yeah, Nya…'
He smiled and started to settle in for the night, but that's when he heard it. Not Cole screaming particularly loud to respond to Kai, but something else; it was much softer. Someone was crying.
Jay sat up and kicked off his blanket before walking towards the bathroom where the sound was coming from, grabbing his nunchucks from beside his bed and tightening his grip around them slightly. 'Please don't be a ghost.'
He reached the door and knocked on it twice before questioning, "is there a ghost in there?"
When the sound continued, Jay swallowed, 'just get it together,' before wrapping his free hand around the knob, feeling that it was unlocked.
"This is against my best judgement," he lamented before opening the door and taking in the sight in front of him that definitely wasn't a ghost.
Lloyd was propping himself up on the sink counter with his elbows, something gripped in his right hand as his head hung low and he continued to make that sniffly crying noise.
Jay's heart hurt; he had to do...something.
"Lloyd?," Jay watched as Lloyd's head whipped towards him while he wiped the tears against his sleeve in an effort to cover them up, "are you hurt?"
"N-no, I'm not."
"Do you wanna talk about it?," Lloyd shook his head so hard Jay thought he was going to dislocate his neck, "okay, do you want me to stay with you?," Jay watched as Lloyd hesitated, so he added, "I'm not gonna tease you for crying."
Lloyd nodded and hung his head over the sink again; Jay closed the door before propping against the wall. 'What do I even say to him?'
He looked down at Lloyd's right hand and realized what he was holding, which made everything click in his head. 'The picture of him and his dad.'
"You shouldn't bring paper into the bathroom, it's likely to get wet." Jay spoke aloud, immediately regretting it. 'Think before you speak. Now he's probably gonna blast you through the wall or something.'
"Y-you're right," Lloyd stuttered, glancing at the photo for a brief moment before letting it return to the sink, "I just m-miss him, and-"
"You didn't want the others to see you cry?" Jay offered softly, watching as the kid nodded again.
"Especially my mom and my uncle. It's been really hard on them, you know? I only knew him… the real him, for about three years."
"That doesn't mean your feelings are less important, Lloyd," his attention turned towards Jay, so he continued, "he's your dad, and you two went through the final battle together, and the whole situation with Pythor, and the Tournament of Elements. In the little time you had him, you two went through so much together, and if fighting nindroids and fake snakes isn't enough to bond with someone, I don't know what is." Jay smiled when he elicited a small laugh from Lloyd, "Not to mention, he's your dad. That's gotta amount for something."
Lloyd sighed and looked down at the sink for a second before turning back to Jay, "I don't suppose you went through anything like this with your dad."
Jay took a second to think, and in that second, he decided that he needed to tell Lloyd about Cliff Gordon. 'You shouldn't keep secrets from your team.'
"It's a little more complicated than that, but since you don't seem like you're sleeping anytime soon, I'm gonna tell you a story, and you're just gonna sit there and listen. Save questions till the end."
"You sound like my uncle." Lloyd snorted, and while Jay would usually take some offense to that, he also wanted Lloyd to stop crying, so he just ignored it and moved on.
"So, when we were trying to get to Stiix to stop Clouse, Nya didn't actually take my hand…"
•••
"... And so I wished that Nya had taken my hand, and that no one ever found the teapot, and everyone but Nya and I forgot what happened. So while my adoptive parents have always been there, I never met my parents and I'll probably never get to."
Lloyd nodded before looking down at the picture. "So, you get it? The whole "missing someone you feel like you barely knew'' thing?"
"Yeah, I do. But I didn't tell you that for pity or attention. I told you that so you know you have someone to go to who understands."
"Still stuck on the fact that your dad is Fritz Donegan," Lloyd snorted before wiping the tears off of his face, "like, what are the odds of that?"
"Honestly, I have no idea. If I ever tell Zane, I'll ask him to calculate them for me," Jay reasoned, unable to stop smiling now that Lloyd was in much better spirits, "however, we should really get some sleep now. It's getting late for both of us."
"Yeah, you're right." Lloyd agreed, walking towards his bed, but stopping at his nightstand and opening the drawer, placing the picture inside.
"Go ahead and get in bed, I'll tell Cole and Kai to shut up." He explained, hearing Lloyd call out "goodnight" before Jay closed the bedroom door.
He walked towards the main room, still in a bit of shock due to the fact he had just barred his soul to Lloyd when the whole Nadakhan was kinda supposed to stay between him and Nya, but like he had told himself, he couldn't keep that secret from Lloyd.
He made his way to the main room where Kai and Cole were screaming at the tv, clearly invested in Fist to Face Too, but he couldn't help but focus on the scar under Cole's hairline.
"Everything okay, Jay?" Kai asked, shaking Jay out of his thoughts, before snickering "did you see that ghost you're so convinced is haunting the temple?"
"No, I just came in here to ask you two to be quiet. Lloyd's having a rough night." Jay explained, seeing Kai and Cole go from joking to seriousness in an instant.
It wasn't lost on any of them that Kai had only grown more protective of Lloyd after Morro. "Do I need to go check on him?"
"Nah, I got him settled, he's trying to sleep now."
"Got it," Cole perked up before turning the volume on the TV way down, "we'll be more quiet. Promise."
"Thank you." Jay smiled, before turning to Kai, "if he wakes back up, I'll get you."
Kai nodded, which was Jay's cue to head back to the room and try to sleep, now that it was much quieter; but when he opened the door, he couldn't help himself from going over to Lloyd and gently tucking the blanket around his shoulders.
"There you go, Lloyd." He smiled softly before laying down in his own bed and taking in the peace and quiet.
Jay had always been a light sleeper.
And maybe, just maybe, that was a good thing.