If one were to spot Lloyd, lying almost flat against the monastery's stone courtyard and scribbling with colored chalks, they might laugh. Ninjago's greatest hero has too many other responsibilities to spend time on a childish activity, but Kai sits with Lloyd, and in that moment, they have no other responsibilities.
They sit in the shrinking shade of the monastery as the sun shines overhead, and Kai tries, against the storm cloud rumbling in his mind, to match Lloyd's enthusiasm for the task at hand.
"It's been a long time since I've done this," Kai says, drawing a circle that looks more like an oval.
He frowns at his stick of chalk, unable to understand why all the reds are pink. There isn't a single dark color in the box, but he figured that the sticks would at least look more red.
"I did this a lot at Darkley's," says Lloyd, drawing a frog with big, bulging eyes, "but the only colors they had were gray and dark gray."
"I can't believe that school was a real place," says Kai.
He draws another circle, but this one looks like an oval, too. Sighing, he draws an oval next, but the chalk dips into the lay of the stones, and his lines don't match up. He frowns, frustrated, and scribbles it out.
The marks drag hard, scraping against the rock and chipping plenty of color off Kai's stick.
"Kai?" questions Lloyd, when the angry back and forth of Kai's scribble gets his attention.
"Sorry," says Kai, "Nothing's coming out right."
"It's just chalk," says Lloyd, "You don't have to be perfect."
Kai takes a breath. "I know."
He draws another oval and is more satisfied with the result.
"Did you hear what Wu was going to do with Darkley's?" asks Kai, trying to be casual as he draws two eyes and eyebrows on the oval.
He decides it's a face, and an angry one.
Lloyd pauses, growing quiet. "I heard that Uncle is taking over and writing a whole new curriculum."
"He's doing more than that," says Kai, "He wants us to teach."
Us refers to the ninja, since there is no apparent need for them elsewhere. This fact is as hard to deal with as the fact that Kai is going to be forced to teach at all, and Kai has been in a bad mood since the news was broken to him two days earlier.
He draws a snarl on the face, then goes over the eyebrows again to make them look extra angry. The pink undersells the fierce expression, but it gets the point across.
"So we'll probably be seeing a lot less of each other in the near future," says Kai.
"Yeah…" says Lloyd, pausing as he glances away, "Dad says that Wu should let us be kids for a while."
Kai scoffs. "Wu should just let us be ninja."
"But there's nothing to fight."
"There's always something to fight," says Kai, "and I don't want to be teaching about our missions as if they're ancient history in a classroom full of squirts."
The idea makes Kai sick. Being a ninja is more than a job for Kai; it is his identity. What is he if not a ninja? Certainly not a blacksmith, or an inventor, like Nya. Kai is just some kid, and he doesn't want to be that.
Lloyd says, "You'll be teaching some of my old classmates."
Kai glances over to where Lloyd has stopped drawing, but before either of them can say anything, they are interrupted with a visitor.
Garmadon walks over with two glasses of water in hand, setting them against the ground by the pair before standing straight.
"That sun will be creeping past the foothills soon," says Garmadon, "You'll be in full sun, so you might want a hat if you plan to stay put."
"We were probably going to play video games anyway," says Lloyd, grabbing a glass and taking two large gulps, "Do you like my frog?"
"That's very good, Lloyd," says Garmadon, sounding like he means it, too.
Kai looks over his own drawing, feeling the heat of the day and irritated at Garmadon for bringing it to his attention. It's gotten humid as the summer months trickle by, and Kai has never done well in such weather. Now that he's aware of it, Kai's irritation only grows, and he wonders if he can brave a dip in the river if it will bring relief.
It will save him from sitting in a pit of his own self-pity, too, which is what drawing with chalk has become. Angry with himself, he glares at his drawing and rises into a squat, preparing to leave.
"What have you been drawing, Kai?" asks Garmadon.
Kai rolls his eyes, careful to hide it from Lloyd. "Nothing. Just doodling."
Garmadon steps closer to look at the drawing from over Kai's shoulder. Hyperaware of his presence, Kai frowns so hard that the tension hurts.
"Is that face supposed to be anybody?" Garmadon asks.
Kai shrugs, wanting to chuck his chalk. "No."
A thought strikes him, and, feeling mean, he moves the stick to the face's mouth and draws four sharp, crude teeth poking from the snarl, two pointing up and two down.
He says, "There. Now it looks like you."
He doesn't see so much as he senses Garmadon bristle, though the man hides it as he steps back.
"Oh," he says, something strange in his tone, "I see."
Kai doesn't look at him, nor does he look at Lloyd, who stares daggers into the side of Kai's head.
"Well," says Garmadon, "I won't bother you boys any longer. Lunch will be ready in about an hour."
Once again, Kai has the thought, He does it well. You would never know.
As Garmadon leaves, Kai also gets the thought that if Garmadon were still evil, Kai would still be a ninja, instead of what he is today. He entertains the idea that maybe Garmadon is still evil, and that this is all a charade, but he knows that it isn't true.
When the doors of the monastery clang shut, Lloyd pokes Kai in the arm, jabbing hard.
"What the heck was that for?" Lloyd snaps.
"What?" asks Kai, looking to the sky, "I didn't think he'd take it personally."
"That was mean," says Lloyd, frowning, "and you know it. He's trying to be good."
"Yeah, sure," says Kai, finally tossing his chalk on the ground and watching it clink away.
"He is!" says Lloyd, "Just because you're miserable that things are changing doesn't mean that you have to take it out on my dad."
Kai finally looks at Lloyd, glaring.
"Maybe I'm mad because he tried to harm my friends and family," says Kai, "Including you. And now he's playing nice like none of it ever happened."
"He isn't pretending that none of it ever happened," says Lloyd, "He knows what he's done and is trying to make up for it. You're just being a butt because you miss fighting things, even though the whole point of fighting was so that no one would have to fight anymore."
Silence follows this, and with nothing left to throw, Kai stands.
"I'm too old for chalk, anyway," he says, shoving his hands in his pockets as he walks away.
Lloyd doesn't follow.
I'd hoped to have this story completely posted by now, but alas, real life got in the way. Thank you for reading!