A/N: Again, sorry about being late! I'm going to be switching my posting day to Thursday if that's alright with all of you, because work can be unpredictable and - like yesterday - I'm not always going to be able to come home at my normal time. So... to avoid the constantly being a day late, I'm gonna switch to Thursdays.
Anyway, enjoy this unusually long chapter that I was too lazy to try and split up! (Splitting it didn't work too well with the flow of the story anyway.)
Review Reply:
xxXTryMeXxx: Well, I mean, what's a little more trauma on the already traumatized green boy? I'm glad you liked that chapter, and that you're back (I definitely don't worry about people's safety or anything when they suddenly disappear, no-siree, not me.) I hope you'll also like this next one!
"Garmadon! Your brother's here." General 136 stated, Lieutenant 27 standing somewhat awkwardly behind him.
"Great! He must be here to tell me more about Lloyd! Send him in!"
"He wants you to come out to him for some reason." L27 tucked himself further behind G136.
Garmadon was rather surprised, but shrugged and headed outside. His red eyes sparked with excitement at the thought of hearing more about Lloyd. When he made it out he immediately greeted his brother "Wu! How are things going with Lloyd? Did he like his present? Is he doing well? How much longer do you think it is until I can meet him in person?!"
Wu blinked, avoiding eye contact, and was silent for a second before finally saying, "You can meet him right now."
Garmadon let his mouth drop open, and he began bouncing ever so slightly in excitement. "He's here?!" His face fell slightly as he remembered what he looked like. Four arms had never been the best for first impressions. "I should probably send some generals to befriend him first, I'm probably just going to scare him."
Wu gave a glance back at the Bounty, looking unusually nervous. "I do not believe it matters, brother."
Garmadon, while slightly doubtful of Wu's prediction as well as confused why Wu would be acting like this, raced over to the Bounty and scrambled up the ladder. When he reached the deck he took one look at the cowering child and immediately backed halfway back down the ladder. "I knew he wasn't ready!"
Wu half climbed, half lept past his brother and met him on deck, hauling Garmadon up as well. "No, he's like that with everyone. A general wouldn't be any different."
Garmadon glanced at his kid, who was now looking at him with wide, curious green eyes that shone from under the hood. When the eyes landed on Wu the boy drew back sharply.
"In fact, I believe he's more frightened of me than of you."
That actually seemed to be accurate, although it was rather confusing to Garmadon. What could his goody-two-shoes brother have possibly done to make a 10 year old he'd been befriending afraid of him? "And why would that be?" He didn't even bother keeping the dangerous edge out of his voice.
Wu glanced down, shuffling nervously. He must have done something really bad. "I may have told him I was taking him to school this morning."
"Wu! You butt! No wonder he's terrified of you! How could you kidnap your own nephew?!" While he was furious, he was also rather confused, wondering what could have possibly possessed his brother to make him go and do something like that.
"I have my reasons." His voice sounded more apprehensive than mysterious. "I have reason to believe he will be much... happier, with you."
Garmadon narrowed his eyes, knowing that was the truth - Wu wasn't that good a liar, never had been - but also that there had to be more that the butt wasn't telling him. He turned to Lloyd and took a step towards the kid. "Hey, Lloyd. I'm, well, I'm your dad."
Wu left the two alone, and Lloyd relaxed quite a bit, looking slightly more curious than frightened. Slightly.
Garmadon gave what he hoped was an understanding smile. "Wu, my brother, he's a butt. I'm really sorry for how he acted, I really have no idea what came over him. I can have someone take you home, I'm sure Harumi's very wor- ...ried."
Lloyd flinched back at the name, glancing around frantically. Garmadon looked around too, but could only see his brother, G136, and L27 standing at the base of his volcano.
"Is everything okay?" Garmadon crept towards his child, trying to appear non threatening as possible. Bright green spotlights shone fearfully from underneath the hood, having fixated on Garmadon. If something had happened it would explain why Wu would have just brought Lloyd over without warning either side. "Did something happen?"
The grey hood shook back and forth.
Garmadon nodded, relieved. Maybe it would be best to move on to calming the child down. "You, um, have a favourite animal?" When the kid nodded, but didn't say anything, Garmadon added "What is it?"
The boy's lips moved, but Garmadon couldn't hear anything.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you. Could you repeat that?"
This time Lloyd remained silent, instead removing a single shoe and removing a tiny plush. Garmadon came up right next to Lloyd to examine the plush. Something about it seemed familiar.
"You like sharks?"
The nod was slower, more cautious than before.
"They're really cool, did you know they have like three layers of teeth?"
The green eyes sparkled as they widened in shock, and Lloyd shook his head. Garmadon dared to inch forward, and when Lloyd didn't flinch back he sat next to him. He fingered the boy's hood, looking at Lloyd's face for the first time. He bit his lip to stop the stream of questions that would no doubt startle the child, and instead tried to keep the conversations on sharks.
"Yeah. They also eat rocks to help digest their food, which is one of the big reasons they need so many teeth."
"Whoa."
He smiled. "That was my reaction too. So, what's their name?" He gestured with one hand to the plush shark.
"Jaws."
"Like the movie?"
A nod.
"Cool. Have you ever seen it?"
A firm shake. "I- I want to."
"That sounds like fun, we could watch it together sometime!" An edited version, child appropriate, wherein no one dies - especially not the shark. Maybe they could just rewrite the whole thing, Science Nerd 205 always wanted to be an animator. "We can do that later, right now we should get you home before-"
"No!" Right after he said it Lloyd drew back, clapping his hands over his mouth. When he released himself he shook more than a leaf in the wind, and his squeaky voice was barely audible. "I- I don't- I don't- don't want to."
Garmadon's heart softened. What had happened to his child? The kids in the movies were never like this, and while he's happy his kid stands out, this didn't seem... healthy. "Alright. I can call your mother to see if she's okay with you staying a little while. I don't want her worrying."
"She- she won't." His shaking had dissipated to more of an intense shivering.
Garmadon shrugged in an attempt to be nonchalant. "Well, as my father always said, it's best to prepare it - or in this case, check - and not need it, than to need it and not have it." He leaned to his left, beginning to push himself up with his lower left arm. As he stood, a hand clamped down on both his right thumbs; not hard, barely noticeable really, but there none the less. He glanced down to see that Lloyd had decided that that was the best way to hold his hand, and smiled. "C'mon then, let's go get my phone." That's what I get for leaving it charging.
As they passed by Wu turned to them in surprise. "Brother! I must admit, I was not expecting you two to bond so quickly."
"I'm the master of father-son bonding!" He patted Lloyd's head with his upper left hand, mostly trying to calm the boy enough that he'd stop crushing his thumbs. "We're just heading inside so we can call Lloyd's mother since she's gotta be worried sick."
"I already talked to her. She's in a... Financial situation. And believes that Lloyd would be better off staying with you. For the time being."
That was a lie if he'd ever heard one. "Are you lying to me?"
"Does it matter?"
"Yeah, you butt! It's his mom. If she doesn't know what happened to him, she'll freak! Trust me, I've seen enough TV to know you never want to see a woman in freaked-out momma mode."
"I can assure you she's fine with this."
At least it sounded like less of a lie than before. "If you're sure. I'm still gonna check, though." He turned to Lloyd. "How about after I talk to her, I give you a personal tour of the volcano?"
Lloyd slowly nodded, still clutching Garmadon's thumbs.
A little bit of angsty fluff to start delving a little more into the family dynamic of this fic! And (sorry to spoil) we're going to have a little bit of fluff next time, so you've all got that to look forward to! (But don't worry, angst is only taking a vacation, they'll be back.)
If you have the time, please review! (Also if you find grammatical errors and stuff like that please let me know! It helps me improve my writing and tells me you're paying enough attention to actually notice them which is very uplifting!)
