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GreenNinja429: I'm so happy to hear that I checked out your work the other day and left a message. I feel so proud knowing I helped encourage you to post your writing probably cuz I had a very similar experience when it came to working up my confidence to post stuff. Just remember to have fun with it, you're never going to get a failing grade and it's always going to be fun to look back at your old writing and see how far you've come. Also thank you lol I'm so ready to get back to writing that good drama, here we go boys!

Extra long A/N today. I apologize.

Hey guys thank you so much for your patience. I've had some home improvement stuff going on lately so it was hard to find time and inspiration for writing. Also I am so sorry for not realizing how disorganized my chapters originally were. I literally went back and sorted them all out. Hopefully my dumb brain will learn to count from here on out X3. This chapter will be a bit different from my usual style. Hopefully y'all will see what I mean when you start reading.

Chapter 34

There was no grand monologue in his head, not even a slew of rampant thoughts.

Questions should have been spilling out of his mouth like a waterfall, but he felt like he just swallowed a dam.

So, Lloyd did the only thing he could think to do, he turned away.

He could hear them shouting after him, he didn't care.

Lloyd summoned that swirling blue vortex and leapt right through.

4 Weeks Earlier

"Let him in."

"Not on your life." Koso snarled as he served their breakfast.

"It wasn't his fault-"

"Oh so apparently you two dug that hole yourselves?"

"We-"

"Be very careful how you answer that."

Lloyd leaned his head on his palm as he listened to the two bicker.

'At least Morro's actually sticking up for Jasper for once.' The blonde thought as he chewed on a forkful of leftover fish.

He missed candy.

ForgottenFamily

Koso made them stay in the living room where he could see them until the change started.

It started to take effect about a half an hour in.

"It's a good thing you got to skip this part of your life." Morro jeered nonchalantly from his spot on the couch.

It figured the sorcerer forgot to mention that the potion wouldn't immediately turn them back to adults.

Lloyd mentally cursed the liar out as he scratched at his acne ridden cheeks.

"Why?" He shot back. "Because I didn't have to go through an emo phase and never grow out of it."

That would have killed if Morro had the slightest idea what an 'emo' was.

ForgottenFamily

Lloyd didn't consider himself vain ,but when his eyes met his fully grown self in the reflection of the cottage windows after two long hours of puberty he couldn't help ,but feel relieved.

He got exactly two seconds of peace ,before Koso came out of the kitchen. He checked them both for any signs of sickness or harm, even stuck a wooden stick down their throats and had them both say "Ah" like they were at a doctor's appointment.

Then Koso forced Morro and Lloyd back to their room for another full day of 'rest'.

ForgottenFamily

Lloyd scooped up handfuls of cavewater before he was forced to meditate.

It'd been a week and Koso had basically made every day a sunrise exercise day, getting them up at insane hours, even Morro started to look kinda drowsy during training.

"I wonder what happened to all that energy." Koso mused sarcastically from his spot against the pool bank.

The blonde rolled his eyes. If that crazy sorcerer thought this was an effective punishment He should see what Nya could whip up,like forcing a ten year old to scrub down an entire samurai mech with a toothbrush (he never messed with Kai's shampoo again).

Morro actually decided to sit next to him. His legs just slightly submerged into the cave water as his palms supported his body weight from behind.

"You think we'll ever summon it?"

Lloyd looked up. "What, the element?"

"What else?"

The green ninja stared a moment longer than shrugged uneasily. "I don't know, but… I guess if that really is the only way to get out of here then we need to step it up somehow."

Morro nodded. "I...I think at least you'll be able to do it."

Lloyd startled. "Where did that come from?"

The wind master didn't answer, instead choosing to stare at the water.

ForgottenFamily

Morro was acting different lately.

He started hanging by their bedroom window each night and Lloyd was pretty sure he had an idea why.

Jasper still wasn't allowed inside.

Even so, the wolf hadn't stopped lingering by the cottage and at night, Lloyd swore he could hear his whining echoing through the glass.

Morro was also acting less apathetic lately, and definitely a lot less pissed off.

With his two main moods sidelined, he started to seem kinda awkward.

The wind master would tentatively start conversations at dinnertime and during their reading sessions, not arguments ,but just genuine small talk, like about training,getting some more vegetables in their diet, hell sometimes even the weather.

Lloyd was beyond he hadn't realized how long it'd been since he'd had conversations like those. So sometimes when the blonde was in a good mood he'd engage.

Like tonight,

"So, uh what books do people read nowadays?" Morro had asked over his attempt at writing a paragraph.

Lloyd shrugged. "Uh, well a lot of stuff sci-fi,fantasy,history Lately I've been reading the Lee Chronicles they're about the guy who created Prince Donnagon."

Morro blinked. "Oh, it's the one with …..space?"

Lloyd grimaced. "I swear if we end up having to become friends I'll have to sit you down one day and-" The blonde trailed off.

What a dumb joke.

Morro coughed looking back at his work.

They continued in silence.

ForgottenFamily

Lloyd went through the painting book nightly after everyone had gone to sleep and there was a smidge of candle light left.

He'd studied each picture thrice over ,but it was all incredibly surface level. Just a bunch of family portraits. The blonde practically rolled his eyes at how much time Koso's family must've had on their hands.

One night he offered to show Morro the other pictures of his mot-of Elizabeth.

He ignored him and for the first time in a week Lloyd felt like he recognized the wind master.

ForgottenFamily

Morro started helping around the cottage, mainly with dishes. Koso had no complaints, even if he did stare everytime with his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

It kept going on like this for another week, when finally, on the same day Koso lifted their harsh training hours, he left the front door open by 'accident' one night and Jasper appeared at Morro's bedside the next morning.

ForgottenFamily

Even with Jasper finally back, Morro kept up the strange behavior. Training seemed to somehow become more intense as a result. The wind master had never half a**ed their training before, Lloyd honestly didn't think he was capable ,but where before his technique seemed simply powered by instinct, it now appeared more deliberate, like he wasn't just motivated by the constant need to show off.

Koso hid his notice of the change well ,but Lloyd could tell in his masked expressions of snark that he was impressed.

The one that probably benefited most from this change was Jasper.

Morro no longer fought the wolf when he leapt onto his bed at night, practically started to encourage it after a while with awkward pets.

Lloyd couldn't help ,but find humor in the fact Morro clearly never had a pet in his life.

Then again, the closest to a pet Lloyd ever came to having were the dragons. He missed them sometimes, his energy dragon could never compare,it was only a manifestation of his powers after all.

ForgottenFamily

Lloyd wasn't exactly sure when he became odd man out, maybe he was the whole time and just didn't realize it. Either way, he felt like everything had somehow sunk into a strange normalcy without him and he was left puzzled, staring down from the surface.

The routine seemed to just suck everyone in. They'd get up, Jasper would run off after breakfast to puddle around in the forest while they trained. Then mediation, then lunch, then everyone hung around the cottage for the rest of the day. Morro would help with chores, then meet Lloyd in their room after dinner for lessons.

The worst part was, Lloyd found himself kinda thankful for the monotony. After everything they-he went through. He just needed a moment to breathe.

The blonde sighed as he checked Morro's grammar.

For f**ks sake even his handwriting was getting better.

ForgottenFamily

Lloyd had absolutely no idea how it happened.

By the looks of it neither did Morro.

Or even Koso for that matter.

There in the middle of the grass, a tiny blue crescent flickered into existence for less than a millisecond.

Lloyd didn't know who did it, but that night he felt big flashy tears build up in the corners of his eyes.

The normalcy was broken, he...he might actually get to go home soon. He just needed to summon it longer, long enough to make Koso happy and then….

Lloyd breathed steadily to keep himself calm. Morro was surprisingly quiet his eyes vacantly staring up at the ceiling as he absentmindedly petted Jasper.

To distract his racing mind, he reached for the painting book tucked beneath his covers. He flipped through pages, a little less gentle than usual, uncaring if he happened to rip one.

And that's how it happened.

Some old pencil drawing slipped out from between two watercolors at the very back.

The blonde paused. He didn't think he saw that one yet.

Shrugging, he reached for it, taking a second to look at it before tucking it back i-

Lloyd froze.

I come back and the first thing I do is dangle y'all over a cliff.

Thank y'all for reading! So real quick I've been bouncing around the idea of going back and sprucing up some old chapters, I haven't come to a solid decision yet and I just figured I'd ask for y'all's opinion if any of y'all want to give it. Is everything at least coherent throughout this story, is there any confusion about the timeline and what's happening currently? I just want to make sure that at the very least this story makes sense and it isn't impossible to follow.