"Who do you think would win? A shark, a Serpentine, or a Skulkin?"

"Oh, oh! How about a Stone Warrior?" "Rrrgh."

Lloyd squints his eyes, "Kinda feels like you're leaning towards the Skulkin on this one.."

"Remind me again why you had me agree to this?"

"They're legitimate questions!"

"Questions I'd prefer not to answer!" Morro snaps, "Now could you please be quiet so we can get this over with already?!"

...

"If you ever wanted to, who would you cosplay as?"

"Uggghhhhhhhhhh!"

This actually sucks. This seriously, without a doubt, sucks. Morro hates Lloyd and Lloyd hates Morro. The feeling's mutual. Sure, they can barely tolerate each other from time to time, but this? This is just taking things way too far. It's been over half an hour. Maybe this is karma for that one time he had stolen from Lloyd's 'hidden' candy stash.

"I think you could pull off the Onceler pretty well," Lloyd mumbles thoughtfully.

If Morro wasn't claustrophobic, he definitely would be now. Maybe he'll sell the car for a motorbike or something.

"Over. My dead. Body."

"Why not?" He childishly protests, "You've got the color scheme on and everything!" Morro slams his foot on the brakes at the red light, forces the car to a sudden stop. Lloyd jerks forward with a quiet "oof," and he would laugh at the scene if he wasn't so irritated. "How much further is your dumb friend's house anyway?"

"Hey, Kai's not dumb! He's just very hot-headed."

"Could have fooled me," Morro sneers, hitting the gas pedal. Lloyd just rolls his eyes and grumbles indignantly. "Take a left there."

It takes about five minutes to reach the house from then on. Morro sees the troll-haired kid and her sister waving at the car, and Morro almost gags in disgust. Lloyd is quick to unbuckle his seatbelt and grab multiple items for their sleepover.

"I won't have to see you for several days after this, right? A month at best?"

"Nah, you're gonna have to pick me up on Monday," Lloyd answers distractedly, accidentally dropping a pillow. "Whoops."

"What." He didn't sign up for this.

"Hey, I don't like it either! But my mom's busy and tired and Uncle Wu can't even drive! You were, like, my last option."

Morro grips the steering wheel tightly. "Curse you." "Whatever you say, man." And with that, he runs off, the little goblin.

He swears to everything on this earth that is good and holy that he hates that kid.

("Hey, Lloyd! Isn't that your cousin over there?")

See, this? This is why he hates Lloyd so much. Despite the fact that Garmadon attacked on Sunday (Sunday! Does this man have no decency at all?!), the schools around the area remained open.

More specifically, Lloyd's school remained open. Why? He had no clue. Sometimes Morro wonders who the real villain is here.

So when Lloyd rushes out of the school building with his backpack covering his face instead of wearing a stupid dorky smile, of course Morro has to be the one to figure out what happened (by default, obviously, it isn't like Morro wants to be here after all!).

"Hey, runt!" Morro yells, getting Lloyd's attention. He snaps his head up and runs over to the car, bumping into other (and angry) students on the way there. Kid is still covering his face. " 'm not a runt," Is the first thing Lloyd says when he sits in the passenger's seat.

"Yeah, sure. You're like, what, five feet tall?"

"Five foot seven. "

"Same difference," He waves off dismissively and starts the car back up before driving away, barely waiting for Lloyd to put his seatbelt on. "How'd your sleepover with fireboy and watergirl go?"

"It was fun. 'N their names are Kai and Nya. " Yeesh, he really isn't in the mood today, is he?

Eh, not like Morro was any good with dealing with emotions anyway.

"Mhm. And school?" Lloyd flinches. He didn't think it was possible for the runt to get any smaller. "School was fine too," He says with uncertainty.

"Take off your backpack."

"W-What?"

"You heard me."

Lloyd sighs and grumbles, hesitantly removing his backpack from his face before turning to Morro. He has a black eye and a split lip. And just like last time, Morro slams his foot on the brakes, causing Lloyd to jerk forward again. Good thing they were at an intersection.

"For the love of— Would you cut that out already?!"

He ignores the kid's complaints in favor of pulling over.

Morro hates Lloyd. Why, you might ask? It's because of things like this. Things that remind him of the situation that Lloyd just can't seem to shake off no matter how hard he tries.

"Who did this?"

"It doesn't matter. Can we go home now?"

"Tell me who socked you or I swear to the First Spinjitzu Master, Lloyd— "

"It's not that bad!" Morro slams his head against the steering wheel, a long honking sound accompanying it. He also hates how stubborn the kid can be at times. "A-at least it wasn't supposed to be that bad until my dad- Until Garmadon—," He stutters, wincing, "I mean- Everything was going perfectly, okay?! One moment I'm having the best time of my life, eating junk food and everything until all of a sudden- ow-. All of a sudden he attacks Ninjago on Sunday, Sunday for crying out loud! And then when we have to go back to school the next day, I'm somehow separated from my friends and backed into a corner by Chen and his goons!"

Well, at least now he has a name.

"I can never do anything to make them stop hating me. It wasn't supposed to be that bad, I swear, Morro, it wasn't—" And then he breaks down sobbing. They sit there for a solid five minutes until Lloyd is done crying his heart out, which was rather awkward for Morro.

"..Can we go home, now?"

"I- Yeah. Sure, whatever." The engine starts back up again. The way to Lloyd's apartment is silent, for the most part.

Morro decides enough is enough and clears his throat for attention without actually tearing his eyes off the road. Lloyd looks at him. "What?"

"Listen man, some things.. Just aren't gonna work out." He raises an eyebrow. Oh, this is going smoothly. "I mean, at least you have friends this time around! You even got along with that freckles kid the other day!"

"Jay."

"My point still stands. Anyway. No matter what you do, people will still hate you. 'S how life works," Morro shrugs. Lloyd gives him a piercing glare. "Like you?" Right turn. "No no no, I hate you because you're an annoying pushover. Not because you're the son of Lord Garmadon or anything like that."

"Gee, thanks," Lloyd grouses, albeit warmly.

"But! Like I said before, you've got friends now. People who actually know you. Know what you're like. That should make life at least a little more bearable, right? Right. Even if it doesn't look like it, they've got your back. Just.. don't forget that."

"..Yeah, thanks." Mission accomplished? Eh, he'll take it.

...

"Got any other injuries I should know about?"

"I… may or may not have a sprained ankle."

"AND YOU RAN ANYWAY?!" Lloyd shrugs. Morro has to refrain from abusing the car's horn again once they stop at the apartment.

"Just to be clear, neither of us talk about this ever again," Morro orders sternly, "We take this to our graves."

"Yeah," Lloyd snickers, "Don't think you'd want Uncle Wu gushing about how we're finally getting along. It would ruin your whole emo persona!"

"You know, we aren't exactly too far off from the highest building."

"I'd fall with grace."

"About as much grace as a penguin, maybe. No no no, a turkey."

"I hate you."

"I love you t—" Wait. Oh no.

Lloyd stares at him. Morro stares back. The silence is deafening. Lloyd's face breaks into a wide grin.

"You do care about me!" No, this is the worst thing to happen.

"Get out. Get out, get out, get out get out get out—" Lloyd cackles and rushes (read: limps) to the apartment complex before Morro decides whether or not to finish him off with his own bare hands.

Morro doesn't hate Lloyd. Lloyd doesn't hate Morro. The feeling's mutual.

He definitely hates Lloyd's dad, though. And that Chen kid. Speaking of which…

..If Lloyd notices how Chen is suddenly sporting an identical split lip and black eye, he says nothing about it.