He was a genius.
When he'd first gotten his hands on the flyer, he'd feared he would never get the chance to use the coupons lining the bottom. Feared that the amazing deal would pass him by. Too much ninja work to do. Rockin Rollerz Arcade was woefully and incorrectly labeled as a place for kids by many ignorant people. There was no way he'd be able to think of a good excuse.
But then it had hit him.
Lloyd was a kid! It was the perfect excuse! People didn't judge you if you had a kid with you. You went from weird, lonely nerd who goes to half roller rink, half arcades by himself to awesome, thoughtful big brother. He should have gotten a little brother ages ago.
So the next time someone needed to stay behind to watch Lloyd, Jay had eagerly volunteered. It had earned him some suspicious looks from the others and even Lloyd had looked surprised, but whatever. It had worked out and he was here now.
Two whole floors of arcade games. Popular music blasting through the speakers so it could be heard over the din of people and games. The roller rink in the center with its own set of colorful lights. Pizza, candy, prizes. Rockin Rollerz Arcade had it all. It was nerd heaven.
Jay finished up his game of Space Invaders, the game over screen flashing as the tickets started streaming out. Folding the tickets up and adding them to his fast-growing collection, he glanced over to where Lloyd was in deep concentration playing Pac Man a few machines down.
The kid was enjoying himself. He deserved this break. His green ninja training could be pretty grueling sometimes and despite what Lloyd seemed to think, he was doing very well. Especially for a kid his age.
Since this was off the clock, they were both dressed casual. Jay in jeans, a white shirt, and blue jacket. Lloyd in black jeans and a green sweatshirt. The green wasn't because he was the green ninja, they'd actually bought it for him before they knew. Green was just his favorite color. It had worked out well for him.
As Jay approached, he noted what level Lloyd was on. His blue eyes widened almost comically. He let out an impressed whistle. "Level 26?! I usually die around level 11. How long have you been playing this?" He wasn't jealous, he wasn't.
He kinda was.
"I dunno," Lloyd answered distractedly, his focus still mostly on the game. "A while."
After about a minute with no sign of Lloyd losing anytime soon, Jay said, "I'm gonna go punch the tickets we've won so far and put them on the card." He was running out of places to put tickets. "You have any tickets you want punched?"
Lloyd glanced away from the screen for a second to look at him and nodded. He then proceeded to pull from his pockets such a huge stack of tickets that Jay wasn't sure how Lloyd could possibly have fit them all.
"Here," Lloyd said, "And I know exactly how many there are so don't even think about stealing them."
Jay rolled his eyes, unsure if Lloyd was joking or not. Darkley's had made Lloyd paranoid about certain things and he still hadn't quite adjusted to being around normal people. Semi-normal, not evil people, at least. It was actually pretty sad. "Don't worry, we got separate accounts for a reason," he assured, taking the tickets from Lloyd's hand. "And I've got plenty tickets of my own."
"I got more," Lloyd replied, eyes back to tracking the paths of Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde.
The lightning ninja bit back his retort. He knew Lloyd wasn't trying to be annoying or rude, the kid just wasn't as socially aware as he should be. Jay blamed his upbringing. He was getting better.
"There's a munching machine a few aisles down. I'll be right back. Stay here."
"Uh-huh," Lloyd said, then louder, "Level 27! Yes!"
Weaving his way through the machines and people, Jay started fantasizing about the prizes he would get. They were both good at videogames, so they should both be able to get top tier prizes. Lloyd definitely had over a thousand tickets already. He hadn't been paying super close attention to the games Lloyd had been playing, but he must have gotten at least a couple jackpots.
It took a few minutes to feed all the tickets into the machine. His total was 897, Lloyd's was 1123. And they hadn't even used half their tokens yet. He grinned eagerly. Definitely going to get some good prizes.
The grin stayed on his face all the way back to the Pac Man machine. Then dropped abruptly.
Lloyd wasn't there.
Alarm and annoyance spiked within him, heartbeat slightly speeding up. His eyes darted rapidly around the arcade, searching for a blonde child in a green sweatshirt. He didn't see him anywhere. Exasperated, Jay rolled his eyes at the ceiling. Where could he possibly have gone? He'd only been away for a few minutes, five tops, and he'd told Lloyd to stay put. Why would he have wandered off?
Against his will, his brain began to be bombarded with thoughts and images of what might have happened. They ranged from Lloyd simply wandering off to another game to Lloyd being kidnapped by Serpentine. The last one wasn't even a stretch. If the Serpentine could kidnap Lloyd from their own home, why not a crowded arcade? This was a prime kid snatching place if the kidnapper was smart enough.
His exasperation was replaced with worry and nervous energy. He began to weave through the maze of machines, scanning the crowds for Lloyd. Ugh, he was a terrible babysitter. What was he going to tell the others if he lost the chosen one? At an arcade of all places.
After three minutes of unsuccessful searching, Jay was seriously starting to panic. Lloyd was nowhere on the top floor. Should he call the others? And why hadn't they gotten Lloyd a phone yet? Now that he thought about it, they should have gotten him one ages ago, a flip phone at least. Even normal, not chosen ones being constantly pursued by evil forces kids had phones. How had they not given Lloyd a way to reach them if he was in trouble? Sure, Wu was super old and terrible with technology, but as Lloyd's ninja protectors they should have thought of it. They'd been so focused on his green ninja training, they'd forgotten some of the everyday practical stuff. Wu didn't need to tell them how to do everything. As soon as he found Lloyd, they were getting him a phone.
Jay moved on to search the bottom floor. He was about to cave and call the others when he caught sight of Lloyd playing at the skee ball machines. The wave of emotions that hit him was a mix of anger and relief.
"Lloyd!" he called out, some of his anger leaking into his voice.
Lloyd half turned to look at him. "Oh, hi, Jay," he greeted casually, apparently completely oblivious of the near heart attack he'd inflicted on the older boy. "You munch all the tickets?"
"Did I-" Jay stuttered disbelievingly. "Are you serious?! Lloyd, I told you to stay by the Pacman game. You aren't even on the same floor!"
Lloyd looked a little confused, but not concerned in any way. As if he didn't understand what he'd done wrong. "Oh?" he said, offering a shrug. "I guess I didn't hear that part."
"How can that be the one thing you didn't hear?" Jay demanded, his voice climbing steadily as his frustration grew. Some of the people nearby turned to see what the commotion was about.
Lloyd's eyes narrowed into a look of annoyance. "What's the big deal? I said I didn't hear you, ok?"
"No," Jay growled, "Not okay! I-" he cut himself off, acutely aware of the gazes now watching them. With a huff, he grabbed Lloyd by the arm and lightly tugged him over to a less crowded area. Lloyd didn't resist, but his expression became stormy. As if he had any right to be upset.
Once they reached a spot where they wouldn't be overheard, he released Lloyd's arm. Several machines shielded them from people's view and with the loud music, any passersby were unlikely to hear their conversation. Lloyd snapped his now freed arm back to his body, giving Jay an angry glare.
"What's your problem?" Lloyd asked, green eyes sparking.
"My problem?!" He had to be kidding. "Lloyd, you can't just wander off like that. I need to know where you are!"
The young blond scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Oh please. I didn't even leave the building."
Jay clenched his hands. He couldn't cause a scene, but Lloyd was really pushing him right now. The kid didn't even seem a little sorry. "You can't just go off on your own, Lloyd. Especially when I don't know where you are!"
Lloyd crossed his arms huffily, getting defensive. "I used to go places on my own all the time. I didn't need an adult escort 24/7. I don't need an adult escort at all. I could go wherever I wanted when I was at Darkley's."
With a groan, Jay ran a frustrated hand through his chestnut hair. "Lloyd, what have we told you? Never use Darkley's as an example for anything. Kids aren't supposed to wander around on their own. It's dangerous. And you're the chosen one now. There are people actively out to get you. You need even more protection than normal kids." Lloyd had to be able to understand this.
Judging by his face though, apparently he didn't.
"You thought I was going to get snatched here?" Lloyd said flatly, implying Jay was being stupid. "You seriously think giant, human-sized snake people can just slither in here and nobody would notice? People would freak."
"Don't underestimate them, Lloyd. They can be surprisingly sneaky."
Lloyd snorted. "Yeah, right."
Jay was so close to shaking the little punk it was ridiculous. "And even if the Serpentine didn't come themselves, they could hire some human to do their dirty work for them," he argued.
"Oh come on, Jay," Lloyd's voice dipped into exasperated anger. "What? So I would've been safe by the Pacman machine, but somehow anywhere else is too dangerous? On what planet does that make sense? And if you were really that scared that I could be kidnapped at any second, why did you leave me alone in the first place?"
Jay jolted, the accusation cutting deep. "Well, I, um, er," he stammered. How was he supposed to answer that?"
"Exactly," Lloyd said, looking smug. "You obviously thought I was safe here, so you're just overreacting over nothing."
The lightning ninja was silent for a moment, desperately trying to reorganize his thoughts. Then he let out a sigh. "Ok, maybe I did overreact a bit. I shouldn't have gotten so angry with you." Raising his voice like that had probably not been necessary. And dragging Lloyd away in the middle of his game hadn't earned him any points either.
Lloyd blinked, looking surprised and a little taken aback. "Oh, well," he said, sounding uncertain as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "thanks?"
"You still shouldn't have wandered off," Jay hurried to add, before Lloyd could get the wrong idea. "One of us should always know where you are, Lloyd. After what happened with Skales…" He shook his head helplessly. The memories still haunted him.
The sheer horror he'd felt when they realized what Skales was planning and that they'd left Lloyd defenseless. The cold dread at finding the apartment empty. The overwhelming relief upon discovering Wu and Nya had saved him. The feeling of utter failure at just how bad they'd screwed up and how close they'd come to losing everything.
He had nightmares about it sometimes.
Jay shook his head again, choosing to stare at the ground rather than look Lloyd in the eye. "It really messed with us, Lloyd," he confessed quietly. "You were at home and they still almost got you. So when I went back to the machine and had no clue where you'd gone… I freaked out." PTSD in a way.
When Jay looked back up at Lloyd, the kid's angry aura was gone, replaced with a tentative, almost guilty stance.
"Oh," Lloyd said, his voice barely loud enough to be heard over the music. "I-" He glanced away for a few seconds, contemplating, then turned back. "I'm sorry. For wandering off. I really didn't hear you, but, I didn't realize. I'm not used to…" The child trailed off, looking crestfallen. It erased the last of Jay's anger.
"It's fine, Lloyd," Jay assured him gently. "Just don't wander off like that again."
Lloyd gave a jerking nod.
Sensing Lloyd meant it, Jay relaxed. "Good, glad we cleared that up." He grinned eagerly. "Now we can just focus on enjoying the arcade."
Lloyd perked up, then almost immediately reverted to unsure again. "So, you want me to… stay with you?" he asked hesitantly.
The question genuinely confused him. Had Lloyd just forgotten their entire conversation? Kid had a short attention span sometimes, but this was ridiculous. "Um, yeah, we literally just had a whole conversation about it. What, did you just forget the last five minutes?"
"Oh, ok."
Jay was still confused. "Was I not clear about that?" He was pretty sure he hadn't been rambling for once.
For a second, Jay thought the kid wasn't going to answer. He was torn on if he should push it or not. The nervousness the kid was displaying worried him. He knew how insecure Lloyd could be, Jay understood the feeling all too well, but he wasn't sure what was causing this particular bout.
But after a pause, the kid did answer. "Well, I just didn't think that you wanted to- hang out."
What?
"What?"
Lloyd shifted on his feet. "I mean, I know you just brought me with you so you'd have a kid with you. Which is totally fine, it's not like I'm not getting anything out of this-"
"Wait," Jay burst out, unable to hold it in. "Lloyd, that's not true. Well, not totally true." Anxiety pricked at Jay's skin. Did Lloyd really think he'd just been using him?
Lloyd's lips dipped into a small frown. "Jay, we split up as soon as we got here, and we've hardly talked at all. Like I said, it's fine if you didn't want to hang out."
It wasn't fine though. It really wasn't. Even though Lloyd was clearly trying to hide it, Jay could still tell.
Lloyd had wanted to hang out with him.
His mind flashed back to earlier that day when he'd volunteered to watch Lloyd. When he'd told Lloyd what they'd be doing, the kid had gotten so excited. Jay had thought it was because Lloyd was excited to go to the arcade, but maybe there'd been more to it than that.
Well great, now he felt like garbage.
Guilt welled up inside him. He hadn't even considered that Lloyd might what to hang out with him. They'd never done anything like that before, going somewhere or doing something just to hang out. There'd been things they'd done with all the ninja as a group, but Jay had never really taken the time to be one on one with the kid. And then when he'd offered something that sounded like it would be a bonding experience, Jay had instantly gone off to do his own thing. He'd left Lloyd alone. They'd been nearby each other, sure, but they hadn't been interacting and he really hadn't been paying all that much attention to what Lloyd was doing. He couldn't remember many specifics of what Lloyd had done except for Pacman and Spidermania.
Jay wanted to bury his face in his hands, but he knew it would do nothing to hide his shame.
It wasn't that he didn't like Lloyd. Sure he was a pest sometimes, a brat, annoying, but from what he understood, that was most little brothers. Lloyd had some extra problems due to his upbringing, but he was a good kid. A great kid really. And he was only getting better.
Jay was just terrible at being an older brother.
He'd always known he was the worst out of all of them. Kai had years of experience being an older sibling, and Zane and Cole just seemed to be naturals at the role. Jay though? He was a mess. He'd known for quite a while now that he was the worst at handling Lloyd, but he just didn't get how to be an older brother. Lloyd was like a puzzle to him and not the fun kind. Maybe because he was an only child, but so were Cole and Zane so that excuse was out the window.
He might have been trying to avoid the problem a bit, but he hadn't thought it mattered that much. Seeing Lloyd's face now though, that had been yet another screw-up mistake he could add to his long, long list.
Letting out a long sigh, Jay looked down at his insecure little brother, who somehow looked even younger than he had five minutes ago. He wasn't the best at this stuff, but he still had to try. "Lloyd," he began, "it's not that I was trying to ditch you or was just using you to make myself look better. I wanted you to have fun too. If you hated videogames or arcades for some weird reason, I wouldn't have forced you to come. I just figured you'd want to do your own thing. And you looked like you were having fun, so I didn't see any reason to change anything.
Lloyd looked surprised for a moment but recovered quickly. "Oh, well, um," the younger boy scrambled. "I was having fun and like I said, I don't care, but, um, if you want to hang out, I guess we can." Aww, he was trying to play it cool.
Jay grinned widely. Kid really was cute sometimes. "Of course I want us to hang out!" he exclaimed, reaching out and pulling Lloyd into a quick hug. The kid let out a startled squeak, caught off guard by the sudden display of affection, but Jay released him almost immediately. His mind was racing with things the two of them could do."
"This place has sooo many great games to play," Jay continued, gushing excitedly. "We can start on the top floor and work our way down so once we're done with the bottom floor we can hit the roller rink. We can buy more tokens if we need to. The top floor has a lot of the older, classic type games. It also has most of the shooting games and – Oh! The pinball machines! Did you see them while you were up there? There are, like, fifteen of them and some of them are super cool. There's this one with a bunch of crazy lights and dragons, you like dragons, right? And they're all over the playfield, and you have to hit certain things to help the dragons fight the shadow monsters. They're on the playfield too. The models are super cool, they move and everything. Oh, and there's this other pinball machine themed around Clutch Powers, you know, the famous adventurer. Spikes pop out and hit the ball and everything and the music is awesome. The music is awesome on the dragon one too-"
"Um, Jay?" Lloyd asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"The dragon one is more of a classic though. Rare too. Not something you could find at most arcades. The owner of this place is a big pinball fan. My dad really likes pinball too. There was this one time when I was little, we built this giant pinball machine. It was actually one of my earliest building projects. My dad did most of it though, I was pretty little at the time-"
"Well, that's interesting, but-"
"Some people think pinball is a simple game, but that's just because they're noobs. These things can get super complex, a lot of them even have stories and there are hundreds of different themes. You're not just 'hitting a ball around'. It takes skill. The masters have honed their abilities for-"
"Jay," Lloyd said loudly, tugging on his arm.
Jay paused, tilting his head to the side as he looked down at Lloyd. "What?" he asked.
"Not that that all doesn't sound interesting, but do you think we can talk about it while playing pinball? Or something else if you want. We only have a few hours left before we gotta head back."
It took Jay a second to process what Lloyd had just said. Then he blushed, a pale pink spreading across his freckled skin. He'd been rambling.
He nodded rapidly. "Yeah, yeah, of course. That will help illustrate my points." He began walking out towards the rest of the arcade. "Come on, Lloyd," he said over his shoulder, "I'll show you how to pinball like a pro."
Eyes lighting up, Lloyd hurried to follow.
This was an awesome day.
.
.
.
"Thanks!" Jay chirped, taking the skates from the girl working the counter. Checking them over, he turned back to where Lloyd was sitting on a bench a few yards away. The kid was swinging his legs back and forth and munching away at a cone of fluffy, pink cotton candy they'd gotten from the candy vendor.
Jay grinned. Hanging out with Lloyd was turning out to be a blast. He hadn't thought he would dislike it, but he hadn't been expecting to enjoy it this much. They should have started doing things like this ages ago.
They'd spent hours playing games and raking in tickets. Their final totals combined had been 6541. Not too shabby, if he did say so himself.
It was amazing to have someone equally passionate about videogames to play with. The others liked videogames too, but not in the same way as him and Lloyd. Kai just called him a geek when he started to talk about things like lore or design. Zane was kind of interested, as he was in most things, but he seemed to have trouble understanding most of it and wasn't really into it. Cole just didn't care. But with Lloyd, when Jay talked about the history of the game or its story or design Lloyd geeked out with him.
The kid was good at them too. They'd set a bunch of high scores and won tons of tickets. And when they'd played the two-player games, Lloyd had been a real challenge. Originally, Jay had been planning to go easy on him because, y'know, kid, but he'd found out fast that such a thing wouldn't be necessary. It turned out to be the opposite of necessary. He hadn't really been keeping track (it hadn't been a competition), but he was pretty sure Lloyd had a few more wins over him than he did over Lloyd.
They were done with the games now though. They had a little under an hour for the roller rink, then they would go claim their prizes on the way out.
Jay was pretty excited to be skating again, he hadn't had a chance to go a few laps in a while. Lots of ninja work to do, especially these days. And even if this place had certain rules about how fast how fast you could go (so no racing, this wasn't a derby) and in what direction since other people were skating too, it was still going to be fun.
"Here ya go, Lloyd," Jay said, placing the smaller pair of wheeled shoes beside him on the bench. "Try these on to make sure they fit." They should be the right size, but Lloyd had to be comfortable in them to get optimal skating potential.
Finishing off the last of his cotton candy with a few quick bites, Lloyd reached out to pull the shoes closer. Instead of putting them on though, his focus shifted to the rink in front of them.
It was a good rink, a little bigger than average, with colored spotlights projecting patterns onto it in beat with the music. It was pretty neat. Wasn't too crowded right now either. There were some people, but not to the level where people were getting in each other's' way and everyone had to slow down to a snail's pace. They'd be able to go as fast as the rules allowed.
When Lloyd continued to stare out at the rink and not put on his skates, Jay's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Is something the matter?" he asked. Everything had been going so smoothly up til now.
Lloyd didn't seem upset though. "No," he replied, shaking his head then glancing down at the shoes in his hands. "Just never roller bladed before."
Jay was aghast. "What?! Never?!" Roller blading was, like, a childhood staple.
"Nope," Lloyd said, not looking too torn up about it. "Just never did, I guess. No real reason. Never had a pair of skates. I went ice skating once though."
"Well," Jay said, wondering with some bewilderment how someone can have gone ice skating but not roller blading. "Roller blading does have some similarities to ice skating."
Lloyd nodded. "Yeah, seems like it does. It was a long time ago though." The exchange had broken Lloyd from his thoughts and he began to take off his sneakers. Jay sat down on the bench across from him to do the same.
The lightning ninja was about to put on his own skates when he noticed Lloyd was hesitating. The kid was holding one end of the laces and was looking down at it with slightly narrowed eyes. A hint of a frown formed on his young face.
"Do you need help with the laces?" Jay offered, remembering how much trouble he'd had with the more complex laces of roller blades when he first started. His mom had needed to show him how to do it several times before he got it.
He should have worded that differently. Lloyd's head snapped up, a scowl on his face.
"I don't need help tying my shoes," Lloyd groused, the mere suggestion appearing to insult him. "I'm not a baby."
Taking in Lloyd's angry, defensive stance, Jay knew pushing it now probably wasn't going to go anywhere good. He silently berated himself for not saying something more along the lines of 'here's a faster way to lace up your skates.' That would have gone over much better. Lloyd probably wouldn't have said anything at all if he'd gone about it like that. Or even just 'here's how to lace up your skates'. Stupid. He should have known that would be Lloyd's reaction. And now they were losing skating time.
After a moment of thought, Jay shrugged. "Okay," he agreed, pulling on his own skates. He'd have to go for the sneakier approach. Something the fiercely independent Lloyd wouldn't find embarrassing.
Making sure Lloyd had full view of what he was doing, Jay began to lace up his own skates. He went slower than he usually did. He could lace up each skate in about twenty seconds, but Lloyd didn't know that. He pretended not to notice Lloyd's eyes watching him. Hopefully, this would be enough for Lloyd to figure out how to do it himself. Kid could be pretty stubborn, and he hated asking for help.
Fortunately, a demonstration turned out to be all Lloyd needed and he was able to copy him, though at a slightly slower pace.
By the time Lloyd got his skates on and carefully stood up, Jay had had the time he needed to prepare himself for the next part of the process. He wouldn't be so careless with his words this time. He was determined to do this right.
Beside him, Lloyd attempted to take a step and immediately became unbalanced. On instinct, Jay shot out his hand to grab Lloyd's arm and help steady him.
"Thanks," Lloyd muttered, concentrated on regaining his footing. The word put a grin on Jay's face.
It was such a small, simple thing, but it was proof of how far Lloyd had come from when he'd first come to them. It was a struggle for Lloyd to overcome the evil brainwashing he'd received his whole life from Darkley's. Not that Lloyd had ever really been evil. One of the biggest brats in all Ninjago, sure, but not evil. Just misguided and really naïve. Even before he'd come to live with the ninja, Lloyd had never really hurt anyone. Everything he'd done had been more of a prank than an act of evil. He'd had a snake army capable of hypnotizing people and all he'd really used them for was stealing candy and building an incredibly cool treehouse. Clearly, Lloyd hadn't been all that devoted to his supposed evilness. The Serpentine hadn't truly become a threat until after they'd betrayed and left Lloyd.
One of the many things Darkley's hadn't taught Lloyd was manners. After going his whole life without being taught, actually being discouraged from, his please and thank you's, it had taken them a long time to get Lloyd to start using them. He still forgot sometimes, but after a life of please being 'give me' and thank you being nonexistent, that was to be expected. The point was Lloyd was trying.
"No problem," Jay said, letting go of his arm. "You should walk around here on the carpet to get a feel for them," he advised. Honestly, he was expecting Lloyd to catch on to everything quickly. Kid was a fast learner and he'd already proven himself to have good balance in training. If he could handle that, he could do this.
He skated backwards a few steps as Lloyd carefully began to walk around on the skates. There were a few times he wobbled and had to re-center himself, but he never fell. After about a minute, Jay decided Lloyd was ready for the next step.
"Alright," Jay announced, watching as Lloyd continued his careful pacing. "I think you're ready for the rink."
"What?" Lloyd said, spinning his head to look at Jay in alarm. "Already?"
"Yep," Jay nodded. "There's few enough people that we won't get in anyone's way, especially if we stick to the wall. Once you get into the rhythm of it, you'll be doing laps in no time."
Lloyd didn't seem to share Jay's confidence. "But what if I fall?"
"It's not a big deal," Jay assured him. "Like I said, we'll be out of the way, so you won't trip anyone. And the worst injury you could probably get, if any, is a bruise." He didn't want to lie and tell Lloyd there was zero chance of him falling. If he did that and Lloyd fell, he'd be even more humiliated than if he hadn't said anything.
His words only seemed to make Lloyd more anxious though. "But there are all these people watching."
Now that was something Jay could totally relate to. In fact, when he'd first started, he'd been so scared of the humiliation of falling that he'd refused to skate in front of others until he'd practiced by himself. Definitely not what Lloyd needed to hear though. Probably one of the worst things he could say really.
"Well, first of all, there's no guarantee you'll fall," Jay began, trying to quickly come up with logical reasoning that would reassure Lloyd. "Secondly, even if you do, no one's gonna care. Especially since you're a kid. Kids fall over all the time." Lloyd tensed up even more. "Um, not that you will," Jay hurried to clarify. "For sure. You might. But there's nothing wrong with that. I'm just saying that you're a kid and this is your first time, so no one is going to judge you or anything if you do happen to fall which you probably might not."
Lloyd's eyes narrowed darkly. "Everyone's always judging everyone." The way Lloyd said it made Jay's stomach churn uncomfortably. It sounded like he spoke from experience.
Shrugging it off, Jay replied, "I mean, yeah, maybe to some degree, but really no one's gonna care." As luck would have it, there was a thumping sound behind him and he turned to see that a little brown-haired boy who looked slightly younger than Lloyd had fallen. The kid's father was helping him back up. This was a perfect example.
"See? That kid just fell, do you care? Does it seem like anyone cares?" The most the kid had gotten was a few glances to check that he wasn't hurt.
"Well, no," Lloyd admitted slowly, watching as the kid started skating again with his father hovering close behind.
"Plus," Jay continued, "you've got an award winning, professional skater to help you."
Lloyd cocked his head, curiosity lighting up his eyes. "Award winning? Really?"
"Yep," Jay said proudly. "I once placed first in the mother son skate off. I've got the trophy to prove it. Not on me, obviously. But I've got it on a shelf back at my parents' place. It's pretty impressive."
Lloyd raised an eyebrow, lips twitching upwards. "Mother son skate off?"
Was that amusement he sensed? "Don't let the name fool you. It's an intense competition." The mothers had usually been more competitive than the kids.
Lloyd snorted out a little laugh then looked back out towards the rink. After a few silent seconds, he turned back to Jay. "Ok then, Mr. Professional, what do I do first?"
Jay grinned.
As he'd suspected, Lloyd learned quickly. He caught onto all of Jay's instructions fairly fast. Walk like a duck, heels together, toes outward. Lean your weight the direction you want to go. Stride and glide. And through it all, he never fully fell. He'd had to catch himself on the wall several times, but he'd never fell to the ground. The thing he'd struggled with most was braking and even that hadn't taken him too long to get good at. Jay would credit it to his masterful coaching abilities, and he did give himself at least a little, but honestly Lloyd was a natural. And the kid clearly enjoyed skating too. Once he'd figured it out, kid was zipping around the rink as fast as the rules allowed.
As he watched Lloyd turn another corner it struck Jay how much he liked this. He liked the warm feeling that he'd been able to teach Lloyd something. He'd felt this way to a lesser degree when helping with Lloyd's ninja training, but this felt different. Maybe because this wasn't as serious as the green ninja stuff or maybe because he felt more of a bond with Lloyd now. It felt more… brotherly.
At the prize corner, they each used some of their tickets to get their favorite type of candy. Jay also got a Rockin Rollerz mug as a memento. Then, after a debate about which prizes were the best deals, they combined their remaining tickets to get a videogame. A good haul for a great day of gaming.
They took the bus home. The others had taken the vehicle and it was getting too late to risk walking the Ninjago city streets at night. Not that Jay couldn't take on common thugs, but he didn't dare risk Lloyd's safety and the Serpentine were lurking out there somewhere.
Lloyd had been brightly chattering about various, random things, but once they'd gotten on the bus he'd quieted down. Their day of fun appeared to have tuckered the little guy out and he let out a yawn almost every minute.
Jay wanted to tell Lloyd it was okay for him to take a nap for the half hour or so ride home, but that would probably result in Lloyd insisting he didn't need sleep. Kid already looked halfway there, so he could probably just let it happen. They had to go through a few exercises when they got home, so if Lloyd was tired it was best he sleep now.
A few minutes later, something landed on his arm. Jay froze at the contact, eyes sliding down to see a dozing Lloyd had slumped onto him.
His first instinct was to push the kid off. He was about to do it, but something caused him to pause. Lloyd looked awfully peaceful where he was. And they were on a bus, it wasn't like the kid had a lot of options. And he'd just been thinking Lloyd should take a nap now rather than later so…
Jay shifted a little to get into a more comfortable position, careful not to disturb the little twerp.
People looked younger when they slept, and Lloyd was no exception. His blond hair framed a childish face, his gentle breathing making a steady rhythm. For a moment, Jay worried if Lloyd was small for his age or if that was just his current perception.
Lloyd was too young for all this.
The surge of protectiveness he felt in that moment floored him and he could feel his throat closing up a little. Lloyd shouldn't have to worry about the fate of Ninjago on his shoulders or fighting his dad or being chased by evil forces. It wasn't fair. He'd rather it had been any one of them instead of Lloyd.
But there was nothing he could do to change that. There was absolutely no denying Lloyd was the green ninja of destiny. All Jay could do was help and protect him best he could.
And right now, with Lloyd safely tucked to his side Jay felt a sense of peace. It had felt awkward at first, having Lloyd on his arm like this, especially with all the other people on the bus who could see him, but now Jay was completely comfortable, happy even, having his little brother sleeping at his side.
His little brother…
He could get used to this.