Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lloyd seriously needed to stop jinxing himself. Specifically? He needed to stop saying that things couldn’t get worse. Because they could, and they did. Currently, that fact was being shoved down his throat.

If rock bottom were an actual rock, he’d be crushed beneath it. 

“Wait, wait, wait.” Jay held his hand up as he read intently. He took a deep breath to brace himself before looking back up at everyone.“Okay…so he did get booked like Lloyd said.”

The room broke out into various sighs of dread. 

“Of course, he got booked,” Kai muttered through his teeth. He cleared his throat, pulling his head up from the pillow. “Is he staying here ?” He directed his comment toward Jay, who was visibly regretting being the one to break the news.

“I will go find Darreth!” Pixal smiled uncomfortably, trying to diffuse the situation before it could start. “I’m certain he’ll have that information. Zane, would you come with me?” Hand in hand, they were gone before any objections were made.

Lloyd wished she had taken him, too. Kai and Morro were a terrible mix. The same festival was already too much. The same hotel? They’d get kicked out by breakfast.

“This is bullshit,” Kai said. “We checked, like, every fucking day to make sure he wasn’t showing up. He planned this shit.”

“Planned? Dude, he’s not out to get you.” Cole tried to reason with him. “It’s what, two weeks? Knowing the guy, we’ll barely see him.”

“Knowing the guy? No. He’s going to spend every second he can prying his way into my line of sight with his stupid fucking hair!”

“Okay,” Nya dragged out the beginning, walking over to her brother and pulling him out of the chair. “We’re taking you to run this off. Anyone need anything?”

Cole and Lloyd shook their heads, Jay not answering. She nodded, then grabbed Kai’s collar and dragged him out of the room like a toddler. He left no short of attitude, mumbling curses under his breath about eyeliner and the colour green. The door shut, silencing Kai’s protests as well as the sound coming from Jay’s phone.

“I don’t get him,” Jay said. His phone was sitting in his lap, and whatever video he was watching paused. “Has he dyed his hair since we last saw him?”

“It’s the same, I think.”

The two turned to Lloyd. He sighed, “Yes. It’s longer, I guess, but it’s the same.”

“Comparisons, Lloyd?”

“Like Cole’s, maybe?” He flipped absently through one of Jay’s notebooks, feeling the paper against his fingers. “He’s been tying it up. It could be shorter, I don’t know.”

Lloyd opened it, skimming the pages to tune out the two in front of him. Half-finished drawings and sketches were nestled between chunks of notes. Usually, Jay’d have him at the stake for going through his drawings, but he was more preoccupied with using Cole as a chair to notice–or care.

Beneath a page labelled ‘Visible Spectroscopy’ was a messy sketch of Lloyd asleep in the car, a doodle of him in a cartoon death-pose next to it. There were barely any notes on the page, and they ended in the middle of a word. He closed it, tossing it back on the desk with the rest of Jay’s schoolwork.

Reminder, never sleep near Jay. Scratch that, never be within proximity of Jay. If he could see you, he’d draw you.

The lack of conversation prodded at Lloyd. He cleared his throat, forcing himself to talk.

“You should check the venue page again.”

“Again? Did my dad get his quartet a gig, too?” 

“Just read the page,” he said. “You’ll know what I’m talking about.”

Cole rolled his eyes at his avoidance, pulling out his phone to pull up the festival website again. He scrolled around for a moment before looking up at Lloyd with a mixture of judgement and disappointment. 

Jay asked him what the fuss was, and he read the fuss in question aloud. 

“Preeminence: Morro, Bansha, Archer, Grey…and Harumi.” Cole raised his eyebrows at Lloyd as he said her name.

“Harumi! Oh, god. Hello, New Housewives of Ninjago .”

“When were you gonna drop that on us?” Cole asked. Whether or not his intimidation was still intentional, Lloyd was crumbling under the pressure of it.

There hadn’t been a reason to bring up Harumi, let alone that, until now. Harumi was usually an off-limits topic unless Lloyd was crying in someone’s arms about her on a random weeknight.

“For a little while. She’s their vocalist or something.” He wrapped his arms around himself, regretting putting the notebook back. 

Jay’s jaw dropped. “ How!? She’s crazy! Like, shave your cat and intentionally trauma bond people crazy.”

“Ehh, Grey’s also off his rocker. Not that Morro isn’t the most stable, either. Crazy attracts crazy.”

“Ghoultar is perfectly on his rocker, Cole.”

“I am not calling him Ghoultar.”

“What about Grey-tar?”

“Can we focus on the Harumi thing?” Lloyd put his feet atop the desk, sliding down the chair. He huffed dramatically, crossing his legs over. “I think we should focus on the Harumi thing.”

This was his karma, and the universe was kicking him while he was down. Screw beating a dead horse with a stick. Beat a seventeen-year-old with his ex, instead.

The stern, concerned look had yet to drop from Cole’s face, but he adopted a softer voice. “Think you’ll be alright, buddy?” 

“Probably not,” he groaned. He dragged his hands down his face. “Turn down my mic tonight, I’m not gonna need it.”

“Yes!” Jay clapped. A peaceful exhale preceded his words, “Taking your anger out musically is an extremely underrated form of self-therapy.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t shoved a stick through someone's ribs, yet.” As he spoke, Cole’s fingers ran absently across Jay’s side. 

“I’m gonna need those wrist straps they have on WII remotes for my sticks at some point. You know, especially if Kai gets us kicked out,” he said. He pushed himself off of Cole’s lap, tapping his fingers on his phone case and walking past Lloyd. “You heard Darreth last night, I think he’d get to him first.”

“I genuinely cannot handle Kai right now,” Lloyd said.

Jay vanished into the other area of their room, leaving Cole to reassure Lloyd. 

“He’s running it off. He’ll be fine. We know him.”

“Do you know when we got the rehearsal room for today?”

“You’d have to ask Pix. I think Nya knows.”

Rehearsal couldn’t come any quicker. Pixal and Zane couldn’t come back any quicker, either. He didn’t blame them, he didn’t want to be in the room with Kai either.

For some reason, Kai was the one harbouring all of the anger for Morro. If anything, Jay should’ve been. Cole’s irritability from earlier most likely wasn’t from Lloyd’s month-late informing, now that he thought about it. He’d always been short with Kai about the whole situation with Jay and Morro, more so since Jay started Uni.

A quick tap on the desk pulled Lloyd from his trance. Jay had returned, sporting glasses he’d got from God knows where and holding what seemed to be a dozen pens.

“Jay Walker, Ph.D. Lay it on me, little man.”

“I think I’ll pass.”

Cole snorted at the sight. “Where did you find those?”

“Zane’s bag.” He turned to Lloyd again, a wide smile stretching his face. “Come on. I see you slowly going insane. Take advantage of the wise Situationship Master. I’ll be nicer than Cole was.”

The remark earned a smack on the arm before Jay sat across his lap again. Lloyd took a moment before finally accepting his offer, watching the two of them for a moment. When Lloyd would confide in Jay about Harumi, it was always just the two of them. Not that he was uncomfortable talking with Cole, it was just…Harumi was a tough subject. 

And Cole wasn’t much help when it came to girls.

“I don’t know if I can do this with her here. And Kai’s gonna be so focused on Morro that it’ll force me to be around Harumi,” he started. “He’s not thinking straight. Or thinking. I can’t be around Harumi. I can barely think about her.”

Jay hummed in thought. “That’s if Morro hangs out with her, though. The guy doesn’t have a lot of friends. He could hate her!”

“He’d hate her. I can feel it,” Cole said.

“Quit eavesdropping!” Jay put his hand over Cole’s face to shush him. With a small apology and a laugh, Cole went back to reading something on his phone and tapping his fingers lightly on Jay’s knee. “Well, how long has it been since you’ve talked to her?”

Lloyd bit the inside of his cheek. That was a question he’d had to dodge answering for months since any way he could answer would end in a lecture from the ‘Ph.D.’ Himself. And everyone else. Even his Uncle.

“I haven't talked to her since we broke up,” he said. “Morro last texted me this morning.”

“Morro what?” Cole turned in shock, his jaw dropping.

The second interruption earned another smothering from Jay. “Would you quit listening!”

“Hey!” he said through his hands. He grabbed his wrists, holding them away from his face. “Everyone would eavesdrop on that.”

Another thing Lloyd needed to stop: talking about people named Harumi or Morro.

His hands shot up in defence. “I still go to school with him! I can’t pretend he doesn’t exist. He texts me, sometimes. That’s it.”

“What’d he say?”

Begrudgingly, Lloyd pulled up their texts and tossed his phone to Cole, Jay’s still captured hands catching it and holding it between them.

Morro W.     11:09 pm

You left earlier for the festival, right?

Me 11:32 pm

Hi?

Yeah, I did

Did you set a bomb in our car or something?

If you did, your wiring is faulty

Morro W. 11:33 pm

You should pursue comedy.

No. I was trying to see if you got the classwork from Ms Gayles.

Me 11:49 pm

Oh

No, actually

Morro W. 11:49 pm

Okay.

I got it for you.

TODAY

Me 8:01 am

Hi

Sorry, I fell asleep

Thanks?
Why did you do that?

Morrow W. 8:02 am

So I can be in control of your downfall.

To be considerate, Lloyd.

I thought it would be helpful since you’ll be gone.

Me 8:21 am

Oh, thank you

Weird. But thank you

Morro W. 8:22 am

Being nice is weird?

You’re weird.

I’ll talk to you later.

Me 8:40 am

You too

On both

Cole nodded, turning to Lloyd. “You two talk like you’re sending each other emails.”

“Why is he so cryptic when he texts?” Jay squinted, scrolling between the messages again. Cole had dropped the loose grip he had on his hands.

“That’s just how he talks,” Lloyd said.

“Jeez, Lloyd, could you take any longer to respond to him? You respond to me faster than that.” He pulled the screen to the side, showing Cole the times.

Lloyd groaned, getting up from his chair. Karma was bad, but getting tag-teamed by these two was infinitely worse. 

“Why did you immediately assume he tried to kill us?”

“I have no idea how to talk to him. He’ll text me randomly and I’ll get stage fright from a text. You aren’t supposed to get stage fright from a text!” 

“Lloyd, relax. You’re starting to sound like Jay.”

“Let me be neurotic.”

“This is missing the mediaeval signatures, that’s how bad this is.” Jay was talking to himself, absent in the conversation. “Why do you text him more than you do us? Cheater.”

By the length of the messages on the screen, he was skimming their conversations from long before last night. Lloyd hit the power button and snatched his phone from his hand, hitting his arm. 

“Spare my dignity, would you?” 

Admittedly, he did text Morro more than he texted Jay. But it wasn’t that much. Jay didn’t talk through texting people, he was worse, and he called them without warning. 

“Personally, I’m starting to doubt your claimed lack of friendship.”

“So? I talk to him every once in a while. Does that make us friends?”

“Yes,” Cole and Jay said in unison.

Lloyd crawled onto the bed in defeat, yelling into the blankets. They had him cornered. If anything, he had himself cornered. He was the one who brought up Harumi, then Morro, in the same conversation. 

Not long into his self-induced wallowing, Pixal and Zane finally came back from their so-called short expedition to talk to Darreth. Zane had two bags from the store across the street with him and lifted them proudly to show everyone.

“Exciting news. Morro is not staying here!” He smiled. “And I purchased drinks. A variety.” A signature trill accompanied his last sentence.

Lloyd sat up, watching Zane put away what he’d bought. By the looks of it, he could have a quarter of what he’d gotten.

“Where is Kai?” Pixal asked. She tilted her head at Jay, who was hanging upside down on the chair. After mouthing something to herself, she decided to disregard Jay’s lounging habits.

“Oh. Nya took him to run so he wouldn’t explode,” he said, pulling his phone down to look at her.

“Ah. I see.” She nodded. “Well once they return, we should go down for breakfast. I believe it will close soon.”

Kai and Nya weren’t far behind, only taking a few extra minutes to ‘roll Kai into the elevator’ as Nya said. After he’d showered, everyone was on to breakfast. Corralling everyone to the lobby was leagues easier than Lloyd expected. Considering he and Pixal had to fight tooth and nail to get everyone their respective keycards, he’d been preparing himself for a nightmare since he’d woken up. Everyone was sharing two rooms…handing out keycards should’ve been easy…

“Now that we’re out,” Nya grabbed a handful of napkins as she passed them, “I can officially say rise and shine. We can finally start our day!"

“Rise and grind?” Jay offered.

“Or that," she sighed.

It didn’t take long for Cole and Kai to bogart the waffle iron. The two were more excited about the ‘hotel waffles’ than the festival. According to them, those waffles were the best thing to happen since the speed limit signs were converted.

Everyone shuffled back to the table Zane and Pixal designated for them, all with their respective breakfasts. Most of the plates could be considered breakfast, at least. Lloyd was the last to the table, coming back with a bowl of cereal. He slipped one of his headphones into his ears, drowning out the morning conversation with a playlist too loud for this early in the morning.

Across the lobby, a bright streak of green caught his eye and pulled him from his trance. Lloyd gave him a small wave, only getting an uncomfortable nod back. Unfortunately, Lloyd’s eyes weren't the only pair he’d caught.

“You’re fucking kidding me.”

“Nope! You. Sit. Eat your waffle. I’m not dealing with this.” Nya shoved him lightly, then got up to get something else from the kitchen.

“Whatever.” Kai sat back in the chair, the legs screeching against the floor. “If he comes over? I’ll spend the night in jail, I don’t care.”

“That would be less than ideal,” Zane said, his voice heavy with concern.

“Thanks, Zane. I know that.”

A fork slowly lifted in front of his face, at least half of his waffle hanging off of it. Jay wiggled it as if trying to beckon him like a dog with a treat.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Shh!” He put a finger to his lips but was swatted away with another curse. “Would you quit yapping and eat?”

Kai took the fork, begrudgingly taking a bite of waffle and mumbling complaints between bites.

Darreth said that Morro wasn’t staying here. Sure, he could’ve missed it, but Morro wasn’t someone you could miss. He was far from it.

Lloyd caught a final glimpse of him slinking back into the hall and furrowed his brow.

Me 10:21 am

I can see you hiding behind the wall

Morro W. 10:21 am

Stalker.

Me 10:22 am

They close at 1030

You should get something if you want to

Morro W. 10:22 am

You are inadvertently going to cause me to die of anaphylaxis.

I couldn’t find anything I could eat.

Me 10:22 am

Why would there be shellfish in the food???

It's breakfast???

Morro W. 10:23 am

I’m allergic to soybeans and eggs??? 

I take it back. You are directly going to cause me to die of anaphylaxis.

Me 10:23 am

I thought it was shellfish. Noted that it’s not shellfish

Can you have toast?

Morro W. 10:24 am

No. 

Me 10:24 am

What??? What do they put in bread???

Morro W. 10:24 am

Every day I wonder how you aren’t a part of the failure rate statistic.

Worry about your friends. I’ll get something.

Lloyd frowned, looking up to search for the side of Morro’s body that was hiding around the corner. There was no sign of him now, only an empty wall where his shoulder had been. He laid his head down, groaning.

“Oh, no." Jay took notice of Lloyd's dismal first. "Did someone else we hate get booked now?”

“Who?" Cole chimed in. "We hate too many people, I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head.”

“No. I’m still just tired.”

Jay patted his back in solidarity. Road Trips were exhausting—they were all tired.

The rest of breakfast went smoothly, despite the looming anger coming from Kai’s side of the table. Everyone had gotten something to eat (minus Jay, unless you counted six stolen granola bars as breakfast) before the staff closed the meal bar.

Nya tapped the table in front of him loudly, the wood amplifying the thud through his head. He shot his head up, pulling out his headphones.

“What?”

“We’re going back up before rehearsal. Are you gonna stay down here and sleep all day?” She crossed her arms, but her face was far from stern, and her tone light.

Everyone else was waiting in the hall, vaguely in a group. Lloyd stretched, getting up and following her, tossing his plate into the trash when he passed the bin. 

Blinking himself awake from his short nap, a flash of a familiar green figure stopped him in his tracks. He glanced between Nya and the hall, waiting a moment before slipping into the room.

“Hey.”

Morro jumped slightly at the sound of his voice, backing away a bit from the vending machine. “Hi?”

“Hi.”

“Again, hi? What do you want?”

Lloyd bit his cheek. “Darreth said you weren’t staying here.”

“Narc,” he whispered under his breath. His fingers gently tapped the buttons, finally settling on one.

Lloyd leaned over, glancing at the vending machine. Half of the options were water and the other half was covered with out-of-order signs.

“So.”

“So.” A faint smile overtook Morro’s usual scowl. “Am I crashing your little party or something by staying here?”

“You know the answer.”

The drink clattered, silencing their conversation again. He picked it up, nodding Lloyd to the hallway with him.

“Uh…Did you get anything to eat?” 

“Take me to dinner first, Garmadon. You’re starting to sound like we’re friends.”

“Funny.” Lloyd rolled his eyes, glancing at Morro from his peripheral vision. His face was hard to decipher, the only hint he could get from it was the obvious discomfort in being around him. “But, really. Did you get something to eat?”

He shook his head. “I’d rather not get my head slammed into a table while I’m looking at nutritional labels.”

Trying to read Morro’s expressions through his heavy, day-old eyeliner and hair that was almost always in his face was like trying to read Kai’s handwriting. Every time they spoke in person, he always seemed uncomfortable, but this was different.

“Here.” Lloyd fumbled around with his phone and everything else he’d been carrying in his arms, holding out a miniature box of cereal. “Jay gave it to me earlier, but…”

Morro’s eyes skipped between Lloyd’s and the cereal. He grabbed it hesitantly, picking it from Lloyd’s hand like it would burn him.

“Wow. How thoughtful, Lloyd. This doesn’t have shellfish.” His words were almost a laugh. The odd expression from earlier was replaced with a small curve in his lips.

Lloyd elbowed him at the comment, biting down a smile. “Give me a break.”

A firm hand pulled on Lloyd’s shoulder, stopping him. Morro turned, and his entire demeanour flipped, his face dropping and his hands tensing.

“Stay away from him,” Kai spat.

“I wasn’t doing anything.”

“I said stay away from him. Are you deaf?”

“You should tell him that, then.” He gestured to Lloyd, who was still in Kai’s grip.

Kai shoved Morro backward and he stumbled into the wall at an angle. He winced as his back collided with it, Lloyd wincing with him as he watched. The water he’d just bought and the small box of cereal fell to the floor. Instinctively, Lloyd reached out to help him up, but he was pushed away harshly.

Morro stood up, his eyebrows furrowed and eyes dark. “Fuck off.”

“Hey!” Darreth hustled over to the commotion, placing a hand on Kai’s chest. “Not on my watch! Keep the fights out of the lobby. They’ll make me pay for my room if you cause any problems!”

“He’s the one who—”

He interrupted Kai quickly. “Zip it! Na-da! Shut! Toss it! Silence! I don’t wanna hear it!”

Lloyd looked back to Morro, his mouth opening but failing to find words. With a final glare to Kai, he grabbed the water from the floor and took off to the staircase.

Darreth continued to scold Kai as he walked away, following a few feet behind him. Lloyd was left in the hall, his only company the small dented cereal box. He picked it up and skimmed the back of the box, frowning as he read.

No shellfish.

The festival was going to be unbearable. Excruciatingly unbearable.

A buzz from his pocket only solidified that fact. He pulled it out, his heart dropping at the notification on his screen.

Morro 10:43 am

Leave me alone.

Please.

Chapter Text

The moment he stepped into the hotel room, everyone tore him apart. Mostly everyone. Jay was unnervingly silent, watching it unfold from the edge of the bed. Kai had taken the front line on chewing him out, not leaving much verbal space for anyone else’s judgment. Cole didn't hide his silent threats, and both Nya and Zane had taken their share of scolding him.

Two days later, that half-hour nightmare was still on his mind. Even Pixal got onto him. Pixal! 

His hold on his phone shook as he bounced his leg in a futile attempt to calm his nerves. Jay had been practicing one of their newer songs, trying to get his timing flush with the recording. Kai still had his guitar rested on his lap, but he’d dropped out of helping Jay practice a few minutes in, leaving Cole to fill in that spot as best he could. The last few minutes of consistent drumming in the background had been quite relaxing on Lloyd’s racing mind, even with Jay’s vocal ‘guitar riff’ fill-ins every so often. 

“Good,” Cole said. He had headphones in, most likely listening to the track Jay had been working on to point out where he needed help. “You missed the little thing there…the ts-ts-ts.”

“Ts-ts-ts?” Jay took the headphones for a moment, listening, then handing them back and scoffing dramatically. “That’s not ts-ts-ts, Cole. It’s ts-ST-ts.”

“I give up,” he groaned, getting up. “You guys ready to get out of here?” 

Kai took the question as his cue to start packing everything up. While he had been discreetly putting things up since Nya and Pixal left, he didn’t waste any more time hiding that he wanted to leave. “Been ready since the dawn of time, dude.”

“Not everyone is the guitar Paganini, Kai! Some of us have to practice,” Jay said.

“Some of us can’t even play anything .” Kai nudged Lloyd’s shoulder as he passed him, bringing him into the conversation. “Not even tambourine.”

The conversation brushed through Lloyd’s focus, his response an idle shrug from where he was leaning. He refreshed his phone again, clicking it on and off while waiting for a notification. 

The back-and-forth banter continued between the three then was finally broken up by Zane calling out and interrupting the distraction. “Lloyd, would you get the cords together?”

“Yeah. Just a second,” he said absently

After refreshing his phone a final time, he kept it off, sliding it into his pocket. The second he did, it buzzed, and he rushed to turn it back on. The screen displayed a long message, but his hopes were washed out when he read the name.

Sally 1:22 pm

Lloyd!!! Lloyd monnnntttygomerrryyyy!!!!!!

You guys go on at seven tonight, right? I’m trying to plan to make sure I can see you guys perform!!!! I go on at six, I think if I get all packed up super super quick, I can get in the crowd to catch your opening :D<

Me 1:22 pm

Hey Sally

Yeah, we go on at seven tonight

Sally 1:23 pm

Are you guys at the venue right now?

There’s this band with a really long name I can’t remember and they’re playing right now, there's a guy playing the flute. The flute?!!!!?!? :O 

Me 1:23 pm

Curse Those Stupid Ninja and The Underground?

And no, we just got done with rehearsal

Sally 1:23 pm

Yeah them!!!! It’s really cool

You should come to hang out here for a bit, it’s actually really fun so far

If you aren’t busy :3

Me 1:25 pm

We might

We’re a little busy today, but I might be able to sneak away to listen for a bit. I’ve been around everyone for too long, they’re starting to get on my nerves

Sally 1:26 pm

Hehehe, I get it, I’d be going crazy too no matter how much I loved my friends

Welllllll, I’d love to get to hang out outside of history for once

But if you can’t make it, I get it!! We can talk after the show tonight :D

“What happened to packing up cords?” Kai said over his shoulder.

Lloyd jumped, scrambling to keep his phone from falling out of his hands. “Dude! Quit scaring me like that!”

“I’m keeping you on track! You’ve been sitting on your phone for the past five minutes. Jay’s already done packing up, and he takes forever.”

“Sally was asking about tonight. She talks a lot, it takes a while to get through a conversation with her.”

“Pink hair?”

“Yeah. You and Zane met her once, I think.”

“We did,” Zane said as he passed them. “She was quite nice.”

Kai flicked Lloyd’s forehead, dropping the bag of cords into his arms. “You’re on cords tonight, you little slacker.”

Lloyd blew his bangs out of his face, reluctantly following Kai out of the room. Ahead of them in the hall, Jay followed Nya with one of the amps, loudly thanking Zane for holding the door. In the time that Lloyd had been stuck watching Sally’s avatar type questions the lengths of an essay, everyone had gotten the rehearsal room emptied and organized.

He felt terrible about it. The entire weekend, he’d been half present in every moment, alone or not. He hated that his mind was stuck on the crude beginning to Saturday morning.

Morro’s silence shouldn’t have bothered him, it wasn’t like it never happened before. He’d gone weeks without talking to Morro, it was normal. They weren’t friends, they just talked every so often. But the blatant venom in his voice when he told him to fuck off was impossible to shake. For some reason, it hurt exponentially compared to the other insults and remarks that’d been hurled at him before.

He’d texted him three times since then, just trying to make sure he was okay. Usually, he would’ve told him to stop, but the only thing Lloyd got was radio silence.

He shouldn’t care so much. Morro could handle himself, and it wasn’t the first time he’d gotten shoved into something. Lloyd was overreacting. They weren’t friends –that had been clear on both sides dozens of times. 

“Earth to Lloyd?” Nya snapped in front of his face, getting his attention. “Who are you riding with?”

“Huh?” He blinked, looking between her and Cole. Behind him, Jay was silently waving him over. “Uh, with Cole, I guess.”

She laughed at Jay’s exaggerated waves, then took the cord bag from his arms, taking it to the trunk of her car.

“On to lunch! Finally, bro, I’m starving.” Cole patted Lloyd on the back before he opened the door for him. 

Lloyd tossed two jackets, both of which presumably belonged to Jay, into the other seat, then sat down. Nya had taken Kai with her, along with some of their gear, Pixal and Zane doing the same for themselves. They opted to let Zane lead their drive to the restaurant, and they were on the highway not long after Lloyd had gotten buckled.

Jay turned around, looking at Lloyd through the space in the headrest. “So, you’ve been quiet. You haven’t yelled at us about anything all weekend.”

“Yeah. Where’d the mini-Wu go?” Cole pitched in. “Not even a judgy glare when I went to smoke last night.”

“Just tired, I guess. Teenage angst, or something, right?” He tried to laugh it off, but the way it came out was far from convincing. Even Zane would’ve seen through it.

Cole eyed him in the rearview mirror. “Still upset about what happened to Morro, huh?”

“What? No.” Lloyd said. The obvious crack in his voice gave him away.

Jay frowned. “I mean, Kai was pretty harsh on both of you. I’d be upset if I were you. He was kinda mean.:

“I still think he should’ve kept his mouth shut,” Cole muttered. Jay glanced at him, his jaw clenching momentarily before he turned back to Lloyd.

“We know you talk to him, dude. Like you said, you can’t ignore someone you go to school with. Kai’s worried, everyone is. Some of us aren't really going about it the right way, though.” He forced a cough, “Ahem, Kai and Nya.”

Lloyd smiled. Jay always had a way of making light of things, even when he didn’t believe there was any. He still couldn’t decipher how he felt about all of this–or a lot of things, really. He’d grown more closed off in recent years, even as talkative as he was.

With everything that Morro did and caused, realistically, Jay should’ve been the one who lectured him, but the only lectures he ever got were about almost texting Harumi. Obviously, Kai had taken the reins on that vacant topic, and Lloyd didn’t know if he would ever hear the end of it from him.

“I haven’t heard from him since that morning,” he finally said. “He texted me and told me to leave him alone. Which I did, but I haven’t seen him, either. I’m just worried.”

Jay pursed his lips. “Well, don’t ruin lunch for yourself worrying like that. It’s Morro. He’s dropped off the face of the earth for almost six months before. He can handle a little rustle-and-tussle.”

Cole snorted, breaking from the quiet seething that he’d been stuck in since the conversation started. An accomplished grin lit up Jay’s face.

“Knew I could make you laugh, you hard-ass.”

He turned around, facing properly in his seat again. The low rumble of the highway and the faint music from the radio took over the car, naturally ending the conversation on a much lighter note than it began.

Lloyd knew he was holding onto something so small in comparison to what was in front of him. He got booked for a music festival with his best friends, and he got to stay in the middle of the city for almost three weeks to do so. How someone he wasn’t even friends with was doing should be the least of his concerns.

“How long until we get there?” He asked, pulling his headphones from his pocket and plugging them into his phone.

“Twenty minutes through the city,” Cole said.

Lloyd nodded, then leaned against the window. He was here to do something for himself, and he was going to do everything he could to make sure that it went the way he planned.

Whether he wanted to or not, he was going to have a good time.

___

Now that he was there, he saw why Sally was trying so hard to get him there. It was amazing. He’d been to short, one-day events before, but it was nothing like this.

This? This was overwhelming in the best way.

The festival had been booked in the city, taking advantage of one of the larger parks near the coastline. Dozens of tents stood alongside already standing structures the park had, creating a maze of shops and events around the stage. Lights and decorations lined each stall, leaving the eye with plenty to be distracted by.

To put it simply, it was breathtaking. As Nya had said, it was so many places and things and even more people. On the contrary, Pixal called it the land of extroverts. Neither of them were wrong in their description since the whole concept of a festival was exactly that. A lot of things for a lot of extroverts

Everyone split off to venture through the festival at their own pace. Lloyd stuck with Nya and Cole this time. Not like he could’ve picked otherwise. Jay had vanished the moment he stepped out of the car, and Kai was already dragging Pixal and Zane into the distance before Lloyd could say anything

“Jay texted. He said he heard there was a comic stall,” Cole huffed, catching up behind Nya and Lloyd.

“Of course, he did.” Nya smiled. “Anywhere you guys want to see first, or do we shoot straight for Darreth?”

Lloyd shrugged, looking around. There was so much to look through, that he couldn’t pinpoint anything specific if he tried. And if he did, he surely would’ve been distracted before they got there.

A familiar ping from his pocket pulled his attention away from everything. Sally had been texting him on and off since lunch, asking when he’d be there like a kid on a road trip. However, the text he actually received stopped him dead in his tracks, causing Cole to run into him. 

“Woah, there. Sorry. You alright?” he asked, patting Lloyd on the shoulder and gently pulling on Nya’s bag to stop her. The three stood at a halt in front of a tree, basking in the cover from the blinding sun and early fall heat.

Lloyd nodded with a small apology to Cole, then opened the message

Morro W. 3:08 pm

Sally asked if you were here yet.

She’s excited to see all of you.

Sally and Morro were an odd pair, though it wasn’t surprising that Morro had stuck with her at the festival. Lloyd wasn’t the only one who was exposed to Morro’s nagging during class. Sally had become acquainted by proxy from every time Morro would turn around in history to bother him.

Lloyd waved his thumbs above the screen, trying to find the right response.

“Is it your mom?” Nya asked, trying to read Lloyd’s expression.

“It’s Sally,” he lied. “She’s asking if we’re here yet.”

Part of him was still hurt by both his bitterness and the silence. He pushed down the voice in his head that told him not to respond. It was a response for Sally, not for Morro. 

Me 3:10 pm

We are.

Did her phone die?

Or are you trying to pull something?

Morro W. 3:10 pm

I’m not. She’s charging it now.

Thank you for thinking so highly of me, Lloyd.

I’m honoured.

Me 3:11 pm

You told me to leave you alone, I have a right to be confused if you text me.

Morro W. 3:11 pm

Can you tone down the trauma responses?

I wanted to see you. I thought it’d be easier with Sally.

I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.

Lloyd stared at his phone, his mouth agape. In less than a minute, Morro managed to insult him and confuse him more efficiently than his organic chemistry teacher ever had. Morro had wanted nothing to do with him the entire weekend, and now he wanted to see him?

It was safe to say that Lloyd still had no idea what exactly Morro wanted. The constant push and pull of being friends and being borderline enemies was something he should’ve gotten used to by now, but there was a different air about this. Morro had been acting odd around him for a few weeks, but Lloyd had no reason to question it. At least, he thought he didn’t.

Me 3:13 pm

We’re looking for Darreth, so we’ll be wherever he is.

When we find him, she can come to say hi.

Morro W. 3:13 pm

Thank you. I’ll tell her.

Me 3:13 pm

You can come too if you want to

I wouldn’t mind

He winced the moment he sent the message, immediately regretting even typing the words. He was digging his own grave.

“What’s got you all stoic, Mister?” Nya playfully tapped his phone. He quickly shoved it in his pocket, keeping her and Cole’s prying eyes off of the contact name. She laughed at his urgency. “Are you getting caught up in talking to her?”

“No, my face always looks like that.” He lazily hit her with his shoulder, starting them on their trek to find Darreth again.

Nya rolled her eyes, squinting when they entered the sun. “Totally, Lloyd.” She leaned over to Cole, covering her mouth and whisper-yelling to him, “He likes her.”

“I do not!”

“Uh-huh,” Cole said.

“You guys are the worst.”

Nya wrapped her arm around him, nearly knocking him over while they were walking. “We’re teasing.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He nudged her side, and they continued walking through the festival.

Pixal said Darreth was running a small food vendor near the stage, mostly selling drinks and bottles of water instead of food. If there was a job available in Ninjago City, there was a seventy percent chance Darreth had taken it. On top of managing the festival, he was part-timing the hotel and running a vendor. 

It took them a lot longer than they expected to find him, Pixal’s vague text directions only turning them in circles. When they finally got to the right place, they didn't even find Darreth. Instead, they found Ronin manning the bar, striking up a conversation with Pixal and Zane.

“Well, what would you guess? I didn’t think I’d be running into you lot. You guys want water or something?”

“We’re fine, Ronin. But, thank you,” Nya said, greeting him with a wave. “Have you seen Darreth at all? He said he was running this little place.” 

“That airhead? Couldn’t tell you. Probably with Skales, or something. They just finished their show.” He wiped down the rims of the glasses swiftly, keeping a decent rhythm despite not looking down. “He’ll come back soon enough, he said he doesn’t trust me to keep everything fair.”

“I wouldn’t, either. Apologies, Ronin,” Zane laughed.

“Gee, is my track record that bad?”

Nya joined the ongoing conversation between the three, leaving Lloyd and Cole to find something else to do. They sat on the chairs along the opposite side of the counter Zane and Pixal were sitting, and ended up occupying themselves with the straw dispenser in front of them. 

The bar was one of the things that was already in the park. It was made up of a small brick patio and a pagoda, looking more like an overpriced outside restaurant than a temporary food vendor. 

Lloyd and Cole were flicking straws at each other when a voice piqued his ear, distracting him and letting Cole hit him in the cheek with a projectile straw.

“Hey!” He yanked the straws out of his hand, disarming him

“That was fair game!” 

Ronin clapped his hands loudly, visibly relieved. “Guess who finally came back.” He patted the back of someone–he was standing between Lloyd's view of them–then tossed an apron at them. “You take care of 'em. I’m taking a smoke break.”

And the next ten seconds were a tidal wave of terrible timing. Kai had finally caught up to everyone else, the stranger Ronin had been talking to walked up to the counter, and Cole hit Lloyd with another straw. Unfortunately, that stranger was Morro, and even more unfortunately, Kai was the first to realize.

“Oh, my God. ” Kai covered his face, groaning in his hands for a few seconds. “Dude, at this point I’m just sick of seeing you.”

“Right back at you,” Morro replied. He turned around while tying the apron around his waist, taking a quick glance for Ronin, then looked back at everyone in defeat. 

“Do any of you want anything?”

A barrage of no’s and shrugs answered him. At the dismissal, he looked even more relieved than Ronin had when he came back, mumbling a quiet ‘thank God’ as he turned around. 

Darreth taking on random jobs was normal, and anything Ronin did was probably mandatory community service, but Morro working the bar made no sense. 

“What is he doing here?” Cole whispered to Lloyd, verbalizing Lloyd’s thoughts almost exactly.

Morro overheard him, breathing a chuckle at the pair before leaning his elbows on the counter to talk to them. 

“Gossipping without me?” he smirked.

Lloyd tried to swallow the embarrassment that rose to his face. One of Morro’s favourite things to say was an accusation regarding himself. ‘Without me’ meant ‘about me.’ He coughed, taking in an odd breath. “Why are you playing barista for Darreth?”

Next to him, Cole was struggling to hold in a laugh. Lloyd slapped his leg under the counter, eyeing him for undermining his plight. He couldn’t help that confrontation embarrassed him so easily.

“I had nothing better to do. It’s not that bad, you know.” He picked up one of the straws that was lying on the counter, twirling it between his fingers. The end of the straw poked at Lloyd’s forehead, accompanying Morro as he tilted his head. “You’d like it.”

Kai cleared his throat, putting his hands on Lloyd’s shoulders. Morro recoiled, putting the straw back in the dispenser and going back to updating the menu sign, playing off the conversation.

“We should go find Jay,” Kai said, glaring at him. He nodded at everyone else, signalling them to start leaving. He gently pulled Lloyd up, trying to inch him away from the counter.

“See you in the crowd?” Morro looked at Lloyd, brushing off Kai’s interruption.

Kai answered before Lloyd could. “Thick chance, Morro. Don’t push it.”

Morro rolled his eyes, mouthing ‘see you’ to Lloyd with a smile. He went back to his work and Kai finally pulled Lloyd into the waves of people in the crowd.

“Jay should be closeby,” Nya mentioned, trying to divert the discomfort lingering between all of them.

Lloyd looked back a final time, then followed close behind everyone on their search for Jay. The push and pull wasn’t just Morro’s doing. Everyone Lloyd knew, even himself, had their strings in it. He rolled the straw he’d taken between his fingers, trying to focus on what was important.

The show.

___

The nerves were starting to set in, and Lloyd was not enjoying the feeling it was giving him. This level of nervousness could rival Jay’s, and that was very, very far from being a good thing.

Sally had texted him an hour before, asking if he had time to see some of her performance before they had to get ready to go onstage themselves. Being a man of his word, he found a way around the time crunch.

But his rising nausea and the prickling all over his skin were making it hard to stay for her first song, let alone stay standing. She went on in a few minutes, and thankfully his friends had convinced him to stay out of the crowd until it started. He was leaning against Kai, trying to keep as much of his energy as he could. Considering there was so little of it, the rest wasn’t doing much.

“We shouldn’t be out if you’re not feeling it, Lloyd.” Kai’s voice was heavy from his worry, his eyebrows taut.

“I’ll be okay. Sally wanted us to see her play.”

“Dude, you’re one flick in the stomach away from vomiting all over Kai,” Jay said. He’d swallowed his worry the moment he saw Lloyd start to sweat earlier. It had cooled down significantly as the night went on, and Lloyd was burning up.

“She would understand your absence, Lloyd. Illness isn’t something to take personally,” Zane offered, attempting to console his determination.

Nya tried now. “Would you at least let us take you somewhere cooler until she’s onstage?” 

Despite his many protests, Nya and Kai dragged him to Darreth’s bar, which was luckily in one of the quieter places of the festival, and forced him to sit. He laid his forehead against the cool table, his nausea getting worse in a wave before starting to subside.

Darreth was wiping off tables when they showed up, stopping once he saw the state of Lloyd. 

“Oh, boy. That’s no good. You kids go on soon!”

“We’re supposed to,” Nya said. She pulled Lloyd’s head up gently, pushing his bangs out of his face and then letting him lay back down. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to, though.”

“Let me get him some water. Have you eaten, kid?”

Lloyd groaned, trying to nod. Nya nodded for him, gently stroking his hair in an attempt to comfort him. Darreth turned on his heel, rushing off behind the counter.

“Think it’s the heat?” Kai asked her. Everyone had been trying to figure out what started his sudden sickness, throwing out ideas while also trying to get him to relax.

Nya frowned, feeling Lloyd’s back. Her fingers gently ran over his shirt, feeling for the outline of his binder. She turned to Kai with a knowing look. “I’d say it’s a few things.”

Darreth came back with a cold cup of water, and a handful of pixie-stix. He set them on the table, handing Lloyd a cool, damp cloth. 

“Pixie-stix? What?” Kai looked up from his phone, picking up one of the sugary tubes.

“I’ve been around long enough to know the ‘ole tricks. Nothing gets your blood sugar up like a few of these bad boys,” he said proudly. “I’m gonna close up so we can give the little man some space.”

Nya and Kai nodded in thanks, glancing at one another. Kai handed his phone to her, allowing her to read through the messages he’d been sending back and forth while she was taking care of Lloyd.

“We’re gonna go bring everyone over, alright? It’ll be good to rendezvous for a while, anyway.” Nya rubbed his back while she grabbed her phone from the table. “Hang tight, Lloyd.”

He weakly gave them a thumbs-up, his arm going limp once they started walking.

To make the explanation short; Lloyd felt like shit. He tried to focus on the clinking of glasses and scraping of stools as Darreth closed the bar, hoping it would distract him from the seemingly never-ending nausea. The sounds were replaced with a hushed conversation, then followed by the stringed lights dimming.

A tentative hand waved at him, and he pulled his head off of the table, taking more effort than he expected. Morro stood uncomfortably a few feet away from the table, lacking the apron Lloyd had last seen him in and a new shirt.

“Are you doing okay?” He was gentle with his words, his voice almost too quiet for Lloyd to hear over the faint sounds of the festival.

“Do I look like I’m doing okay?” Lloyd struggled to speak consistently, stopping between words to swallow the feeling of throwing up.

Morro sat next to him, keeping a concerned eye on him from a distance. He gingerly pushed the glass of water closer to him. “I can tell Sally you’re sick. She’ll understand.”

“I promised I’d see her.”

Morro waited, his eyes jumping between Lloyd in the glass of water, then set the cup in front of him, telling him to drink. He obliged, the cold water soothing the tension in his throat almost instantly. 

“She’s performing tomorrow. You can see her then.” Morro picked at his nails, chipping off small bits of his nail polish. His voice adopted a slight shake, “We could go. You’d keep your promise, still.”

The comment brought Lloyd back into focus. While his headache and discomfort had yet to cease, he was whipped back into a properly conscious state. He stared at Morro, whose face scrunched the longer he looked.

“We?”

“Not that,” he blurted. He sighed, fiddling with the hem of his sleeve. “She asked me to be there tomorrow, too. I meant it as if we would both be there. Separately.”

“Oh.”

The silence made him want to throw up again. He watched Morro as he continued to fidget with his shirt. With how much he was moving, it felt like staring at Jay. Morro had always been a restless kid, but it had never been distracting like it was now.

Lloyd couldn’t take the silence any longer. “I don’t mind hanging out with you.”

A weak smile painted Morro’s face. “Your nausea is talking for you, Lloyd.”

On top of still being a little too close to fainting for comfort, Morro, again, doing the push and pull of tolerance was too much for Lloyd to handle. He could barely handle it when he wasn’t sick. 

“Do you hate me?”

Morro was physically taken aback by the question. “No.”

Lloyd propped his head up with his hands, leaning his forehead against his palms. The pressure against his sinuses did nothing to fight off the sudden waves of fighting consciousness. “Sometimes it feels like you do.”

Morro’s fingers grazed Lloyd’s arm, the touch almost too faint to feel. His fingers were freezing in comparison to Lloyd’s skin, the light connection alone making the heat slightly more bearable. 

Distantly, the familiar echo of Sally’s guitar played, filling the silence between them. Lloyd frowned, and Morro’s hand flinched away from his skin.

“I’ll tell her you’ll be there tomorrow.”

“We already did.” Kai’s voice cut through the calm air of the patio, making both Lloyd and Morro jump. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Morro stood up, backing away from Lloyd. “Leaving.”

“Oh, really?” Kai grabbed Morro's phone, which he had sat on the table next to the glass of water. He tossed it to him. “Then leave.”

“I was trying to help him.”

“Help him?”

“You left,” Morro said. 

Lloyd saw the moment Kai had officially clocked out of any chance of reasoning. His mouth parted, falling into a familiar stretch of his jaw. Zane, being the closest, tried to grab him before he could move, but Kai was long out of reach when everyone realized what he was going to do.

Kai struck, hitting Morro square in the face and knocking him to the ground. Blood fell onto the brick in front of him. When he looked up, his expression was hollow and covered in blood from his lips.

“Do you still think you’re better than me?” Morro said. His words were eerie, the meaning lost to everyone besides him and Kai. “Because you’re just as terrible as I am.”

“We’re not similar for shit, Morro.”

Lloyd tried to keep his balance as he stood up, but the nausea was starting to win the battle. 

This was going to go wrong in every way it could, everyone knew it, Kai and Morro included. They were both fueled by conflict, and Lloyd swore Morro got something out of getting punched all the time.

He smiled, blood slipping from his lips to his teeth. “We’re both sought for the same thing, aren’t we?” He wiped his lips with the back of his hand and swallowed uncomfortably, his teeth clean when he spoke again. “Do you want to know why he doesn’t have trouble anymore? Come on, I know you want to hear it.”

“Anything you do is far from a favour. So, save it.” Kai’s hands were shaking with anger. Nya reached for him, but he pushed her hand away, mouthing something to her that made her stand down.

“You were afraid of what would happen with him after you graduated. I am doing you a favour, Kai. I have been.”

Lloyd realized what that mysterious common interest was.

Him. 

Morro pushed himself off the ground, levelling himself with Kai again.

“You aren’t protecting him!” Kai’s voice raised just below a yell. He looked back at Lloyd, his jaw twisting with something he couldn’t decipher. “You don’t give a shit about anyone but yourself, and you had nothing to do with anyone leaving him alone.”

“Okay, what are you two going on about?” Nya asked loudly, standing behind Kai again. “This is getting ridiculous.”

“Can you save the dick-length competition for later? We kind of have a show in half an hour, guys!” Jay said. His anxiety from probably all of the night's factors was pouring out of his voice. Just hearing him made Lloyd even more anxious.

“Don’t worry. I already know the answer to that.” Morro was unnaturally monotonous for his statement. He took his exit with a taunting wave of his fingers, turning and beginning to leave.

Kai grabbed the back of his shirt, but Morro stopped and took his wrist, twisting it and holding it between his shoulder blades, trapping Kai in a heavy grimace. “Did you really think I’d let you hit me again?”

“That’s enough,” Cole yelled. He pulled Kai out of Morro’s grip, holding him away. “Lloyd already feels like shit. Let’s not make that worse,” he said to the both of them.

Kai jerked forward, taking a final swing at Morro before he or Cole could stop him. His fist connected hard with his eye socket, sending him backward and stumbling into a chair. Morro coughed as he hit the chair, then the ground again, holding his hand over his eye. The hit made his eyes water, covering his cheeks in tears that reflected the tiny string lights surrounding them.

Morro cursed under his breath, pulling his hand away from his face. Blood fell in a thin stream from his brow, threatening the corner of his eye.

Cole shoved Kai back, handing him off to Zane and Nya and letting them keep a better hold on him. He turned back to Morro with a cold expression but held out a hand to help him to a stand. Warily, Morro accepted the help and came to a shaky stand.

“Now get out of here,” he deadpanned. It was clear his words were a warning of both malice and peace, and Morro took the space Cole created between them to leave without another word.

Pixal cleared her throat, “It is time to set up. I hope you know you are astoundingly immature.” She eyed Kai and Cole, then turned to Lloyd with a much kinder expression. “Do you believe you can continue with the show? There is always the option to cancel the set for tonight.”

He nodded, pushing past everyone. “I feel fine. Let’s go.”