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Kai didn’t mean to spy on his leader. No, really, he didn’t. It was all just a coincidence. It had been after a long training session, after a long fight with Garmadon, after a long week of midterms (that weren’t even finished, mind you) when it happened.
The Red Ninja was exhausted. By the way Blue accidentally fried the lights in their warehouse, and Black accidentally broke their last punching bag; it was clear the others were, too. So, they broke off early, all charging home for some well-deserved rest. Well, also to prepare for the final day of exams. Kai would have kept training if Sensei Wu hadn’t practically tossed him from the warehouse.
While most days he took the long way round to get back home—a habit formed after being followed and having to move—that night, Kai decided to beeline it instead. As he launched himself over the buildings, he was startled by the recognizable silhouette of another Ninja. It took him a while to figure out which one, squinting into the shadows, looking for any colour to identify them.
Imagine his surprise when green flashed in a billboard’s light.
Their fearless leader was notorious for disappearing off the face of Ninjago, the best at stealth out of all of them. They used to play a game trying to spot him, but quickly gave up after no one but Sensei Wu was able.
Green had to be hella tired to be stumbling around the roofs of Ninjago City.
Another surprise smacked him in the face as he watched in horror as the Green Ninja, sworn enemy of Lord Garmadon, catapulted himself into the well-known apartment of none other than Lloyd Garmadon.
Kai blinked.
Then blinked again.
Was he wrong? No. That was most definitely the apartment of Lloyd Garmadon, perched in the slums of Ninjago City. The window had been open, too. Like whoever was inside was expecting a visitor through the window on the third floor.
-+-
Kai hadn’t meant to see it, but he couldn’t get it out of his mind.
He glared at his empty notebook. Why would the Green Ninja be visiting Lloyd Garmadon’s apartment? The page did not answer. He huffed, eyes blurring slightly before refocusing. The clock by his bed blinked numbers at him—maybe 4 something. Kaid had been trying to study for some time, but the cacophony of thoughts distracted him. Sighing, he flipped to the next slide, eyes scanning the words. Why had Green jumped into Garmadon’s kid’s apartment? It made no sense.
Kai grabbed his pencil, about to write something before stopping. He hadn’t even read the slide, had he? Rubbing at his temples, the Great Red Ninja sighed again.
-+-
Had he been investigating him? Lloyd was the child of Garmadon, after all. Maybe their leader had decided to check in on him? See if he was working with his dad? But, no, that wouldn’t make sense. That wasn’t Green’s style. He would have watched from afar, in and out, after casing the building for weeks. He wouldn’t have just crashed into the building with zero fanfare, right?
So what was it, then? Maybe it had been an accid—
“Red! Watch out!” A voice screeched through his communicator.
Kai had only a second to leap out of the way of a giant missile. Twisting and lunging to the side, the missile collided with his right mech arm, filling the cab with smoke. He coughed, blindly pressing buttons until he was ejected into the air, landing on a building’s roof.
First Spinjizsu Master, had he really spaced out in the middle of a Garmadon attack? How useless was he?
“Chat, are we cooked?” Blue asked, his jet flying past.
“Did…did you just refer to us as ‘Chat’,” Kai coughed out, slightly amused.
He got to his feet as three black fighter jets followed after Blue. The third one came in low, and the Red Ninja leapt on top of it, slithering into the cockpit and tossing the Cyber-crab-warrior out into the Ninjago Canal.
As he shot at the other two jets, Black’s voice came over the radio.
“First Master, Red! You’re gonna die before you get a girlfriend at this rate!”
“Hey! I’ll have you know, I can get any girl I want, thanks!” He replied, shooting at three of five crab-mechs surrounding the Black Ninja.
“Ha, keep telling yourself that!” Nya—the Cyan Ninja—joked over coms.
“While this conversation is amusing, I believe we should cease chatter about Red’s dating life and focus more on Garmadon,” White said, drawing the Ninjas’ collective attention to the intense battle between Green and Lord Garmadon.
Kai set the jet he had been fighting in to auto, locking it on Garmadon’s mech. Hopping out of the cock-pit, he landed on a rather tall building, smirking wildly.
As the jet exploded, knocking the mech off balance, Kai’s brain screeched to a halt.
‘Girlfriend.’ The conversation rattled around in his brain. ‘Dating.’ The word buzzled like fifty-thousand murder wasps.
Was Green, the leader of the Secret Ninja Force, his teammate in the war against Lord Garmadon, dating the son of Darkness?
It was ridiculous, it was impossible, it was inconceivable—it was the only thing that made sense. His leader was dating their Greatest Enemy’s son. Green was dating Lloyd Garmadon.
-+-
Kai wasn’t one to jump to conclusions. Or, well, he was, but he was a Ninja now! And Ninja investigate. Especially if it involves said Ninja’s own leader potentially dating the son of a literal warlord they were attempting to destroy.
So! He was investigating. Or, trying to. It was difficult, considering Green was the best Ninja out of the whole team. Yeah. Kai was struggling. His data, which were two lines of text reading ‘Jumped into Lloyd Garmadon Window’ and ‘Weirdly Personal Conversations With Garmadon, ’ were all he had after three weeks of trying to investigate Green and Lloyd’s relationship.
Was this weird? Kai was starting to think he was being weird.
A part of him wanted to drop it, to let his curiosity burn in the fire of his mech. Another part of him whispered doubts into his mind. What if Green was working for Garmadon? What if Green was being manipulated by Lloyd? What if their entire operation was in peril because Green had some weird thing for Lloyd Garmadon?
He needed to prove it. Whatever ‘it’ was, he needed to make sure there was no way he was misinterpreting what he saw that night. So he kept going. Kept following the Green Ninja on the off chance he’d discover something. Kept writing small points of evidence in his silly notebook.
-+-
It was a month and a half later when Kai felt he had enough evidence from Green. The evidence mostly being that on any day where their Gramadon battles wore on into the night or training happened after a fight, Green would sprint off across the buildings and collapse through the window of Lloyd Garmadon’s apartment.
Kai really didn’t want to think about why. But, well, why else would one break into another’s apartment other than to… be with them? Yeah, no, he still didn’t want to think about that.
With the evidence confirming that Green and Lloyd were involved, the next stage of the investigation was to confirm that Lloyd Garmadon wasn’t a threat. How was he going to go about that? The First Spinjizu Master only knows.
During Kai’s investigation of Green, he had begun noticing Lloyd a lot more. He went to the same school, which made Kai’s… not stalking—he wasn’t stalking, okay—investigation of the teen a lot easier.
Lloyd was always alone, skulking in the shadows like a predator on the prowl. He’d slither around people, hiding in the background of every scene. Like any other criminal, he was hard to follow—hard to predict. The shadows housed him like a friend, and sometimes even Kai, a trained Ninja, was unable to follow him through the school.
It didn’t bode well for the investigation.
It took about another month of watching the mini-me of doom for Kai to catch on.
Lloyd sculked in the shadows for a reason. He wasn’t plotting—he was hiding. Because, on the rare chance someone was able to pull him into the light, it never ended well for the blond. The first time it happened, a part of Kai didn’t really mind. It was to be expected—humans will always fight against evil. So the pushing and harnessing of the kid felt justified in a way.
But then it kept happening.
Milk poured over his head during lunch, his textbooks ripped open and tossed in the dumpsters—even Lloyd himself, beaten behind the school until Kai was about ready to jump in and save him. The boy had been called every slur and insult under the sun. His desk was covered in spray-painted words threatening him or his mother. And, since the teachers didn’t know who did it, he was the one who had to pay to fix them.
Horror etched itself into Kai’s stomach, bubbling up in stinging bile as Lloyd tore a pencil from his arm and just… kept walking. He hung his head, clung to the shadows, and silently suffered.
It wasn’t right. It was cruel. It was unjust.
As Kai watched the boy, he documented anything he could account as “evil.” For a while, he was convinced maybe Lloyd knew he was being watched. But, as time droned on, it became sickeningly clear the rumors and hatred were all unfounded.
Yeah, the kid jaywalked. Always rushing through clear traffic whenever he had a chance. After he did it in front of a car and it sped up, Kai could guess why. And, hey, sure, the guy broke into abandoned buildings, but so did Kai! Granted, his was for Ninja-ing, but still. And then there was that one time Lloyd littered. But that barely counted, as the coffee cup literally bounced out of the can.
Even if all Kai focused on was the bad things, he would still come up empty. First Master, Kai had done worse than all of that in a single day! The kid never fought back, despite being genetically related to an Oni. He never even put his arms out to defend himself, taking every hit like he deserved it.
But he didn’t. Because, while Kai was watching him, he saw Lloyd stop his sprint to school to save a kitten in a tree. He watched him save a dog from being shot at by a bunch of kids. He watched, with teary eyes, as the son of Lord Garmadon stopped a mugging, just to be hit over and over by the woman’s purse.
How had he been so blind? No wonder Green was dating this guy; Lloyd’s heart was made of gold. Kai felt awful about himself—about the fact he ever thought it okay to treat someone like that. To judge by nothing but a name.
He was thankful his leader had someone like that by his side. Green took most of Garmadon’s attacks—took the largest portion of Ninjago on patrols. He carried the weight of Ninjago and the Secret Ninja Force on his shoulders—he was thankful the two could discuss their struggles.
But Green wasn’t always around, was he? And Lloyd probably needed someone at school.
Yeah, that was it.
He’d protect Green to make sure he got home, and he’d protect Lloyd just the same.
-+-
“Hey,” Kai said, sitting down next to Lloyd during lunch.
The kid looked up at him with wide, red eyes. Kai watched a thousand thoughts run through them, Lloyd’s body tensed to bolt.
He probably hadn’t thought this through. Who was he kidding? He was the Fire Ninja, of course he hadn’t thought it through.
“I don’t like pudding, ya want it?” Kai lied, shaking the pudding softly in his hands.
“Uh—it’s—I’m… I’m good.” His voice was… oddly familiar.
He shoveled a few shitty school lunch beans into his mouth, trying to act blasé. “It’ll jus’ go to waste.”
“Uh…” Lloyd’s voice was small, unassuming. “It’s… not poisoned, is it?”
“What.” The word came out like a threat, and Kai realized too late it probably sounded like he was mad at Lloyd. “No. No, sorry—has that actually happened? Fuck, dude, if it has, I’ll personally beat the shit out of who did it.”
Lloyd’s eyes widened. “Uh, no, well—yes. It’s fine. I’m used to it. No need to beat someone up.”
Kai raised an eyebrow, sipping at his milk. “Then take the pudding. No tampering, I promise.”
Lloyd took the pudding cup tentatively, his eyes searching Kai’s for any sign of deceit. When he came up empty, he tore it open with his teeth and devoured it—no utensils in sight.
A soft chuckle warmed Kai’s chest as he turned back to his food.
-+-
Kai found himself following Lloyd around even outside of lunch and their shared classes. He tried to wait by his locker, but after some kids decided to rough Lloyd up inside one of the classrooms, he took to walking him to and from every class.
“You know, you’re gonna end up being a social outcast if you keep being seen with me,” Lloyd mumbled through a mouthful of bread.
“Dude,” he deadpanned, “I have been a social outcast since I beat up Chad Chen on the first day of school.”
Lloyd proceeded to choke on his bread, coughing loudly. After downing Kai’s milk, he gasped. “Bro, how’d I not know about that?”
“I have no idea. I got suspended for like two weeks. It was heaven.”
Lloyd was a good kid, and with every passing day he found himself understanding more and more why Green had chosen him. They had similar tastes in shows and comics, and Lloyd’s humor seemed to match fluently with both Kai’s and Green’s.
Kai almost wanted Lloyd to join the team—but it would be too fucked up to make him fight his own father. He desperately wanted to ask how Green and Lloyd met, but, considering the whole secret part of their relationship, he swallowed his curiosity.
-+-
You know, as a Ninja, it was pretty typical for things to go wrong on the field.
But their leader being knocked off his mech and being partially blown up by a missile?
That was a new one.
Kai desperately tried to stop the bleeding, his hands coated in dark red blood as he pressed his gi into the wound. Panic gripped his chest as White finally arrived, icing the Green Ninja’s side.
Back in the warehouse, the Red Ninja sat beside the cot Green slept in. Kai had been told he’d be fine, but he couldn’t shake the fear of losing his leader.
He’d promised to protect him, after all.
“Red?” A voice squeaked, shaking him from his thoughts. “Ugh, what happened?”
Green was trying to sit up, but Kai was not about to let that happen. “Hey, don’t sit up, you got pretty banged up.”
“Fuck. Did we at least drive Garmadon out?” Green was still trying to sit up, holding his head.
“Yeah, we did. We won. So lay back down and rest, dumbass.”
“You’re the dumbass. Wait—shit how am I going to explain this?” Kai could see Green spiraling, his breath picking up.
“Explain it? To whom? Doesn’t—doesn’t your boyfriend already know you’re a Ninja?”
“To my mo—my what?” Green’s eyes snapped up to him, eyebrows so furrowed Kai could see the folds.
“Your… boyfriend? Lloyd? I know you’re keeping it a secret and all but—”
“What?! I’m not gay, Red!” Green looked so confused that, for a second, Kai wondered if the entire last few months even happened.
“But then… why would you sneak into Lloyd Garmadon’s apartment?"
They stared at each other for a good few seconds, eyebrows furrowed in reflected confusion. Kai thought about it. Was Green trying to save face? Trying to lie himself out of—but no.
Something in Green’s eyes caught Kai’s attention. Or, rather, the lack of something in Green’s eyes. Usually, his eyes glowed a bright, neon green. But not then. Not as Kai stared at the growing panic flashing in the Green Ninja’s eyes.
The Green Ninja’s red eyes.
And then it started falling into place.
“The… the Green Ninja jumps into Lloyd Garmadon’s windows at night. Lloyd Garmadon is a master of stealth. The Green Ninja has weirdly personal fights with Lord Garmadon… Lloyd Garmadon has a heart of Gold…” Kai rambled, the thoughts finally fitting together in a puzzle he hadn’t even known he’d been solving.
“Holy shit—” But Green was gone, springing up the warehouse rafters and out a small window.
Well, Kai sure as fuck missed the mark, hadn’t he?
-+-
Lloyd hadn’t been in school for a few days. Kai knew it was because of the giant burn his dad had left, but a part of him still felt like he was being avoided.
First Master, this was all so fucked.
Lloyd Garmadon, son of Destruction, hated by all… was the Green Ninja, leader of the Secret Ninja Force.
He went out every night to keep the city safe, working himself to the bone just to wake up the next morning to someone trying to hit him with a car? What in Ninjago was wrong with this city?
Kai was relieved when he saw Lloyd enter the building. He kept to the shadows, slithering around like smoke in the wind. Just when Kai was about to call out to the kid, someone grabbed him.
“Garmadork.” Chen hissed, white-knuckling Lloyd’s arm. “Your father destroyed my dad’s noodle house.”
“Well, guess that means you can upgrade it now, right?” Lloyd tried, his smile not reaching his eyes.
Chen scoffed, “Really? Your father ruins my livelihood, and that’s all you have to say? What the hell is wrong with you?” He threw him down, Lloyd’s body clashing harshly against the tiles. “You think your dad can just go around ruining lives, and you’ll get away with it? It’s ‘cause you hate me, isn’t it? You told your daddy to ruin my life so you could get rid of me. Well, it’s not gonna work.” Chen kicked roughly at Lloyd’s side, causing him to scream loudly in pain.
Kai didn’t know when he moved—didn’t know when his hands wrapped around Chen’s neck. All he knew was one second, he was watching from one side of the hallway, and the next, he had Chen pinned to a locker, beaten bloody and bruised.
“KAI! That’s enough!” Lloyd was yelling at him, trying desperately to claw his hand off Chen’s throat. “You’re gonna kill him!”
A part of him thought, good, let him die. But one look at the teary, scared eyes of his friend—his leader—and he was jerking away from Chen like he’d been burned.
“Shit—fuck. Lloyd, let’s go.” And he was running, sprinting out of the school with Lloyd’s wrist in his hand.
When they finally stopped, they were both panting harshly. Soft, whistling wheezes left Lloyd’s rattling body, and Kai felt like kicking himself.
“Shit—did he reopen the wound? Let me see, Lloyd—” But Lloyd was looking at him in terror, backing himself further into the alleyway they stopped in.
“How… why—Kai. Kai what wound?”
Forget kicking himself; maybe he should ask Black to open the Earth up and swallow him.
“Uh—the… kick… wound,” he replied intelligently.
Lloyd wasn’t buying it, eyes on the brink of green. “What. Wound. Kai.”
He sighed, rubbing at his temples as he slid down the alley wall. “I’m sorry, Lloyd. Look. Honestly—this wasn’t really the outcome I was expecting, alright? I get it, I scared you. I scare myself sometimes too with my anger. I won’t hurt you. I won’t tell anyone your secret—I just. I fucked up.”
It looked like Lloyd calmed down a bit as he joined Kai on the ground. “Hey—hey. Kai. You didn’t—okay, no, you did scare me. You scared everyone, really. Never quite seen someone that angry since Garmadon shot Cyan and Red flipped his shit. So… uh… wait shit hold on I was gonna make you tell me.”
Kai stared at Lloyd for a good fifteen seconds before breaking out into soft chuckles.
“So you figured it out, huh, Greenbean?” Kai smiled, some stress leaving his shoulders. “How?”
“Uh—I’ll be honest, I kinda thought it was you from the beginning. You were watching me so intently for so long, I was getting kinda scared I was ‘bout to be kidnapped. But then you sat with me, and you smelled like smoke. So I kinda started wondering if you were… y’know. And then you—thought I was dating myself?” Lloyd grinned in disbelief. “And then that whole freak out back there and the wound thing kinda just—I’m really glad it is you or else my ramblings about Cyan and the other Ninja could have ended really bad.”
“Ah. Yeah. Sorry. About—the dating yourself thing. But like! Hey! Cut me some slack, how was I supposed to know the great Green Ninja was actually our sworn enemy’s son!” And the slight humor came crashing back down around them. Silence in the small, abandoned alleyway.
“I… didn’t choose to be his son,” Lloyd growled out, eyes locked with the wall.
“Yeah. I know,” Kai replied softly. “I’m sorry you’ve had to do this all on your own. You’ve been fighting him every night… and the city just treats you so terribly. It’s… It’s fucked up, dude.”
Lloyd barked a laugh. “Yeah, tell me about it. My dad doesn’t even remember me. I haven’t talked to him without the gi since I was like—seven. But, y’know, whatever. People need something to control. They feel helpless, right? So if taking it out on me makes them feel safer, then it’s fine. I can take it.”
Kai looked at Lloyd again. This kid was the great savior of Ninjago City, fighting every single night. But he didn’t stop there, he took the time to do what’s right even in detriment to himself. He took every hit—from his father to an old lady with a purse—protecting the city in every way he knew how.
“You’re an idiot, Lloyd,” Kai said, grabbing him and dragging him into a one-armed hug. “An idiot with a heart of gold.”