to rule the world | a ninjago au

[6] je voudrais a better way to end chapters than cliffhangers

lloyd

"Junior, are those butkicks? Do they look like buttkicks? Do they feel like buttkicks? No, they don't, because they aren't buttkicks! Drop and give me twenty. Now." Barked Arkade, their fitness trainer, rather sharply.

Lloyd had learnt well enough that 'drop and give me twenty' meant drop and give me twenty excellent push ups with fantabulous form and no grunting. He attempted to do so, at least, and Arkade begrudgingly accepted his push ups. But honestly, how were Lloyd's noodle arms going to help with that? If he really made his arm look buff to blow up his ego in the mirror, yeah, Lloyd had muscles, but normally they were barely there.

He envied Cole who bulked easily and could do most of the fitness effortlessly. The ones that struggled the most were probably him, Jay and Skylor. Nya, maybe a little, since she was still pretty strong from when she used to be on the swim team. Cole, Kai, and Kade had football (but from talking with Cole before everything had happened, Gorski hated football), Astra and Titanium (whose real name he still didn't know yet) had been training for months, Titanium longer, and Zane and Pixal were robots with no regards to endurance.

Groaning, Lloyd got to his feet again and went over to the treadmills, directed to the one next to Astra. Arkade had made her run two extra kilometres for cursing at him (for no reason) when she'd over extended her injured knee. She really needed a better outlet for her anger, since running two k's more would surely worsen her knee. But she'd scowled, rewrapped the sports brace around her knee and got to running.

"Hey Astra," He gasped out after his first few kilometres. She made a grunting sound of agreement without taking out an earbud. "How are you doing?"

"Not well."

"Oh."

He drew in a wheezing breath and regretted it as it made his mouth ten times drier and he didn't have a water bottle with him. Astra got off after she finished, slowing to a walk and then hopping off as she chugged her water. After a whole minute of him giving raspy breaths and the treadmill automatically increasing incline, Lloyd heard someone's footsteps approach from behind.

"You forgot your water bottle."

He twisted around to see Astra drinking from hers, a purple towel around her shoulders and a green bottle stretched towards him. Unfortunately he hadn't mastered the art of looking behind and running on a treadmill simultaneously and it was inevitable that he tripped and face planted onto the track. Astra was at the dash in a flash, turning off the speed and incline.

Massaging the side of his cheek gingerly, Lloyd took the water bottle from Astra and sipped slowly. She'd made a trip to a medical station (there were many set up all around the base for obvious reasons) and returned with paracetamol, a bandaid, rubbing alcohol and a cotton square. He hadn't even noticed the small trickle of blood on his forehead though Astra shuddered and looked away as she handed him the stuff.

Using the cleaner and cotton he wiped and cleaned the area, slapped a plaster on top and swallowed the pain reliever with water (he couldn't do it without water okay, was that a crime?).

"Thanks, Astra." The paracetamol had kicked in and his aches from previous training and this one ebbed into the background. He stood up with a grateful grin, watching his sister nod sharply once.

"No problem, Lloyd."

Lloyd.

She called me Lloyd.

"Um, I meant later, Junior. You have terrible running form by the way, stop staring at the sky like you're worshipping the Dragon. Look forwards, and use your arms so that the socket of your elbow goes to your pocket."