to rule the world | a ninjago au

[18] she'd cried into his shoulder

lloyd

"Do you ever wonder if the First Spirits look anything like us?"

"What?"

"You know, did Adira have black hair? A father that insisted on her dancing career?"

"Well, if genes work out—"

"Oh, shut it, Lloyd. Hey, pass me the bread please."

Lloyd zoned out as soon as he gave Cole the bread, and began picking at his own meal. They'd returned in the early hours of the morning when the rest of the task force were either asleep or somewhere else, and caught a few hours of sleep. He was still half reliant on the coffee maker in the communal kitchen where a constant stream of SOG agents were refilling their to-go cups.

"I don't think it's healthy, you know? For them to drink so much coffee." Lloyd mused over his plate and began separating the different food groups like he'd been doing since he was a kid.

"Who are you, Annabella?" Cole swallowed a large mouthful of beef and patted Lloyd on the back. "We've got to get to the meeting now, come on."

"I'm just saying," Lloyd insisted, casting his peas a disgusted look before scraping them into the compost. "Hey, did you see that last episode of Starfarer? They're still producing episodes even with...you know."

"Ah, no, you see Lloyd, I was busy fighting my greatest fear that was supposed to be mythological. Now I have its child that I have to take care of because your grandfather was weird and chained dra—dra—dragons."

"Woah," Lloyd blinked slowly. "That seemed like a lot of built-up stuff. Cupcake?"

Cole took the chocolate cupcake from Lloyd with a small apology for his blow up. "Sorry, these past couple of days have been annoying to say the least. And I am, actually scared of dragons. So scared." he shuddered at just the thought and they entered the War Room.

"Who made these? They're really good."

"I did," Astra said with a groan from across the table. "Coffee."

She took Lloyd's cup without asking and chugged half of the hot, bitter liquid down before looking mildly energised. He shrugged and drank from the second cup he'd brought with him, stretching in his chair languidly as all the other seats filled up. When his father walked in, the room stilled to silence. The SOG agents snapped to attention to their leader, emotionless in their all-black fighting gear.

"Well? What have you got for me?"

Lloyd frowned at his father's appearance - was he wearing sunglasses? Maybe something had happened to his eyes. And as far as he'd known, his father never drank coffee. In fact, in his sparse visits, he'd always refused the cheap instant coffee and taken tea. It was one of his few similarities with his Uncle Wu, and it looked like Lloyd wasn't the only one who had found his behaviour suspicious.

Astra's deep purple eyes were narrowed at their father, her hands wrapped in day-old bandages like Lloyd's (which they really needed to change, ew). Lloyd found her gaze with an urgent look, glancing back to their father. She nodded slightly, mouthing later without any swearing, which was nice. Maybe it was all the painkillers Kade had needed to give her. Lloyd considered convincing Kade to keep Astra tolerable for the near future when his father began talking.

"The Emperor's Ball was not exactly an astounding success," Nya started, smiling at Oni Squad happily despite her sordid words.. Lloyd waved hello to Jay, Zane, Pixal, Annabella, Zander and Rema, who was looking a little pale with her new metal arm in a supporting sling.