Chen was straight up, not having a good time.
While the Green Ninja - Lloyd, Lloyd, LLOYD?! tended to Y/n, Chen quickly scrambled out of the alleyway and fled down the street, running as fast as his legs could carry him. After that, after what he said, he couldn't stay.
Shock pushed him fast. Fear pushed him faster. Get home, get home, get home.
What would Lloyd do to him? Now that Chen knew about his secret identity? Were they going to pull a MiB? Were they going to wipe his memory?
Erase him from all records? Like he never existed? Did they have that kind of technology? Was the whole ninja squad secretly evil?
No. No, that's not it.
Chen collapsed against a brick wall and slithered down until he was clutching his legs, mind spinning a mile a minute. It was tough work trying to comprehend what he had just witnessed.
Did Y/n know it was him the entire time? Is that why she's dating Garmadon's son? Nobody in their right mind would be seen with him, unless she knew about him being the green ninja before they began going out!
That doesn't make sense. None of this makes sense. Was I making it up? Maybe he had hit his head on the way in. Maybe he was still dreaming.
Slamming his phone out of his pocket, Chen quickly typed up the green ninja on google images. When they loaded, he flicked through the photos, growing more and more agitated, doubt of what he saw slipping with each breath. Yes, it was Lloyd. No, his brain wasn't playing tricks.
Chen felt his world shatter around him.
It seemed so obvious now, seeing the familiar shade of his green eyes that used to irritate him to no end in the photos of the famed ninja - the way Lloyd always wore green, even to school (was he taunting them?), no matter how hard Chen tried, he couldn't surpass Lloyd in p.e class, the way he didn't say anything whenever Chen and his friends teased him about the Green Ninja fighting his dad-
Chen sat back. Oh, god. Oh, god.
He had to fight his own father.
Chen was there for that fight, standing on the sidelines, watching it taking place a few years ago. It was brutal, terrifying. He was fourteen. Lloyd was fourteen when he fought that fight.
All the years of pushing Garmaboy around came crashing down onto his shoulders and he began to breathe heavily in a panic.
God what did he do?
What a mistake.
All this time, he was messing around with none other than the green ninja himself. The protector of Ninjago. The person Chen had admired for so long.
It'd been Lloyd this whole time? Lloyd and the green ninja, one in the same? It seemed so ridiculous that Chen began to quietly chuckle to himself. Then those chuckles patterned out into confused crying as he crouched against the wall of a broken building on a deserted street. Feeling small.
He dug his head into his arms and sobbed.
🍃🍂🍁🍂🍃
"Yo, are you alright?"
Chen glanced up, finding most of the group staring at him as they lounged around the mall, sluggishly dragging their feet while engaged in loud conversations. He smiled loosely, flicking back his brown hair with an easy sweep of his hand.
"I'm fine," he said casually, plastering on a charming smirk.
"You've been really quiet all week," Maggie continued, the blonde cheerleader scrunching her face in concern. "What's up?"
"Nothing," Chen grinned, raising his palms and squeezing his eyes shut pleasantly in a look to fool. "I've just been lost in my thoughts. My little sister's starting high school next month and I've been wondering about how she's going to get to and from school when we have practise."
It wasn't entirely a lie. His sister was starting high school next month and Chen did have to work out how she was going to get to and from school on the days he had morning and afternoon practises for cheerleading.
But it wasn't why he'd been quiet.
It'd been a week since he found out about Lloyd being the green ninja and it was all he could think about - paranoid that the ninja force would come along and give him a beating or what not (he did say paranoid).
