TW: sprained ankle
Lloyd Garmadon sneezed.
"Whoop," Jay chirped, catching his nunchuck under his arm. "You sneezed! That means someone's talking about you!"
Lloyd sniffed, wiping his nose. He regripped his katana.
"Who isn't," he grumbled.
"Think it might be Y/n?" Nya smirked, pulling back her spear. Lloyd deflated, rubbing his tired eyes. He spent the entire night scrubbing the four training rooms as punishment for skipping training and patrol. He wasn't in the mood for being teased by his team.
"Who's Y/n?" Cole asked, dropping his hammer over his shoulder.
"Ooooh, is she that girl from the park?" Jay asked excitedly.
"You mean the one that hit him with the skateboard?" Kai grinned pugnaciously, leaning on his sword. "And her car?"
"The girl that made Lloyd late yesterday?" Zane asked.
Lloyd glared with tired eyes at his team.
"Can we just continue with training?" he asked. "I'm so. I'm so tired."
The others weren't so quick to let it go. Because girls being interested in Lloyd never happened. It wasn't a thing. No girls liked Lloyd because they all knew who Lloyd Garmadon was.
Well. They knew his name.
They knew the fact that he was the cursed son of Lord Garmadon, the bringer of death and doom itself. Despite the fact that his father put those evil-doer days behind him, the people of Ninjago still looked down upon Garmadon and his son.
Especially his son, who was gentle and easy to pick on.
Girls, they ran from him.
Guys, they made fun of him.
And if it was a particularly unlucky day, they'd beat him up to watch him squirm.
Lloyd had a hard life but it just made him more motivated in his training.
In training and fighting, he was allowed to vent the hatred that had been bottled up behind a facade of a content grin. He was allowed to convert the hatred from being outcasted into power, power that he used to fuel his elemental energy.
He couldn't fight back against his bullies because he knew that if he started, he wouldn't be able to regain control of himself before his strength was spent.
So, training and fighting were his coping mechanisms.
And his team knew that. And they weren't letting him leave until he spilled every single juicy detail about his crush.
"Nope," Cole had declared that training was over in exchange for the tea. "Tell us everything."
"Nothing happened!" Lloyd insisted.
"Hoh, yeah, sure," Nya snickered before imitating his voice. "'Keep my hoody, it looks good on you! Wink!'"
His trust was broken.
"Nya!" Lloyd hissed, face burning. Kai spluttered a loud laugh, throwing an arm over Lloyd's shoulder.
"You said that?" he asked incredulously. Lloyd dropped his face into his hands.
"Y/n loved it," Nya continued.
"Nyaaa!" Lloyd whined.
"Come on, Lloyd," Cole pressed. "We're your team!"
Lloyd dropped his head back and he fell onto his behind. This is so embarrassing.
"Fineeee," he groaned, running a hand down his face. He couldn't believe himself. How could he let some girl get the best of him? Just a few weeks ago he was gagging at Nya because of girl cooties (it was met with a kick to the knee and an ironic 'grow up, Lloyd'). "Alright. So, yesterday we met up so I could give her the skateboard and she could return my hoody-"
"The one that Y/n still has," Nya interrupted giddily. He shot her an irritated glare.
"Yes. Thank you, Nya."
She poked her tongue out at him.
"Anyway, we kind of spent the whole day together-"
"Aww," coed Jay.
"- and I walked her home-"
"Aww," coed Jay for a second time.
"- and she may have kissedmeonthecheek."
"Aww- WAIT WHAT?!" Jay shrieked, pointing a finger a Lloyd. "She KISSED YOUR CHEEK?!"
Lloyd swallowed. "YeS."
"What is going on out here?" Sensei Wu asked, appearing out of nowhere. The team jumped.
"Sensei!" Kai cried, the first to recover. "Lloyd's got a girlfriend!"
Lloyd made a sound in between an embarrassed honk and a grunt of betrayal when Wu raised his eyebrows in his direction. Lloyd's face burned a bright red and he hunched his shoulders, wishing for the ground to swallow him whole.
"It's- it's not like that!" Lloyd shrilled, waving his arms and shaking his head in denial. "She's just a friend."
