There's no Such Thing as Darkness //ninjago AU// Morro x Lloyd

Conditional Friends

Wu looked around frantically. "Where did they go!?"

Zane came running back to Wu in a sweat after quickly checking the area seconds after the smoke bomb had gone off. "I can't find them anywhere! It's like they've vanish."

"People don't just vanish, Zane!" Jay exclaimed "Certainly not within seconds!"

Wu's anger boiled in every inch of his body, but this time he was mad at himself. "I knew I shouldn't of accepted his deal! Talking about trust! I had a bad feeling in my gut, how could I have been so foolish!?"

"Don't worry, Wu, we won't stop till we find him," Cole assured.

Morro and Lloyd sat on a branch of a tree right above their heads. They had quickly climbed up when the smoke cloud got big enough. They were smiling, trying to hold on their snickering. "We WoN't StOp 'TiLl We FiNd HiM." Lloyd mocked under his breath.

This is what almost exposed where they were hiding as Morro was about to let out a big chuckle, soon being muffled by Lloyd covering Morro's mouth with his palm. After a few good minutes, they turned around and headed back the way they came with Cole and Zane going out to look through the forest for them. Morro watched as they left the immediate area. "Looks like we have them to worry about."

Lloyd looked over to the horizon, seeing the sky hanging lower and lower into the sky. "We could wait for nightfall to move out of this spot. You know, so they can't see us as well in the cover of night."

Morro then leaned back against the tree truck, getting comfy. "Hope you have good balance to hold yourself up here for a little while."

"I think I can handle sitting in a tree."

"You'd be surprised."

Lloyd scooted closer to Morro, "Yeah? How so?"

"I knew people who would be all confident sitting and climbing trees. Next thing you know it, their face is in the ground." Morro looked over at Lloyd, returning his gaze.

There was that awkward silence as they both just stare off into the distance. Until Lloyd broke that silence, like he did often. "How does it feel being free?"

What smile that was on Morro's face, faded. "If you mean out of that dungeon, then it feels nice. I don't think I would every be free. You see, Lloyd, the king of the dark kingdom doesn't like it when it's citizens run away from the place. If you ever return on his lands or spotted by anyone associated with that kingdom . . . They don't take that kind of stuff lightly. Unlike you, you can run away and your Uncle would accept you back with open arms, while I'm a dead man to them."

Lloyd laid his hand on Morro's shoulder, trying to show him his sympathy. Morro took a deep breath and continued. "Even here, I'm a wanted man. Because of this stupid patch that I didn't think to take off. Now my face is probably plastered on every flat surface in that town on wanted posters . . . Just from being around you."

"You know I never intended for this to happen, right? We can make it right. I know there has to be a way." Lloyd tried to give Morro a reassuring smile, but Morro didn't even look over at him.

"I know . . ." Morro mumbled.

"If you don't mind me asking, why did you run away? You still haven't told me that when we first talked."

"When I told you that I was crying because people didn't accept me, I meant that no one really liked me. At a certain age in that kingdom, citizen or kings guard, they train you to be a soldier. Strong. Brave. Tactical. No one liked me because I was different. Different from them and their traditional training styles. They didn't like that I found ways to make things more efficient. They claimed it was 'unlawful' to do not do things the king did. And if I was training to be one of them, I wanted to have fun. That's what I meant when I said I just wanted to be myself earlier. They didn't like the fact that I had . . ."

"A personality?"

That's when Morro looked up at Lloyd once again. "How's that for being a prince? At least you have the chance to have fun, be yourself."

"Being a prince isn't all that fun. Hearing Wu's lecturing all day is exhausting. He's why I just want to see the world and it's beauty. Keeping up behind the castle walls all day. I don't even have any friends besides the guards, which I don't know if they count as friends. Maybe conditional friends." Lloyd protested.

"Conditional friends, I get it. The kids I used to hang around were a bad influence on me. Always getting me in trouble with the authority. If I hadn't been so young at the time, I would of probably ended up thrown in a dungeon for the rest of my days . . . I guess that part of kind of inevitable. They would only hang out when we were doing mischief together, and not on any other occasions. I knew this at the time, but I still stuck around because I just wanted to feel a part of a group." Morro rubbed his temple like these memories were gonna give him a headache.

"How about this," Lloyd began, wrapping his arm around Morro's shoulders. "I'll be your friend. You and I can be the real friends we've been looking for."

"I don't think Wu would approve of that. Especially when he finds you."

Lloyd quieted down when he heard those words. "When he finds you". That's when a stupid idea struck his mind. "He's not going to find me, at least not for a little while. I know the perfect place where he'll never find me."

"And where do you think that'll be? Surely he would keep sending waves of men to find you," Morro was filled with doubt.

"Why don't you show me where the dark kingdom is?"