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

Test Your Stance

"No," Morro protested.

"Why not?"

"Did you not pay attention to my story!?, Morro was now getting visibly angry towards Lloyd. "Were you not listening to any part of it!?"

"I was. I'm just saying, they don't know where it is, so they'll never-"

"If I go back there, I'm a dead man! I'm sorry Lloyd, but I can't risk that just so you could have somewhere to hide for a couple of days. You can return. You'll be fine."

"I'll protect you."

"Protect me!?" Morro looked at the blonde boy with an "are you serious " look. "No offense, but it looks like you don't know how to weld a sword. Do you even know anything about fighting?"

"Sure I do."

Morro slowly climbed down the tree, picking up a nearby branch. "Show me them. Pretend this is a sword."

Lloyd followed down, taking the tree branch from him. "You'd be pretty surprised what I know. On the side, Wu has-"

Morro swept under Lloyd's legs, knocking him backwards onto the ground. "Some of the first things you learn is to not be distracted. You failed."

"Come on, I was just having some friendly conversation before we start," Lloyd got into stance, now keeping and eye on Morro's movements.

"You don't get friendly banter on the battlefield. One second of distraction, and it can end your life."

Lloyd tried to use Morro talking against him, think I'd distract him, but Morro had dodged Lloyd's swung. He put all his body weight into that, stumbling forwards. Morro used that and smacked Lloyd onto a nearby tree. "You need to control your footing. Sometimes the strength in your strike isn't everything. Don't carelessly lunge yourself into it."

"It wasn't careless, I was trying to be precise!" Lloyd turned around, putting his back up against the tree he was smacked against.

"You haven't laid a single touch on me. You can't protect me."

Lloyd was visibly upset by seeing this side of Morro, taunting in an almost mean way. But then again he didn't know him for that long, there was way more secrets he was going to discover. Lloyd was also frustrated, not being able to hit Morro yet. Lloyd stepped forward, repeated swinging in Morro's direction with the branch, yet again missing. Morro would back up and dodge every attack. He eventually got backed up into a tree, paying to much to Lloyd's lousy attacks. Realization hit Morro as Lloyd's branch came swinging down, which he quickly lifted his branch, blocking the attack.

Lloyd put all his weight into pressing down on the branch, just desperate to prove Morro wrong. He wanted to get at least one in. Morro's branch snapped, causing Lloyd to fall onto the other boy, causing Morro to also fall to the ground with him. Lloyd laid on top of him, catching his breath. Morro had a little cut on the side of his nose from the branch. He had looked at the blonde boy in front of him. "Are you okay?"

Lloyd was caught off guard, stunned by Morro asking that question when he's the one who's bleeding. "I'm fine. Not a scratch. Are you okay?"

Morro gently touched his nose, looking at it afterwards. "Just a scratch . . ."

Lloyd, without moving from where he was, took out a handkerchief from his shirt pocket, gently dabbing it onto the side of Morro's nose bridge. Some of the blood got cleaned off, but more just seemed to slip from the cut. Morro's face flushed up from Lloyd's touch. "Just let it clot."

"Just let me get a little more of it cleaned up. You know, shape it up," Lloyd was so focused on where he was dabbing the cloth, it showed in his face.

Morro felt a little tense by his actions, but in a good way. The way Lloyd cared for him was a new feeling for him. The way he paid great detail to his injury. He didn't have anyone that would really care for him, not even those fake friends he had back as a child. No one had ever try to help patch up his wounds. No one. "Are you done yet?"

Lloyd backed away, sitting up on Morro. His face flushed, realizing how long he must have just laid over him like that. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable by just looming over you." He completely gotten off the other man.

Morro sat up. "You're good."

Lloyd looked over at the broken branches. "So what about me not being able me not being able to touch you with a branch?"

"Amateur like," the smile had returned to Morro's face. "I do want to trust you, Lloyd. I want to trust you and your word, but you have to admit that your don't have much experience with fighting."

"Pfft, come on I do. It's just that it was with a branch. I'm better with a sword," Lloyd tried playing it off.

Morro sighed. "Okay, I'm lenient to take you there, but we must be stealthy. You're lucky that it's almost night. We just take a look around the town, but nowhere else, go it? And if anything goes wrong, I'll try to protect you, but no promises. It's have to be a risk that you're going to take knowing that. In that town, it's every man for themselves."

"We'll protect each other."