A weight settling on my stomach made me slowly wake.
"You're so cute when you sleep," Lloyd murmured as he rested his head on me. "You're like a little kitten."
I sighed, eyes glued shut as sleep stubbornly held me. My hand flopped into his hair, threading through half-heartedly.
"You're the one who purrs," I huffed. Said purrs rumbled from his throat, pressed up against my waist.
"Yes, but you're cuter."
"I beg to differ on that one, dragon boy."
"Smaller," Lloyd countered. "Like a kitten."
"This kitten kneed you in the balls once and I'm not afraid to do it again if you don't let me go back to sleep," I lethargically warned with a gentle yank to his hair. His purr rolled with a chuckle.
"I'm taking a mediation class for some of the monks," Lloyd said, shuffling off of me. I blearily blinked my eyes open to watch him change his shirt with his back to me. Shamelessly. Because I could. "Do you want to come?"
"How about you don't?" I suggested, rolling onto my side to fully face him. Lloyd crouched before me with an amused grin. "And instead we snuggle where it's nice and warm? And sleep, too, obviously."
"I would if I could," he said, gently untangling my bedhead hair. "But I've got around fifteen people waiting for me."
"I thought mediation was an alone thing," I muttered, letting him pull me to my feet. "Not a class."
"It is an alone thing," Lloyd agreed, to which I pulled a confused face to. "But we gather in the same place."
"Then how are you taking a class?" I asked dryly.
He shrugged. It seemed that it would be my only answer. Maybe he doesn't know, either. Maybe he's just listening to what his dad told him to do - a big mood.
"Are we going outside?" I needed to know if I had to bundle up in every single one of his jackets or not.
"Do you want to freeze your nips off?" Lloyd raised a brow. "No, it's inside the main dojo. With a heater."
"Thank you, lord and saviour Robert Downey Jr," I breathed to the ceiling. I'd been told before that the winter was particularly tougher at the monastery because of how close it was to the mountain range. It was worse than what they said.
"You mispronounced Ben Affleck," Lloyd corrected.
"Do not test me," I warned, narrowing my eyes at the blond. He snickered, tossing me a hoody.
True to his word, a large heater had been rolled into the dojo and was chugging at full blast. I still shivered at the remnants of last night's chill. I hoped Lloyd wouldn't mind me using him as my own personal heater while he mediated.
Either way, he didn't have a choice.
There was something incredibly strange about being in a room full of people when it was so silent. My eyes scanned the bald heads of the monks, noting in silent amusement that a handful of the younger students hadn't changed out of their pyjamas. Hiyori had a shirt with a dabbing skeleton on it. Hiyori is now my new best friend.
Lloyd's brow twitched when I slumped over his lap like the kitten he said I was, planning on dozing off again. The heat had risen to a comfortable degree and I still had yet to properly wake, so I caved to the dull ache that sat on my eyelids.
"You should join in," Lloyd suggested, voice soft in the peaceful silence. It was nearly inaudible. "You might even enlighten yourself a little bit."
I frowned, eyes sliding open to stare at the bottom of his face. From this vantage point, I could see a scar on the bottom of his chin. Another one I hadn't noticed before. Another chapter of his life story.
"I don't know how to meditate, though," I replied, whispering. Lloyd sighed through his nose, deeply and long; as if he could breathe out all the baggage he carried.
"Close your eyes and silence your thoughts," he said quietly, closed eyes raising to the ceiling. "Allow the wind to carry your soul-" a gentle breeze from seemingly nowhere ruffled his blond hair and I was struck with the reminder of him having unlocked Morro's power. And then I was reminded of Morro himself. "- and cleanse your mind. Feel the earth beneath you. Listen to the water in the stream outside.
Connect with the spirit of the world; become one with the power that surrounds you in the form of nature."
I stared at him in amazement. I'd never seen this side of him before. Never seen him look so at peace. I supposed that's how he handled his short temper he got from his dad's evil genetics - at least, it seemed to work.
I'd hate to see how he was without it, especially with him already being as impulsive and protective as he was. So, urged on by his inspiring words, I closed my eyes and tried to 'silence my thoughts' and focus on the world around me - the curtains of air, the flickering, morning sunlight that glowed a honey-dew colour through the window, the wood beneath my seat, the garden outside, buzzing with life and potential. The spirits that roamed this forest, and the beings that lived there.
