The promise ring burnt a hole in the pocket of the green ninja's gi.
Lloyd Garmadon was pissed. He was a pit of rage, a caged, burning passion of fury. He was nothing but anger, nothing but animosity. He was shaking and gritting his teeth and
and he was crying.
Lloyd cursed himself for crying. He shouldn't be crying. He dumped her, so why was he in so much emotional pain that it felt debilitating? The words she said, the accusations, the distrust - she was just like everybody else who worked at making his life miserable, so why was he sobbing into the cold wind? Why did it hurt to just exist?
He should still be angry. He should still be pissed. He should still be screaming in rage and frustration for the past eight months that were wasted; but those feelings had slipped away the further Bentley flew from Y/n's and now he was just-
sad.
really sad.
Lloyd dropped his head onto Bentley's neck. The dragon's muscles rolled and swayed as he flew through the air. The motion would've been soothing if it weren't for the pain that took over every single sense of his, controlling how he felt, urging his emotional demise.
"What do I do, Bentley?" he whispered to the dragon before uttering a second curse into the scales - because Bentley was named by Y/n, and he adopted that name for his dragon, too. Even if we wanted to, he couldn't truly escape from her. She was too threaded into his life. The feel of her on his hands, her warmth, her eyes, her voice - everything about her was engrained so deep into him that he could see her perfectly when he closed his eyes. Imagine her arms wrapped around him. Her head pressed tight against his back.
So how the hell was he supposed to live without her?
Lloyd should've been cursing her name to high heaven. He should've been thanking god that he left her after such a heavy fight. He should've been counting his blessings and planning new trainings for his team and finally letting himself totally focus on training to be a Sensei.
The distraction of her was gone.
But even in flight over the bright city lights, even with all the advertisements and the handful of fans that screamed up at him - he could only see Y/n. Only hear her cries.
There was an expression of hers that he hated - the look of terror. Total, unchecked fear and horror. Directed at him. He'd seen it twice before, once with Axon and the other when she was hit with the Venomari venom.
He'd made her scared of him again.
The night air was cold and unforgiving. It froze his heart. There was no heat of love to keep him warm, no promise of hiding himself into her arms after such a long, exhausting day. There was nothing but the frigid existence of loneliness. He was alone again.
Bentley disappeared when his claws hit the gravel driveway of the monastery. Lloyd stumbled when he dropped, stones scuffing against his jika-tabi. His head hung. Everything hurt.
His phone rang. He ignored it, knowing it was Y/n and instead pulled out the ring from his pocket.
It held such power. The embodiment of their love. This ring had spent a thousand years waiting for its new owner after his own mother, and the ring Y/n gave was personally designed by her - engrained with her feelings towards him.
It all went so wrong.
Lloyd swiped his arm across his face in frustration. He's the green ninja, for God's sake. He should be better at hiding his emotions. He should be stronger. Why did she make him so weak?
Lloyd's phone rang again and he pulled it out with a frustrated snarl. His scowl softened at the background of him and Y/n. His hands shook.
And then he was reminded of the fight and his rage piked. But he had to be the bigger person. With a determined growl, his finger pressed the block button.
And silence.
Peace and quiet.
Lloyd stared down at the phone apathetically, wanting to feel either victorious or heartbroken but ending up with nothing. Face blank, heart empty. His phone eventually turned itself off, the image of Y/n fading into black. So he stayed out there in the driveway, in solitude. Cradling the promise ring until the weather turned and it began to rain.
'I should've let Axon kill you.'
Obviously he didn't mean it. It slipped out in the heat of the fight - some angry, primal urge to hurt her back made him say something he truly never meant. He was still reeling at the hateful malice he'd felt - like nothing he'd ever experienced before. Worse than that, more ethereally demanding of his attention, however; was the cruel regret that curled his stomach into sickening knots.
