Querencia

S1 E5: Can of Worms*

[M/n] was woken early, the door sliding open on quietly creaking hinges but his eyes stayed closed, using his other senses. His hand curled around the blade he'd put at his side the night before, only to hear Wu chuckle, automatically relaxing, eyes opening.

"Easy, my student." [M/n] put the, still sheathed, blade off to the side, raising a brow. "I have an important job for your charge this morning."

"Charge?"

"Lloyd seems quite comfortable in your presence, and the others are still . . . wary of his presence because of his father." Wu sighed, eyes closing for a second.

"He's been here nearly a week," [M/n] pointed out, scowling. "But what is this important job you are giving him?"

"I shall explain once he is actually awake, so I do not have to explain it twice."

Sighing, [M/n] lightly shook Lloyd's shoulder, "Time to wake up, Lloyd."

Once he was sure the boy was actually waking up, [M/n] pulled away to stand and stretch, having fallen asleep in several uncomfortable positions since he'd been sharing the small room with Lloyd. His bones cracked, and the first thought that ran through his mind was - 'I sound exactly like Wu when he stands up.' It took every bit of training he couldn't remember to keep a straight face.

Wu explained what Lloyd's 'mission' was, exciting the young boy, who had felt deprived of chaos the past few days. [M/n] hid a chuckle listening to Lloyd's excited voice as he pulled on his jeans for the day, seeing no need for his GI until he actually began training.

Wu had finished, luckily, when [M/n] pulled his sleep shirt off, reaching for his other shirt, quickly pulling Lloyd's attention to the tattoo across his back. "Woah! You have tattoos?!"

"Just the two you see."

Chuckling, Wu calmly rose, "Good luck."

Lloyd, distracted, didn't respond to his uncle, "What's it say?" He approached to poke the script running down his spine, starting at the base of his neck and ending at the base of his spine.

"I don't know."

"Wha- How do you not know what your own tattoo says?"

"I see where the confusion comes from, but I don't actually have a good portion of my memory. So I already had the tattoo when I woke. That, and I believe it's Ancient Ninjaoan which is a difficult language to translate."

"Oh, that's weird. And kinda cool. It looks cool. What about the weird line?" Lloyd tapped the other tattoo, that bisected his spine tattoo.

"Have you ever heard of the Kitsune?"

"The foxes?"

"Supernatural foxes, connected to the Elements of the World. But yes, 'the foxes'. There is a constellation that corresponds with their legends, which is what the tattoo is based on."

"That's . . . boring," Lloyd grumbled. The tattoo was essentially a line through five miniature stars, though the stars were colored - 2 blue, 2 orange, and 1 white - with a black line cutting through them.

"Just because it doesn't look cool, doesn't mean it isn't interesting. Many constellations look boring on their own, it takes one's imagination to make the picture." [M/n] pulled on his shirt, glancing back. "But I have a feeling you have no interest in listening to a lecture on philosophy."

"How can you sound so old and be so young?"

[M/n] blinked, a little bewildered, before he snorted. "I don't know, kid. How about we drop this, and focus on your little 'mission'?"