Ninjago: Heart of the Storm (Discontinued)

Chapter Three: A Truthful Sleepover

At High School Ninjago, the Ninja was surrounded by a group of fans, who begging the ninja to sign their autographs on various school equipment. His friends were having mixed reactions to this. Zane, the innocent robot that he was, was willingly giving autographs to anyone that asked, writing with incredible speed. Kai was really getting into it, chatting with various fan girls as he signed their items. Cole was just listening to his music, passively watching the scene unfold. Nya was actively fighting off the fans, pushing them away and telling them to scram. Jay was hiding behind the rest, clearly not sure of the situation.
Walking into class, the Ninja received another unfamiliar greeting. Conversations stopped, and everyone watched as they sat down in their respective seats. None of the Ninja really knew how to act under all the curious and regretful stares. But Nya, who was easily annoyed by things like this, decided to speak her mind.
"Why don't you take a picture? It'll last longer!" Nya snapped, and the whole class turned their gaze away.
They soon saw Audra coming over to them. But when she took notice of the situation, she was surprised and curious about the situation. Why did everyone stop talking? Did an incident happened? As Audra sat down at her desk next to Lloyd, eyeing the other students with wary curiosity. Audra can see the faces of guilt, regret, sadness, fear, joy, and wonder as she sat down next to Lloyd.
When the teacher walked in, Lloyd could see she was stressed. Her hands shook as she handed out some tests she'd marked, almost dropping a few. It got worse as she approached the ninja. The teacher avoided their gaze, and quickly passed their marked test to them. As she passed Lloyd, he heard her breathing quicken, and her hand tremored as his test was handed to him. Looking at his grade, Lloyd frowned in surprise. On previous tests, even if he got the answers right, he would always get an F. But this test had been marked fairly, and he'd received the first B of his school life. Lloyd almost asked the teacher if there had been a mistake, but then he realised that was a stupid plan. And he had a pretty good idea as to why his grade was suddenly higher.
Audra soon caught his eye, making him catch his breath in his throat. But Lloyd couldn't help himself from being drawn to Audra. The girl's long, wavy light golden caramel hair was in a partial braid, and seemed to glow like melted gold. He also caught sight of her face as she peacefully read her book and pulled out her journal before she started writing. Her expression was very calm and relaxed. Her blue eyes held a calm look in them as she wrote in her journal. Lloyd couldn't help, but subconsciously smile to himself.
Once she was done writing in her journal, she put her items away into her blue and black backpack. Audra noticed a strip of paper had somehow appeared on her desk, she glanced at the Ninja curiously before she started reading it quietly. "Hey, Audra! We're having a sleepover on Saturday and we were wondering if you'd like to come?" Part of her was surprised, but most of her was just anxious about being with Lloyd. She sighed as she fiddled with the message, wondering what to say.
She did want to spend time with them again and wouldn't it be rude to deny an invite for no reason? After a bit more thinking and seeing Lloyd's hopeful expression, Audra let out a sigh and smiled as she finally made up her mind. "I'd love to go." She returned the message to her Ninja friends and chuckled softly when she saw bright smiles on their faces. But their smiles were outshined by Lloyd's ecstatic smile, making Audra's heart take an excited leap.

They decided to have a sleepover that involves them bickering playfully, exchanging stories, and watching movies. For that matter, all three of them had brought some food; cookies, chips, popcorn, pizza, and some apple juice. The kids had prepared tons of movies to watch. Audra had put up the Chronicles of Narnia movie series, the Dinosaur movie, Quest for Camelot, Pup Star, and Legend of the Guardians: Owls of Ga'Hoole.
After a few moments and a few bowls of chips and popcorn, the kids had started their movie marathon. They had finished the first Chronicles of Narnia movie and were right in the middle of the second one. Even if Zane agreed on watching some movies with the kids, he didn't understand it and yet was curious about human culture. Thankfully, Audra was there to explain to him that movies were about telling a story, with moving images. But it was more than just moving images, movies were about creating a story that people would see and connect with it in a certain way. In a way movies show you certain lessons of life. And also you enjoy yourself. He didn't quite get the story, but seeing the kids smiling and enjoying such a wonderful time made him happy.
Zane paused the movie and turned the TV off before he glanced at his asleep friends. Zane surveyed the scene in front of him. Lloyd was slumped over on the right arm of the couch, his head resting on his arm and his legs curled up under him. Kai was curled up as well, head resting on Lloyd's shoulder and Lloyd's other arm wrapped around his shoulders. Cole was curled up as well, head resting on Kai's shoulder while Audra was sleeping a few inches away from Lloyd. Jay and Nya were both half covered in the blanket normally seen on the back of the couch. It was... adorable, really.
Zane smiled softly at the sight of the trio and silently used his icy-blue eyes to take a picture of the scene and saving it in his memory. With a content smile, Zane soon joined his friends and he fell asleep with them. But an hour after Zane fell asleep, Audra woke up and quietly went to the bathroom. But as she finished drying her hands, Audra jumped when she heard a quiet knock on the door and opened the door. She couldn't see anyone behind the door, so maybe Audra had imagined it. She opened the door wide enough to poke her head out of her room just to make sure nobody was awake and trying to get her attention. As Audra looked to the left, her eyes landed on the pajama clad back of a retreating figure.
"Lloyd?" Audra asked in a soft whisper, causing the figure to be tensed. They turned around slowly, a hand rubbing at their neck sheepishly and it was indeed Lloyd.
"Yeah... Sorry, I, I didn't mean to wake you it was just—" He stuttered nervously, avoiding her gaze. He slowly trailed off and went completely silent and Audra felt her face fall in sympathy.
"Nightmare?" Audra asked softly, trying to tread carefully. Lloyd nodded slowly. She frowned emphatically and tried to plan her next move carefully as they both went to the guest room together. "Do you... want to talk about it?" Lloyd nodded again, much more enthusiastic this time, and bounded over to her, his footsteps completely silent. She stepped back and opened the door to the room for him to hop into the bed.
Lloyd was complete silent for a minute, so Audra just waited for him to collect himself. He let out a shaky sigh and pulled the blanket around himself. "It... It started like a dream. We were all on the Destiny's Bounty, sailing on the ocean, and we suddenly crashed on this island." She froze, Audra was about to ask Lloyd to tell me more about this island when he continued. "And, we were all fine, the Destiny's Bounty wasn't though. And a bunch of stuff happened that I don't really remember but I was suddenly facing a huge dark sea serpent and it was about to, I dunno shoot me? Blast me with some dark power? And... And y-you shoved me out of the way and everything went dark, you started to attack me, but it wasn't you. The sea serpent had control and was making you hurt me. I was about to start fighting back when I suddenly woke up and heard your speaker playing. I had to make sure you were alright so l got up to talk to you before I even realized how silly that is." He sighed and brought his knees up to his chest before folding his arms over the top of his legs and burying his face in them. Audra was both stunned and touched. He had been concerned for her despite the threat only being present in his mind. Audra didn't have any words that would soothe his shot nerves, she did what Audra thought would help calm him down. Audra carefully stood up and made her way to the bed, any awkwardness brought on by the situation was long forgotten as she pulled the young man into a hug. He tensed up and Audra started to let him go when he sighed explosively and leaned all his weight on her. Lloyd's head came to rest on her collarbone as Audra just held him and rubbed circles on his back, still at loss for words. "I'm supposed to be Ninjago's savior, 1 know, and I shouldn't be bothered by a nightmare... But..." He trailed off and sniffled.
Audra's expression softened into sympathy and empathy. "Lloyd... You don't have to be strong all the time. It's ok that you're scared, everyone gets scared at one point or another." She decided not to mention her fears after the Meowthra Disaster, considering that he might still feel guilty for that incident. "You're destined to save the world and when the time comes, I'll know you'll be able to. But until then, let us take care of you, Lloyd. Let m-us help you." Audra felt her cheeks warm at the slip up and hid it by pulling Lloyd closer and, out of habit from comforting her frightened younger cousins, pressed a kiss to his hairline. She barely registered that she had done that and thankfully Lloyd didn't say anything about it.
"Thanks, Audra." Lloyd sighed and a thoughtful hum came from Audra as her reply. They both lapsed into silence for a good while. Lloyd's breathing evened and he stilled nearly all
movement, making her certain he was asleep up until Audra tried to move. Audra was trying to gently lay Lloyd down so he could rest more comfortably when Audra felt Lloyd grab onto her shirt.
"Audra, I don't want to sleep." Audra stopped, awkwardly, with one leg on the floor, one on the bed, and one arm stuck wrapped around Lloyd.
"Well, what do you want to do then?" Audra asked tentatively, trying to cook up some way to get Lloyd to go to sleep.
He was silent for a moment, peering at her from underneath his blonde fringe. He glanced at the window and Audra saw the very moment he got an idea. "Stargaze?"
"Stargaze?" Audra raised an eyebrow at that.
"Yeah, or you know, just hang out. We don't have to necessarily stargaze." Audra giggled at the shy offer and motioned for him to get up and follow her. Lloyd happily trumping after her through the dark hallway wrapped in her blanket. Audra led the way to the rooftop and plopped down on the turquoise towel. Lloyd followed her lead and sat beside her, the blanket pulled over his head like a hood as he looked up at the starry night sky.
The moon slowly rose in the place of honor on the darkening violet backdrop, the stars around it had deviated drastically from the night before. Prominent constellations moved in a wide arc parallel to the moon's path, while the lesser ones framed them intermittently. The North Star was shining brightly as the moon. The other stars seemed to be swirling playfully through the sky.
His bright green eyes were wide and innocent as they looked up to the heavens. "So... Do you know any constellations?"
Audra shrugged. "Not really. I just like looking up at the stars. But my Mom helped me find the constellations and learn the stories behind the stars." She stiffened when she heard a loud meow, but she remembered the disappearance of her parents. "I haven't seen my parents since the Meowthra Incident."
Lloyd opened and closed his mouth a few times with a dumbfounded expression on his face. "Y-You knew that was me? You knew that I unleashed Meowthra?" Lloyd's tone was scared and breathless. He was clearly worried about her reaction and opinion of him.
Audra blinked a few times, more pieces of the puzzle fitting into place. Even with this knowledge, Audra still couldn't find it within her to be angry at him. "I... You were... You were...less mature then. I mean you've grown... Jeez. You're a better person now, so I'm not angry with you, that's my point here." Audra huffed in frustration at her lack of words. Her words pulled a laugh from Lloyd, loud and bright, and Audra felt her face warmed at the sound. Lloyd continued to laugh, but tears fell from his eyes, startling and worrying her to an unbelievable point. "Why... Why are you crying?" Audra tried to keep the tremble out of her voice as she carefully monitored Lloyd. The blonde-haired boy calmed down, a wide smile over his face as he leaned his forehead on Audra's shoulder, making her blink in surprise. There were some soft sniffles emanating from him as she felt him intertwine his fingers with her own. Audra was confused as to what was going on, but she didn't pull her hand away.
"You have no idea how badly I needed to hear that." Lloyd's smile grew tight as the tears fell more freely from his emerald green eyes, though he still chuckled dryly. Audra didn't know what to do besides wrapped arms around Lloyd again like Audra had after his nightmare. They lapsed into a peaceful silence, the breeze and Lloyd's occasional sniffles the only real sounds to be heard. After about five or six minutes of just sitting there in each other's company, the two of them ended up sharing the same blanket with each other and laid down next to each other. His arms quickly wrapped around her waist and Audra found herself leaning against his left shoulder. She remained silent as Lloyd fell asleep on her and Audra smiled at him fondly, before she fell asleep too. Both of them were unaware of Zane watching them with a smile and quietly took a picture before he disappeared back into the apartment.