I turned in my bed. I looked at the white numbers on my phone, 3:24. I sat on the side of the bed staring at the floor. Jay mumbled my name and dozed off. I went to the kitchen and grabbed the milk from the fridge.
"Nya?"
I jumped at the sound of my name.
"You scared me. Why are you awake Lloyd?"
"I can't sleep."
I hummed agreeing with him while he sat down. Change of plans. I grabbed two glasses and filled them with milk. I opened the candy cabinet. Cookies. I motioned for him to follow me to the living room. We sat down next to each other with everything laid out in between us.
He grabbed a chocolate chip cookie from the plastic Chips Ahoy container as we sat in silence.
"Why can't you sleep?" I asked.
"I- I have nightmares about them d-"
I nodded.
"You?"
"Do you wanna talk about it?"
He looked at his cookie and milk.
"It's always helped," I encouraged.
"It's getting more dangerous. Zane already di-died once. Then we got him back, but the group broke. My dad sa-sacrificed him-himself," he stuttered and started to tear up.
I moved the cookies to the side and leaned towards him. He leaned in and I wrapped my hands around him.
"Sensei Wu disappeared. Then Kai, Jay, Cole, and Zane died."
He placed his forehead on my shoulder and bawled. I rubbed circles on his back to comfort him.
"Remember when you were young and you would say "if I were scared" because you didn't want me to know you were scared."
He looked at me, slightly smiling.
"I would comfort you and give you advice."
"Yeah," he whispered.
"It was a close call last time. We have to train more. Make sure nothing happens ever again. It's part of the job, but we'll try to prevent it."
He hummed in agreement. I gave him a small smile.
"Let's go to bed."
"Can we stay here? Bring blankets and pillows and make a fort? Like when I couldn't sleep."
"Race you there and back!"
I ran to my room to get pillows and blankets.
"You got a head start!"
I turned around and stuck my tongue out.
We came out of our rooms at the same time. He threw his stuff down the stairs while I ran down them. He jumped off the side of the stairs, grabbed his stuff, and ran.
"Lloyd!" I whined.
"Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. As long as we try our best."
"Now you're gonna use my words against me."
"Are you gonna help me build this fort?" he questioned, throwing a pillow at me.
I caught it and exclaimed, "Now you're gonna get it."
He grabbed another pillow, and we attacked each other. I threw my pillow to the side and started tickling him. I sat on him while he laid on the floor.
"N-Nya!"
"Shhh! You're gonna wake everyone up," I shushed him while continuing to tickle him.
"St-st-sto-"
I stopped while he calmed his breathing and got off his lap.
"You're the devil," he insulted.
"Look who's talking pint size. Are we gonna build the fort?"
"Yeah."
We finished the fort and laid in it.
"Goodnight Lloyd."
"Night Nya."
