Five Times Wu Trusted His Team

1. Fear

Okay, this will take some explaining-- so in my mind, Skyler's mother is named Alex, and she was Misako's best friend until she married Chen in order to spy on him. You can see this in more detail in my series of fanfictions, but for now, all you have to know is that Alex is really close with Misako and also Wu, because she understands him even though most people don't, but he still sometimes has a hard time trusting her.

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"Under no circumstances am I climbing a tree."

Alex huffed in annoyance, her hands folded over her chest, frowning down at Wu. "I get it, it's not ideal," she sighed, "but look-- we're hopelessly lost, and climbing a tree will get us high enough to see where we are."

Wu scowled. "Don't talk to me like I'm a toddler."

"Don't act like one, then."

Alex groaned. "Wu, come on. If you won't climb a tree, then I'll go alone."

"No," Wu snapped, "you shouldn't climb alone, what if you fall?"

Alex rolled her eyes. "Then we'll climb together."

"No."

"Then I'll climb alone." Ignoring Wu's protests, Alex turned to the tree she had spent the past five minutes trying to convince her friend to climb. "No matter what, I'm climbing this tree."

Just as she had placed her hands against the rough bark and was searching for a handhold, Wu came up beside her. "Fine," he grumbled, "I'll go with you."

"Great," Alex grinned, patting him on the shoulder. "See? That wasn't so hard, was it?"

Wu didn't reply. In fact, he was silent for the majority of the climb, and while he had never been very talkative (or perhaps that was just because she and Garmadon both talked so much, effectively drowning him out) it was most unlike him to ignore Alex's attempts at conversation and force her to fill out the silence by herself. About halfway up the tree, when the ground had become little more than a distant memory, the branches so thick beneath them that Alex could scarcely see through them, she looked down at Wu, climbing a few feet below her, to see him clinging to the trunk for dear life, shaking uncontrollably, frozen.

"Wu?" She paused, perched on the branch above him, slowly reaching down a hand towards him so as not to startle him. He seemed not to notice, staring vacantly at the leaves and branches in front of him, his lips moving but no sound coming out.

Concern and fear bubbling up inside her, Alex dropped from her branch to crouch beside Wu, placing a careful hand on his shoulder. He flinched a little and turned his head to look at her, his eyes wide, and, Alex noted with alarm, welling up with tears.

"Wu?" Keeping her voice soft, as if she was speaking to a wounded animal, she grabbed his other shoulder and made him face her. "What's wrong?"

He swallowed hard and squeezed his eyes shut. "W-we're so high up," he said shakily, biting his lip so hard that beads of blood appeared on his chin. Alex stared at him.

"You're scared of heights?" She slapped a hand against her forehead. "Aw, Wu-- come on, you could've told me this, like, before I made you climb a freaking tree!"

"Didn't want you to fall," he mumbled, and Alex's heart melted. Of course Wu would do this. Wu, who never thought of himself, who would have gladly died a thousand times over if it meant something good for someone he loved, who was constantly getting himself into trouble and then never telling anyone because he would rather suffer alone than make someone else upset on his account. "It's okay," she tried to reassure him, although judging by the way he was staring at her in utter terror, and the fact that his knuckles were stark white against the trunk he was still clinging onto, it wasn't helping. "We're gonna climb down, Wu, and then we're gonna find some other way to get out of these woods. Okay?"