Your Mistakes Are Yours to Keep (BEING REVISED & REPUBLISHED)

CHAPTER TWO

Big shout out to Grimbeak (ArchiveOfOurOwn) . Lloyd's scene was highly inspired by Cole's scene in their fic, "Memories in Shades of Blue". I would highly suggest it to those who love Skybound related fics :)

///

There it was again, the dreaded pacing back and forth.

Lloyd sat up on his futon and groaned while pulling his kakebuton up to his chest. The blond rubbed his eyes and adjusted to his dark bedroom.

Jay was doing it again. Jay paced back and forth during the night and his footsteps could be heard in Lloyd's room, due to Jay fighting to have the only room upstairs after they had the opportunity to stay in separate rooms in the Temple of Airjitzu. This room just happened to be above Lloyd's room.

Lloyd got up and closed the door silently behind him. Taking a left, passing Cole's room across from his and tip-toeing up the stairs, Lloyd started to worry.

His thoughts travelled to his brother. What was up with Jay? Ever since Nya and Jay had a very gross yet sweet, in his opinion, moment back on the stupid hospital rooftop, the two have been acting so strange.

Lloyd knew he wasn't the only one who noticed. When Jay stopped coming to training and missing breakfast, hushed whispers of concern were spread around the team. Cole and Kai tried to come up with reasons while Zane discouraged them from creating rumours. Zane believed that they would talk when the time was right, but it had already been 2 weeks and everything just felt wrong.

Master Wu had been just as secretive. He allowed Jay to stay inside all day and continued being the cryptic man that he usually was. Lloyd knew that he was merely respecting Jay as well as Nya's privacy, but it was causing Lloyd and everyone else to worry about him more. Apparently, he was just ill, but he had been 'ill' for two weeks now, and everyone knew that that was not the truth.

After Lloyd was lost in his thoughts, he realised that he was in front of Jay's bedroom door. The lightning master's lights were off and his back and forth pacing could still be heard. With a sigh and without knocking, Lloyd creaked the door open to have a peep at what he was doing. This has happened before. Lloyd would walk in, make Jay go back to bed. A few days later, Lloyd would once again walk in and make Jay go back to bed. This was the fourth night in a row that Lloyd had to come up to get Jay to at least try to get some sleep.

"I just had a nightmare. Don't worry about me, Lloyd. You shouldn't have to worry about your older brother, kid."

"I'm not a kid. I hate it when you call me that."

"I know. That's why I did it. Go to bed, Lloyd. I'm sorry for waking you up."

Lloyd expected the same old same old. He expected a replay of the previous three nights.

Not this night, however. Lloyd was definitely not expecting to see what he saw next.

His kakebuton lay on a heap on his futon. His blinds were open and the full moon was beaming harshly into the room.

That's how Lloyd got confronted with what he witnessed next.

Jay was still pacing back and forth shirtless. The moonlight illuminated what looked like scars? Thick, white, jagged lines crossed paths with tinier ones all over Jay's once soft and scarless back.

Lloyd had to hold back a gasp. It's not like he hasn't seen scars before, but had never seen Jay with these before. He was sure of it! He would have known of injuries gruesome enough to heal into these.

There were two specific ones that caught his eyes immediately. One from his left shoulder travelling down toward the bottom right of his ribcage and another which lay from under his left arm to the middle of his back.