Work Text:
Jay was fiddling with the training dummies again (for the thousandth time) when he caught a flash of blonde and black out of the corner of his eye.
He smirks inwardly and crouches down, pouncing at just the right moment and managing to catch a one Lloyd Garmadon in the act of… uh…
“What’re you doing, kid? Trying to sabotage my dummies again?”
“I’m not a kid!” Lloyd bristles, squirming in Jay’s grasp. “And I wasn’t doing anything!”
“Yeah, right.”
“I’m eleven! And I don’t need to tell you anything!”
Jay snickers, and raises him higher. “Buddy, you’re not even a teenager yet! You’re a little itty baby—“
“Noo!!”
“—Teeny, tiny infant. And you’re what, four six? Four five? Three seven? Two foot?”
“No! No! No! And I’ll be even taller than you someday—“
“But right now you’re suuuper tiny, so small I could pick you up, and—“ Jay manages to dip Lloyd and pull him up again in a neat arc, even though the kid was super heavy, what were they feeding him, “PUNT YOU LIKE A FOOTBALL! INTO THE STRATOSPHERE!”
Lloyd squeals and grabs onto Jay for purchase as he’s swung. As Jay slows down, he schools his expression into a pout. “I — I’ll bite you!” He says, baring his razor-sharp teeth.
Never has Jay been more glad he was turned into a whole-ass snakeman that one time. He smiles, revealing his own (slightly less impressive) fangs. “And what if I bite you back?”
The kid’s red eyes narrow for a moment, carefully analyzing something. Then he throws himself forward, as if he were going to bite Jay’s arm off, his whole arm off, First Master he needed his arm—
The Blue Ninja yelps and releases him at once. Lloyd expertly lands on his feet, sticks his tongue out at the older, and scrambles away, back to the Bounty’s main cabin.
“I’ll get you next time, Garmadon!“ Jay shouts after him, shaking his fist. No he does not feel like a scorned Saturday morning cartoon villain, what were you talking about?
Next time, he’ll have to do a better job of catching Lloyd off guard. He wants to make it a Next Time, he’s discovered. Jay wants to embrace not being the shortest a little longer.
Walking back from the comic book shop, a place that truly exemplified Lloyd’s happy childhood memories, was a bummer.
This whole thing was a bummer!
Sure, Jay’s never been more happy to be in the right body again, and he knows the rest of the guys feel the same (Zane no longer glitching, Cole no longer complaining, Kai no longer over-over-compensating) but it doesn’t feel fair.
Because Lloyd isn’t. He isn’t happy, he isn’t relieved, and he won’t be for a long, long time now. He had to make a tough decision, a sacrifice. He might have to make more. He might lose more. He’s lost so much already. He’s so young. He was so young.
The Final Battle is so much more close, hurtling towards them at frighteningly breakneck speeds.
It’s all coming to an end.
Jay shivers. First Master, was this a happy train of thought.
He slows his pace a little, so he was walking in time with Lloyd, now. His (once oversized) gi now fits him better, places where he once cuffed them to fit are now at his knees and elbows. His red eyes were downturned, and hidden behind blonde locks that were even more overgrown now, starting to curl slightly.
“Jeez Lloyd,” Jay tries, reaching to ruffle the kid’s hair lightly. “I didn’t know you were going for the teen bedhead that soon. You make me feel—“ Old, he doesn’t say. He shouldn’t. “I feel like I need to be telling you to get a haircut already! Like I’m a geezer now!”
It doesn’t land. But Lloyd turns his attention to Jay, and his eyes squint with the barest hints of a happy expression, and Jay feels a rush again. Distracting. He can be a distraction.
“And, oh—“ He flumps over dramatically, stumbling a bit to keep pace. “Now I’m the shortest ninja again. Seriously, Lloyd? Why’d your dad have to be like, ten foot fourteen—“
“Eleven foot two.” Lloyd quietly corrects, because he actually paid attention in Zane’s math lessons.
“I reveled in being taller than someone! And now you’ve—“ Not taken, something else? “You’ve made it impossible for me to live that dream. Ever again.”
“‘M sorry, Jay.” He mumbles, but oh, victory upon victories, Jay can now catch a smile. A small one, but a smile. “But… I’m taller than Kai now?”
And Jay does a double take. He snatches a look over to the Red Ninja behind them (who helpfully cocks an eyebrow at Jay’s antics) and then back at Lloyd. “Holy shit. Lloyd, I think you might be right!” Jay laughs, and he lets himself get louder, more animated. “And you’re taller than your older brother too, just like Nya! This is so funny. Imagine, being shorter than both of your younger siblings—“
“I can hear you, Walker!” Kai shouts from behind them.
Jay shoots him a smug look. “What’s wrong, Kai? Afraid to be down on my level?”
Kai fumes back, preparing a retort when—
Lloyd laughs. It’s small and still dampened but goddamnit, it’s a laugh.
Kai catches it too. Without missing a beat, he goes back to bickering with Jay.
Anything for their little brother.