Chapter Text
"Isn't it past your bedtime, greenie?"
The kid on the deck of the Bounty didn't show any signs of hearing Kai, except to tighten his knuckles on the railing. Kai sighed, and momentarily considered just going back to bed, or waking the brat's dad or uncle to deal with it. But he didn't like the idea of waking Sensei Wu or Lord Garmadon at ass o'clock in the morning, and the kid knew he was up now. So he approached the edge of the deck with habitually-soft feet until he was almost next to him, and the two stood together in silence for a moment. Looking down at Ninjago below them, the lights of Ninjago City to the left and an endless stretch of desert to the right.
"Why'd you choose me?"
The question was whispered, the words whisked away by the wind. Kai looked towards Lloyd from the corner of his eye, but the black hood was up and the boy was looking away, back in the direction of the Temple of Fire.
"I told you–" he started, but Lloyd cut him off.
"You said you realised that your True Potential was to protect the Green Ninja." Lloyd didn't sound upset or relieved. He just sounded tired.
"Yeah."
"Would you have done it if I wasn't?"
"If you weren't... What? Weren't there? I mean, if you weren't there then I wouldn't've needed–"
"No." Lloyd's voice was still just as quiet and tired as before, but something colder had entered it. "If I wasn't the Green Ninja. If I was just the same stupid kid who pulled pranks on you and got your friends in trouble. Would you still've done it? Or would you have gone for the Fang Blade?"
Kai took a breath, about to blandly insist that of course he would've, but then Lloyd finally looked over his shoulder at him. Bottle green eyes met amber brown, and something in them made Kai stop and actually think about it. Would he? So close, so close to proving himself. The conviction of his own brilliant destiny, the certainty that he had to be the chosen one. He remembered how it felt. But then, he also remembered something else. Those same green eyes meeting his, desperate and afraid and... Accepting. Burned hands and unwashed hair, blood dripping from cheeks and a soot streaked nose. Kai thought, and he remembered the feeling in his gut when he looked at Lloyd and saw that he didn't expect to be saved.
"I think so... I hope so. I'll be the first to admit you've been a pain in the ass, but you're still a person. I don't want to be the kind of guy who'd let someone die just to fuel my own ego."
"Even if it meant you'd be the Green Ninja instead?" Lloyd's eyes still hadn't left Kai's, staring up from a thin, pale face. The few days Lloyd had spent with them in-between kidnappings hadn't been enough to undo years of malnutrition, and Kai suddenly realised how small he looked. Just a kid.
"If I'd let you die to be the Green Ninja, I wouldn't deserve to be the Green Ninja. It's–" Kai gave an incredulous laugh. "It's a self eating snake."
Lloyd looked away again, back towards the lights. Kai tilted his own head back and up, towards the sky. The stars seemed so close, as they often did on the Bounty. It was a while before another quiet whisper came, softer and more tired even than the first. The cold edge was gone now, replaced with something not hopeless, but helpless.
"I wish it was you..."
Kai took a deep breath and kept his eyes on the stars, tracing the few constellations he knew with his eyes as he spoke.
"So do I. But that's not the way this is gonna go. That's not the way Fate wants things to happen."
"... I think Fate's wrong. It should've been you, or one of the others. I'm not good or strong or smart like you guys. I can't do it. I don't want to..."
"Fate knows what it's doing. You're young, you still have room to grow. All four of us are too set in our ways, it would've made us worse; one way or another. But I think it'll make you better." Kai looked down just as Lloyd looked up, eyes catching each other and holding. "Look, I wish it could've been me. I wish I could've been the chosen one. I wish I could've been worthy of it. But I can wish it'd been me and still see why it wasn't. And for what it's worth, I think you can do it. And I think it's a good thing that you don't want to. No-one with power like the Green Ninja's should want to kill someone. It took me a long time to realise that, too long. But I think you know it already, and that's what makes you the right choice."
Lloyd's eyes were wet with tears and full of stars. Kai could see his favourite constellation reflected in one large pupil. The two stared at each other for a while, bottle green and amber brown. Then, with no warning, Lloyd crumpled forwards like a marionette with his strings cut.
"Woah there green bean!" Kai floundered to catch him, eventually ducking to grab under Lloyd's armpits. "Damn, you weigh like, nothing. Did those snakes not feed you at all? C'mon, your dad'll kill me if you make yourself sick staying up all night..." He readjusted to pick Lloyd up from under the knees and around the shoulders, starting back towards the cabin. Already half-asleep, Lloyd looped his arms clumsily around Kai's shoulders and snuggled into the warmth of his neck. His hood fell back, revealing a small tangle of newly-washed blonde curls, and Kai made a mental note to ruffle the kid's hair once he was conscious enough to be annoyed by it.
The rooming on the Bounty was the source of many arguments. Wu and Nya each had a private room on opposite sides of the corridor, and Lloyd was sleeping in a corner of the living room. Meanwhile, all four ninja shared the largest bedroom at the back in two lots of bunk beds, and Garmadon was swapping between their room and Wu's in a folding cot. Of course, none of the ninja thought it was fair that the little brat didn't have to share, but Kai had to be grateful about it now. Putting Lloyd to bed was much easier when he could turn on the light without worrying about waking the others and just drop him (gently) on his shikibuton instead of messing around with a bunk bed. It took Kai a while to detangle himself from Lloyd's arms, but he managed it eventually and pulled the grey blanket up around the kid's neck. Lloyd shuffled a little, muttering as he did.
"Dad...?"
"Shhh..." Soothed Kai. He wasn't sure if he should pretend to be Garmadon or not, but the kid was back asleep before he could decide. So he just smoothed down the blanket, and turned off the light as he left.