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Lloyd silently cursed Zane’s hearing as the other ninja all turned to look at him. Cole and Jay were sitting at the far ends of the couch, so they had to lean way forward to see.
Kai put his game controller down and stood up as Lloyd grinned awkwardly and tried not to look suspicious. “Where do you think you’re going, muchacho?”
“Just out on deck,” Lloyd said. “Sue me for wanting to get some sunshine.”
Kai’s eyes very slowly, very obviously went from the top of Lloyd’s head down to his shoes, then back up again. He nodded to himself as he spotted the details that confirmed what they’d all already known – Lloyd was wearing the knee pads they usually used for training, one buckled on very awkwardly over his cast, and no gloves, because though they were a standard part of his current outfit, he’d shred them way too quickly if he wore them while training.
“Uh-huh,” Kai said.
Lloyd crossed his arms and scowled. He clearly wasn’t getting away with this, but what could Kai really do about it?
Kai sighed and shook his head, then started toward him.
“Hey – wait – what are you – KAI! PUT ME DOWN!”
“I’ll be right back, guys,” Kai told the other ninja over the shoulder he didn’t currently have Lloyd over. “I need to put the kid back to bed.”
Jay burst out laughing, marking himself for later vengeance. Cole and Zane had the sense to not immediately put themselves on Lloyd’s hit list, at least not until he and Kai were out of the room.
Lloyd thrashed and kicked and wished he could see what he was aiming at, then stopped trying to move his injured leg when he accidentally slammed his foot into a wall. “Nngh! Seriously, Kai – this is ridiculous! Just put me down!”
“Or what?” Kai asked flatly. “What are you going to do if I just keep walking?”
Lloyd tried to kick him in the face, which was technically a valid answer to his question, but it was also really annoying. Kai shifted his grip on Lloyd a bit so his brother was at an even worse angle for stunts like that and counted himself lucky that he didn’t have to go up or down any stairs.
Lloyd stopped struggling and went limp, which made him harder to carry than the frenzied flailing had. Not that Kai was going to tell him that. “I’m your leader. Shouldn’t you do what I say?”
Kai chuckled. Cute. “Yeah, see, the thing about that is, we made you the leader because you’re pretty good at figuring out what’s best for the rest of us – and for Ninjago. But we all agree that you absolutely suck at figuring out what’s best for yourself, so your rank doesn’t mean jack right now.”
Kai hadn’t meant to stumble into the bedroom, then trip over his own feet and fall forward, sending Lloyd flying across the room – where he did, fortunately, land on one of the beds, albeit not his own. But that was what Lloyd got for actually landing his kick that time, Kai supposed.
He pulled himself to his feet, breaking all his own rules about swearing in front of Lloyd as he flapped his arm like he was some whacked-out version of Zane’s falcon and tried to tell himself his elbow didn’t hurt as much as it absolutely did. Weirdly enough, his face felt fine.
Lloyd had sat up on Kai’s bed – and damn him for being short enough to do that without hitting his head. Kai still regularly made himself see stars getting up in the morning. “Oh my gosh, Kai, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to-”
Kai stopped flapping and held up a hand for silence. “’s okay, Lloyd. I’m fine.” He’d taken worse than this in training, and had it made him falter for even a second then? No! “Look… maybe we didn’t explain it well enough, but ‘bed rest’ means you’re supposed to stay in bed.”
Lloyd looked down and sighed, sounding resigned. “Yeah, I know… but I hate it down here when it’s just me. It’s so boring.”
“So you got up, walked around on your broken leg to put training gear on, and then tried to sneak past us to go make your injury a million times worse instead of, I don’t know, playing video games with us?”
“I wanted to do something useful. I haven’t been able to do anything for days and it’s driving me nuts.”
“Hate to break it to you, kid, but you’re not gonna be useful again for at least another month. You should try to enjoy not having any responsibilities in the meantime.”
“I hate not having any responsibilities.”
Kai frowned, but he’d had that argument with Lloyd before – there wasn’t anything to be gained by having it again, at least not right now. “Okay, then, you’re responsible for sorting Jay’s sock drawer, cleaning all the training equipment you can do while sitting down, and doing something about the crud under the sink. Happy?”
“That’s just a list of chores.”
“It’s something to be responsible for.”
Lloyd snorted. “Yeah, like it’s going to change anything if I actually go scrub out that mold. You guys wouldn’t even notice. And besides, I don’t want to.”
Kai walked over to sit down on Lloyd’s bed, right across from his brother. The room was small enough that their knees ended up touching, although they still weren’t on eye level. “Look… kid… I know this sucks. I know you hate feeling useless. But it’s either take a month off and spend that time having fun now or, the way you’re acting, end up in the hospital for way longer.” Lloyd couldn’t permanently disable himself from a starting point of just a broken leg, could he? He probably couldn’t. Kai sure hoped he couldn’t. “You’ll have plenty of time to contribute to the team later.”
“That doesn’t make anything better now.”
“You know, Lloyd, there’s this thing called patience-”
Lloyd snorted. “You’re one to talk.”
“Hey!” He had to admit Lloyd was right, though, so he didn’t insist on that line of attack. “Okay, then – what if I cut you a deal? You slack off now-” that was an insane way to refer to taking sick leave, but it was how Lloyd would see it – “and when you’re back on your feet, no don’t you dare stand up young man, the rest of us will take a week off and dump our entire workload on you.”
Lloyd hesitated, and by his grandfather’s staff, if the next words out of his mouth were about how the other ninja taking only a week wasn’t long enough to be fair…
“All right,” Lloyd said hesitantly. “I guess that works.”
Kai beamed. “Awesome.”
“I’m still bored, though.”
“Well, we are playing video games. Wanna help me beat Jay’s high score?”
Lloyd snorted, though the statement had given him an idea for how he could get his revenge on Jay, and the plot was already beginning to thicken inside his head. “As if. I guess I can help you try.”