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lemonmaggot · 1 month ago

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Beneath The Deep Blue

Summary: While on the Hydro Bounty, Nya slips away from her overbearing mother, only to discover her younger teammate searching desperately for a gift she gave him many years ago.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/61781623

Fic Below the cut (4,001 words)

“Stupid Mom,” Nya grumbled as she stomped her way across the submarine. The sounds of her footsteps rattled the metal floors, warning anyone close by of her anger. Everyone knew to avoid Nya when she was upset. At the moment, it seemed best not to see her again until they reached land and she was finally released from the closed space with her mom. “I can clean my own stupid clothes.” Nya kicked open the door to the sleeping chambers and threw the pile of clean laundry onto her bed. It was hard enough to convince her mom that she could put her own clothes away. She had already done enough by washing and folding everything. It wasn’t until Nya lied and claimed she had a very specific way of organizing her clothing in her drawers that her mother finally stepped down.

Although it seemed someone else was likewise unhappy with the way Maya had organized his clothing. Lloyd kneeled before his drawers, having pulled both drawers all the way out of their pockets. Maya had already cleaned the entirety of the sleeping quarters, but if Nya didn’t know any better, she’d think the area hadn’t been touched at all. Lloyd had pulled out nearly every article of clothing from his drawers and thrown them haphazardly. It looked like a clothing bomb had gone off, Lloyd being the epicenter. He muttered something to himself and shuffled through the clothes again, picking up and dropping the same shirt that he had messed with at least five times since Nya had entered the room.

He seemed to be in his own little world, and frankly, Nya didn’t have the patience to deal with it at the moment. She shook her head lightly at the boy and turned her attention back to her own clothing. Nya tugged open her drawer and tossed the folded laundry into the empty space. Her original plan was to throw it in all at once. Hopefully, her mother would not check if Nya truly did have a specific system for organizing her clothes. Unfortunately, she had to notice that one of the blues did not match the other. She held up the odd blue hoodie to the light. Upon the closer examination, she huffed and tossed the hoodie onto Jay’s bed. It’s not that difficult! Jay wore a darker blue than her! Jay wore azure blue, and she wore cyan blue. Huge difference. This is exactly why she couldn’t trust her mom to do her laundry. It was easier if she did it all herself. The fact that she and Jay often got their clothes confused by themselves was not important. It especially didn’t help that the two liked to take each other’s hoodies for comfort, mixing up their closest even more. There are a few shirts that, at this point, Nya can’t remember if it was originally hers or Jay’s.

Nya turned her head as she heard Lloyd grumble and stand to his feet. He walked behind her and left the room, not acknowledging her at all. Strange. Lloyd was never one to ignore someone. Not that Nya cared too much at the moment. She continued to toss down the neatly folded laundry down into her drawers one by one. She found another article of clothing which was not hers, this time a vivid sky blue shirt, this one belonging to Zane. Nya realized there was a lot of blue amongst their team. Perhaps it wasn’t her mother’s fault for getting all the clothes confused.

Lloyd returned to the sleeping chambers, his hands held together to his chest. One thumb rubbed against the other, the soothing friction rubbing the skin raw and red. Lloyd sat back down amongst his pile of clothing. Again, he picked up each piece of clothing and checked it over again and again before setting it back down from where it last lay. Lloyd frowned and furrowed his eyebrows once he had inspected each article of clothing for what must have been the fifth time. Now he was going for a sixth.

Nya finally reached the bottom of her pile and tilted her head at the last item. A red hoodie? How did Kai’s clothing get on board? He was safely back at home at the monastery with Cole, Wu, and Ray. His clothing should have never gotten even close to the Hydro Bounty. Nya picked up the hoodie and shook it, opening it up and ruining her mother’s careful folding. Ah, scratch that. How did one of her old hoodies get on board? Nya tilted her head, examining the golden phoenix symbol across the front. She hadn’t seen this old thing in years. Where had it been? She held up the sleeves, seeing the old holes patched with green fabric. The water ninja ran her fingers over the stitching. The patches were handmade, attached with a loop stitch. Someone neatly made each loop, but the lines seemed to curve back and forth unintentionally. Done by someone who, knowing the correct methods, lacked the patience to execute it neatly. Of course, that meant Kai. He’d always patched their clothes when the two were younger. It was something their mother had taught him before their disappearance. However, Nya recalled him patching this hoodie previously, but Nya would have never chosen a green fabric. She always liked to patch her clothes with blue, her favorite color. The anger racing through her heart ebbed away as she recalled Kai searching far and wide for any fabric that suited her taste.

Lifting the other arm of the maroon hoodie, she found another patch, this time blue. The stitching on this one was far messier, the threads beginning to wear out again. It was an old fix, Nya recalled when she begged Kai to fix this hole. She must have been about fourteen. It was her favorite hoodie to wear to sleep, and she wasn’t ready to give it up at that point. When had she given it up?

Seven times. Lloyd searched through his small amount of belongings seven times now to find it. He swore he brought it onto the submarine. It was his favorite hoodie. The depths of the ocean chilled his bones, with no sunlight to keep them warm. They equipped the submarine with a heater, but kept it on low to conserve energy. Normally, that would be fine. That would be if he could find something to warm himself up with. Lloyd brought his thumb up to his mouth and bit at the nail. Perhaps he missed it in the laundry room? Maya had finished all the laundry, so if it wasn’t in their bedroom, it was with the rest of the laundry that had yet to be put away. Lloyd rose to his feet, ready to rifle through all the clean clothes again. He’d feel guilty about messing up the neat piles, but Lloyd needed that hoodie more than he needed to be polite.

Lloyd gasped as he finally noticed Nya and froze in place. “Oh! You have it,” Lloyd stated simply. He glanced at the mess he’d made of his drawers and frowned. All that frantic searching and he could’ve just asked the original owner of the hoodie if she knew where it was. Lloyd kicked his clothes off the floor and onto his bed. He’d fold and put them away again later. That was if Maya didn’t beat him to it. Lloyd thought he was fast and sneaky, but that woman was on a whole new level. He supposes that’s how having decades of training versus his years of training compared.

“Huh?” Nya furrowed her eyebrows at Lloyd and glanced between him and the old hoodie. After a few seconds, and focusing on the green patches, it finally clicked. “I forgot about this old thing. You still wear it?”

“Of course I do! It means a lot to me.” How much it meant to him went unsaid. Nya could extrapolate what he meant.

Lloyd didn’t like to think about that day. The day his world changed and his childhood suddenly ended. It was his decision for the greater good. Still, sometimes he was upset by it. Especially later that night, while dressing for bed. Every shirt he had, even those that swallowed him before, now stretched taut against his now broad shoulders. Long shirts became crop tops. Pants now could no longer reach up past his knees. Wu promised that in the morning they could get him new clothes that fit his now teenage body. For the night, Kai loaned him a red muscle-tee and Zane loaned some white sweatpants.The gesture was sweet and needed. Yet as the team said goodnight to each other, Nya noticed a longing in Lloyd’s eyes.

“Lloyd,” Nya said, gaining the child’s attention. “Come here.” She motioned her hand and walked down the hallway of the bounty, down towards her room.

Lloyd hesitated and looked back to his room, his new room that he shared with the boys. Previously, he had shared his room with his uncle, but now that he was ‘grown’, Wu had decided it was time for him to join the other four. He could hear the ninja laughing and joking with each other. They were much louder than Wu was at bedtime. Lloyd was going to miss the quiet and peace. Lloyd followed the samurai down the hall and to her room.

“I know you liked your skeleton hoodie,” Nya began. “I can tell you miss it.”

“It’s fine, I don’t need it anymore,” Lloyd quickly defended. It was fine. This was his choice. He didn’t like being a kid anyway.

Nya raised an eyebrow at him and placed a hand on her hip. “Uh-huh? Is that why you keep hugging yourself?”

Lloyd glanced down at his torso, seeing it wrapped by his bare arms. His face pinked and Lloyd shot his hands down to his sides, hating how immediately he felt exposed once again. “I’m not hugging myself! I’m crossing my arms!” Lloyd huffed, his voice cracking. He cringed at the sound, not used to his voice suddenly being so much deeper.

Nya laughed and shook her head. It was a light, playful laugh. Not something mean. Lloyd knew she wasn’t laughing at him, and he felt relaxed at the friendly sound. “Whatever you say. But I can tell you need something. You don’t seem like the muscle shirt kind of guy.” Nya turned around for a second and picked up a pile of various items, varying from bright reds to maroons and finally some blues. The samurai held up the first item from the pile, a red sweatshirt, to Lloyd’s body. She held it there for a second before tossing it to the side with a shake of her head. “Too long.” Lloyd tilted his head and watched where the sweatshirt landed on the door of her wardrobe. When he looked back, a long-sleeved shirt was held up to him, similar to the previous item. “Hm. I think that’s too short. Doesn’t fit me either.” The shirt was similarly tossed to the side. Now a blue hoodie hung in front of him. “I think-” Nya began with a smile that fell as she held it closer to Lloyd, pressing it against his shoulders. “Wait, no. Ugh, your shoulders are too broad for this one.”

“What are you doing?” Lloyd finally questioned as he watched her throw away the last item from the pile she had picked up.

“Trying to find something that will fit you,” Nya answered with a shrug. “I have some old clothes I don’t wear much anymore, and I figured that you could use them more than I do. Plus, my clothes should fit you better than the boy’s.” The samurai motioned to Lloyd’s current outfit, where Kai’s shirt reached his thighs and Zane’s pants pooled around his ankles. Grown enough that his old clothes didn’t fit, but not quite old enough that he was the same height as the other ninja. It was certainly odd to see Nya at this angle. He had gotten so used to looking up at her. He still had to look up to the others, but now he stood at the same height as the samurai.

Nya opened her wardrobe the rest of the way and shifted through the outfits inside. She hummed in a displeased tone. She owned fewer clothes that she could give to Lloyd than she thought. Nya frowned. She hadn’t meant to get Lloyd’s hopes up. Perhaps giving him the too large sweatshirt was the right move. It was better than nothing, or any clothing that the others could give him. She turned to give Lloyd the bad news but paused as her mirror caught her attention. She was similarly ready for bed, wearing her favorite hoodie. A maroon hoodie, which bore a phoenix symbol on the front. She had just gotten it back from Kai, who took forever attaching the blue patch to the right elbow where she had worn through the fabric. She glanced between her reflection and Lloyd. The hoodie fit her torso perfectly but was larger on the shoulders. Nya slipped off the hoodie and held it up to Lloyd’s body, just as she had done with the old clothes she did not care about. She took more care with it this time, checking the sleeves against his arms. “Perfect.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“This’ll fit you perfectly,” Nya explained, pushing her beloved hoodie into Lloyd’s hands.

“But…” Lloyd hesitated and then pushed it back into the giver’s hands. “I can’t. I see you wear it all the time. It’s your favorite.”

“It is, so you better take good care of it.”

Lloyd shook his head and stepped back from the samurai so she couldn’t force it upon him. “It’s fine, Nya. I don’t need a hoodie that bad. I’ll be fine without it. Tomorrow I’ll get a new one-”

Nya shook her head and interrupted the green ninja. “Nope. Arms up.”

“Nya-”

“Arms. Now.”

Lloyd sighed and held out his arms, knowing Nya was too stubborn to argue with. Nya slid the arms of the hoodie over Lloyd’s arms and pulled the rest over his head. She tugged it down, adjusting the fabric to sit just right. She grinned and nodded her head. “Looks great!” Nya grabbed his elbow and turned Lloyd to face the mirror. “It fits you perfectly.”

Lloyd felt all the tension in his shoulders that he had not even noticed melt away. The hoodie was soft and warm. It carried enough weight to hold a soothing presence but did not restrict movement. Lloyd could tell why this was Nya’s favorite. It was perfect in every way. The type of item that you find once in a lifetime and hold on to until it’s nothing but strings. Lloyd lifted his hands to his chest, his thumbs finding each other and rubbing nervously. It was nice and smelt like home. He didn’t want to take it off, but he felt guilty. He couldn’t take this.

As Lloyd opened his mouth to once again deny the gift, Nya gently placed her hand on his, separating his worried thumbs. “Keep it. It’s yours now, lil’ bro.”

Lloyd’s lips tightened into a thin line and he looked at Nya who stood behind him in the mirror. She smiled encouragingly at him. ‘Lil’ bro’ rang through his ears. Was he her little brother now? Was this what siblings did for each other? Lloyd never had much of a family, much less any siblings. He still struggled to understand why the team was so nice to him. No one had ever treated him like this before, with so much genuine kindness. When he looked into Nya’s eyes, they held no deceit. This was not a rug pull. She would not lure him into this sense of peace just to pull the hoodie off of him and laugh at his vulnerability. Was this what it was like? To have a family? He supposes it was. He saw the way Kai and Nya cared for each other. Sure, they fought sometimes, but at the end of the day, they were always friends again. Perhaps that is why Nya found it so easy to forgive Lloyd for being a brat when he was younger, or rather, a few weeks ago. She already knew how to love and tolerate one brother. What was one more?

Finally, the edges of Lloyd’s lips curled up into a smile. “Thank you, Nya.” Lloyd turned around and pulled the other into a tight hug.

“Of course. I’m always here for you, Lloyd.” Nya wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him back just as tight. She let him hug her for as long as he needed, only loosening her arms once he was ready and pulled away by himself. “Now get some sleep. You definitely need it after today.”

Lloyd nodded his head and turned to leave, pausing in her door frame. “Goodnight… Sis.”

Now Nya chuckled and held up the hoodie. “Arms.”

Just like before, now with no arguing, he held out his arms and let Nya slip the hoodie over his body. He sighed in relief, finally feeling the soft fabric against his cold body again. He opened his eyes, meeting Nya’s face, who rather than smiling like last time, now frowned. “It’s too small,” Nya commented, running her fingers over Lloyd’s exposed wrists.

Lloyd shrugged his shoulders. “It’s still just as comfy.”

Nya shook her head and opened her drawer again. “Take it off.” From her clothing, she pulled out a cyan blue hoodie with embroidered waves in white stitching.

“I’m not taking your favorite hoodie again,” Lloyd stated firmly as he saw what she pulled out. He knew where this was going. “This one is still fine! I can just ask Kai to lengthen the sleeves when we get back. I’m sure he can think of some way to do it.”

Nya shook her head. “Nope. You need a new hoodie. I can tell that Kai just repaired that one, and there’s already another hole forming,” the water ninja pointed out, sticking her finger into the hole in the shoulder stitching.

“It’s fine,” Lloyd continued to insist. “Kai can fix that too.”

Nya shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Well, Kai isn’t available to fix it right now. So how about you wear this one, at least until he can?” The suggestion was a trap. She was already planning on refusing to take it back. It was Lloyd’s now. “C’mon, you look like you’re freezing in that.”

Lloyd narrowed his eyes at her. He wasn’t that gullible, and he knew Nya too well. Although she was right, the short length and many holes let in the cold air. So maybe taking her hoodie until they reached the surface wouldn’t be too bad. He would just have to somehow manage to be more stubborn than Nya when trying to return the hoodie. “Fine,” Lloyd relented, pulling off the old hoodie and tossing it onto his bed. He held out his arms and once again, Nya helped him pull on the hoodie. This one did not fit as perfectly as the original hoodie once had. His big sister was now bigger than him once more, having grown much more than Lloyd had over the last few years. Even as the hoodie swallowed him in the fabric, he felt just as comforted as he had previously. Lloyd hummed happily and wrapped his arms around himself, reveling in the feeling of the soft fabric. Nya seemed to have a knack for finding all the best clothing. Now Lloyd saw why she didn’t let Jay borrow this one from her. The lightning ninja would never give it back if he knew just how comfortable it was.

Nya smiled fondly at him and sat down on her bed. She would give up any hoodie, no matter how nice, if it meant her little brother would smile like he did now.

“How come you aren’t cold right now?” Lloyd questioned.

Nya shrugged and fell back against her pillow. “I think it has to do with my element.” She closed her eyes and as she let her mind empty, she could feel the rock of the waves thousands of miles above them and the swish of fins in the nearby water. She reached her hand into the air, where she felt the coolness of the ocean swirl around her. “Feels nice, being surrounded by this much water. It doesn’t feel cold to me.” Sighing softly, it felt like the cool water rushed through her veins. She enjoyed the feeling for a few moments longer before something digging into the back of her head bugged her. She opened her eyes and reached underneath her hair, pulling out the mint Maya had left on each of their beds. Nya rolled her eyes and pulled her arm back, ready to chuck it into the trash can in the corner of the room.

Lloyd’s eye tracked the pillow mint, causing Nya to pause her actions. She softened again and changed her direction, instead tossing it to Lloyd, who happily caught it. He popped the mint into his mouth with a grin.

“You’re such a dork,” Nya chuckled, relaxing her head against the pillow once more now that it was free of the offending mint.

“And yet you still hang out with me.”

“Never said I didn’t care about you,” Nya hummed and held out her arms. She saw the way Lloyd looked down at her expectantly. It was her fault. She was the one who initiated all the hugs when he was a child, causing him to grow into a physically affectionate person. Now she had to deal with the beast she had created, who always wanted hugs. Lloyd grinned at the invitation and quickly crawled into Nya’s arms, laying beside her and resting his face on her shoulder. “Unfortunately, I’ve got to care about my siblings even when you’re weird.”

“Unfortunately?” Lloyd laughed. “It’s your fault for deciding that I’m your brother. We could’ve just been friends. You didn’t have to all but adopt me.”

Nya hummed as she thought about it. “You’ve got me there. But really, Kai did it first. So we can blame him.”

“Hmm, actually, you started acting like my sister first,” Lloyd corrected. “You did take care of me while I was too young for ninja business.”

“Yeah, and then I still left you alone half of the time to be Samurai X.”

“Never said you were good at it,” Lloyd teased, grinning mischievously at the water ninja.

Nya playfully glared down at Lloyd. “You little-” Nya formed her hand into a fist and rubbed it against the top of Lloyd’s hair.

“Hey!” Lloyd cried with a laugh as he shrunk into the hoodie, trying to avoid her noogies. He pulled the hood over the top of his head, softening the grinding of her knuckles against his skull. “You’re still my favorite sister, at least!”

“I’m your only sister!”

Lloyd giggled inside the hoodie until Nya decided he had received enough noogies for now and finally relented. It took a second after she stopped for him to poke his head out from the depths of the hoodie again, still grinning as he stuck out his tongue at her.

Nya shook her head and rolled her eyes at him, although her actions held no true displeasure. She loved Lloyd too much to be upset with him, even when he acted childishly again while within the safety of her arms. She knew he rarely got to act young, despite being the youngest on the team. So if he felt safe enough to let go of his stress and leading role, if only momentarily, she wouldn’t stop him from relaxing around her. She would always be there to help Lloyd feel safe and sound.

(Bonus art for making it to the end)

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