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lloydskywalkers · 4 years ago

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hey idk if you’re doing requests but if you are can you give us the fluffy kai and lloyd sibling content we deserve?? like ummm maybe kai helping lloyd to do homework or something even tho they don’t go to school lmao 😂 i just need something pure :)

i am so very behind on replies but!! in my defense, i started a response for this, got about 10K words in, then realized i needed to give it an actual structure. this is not the 10K words one, but it is, technically, fluffy Kai and Lloyd sibling content? i hope it’s something along the lines of what you wanted :’D

Lloyd decides he wants his ear pierced at three forty-five in the debatable hours of the morning, which isn’t the oddest thing Lloyd has ever decided he desires at that time. But it isn’t usual, either, so Kai decides he probably does, at least, need to ask what brought this on as he begins superheating the edge of the needle so neither of them end up with tetanus, or something.

He’s a responsible brother, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to tell Lloyd no. That would require Kai pretending his own piercing never existed, which is impossible, since Lloyd was the one to help him out back when it got infected and Kai almost lost his entire upper ear.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Lloyd rolls his eyes. “You were just being a baby about it.”

“Oh yeah?” Kai shoots back. “Look who’s talking. I haven’t even touched your ear yet and you’re already wincing.”

“You’re taking forever,” Lloyd says testily. “Why can’t you just pierce it already?”

“Excuse me for trying to make it look good,” Kai says. “But if you really want an off-center piercing, be my guest.”

“No, no, make it look good,” Lloyd protests, straightening where he’s sitting across the bedroom floor from Kai.

Fortunately, they’re in the monastery tonight, otherwise they’d be crammed into the bathroom, or wherever else in the Bounty they wouldn’t wake everyone up. They’ve stashed away in Lloyd’s room, since he’s the furthest from Zane and therefore the least likely to be caught, if something goes wrong. Not that anything’s going to go wrong, of course, but you can never be sure, with them.

“Where’d you want it, again?” Kai asks, as he squints at the tiny earring stud they scavenged from Nya’s bag. He figures she’d support this as a worthy cause enough not to mind. Hopefully.

“On the right side?” Lloyd drums his fingers on the edge of his knee, a bit anxiously. “I sleep on my left more often, so yeah, the right. Just — just the normal ear piercing, for now.”

“For now, huh,” Kai mutters, carefully measuring out rubbing alcohol over the earring, before deciding to drown it in the bottle, for good measure.

“Well, I might decide I want another,” Lloyd crosses his arms. He winces. “Unless Sensei or the others kill me for this, first.”

“Lloyd, if piercing your ear is the worst thing you ever do as a teen, I’ll give you all the piercings you want myself,” Kai says. “And if anybody gives you trouble about it, just make some snarky comment, like, ah—”

“An earring is better to be stabbed with than a knife?”

“…FSM’s sake,” Kai sighs, staring at the bottle of rubbing alcohol and briefly entertaining how it’d taste. “Sure. Why not.”

Lloyd doesn’t look entirely reassured, even with his fun little jokes. “It is better than being stabbed with a knife, right?” he asks. “Like, I can do knife-stab pain, but I was kinda hoping it wouldn’t hurt that bad, you know…?”

Kai rolls his eyes. “It’ll hardly hurt at all,” he assures him, as he reaches for the little cotton balls and soaking one in alcohol. “I promise. You’re a ninja. With the pain tolerance you have, you’re probably not even gonna feel it.”

“Uh-huh, if you say — hey!” Lloyd flinches back from his hand, eyes wide in betrayal.

“Would you relax, it’s just the alcohol,” Kai frowns, going for his ear with the cotton ball again.

Lloyd makes a face, but lets him dab the alcohol on this time. “It’s cold,” he complains.

“Keep whining about it and we’re going back to the clip-on earring plan.”

“No, no, I want them pierced,” Lloyd says quickly. Kai smothers a laugh at how he attempts to appear relaxed, swiping the cotton ball over his earlobe once more for good measure. Satisfied that Lloyd, at least, won’t suffer any immediate crippling infections, Kai grabs for the needle they’re using, soaking the tip in alcohol.

“You…you know what you’re doing, right?” Lloyd asks, suddenly apprehensive now that the needle’s come into play.

“Of course I do, who do you think I am?” Kai says. “I pierced Nya’s ears when she was younger. I would’ve pierced Jay’s the first week we met, but he chickened out last minute.”

Lloyd presses his lips together, hiding a laugh. “If you’d come up to me with a needle the first week we met, I probably would’ve booked it, too.”

“I wasn’t bad,” Kai huffs, kneeing him in the side.

Lloyd runs a hand through his hair, spiking the edges up as he scowls, pitching his voice deeper. “I’m gonna be the green ninja, and none of you losers better get in the way—”

“I never said that!” Kai exclaims, swatting Lloyd across the head as he cackles. “You watch it, or I might slip up with the needle.”

“Sounds like something a green gi-stealer would say.”

“You’re such a brat,” Kai grumbles, hiding the heat rising in his cheeks by busying himself with the earring packaging. “I never sounded like that. And you’re one to talk, with that squeaky little evil laugh you used to do.”

“Alright, I’m dropping it, I’m dropping it,” Lloyd says hastily, his teasing faltering at the threat of turning the tables.

Kai smirks, shaking his head. “Alright,” he says, flexing his wrist once. “I’m gonna ice your ear so it’s numb, then do the actual piercing. You want a count down?”

“Surprise me,” Lloyd says, his hands fisting anxiously in the edges of his sweatshirt.

“Sure thing,” Kai nods absently. “So,” he starts conversationally, as he presses the ice to the back of Lloyd’s ear. “What did bring this on? And don’t give me the teen rebellion thing — seriously, this time.”

Lloyd hesitates, then sighs. He bites his lip, his eyes staring somewhere beyond the ceiling. “I dunno,” he mutters. “I just remembered, the other day, that I’d thought they were super cool as a kid.”

Kai stifles the urge to remind him that he’s still a kid, and continues to listen instead, nodding at him to go on.

Lloyd makes a face. “I don’t know. The mission today was — it was dumb, and I didn’t like how I felt afterwards, so I guess I wanted to do something stupid.”

“Ah,” Kai exhales quietly. He’d had a feeling it was about the mission, but he couldn’t be sure. It hadn’t even been that bad, on the whole, but the sound of Cole’s head cracking against the floor was enough to escalate it right into terrible territory.

Kai’s still thanking his stars that Cole’s got such a thick head. Concussions aren’t fun, even when they do have the chance to treat them immediately.

“I just…I thought maybe it’d be nice to mess up on purpose, for once,” Lloyd continues, his voice quiet. “When I wasn’t trying not to.”

Kai’s frown deepens at that one, his hand hovering where he’s caught the edge of Lloyd’s ear, his thumb pressed against the end of the needle. His sudden concerns over Lloyd’s potentially earring-destroying, Oni/dragon blood are swept away by the plaintively depressing tone Lloyd’s using. He opens his mouth, then shuts it, hesitating.

He understands the sentiment, of course — probably too well to really put into words. Kai’s not exactly a stranger to messing up. He’s definitely not a stranger to beating yourself up after you mess up, either. He also understands, too well, how it can all build up sometimes — the constant fear of failure, the pressure not to mess up.

Sometimes you’re just struck with the irrational desire to mess up on purpose out of pure spite. Kai gets that. And Lloyd’s at least rational enough to pick something that won’t hurt anyone, and is more likely to get a laugh out of them all, if anything. Kai tries not to roll his eyes fondly.

Plus, Kai would be lying if he said it doesn’t warm his heart that Lloyd’s come to him for it. Which he should, of course, Kai’d better have first dibs on Lloyd’s first piercing, but still. The sentiment, and all.

“Well,” Kai finally says, realizing he’s left Lloyd hanging. “I don’t know about messing up, because this looks pretty rad. But it was definitely your call, so remember to tell Sensei that when he sees it.”

“Yeah, sure.” Lloyd takes a breath, squeezing his eyes shut. “Okay, I’m ready. Stab my ear, Kai.”

“I already did, moron. Did you miss what I just said?”

Lloyd’s eyes pop open, and he blinks. “Huh? For real?”

“Told you,” Kai snorts. “Ninja pain tolerance. Ear piercing’s got nothing on Cole when he scores a hit on you in practice.”

Lloyd’s frozen for a moment, then he scurries over to the mirror, brushing his lengthening hair away so he can get a proper look at it. Kai hovers behind him, suddenly slightly anxious.

“Do you, um, do you like it? You can always take it out, if you don’t. It’ll close over on its own, and you can like, get an actual professional to do it—”

“Shut up, Kai, I love it,” Lloyd beams, tracing his finger over the little silver stud. “I look cool.”

Kai lets out a tiny breath of relief, smirking in satisfaction instead. “As close to cool as you can get, beansprout.”

“Whatever,” Lloyd rolls his eyes, before returning to admiring himself in the mirror. “You’re just jealous I have a super cool piercing, and you don’t.”

“Hey, I gave you that piercing,” Kai scowls. “Just wait until my ear finally heals, I’ll show you cool.”

“Gee, yeah, I can’t wait to see what cheap skull earring you infect yourself with this time.”

“Alright buddy, you’re toeing it dangerously close to the line,” Kai grabs Lloyd in a headlock, digging his knuckles into Lloyd’s thick hair as he yelps, struggling to pull himself free.

“Ow, hey, Kai, watch my ear—”

“Little jerk,” Kai finally releases him with a huff.

“Too bad you’re stuck with me forever,” Lloyd replies, making a face as he brushes his hair back into place.

“Plenty of time to watch you make more mistakes, then,” Kai replies, easily.

Lloyd briefly tenses up, his expression working. Kai slings an arm around his shoulder, briefly squeezing.

“It wasn’t your fault, Lloyd,” he says, gently. “Cole’s gonna tell you the same thing, ten times over.”

“Y-yeah, okay,” Lloyd murmurs, staring at the rug. “I got it.”

Kai eyes him for a brief moment, then shakes his head, carefully flicking the edge of his ear. “This, however? Is definitely your fault. So don’t go selling me out when Sensei bites your head off for it.”

“I’m not a sellout,” Lloyd huffs. “This’ll be nothing. Wait ’til you see what he says about my tattoo, that’ll be the real meltdown.”

Kai barks a laugh out at that, sweeping the cotton balls back into the bag. He then pauses, Lloyd’s word choice hitting him.

“Hey, what do you mean, your tattoo.”

“Oh, would you look at the time—”

“Lloyd, I swear to FSM, if you went and got a tattoo without me—”

#answered #ninjago #lloyd garmadon #kai smith #tumblr pleASE format this right for once #my fic #bees-go-buzz

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angiejoywrites · 5 years ago

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run your race

Today I am excited. For possibility and what can be. The world is fraught with enough despair and fear to drive us all mad and lead us to believe there is no way back, that hope and light is out of reach. But life is also full of beauty and expectancy, the draw towards change and new understanding, higher heights and greater planes. Let’s not be held back by that which feels insurmountable, impossible or terrifying. Perseverance can and must be our companion for all the things that fuel our passion and inflame our hearts with purpose.

Today I am excited because I am accomplishing something that has been in my mind for what feels like eons. And it feels like a prototype for all the other dreams that crowd my heart space and cry for expression and fulfillment. Earlier this summer, I started to run. Well, I started attempting to run. I use the word “attempting” because running is not something I have ever done with much (read: any) consistency. In general, exercise has been a sporadic and short-lived endeavor most of my life. I will get temporarily motivated, get my behind to the gym, pull up a workout video, or simply get outside for a semblance of forward motion. And it usually lasts a few weeks at most, at which time I skip a day or two, then skip a day or two after that, and before long I’ve slumped back into my by-and-large sedentary life. During college, I had some longer bouts of regular activity but never really found that thing I particularly enjoyed and wanted to do over and over. Then I had multiple years of baby-making, and, well, just forget it. The time, energy, and mental bandwidth were simply nonexistent in this season of sleep deprivation and complete overhaul of life as we knew it.

And this is all okay. I won’t berate myself for all of my false starts in something that can often feel incredibly mundane and just flat-out boring. But I also recognize my tendency to give up on hard things easily and my difficulty in establishing truly healthy practices in my life, practices that will serve me well throughout my days. Because at bottom, exercise should be for our enjoyment and health, to help make us more alive, emotionally and physically, doing its part to strengthen us as we tackle everything else life might bring our way. And in terms of exercise itself, my view is fairly chill. My motto is, if you move at least much as you sit, you’re probably doing alright. Just get off the couch and turn off the tube, or the phone, or whatever screen you tend to put in front of you. Move, in whatever way you can, and you’ll feel better. Just take a walk. Just go on a bike ride. Just go up and down your steps a few times. Do chores for an hour. Find simple ways to incorporate activity into your routines. Or, if you love it with your whole heart and exercising is your favorite activity on the planet, then work out every day and become a specimen for all to behold. But heavens, don’t stress or obsess over it. Don’t freak if you miss one day of exercise you had planned for. Just get back on the horse and go for it. The morning always comes, and there is always another chance to begin again.

But for me, sticking to an exercise routine is really about something else altogether. Sure, I want to be healthy and generally be in shape. I want to have stamina to play with my grandkids one day. For me this is about perseverance and commitment. It’s about seeing something through to the end. It’s about establishing healthy habits and sticking to them longer than five minutes. It’s also about showing myself that I can accomplish something that I set my mind to, that I can have a dream and goal, and that I can create a plan and see it through to fruition.

Somehow this knowledge had become somewhat lost on me. There is this thing that can happen, especially once you firmly a “real grown-up” and life feels stable. Once we get established in adult life, after pursuing a career or a family goal or whatever it is for you, and life has predictable rhythms and structures, we almost forget what it is to chase new goals and ideas. We forget about the sweat equity we invested to get to where we are now. And we start to settle. Settle for the status quo or life as we know it now. We forget what it takes to make something happen. And hear me, I’m not talking about enjoying the work you are in or being content in your current stage of life. Obviously, you might have put in years of work and training to be where you are now and you’re doing that which you are made to do. By all means, do your thing, and bravo. I’m talking about our tendency to stop imagining, stop hoping, stop striving for new learning and fresh life to be birthed in us each and every season. We are never too old for new adventure or additional aspirations, and there is always more God wants to do in and through us. Our entire life is a journey of constant change. We limit ourselves when we think we can never be someone other than who we are today.

This is why I’m stoked about this running gig I’ve actually stuck with. Because maybe if I can grow here, in this one activity, maybe I can grow in other areas of my life that continue to call out and draw me to them. I am someone who lives totally “in my head,” as they say. I think all the thoughts, on a loop, a hundred times a day. It can be an exhausting though exhilarating place to be. In the midst of those thoughts are ambitions, and desires, and beliefs, and visions of growth and change. There are a million different types of work I want to try and ways I want to invest in changing the world. I want to fix all the problems, help bring about creative solutions, do the hard, best work this world has to offer. I want to write what is in my heart and mind and lean into this expression of creativity and exploration. I want to equip my children for this world and all they will face in it. I have ideas and hopes out the wazoo, and sometimes the sheer intensity of my inner life is overwhelming.

Running has helped me believe some of these dreams, to some degree or another, are possible. I can set a writing goal. I can learn and partner with people helping enact true change and transformation in this world. I can lean into the work I have in front of me each day, pushing myself to do it the best way I can. I can take intentional actions to grow into the person I want to continue to become. I can put one foot in front of the other, every day, with a clear mind and loads of vision, and take purposeful steps forward.

So I am running. I am not fast or particularly graceful to watch. I am short and my gait follows suit. But I keep going out there and picking up my feet. I am doing a 10K in a couple of weeks. Because you know what? Weirdly, the longer you do something, you do actually get better at it. I’ve gotten stronger, and more comfortable, and even a little faster than when I started. Will I run the entire race? Maybe, maybe not. Don’t really care. Do I aspire to be a marathon champion? Ummm, heck no. Am I still light-years away from being proficient in this effort? Absolutely. But that’s not the point. The point is movement, and growth, and the benefits of the journey itself. You know what happens to muscles we don’t use? They shrivel, atrophy. They become compressed from disuse and apathy. Whether it’s our cognitive, emotional, creative or physical muscles, we must stretch them, push them to their limits, or they, and we, stagnate and shrink. God has created life to be a sojourn in which we never stop learning all we can about Him, the world He made, and how He has equipped us to best love our fellow man. Don’t ever think you’ve arrived or have nothing new to offer. We are a never-ending work in process. Follow that which tugs at your heart, and run your race.

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