#JAY'S CONVERSATION WITH NYA MADE ME STOP FOR A MOMENT BC IT HURT ME SO MUCH WAAAA

[kraniumverse]

*crashes through window* AY YO @kraniumverse SOMEONE ORDER SOME SEABOUND JAY-KAI HURT/COMFORT OR WHAT

Oh, won’t you take me home

Kai can’t remember a time in his life where he’s been alone. 

It feels like a part of him, part of who he is, part of his very soul. Kai, blacksmith, master of fire. Impulsive, protective, never alone. And he never wants to be. He’s got his brothers, he’s got his sister, and that’s enough for him…even if it wasn’t always.

Kai remembers the night he realized his parents are never coming back. The night he realizes the devastation, the anguish, the heartbreak that comes with abandonment, and Kai decides then and there he never wants to be abandoned ever again. 

The night plays in his mind like a broken record. None of the adults say anything directly to him (which Kai hates, because sure, he’s young, but he’s not stupid), but he can tell what they’re saying to each other from the hushed whispers and sideways glances passed at him when he walks down the street.

They’re not coming back.

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[lloydskywalkers]

Heyo! Hope your doing exceptionally well, wonderful and ur staying safe! I was reading ur little oneshots for the movie! Verse and instantly fell in love! Think u have anymore for Kai and Lloyd? (But u don’t need to listen to this, obviously hehe) Have a splendid day!

ahhH thank you, I hope you’re doing well too!! :D oh man it’s been so long since i’ve written something for movie-verse, but I’ve had this little snippet in my head for a while so I guess it’s as good a time as any (and it is, of course, about kai and lloyd bc when is it noT)

it’s a little different than what i usually write, for movie-verse? but i hope it fits the bill! (takes place pre-movie, btw)

Of all his friends, Lloyd thinks Kai is most like the sun. Not just for his codename, and the enthusiasm with which he brings fire to the team, metaphorically and far too often literally, but for how bright he is. Kai reminds Lloyd of the sun at full force, strong and blazing and staunchly refusing to let anyone hide from his warmth. An endlessly combusting ball of stubbornness and passion.

Kai also reminds Lloyd of the sun in the way that he possesses about the same amount of brain cells the sun does, which is zero, because the sun has no brain — much like Kai.

“Hey, ru—de, ow, stop—”

Kai’s petulant response strangles off in cracked pain as Lloyd hushes him, simultaneously pulling the alcohol-soaked cloth from his arm with a sympathetic wince.

“Sorry, sorry,” Lloyd murmurs, wringing the edge of the cloth. “But I’ve gotta — it’ll get infected, if you don’t—”

“Nah, s’okay,” Kai says, breath hissing out through clenched teeth. He gives Lloyd a wavering smile that could almost be encouraging, were he not bleeding over Lloyd’s faded bedspread. “Just caught me off guard, I’m good now. ‘Sides, the — the stitches are gonna be worse, so—”

“It won’t be that bad,” Lloyd promises him, cleaning the rest of the deep slashes that run across Kai’s arm as quickly as he can. The lower ones aren’t so bad — he could get away without stitches, maybe. It’s the uppermost one that scares Lloyd, cutting deep enough into Kai’s skin to pose a threat. And Lloyd has no intention of leaving Kai anywhere near in danger, especially with the reason he’s hurt in the first place.

Lloyd swallows against the thick lump that suddenly forms in his throat, trying to banish the flood of emotions that have been rising since the battle against his father’s forces earlier. Surprise, shock, gratitude—? A swirling maelstrom of a deep-seated kind of aching warmth Lloyd is utterly unfamiliar with. It leaves him off-kilter, and words don’t come easily as they usually do.

Not that words ever come easily to Lloyd, but normally he isn’t quite this stuttering. Maybe. He hopes not. Maybe he’s just hyperaware right now, after everything, and he always sounds this embarrassing.

“I promise,” Lloyd continues, yanking himself from his thoughts as he busies with the needle. “I’ve got a lot of experience, and I’ll be gentle.”

Kai watches Lloyd threading the needle with a thinly-veiled fear, but he nods, the bravado Lloyd’s more familiar with making its way across his face. “Nice,” he says. “I trust you, Dr. Lloyd.”

Lloyd’s hands falter with the needle for a moment, before he resumes sterilizing it, ducking his head. Kai sounds like he means it — Kai sounds like he means everything he says, but the way he says trust hits differently, for Lloyd.

They’ve only been a team for few months, now. Not very long at all, to form any kind of trust in the son of your greatest enemy. Lloyd’s been going to school with some of the same people since kindergarten, and they’ve never looked at him with anything kinder than hatred, much less trust. And yet Kai is here, offering him his bleeding arm in Lloyd’s tiny room, trusting him to repair the damage he only took because he was protecting Lloyd.

Lloyd doesn’t understand. He doesn’t — people don’t — but his team—

They listened to him. Actually listened to him, to Lloyd. They actually listen to him in general, have since they were all thrown together in this odd little grouping, but it hasn’t quite hit home in the way it did tonight, when he’d snapped orders at them in barely-restrained panic, Kai’s blood staining his fingers as he’d staunched the knife wounds meant for him.

They hadn’t flinched back at his raised voice. Lloyd never raises his voice — he’s learned to keep it quiet, soft, unassuming. Even the slightest slip of frustration is enough to send anyone around him murmuring in suspicion, eyes narrowing and hissed whispers of just like his father filling the air.

Lloyd’s voice had been sharp and strained, barking across the rooftop, and they’d listened. No one flinched back, no eyes widened in fear — they’d just listened. They’re still listening, carrying out Lloyd’s orders without question, and it’s — it’s dizzying, if Lloyd had to put a word to it.

Cole and Zane are taking care of clean-up — something Lloyd will have to thank them for later, profusely. Neither were particularly happy about letting Kai out of their sights, but Cole and Zane are better at keeping each other steady than anyone else. It was the right call, Lloyd knows it was. Hopes it was.

But Lloyd hasn’t been having much faith in his calls, tonight. Not after Kai went down.

He swallows, focusing on the sounds reverberating from behind his closed door. Nya and Jay are talking with his mother, Nya’s louder tones easier to hear as she laughs. Lloyd knows her well enough to catch the strain in it, but he knows it’ll fool his mother. They’re distraction — Lloyd’s house was closest, and he’s got the best supplies stashed there. No one questions why he’s the one with the fully stocked medical kit, but Lloyd suspects they’ve all drawn their own conclusions.

He wishes they’d believe him, when he says it’s because he’s worried for them. He grew up with Wu as his uncle, who picks fights on a daily basis — with Morro as his cousin, who picks fights on an hourly basis. Lloyd knows the importance of having the good kind of medical supplies.

He finishes prepping the needle, squeezing Kai’s wrist briefly in warning. Lloyd’s not usually a tactile person — not that anyone would let him be — but he knows Kai soaks up touch like a starved sponge, and Lloyd’s desperate to give any kind of comfort he can before he starts with the needle.

Kai swallows, fixing his eyes firmly on the faded glow-in-the-dark stars plastered across Lloyd’s ceiling.

“Okay,” he says, his voice tight. “Bring it on.”

Lloyd swallows, steels himself, and sets the needle against his skin. Kai flinches at the first prick, eyes squeezing shut briefly, but otherwise he doesn’t move, jaw set stubbornly as Lloyd moves quickly. For his part, Lloyd keeps his eyes locked on the stitches, his hands steady. For all that Lloyd’s made up of bouncing nerves half the time, his hands rarely shake. Never when patching wounds up. He’s always been proud of how steady he can hold a needle, and tonight is no exception.

It’s the least he can do.

Kai suddenly tenses up, a broken-off noise strangling in his throat. Lloyd’s heart twists, but he stays steady, rallying himself. Conversation — Kai likes talking, right? Distraction, he can do that.

“So, um,” Lloyd stutters. On second thought, he’s awful at small talk. But — for Kai. “The way you took down that last guy was, it was really cool. Where’d you learn that?”

Kai bites his lip, exhaling shakily before he answers. “I train too, you know.”

Lloyd’s mouth quirks, despite himself. “Not like that.”

“What, a ninja can’t — can’t get creative,” Kai replies, through half-gritted teeth. Lloyd doesn’t say anything, but Kai rolls his eyes, continuing. “Fine. When I was younger, I ah…might’ve taken a few dance classes. For Nya! ‘Cause I couldn’t let her go alone, y’know, but they were — they were kinda fun, I guess, and maybe they slip into fighting, sometimes.” His cheeks darken, and Lloyd bites back a quiet laugh.

“Nothing like Cole, obviously, ‘cause he’s an actual dancer, but — that’s where I got it from.” He pins Lloyd with a glare, that’s somewhat dimmed by the scrunched expression of pain on his face. “Tell anyone and you’re dead though, okay?”

Lloyd hums his agreement, too focused on the stitches to reply immediately. After a moment, though, he speaks up again. “I did some ballet, when I was little.”

“No way,” Kai says, sounding delighted.

“Yeah, way,” Lloyd says. “I’ve heard from a very reliable source that dancing backgrounds are useful, with ninja stuff.”

“Very reliable meaning your uncle,” Kai grins.

Lloyd shrugs. “Maybe,” he half-smiles. Kai suddenly sucks in another pained breath, but to Lloyd’s relief, it’s likely the last one. He finishes off the stitches with a well-practiced hand, snapping the end of the thread and exhaling in relief.

“There. All done.”

Kai’s eyes widen. “Seriously, already?” He glances down at his arm, his other hand moving up to touch the stitches. Lloyd smacks it away, glaring at him.

“Don’t touch. You still have to watch out for infection. I’ll text you instructions for taking care of it, and everything. Just don’t do anything, ah…”

“No ninja-ing?” Kai finishes for him, crestfallen.

“Probably a good idea,” Lloyd says, apologetic. “But it’s not too bad. Shouldn’t take long, and you can be out, uh, ninja-ing again."

Kai is quiet for a moment, regarding his stitches. Then he turns to Lloyd, who is immediately staggered at the bright smile that stretches across his face.

“Cool. Thanks, Lloyd. You’re good at this.”

Lloyd can’t answer, his throat burning. He forces the welling moisture back, looking away. Kai’s only hurt for him, and that is layered with so much more meaning than Lloyd can comprehend right now.

“No problem,” Lloyd mutters, focusing instead on the voices outside his door in an attempt to find footing again. He can hear his mom laughing at something Nya’s said, open and relaxed in a way his mom rarely is. Lloyd’s heart twists into knots.

He doesn’t deserve them, any of them. Not really.

If Kai reminds Lloyd of the sun, then the rest of the team reminds him of stars. All bright and shining, bursting with warmth in their own way. Maybe not quite at the blazing heat that Kai does, but Nya is a north star if Lloyd’s ever needed one. Jay’s a blinking constellation, scattered stars that form a complex whole much larger than you’d thought. Cole’s the kind of star you see first pop up over the horizon, blending with the oranges and purples of the sunset, like a painting you’d see in soft watercolors. Zane’s the early-morning kind of star, the ones that stay stubbornly after the night’s left, dotting the pale morning with a calm steadiness.

Lloyd would be a planet, he supposes, caught in faithful orbit around the five people who have somehow, for some reason, given him a chance. It’d be generous, though. No, Lloyd is content just to be a moon — with no light of his own, reflecting only the brilliance others give him the best he can.

Kai’s finger taps the edge of his forehead, snapping Lloyd from his thoughts, and he blinks in confusion.

“Lost you there, again,” Kai asks, words mangled through a yawn. “Where’d you go?”

Lloyd shakes his head, turning his attention back to the bloodied thread leftover in his hands. His stomach turns, and he quickly sets it aside. “Just thinking.” He pauses, momentarily lost for words. He settles for jerking his head toward the window, where the smoke trailing from their hard-won battle is still visible against the dark sky, and gives Kai a wry smile. “How much do you wanna bet the cheerleading team comes up with a new song tomorrow?”

It’s been an inside joke for them, the ridiculous songs Chen and his gang keep coming up with to throw at Lloyd, and normally it gets a laugh from Kai. This time, though, Kai is silent, his eyes searching as he stares at Lloyd. Lloyd shifts under the attention, caught off-guard again. He doesn’t know what kind of look this is, that Kai’s giving him.

“They shouldn’t talk about you like that,” Kai finally says. His voice is quiet, but Lloyd can spot the brewing anger in it. Kai’s always got anger to spare.

“Sticks and stones, remember?” Lloyd shakes his head. He’s learned, after a while, that anger changes nothing. “Words will never hurt me.”

“Words hurt when people are throwing sticks and stones at you while they yell about your dad,” Kai grumbles.

“No one’s thrown rocks since second grade, actually.”

“Hm.” Kai’s tone is a mix of thinly withheld anger and mild amusement. Lloyd tilts his head, confused, and Kai gives a huff, anger tugging loose.

“Y’know, people say that if kids throw rocks at you in second grade, it means they’ve got a crush on you.”

Lloyd knows well enough it’s a joke, but he flushes red anyways, heat spreading across his cheeks. “Yeah, sure,” he stammers. Kai laughs at his reaction, though, the odd kind of anger departing, and Lloyd feels he’s found his footing again.

They’re quiet as Lloyd finishes cleaning up the medical supplies, Kai nodding sleepily on his bed while Lloyd carefully washes the needle in the bathroom sink. Maybe he can convince his mom to let Kai spend the night, he thinks. Jay and Nya , too — their apartment isn’t very big, but it’s awfully late to make them walk home, and Lloyd is fine with taking the floor, if he needs to.

Lloyd nods to himself, resolving to ask her once he’s finished hiding the evidence. His mom’s been so thrilled about him having people over at all, he can’t see her saying no. A smile pulls at his lips as he listens to the conversation outside his door again. Jay’s rambling on now, bright and excited without any of his usual reservation. He feels a pang, wondering if Jay’s the same as him — wondering if they’re all the same, playing at muted caricatures of themselves, too fearful to let whatever lies beneath shine through.

He wonders what it means, that they’re the ones with the city in their hands, that weight on their shoulders. Wonders what it means, that Lloyd feels safer with bullets strafing the air around him and his mask on, than he ever has with it off. That Green Ninja will always, always sound better than Lloyd in his ears.

“Hey, uh.”

Lloyd starts at Kai’s voice, twisting the sink off as he turns to face him. Kai looks half asleep, but the smile he gives him is bright as ever.

“Thanks, seriously. Not just for this, but for looking out for us. You’re a good friend.”

Lloyd’s heart skips a beat, his brain latching onto the word friend and holding on tightly, tucking it somewhere safe inside his chest.

“So thanks, Lloyd,” Kai yawns, barely awake at all now, but still stubbornly clinging to the threads of awareness.

Lloyd’s got his own thank you to give back, twisted and strangled behind whatever lump’s formed in his throat, but Kai’s snoring before he gets the chance to say it. So Lloyd tugs the edge of his comforter over his friend — his friend — instead, and runs the words over in his mind again and again, like a treasured line from a book.

On second thought. Maybe Lloyd isn’t so bad. He’s only ever liked his name the way his mom says it, without any of the snapping, harsh emphasis others give it. In others’ mouths, Lloyd’s name is a curse. In his mom’s, Lloyd’s name belongs to a person.

But he thinks, maybe, he likes the way it sounds when his teammates use it, too.

[thepeanutbutterwizard]

Ninjago / Avatar au Part 5

On to Book two! (I have more concrete ideas on this than Book 1, so I might have to put Book two things on more than one post)

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Also, if you like this au, check out this awesome art by @spirit-elementmaster!

Team Avatar is looking for an earthbending teacher for Lloyd. Wu and Morro are on the run in the Earth Kingdom. And Harumi is on the hunt, but she’s gonna need some help...

Enter Skylor, the laconic, acrobatic, chi-blocking daughter of a Fire Nation high-up, and Akita, the borderline feral knife-wielding niece of Vex, the warden of the Boiling Rock, who ran off to join a circus. Harumi ‘recruits’ the two girls, who she had ‘befriended’ years ago when she was first brought to the Firelords palace, to help her track down the Avatar. They were also sort of friends with Morro when they were kids too (there will be no ships between these four. They might be shipped with other people, but not with each other.) Also, Akita is a little younger than the other three, but won her right to hang with the ‘big kids’ by being able to pin a fly to the wall with a toothpick at thirty feet when she was 8 and the others were 10-11.

Wu and Morro are working their way to Ba Sing Se, under the guise of being refugees. There are shenanigans. (Wu 100% makes tea out of the poison bush thing. Morro almost broke his neck rolling his eyes at that) There are stupid fake names. There is bonding. They don’t end up splitting up like Zuko and Iroh do, but they do get unintentionaly separated at one point (more on that later).

Also, Kai’s acting a tad more overprotective than normal bc of what happened with Zane. And he’s acting that way toward everyone, including Maya and Garm. That will be addressed later.

Team Avatar is heading to the city of Omashu to try and find an earthbender they had meet there before, a guy who was actually a friend of Koko’s from her travels before she settled down in the South Pole. I have no idea who this character will be yet and am open to suggestions (mb one of the Serpentine Generals? Or one of the Elemental Masters? They’re some of the side characters I like, so they might work but idk). They stop briefly at an Earth Kingdom base, where they meet one General Kozu, who has the brilliant idea to try and weaponize a thirteen-year-old boy.

This does not go well. Garm, Maya, and Nya are staunchly against this, Kai thinks if they had a sure-fire way to get it to work without hurting Lloyd they should go for it, but if he thinks Lloyd is in danger he will step in, and Lloyd is scared, but thinks that if they can get this Avatar State plan to work and end the war now, long before the comet arrives, then it’s worth the risk. Kozu does the thing where he makes it look like he’s trapped Garm underground to suffocate (what happened to Katara)(also, there will be no ships between Lloyd and any of the ninja or Morro). Kozu gets his butt whooped and his base trashed.

And now we get to the next ninja to join the plot! In a second. Maya, Nya, and Lloyd are practicing waterbending, Garm and Kai had been doing a little firebending practice but had started chilling. And then they meet the nomad musician stoners, who are a few of the Elemental Masters. Jacob (Sound) is definitely one of them, a couple I haven’t decided on, and Jay! Jay’s a nonbender (I couldn’t for the life of me come up with a way to make him a firebender so he can use lightning) and an inventor who is following these weird flower hippies around bc they said they could get him to a city where he could try and sell his inventions. That was months ago. He has not seen a city. He has not been able to properly bathe. He is regretting several life choices.

Jay is instantly enamored with Nya (sorry if you hardcore ship Jaya, but that ship aint gonna happen here. I don’t like, hate the ship, but it’s really not my favorite), the strong waterbender who was instantly intrigued by his inventions (I think a character in Legend of Korra has some kind of lightning glove thing. One of Jays inventions is something like that) and was able to understand and keep up with his technobabble. He thinks he’s found his dream girl, and an excuse to get away from the smelly flower people! Jay begs Team Avatar if he can come with them. They say yes.

They can’t make it over the mountain, so they have their adventure in the Cave of Two Lovers. They get separated into three groups, Ultra, Garm and Maya, Kai and the musicians, and Jay and Nya. Jay keeps trying to awkwardly flirt with Nya, who actually doesn’t realize that he’s flirting bc she’s worried about her family and focused on getting out of the caves. They find the crystal path thing when their last torch either burns out or gets dropped and snuffed out. Kai and the hippies befriend the badgermoles. Garm and Maya, who were thoroughly done with this whole lovers cave adventure, used their bending and Ultras help to brute-force their way out (the badgermoles fix the cave later).

They get to Omashu, but it’s been taken over by the Fire Nation and the earthbender they were there to find was taken captive by the Fire Nation and sent to an earthbender prison. They have their first run-in with Harumi, Skylor, and Akita.

They have their little swamp adventure, they have some not-fun visions. Garm sees his dad (which scares the crap out of him), Maya sees her dead mother, Kai sees Zane, idk who Nya sees (mb Ray I guess? She misses him but he isn’t like, dead or anything so it might work?), or who Jay sees either (his birth parents I guess? That could be part of a character arc) and Lloyd gets a vision of his earthbending teacher. Y’all can probably guess who it’s gonna be, but I don’t wanna spoil it right now. And you know that one swampbender who bent the water in the vines to make a big plant monster? That’s Bolobo, the EM of Nature.

That Avatar Day adventure happens. Lloyd tries out that free lesson at the earthbending school, and they go to Earth Rumble 6. Kai gets way too invested in this underground fight club. Karloff is The Boulder, nuff said. And the reigning champion, whose stage name I haven’t decided on is Cole. Now, here’s the thing: I don’t want to make Cole blind just bc Toph was, but I do love the whole ‘listening to the earth’s vibrations to become a powerful earthbending master’ thing. So here’s Coles deal. His father is a rich and famous performer, and his mother was killed in an accident (possibly Fire Nation related, possibly not) that lead to Cole losing his legs (below the knees). He was just learning how to earthbend when it happened.

Something I’ve noticed in A:TLA is that earthbenders seem to use their legs and feet much more than other benders, with strong stances and stomping moves to connect to the earth. So to an earthbender losing their legs, losing their way to connect to the earth, would probably be one hell of an obstacle to work around. Cole’s father used his wealth to get Cole some nice prosthetics (Sparky Sparky Boom Man had two prosthetics, so I know they exist in the avatar world. Coles aren’t intimidating metal ones with some kind of mechanism to move like a real foot) but they don’t allow him to feel the earth like he needs to. So he painstakingly makes himself some new prosthetics. It looks like he’s just got bulky boots made out of stone, but Cole spent years working to be able to feel the earth’s vibrations through these prosthetics, to the point that he could be blindfolded and still be able to ‘see’ and earthbend fairly well. He can even get them to move like their his real limbs a little bit.

He can’t move with as much speed and agility, but he makes up for that by being a freaking powerhouse. But Cole can’t wear his earth prosthetics for super long periods of time bc he had no idea how to actually make them comfortable and make it so they don’t damage his stumps after long periods (after he joins Team Avatar Jay and Nya help him combine his professionally made prosthetics with his earthbending ones so he can wear them full time). Lou had become very protective of Cole after the accident, which is why Cole started participating in Earth Rumble 6.

Things go similarly to cannon, Cole shows his dad how powerful he is as an earthbender, and while Lou does ban Cole from going with Team Avatar at first, he actually does change his mind and let Cole go with them. He even sees them off. It’s a sweet moment.

So what have Wu and Morro been doing? Traveling, dealing with the occasional rude fellow traveler, and getting seperated in a storm turned flash flood. Team Avatar also get split up in this storm turned flash flood, Garm, Cole, and Jay get separated from everyone, including each other. This leads to Maya, Kai, Nya and Lloyd flying Ultra around in a small area to search for them, and makes it really easy for a tank occupied by three dangerous girls to track them for a good two days, leading to some mild sleep deprivation. (Dragons don’t shed fur, so that’s my fix for that bc I really like “The Chase” and wanted to include it)

Morro was looking for Wu, but finds Harumi and starts following her (he’s hoping that she might lead him to Wu, or that Wu might start following Harumi and they’ll run into each other, or smthn. And if he’s able to catch the Avatar there’s a chance that he and Wu will be forgiven by the Firelord. He’s not banking on it, but it might work). Jay and Cole find each other, and then run into Wu, who was looking for Morro. Maya and the kids split up to cover more ground and to try and to try and lose the tank and the girls. Lloyd goes one way, Kai and Nya go in another, and Maya takes Ultra to find a place for him to nap.

Harumi follows Lloyd’s trail, and Skylor and Akita go after Kai and Nya. Meanwhile, Cole and Jay have some tea and conversation with Wu. No idea what the conversation is about, but it gets cut short when Garm finds them and tells Jay and Cole to get away from Wu. There’s a bit of a stand-off, since Garm doesn’t trust Wu and hasn’t read his letter yet, and Wu is getting a little frustrated at his brothers stubbornness, (and is wondering how he keeps collecting children) even though he does understand why Garm would be cautious around him.

They work together to find a trail, have some awkward small talk, the brothers start to reconnect a little bit, meet up with Kai and Nya (who fought off Skylor and Akita), and they all go after Lloyd and Harumi. They find them in a three-way fight with Harumi, and Morro is going all out with his airbending for the first time in his life. Everyone gangs up on Harumi and corner her, and when she notices Garm is a bit distracted trying to subtly check on Lloyd, she tries to fire an attack at him-

-only for Wu to push him out of the way and take the hit. Wu goes down, hard, and everyone attacks Harumi, but she gets away. Morro blows Garm away away when he tries to get to Wu, calling Wu his father for the first time, and he kicks up a wind storm to keep them away. Maya shows up on Ultra, who got enough of a nap to fly for a few hours and let everyone get some much needed rest. Everyone that is, except Garm, who finally sits down to read his brothers letter...