Work Text:
When Nora wakes, she has no idea where she is. Obviously, it’s some sort of warehouse. Metal walls and a lack of windows, machinery throughout with no hints of what they do. It sets off so many alarm bells. She shouldn’t be here, she was on her way to meet Lloyd at his apartment, then they were going to walk towards the edge of the city to find some random family owned noodle place she’d seen on social media.
(She’s trying to get him out of the house for more than just ninja work, FSM knows he needs it. Next week, she’s thinking about the zoo, then maybe something she doesn’t have to pay her way into so her bank account can rest.)
So far, it's panning out to be a less than ideal day.
Her heart stutters in her chest, all things considered, she’s actually not sure why she would be taken. Though, she’s definitely an easy target. Only one friend, who has other friends and might brush off her disappearance, no parents, lives alone, no one to call her disappearance in, basically. She has family outside of Ninjago, but FSM knows they wouldn’t realize anything was wrong until it was far too late.
‘Fuck,’ she thinks, ‘Fuck, what do I do?’
She can’t scream, it’s a warehouse, who’s going to hear her? Is anyone even here? The area is empty, and her arms are tied to the back of the chair she’s sitting in. She starts to move her arms around, hoping it might be loose, or snag on something, or for anything to happen. Nothing does.
She starts to panic. How does she get out of this? She doesn’t know what happens to people after they get taken. Lloyd, maybe, would know, but he probably wouldn’t tell her if she asked. He’s cagey about that sort of thing.
Lloyd.
He’s a ninja. What would he do?
‘Something much cooler than panicking,’ she tells herself sarcastically. ‘Deep breaths.’
She closes her eyes to give herself a minute. Opens them, and tries looking again. Above, there's a few window panes, if she looks hard enough, the building peaking through the corner is one she recognizes. An office tower not too far off from the halfway point between her and Lloyd’s apartments. Down, and she’s still in the same outfit, one of her ankles looks swollen, she doesn’t feel it but maybe it’s just adrenaline. Right, just the machinery, nothing else. Left, the door, but she’s still alone and-
The door opens.
The person who walks through is average. So average that Nora has no idea if they’re even the person that took her or just some random person that walked through the doors at just the right time.
“Good evening, ma’am.” They say. A yellow hoodie, some jeans, worn sneakers. They look like they could pass for a college student. No innocent person sees a girl tied up and greets them like a store clerk, however, and it makes Nora tense.
“Who are you?” She snarks.
‘Don’t antagonize them, FSM knows if they’re hiding something, just get the information you need.’
She’d at least like to know why she died if this was her last day on the planet.
‘It’s not,’ she tells herself.
“A fan, of sorts,” they reply. They’ve walked past the doors, and right up to her. Despite this, the door behind them stays open.
“A…fan?” She asks, confused.
“Yes! Of the Green Ninja!” They cheer, their face is wide eyed in excitement, they still look more innocent than whatever crime they’re currently pulling.
“What does this have to do with me?” She asks. Her arms still won’t budge from where she’s at, and her heart is starting to beat louder in her ears now that there's a face in front of her. Something catches her eye, but when she looks over, the door is still wide open and no movement can be seen. Still, she feels…odd.
“You’ve spoken to him, I’ve seen it,” they say, then fiddle with the sleeve of their hoodie, “Once, while near a bus stop, you were speaking to him. He looked comfortable with you and I just wanted to…ya know, ask how you did that?”
Every cell in her body stops, “What.” She deadpans, but is shocked to realize her voice isn’t the only one who says it. Startled, both of them turn to the voice above and behind Nora hidden somewhere in the ceiling. A person drops down.
“Are you saying, that you kidnapped some random girl, because you thought you saw me talking to her once!?” Lloyd marches up to them, his face isn’t pulled in anger but there is definitely exasperation. “Why would you think that's a good idea!?”
If she weren’t still tied to a chair, Nora might’ve laughed. As it is, she’s extremely grateful to see Lloyd in all his green glory, and her heart doesn't exactly slow down, but it is beating for an entirely different reason.
“I just…you guys were laughing and I thought it looked like you were having fun! Who wouldn’t want to be friends with the Legendary Green Ninja! I want to be your friend!”
She watches Lloyd drag a hand down his face and sigh, before walking behind her chair and quickly undoing the ropes with a dagger he pulled from what has to be nowhere. (Seriously, where did he get that from?) She feels her arms fall without the rope to hold them, and instantly pulls them back to her front, rubbing at her wrists.
‘That’s gonna look nasty for a while,’ she thinks, ‘Where did they even learn to tie ropes that tight? Scouts?’
“Look um,” Lloyd gets cut off.
“M.” They say.
“Right,” Lloyd drawls, “You can’t kidnap people to be friends with me. Or anyone for that matter. What even makes you think it’s me that she’s friends with? I’ve seen plenty of people who look similar enough to be my siblings.”
He’s not wrong, everyone wants to look like the Green Ninja, and while you can’t tell with his hood up, Nora had convinced him to style his hair recently since he declared he was growing it out. So he still looks different from his past photos.
The person looks adequately scolded before they try to double down, “But you came to find her, so you must know her!”
Lloyd crosses his arms, and before he can speak, Nora does. “Not at all. I have a friend who’s a super fan of the ninja, and he doesn’t really like to cut his hair, but he does try to mimic some of the Green Ninja’s looks.”
That makes M’s eyes widen.
“So…you don’t know the Green Ninja?”
“No,” she shakes her head.
“I’m…I’m so sorry,” M says, looking at the ground below them. Nora looks to Lloyd, who shrugs and looks back to M.
“It’s…not alright, you shouldn’t take people off the streets,” Nora says. M nods. Nora isn’t entirely sure what to say. Lloyd steps in.
“I’ll let you off….this time. But if I find you doing anything like this again, I'll have no choice but to take you in.” His voice has gotten deeper recently, and thoroughly intimidates the person in front of them. They nod frantically, “Now go.”
And then they run off.
-
Once sure they’re gone, Lloyd turns to Nora. He looks to see if she’s hurt, and notices her ankle swelling just above the line of her sneaker, it probably continues even below it. He winces.
“Yeah, that one's gonna hurt a while,” Nora jokes.
Lloyd looks back up to her, “Are you otherwise okay?”
She looks him in the eyes when she replies, “I’m completely fine, Lloyd.”
He doesn’t respond and keeps looking, she ultimately sighs.
“Okay, that was terrifying, and gave me a good freak out. But, I’m glad it was easily fixed, and maybe a little surprised that it happened in the first place. Thank you for coming to get me,” she smiles.
Lloyd nods his head, before sticking out a hand so she can grab on and he can get her home.
“Of course,” carefully they twist around so she’s on his back, the easiest way to transport her when she's conscious. They leave the warehouse district, looking for a more open space before he pulls up his comms, “Pix, can you send the car to my location? I’ve got Nora, possibly sprained ankle.”
When the car pulls up, they work together to get her sitting in the passenger seat behind his own.
“So,” Nora starts, “How did you even find me?”
Lloyd keeps his eyes on the road. When he’s not running after someone, he sticks to road laws and traffic patterns, not looking to abuse the trust the city has placed in him.
“Ya know how you’ve got Pix in your phone so you guys can chat?”
“Ohhh, did she use that somehow?”
“Yeah. Found where your phone was left on the ground, then used the street cameras to track you all the way to the warehouse district. There were a lot of private security systems there, and Pixal easily could’ve checked them, but when I noticed the door to one of them open I decided to take a chance.”
“Lucky chance,” Nora jokes.
They pull up to her apartment complex’s parking lot, and Lloyd turns once the vehicle is fully stopped.
“I would’ve found you anyway,” he smiles.
“I know.”
Lloyd takes her up to her apartment, and finds her key is still tucked away in her pocket. Once he sits Nora on the couch, he grabs rags and fills a bucket with water, and sits down in front of her couch.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” Nora asks.
Lloyd laughs, but plays the role of offended, “Excuse you, I’ve been a ninja since the age of 10. I can totally take care of an ankle injury, just know taking this shoe off might hurt.”
He tries to do it as carefully as possible, but she still winces.
“Did you say 10?”
“Yup,” he says as he gets to work.
“Geez, is that even legal?”
“If it is now, it wasn't back then,” he comments.
When he finishes and wraps her ankle in a bandage, he helps her get to her bed. He makes sure she’s comfortable and steps out to get them lunch.
As he drives through the city, he can’t help but think.
She shouldn’t have been there. All this, just because someone saw them talking at her normal bus stop? He’s lucky it was just some college student this time, what if it was someone worse? They went after her because of him. He has so many enemies, or just people who must hate him, what if it happens again. She got hurt, she could keep getting hurt.
He sighs and rubs a hand against his face as he retrieves the food from the window. Gives them a smile as they call his name before driving back to Nora’s apartment.
-
When Lloyd steps back into her apartment, food in hand, Nora is ecstatic to finally get to eat. Somewhere in the boredom of being alone with only her TV, she realized how hungry she felt. ‘Thank FSM Lloyd had the forethought to get food.’
When he’s distributed their lunch and sits at her desk across from the bed, she notices something.
“What’s wrong with you?” She asks, blunt.
Lloyd jumps at the sound of her voice, having been staring at his food, “What do you mean?”
“I mean you look like someone kicked your dragon and ran away, what’s wrong?”
He laughs a little sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. She keeps staring. He’s not getting out of this.
He sighs, “It’s just. I know a lot comes with being the Green Ninja, a lot has happened just among my family from it, but I don’t know why I didn’t consider you getting hurt because of it.”
“Lloyd, I’m okay,” she reminds him.
“But you’re not! I mean, someone saw us just talking and ended up hurting you trying to find a way to me. What if something else happens?”
‘What if it's someone else?’ went unsaid. She knows. She knows today she was lucky, and that it could’ve been so much worse but-
“Then it happens.” She replies, “Lloyd, you can’t let this dictate your life.”
“But it has Nora. Everything good that's been taken from me has been because I’m some legendary hero. I just,” he sighs, “Maybe I should’ve stayed alone here in Ninjago.”
She takes in a breath. “Lloyd.”
He looks up at her.
“Do you want to know something? When I met you, I knew who you were, what you’ve done. Everyone does. But I didn’t know you. You’ve become my…my…” she doesn’t know what to say here, doesn’t know if she can truly fill out the words.
Lloyd nods, like he completely understands what she’s getting at, but doesn’t say anything. She thinks he knows, and she knows he feels the same.
“And I wouldn’t trade that for anything. Lloyd, I’m extremely grateful that you’re in my life, so don’t tell me you don’t want it to exist anymore!” She scolds.
“But if people know you’re tied to me in some way, that I care-”
“Then they won’t. They don’t have to know. We’ve been around for six months and this is the first time something like this has happened. Don’t let it take away from what good we had beforehand. If you’re worried about others knowing what we are to each other, then we won’t tell them, no matter what they ask. And if you’re really so worried? Teach me.”
“Teach you?” He asks, confused. Their food has probably grown cold, but she has a working microwave, stovetop, and oven, so they can take their pick of how they’ll reheat it once she’s gotten it through his thick skull that she’s not leaving.
She needs him as much as he needs her. He wasn’t the only lonely one when they met.
“So if something happens, I can get away by myself. So you’re not focused entirely on me the whole time, so you can ease your worries, whatever. Teach me. Preferably, how to get out of ropes quicker because this?” she holds up her arms, “This isn’t a cute look.”
He stares at her before he starts laughing, “Really? I thought it was the latest trend,” he calms, “but seriously, are you sure? That’s what you want?”
She nods, “Extremely.”
They hold gazes before he sighs, “Alright. Lessons it is.”
“Whoo!” She cheers, “Self defense with Lloyd!”
He rolls his eyes, and grabs her food to heat it up. With the bedroom door open, she can see the kitchen and watches him move around it before turning to her TV. They’d been watching some stupid reality show together and making fun of the most ludicrous drama they all posed.
“Hey, Lloyd? Where’s my phone? I miss talking to Pix.”
He scratches the side of his cheek and looks back at her, “Uhh well…” and then pulls what is obviously her phone out of one of his pockets. The screen is cracked to hell and back, and that’s just what she can see from here. “It had been on the ground for a bit by the time I got to it, sorry.”
“Ughhhhh,” she groans and digs her face into the nearest pillow before sitting back up, “It’s fine, this time is excusable, just expensive.”
Lloyd looks away from her for a second, the way he does when Pixal talks to him.
“Pixal says we might have some extras that Nya and Jay fiddled around with. With her in charge, I could probably get one working for you. Certified Blue Ninja Tech.”
“Where would you even get that? Didn’t you say none of your siblings were near Ninjago?”
“Where else? The Destiny’s Bounty.”
He looks way too smug to say it.