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Lloyd was on the verge of tears, leaning exhausted on his elbows over the bathroom sink.
It was stupid.
He was the prophesied Green Ninja, Ninjago's destined savior, a ridiculously legendary hero—
And he just. Could not. Untangle. His hair.
He'd been trying to. For half an hour. Bent over the sink, trying to work out the knots and only succeeding in snapping the stubborn strands, part of an old comb, and, perhaps, his sanity.
Slightly hysterical laughter threatened to bubble out of his throat, as tears stung at his eyes from the pain of the most recent sharp yank at the roots. He let his head hang in exhaustion, panting for breath. His arms burned from being held up so long.
Seriously?!
It had been weeks. Weeks of being possessed by that…that…him, fighting constantly for the slightest twitch of control. And then springing straight into battle, hurtling between worlds, after only a single day of rest. Witnessing his own father, chained in the literal bowels of that heart-stoppingly awful beast, about to die yet again, all because of him and his stupid mistakes—
Lloyd drew in a shuddering breath.
He hadn't been broken.
He hadn't.
He'd kept fighting. The whole time. 24/7.
But now that…he was gone, and the Preeminent was destroyed, and his father was dead—again—
Lloyd felt a little bit like he was falling apart.
Unlike, frustratingly, the knots in his wind-blasted hair.
Lloyd gritted his teeth and went in for another jerk with the comb, then yelped in pain as it tugged at his tender scalp, already burning red-hot with the sensation.
His eyes welled up with tears.
It was so stupid.
It's never going to come out…
A lump crawled further into his throat, dangerously close to becoming a sob.
Lloyd knew he was lucky, just to have his body and spirit still attached. Both more or less intact.
He should be grateful.
But he'd only just gotten back his own hair color. Forgive him for not wanting to chop it all off right this instant just because M—he couldn't be bothered to take a comb to his host's hair every once in a while.
It was the least of his worries, keeping Lloyd presentable.
And now the comb wouldn't budge. It was stuck in his hair.
Oh, great. Just perfect.
Lloyd pressed his forehead against the cool mirror, avoiding his reflection's eyes.
His own face disturbed him. Hollow, pale, and gaunt. Dark bags under his eyes, like they were packing up to leave when he inevitably collapsed from exhaustion.
“...Lloyd?” Three soft knocks came on the door. “You in there?”
Nya.
Lloyd's breath hitched. He couldn't answer past the bulge in his throat.
She can't see me like this.
The doorknob jiggled. “...Lloyd? Are you OK?”
Nya's voice was getting firmer with panic.
Don't worry about me, Lloyd voicelessly responded, slightly panicked himself. I'm fine…
“Lloyd, if you don't answer me, I will open this door,” she warned.
A pause.
Please don't.
“OK—that's it, I'm coming in.”
There was a skriitch-scritch-scratch sound as something scraped around in the lock, before it clicked open and the handle turned.
Lloyd panicked.
Nya poked her head around the corner a bit hesitantly, unsure of what she'd find. “Lloyd?”
And then she saw him. Cringing as far back as he could against the wall, desperately trying (and failing) to hide the comb lodged in his hair.
Her worried expression softened immediately as she realized what he'd been trying to do. “Oh, Lloyd.”
She came closer, one arm slightly outstretched.
Lloyd flinched away at first, then berated himself in shame. She was Nya, she was his sister, she wasn't going to hurt him—why would he ever think such a horrible thing?
Had M—he really messed him up that much?
He hung his head, ashamed, biting his lip and trying not to cry.
Nya's gentle, calloused fingers brushed the dirty hair out of his eyes, travelling to stroke the back of his head.
“It’s OK, Lloyd,” she murmured, her voice as soothing as her touch—solid, warm, tender, human touch, rubbing against his skin. “I should have noticed sooner. Let me help you with this. Alright?”
She looked into his eyes, hers filled with love and concern and the slightest bit of guilt, and Lloyd melted a little.
He nodded, slowly. Swallowed once. “That…that would be nice. Please. Thank you.” His voice was quiet, barely a rasp.
Nya's smile at that was a warm beam of sunshine on a windy, overcast day.
Nya had him sit down while she made preparations. “Get your seat on that bench,” she ordered, pointing at the table in a tone that was not to be argued with. “You look like you're gonna fall over.”
“Yes, Ma'am.” Lloyd couldn't object, swaying a little as he eased his way down. Or tried to, anyway. “Oof.”
Nya came back with a tub of warm water, a couple towels, various combs and hair clips, and Kai's brand-new bottles of conditioner and shampoo.
The fancy kind.
Lloyd eyed them warily.
Nya laughed. “He'll live,” she dismissed with a wave of her arm. “Besides, you need the good stuff. Kai'd kick himself if he found out I held out on our little bro just because I thought he'd be stingy.”
Yeah, that sounded like Kai. Lloyd couldn't help but crack a little smile. “All right.”
“OK, you're gonna have to lie down for me,” Nya instructed, placing the shallow basin on the bench beside him. Lloyd shifted around, pulling his legs up onto the bench. Ugh, they felt heavy.
“That's right. Right in there.” Nya laid a towel over the edge to make it more comfortable.
Lloyd carefully laid back his head, into the warm water. It wasn't too cold or too hot. It seeped through his hair, soothing his scalp. “Mmm… that's nice,” he sighed, closing his eyes.
“Mm. You like that, don't you?” Lloyd didn't have to open them to see that Nya was smiling. He felt the water swell in the tub, soaking his hair but staying clear of his face. Nya must have been using her powers.
He heard the plastic pop! of a bottle being opened, then the squirt of its familiar-smelling contents. Nya's hands gently worked the lather into his knotted locks.
“Shampoo first, to get all the dirt and oils out,” she explained, carefully lifting his neck to reach the back of his head. “Then we'll untangle this mess.”
“OK,” Lloyd responded, trying to lift his own head when necessary.
Nya stifled a bit of a laugh at his efforts, turning it into a slightly undignified snort. “You just relax,” she scolded, flicking a few droplets onto his cheek. “This is my treat.”
“Hey!” Lloyd protested, wiping them off. He frowned, trying and failing to prevent a smile.
“You have no idea how long I've wanted to do your hair,” Nya continued, as if he hadn't interrupted. “I'm talking years, pint size.”
This was news to Lloyd.
“...Really?” he asked, opening his eyes. He looked up at Nya, who appeared upside-down, in confusion.
“Yeah.” Nya laughed. “You wouldn't let anyone touch it, back when you were just a tiny little ankle-biter. I had to bribe you with candy, just to let me brush it out.” She smiled fondly and shook her head. “Those tangles were driving me nuts.”
“I remember that, all right.” Lloyd gave a little laugh. “Nothing that stopped Kai from messing it up, though.”
He paused, memories flicking through his head. Of Kai, ruffling his hair, over and over.
They should have been happy. Even though he'd often put up a valiant effort to seem annoyed in the moment, they were warm moments of brotherly affection that he cherished, and indeed, craved.
But there was something wrong with them now. A cold echo of an unwanted spectator rifling through his personal moments, dripping unsolicited comments like ice water down his spine.
“Don't worry, big shot. I'll watch over you from now on.”
“Hey, no one messes up my hair!”
Ha! Priceless. You didn't actually think they cared about you…did you?
Lloyd's mental silence had been telling.
You did? Oh, now that's just pathetic. You really should know better by now.
M—his condescending tut-tutting still tapped at his skull.
The truth is, they never wanted you, Lloyd.
He'd spat out his name like sugared poison.
They only ever cared about their beloved Green Ninja.
And now that you've failed your duties…
…Your desitny…
…Time and time again…
They'll see they were wrong about you, Lloyd. They won't want you any more. They'll throw you away, like the street trash you are.
And you'll be all alone.
Isn't that right?
Say it.
No.
You know it's true. Don't be naive, Lloyd.
N-no.
Say it.
N-I…I’ll be… all… alone.
Lloyd shuddered. He closed his eyes.
“...Lloyd?” Nya asked suddenly. “...You all right?”
She gently pulled the broken comb out of the tangle. The hair had softened enough for her to work it out.
He'd almost forgotten it was there.
“Lloyd. Can you open your eyes for me? I need to see you.”
Nya still needed something from him.
Carefully, Lloyd blinked open his eyes.
Her face was calm, but there were tiny wrinkles on her brow. Little worry lines.
“I'm fine,” Lloyd automatically replied. To make them go away.
They didn't, not completely. Nya pursed her lips.
“You know, Lloyd, it's OK not to be.”
He didn't know what to say to that. He blinked up at her, upside-down.
“...O…K.”
Nya gave a little sigh. She made flowing motions with her wrist, and the water rinsed the shampoo out of his knotted—but now clean— hair.
The silence wasn't as pleasant after that.
Lloyd bit his lip.
I broke it.
Nya hummed and divided his hair into sections, then squirted an appalling amount of Kai's fancy conditioner into her palm and began massaging it into each one.
Lloyd breathed the scent in deep, trying not to think of memories and just about Kai himself. Warm, vibrant. His brother. Protector.
Nya, right above him. His sister. Warm and fierce, but also cool and collected. Flexible as her element, ready to do anything, be anything for her family. Her hands were calloused from years of hard work, yet gentle as his own mother's touch—though he supposed he wasn't as familiar with that sort of thing as he could be.
After a while, she withdrew her fingers. Lloyd glanced up at Nya, a tiny bit of worry beginning to betray itself on his own brow.
Maybe the knots were too dense, the tangles too snarled…
…Maybe she was giving up on it.
Nya slid down to sit on the floor, so her head was on a closer level with Lloyd's.
“We have to leave the conditioner in for a couple minutes,” she said, lifting his head to trade the basin for a towel underneath. “It needs some time to work.”
“...Oh.”
Lloyd's stomach twisted.
Why had he doubted her?
He lay on the bench in silence for a while, struggling to work up the nerve to say something.
Sorry, perhaps. Too vague?
Apologies for ruining your afternoon. Nope, too direct.
Sorry I tried to kill you all and curse the world. No, that was Mor—him! Not Lloyd. Idiot. Or so everyone said. They'd get mad if he corrected them.
Lloyd sighed. He shifted a little on the bench.
Nya ended up being the one who broke the silence first.
“I'm glad to have you back, Lloyd,” she said, a bit out of the blue. Like an exhale she couldn't restrain any longer.
Oh. Lloyd blinked in surprise. He hadn't been expecting that.
“Me too,” he confessed. “I mean…I'm glad to be back. With you guys.”
If only M—he would leave him alone, too. He was dead—was it really too much to ask?
Lloyd's throat tightened. What if he never left?
“I think it’s been long enough now.” Nya rose to her feet. “Can you sit up for me?”
Lloyd sat up. He had to grip the edge of the table to pull his skeleton upright. Embarrassing. His thin cheeks burned.
Nya didn't comment. She sat cross-legged on the table behind him, taking a wide-toothed comb. “I'll try my best not to make it hurt, but I can’t make any promises. OK?”
Lloyd nodded.
“Hold still.”
Nya unclipped the first section and slowly, carefully, persistently worked the comb through the snarls, making her progress from tips to roots as she untangled his hair.
She took her time and didn't yank, humming bits and pieces of tunes Lloyd could only imagine Kai had used to soothe her with when she was a little girl.
He closed his eyes again, relaxing with the sensation of her fingers and the comb gently tugging through his hair.
The knots were loosening. Soaking in all that conditioner had made them soft and slippery. Before Lloyd knew it, the whole section had been smoothed out, and Nya was clipping it out of the way to work on the next.
“There,” she sighed with a smile, curling the ends around her finger in satisfaction. “All done.”
Overwhelming relief washed over Lloyd's body.
It came out.
The others would, too.
“Thank Kai and his taste in hair products,” he said, in a shaky exhale of laughter. “I thought I was gonna have to chop it all off.”
It was a small thing, really. Just hair.
But Lloyd wasn't sure if he could have stood one more part of him being broken. Needing to be mended or grown back. Damaged beyond repair.
So he was grateful.
Lloyd swiped the back of his hand across his eyes, trying to brush away those overreacting tears. Stop it, it's stupid. It's just hair.
“Got some conditioner in your eyes?” Nya asked.
“Yeah,” Lloyd replied, trying not to sniffle. “Just…just a little.”
“...Need me to rinse it out for you?”
A globe of clear water suddenly hovered in front of Lloyd's face.
“Uh, no, I'm good!” Lloyd hastily affirmed, bringing his hands up to shield his eyes. “I'm just gonna…let it run its course. You know.”
“You do that.” Nya gave a wry smile. The water dissipated. “Now. Back to business. I'm not done yet.” She unclipped the next part and began again.
Soon, it settled back into a rhythm. Nya patiently untangled her way through each section, loosening the lubricated knots with the wide-toothed comb and humming as she went.
The low, comforting vibrations of her voice made Lloyd feel safe, enough to be sleepy. The scent of Kai, or his hair products at least, hung around Lloyd's head like a pleasantly drowsy fog, drowning out the remnants of Morro's voice with overwhelming, plain and simple Kai.
Lloyd was very tired.
Morro had been a busy ghost. Preeminents to free, worlds to curse. Not too keen on the whole, “mortal bodies require sleep” kind of thing.
Suddenly it felt as though all those sleepless nights had come back to run him over with a truck. Or two.
His eyes would barely lift open. He kept nodding off, fluttering in and out of consciousness.
Have to… stay… awake…
It'd probably be harder to untangle his hair with his neck as limp as an overcooked noodle. A groan escaped his lips as he tried to sit up straight again.
“Shhsh.” Nya stroked his hair, not even half-untangled by this point. “You need rest, Lloyd,” she murmured, picking through a snarl. “Take it. I've got this.”
Lloyd could barely scrape together a coherent thought after receiving that permission. His body caved in an instant to the crushing pressure of sleep.
“...S-sorry, Nya…” he mumbled, before going limp against the table like the batteries had been ripped out of his chest.
Nya sighed a little and shook her head.
She kept working on the knots.
“...Lloyd.”
Someone was saying his name.
“Lloyd.”
Hold on, I'm coming.
A slight panic blossomed in his chest, of ghostly green and vengestone bars. Foreign entities making themselves at home in his body, like tenants who didn't pay rent and trashed the place like it had no tomorrow.
“...Who is it?” he asked groggily, worried, finally opening his eyes.
“Um, it's me, Nya?” The voice came from behind him. “I'm finished with the knots. I’m going to rinse your hair out now, but I didn't want to startle you.”
“...Oh. OK. Carry on.”
Phew.
Lloyd felt the remnants of a cold sweat trickle along his forehead, at the same time as waves of relief rolled over and over him.
It was just Nya.
Just Nya.
Just. Nya.
Lloyd sighed.
Suddenly, slightly cool water was flowing along the back of his head, eliciting a small sound of surprise from his throat.
“Oh.”
It wasn’t unpleasant. The water dragged its fingers through his hair, in one constant, continual cycle, rippling like the wind.
No. No no no. Nothing like the wind. This was Nya's water, through and through.
And instead of whipping his ink-black hair into a knotted frenzy, into his mouth and eyes and hopeless snarls—this water was orderly. Neatly flowing through his hair, and only his hair, in the direction of its natural swirl. Nowhere else.
Wait.
Had she really…?
“Nya?” Lloyd asked, hesitant to touch it himself. “Did you… finish?”
“Yep,” Nya replied cheerfully, finally drawing the water out of his hair. She left it damp but not dripping wet. “No more knots. Just let me do one more thing…”
Nya picked up a hairbrush from her assorted tools, and gave his hair that last little bit of attention. The bristles felt nice against his scalp, and she didn't have to stop even once to pull out a knot.
Lloyd's breath caught in his throat.
Week after week of neglected, dirty tangles so complicated he’d nearly given up—
They really were all gone.
“There you are,” Nya said, setting down the brush at last, satisfied with the results, fingering wisps of his hair. “All you need now is a couple noogies from Kai, and I'd say it's back to normal. Not too bad, if I do say so myself.”
Lloyd swallowed, trying to avoid the poisonous seeds sown in those old memories.
He ran his fingers through his damp hair again and again, as if searching for knots, unable to believe there weren't any knots, but still coming up empty.
“Nya… thank you,” he choked at last, turning to face her. “I couldn't have fixed it—not by mysel—”
He didn't get to finish the sentence. Nya had already thrown her arms around him in a hug.
“Oof,” he remarked eloquently at the sheer force.
“I don't ever want you to be alone like that again,” Nya said fiercely. “Helping my little brother untangle his hair is the least I can do.”
Little brother.
Not just the Green Ninja.
Trembling with relief, Lloyd wrapped his own arms around his older sister.
“Thanks anyways,” he whispered. “For…for everything.”
“You got it.” Nya squeezed him tighter.
After a while, Lloyd paused.
“...I am not explaining where the other half of Kai's conditioner went, though.”
Nya laughed softly. “Good luck with that. You're gonna be smelling like his hair for a week, little bro.”
“Oh. Whoops.” Lloyd blinked. “Completely forgot about that,” he murmured, then sighed in resignation. “Better get my affairs in order, then…”
“Lloyd!”
He shrugged, and leaned his head on her shoulder.
“At least I'll go out with great hair.”