the good, the bad, and the dirty | jay, kai, and lloyd

22 - seconds

y/n's pov

lloyd and i returned to the room where the boys and nya were playing—or watching—each other play mario kart. everyone turned their attention to lloyd when they saw him walk through the doorway. a silence emerged for just a split second. but then, one by one, the ninja came up to lloyd and hugged him. kai and cole ruffled his hair too while they were at it.

"i'm glad to see you, greenie!" jay chirped after he gave him a side hug. "you had us worried there for a sec!"

lloyd grinned timidly, his cheeks tinted red. "thanks, jay."

"look man, we're sorry about our behavior," cole apologized with a lopsided smile. "we're major dicks when it comes to what happened to your dad. i know it's not an excuse, but we don't understand your pain. but we will try from now on."

"i hope you know that you can count on us with anything," kai added, rubbing lloyd's back a little.

"and we apologize once more," zane concluded the spiel.

at that moment, i was compelled to glance at nya. i knew she had to be the reason why the boys were suddenly owning up to their actions, because as bad as it sounded, they were all oblivious to lloyd's feelings. nya made eye contact with me, smiling and winking to confirm my theory.

lloyd's eyes sparkled for a second at the words of his teammates. he nodded, his lips birthing a shy little grin. "thank you, guys. i appreciate it." he then turned to me, and we smiled at one another, before he looked back the team. he cleared his throat a little. "i'm ready to talk about what happened in the cave."

everyone traded a quick glance with the first pair of eyes they landed on. kai and cole went ahead and hauled their chairs closer to us to form a little circle, ready to listen. jay, zane, and nya remained where they were, but were as equally as intrigued. meanwhile, i found comfort on the arm of the sofa, a little behind everyone else.

"we're ready, lloyd," zane initiated once he noticed that kai and cole stopped shuffling around.

"okay," lloyd inhaled and exhaled a shaky breath, his emerald green flickering over to me momentarily. he stared at me before he finally spoke again. "there was someone who was messing with m-me in that cave. they had the power to transform into different people. t-they tortured me by appearing as my f-father..." his voice faltered for a second before it rose again. "uh, as sensei wu, my mom, and even all of you. a-all of you, except y/n. they s-said it was because they d-didn't know her identity yet, but t-they vowed to get us all in order to find out."

i was starting to feel strange at this new information. the thought of someone viciously tormenting lloyd with the people he loved made me angry, but the reason for doing so racked me with fear.

who the hell was this person to want to know about me specifically?

at this revelation, jay's eyes went so wide, they could have easily popped out of his eye sockets. "wait a damn minute!"

"what?!" kai, cole, and nya shouted, who were on edge from lloyd's story, and startled at jay's piercing volume.

"guys, what if the kid's playing us?!" jay considered, ecstatic beyond comprehension. "what if it's that same guy who lloyd saw?!"

"kid?" lloyd queried, confused at jay's sudden outburst. "what kid?"

"okay, long story short, we encountered some kid who gave y/n a remedy to heal from her incident, and they also went on and on about how there's danger coming, yadda yadda, and y/n is important to stop it all," he jabbered, beginning to pace back and forth. "but they're obviously not some bastard kid, they're someone else. they just have appeared to us as a little boy!"