19: Lyra's Birthday

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"Lloyd?" Lyra knocked on his door a second time. "You in there?"

It'd been a week since Isolated Training. Seven days of the ninja constantly testing their powers out on Lyra and vice versa. Wu and Misako couldn't for the life of them figure out why Lyra couldn't hurt the ninja and why they could barely hurt her back, but they were all exhausted after the non-stop use of their Elements. Even Nya, who didn't have an Elemental power to train with, was tired. She'd been doing all their missions for them and still managed to participate when Lyra tested her powers out.

The wooden door swung open to reveal the blonde, who yawned and sleepily smiled at her. "You're back?"

Lyra grinned. "Yep. Skylor and I had so much fun, and I got to talk to Marissa again!"

Lyra ended up rescheduling with Skylor twice because of how much training they did. Finally, Wu had given them a much-needed rest day, so she of course met up with her sister then. They'd eaten at the Central noodle house then walked to the park and talked about what'd happened in their lives over the past two weeks of living separately. Skylor had demolished the entire criminal aspect of the business, much to Lyra's relief. She was happily living in her apartment and even made friends with a few neighbours.

"Who's Marissa?" Lloyd leaned against the door frame and yawned again. 

"She's the general manager at Central," Lyra explained. "She took care of us whenever we visited there as kids. She's awesome."

"She sounds awesome," Lloyd agreed. "Here, wanna come in so we don't have to stand the whole time?"

"Sure."

Lloyd moved out of the way and gestured for Lyra to enter the room. She gladly did, taking in the decorations.

The room was the same size as hers and set up the same way, with wooden floors, wooden walls, a bathroom attached, a bed in the far corner, and a small desk in the other far corner. The nightstand beside the bed was the same as Lyra's, too, but that was where the similarities ended. He had a closet parallel to the bed, whereas Lyra's was diagonal to her table. What made the room really unlike hers, however, were the LED lights on the ceiling. They glowed bright green and illuminated the whole room, making it appear very different from Lyra's bedroom.

"They help me sleep," Lloyd explained when Lyra shot him a questioning look.

"That's fair. I used to have purple LED lights at the palace," Lyra admitted. "Kinda miss them."

Lloyd sat down on the gold rug on the floor. Lyra joined him.

"I assume there's a reason you came to talk to me?"

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Lyra grinned, slinging her small backpack off her shoulder. "During Isolated Training, I found out something cool." She unzipped it. "Out."

The origami animals inside--even the dragons--complied, jumping and flying and climbing out of the purple bag. Lloyd could only watch in awe as they surrounded him, trying to figure out who this new person was. 

His eyes were sparkling even more vibrant than usual from the LED lights. Lyra found herself staring when the animals cuddled up to him, immediately taking a liking to the ninja. He laughed an adorable, clear laugh when Lyra's favourite, the smallest frog, nestled into his neck and stayed there.

"This is so cool," he breathed, looking up at Lyra with a breathtakingly sweet smile. "All of this is origami?"

Lyra nodded. "I found out about it during research time. I looked up frog art and origami was the first result. I decided to give it a try and made all these new friends."

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔸𝕣𝕥 𝕠𝕗 𝕊𝕡𝕚𝕟𝕛𝕚𝕥𝕫𝕦 ~ L. GarmadonWhere stories live. Discover now