Family (A Ninjago Fanfic)

Chapter 17

Lloyd woke on a soft bed.

At first he thought this was some sick, cruel joke Scales was plying on him. His chest no longer hurt, he could breathe normally, and he was home, on the Destiny's Bounty.

As he looked around, though, he realized Scales could never pull something as realistic as this off. The snake had never even been on the Bounty. Lloyd starting noticing little details that he'd never really acknowledged before now, like how Zane's bed was perfectly made, and Cole's was partially made, while Jay and Kai didn't even bother. And his bed was placed in the exact middle between the two bunks. He even saw the ends of a burn mark on the wall sticking out behind a painting.

Lloyd smirked at the memory. He was still little, Pythor had yet to awaken the great Devourer, so the Ninja still had their elemental powers, and he'd woken up an oversleeping Kai by placing the alarm clock right next to his ear and setting it off. The startled Fire Ninja had woken up fist burning and started blasting everything. If Lloyd hadn't ducked in time, his head would've been fried instead of that wall. In a poor attempt of hiding the mark, Kai had placed the painting over it.

Wait, if I spotted the edges of the mark, Sensei's sure to have. I wonder why he let us off the hook.

Lloyd swung his legs over the side of the bed and tried to stand, but his legs were wobbly from disuse, and he had to grab the bedframe or support.

Whoa, okay. How long I was asleep?

After he got used to supporting his own weight again, he took a shaky step forward. He didn't fall, but it took a while for him to make it over the bedroom door.

He stumbled along until he reached the bathroom. He stared, shocked, at his own reflection in the bathroom mirror.

Nothing was wrong with him, all his wounds were healed and gone. It was the stubble along his jawline that surprised him.

Now I really want to know how long I was out.

After grabbing a spare razor and carefully shaving his face, Lloyd made his way onto the deck. Just as he expected, the four Ninja were there training.

"Hey, guys." Lloyd winced at the sound of his voice. It was raspy and quiet from the disuse as well, so none of the Ninja heard him. He cleared his throat and tried again.

"Hi, guys."

All four of them jumped and stopped what they were doing to turn and look at him. All of them looked shocked and relieved at the same time.

Suddenly, he was swarmed by them, and all of them started talking at once.

"OhmyGodLloydyourawake," Jay shouted, talking at a million miles per second.

"Thank goodness you're alright." Cole gave him a quick hug.

"We were starting to think you'd never wake up. You've been sleeping for nearly three weeks." Zane patted his shoulder.

"We missed you, kid!" Kai gave him a noogie.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, back up," Lloyd took a step back. He was feeling a little overwhelmed. "Three week? I've been out for three weeks? That's, like, a month!"

"We know," Cole said. "Like Zane said, we were starting to worry you'd never wake up."

"You were pretty banged up," Kai said. "You almost died"

"Correction," Zane said. "You did die. You stopped breathing for a minute and thirty-seven seconds."

"Yeah, and then Sensei put you in some weird voodoo trace that didn't allow you to wake up until your body healed. It took a whole month, even with the help of some magic healing tea." Jay's explanation, as always, involved a bunch of crazy hand gestures.