Unanimity | Ninjago AU

Chapter 17

Lloyd's POV

"You're so tense. Sit down," my girlfriend tells me as I stand next to her. She's sitting on the couch, watching a movie while I try to think of backup plans in case our original plan fails. It's already taken PIXAL over a day to reach out to us, making me believe that she's not converted, and since we're hoping to convert Chamille through PIXAL, it's one of the most vital parts of our plan.

Additionally, if Kai can't convert Skylor, it's game over. With her ability to mimic others' elemental powers, she's easily the strongest out of all the girls, so having her as an ally would help significantly. If we can't get her, which is a negative in itself, we also lose Kai, which I don't think we can make up.

"I'm fi..."

"Sit in front of me. I want to braid your hair," she looks up at me with her emerald eyes. She slightly juts out her lower lip and bats her eyelashes. "Please Lloyd."

"Alright," I give in just like she knows I will. She claps her hands together as I take a seat in front of her. Leaning forward, she runs her hands through my hair.

"Your hair is so soft," she compliments me.

"Thank you." There's a brief pause.

"How do you think we are going to rebuild Ninjago after all of this is over?" she asks me, curiously. "Tremendous amounts of damage have already taken place. The city is falling apart more every minute. Villages have fled and made refugee camps for those displaced by the stone warriors taking hold of their homes. The Overlord stuck fast and hard, so the city was primarily affected. Now, however, all of Ninjago is hurting."

"We'll find a way. I just...I haven't thought about the aftermath yet. I'm mostly focused on trying to defeat them in the first place," I admit. Harumi hums slightly behind me.

"I bet you all don't deal with that stuff though. You are the great heroes who save the day, after all. Other people can clean it all up," she continues to weave my hair.

"We like to help as much as we can. The guys helped with the aftermath of the Great Devourer by helping reconstruct the city..."

"But what about the people affected by the attacks, those who lost their homes and families?" Harumi accidentally pulls my hair a bit hard, making me wince.

"I've donated money to charities helping them, but I've never directly gone to anything. After the Great Devourer, I had to focus on my dad making things even worse, and then after the defeat of the Overlord, the team and I were toured around Ninjago before this all happened."

Once again, Harumi hums, this time in the tune of a little song. I watch the screen as her delicate fingers go through my hair. When she's finally done, she pulls a tie off her wrist to keep my hair together.

"Come up here. You need to be cuddled. You're still so tense," Harumi insists, so I move onto the couch next to her. Immediately, she wraps her small arms around my torso and pulls me closer to her. I engulf her in my embrace.

I try to watch the movie, but it's boring, so I turn back to Rumi. All of her features are so delicate and soft. Her lips, a shade of ruby red due to her lipstick, are slightly parted as she watches it. Her emerald eyes glimmer.

"About what you asked earlier, about rebuilding Ninjago..." I break the silence, my thoughts wandering, "I have no idea how we're going to do it, but with a ruler like you, there's no way everything won't fall back into place."

"What do you mean by that?" she raises one of her perfectly plucked eyebrows.

"Well, you are the heir to the throne, so when Mara is defeated, you'll be ruling, and you're exactly what Ninjago needs. You're so selfless and are willing to put the needs of Ninjago in front of what you want. You'll do anything to protect your people, even if it means losing something for yourself. I admire it a lot," I twirl a strand of her platinum hair.