Chapter Text
The car lurches to a stop.
Someone's elbow bumps into his ribs, he flinches then curls up around his hurt arm, hitting his head on the passenger's seat in the process. Lloyd bites his cheek as he attempts to muffle the animalistic whines crawling up his throat.
Thankfully the others have seen him hurt in the past and hadn't commented on the weird noises he let slip, so at the very least he doesn't have to worry about that.
Still that thought is of little comfort to him right now since with every sound that slips through, the heat of embarrassment burns at his skin. It is, of course, a metaphorical heat that doesn't help ward off the very literal cold that has settled into the marrow of his bones.
The blood loss has left him so so cold, the warmth his body produced from all that running around and fighting has been stolen from him. Even now that he's on top of two different people the warmth of their combined body heat hasn't been able to stave off the cold.
Someone opens a door and the meager amount of warmth he did managed to gather is ripped away by the wind. He feels the cold body near his legs— White —move away and then hands are tugging at him, helping him sit up and shuffle out of the car without hurting himself. The hands are careful but no amount of careful can make Lloyd not gasp in pain as he moves out of the car. Quiet, kind voices shush him but he can't make out their words.
He stands, his left arm is slung over someone's shoulders and someone else's hands are on his right bicep holding him steady. Lloyd's eyes are unfocused but as he glances around he can see their gi colors lit up by a streetlamp and identifies the blobs helping him as Teal and Black respectively. He sees Red hovering nearby, White and Blue further along having a discussion.
Teal asks or maybe tells him something but his brain garbles up the words before he can make sense of them, he nods anyway. The group starts moving and Lloyd does his best to walk without leaning too heavily on either of his teammates.
The wind is harsh as they move, whipping at him like it's angry that he got hurt again and making the cold so much worse. He keeps his eyes locked onto the pavement, one foot in front of the other. Lloyd's wounds ache and his headache pounds behind his eyes in time with his heart. A shiver runs through him, his muscles threaten to lock up.
Damn him and his Dragon heritage it's not even that cold.
Another shiver runs through him almost in a counterargument. Okay so maybe it is that cold. He's personifying shivers now, apparently, so he's definitely not doing well.
At some point— even though he's been doing a perfectly okay job of walking —Black picks him up in a bridal carry. Lloyd struggles, trying to get his legs back under him but Black just holds him tighter; he tries to tell the ninja he's fine and that he doesn't need to be carried but his tongue feels like lead in his mouth.
Oh wow, now that they're moving at an actually steady pace Lloyd realizes that he may not have been doing that good of a job at walking. Great, so he was definitely slowing them down.
He needs to get it together, the mission is over so the least he can do is not embarrass himself any further.
Where are they even going? The warehouse probably— yeah, the warehouse —Green decides as the quiet sound of the ocean grows steadily louder.
Lloyd tries his hardest to think but it's futile, his mind is blurry and any sense of self he tries to drag forth dissipates almost instantly. This fog enveloping his mind is annoying, it feels like he could just push through it and see the world in all its clarity.
Yet every time he tries he only gets second long glimpses— bugs buzzing around the lights of lamp posts they pass under, his teammates' labored breathing and the whirl of White's fans, the way the blood staining his bandages is way colder than the rest of him and how his tail is going numb from being pressed between Black's arm and his own leg —before the fog rolls back over his perception. It's infuriating, not even the sharp sting in his cheek can keep him grounded for long.
Before he knows it there's the beep of the warehouse's security system turning off and then Black is bringing him inside, away from the wind. The lights turn on and Lloyd hisses, shielding his face in Black's chest when bringing up his arms fails. That small burst of adrenaline is enough to let him catch a bit of what White is saying.
"—medical cot, get his gi top off while I—"
Lloyd's eyes snap open, he sees White with an open first aid kit, gloves already on. He thrashes as he speaks, "Don't— my uncle is p—" a hiss of pain. "—probably still awake I'll just—" Lloyd manages to dislodge Black's grip on him.
He falls but catches himself on the other ninja, using Black's helping hands to stand on his own two feet.
Lloyd moves to walk towards the warehouse's other door— the one closer to the docks —but as he lets go of Black his knees tremble and give out, whatever 6th wave of adrenaline he got from hearing that White was about to try and treat him was rapidly fading.
Thankfully before he crashes to the floor warm arms catch him, Red's voice silences White's argument —when did White start talking?— "Why does it matter who treats him?! In the time it would take you to convince him to let you, Sensei would've already set up his work area! And that's if you manage to convince him, you know how he gets—" Red says more stuff but Lloyd has stopped listening, attention fully captured by the door they were steadily getting closer too.
They make it out into the cold night air, Red's radiating warmth keeping the wind away. They move slowly towards his uncle's docked ship, the lights are off but that doesn't say much as Wu shares Lloyd's nightvision.
Red whispers quiet reassurances to him, or maybe they're words of encouragement— he can't tell —whatever they are the tone is soft and it helps him feel a bit better.
They step onto the boat— walking over the docking board while injured is always an experience, the world swims and his inner ear spins —Red readjusts his hold on Lloyd before using his right hand to knock on Wu's door.
The door opens but whatever expression Wu makes as two of his students stand at his door, one injured and the other beyond frazzled, is lost on Lloyd as all he can do is focus of not passing out. The fire ninja and Sensei Wu exchange some words and before long Red is helping Lloyd walk to the Bounty's kitchen.
Red helps him sit down at the small table, Lloyd's vision blacks out for a second— his migraine pounds inside his temples —when he opens his eyes again his teammate is gone and his Sensei has set up the first aid kit.
His uncle pulls one of the other chairs around to sit in front of him. Wu pulls Lloyd's mask off, it makes it slightly easier to breath, then grabs the scissors and cuts off his right gi sleeve near the shoulder so he won't be forced to maneuver his arm.
Wu places a towel on the table and then gestures for Lloyd to put his stabbed arm on top, which he does, —he's been in this sort of situation so many times the instructions are more for the routine than anything— his uncle then carefully snaps away the bandages. Strips of cotton stick to his wound and he growls as they're quickly ripped away.
Lloyd places his head on the table and lightly digs his face into it in an attempt to lessen the pain, predictably, nuzzling the wooden table doesn't help much. He doesn't see it as Wu sprays the area with local anesthetist— on account of trying to merge his forehead with the table —but he does feel it as the cold spray touches his wound.
The next moments are peaceful while they both wait for the anesthetic to set in; or as peaceful as things can get while both of his arms and one of his legs hurt when he so much as twitches.
Wu leaves the room for a moment and when he comes back he places something near the table. The thing— a space heater —almost instantly starts to warm up the area and a good chunk of Lloyd's brain fog melts away.
Lloyd twitches his left hand's fingers but the action pulls at his cut and the bandages still stuck too it, he groans while his uncle quietly pets his hair.
Or maybe not so quietly because just after he thought that Wu starts speaking. "How many times have I told you nephew? You have a team, rely on them."
Lloyd wants to argue that he did rely on them, that Teal helped him fight Clouse even thought he told her to stay put and that the others helped him even while he just slowed them down.
What comes out of his mouth instead is a jumbled mess of consonants and vowels. Looks like the warmth didn't help as much as he thought it did.
Uncle Wu sighs, something is placed in his left hand and Lloyd doesn't even look before putting it between his jaws and biting down, it feels like worn cotton —probably a rolled up kitchen towel.
The next thing he knows is that the dagger is getting pulled out— his teeth sink into the cotton, a scream chokes in his throat —slightly purple blood pools from his arm and gets soaked up by the towel said arm is placed over.
The pain is significantly lessened by the anesthetic but even so the feeling of something moving inside his flesh is enough to make him nauseous. Uncle Wu puts the blade away before he lifts Lloyd's forearm and places a field bandage over the significantly smaller exit wound before lowering his arm back to the towel.
He digs his teeth into the shirt, it scratches against the inside of his cheek where self inflicted wounds are still lightly bleeding.
Lloyd feels the muted pain of the needle piercing his flesh and pulling on it. He thinks he might vomit.
Okay time to think of anything, literally anything else.
He's cold, granted that's not unusual. He's literally cold blooded and it's the middle of autumn, there's a reason he wears three layers when he's not in his gi. Speaking of his gi, when they repair it later Lloyd should really ask his uncle if he can make him another layer.
The sleeveless undershirt is stretchy and breathable, not to mention missing its sides, leaving his gi jacket-shirt to do most of the work in keeping him warm. Keikogi top? No no, that one's sleeves end near the elbows. He's sure Wu explained the terminology to him sometime ago but he can't for the life of him remember it.
He can feel his flesh being forced together as the stitches are tightened.
Sources how is he going to get home? If it wasn't for the viscerally uncomfortable feeling of getting stitches he would've fallen asleep by now.
He can feel the familiar pull of the thread being tied off so he lifts his head from the table and looks at the two new stitches in his forearm, he's lucky the dagger's blade wasn't wider or else he'd have had to suffer through three or maybe four stitches.
Wu puts a bandage square on top of the wound then secures it with several pieces of medical tape. Lloyd takes his arm back and cradles it to his chest, the warmth of the space heater and the nostalgic feeling of his uncle's boat rocking on the waves is making it harder and harder to stay awake.
Wordlessly, Wu takes his other arm, cuts away the bandages there, pulls them away— Lloyd lets out an involuntary growl —and rolls up his left sleeve. Lloyd can now clearly see the scratch in his scales where the blade tried to pierce and the way it dragged along only to slice open his human skin. Old blood coats the whole area as new blood sluggishly runs from his wound.
"Did anything get in it?" His uncle asks. Lloyd shakes his head no and instantly regrets it as a wave of dizziness overtakes him. His head clears and he catches the tail end of Wu's sentence. "—or leg?"
It takes Lloyd a long moment to figure out what Uncle Wu means but when he does he quietly mumbles. "Teal…. clean… it……. just acid."
Maybe the only good thing about being Oni is that his immune system is always out for blood. He hasn't had a cold since he was nine and Wu somehow managed to get sick and pass it to him. Having to clean out his wounds with disinfectant sounds painful and as selfish as the though is Lloyd really thinks he's had enough pain for one night.
Wait no— ugh, he must really be out of it if he's referring to himself as oni like… that.
Wu tightens the bandages on Lloyd's left arm. Wait when did he— ah nevermind…
His uncle helps him to his feet and walks him down the narrow hallways of the Bounty. They stop in front of Morro's room, or more accurately Lloyd's room since his cousin is traveling again. Wu opens the door and guides him to sit on the bed, his uncle pulls out some pajamas from the closet and sets them next to him.
Wu says. "Get changed. I'll be right back." Then he leaves the room, softly closing the door behind him.
As much as Lloyd would love to just pass out right then and there he knows that sleeping without his tail free is a bad idea that he always regrets later.
So he gets changed, painstakingly taking off his gi careful to not displace any bandages. His tail swings free behind him while he gets dressed in the soft clothes—a plain white t-shirt and pants with a pattern of cartoonish bugs —pins and needles run through the limb as it moves.
Before throwing his gi jacket to the floor he fishes out his contacts case and puts the green silicone pieces inside, only stabbing his eyes a tiny bit in the process. Lloyd curls up on the bed, his hands find the pillow and he hugs it to his chest despite the pain moving his arms causes.
Just as he's ready to fall asleep Uncle Wu comes back into the room, cup of steaming tea in one hand and space heater in the other. He sets the drink down on the night stand, places the heater down next to the bed and then proceeds to pry the blanket from under Lloyd before placing it on top of the hybrid.
His uncle picks up the tea and helps him drink it, the sweetly familiar taste of healing tea is the last thing Lloyd knows before both his body and mind shut down.
OOOooo-----------oooOOO
Lloyd wakes up gradually, he is warm and pressed under a familiar duvet, his face squished into a soft pillow. Sources, he can't remember the last time he didn't have a headache.
As the seconds tick by he becomes aware of a few things. All of his limbs except his right leg are sore, there's a weird feeling in his right arm bordering on painful, a familiar ache in his tail from keeping it bound too long and an uncomfortable tightness in the skin of his left arm and leg. He snuggles deeper into the blankets, he wants nothing more than to go back to bed.
He can't, he doesn't know why but there's a pressing feeling in his chest that isn't letting him fall back asleep. It feels like Lloyd is forgetting something…
All at once it crashes into him.
The mission.
Clouse!
The serpent…
His uncle's boat.
SCHOOL!!!
Lloyd springs out of bed, his legs tangle into the duvet and he crashes to the floor. The fall apparently knocks more of his memories into place as he remembers that today is saturday. Lloyd just stays on the floor for a moment trying to get his pounding heart to slow down.
Pain pulses in his skull. For a moment he hopes it's just leftover from the fall but no, the pounding in his temples settles into a headache. This really can't be normal. Lloyd should probably ask his uncle about it, healing tea seems to have calmed it for a while but overusing that is not an option.
Healing tea and tomorrow's tea are made from the same plant, one from the roots and the other from the leaves. Healing tea speeds up the body's natural process by forwarding time in affected areas and therefore should only be used when one doesn't have the time to heal an injury naturally.
That said, maybe Sensei Wu knows some non-magical tea blend that would help. Lloyd sighs as he lifts himself up and into a sitting position.
Morro's room looks exactly as he remembers, lone port window, metal-rock posters that he's half sure are there only because his cousin likes the art, bed opposite the door, space heater set to 'overnight', a nightstand that has burn marks for some reason, a closet opposite the window with a mirror on one of its doors— his eyes quickly dart away from it —and a desk under it stained with ink and covered in old sketchbooks accompanied by a beat up chair.
The familiar location works to calm Lloyd but for some reason that anxious feeling refuses to leave. His tail beats anxiously against the floor, he's still forgetting something….
OH NO. He went to bed last night in his room— at his house! —now he's at Wu's and judging by the amount of sun coming in through the window it's past eight am!
Lloyd quickly gets up and starts looking for his gi and more importantly his phone, if he's lucky his mom slept in and he can send her a message about leaving early for something.
Neither his gi nor his phone are anywhere in Morro's room so Lloyd practically throws himself at the door and bursts out into the boat's narrow hallway to find it.
He rushes to the kitchen and immediately spots his Sensei sipping tea at the small table.
"Uncle Wu! Have you seen my phone? I need to tell mom why—" Wu raises a hand, Lloyd snaps his mouth shut.
"I have already spoken with Koko, she knows you are with me."
Lloyd sighs a small breath of relief, at least he hadn't worried his mom.
Wu continues. "Go get dressed for the day, I have something to ask of you after breakfast."
He gives a quick nod before turning on his heal and walking back to Morro's room. Lloyd shuts the door before picking up the fallen duvet and making the bed.
Breakfast…
That buddle of nerves in his chest is back but for an entirely different reason. Eating with his uncle is always a… mixed experience.
Sometimes the reminder that he isn't completely a one-of-a-kind freak is comforting. Making light conversation with someone while you share food helps him feel almost normal.
Other times— like now judging by the way so much as thinking about it is making him feel dread —the thought of eating something that was alive probably mere hours ago is enough to fill him with guilt. Because of course Uncle Wu doesn't buy his food from the store like a normal person, he hunts it.
Having to sit throughout an entire meal while avoiding looking at either his uncle or the food because if he does then his mind will helpfully remind him that that's what he looks like too— blood on his teeth, lips and hands, bones crunching between his jaws —and that his mom and friends would look exactly the same if he—
Lloyd punches himself in the face.
Okay punches is a strong word, he doesn't know what he meant to do except stop that line of thinking but he ended up hitting himself in the nose. A noise of pain tries to escape his throat but Lloyd forcefully holds it there until the pain passes.
He's fine, it's fine. Lloyd shouldn't be thinking about this anyway, he has to eat breakfast weather he wants to or not. He can't just refuse, his uncle went thorough all the trouble of getting him something to eat. He can't act ungratefull. Wu will think he's skipping meals again, then he'll tell his mom and she'll get worried. The last thing Lloyd wants is to burden her anymore then he already does.
So it's decided— Lloyd will eat breakfast with his uncle, therefore there's no point in thinking about it any longer.
He turns his attention to the closet. Sensei Wu told him to get dressed, he almost forgot.
Lloyd rummages through Morro's closet until he finds the spare clothes he left here awhile ago, an old black zip-up hoodie with fading ribcage decals and some baggy jeans. He technically could wear some of Morro's clothes but the amount of chains, spikes and leather his cousin prefers would definitely end with a picture of Lloyd on the news.
His sleep shirt could work as an actual shirt so he doesn't bother to change out of it before putting on the zip-up. He changes pants, sliding his tail down the his right pant leg.
Hmmm…. It's been a while since he actually wore these clothes— two years maybe —the pants seem to be normal sized now and the shape of his tail seems pretty obvious underneath.
He closes one of the closet doors, the one with the mirror on it. Don't look at it just look at the outfit. Yes definitely noticeable, it looks like he has a cable wrapped around his leg or something.
New plan, Lloyd carefully pulls the tip of his tail back out— keeping the base of it pinned by the waist band —he moves it so that it wraps around his torso.
The angle at which it sits isn't the most comfortable and if he keeps it like this for too long it will definitely go numb but at the very least it's shape is mostly obscured by the zip-up, which now that he's maneuvering in he realizes is also smaller than he remembers. The outfit looks normal enough in the mirror so at the very least he doesn't look like he's wearing too small clothes, Lloyd does his best to keep his eyes from the thing wearing the clothes.
…What is he going to do for shoes?
Lloyd debates for a moment if he could get away with wearing his tabi shoes before he spots something in the back of the closet. He borrows some of Morro's socks then he takes the geta sandals out from the very back of the bottom shelf. Lloyd shakes the dust off of them before putting them down and stepping into them.
He looks himself over in the mirror one last time, the outfit looks fine if a bit weird. Lloyd's eyes dart over to his own face despite his best efforts.
His lips try to pull back in a grimace but he forcefully pulls them back over his teeth. He quietly takes in red eyes, down turned ears and light colored marking. Disgust won't help him solve… this so he pushes the emotion aside.
His contacts are in his gi but his markings and ears are going to be a problem. Lloyd flips the hood of the zip-up over his head, it cover his ears perfectly.
That's one problem solved but the second will have to wait until after breakfast, best not to keep Sensei Wu waiting no matter how much he wants to.
Lloyd walks back into the hallway, his tongue flicks out involuntarily as he catches a whiff of blood. He slaps a hand over his mouth and pauses in the kitchen's entrance.
There's a glass of water at the table and two shallow bowls. In the bowls are several bits of some kind of poultry, one de-feathered wing in each bowl. Blood still flows from the meat, gathering like soup in the ceramics.
Just looking at it makes him sick. This will be a hard meal to get through.
Deep breaths, his tongue tries to flick out again but he stops it, holding the muscles taunt as he breathes. Uncle Wu moves away from the counter and looks at Lloyd with eyes that say he clearly knows his nephew has been standing in the doorway for way too long to be considered normal.
Lloyd stills, his eyes briefly flick from his uncle's face to the 'food'. He truly doesn't feel up to eating that nevermind talking to his uncle while doing it.
Does he have a choice? No, no he doesn't.
Lloyd pulls his face into something approaching a smile and sits down at the table.
He eats his 'food', answers his uncle's questions about school, training and whatever else— all while keeping his eyes firmly locked onto a random groove in the wooden table.
OOOooo-----------oooOOO
Lloyd makes his way through the back alleys of the commercial district. He's fine. His hands aren't shaking, the taste of blood isn't lingering on his tongue and his thoughts aren't doing their damned best to slip back to breakfast—
He's fine.
Lloyd takes a deep breath, he shoves his shaky hands into his zip-up's pockets.
He breathes out, the smell of blood isn't getting stuck in the medical mask he's wearing with every exhale— it can't be, he'd spent ten minutes scrubbing his mouth out in the Bounty's small bathroom. His mind is just torturing him for no reason. Or maybe he's still hungry.
Deep breath. In. Out.
Today is that kind of bad day apparently. As if the utter disgust he's felt for himself all morning wasn't clue enough. It's fine, he's fine, he'll feel better tomorrow.
He'd really love to be able to take the mask off but given the unfortunate fact he didn't have any foundation at his uncle's the flimsy medical mask had to do.
He really should start carrying foundation and double-sided tape in his gi.
Once again, all that stands in-between him and a photo of his true face on the news is a flimsy mask and his overgrown bangs.
This time is not nearly as scary as the other night. One photo from an anonymous source ending up on the news is much easier to lie about than if Black had seen him with his own two eyes. It'd have served him right for tricking—
On the topic of his team, the groupchat this morning was filled with messages worried about his well being. Lloyd… doesn't know how to feel about that.
Last night was frankly embarrassing and he'd half expected the team to realize how badly he'd messed up. Logically, Lloyd knows that fighting Clouse one on one and coming out of it alive is an achievement but logic also says that Teal fought Clouse one on one and didn't get hurt; so he could've done the same if he was simply better.
His inadequacies aside, he'd reassured his friends all the same until the conversation had moved on to other topics and he was able to go truly start his day.
Uncle Wu had told him he needed him to go get more healing tea from Mistaké— and some chamomile while he's at it.
Lloyd understands why he has to do this. It's his fault he'd gotten hurt and the least he could do was run some errands for his uncle to make up for it.
Still, he isn't exactly thrilled about having to talk to Mistaké again so soon.
To make a bad day worse, he had omitted tape-ing his ears down with medical scotch. He'd somehow managed to convince himself the discomfort wasn't worth it; but now that he's actually outside the feeling of his ears moving unobstructed below the covering of his loose hood is driving him nuts. He feels like every little twitch they make stands out like a neon sign.
Paranoia eats away at him so he avoids all busy areas and sticks to the shadows whenever someone passes by, turns out stealth is way easier when you're not bleeding out.
The streets get more and more familiar as he makes his way through the cramped alleys, he turns a corner and comes face to face with Mistaké's shop.
Lloyd's breath stutters in his lungs before he pulls himself together. How much worse could talking to Mistaké really make him feel?