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Arin has learned that, as a ninja, he is to expect the unexpected. And, well, he can confidently say he did not expect to see… this.
Sora gasps beside him as the training course rises from the ground, along with one not-very-conscious Lloyd draped over one of the hoops. It would be impressive if it wasn’t so worrying— the way he’s dangling on the hoop, balanced by his waist. Arin would die if he tried for that position, much less slept in it. He does not have the abs for that.
That said, it is worrying, and it has to be uncomfortable and oh— oh goodness, what if Lloyd’s not actually sleeping? Even with abs of steel, that can’t be comfortable; did he— did he pass out?
“Lloyd?” Arin asks through the shock of fear that punches his gut. “Lloyd?”
Lloyd doesn’t move. Sora steps forward with a frown and tugs at his gi. Still, he doesn’t move. Another shock of fear ripples through Arin’s every limb, horror building in pressure behind his eyes. “Is— oh my gosh— is he dead?”
“No! Of course he’s not dead!” Sora sqwacks, glaring at Arin as if she’s offended he would suggest such a thing .”He’s literally breathing, see?”
Arin blinks and focuses on Lloyd, searching for movement. He is, blessedly, breathing.
“Hey, Lloyd?” Sora tries, nudging him again. “Lloyd, can you hear me?” She pushes his hair away from his face and feels his forehead, measuring it against his own. “He doesn't feel too warm or anything… can you go get someone? I’m scared to move him in case something is wrong.”
“U-um, yeah,” Arin says, still transfixed by the tiny movements of Lloyd breathing. He really doesn’t look good. “Who should I get?”
“I don’t know, anyone.”
Arin just nods, spins around on his heel, and hurries inside.
Kai awoke to a funny feeling that something was wrong and voices right outside his door. They were muffled by the wall and his sleep-soaked brain, but he caught a few words here and there.
“He’s what…?”
“...on…. Course… don’t know… tried… wouldn’t… even twitch… can… look at…? …don’t know if he’s… okay.”
And if that wasn’t a wake-up call, Kai didn’t know what was. He sprang to his feet and tripped his way over to the door, slamming it open and nearly falling in his efforts to do so. “Who’s not okay?!”
Arin jumped back, and Nya glanced over her shoulder with an exasperated expression furrowing her brow. “Lloyd. Apparently, he’s sleeping on the training course.”
Kai gasped. That’s why he felt all funky this morning. “I knew it. My Lloyd senses were tingling.”
“Your Lloyd wha— you know what, I don’t want to know.” Nya looked impossibly more exasperated. “C’mon, Kai, let’s go get him.”
Arin led the way out to the training course to do exactly that, and— Wow, okay, when they said sleeping, this was not what Kai imagined. He thought maybe he’d be curled up on a platform or slumped against a pillar, but no, because Lloyd could do absolutely nothing halfway. Kai’s heart sank all the way to his toes.
“You sure he’s alive?” Kai asked before he could think.
“That’s what I said!” Arin cried as both girls shouted, “He’s obviously breathing!”
“Okay, okay,” Kai grumbled. He shuffled closer to where Lloyd was impersonating a soggy dish towel and reached up. “Lloyd, buddy, time to wake up.” Lloyd didn’t respond, not that he expected him to. “Does anyone have a light? We should check him for a concussion.”
“He doesn’t seem hurt or anything,” Sora said, “but you should check for yourself just in case.”
Kai nodded and took the little penlight Nya offered him. She took to checking him over while Kai peeled open his eyelids and flicked the light on.
Lloyd jolted and groaned low in his chest. He flinched away from the light and swatted at Kai’s hand.
“Hey there, buddy, don’t move too much yet,” Kai said softly, running a hand through Lloyd’s hair, half trying to keep his head still and half searching for bumps. “Do you remember how you got here?”
Lloyd hummed and squinted. “Got… here?”
“You’re on the training course,” Nya piped up. “Sora and Arin found you asleep here this morning. Were you here all night?”
“Oh… oh,” Lloyd said, looking a little more awake. “Guess I was. Sorry about that, didn’t mean to worry you guys.” He lifted his arms as if to brace himself up, but both Kai and Nya seized one in a heartbeat.
“Hold on, don’t get up yet,” Kai ordered. “Do you remember how you got here?”
“Yeah, I’m not hurt or anything.”
“You sure?” Kai asked. Lloyd fixed him with a look, but it was wobbly at best.
“I’m sure. I didn’t hit my head or anything… I don’t think.” Lloyd caught Kai’s raised eyebrows and amended, “Probably not. Almost certainly not. You can check my eyes if you want, but I didn’t hurt myself or anything.”
Kai did exactly that. He whipped up the penlight and flashed it in Lloyd’s eyes. Sure enough, there were no signs of a concussion, so they didn’t have to worry about any spine damage.
“Alright, kid,” Kai sighed, putting the pen light away. “Let’s get you down.”
Lloyd braced his arms against the hoop again, and his face pinched in obvious soreness. Kai rounded the pillar without thinking, snatched Lloyd by the back of his gi, and swung him down. He was rewarded with a startled yelp from Lloyd, and then a muffled grumble about something unfair. Lloyd tried to push Kai away and stagger to his own feet. Kai caught his arm.
“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” Kai jostled him a bit. He still didn’t look too awake.
“Uh… I have stuff to do.”
“Yeah, no, scratch those plans. You’re going to bed.”
That woke him up a bit. “What? No! I had, like, a full night of sleep last night!”
“It doesn’t count if it was on the training course, Lloyd. And it certainly doesn’t count if you passed out,” Nya added, sliding up and subtly locking herself around one of his arms, should he try to flee.
“I didn’t!” Lloyd cried. “I… well, not like that at least.”
“Sure,” Nya wrinkled her nose at him, but Kai could see the glint of worry in her eyes. “C’mon, to your room.” She tugged Lloyd’s arm so he faced the desired direction and tossed over her shoulder to the kids, “He’ll be just fine, so focus on your training instead of worrying, okay?”
Lloyd dragged his feet the entire way to his room, slower and slower by the minute. His head hung heavily. From embarrassment or from fatigue, Kai couldn’t tell. He glanced over Lloyd’s head and found Nya glancing back, face painted with worry. She didn’t know either.
Kai toed Lloy’d door open, and the two dragged him through and hefted him onto his bed. He lay there, glassy-eyed and staring at nothing, for a long minute before he rolled his head to look at the siblings. “You’re such worry warts,” he said.
A flash of offence seized Kai’s throat. “Excuse me?”
“Always nagging and worrying,” Lloyd muttered.
“Really? ‘Cause I think we’re both very reasonable.” Kai glared down on him. “Have you looked in the mirror recently? Cause you look like you got chewed up by a dragon and then thrown down the side of a mountain.”
Lloyd rolled over to face away from him with a huff. Kai’s frustration flared. “Hey! Don’t give that attitude! Nya and I just rescued you from the training course, where the kids found you passed out.”
“I wasn’t passed out.”
“Really? Then do enlighten me, Lloyd, how does one end up in that position ordinarily?”
Lloyd did not answer. That just threw oil on the fire.
“When will you learn, kid? Overworking yourself gets you nowhere! At this point, it’s downright irresponsible. Arin and Sora found you, in case you missed that, and they were pretty shaken up. Imagine you stumbled upon Sensei Wu knocked out on the training course and entirely unresponsive. I think you’d be freaked out by that, too! You’re a teacher now, Lloyd, have some responsibility and set a good example! Who knows who I’m going to have to peel off the training course at o-dark-thirty now?!”
Again, Lloyd did not answer. Kai opened his mouth to go on, but then his eye caught tiny little movements. Lloyd was shaking. Kai rounded the bed to see his face and found tears streaming from his eyes, neck muscles wound tight with swallowed sobs. Kai’s furious frustration melted, leaving behind… sadness. He was just sad.
Because Lloyd had always done this, and didn’t show signs of stopping. Because Lloyd may never learn, and would, one day, inevitably have to pay for that.
“I’m going to go get Zane to check him out,” Nya said softly from her spot by the door. Kai heard said door slide shut a moment later.
Kai tried to pry open one of Lloyd’s hands, which was fisted tightly in the blankets. “Hey, I’m sorry, I know I’m being harsh,” Kai whispered, “I’m just… I worry.”
“I-I know, it’s not— not that,” Lloyd choked out, squeezing his eyes tighter. “It’s— I’ve—- I’m not overworking myself, okay? I know— it does-doesn’t help.”
“Then what’s this about, buddy?” Kai finally freed Lloyd’s fingers and laced them with his, tracing knuckles with his thumb. “Are you sick or something?”
“I— maybe,” Lloyd sobbed. He forced the rest of his air out sharply and sucked in another desperate breath to quell any more ugly cries. “I keep— I keep seeing things, Kai! I keep having these dreams— visions— and nothing makes sense and then I wake up but I’m still tired. I keep waking up on the floor or the training course but it’s like— it’s like I’m not sleeping at all, even though I try every night and I keep randomly waking up places and— and—”
“Hey, wow, okay, deep breath,” Kai said, and it wasn’t just for Lloyd. His head was spinning and his heart was throbbing with this new, scary information. “You’re… having visions?”
Lloyd failed to smother a sob and buried his face in his pillow. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I know it’s not really that bad or anything, I just— I’m making it seem worse ‘cause I’m crying I— I’m just so tired.”
“Okay, okay, I know. Let’s start there, alright? We can figure out these visions once you can think straight again. Sleep now, talk later. Deal?”
Lloyd peeked one sleep-bruised eye out from the pillow. “I slept all night.”
“It doesn’t count if it’s… vision sleep, whatever that means. Either way, you’re obviously still beat.”
“I have… stuff to do.”
“You always have stuff to do, kid, but you can’t do it unless you sleep.” Kai chanced reaching a cautious hand out to ruffle through Lloyd’s hair. Like magic, his eyes slid shut. They sprang open again a moment later. “Don’t fight it, bud. We’ll wake you up if we need you. And I’ll stay right here, just in case one of those visions comes to you.”
“Promise?” And oh, how Lloyd did sound so small, so young, all over again. He really was young, years younger. He should still be that young; he shouldn’t be this old yet. Kai’s heart ached.
“Promise,” Kai replied.
That was all the permission Lloyd needed, eyes falling shut instantly. Kai knew he was asleep because he didn’t flinch in the slightest when he reached out to wipe the tears away from Lloyd’s face.
The door slid quietly open a moment later, and two sets of footsteps padded through. “He asleep?” Nya asked.
“Yeah.” Kai sat back a bit and found Zane’s eyes slowly roving Lloyd, already scanning. “He said something about having visions recently, and waking up from them on the floor or something. He was pretty out of it, so I don’t know how much to believe. Either he’s been having wicked nightmares, somehow had several seizures without us noticing, or he really is having visions and they’re draining him and/or knocking him out.”
“Lloyd shows no abnormal functions or activity besides severe fatigue,” Zane reported. “This would not be our first experience with visions. Even if Lloyd’s mind was muddled, I would assume his statements held at least partial truth.”
“Yeah, well…” Kai sighed, looking back to Lloyd. He was still on top of the covers and still shaking ever so slightly. Kai shimmied the blankets out from underneath Lloyd and draped them over the kid instead. “Guess we’ll find out when he wakes up.”
And so Kai hunkered down to keep vigil for however long it took.