Chapter Text
Lloyd tore through the sky, the wind rushing in his wake as he wove deftly through the trees in the park.
He was taking his dragon mech on a test drive, having repaired and redesigned it after the whole Meowthra thing. On the outside, it didn't look all that different. Mostly he'd just been fixing the color changing panels; he'd considered replacing the parts that his mother had replaced with iron, when the dragon got sent back to her, but he'd had a better idea. Now they shone with gold paint, reminding him of kintsugi. Plates and veins of gold shimmered brightly against the green in the bright sunlight.
The modifications on the inside were much more extensive. He'd replaced the entire control system, changing it to take full advantage of his four arms. He could pilot with so much more precision like this. He'd recovered enough to start shapeshifting again within a few days, but he didn't find himself actually doing it that often. He'd taken human form a couple times when cornered by the media, just to try and keep his identity under wraps-just because he was okay with his friends and family knowing who he was didn't mean he wanted the whole city to have that information- but otherwise? He didn't feel the need to hide anymore.
A quiet purr rumbled in his chest at the thought, tail wagging lightly. He rose out of the park, rolling his mech so that it was almost on its side as he whipped around a corner. His ears perked at the thudding of heavy footsteps beneath him. He looked down, watching Kai's mech running below. Lloyd grinned. He flew down, carefully matching his speed so that he could fly right next to Kai and look through the cockpit. They were both wearing masks, but Lloyd could almost see Kai's grin behind his.
The comm crackled to life. "Lloyd! How's your test drive going!" Kai called excitedly. Lloyd had never thought, when he joined the team, that he would ever hear his real name over the comms. He was still getting used to it, but he couldn't say that he didn't love the sound.
"It's holding up pretty great so far! How's yours?" Lloyd asked. It hadn't taken all that long to rebuild the ninjas' mechs. They'd dug out old backup blueprints from the back of the warehouse as a team effort, with Zane's uncanny memory of the software becoming indispensable. Garmadon had even offered up some spare metal for the rebuilding. Even if it came with some thinly veiled insults as he dropped it off, Lloyd was just going to count the fact that he helped as progress.
"Going well! You know, I think I could go for a rematch with Meowthra!"
Lloyd snorted. They were nearing the beach, now. Meowthra's footprints were still visible on the ocean floor, and there were still faint impressions on the beach from when she followed Garmadon back to the volcano. "Y'know, my dad is still trying to find cat toys big enough for her..."
"Nope! Nevermind, I'm good!" Kai said quickly. Lloyd laughed. Meowthra wasn't so bad, once you got used to her. It was mainly a matter of exposure before you learned to avoid focusing on the details; at her core, she really was just a big cat. Still a big relief to the city that she lived with Garmadon and Lloyd now. (Two birds with one stone, as far as most of the city was concerned. Garmadon had turned the energy he'd used for conquering into reshaping his volcano for his pets; trying to make enough room on land for Meowthra, already a huge undertaking, and trying to make the surrounding waters perfect for his sharks while he was at it. Much better than trying to take over the city, but the death glares whenever a fishing boat got too close to the reef...)
Nya was skating along the shoreline, keeping the cockpit perfectly steady as the waves rose and fell beneath her mech's feet. Lloyd rolled away from Kai, flying over to Nya. He darted playfully around the water strider's legs, weaving dizzily around the thin metal supports. "Showoff." Nya teased affectionately.
"Like you're not showing off right now?" He teased back. He could almost hear Nya rolling her eyes. The stifled giggle he caught over the comms wasn't her's, though. Lloyd looked up as he flew out from under Nya's mech, seeing Jay's jet above them. Lloyd smiled. They'd separated out pretty quickly, when they agreed to all test out their mechs on the same day, but they seemed to be coming back together now. Except for... "Have you seen Cole and Zane?" Lloyd asked as he flew up.
The comm lines filled with noncommittal noises and verbal shrugs, way too casual for Lloyd not to think something was up. Hmmm. He slid his mech up next to Jay's so that he could look him in the eye. "Well? Have you?" He asked innocently, grinning as he tilted his head at Jay.
Jay shrank back in his seat, laughing nervously as his eyes darted from side to side. "Well, uh, they're- you know- you see-"
Kai laughed, shooting a burst of flame in Lloyd's direction from the beach. "Leave him alone!"
"No, no, I've got this!" Jay squawked indignantly. "They're, uh, busy. They went off together when the test drive started because they've got to talk about... a group project. At school!" He added quickly as Nya made a warning hiss.
Lloyd raised an eyebrow. "We share a lot of our classes. I'm surprised I haven't heard." He'd been worried about letting the mask fall away at school, but it was... actually better than before, now that he had friends around. Few people seemed to really care that Lloyd Garmadon wasn't as vicious as they thought, let alone turn him into a target. (He'd worried, a little bit, about the five ninja seen hugging Lloyd Garmadon and the five people suddenly hanging out with him at school, but it didn't seem like anybody had drawn the connection. The most he'd heard was rumors about why the Green Ninja wasn't there, and the theories didn't come close to the truth. Lloyd was pretty sure that his friends were collecting the most gossipy stories about why the Green Ninja was avoiding Lloyd Garmadon, so they could read them all out to him later.)
"It's. For music class...?"
"Ah." Okay, that was a lot more plausible. Jay sounded pretty damn suspicious, all the same. Lloyd almost wanted to press him more... but that would just feel mean at this point. "Alright." He shrugged, backing off. Jay visibly slouched in relief, and Lloyd stifled a snicker. Then Jay blinked, looking down at where his comm was. Beneath them, Kai and Nya suddenly sped up, Kai peeling off back into the city as Nya raced towards the nearest canal.
Lloyd hadn't gotten whatever message everybody else had. He blinked, starting to speed up and follow, before Jay quickly darted in front of him. "It's a beautiful day outside, isn't it!? Can we just slow down and enjoy it together?" Jay shouted hopefully over the comm. Lloyd gave him an incredulous look. He blinked innocently.
"...Sure." Lloyd said, playing along.
"Great! Let's just fly over this way..." Jay curved back towards the city, not quite in the same direction that Kai and Nya had gone. Lloyd briefly considered peeling away to follow them instead, but he'd like to make Jay think that he'd fooled him. At the very least, it was funny, and he didn't want to spoil whatever his friends had all planned.
His comm crackled to life again. "...impossible to work with, he knows this is for Lloyd so why does he still have to be such a pain in the..." Cole's voice murmured darkly, not sounding like he intended to be heard.
"Hi Cole! You're on the main frequency!" Jay chirped almost frantically.
"Shit." Cole went quiet again. Lloyd raised an eyebrow at Jay, who pulled ahead slightly to avoid eye contact. So whatever this was, it was for Lloyd specifically? That would explain the secrecy, but he couldn't think of anything in particular that they would be celebrating now. Hm.
Lloyd could see Zane and Cole's mechs rounding the corner now. He swooped down to fly in-between them. "So... what's for me?" He asked. Cole tensed. He reached out to his comm, switching it so that it wasn't on the main frequency anymore. Lloyd couldn't hear what he said, or read his lips from behind a mask, but he'd bet money on it being something like "distract him, now".
"Lloyd! How is your mother?" Zane chirped, and Cole slammed his head against his turntables.
Lloyd snorted. "She's, uh. She's doing okay? Last time I saw her? She's got a job interview at the museum later today, so..." Koko was struggling, after sixteen years of near isolation, to adjust to the normal life she'd wanted when she first came to the city. The museum had use for her passion for and knowledge about ancient weapons and artifacts, even if she could get a little overenthusiastic about it. "She's got her own place in the city now. Dad's been visiting." Lloyd didn't know if his mom and dad were guaranteed to get back together, after so long apart. He didn't even know how he felt about it, honestly. But they seemed to be getting along well, and they'd clearly missed each other despite how they'd fought over him, so... he was happy, at least, that they were happy.
"That is good to hear!" Zane said. "I believe that they will both be present at your surprise."
Lloyd's ears twitched. "Oh?"
Cole sighed deeply. Above the three of them, Jay's jet zoomed away. "We were trying to be more subtle about it." Cole huffed, back on the main frequency. Lloyd could hear the hint of a smile in his voice as he continued. "But yeah, we do have something planned for you. It was supposed to be mine and Zane's turn keeping you distracted while Kai, Nya, and Jay have their turn setting up."
"I see. How much longer do we have to give them until everything's ready...?"
"It was almost completely set up by the time we left!" Zane said. "We were told to take you around the city for a few more minutes before leading you up to the mayor's office. The main strategy suggested was encouraging you to show off."
Lloyd scoffed indignantly. He twirled the controls, flying upside down for a few seconds. "I'd be more offended if that didn't really work on me." He commented as he finished the roll. He was having a lot of fun flying around with his friends. "So I just keep this up for a little while longer?"
"We're waiting on a signal so we know it's all set up. Just give me and Zane enough time to get inside and get up to the top before you fly up there." Cole said.
"Got it." Lloyd flew. He'd gotten used enough to the new controls, tested enough of the systems, and looked over enough of the repairs that he couldn't really call this a test anymore. He'd already seen that everything was working perfectly. This was just purely for the thrill of flight as this point. He let the glass of the cockpit slide back, grabbing his mask with one hand to keep it on his face as the wind blew past him.
He still loved the sound of people cheering for him. He didn't know for how long he would still be hearing that, now that the ninja weren't needed to defend the city from Garmadon all the time. But just being able to fly like this... he loved that almost as much. He let out a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment as his mech fell into autopilot. He cracked one eye back open to watch Cole and Zane peeling away beneath him. He guessed that was his cue. He flew straight ahead for another minute or so, just to make sure he was giving those two enough time to get ahead of him. Then he turned around, making a beeline for the mayor's office.
It was funny, he reflected. He must have flown this way a hundred times, but this might be the first time he wasn't doing it to try and stop his dad. He went to the base of the tower first, seeing the rest of his team's mechs sitting outside, before slamming on the accelerator and flying directly up. He raced his reflection, shimmering off of the tower's glass side just as clearly as the morning he'd flown up here to try and stop his family and friends from killing each other. He shot up over the top of the building, stopping and hovering.
The top of the building had been cleared off, the mayor's desk having apparently been moved to the floor below. (Lloyd didn't really want to know what combination of bribery and threats made that happen.) In its place was a modest array of tables and balloons tied to the ground. One of the tables had pizza and punch on it, another covered in a small stack of presents, another lined with bowls of candy. Above it all was a banner reading Happy Birthday Green!
Someone had drawn an arrow between "Happy" and "Birthday", pointing up to add "Late." The word "Green" sat in front of a hastily scribbled mess, as if someone had started to paint "Lloyd" before realizing that it was probably a bad idea to put his technically-secret identity up on a giant banner. It was, in Lloyd's opinion, absolutely perfect.
The rooftop was almost empty, save for Garmadon and the ninja all standing under the banner, carefully spaced apart. They all lit up at the sight of Lloyd, waving and gesturing for him to come down. Wu and Koko were standing and talking together by the punch table, though they also looked up and waved at Lloyd. He grinned, giving the rooftop a quick once-over to check for anybody with a camera before he pulled off his mask and flew down. His mech came to a gentle stop on the roof, lying down and coiling up as he stepped out. "A second birthday? Really? Maybe people are right when they call me spoiled." He teased.
Garmadon laughed, reaching out to ruffle Lloyd's hair. "Well, your first one did get interrupted by a conquering attempt." He said, almost sheepishly. "Gotta make it up to you somehow."
Kai punched Lloyd lightly in the arm. "And we missed your birthday entirely! And you weren't even going to tell us!" He exclaimed. "There's no way we weren't going to have another party for you."
It was a much smaller party than the one Lloyd had at the volcano, thrown together with a much smaller budget and time to prepare, just for Lloyd's family and closest friends. All the same, he liked this party a lot better. He was surrounded by people who cared about him- really cared about him, not any mask that he put on- and he was only really realizing now how he'd always taken it as a matter of course that that could never happen. He certainly wasn't planning on taking it for granted now that he knew he had it.
He sat on top of his mech as the party drew on, reaching evening. He didn't know how long they'd all planned to keep the party going, but the candy wasn't gone yet and the presents hadn't been opened, so... Lloyd figured it would be a while longer. Nobody seemed tired of it yet. He'd rejoin the group any minute now, but for now, the sun was starting to set over the ocean.
He could see why the mayor's office was located up here, despite all of the security issues that his dad had made obvious. At the end of the day, it was one of- if not the- best views in the whole city. The setting sun cast the ocean in a gorgeous red light, the volcano a dark shape rising in the distance. If he looked down towards the docks, he could almost see the warehouse where they kept their mechs next to the Destiny's Bounty. A karaoke machine- not Zane this time- had been set up, and he could hear his dad nearly drowning out the instrumentals of some old song he'd never heard of. Lloyd laughed quietly at the sound. He held a paper plate in his hands, loaded with a piece of thickly-frosted store-bought sheet cake, a cheap plastic fork stuck in it. He took a bite, sighing contentedly.
Having his cake.
Eating it too.