Six
You should really have kept your secrets to yourself. Thanks to your stupidity and arrogance, you've given yourself away. If you hadn't have been in such a big group, maybe I wouldn't have been able to practically smell the stench of Dark Matter dripping off of you all. I'm giving you one warning and one warning only. Unless you want all of your families six feet under, you'll give yourself up willingly when it's time. You know I'm not someone you mess around with. When I see fit, I will find you again and you will surrender yourself to me. Better wish your family goodbye, cousin, as you won't be able to speak to them again. Time is running out.
- Xander'
"Wait, hold on." I was barely able to hear Jade with how loud the ringing in my ears was pulsing. I shakily raise my head from the paper to see the woman frown deeply, "There was a lot to process. Can someone break it down for me?"
Nya, who had been reading the note from over my shoulder takes a step back, "What I gathered was that whoever this Xander guy is, he somehow knew we visited the Bizzaro's?" She fixes her gaze on my frozen face as if expecting me to agree with her.
"It also said something about a cousin?" Kat whispers softly, the woman nibbling the edge of her thumb anxiously. I watch her glance off to where the machete had been thrown from, like she was waiting for the person to attack them again.
"This is on me." I could only mutter coarsely, my windpipe feeling like it was closing in on itself. I could feel their curious and scared eyes on me, waiting for me to speak again. Inhaling shakily, I raise my chin to look each of them in the eye, the paper in my hand being crushed ever so slightly. "I know him, and I wish I didn't. I'm so sorry for dragging you all into this. I should have just kept everything to myself, then you wouldn't have all been threatened by my own cousin. I'm so stupid, I knew this was a bad idea—"
I cut myself off by clamping a hand over my mouth, salty tears brimming my eyes as my heart rate spikes. What have I done? What have I done, what have I done, what have I done? Everyone's in danger now thanks to my selfish reasons. I thought things were bad enough before, but I was so fucking wrong. My family, my friends, even my own son was now in danger because of my secret keeping self.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." I have to force myself to open my eyes, the shocked face of Jade being the first thing I see through blurry vision. She softly shushes me, wrapping her arms around my middle and bringing my body flush against her own. "Calm down, okay? Just take a second to breathe. We're all here, everything is okay."
The feeling of her hand rubbing soothing circles on my back has me crumbling against her. My cheek rests against the top of her head, silent tears dragging themselves down my cheeks as I hiccup. I couldn't bring myself to look the others in the eye. Knowing that they were witnessing my breakdown when I usually held myself strong made me feel weaker than I already appeared.
"Just take your time, okay?" Maddy smiles softly at my tear streaked face, the others standing beside her wearing the same face. "We can talk more about this tomorrow when everything has settled, alright? How about we go home, give the guys their dinner and sleep this all off so we have a clear mind tomorrow."
I simply nod my head, holding Jade a bit tighter to me as my breathing starts to slow down to its regular cycle. Despite the note saying that time was dwindling, I just needed a day to let everything sink in. Tomorrow, I would explain everything to them and we'd work something out. Like we always do.
"You sure you don't want any, Maddy? Jade seems to enjoy it."
Blinking away the memory from an hour before, I turn my gaze away from the table to see Kai grinning towards Maddy just across from him. He holds out a spoon of his curry to the woman, who in return scrunches up her face and shakes her head.
"You know I don't like spice, Kai. Stop offering!" The yellow ninja shouts, her hand tightening around the fork she held. Huffing loudly, she resumes eating her slice of cake while also having to smack Cole's hand away when he tries to sneakily grab her slice. "You just had your slice and a half, Cole. This is mine."
Cole sighs loudly, flopping backwards on his zabuton until his back met the hardwood floor of the Monastery. "It's not fair. You should have got a whole cake instead of a few measly slices. Now I'm wasting away." He drawls, his left arm being thrown over his face to shield his eyes.
"Oh, stop with the dramatics." Morro rolls his eyes next to the Master of Earth. He brings the spoon of soup up to his lips and takes a small sip before dropping it back into the bowl. Placing his elbow on the table and leaning his face into the palm of his hand, the previous ghost pushes the bowl over to Cole's empty plate. "Here, I'm full."
"Morro, sharing?" Lloyd grins teasingly next to me, the fortune cookie in his hand snapping in two, "Never thought I'd see the day. Even Alyssa says you never shared back in the old days." I watch him take one half of the cookie and hold it out to me, his soft eyes now staring back into my own. "I'll always be here to share with you. Unlike some." He mumbles, a smile taking over his face as I giggle.
Taking the cookie, I hear Morro growl and grab the spoon Cole was going to use to drink his soup with. With Cole whining about having nothing to eat with, Morro throws the wet utensil at Lloyds face, to which he easily moves his head to the side and dodges. "Shut up!"
"Food fight?" Jay perks up, excited eyes shifting between everyone as he picks up a piece of egg with his chopsticks. He steadily aims for Jade across the table before shrieking and dropping his food with a wince. "Ow!"
"Don't waste the food I graciously bought for you." Kat smiles innocently, as if she hadn't just kicked her own boyfriends knee with her boot.
"Bought?" Nya snorts into her own fortune cookie, small bits of crumbs falling from her lips and onto the table. "You haven't paid your tab in years!" She laughs loudly, her body bouncing with her giggles.
"Alright, kids. Quiet down." Garmadon sighs, subtly brushing some of the crumbs off his side of the table that had been spat over by Nya. When his area was clean, he lifts his brown eyes to scan the group with a soft smile, "So, I heard you all went into the City. How did that go?"
"Yeah, I thought you guys were going to the library?" Kai furrows his eyebrows, gaze wondering over the table for a moment before he speaks again, "Normally when you guys visit that place, you come back with at least a stack of new stuff." He points out and I can just subtly notice how Jade tenses up besides him.
A pang of guilt hits me quickly, like a sucker punch to the gut. They shouldn't have to lie because of my selfishness, they weren't use to looking their friends in the eyes daily and lying straight to their faces, not like I was.
Tapping my finger on the table in front of us, I send the spiky haired man a grin, "You have me to thank for that. I managed to pull the bookworms out of the place before they could dig the money out of their pockets." I chuckle easily, my free hand that sat on my lap wondering over to weave itself into Lloyd's larger hand.
"Yeah!" I snap my attention to Kat who sits at the far end of the table next to Garmadon, her eyes bright as she follows along with my little fib, "We should probably finish the ones we have on our shelves before we get anymore."
The topic changed from there and multiple conversations were thrown across the room, voices mingling through other voices. The hand that was in Lloyd's own was squeezed ever so gently, my eyes coming up from watching Wu scold Morro next to him that trying to get Cole to choke on his soup wasn't a good idea to meet Lloyd's emerald gaze, an easy going smile splayed on his lips.
"What?" I chuckle under my breath at his face, eyes trailing over every detail he had to offer. There's been so many times where I had simply counted the tiny freckles that dotted over his cheeks and nose while he slept beside me at night, yet I always found myself counting them again.
I watch him lean his head towards me until he was able to run his nose along the nap of my neck, his breath hitting my skin sending sparks down my spine. "I missed you." He mutters softly, placing gentle kisses over my skin. Him and his weird marking habits.
Biting the skin on the inside of my cheek, I force myself to nudge him away with my hands on his chest, my faced flushed red, "Lloyd, the others..." I raise my eyebrows and nod my head to the group that was still bustling with loud chatter. I watch as he rolls his eyes with a small laugh before he shuffles off the ground to stand tall above the short table, his hand still connected with my own.
"Come on, they won't notice." And they didn't. I stood quickly, not missing the small smirk Garmadon shot my way as Lloyd and I took our time to head towards our room without anyone else noticing, or at least saying anything at our absence.
A few hours later into the night and I was still awake despite feeling exhausted, my bare back pressed up against Lloyds chest with his arm wrapped securely around my middle, holding me close as if I'd suddenly turn to dust and cease to exist. I feel his chest rise and fall as he breath softly against me, my tired eyes staring off into the darkness of the room.
This was how my nights usually went. Lloyd would try to help me sleep by whispering gentle songs and slow lullabies to me to coax me to sleep, but after some time I would wake up after he had fallen asleep himself and stare off into the distance while thoughts and feelings kept me awake.
Tonight, stress was keeping me from falling peacefully asleep next to my boyfriend. A few hours prior I had received a text from Kat, stating that the rest of the girls and I should talk about what had happened on the way home sometime tomorrow once everyone had thought things over. I wasn't sure how I felt about everything. So much had piled up in my mind, creating nothing but chaos when I tried to mull over it.
By the time I had fallen asleep, it was almost sunrise. Someone shaking my shoulder softly pulled me out of a dreamless sleep. Peeling blurry eyes open, I stare up at the blond blob in front of me, "Lloyd?" I croak, wanting nothing more than to turn around and cover myself with the blanket.
"Honey, what's wrong?" The concern laced between his smooth voice was enough for my brain to drive itself into overdrive. I scoot my body back so he could take a seat at the edge of the bed, feeling the mattress dip under his weight next to me.
"What do you mean?" Yawning, I turn to lay on my back, fingers gripping the material of the blanket so it covered my body up to my chin. His face shifts from concerned to almost a look of doubt.
"Alyssa, I know you." Lloyd reaches his arm out, his fingers running through my most likely knotted hair but the soothing feeling of his fingers massaging my scalp was almost enough to have me melt. "You only sleep in when you're stressed. You didn't even come out for breakfast." He speaks so gently, he always did around me. He knew me better than I knew myself, too.
I knew then and there that I should finally fess up to everything. It was a perfect opportunity. It was just us two alone, no one was around to disrupt this quiet atmosphere. It was like The First Spinjitzu Master was aligning everything up for me, yet I was about to disappoint him. I couldn't do it yet, not when my thoughts travelled back to my sons smiling face and the Bizzaro's carefree life they dissevered so much. I'm such a cowered, I didn't deserve anything that I had.
"Sorry," I couldn't meet his gaze as I spoke, instead focusing on my own hands as I played with some loose thread of the blanket, "I guess I'm just really tired from dragging the girls all around the city. My social battery must be really drained." I force out a strained chuckle, my hands closing into fists around the blanket.
I can't believe I lied to him again. How many times has it been now? How many times have I lied to save my own skin? I felt disgusted with myself, yet I still chose to lie straight to his face. Finally dragging my eyes away from my clenched fists, I could see the hesitation on Lloyds face. He knew something was wrong, I could feel and see it yet he doesn't push.
"Alright." He sighs softly, untangling his fingers from my hair and I had to hold myself back from following his touch. His weight leaves the bed as he stands, the mattress letting out a small creak as he crosses his arms over is chest loosely, "Take your time, okay? I'll make you a late breakfast, sound good?"
The small smile he sends me has me wanting to puke, but I smile weakly back at him and nod ever so slightly. "Okay. Thank you." He doesn't hear my heart shatter as he leans down to place a quick kiss against my forehead before leaving the room, leaving me to fall back into my pillow with a quiet and drawn out groan.
I had stayed in the shower after that for a solid hour, letting the hot water rush over my shoulders and down my body. Hoping it would wash the disgusting feeling that I had over my body away, but when I got out and dried off I still felt the same.
The walk there was silent, not a sound being heard down the hallway I took and I wished that there was something to hear, maybe it would have took my mind off the conversation that was soon to come up. Placing my dirty clothes into the washing machine, I made sure to grab the note from Xander out of my old clothes pockets. I didn't want it getting in the wrong hands if the others were going to go through my clothes.
With the note in my pocket, I turned around to head towards the kitchen to grab something to eat when my route was stopped abruptly. Voices were heard in a room next to me, hushed but I knew who they belonged to.
Pulling open the door, I was met with the girls who all stood in a circle around each other, different expressions on their faces. Sighing, I knew it was time for that conversation. Someone grabbed my forearm, making me shout out in surprise.
"About time, we were waiting for you." Nya sends me a pointed look as she leads me towards the others, who all make room for the two of us.
Brushing off her touch, I wrap my arms around myself and try to quickly gather my thoughts. "I...I don't know where to begin?" I utter, trying to pinpoint an exact point to start.
"How about Xander? What's his deal?" Jade frowns, her arms crossed tightly over her chest as she leans against the nearest wall. She nearly loses her balance when the door to the room was harshly ripped open again, causing me to quickly turn to see my twin brothers enraged scowl.
"Someone want to tell me why we're talking about my deranged cousin?"
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