-vasilopoulaphobia-

❝  ̶I̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶w̶a̶n̶n̶a̶ something,  ̶I̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ wanna feel ❞

❝ Something really real so that I can really❞

❝ Feel like a person again❞

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Feel something

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❝  ̶I̶s̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶l̶o̶v̶e̶l̶y̶?̶ ̶A̶l̶l̶alone❞

❝ Heart made of  ̶g̶l̶a̶s̶s̶, my mind of stone❞

❝ Tear me to pieces, skin and bone ❞

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Lovely

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D̸e̶m̸o̸n̷ human d̸e̶m̸o̸n̷ human

Lord  ̶ L̶l̶o̶y̶d̶ Garmadon

Lloyd Garmadon was exceptionally good at hiding everything. To the point, where almost like Zane and Pixal, he could flip his emotions on and off with a switch.

They usually stayed off.

He crouched lower on the roof, careful not to knock anymore shingles off, his back aching from the awkward position.

"Nothing." He whispered into the ear piece, his eyes scanning the street up and down. "Why am I doing this again?"

"Closure, Lloyd." came Kai's voice. "Getting over your vasilopoulaphobia."

"Woah, calm down with the big words there." joked Cole. "In all seriousness, what does that mean?"

"Vasilopoulaphobia: the fear of princesses." interjected Zane in his usual matter-of-fact tone.

Lloyd could almost hear them all wince over the radio channel. Kai was a little brusque when it came to talking about her.

"I'm getting movement on thirty-fifth." Pixal's words jerked him upright, his training easily keeping him balanced on the slanted rooftop. "Lloyd, you're closest. We can't risk letting them get hurt."

"Right." A little distractedly, Lloyd worked his way down the side of the apartment block, his ninja gi extending over his fingers with grippy tips proved to be a useful alteration, on the part of Cyrus Borg.

"Give me the run down Pix."

"Female figure, about 5'6, maybe '7, cloaked and reported holding a bulky object by a bystander. Currently tracking their path and they seem to be heading to the...skatepark?"

"Mhm." He made his way on ground first, adding a somersault or a flip here and there, ignoring the startling red reflection of his eyes in windows, lights and screens with determination. From twenty-seventh, he switched to the roofs, swinging up there on cat-soft feet. If only he had those nine lives. He felt his muscles tighten, his teeth lengthen just a little bit at the sight of the posters and billboards as he passed by.

Vasilopoulaphobia, the fear of princesses.

One princess. He tried to remind himself, leaping over a wide gap, letting the adrenaline push his body faster.

You've seen one, you've seen them all.

Ninjago City at night, was undeniably beautiful. So many colours it hurt his eyes, lights and horns blaring, the buzz of nightlife, the moon, pearl white, hovering over the city like a guardian, the place which he would protect with his life. He just wished it got into a little less trouble. He was close to the skatepark now, one that he usually visited, or at least used to.

He spotted the mark, his glowing eyes sharpening in the darkness as he silently jumped from balcony to balcony, switching between two buildings. Lloyd's mask was already on. Long ago, he got used to the tightness, the restricted view, his hair matted down against his head, occasionally falling into the small gap for his eyes. She seemed to be fiddling with the unknown article, her cloak still on. He took this chance to creep up behind her, already reaching for one of his katanas when she swung around.

Fuck, you're losing you're touch Garmadon-

Something cracked against his face, and Lloyd tottered on the spot for a moment, utterly dazed as the world swam around him.

"Shit—crap on a cracker, dude, are you okay?"

Lloyd managed to prise his eyes open, failing to keep himself gasping from the blinding pain.

FIGHT! Screamed the ninja side of him.

PAIN! Countered the more human part.

He yanked off his mask, pressing it to the warm trickle of blood making its way down his temple.

"Holy—you're the real deal, aren't you?"

"What?" he managed to gasp out, blindly scrabbling around his utility belt for an instant ice pack. His eye was beginning to throb.

"You're the Green Ninja." she whispered. "I thought you were an insanely good cosplayer, oh my god, you're bleeding—"

"S'okay," he waved her away with the hand not holding the ice pack and mask to his hurting face. "Who are you?"

"Oh," she seemed to straighten herself for a moment, her hands reaching up to adjust an invisible something on her head. Lloyd frowned. Was that a signal for someone hiding?

His good eye blinked twice, catching his reflection in the glass pane of the candy shop behind him. He did not look good. His gi was fine, no rips in the black fabric, the green sashes and folds all intact. His face was not faring so well, his mask pressed against his forehead, his heightened senses smelling the tang of his own blood. She'd hit him with a skateboard, now in two craggy pieces. He looked at her again. She held herself up with an almost nervous composure, backbone straightened by false confidence Lloyd could pick out a mile away.

He used it himself, after all.

Then he realised who she was. He took in the posters and ads plastered to lamp posts and boards, pieced everything together and fought back the urge to scream and let his Oni side take over.

He'd been hit in the face with a skateboard by the new princess of Ninjago.

"Your Highness." his body managed to clobber together a messy bow, and he clenched his teeth, running his tongue over the sharp points of canines. Princess.

"You figured it out." she sounded disappointed, flipping back her hood with an exasperated sigh to bend down and collect the fragments of her board. She looked different from all the media, a little less put together, her hair falling loose over her shoulders, her eyes with bags to rival his.

"You're meant to be inside the palace, Princess." His tone was nice and sharp. She pulled back a good metre from the change in his mood. Which she shouldn't have seen at all, in fact. He considered bringing Neuro in to wipe her memory.

She humphed, holding up the two pieces of her board in front of Lloyd's eyes.

"It's broken."

"Yes, I see that."

"Because of you!"

"You hit me with it."

Lloyd was getting irritated. This princess was wildly different from Harumi, apart from their whole sneaking-out thing. She was more forward, more annoying, less princessy and less lovable.

"I need a new board." she declared, crossing her arms.

"You're a princess," he started dryly, taking his mask off his forehead to check if it was still bleeding. It was. He made a big show of dabbing it, wincing more dramatically than he would ever do. "Buy it yourself."

"But you broke it."

"I thought we established that already."

He apparently succeeded in annoying her, because she threw down the board onto the ground, exhaling loudly before slumping onto a stone bench.

"You think I wanted to be a princess?" She chuckled lowly, her voice empty, completely empty of anything. Lloyd recognised the hollowness and was taken aback. Was that what he sounded like?

"I didn't ask for any of this, one day I'm skateboarding with my friends and getting ice cream, next I know, I'm being dolled up, being called princess and your highness and—" She took a gigantic, heaving breath and her face fell into her hands.

Lloyd froze there. What was he supposed to do? Awkwardly, he patted her on the back and hoped that was the extent of what he was expected to do.

"You think it's nice, being looked at like I'm about to summon a demonic lord—" Lloyd could feel the pull, the yearning inside of him at the mention of Lord Garmadon. "Having whispers follow you anywhere you go, having the nobles turn up their noses at me 'cause I'm not princessy enough?"

"I'm sorry Your—"

"Don't." Her tone was equally as sharp as his was before. "Don't apologise for something like that."

"Okay."

They both fell quiet for a moment, equally surprised at the princesses' outburst.

She must have had that all bottled up for a while. Lloyd summarised. He cleared his throat and prayed to the First Spinjitzu Master that he would not regret this.

"It's not nice, being looked at like that." He paused to sneak a look at her shuddering body. "Having people glare at you because they think you could turn on them at any moment."

She stopped hiccuping.

"Being the Green Ninja is like..." he looked up to the night sky, trying to pinpoint his favourite stars and constellations winking back at him. "There's so much weight on your shoulders. I mean, there hasn't even been a previous Green Ninja and this prophecy and the prophecy before are just fuel for their fire."

"They expect so much of us." whispered the princess, drawing her knees up to her chest.

He didn't reply. Lloyd realised he was still rubbing soothing circles into her back. He didn't stop either.

"Sometimes, I don't know what to do," he murmured softly, welcoming the chill of the night just so he could feel something else to what he was feeling right now. "My team, they all look at me like I have some sort of power over what happens next, like I can see into the future and make sure everyone gets home safe."

He paused as his memory rifled through all the life=threatening situations they'd been pushed through.

"And when they don't, they'll blame me."

"It do be like that tho."

"What?" He jerked his head up from where he'd been staring at the marks in the ground. He could practically hear the 'though' being butchered down to 'tho'.

"Sorry..." the princess struggled for words. "I'm not good with emotions. Or sympathy and all that stuff. I find it easier to just turn it all off." She watched as a car passed by, the headlights dim as the sky darkened.

"It makes me less human though," she added.

"Not all of us are human." Lloyd replied quietly. "And sometimes it's better to have it off. It hurts less that way."

She nodded, picking at her nails.

"It's going to bite us in the ass one day."

"Karma's a bitch." he said simply.

"Karma's a bitch." she repeated softly, gazing up at the stars.

A/N: look I love a good bit of angst and lloydie here can fit so much angst and trauma its no joke. anyways this oneshot was partly inspired by samseaa 's tbe (the buterfly effect) and especially the oneshot cause lloyd has princess phobia even though his hair is princess hair. anyways, harumi's a bitch, what's new? bye folks, until the next new moon when i post in her again