Lloyd was starting to doze off when Kai returned. He hadn't been gone very long, but Lloyd, admittedly, wasn't at the top of his game. He jolted awake when he heard Kai say, "Get ready for the best sick day of your life!"

Groggily, Lloyd sat up to see his brothers filing through the doorway. Cole and Zane were carrying the TV – all the way from the game room! Nya was hidden behind a pile of blankets, and Jay followed with his arms full of assorted junk food. As Cole and Zane set the TV down, Kai walked over to Lloyd, carrying the gaming console, controller, and their video game collection.

Lloyd didn't know what to think. "What is this?"

"I literally just told you," Kai said as he set down his things. "It's the best sick day of your life!"

"Does Sensei Wu know about this?" Lloyd asked with a chuckle.

"Eh, sort of, but let's not go there."

Jay dropped his horde of food beside Lloyd on his bed. "We figure the details aren't important."

Nya was draping a blanket overhead, anchoring it on the bunk beds. "Jay, I told you not to bring that stuff. Lloyd needs real food to help him recover."

"Nothing better to cure a fever than good ol' fashioned chocolate!" Jay argued. Nya threw a pillow at him in reply.

Lloyd watched in bewilderment as his brothers continued to set up "Fort Ninja" around him. They draped blankets all around the bunk beds, blocking off any outside light and completely enclosing the space. They threw pillows all over the floor, and moved the cabinet in front of Lloyd's bed, placing the TV on top of it. Then they made Lloyd move his bed horizontally against the wall, and they all crowded around him on either his mattress or the cushioned floor.

At first, Lloyd was hesitant; it all seemed a little overboard just to make him feel better, and what was with the fort? He wasn't a kid anymore. Even still, he soon found himself getting into the spirit of things. After all, how could he resist when Kai put in Lloyd's favorite video game, the fire ninja taunting that he would beat him. He didn't, of course, and then it was Lloyd's turn to do the teasing. For a while, Lloyd continued to play against his friends, the others taking turns to be his opponent while everyone else picked a favorite to cheer for. Eventually, though, he insisted that someone else take his place, and they all had a good laugh as they watched Jay and Cole go against each other.

"Ha-ha, you're no match for me! Take that!" Jay had been about to do something he had never done before: beat Cole at his own game. The two boys were sitting on the floor in front of the bed, and everyone crowded behind them, taking sides.

"Come on, Cole, don't let him beat you!" Lloyd was cheering, even though Cole didn't seem to have a chance at catching up.

But then Jay's avatar suddenly went stiff. "Hey, what gives!" He pressed various buttons, but nothing happened on the screen.

Cole had an evil grin. "What was that, Jay?" he said as he took the opportunity to melee Jay's frozen character. "You think you can beat me?"

"Hey, wait a minute! That's not fair!" Jay banged on his controller, trying to make it work again.

"Sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of my victory!"

Jay's health bar was dropping dangerously low, nearing the same level Cole's was at. "No no no!" Frantically, Jay zapped his controller with a little spark of lightning, but to no avail. "It can't end like this!"

By now everyone (even Nya) was on Cole's side.

"Get him!"

"Kick his butt, Cole!"

"Bam! That's how it's done!" Cole shouted as Jay's avatar crumpled to the ground and GAME OVER flashed on the screen. The victor dropped his controller and began high fiving everyone.

Jay leaned back against the bed and laid his arm over his eyes. "I have no friends," he moaned.

Nya helped Jay figure out what went wrong with his controller (apparently it just needed a change of batteries), and he was finally able to get it working again. He then insisted on a rematch, but Cole refused. Lloyd instead chose a game that they could all play.

"Lloyd, stop that! Who's team are you even on?"

"Umm . . . my own?"

"He's a double agent, and he's on our team!" Jay exclaimed.

"That's not how this game works," Kai said, getting a little frustrated.

"Perhaps the rules should change," Zane suggested. Usually he was a stickler for the rules, but right now he really didn't want to lose.

"Lloyd, I'll give you this chocolate bar if you say you're on our team!" Jay waved the last bar of milk chocolate in the air.

Lloyd shook his head. "Thanks, but I'm kind of full. Just thinking about it makes me sick. I might have had a little too much candy. Why did you have to bring so much?"

"I told you, candy is the perfect cure!"

"Yeah, you would say that, wouldn't you? If you could, you would eat candy for three meals a day and then sleep on a mattress of chocolate."

"Said the guy who sleeps in the kitchen!"

"That's it! Now I'm a triple agent!" Lloyd declared and turned on Jay.

As they played and laughed and teased, the sun outside sank low and eventually dipped below the horizon. Lloyd, still being a little ill, was the first to drift off as things toned down. Then, one by one, they all fell sound asleep in a great pile under their little fortress of blankets.

. . .

Sensei Wu had been glad to release his students from their training after Kai had explained the situation. He, too, worried about his nephew's sudden change in attitude. While it was good that Lloyd was taking his role more seriously, Wu didn't want him losing sight of the important things in life. So he had given the rest of them the day off without a fuss. It wasn't long before things got loud, and he could hear them from all the way on other side of the Bounty. It was music to his ears.

The old sensei kept his distance all afternoon, but as the day drew to a close, he decided that he should at least check in to see if Lloyd was feeling any better – and to make sure they hadn't broken anything in their rowdiness, or that they weren't going to stay up all night long.

When Wu opened the door to the boys' room, he was a little surprised to see their beds shrouded in blankets. There was a light emanating from beneath. He could hear their faint snores, indicating that they were asleep under all that mess. Using the same skills he had taught each of them, he crept over and peaked inside.

The light was coming from the TV and illuminated the six of them, all crammed onto Lloyd's bed. They were a tangled pile of colorful limbs sleeping in what looked to be the most uncomfortable way that a person could think up. 

The green ninja himself was still sitting up against the wall, leaning against Kai. The red ninja was sitting right on the edge of the bed, and it was a wonder that he hadn't fallen off yet. His arms were crossed and he sat slumped against the wall. Cole was a whole other story. He looked as if he had tried to lie down and get comfortable, his legs splayed across Lloyd and Kai's laps, but his torso was half dangling off the edge of the bed, one arm hanging out in the air. Next to Lloyd, Zane had his knees drawn in and was hunched over, his head propped up in his hand. Finally, Nya was curled against Jay on the other end of the bed, head on his chest, one of his arms wrapped around her shoulders. All six of them were practically drowning in candy wrappers.

It was a sight unlike any that Wu had witnessed before, and it warmed his heart to see them all together like this. He smiled to himself. This was the family that they had built in the face of darkness, a family of different backgrounds and qualities, with a love that his nephew had never known until now. Despite the troubles that Lloyd faced in the absence of his own parents, at least he would always have this. That was more than Wu could have ever hoped for him.

Silently, their sensei shut off the TV. He then took a candy bar from the stash and left them to their dreams.

. . .

A/N: Yaaaaay, mega-happy-ending! Tomorrow I'll start posting the other fic I mentioned - a fluffy Coliel story - along with the next chapter of Dark Sides. So if you liked this, do me a favor and check that out as well :) Thanks so much for reading!