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"It's a bomb, isn't it?" Lloyd asked, gently shaking the box covered in green and blue 'Happy Birthday' wrapping paper decorated with little party hat wearing cats.
It was the same wrapping paper that had been taking up residents in the Bounty's storage closet for the past two years.
Not that Lloyd was complaining. The little cats were too cute for that, frayed paper edges and water stains or not.
"You'd better hope it's not a bomb, with the way you're shaking it." Morro said as he watched Lloyd. "Seriously, it's like you're turning five instead of fifteen."
"That's a good thing considering I don't know how to deactivate a bomb." Lloyd spoke absentmindedly, still looking at the gift box.
Lloyd gave it another experimental shake. "Is it a new sword?"
Both of them stared at the very unsword shaped medium-sized box. Lloyd with teasing, Morro with exasperation.
Rolling his eyes, Morro made to grab the box, saying casually, "Well, if you don't want it, I'll just-
Lloyd took a quick step back, holding the gift box protectively to his chest, giving Morroa small glare. "Don't you dare."
"Well, are you going to open it or not?" Morro questioned with a raised a eyebrow. "Sometime before your sixteenth birthday would be preferable."
Lloyd stuck his tongue out at his cousin before promptly tearing into the party cat wrapping paper with all the enthusiasm of the five year old he insisted he wasn't acting like.
When the gift box was finally opened, Lloyd let loose an excited gasp.
It was a jacket.
A leather jacket adorned with metal studs around the shoulders and collar and two pins on each chest pocket.
The pin on the upper left side was a circular purple, white, grey and black enamel pin.
And under that was a small green, white, black and grey colored dragon pin.
Lloyd ran his hand over the two pins. He knew exactly what they meant, and he knew Morro did too.
Something that was only further confirmed when Lloyd glanced at Morro, and who offered only a smirk and a wink.
Turning his gaze back to the jacket, Lloyd read the pins on the right side.
The top was a cartoon cat in a box that read 'stop stressing meowt'.
Lloyd let out a snort at that.
And under the cat pin, there was a pin of a little duck brandishing a knife.
"This is so cool!" Lloyd exclaimed, not taking his eyes off his birthday present.
"And you haven't even seen the back, yet." Morro's smile was clear in his voice.
"What?!" Lloyd screeched before scrambling to turn the jacket over.
"NO WAY!"
Painted across the back of the jacket in bright green was a dragon's head symbol.
The same symbol that had been on all of Lloyd's training Gi's over the years, all the way back to his first one, that was about three sizes too big and made him constantly trip no matter how much he rolled up the pant legs and sleeves.
The same symbol that was on Morro's Gi's too, Lloyd knew.
It's a family symbol, his uncle had told him when Lloyd was little and had asked why Morro had the same markings on his grey Gi as Lloyd had on his own green one.
"This is AWESOME!" Lloyd turned to Morro. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"
"I can't have my only cousin walking around in some boringly generic hoodie, can I?" Morro answered.
"Did you do this?" Lloyd asked.
"I got the jacket and the pins, but Bansha was the one who did the paint job. So you're going to have to thank her." Morro answered with a proud smile.
"Definitely." Lloyd quickly nodded. "This looks SO cool."
"It was pretty straightforward for her after I showed her the symbol that's on the Gi." Morro gestured to his friend's paint job. "Once she got the dragon done, she just had to make it look more badass."
Lloyd held the jacket up in front of himself, smile still in place. "Well, it looks WAY cooler than any of my old Gi's."
Lloyd sho a brief glance at Morro. "No offense to Uncle Wu and all; or Grandpa, I guess since he made the symbol."
Morro crossed his arms. "Oh, I'm definitely telling Wut that." He said teasing.
Lloyd shrugged at the statement. He'd deal with his uncle possibly giving him an extra hour of training for that later. He didn't care right now.
"Can I try it on?" Lloyd looked to Morro with a wide smile.
"Duh. It's YOUR jacket, after all." Morro answered with an exaggerated eye roll.
"I don't know why you haven't put it on already."
The words were barely out of Morro's mouth before Lloyd practically yanked the jacket on and ran off to the nearest mirror.
Almost immediately, there was the sound of thrilled laughter down the short hallway.
"Ahh! This is so cool!" Lloyd exclaimed. "How am I supposed to go back to a regular hoodie no?"
Morro gave a fond eye roll at that.
Lloyd came back back a few minutes later, donning his jacket.
"WAY cooler than any Gi I've had." He smiled.
"So, I take it you like it?" Morro questioned, with his own smile.
"Obviously!" Lloyd tugged the jacket a bit closer himself. "Nya is gonna be so jealous!"
"At least she's got a sense of style, unlike the walking can of hairspray."
It truly, and annoyingly in Morro's opinion, was a miracle from Grandpa FSM that Kai Smith hasn't set his hair, which was undoubtedly a fire hazard ablaze yet.
"Be nice." Lloyd gave a disapproving pout.
"No."
"It's my birthday. You have to pretend to be nice. It's the rules." Lloyd proclaimed.
"Uh, huh." Morro rolled his eyes once again. "Alright, come on, birthday boy. We have a party to go to."
"Unless you want to call it off, considering you just got your best gift." Morro joked.
"Nope!" Lloyd said, popping the P and skipping the short distance to the apartment's front door.
"But I'm definitely showing this gift off." He assured, running his hands over the pins
Morro gave an amused snort and made his way to the door. Walking, not skipping to the door like certain fifteen year old.
"Just so you know, you're not going to be beating the teenage dirtbag allegations anytime soon, wearing that."
Lloyd looked up from admiring his jacket and said, "Guess you'd be the expert on that, wouldn't you?"
Hearing that, Morro gave a tug to his own vest.
Dark denim, covered with patches ranging from skeletons to band logos to oni masks (oh, the irony) and studded with spikes, Morro's particular sense of style had received him many a suspicious look over the years, something he took great pride in.
"Hey, respect your elder punks, twerp." Morro warned playfully.
Lloyd masked his face into a serious expression and gave Morro a deep bow, that in any other circumstances, would be respectful.
"Yes, oh wise and edgy elder master." He answered solemnly.
Morro made to elbow Lloyd in the ribs for that, but Lloyd was able to dodge and quickly open the door.
The last thing Morro saw of his cousin was the paint of his jacket as he made a mad dash down the building's hallway before Morro could try again.
Oh, well. Morro'd get him back later. He'd smash his face into the birthday cake or something.
-
The end.