Archive of Our Own ^beta

Lloyd was walking through the streets of the Crossroads, doing his weekly grocery run. It was just a normal Tuesday, he wasn’t expecting anything interesting to happen. He definitely wasn’t expecting to see him. 

Lloyd froze, grocery bags in hand, he turned to walk away. Maybe I can walk away. Maybe he won’t notice me. Garmadon slowly turned his head and made eye contact with Lloyd. 

“...Lloyd?”

Lloyd swallowed. What do you call someone who loved you but couldn’t be there for you because of the cruelty of fate? What should he call the man who had left him oh so many times, broken his heart over and over again?

“Dad”

The word tasted all wrong in his mouth. Like sandpaper and spoiled food. Why did that word feel so wrong?

Garmadon took a few steps forward, his voice soft. “I’ve missed you, son” 

Lloyd flinched back, the handles of the grocery bags digging into his skin. He wanted to hug Garmadon, to be held, to be loved.

“Stop”

Garmadon's eyes flickered with hurt, but he stopped moving forward.

“I know you mean it,” Lloyd said, voice wavering. His mind screamed at him not to say it, that once he did there would be no taking it back. But then his thoughts flickered to his students, to Sora. He remembered how she had cried after her awful parents tried to convince her to come back to Imperium. He remembered telling her to stay strong, that some people weren't worth saving if it meant breaking yourself.

 How could he teach his students something he didn’t practice?

“But I can’t keep doing this. Every time you come back, I think this time will be different. Maybe you’ll stay. But you don’t. You never do. It hurts. It hurts more than if you’d never come back at all”

Garmadon’s face crumpled. Lloyd’s jaw trembled, his heart beat painfully in his chest. Garmadon spoke up again, voice tense “I… I understand”. He paused, “And I’m sorry. I hope you know I love you. I just–” Garmadon stopped himself. “And I hope the ninja are… the family you deserve”

They stood there for a moment awkwardly. Garmadon gave him one last sad stare, before he turned around and left.

Lloyd wanted to scream, to cry, to beg Garmadon to come back, that he didn’t mean it. That they could fix everything. But another part of him felt free, as though shackles he hadn’t realized were there had finally fallen away. 

Lloyd started walking back to the monastery, to his friends, to his family.