Summary: Wu has always looked up to his brother in some form or other, a fact that would destroy all his credibility as a teacher if anyone found out about it.
The ninja get a kick out of the stories of Wu’s boyhood, particularly when they hear of what Wu had to do to keep himself entertained. With no such things as arcades, movie theaters, or amusement parks in existence, let alone nearby, Wu came up with his own sorts of play, and the ninja, upon finding this out, did not stop the ‘kick the can’ jokes for days.
Wu took the ribbing in stride, unbothered, for it was simply the reality of his childhood. His father’s monastery was not near other villages, so the isolation required Wu to be creative with his play.
One of his favorite pastimes was exploring the mountain wilderness surrounding the monastery. When Wu was small, it was his father’s rule that he could only travel in the woods if Garmadon was with him. This rule stopped being enforced after Garmadon was bitten, and Wu mistook this as a sign that he was mature enough to go alone.
The first time that Wu did so, he traveled as far as his feet could carry him, enchanted by the wonder of the wilderness. Wu doesn’t think he so much as stopped to catch his breath.
It was only when the sun began to dip into its set that he thought to turn around, and he winded up hopelessly lost and—though he won’t admit it now—frightened.
AITA for bringing the Green Ninja’s Father back to life?
So I [16 F] was orphaned at a young age because Lloyd Garmadon [??? m] released the snakes that in turn awakened the Great Devourer that attacked Ninjago City. My parents tried to save me, but they were killed in the building collapse (rip mama and papa), this later led to me being adopted by the Worst:tm: parents ever, the Emperor and Empress. So, hating my new life as a Princess, I decided to start a cult to resurrect the late Warlord. Sure, I lied and backstabbed and blew up the palace which inevitably killed the emperor and empress and set a trap that nearly killed all of the ninja and used dark magic to resurrect Garmadon from the Departed Realm. So yeah, maybe a lot of people died, Ninjago city fell, my hero was risen from the dead because of necromancy and forbidden Oni magic, but Lloyd is upset at me.
TLDR; raised a former warlord from the dead using dark magic and now step-bro is angry at me. AITA?
The clues to Garmadon’s deceit were only obvious with the benefit of hindsight, Wu decides years later, as he’s prickling from both anger and grief. At the time, they were simply the normal oddities of his and his brother’s existence, hardly worth a passing thought.
So naturally, Wu didn’t notice.
“You know, Wu, this whole experience has given me an idea for supper. Shish kabobs.”
“That’s terrible,” says Wu, reaching for more bandages.
Garmadon sits in front of him, shirt lifted, blood finally stemming from a graze he received in battle earlier that day. The wound was not serious, but Wu only learned this in the time that he’s been helping Garmadon patch up.
Garmadon, however, has not stopped cracking jokes and making other comments since the Serpentine retreated earlier that day. With a shake of his head, Wu laments that Garmadon could be at death’s door and still find something sardonic to say about it all.
The thought almost makes Wu smile, despite himself.
“It’s a great idea,” says Garmadon, pulling back the towels to look at the wound again.
“Quit doing that,” Wu instructs, quickly pressing the bandages to the open wound.
“It’ll make what provisions we have left more interesting to eat,” Garmadon continues as if Wu hadn’t spoken.
“We don’t even have any shish,” says Wu.
“Sure we do. Swords, arrows, sticks.”
“I’m not eating food off weapons.” Wu secures the last of the bandages, then sits back to examine his work.
“I think you’re okay,” he says, and Garmadon stands, looking at the bandages himself.
“Not bad,” he comments, lowering his shirt.
Rolling his eyes at his brother’s dismissiveness, Wu bends to put away their medical supplies. “Yeah, not bad, considering that you could have died.”
“Yeah, right. This is but a scratch.”
“Is not,” says Wu, “You could have been killed today.”
“By this? Embarrassing!” says Garmadon, before grinning at Wu, “If I’m going to die in battle, my guts better be splattered halfway across Ninjago.”
Wu winces at the image it provides, not so numb to the horrors of war that he’s able to joke about such things. The expression does not go unnoticed, and Garmadon tosses one of the unused towels at him.
“I’m kidding, Wu,” says Garmadon, “I’m not going to die.”
“You don’t know that,” says Wu.
“Well, it’s better to believe that I’ll live than die,” says Garmadon.
Wu concedes that point, then says, “Pick up your bloody towels, would you?”
For once, Garmadon doesn’t argue, which Wu is thankful for as he flops against his bedding, weary to the bone. He’s tired of war, tired of worry, tired of waking up every day wondering if this will be the last for himself or any of his loved ones.
When this war is over, he thinks he’ll need to hibernate for a solid year and a half to recover all the sleep he’s lost since the war began.
“Would you be ready for death if it came?” Wu asks.
“Good grief, what a question,” says Garmadon.
“I’m just wondering,” says Wu, “I can’t help but do that these days.”
“No wonder you’re getting frown lines, if this is what you think about all the time,” says Garmadon.
“I’m not getting frown lines!” says Wu, before touching his brow, “and I’m serious! Do you have any regrets?”
Garmadon pauses before he answers. “No.”
Wu looks over to Garmadon, but Garmadon faces away as he scrubs at a blood spot on the floor of the tent.
“Really?” says Wu, “I do.”
“You would.”
“You’re telling me that of all the decisions you’ve made, all the things you’ve done or didn’t do, you wouldn’t do one thing differently?”
Garmadon is quiet, then replies, softly, “That’s a different question.”
“Is that so?” says Wu, raising an eyebrow.
Garmadon finally turns back to meet Wu’s gaze, and he’s frowning. “You really should stop sticking your big head in other people’s business. It’s rude.”
Then he grabs the rest of the towels and storms out of the tent, leaving Wu to deal with the whiplash of Garmadon’s mood swing. While not so unusual anymore, Wu has historically been able to pinpoint what it was that set Garmadon off, however insignificant.
He doesn’t find it today, but he’s long since stopped caring.
~~~
A week later, Wu decides that if the Serpentine really want to cripple Ninjago’s forces, they should go after the mailing system. Against all odds, a mailman has been able to find and deliver messages throughout the war, remaining mercifully yet strangely unharmed—for the most part.
Wu thinks as much as he hovers some feet behind the mailman, watching as the man removes several envelopes and packages from his bag and delivers them to the Elemental Masters. Though he tells himself to remain calm, there is an anxious stutter in his heart as he waits to see if there is anything for him.
He hopes as much, but at the same time, hopes that there won’t be anything.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Garmadon’s voice startles Wu from his thoughts, so much that he releases a cry. He whips his gaze around to see Garmadon leaning against a nearby tree, arms folded, having seemingly materialized from nowhere.
“Quit sneaking up on me!” says Wu.
“I didn’t sneak,” says Garmadon, “I walked right up to you.”
“In sneak feet,” says Wu, half-joking now that the surprise has passed.
He looks back at the mailman, who spends more and more time digging around in his bag before pulling out letters for waiting hands. Maybe there’s one for Wu at the bottom—
“That’s not—whatever,” says Garmadon, “Why do you look like you’ve swallowed a frog?”
“I don’t look like that,” says Wu.
The crowd around the mailman gets smaller and smaller. A letter for Ray. A parcel for the Master of Sound. Maya gives the mailman her own envelope to send.
Then, as Wu’s heart sinks, the mailman closes his bag.
Nothing for him. Well, that was what Wu wanted, right?
Partly.
The optimist in Wu tells him that there is nothing for him today. There will always be the next, assuming the war doesn’t take care of that.
“Are you…expecting anything?” Garmadon’s tone changes in this sentence, not that Wu notices as he watches the mailman ride off.
Wu hesitates to reply. It is none of Garmadon’s business that Wu sent a letter of…significance to Misako, but Wu knows of Garmadon’s feelings for her, too, and wonders if he owes his brother an explanation.
He says, “Perhaps.”
“You either are or you aren’t.”
“Well, I am, I guess,” says Wu, “I’m just not sure when or if it’ll arrive.”
Part of him does wish that he could confess all his feelings to his brother, overwhelmed by the burden of anxiety. It’s the first time he’s put himself out in the open like this, love-wise (and Wu is sure that it is love), and he doesn’t know what to expect or how to deal with the tumultuous feelings pulling at his heartstrings.
His father never taught him about this, never got the chance, and a part of Wu still wishes for a normal relationship with his brother, where he can have an honest conversation and receive advice in return.
“Why?” asks Garmadon.
At this point, Wu turns to face his brother. Garmadon’s expression is oddly closed, and Wu wonders if Garmadon is asking out of simple curiosity, or of something more.
It is likely the latter, for Wu hasn’t been subtle about his own affections for Misako, either. Coming to a decision, Wu takes a deep breath and steps closer to his brother in the interest of privacy, not that any of the Elemental Masters are near enough for eavesdropping.
“Have you ever been in love?” Wu asks.
Garmadon’s shoulders rise. “Yes.”
Naturally. Wu looks down and toes his boot through the dirt, struggling to find his words. “I’ve—uh—I’ve sent Misako a—letter, and I’m anxious to see the reply.”
He releases a breath upon finishing, unsure of what the response will be to such a revealing statement.
Garmadon doesn’t reply right away, and Wu doesn’t look up, not wanting to read the expression on his brother’s face.
Garmadon eventually says, “A love letter?”
Wu feels his cheeks flush. “I’ve told her how I feel about her.”
“So…a love letter?”
“A confession.”
“That’s a bleak description,” says Garmadon.
Wu finally looks up. Garmadon is looking away, at a distant roll of clouds. Wu isn’t sure what the expression is on his brother’s face; judgment? resentment? anger?
Somehow, they all seem like better options than whatever Garmadon is feeling now.
“Well, it is,” says Wu, emboldened now, “We’ve gotten rather close over the past year. She’s a wonderful woman, and we like a lot of the same things. I wanted her to know how I feel. I didn’t know how much longer I could keep it all inside.”
Garmadon huffs a strange little laugh without humor and turns to march off. “You’re such a sap,” are his parting words.
Dumbfounded, it takes Wu a moment to follow his brother, and he trots to catch up.
“So what if I am?” Wu asks.
“Misako is a classy lady,” says Garmadon, “She might open up a letter like that and cringe over the amount of cheese you put into every sentence. Did you write a love poem, too? Sign your name with little hearts at the bottom?”
Wu frowns, surprised at the amount of anger Garmadon’s words instill him with. Never mind that he worried that Misako would react to the letter with laughter or scorn, as well.
Hands balling into fists, he says, “No!” then, “You’re mad that I sent her a letter at all.”
“I like her too,” says Garmadon.
“I love her,” says Wu, and he stops.
Garmadon does, too, looking back at Wu.
Wu stares at the ground, then looks at the sky. It’s the first time that he’s admitted it aloud, and he gets a sudden rush of exhilaration.
“Yeah,” he says, “I love her. I love her so much. I wanted her to know, and I want—I want her to feel the same way!”
And he laughs, both nervous and relieved. It feels incredible to finally say it out loud, and he hadn’t realized how much his feelings had been weighing him down. For so long, both he and Garmadon have avoided saying anything as much to each other, each wary of how the other would react, but now, Wu doesn’t care.
What matters now is simply what Misako will have to say.
Garmadon’s expression is still closed, and even his posture is somewhat guarded. Wu can’t figure out why, then decides not to dwell on it. He has to take his own feelings into account, not worry over Garmadon’s.
Garmadon says, “What if she doesn’t?”
And all at once, the high Wu had been riding on plummets as his heart sinks, and he feels the earth beneath his feet once more.
“I don’t want to think about that,” says Wu, “but…I’ll respect however she feels. A good friend will do that.”
His hands draw together to fiddle. Yes, a good friend will do that, but Wu wants Misako to feel the same way. He’ll always want that.
Garmadon’s eyes dart over Wu’s face, then he gives Wu a small smile. “You know, it was brave of you to put yourself out there like that.”
Wu blinks, curious about the change in tone and Garmadon’s gift for switching between moods on a dime. “Please,” he says dismissively, unsure of how else to respond.
He expected many things, but not whatever this is.
“It was,” says Garmadon, quietly.
That night, as Wu lies sleeping in the bedding next to him, Garmadon faces the wall of the tent and lights a small candle. From where he stuffed it beneath his blankets, he pulls out the envelope the mailman handed him earlier that morning. He drags his thumb over Misako’s loopy handwriting and turns the envelope over to break the wax seal.
Wu always was a bit of a sap, Garmadon thinks again. Maybe Misako is too classy for that, though Garmadon doubts it.
He pulls out the letter, reads its contents, then folds it up smaller and smaller until he can’t anymore. He tucks the note into his robes and spends the rest of the night staring at the roof of the tent.
Wu normally makes his students wash their own clothes, but on occasion, he does the team’s laundry—to their chagrin.
One would think that it would be easy to tell what article of clothing belonged to who, seeing as the team is color coded, but Wu learned quickly that it wasn’t so clear cut.
A graphic Starfarer tee was placed in Lloyd’s stack when Wu first found it, but it turned out to belong to Jay, who was upset that Wu didn’t know this by the size of the shirt.
“I’m clearly taller than him!” Jay insisted.
Wu wasn’t going to tell Jay otherwise, despite the knowledge that Lloyd was no longer as small as the team liked to claim.
An enormous hoodie in all likelihood would be Cole’s since he’s the largest of the team, but Wu has found that a number of oversized clothes belong to Nya, as well.
She claims that it is the style to wear clothes that are too large. Wu remembers it also being a style forty years ago, but he doesn’t tell Nya this.
So when Wu does laundry, the ninja have to sort through their clothes to get everything back where they came from. The bright side to this is that laundry is a chore that the ninja not only do themselves, but they are enthusiastic about it, too.
That doesn’t stop Wu from stepping in to do the chore now and again, and on one such occasion, he thinks he’s doing well with sorting the laundry until he comes across a pair of socks that utterly baffle him.
They are a festive pair that he’s never seen before, certainly not on one of his students, and further examination doesn’t give him any clues as to who they would belong to.
The socks are curiously long, patterned with green and red stripes, and have ribbons at the top that tie into bows. They are unattractive, if Wu is to put it lightly, and he can’t fathom how they managed to get into the laundry. He can’t think of a single ninja who would purchase these, let alone wear them, and he stands contemplating the socks for far longer than usual, trying to figure out which stack to place them in.
He debates if he should just throw them out for the crime of being so darn ugly, but if it does belong to someone on the team, it wouldn’t be right to get rid of them. Eventually, he places them in Kai’s stack of shirts and hopes for the best.
~~~
“What do you think, fellas?”
Wu catches the conversation coming out of the living room as he’s on his way to the kitchen to top off his tea, and he promptly halts in his trek, just out of view so that he can eavesdrop.
“Where did you get those?” comes Lloyd’s voice.
“I don’t know,” says Kai, “but they were in my stack, so they belong to someone! Now what do you think?”
Wu hears the grin in Kai’s voice as the rest of the ninja respond with noises of disbelief and laughter, and he can’t resist stepping forward to get a glimpse of Kai’s get up.
He sighs.
Kai stands in front of his friends, hands on his hips. The top half of his outfit is normal for the weather, for he’s in a festive sweater that would’ve been considered fashionable in another lifetime, but the bottom half of his outfit is where Wu regrets his decision not to throw the socks out.
Kai wears the mysterious socks, which stretch all the way up to his thighs, and a pair of bright red gym shorts to show them off. As his friends look on, some laughing, some cringing, he alternates between poses, showing off the socks from all angles.
“You—” Jay almost can’t speak around snorting laughter, “—look like an idiot!”
“What do you mean?” says Kai, grinning and propping one foot up on the coffee table, “You don’t like my socks?”
“Why the shorts?” asks Cole.
“So you can see my socks!” says Kai, “Why else would I wear thigh high socks if not to show them off?”
“Wait, so are they yours?” asks Zane.
“No,” says Kai, “they were in my stack.”
“Then whose are they?” asks Nya.
“I don’t know,” Kai repeats, “but clearly whoever owns them hasn’t been wearing them the way that they were meant to be worn!”
He alternates poses again, turning around to do so, and he catches sight of Wu in the doorway.
He straightens immediately, flushing in embarrassment before hiding his face in his hands. Everyone else in the team starts laughing as they catch sight of Wu, who sips his cooling tea.
“Those shorts don’t seem appropriate for the weather,” Wu comments lightly, unsure of what to say about the socks.
“I’m not cold,” Kai says, half-mumbling.
Jay snickers, almost rolling off the couch in amusement.
“I’m sorry if I put the socks in the wrong stack,” says Wu, “I couldn’t figure out who they belonged to, and you were my best guess.”
This makes Kai’s shoulders further sag. Everyone else barks with laughter again, and Wu didn’t mean to cause that.
Regardless, he finishes his explanation, “I figured you all would sort it out like you usually do. I would hope that they go back to whoever they belong to.”
With a sage nod, he exits the room, and Kai turns to the rest of his friends, mouth in a thin line.
~~~
Wu never figures out who the socks belong to, for over the next few weeks, he sees the socks migrate between various ninja, who wear it in the same way that Kai did that first time.
One morning, Jay wears the socks with a pair of shorts almost as short as Kai’s were, but he completes the outfit with a pair of sneakers that don’t match the red and green socks in the slightest. The following week, Cole is wearing the socks, and though Cole shivers throughout the day, he refuses to swap his gym shorts for a pair of proper pants.
When Zane wears the socks, he only has a pair of sweatpants to go with them, and he spends the day rolling up his pant legs as high as they can go. The effect is ridiculous, and the grin on Zane’s face doesn’t leave.
Nya also wears the socks with pants, but with jeans that are mostly full of holes, so that the socks peek through. When Wu comments on the number of holes in her jeans, she pulls the fashion card again, but Wu doesn’t understand the reasoning and eventually decides that he’s too old to do so.
The only one who doesn’t end up wearing the socks is Lloyd, who balks at the thought of trying.
In the end, Wu suspects that whoever owned the socks to begin with is too embarrassed to claim them now, and while a part of him regrets not throwing out the socks when he found them, he is grateful that his students are having so much fun with them.
He likes seeing his students happy, and for that, he’ll endure the ridiculous socks.
Lloyd starts putting pepper into Kai’s hot chocolate the day after finding out how much cinnamon Kai puts in his beverage in one go. Lloyd had stared, aghast, the evening before as Kai placed spoonful after spoonful of ground cinnamon into his mug after Zane passed around drinks, and at his surprise, Nya laughed.
“This is why we stopped preparing it for him,” she explained, “We never get it just the way he wants it.”
“I like my hot chocolate with a little kick to it,” said Kai, without stopping.
When he’d put so much cinnamon in his mug that Lloyd was surprised that it hadn’t spilled over the top, Kai finally stopped, stirring his mug and taking a sip with a straight face. Lloyd couldn’t wrap his head around it, half-disgusted, half-amazed.
The sight goaded him onto the train of thought of just how much of a kick Kai could handle. So the next time that Kai prepares hot chocolate, Lloyd is ready for his prank.
Kai takes a sip from his beverage and leaves the room for a snack, at which point Lloyd scrambles into action.
He crawls from his spot on the floor to where Kai has set his drink against the coffee table, pulling out the shaker of pepper that he’d stolen from the kitchen that morning.
He thinks he’s clever as he starts shaking the flakes into the mug, before he hears a sharp, “Lloyd!”
He startles and looks back to see Nya at the other end of the room, hands on her hips.
“What are you doing?” she asks.
Lloyd blinks and replies, “Is that a trick question?”
“Pardon me, then,” says Nya, rolling her eyes, “Why are you doing this?”
“Kai said he likes his hot chocolate with a kick to it,” says Lloyd, “I thought I’d test how much.”
Nya continues staring at him, and Lloyd squirms, uncomfortable under the scrutiny.
“It can’t be worse than what he already does to his hot chocolate,” he insists.
Nya appears to consider his statement, then nods. “Let me see how he reacts.”
So Lloyd finishes shaking the last of the pepper into the drink, giving the mug a quick swirl to help hide the evidence, then hurries back to his prior spot in time for Kai to walk back into the room.
Lloyd tries desperately to look casual as he stares at the pages of the comics he has spread out over the floor, but Kai doesn’t suspect a thing as he flops on the couch, pulling a cinnamon roll free from where it was clenched in his teeth.
He turns the volume up on the television, nodding a hello to Nya before putting his feet up.
The minutes crawl by as Lloyd waits for Kai to notice the drink, but that doesn’t happen for a while. In fact, Lloyd almost grows frustrated, unable to believe that Kai would both like his drink chock full of cinnamon and cold. There’s no point in calling it hot chocolate if he drinks it cold, Lloyd reasons.
After a while, Kai finally breaks the silence. “What?”
Lloyd glances up. “Huh?”
“You both keep looking at me out of the corner of your eye,” says Kai, narrowing his gaze in suspicion, “Why?”
Nya shifts, but Lloyd has a lie prepared, saying, “You’ve got frosting on your cheek.”
Kai drags a hand across his face, looking for the evidence. Though there is nothing to find, Kai shrugs and pokes the last of the cinnamon roll into his mouth. Then, at last, he leans forward to pick up his mug.
Lloyd can’t help it; he stares as Kai takes the drink to his lips.
He takes one sip, then frowns.
Immediately, his eyes snap over to Lloyd, who quickly looks away, then to Nya, who smiles at him. The reaction is hardly discreet, and Kai’s eyes narrow.
Then, though the drink can’t be good, Kai keeps sipping, eyeing both of them defiantly as he does so.
I see you, his gaze says, I’m going to drink this anyway.
It’s a challenge if Lloyd ever saw one, and he isn’t one to turn it down.
Over the course of the winter season, Lloyd and Nya begin putting hotter things into Kai’s drink, always managing to find an opportunity to do so, though Kai isn’t trying too hard to prevent it, anyway.
Lloyd suspects that Kai is just as eager to try the latest spice that Lloyd and Nya put in, just so he can see the looks on everyone’s faces when he swallows it down.
It was Nya’s idea to start mild and work their way up the chain of ‘hot’, which Lloyd liked immensely. Kai, for the most part, handles the drinks with ease. When they start adding hot sauce that Jay once threatened would burn a hole through their tongues, they get the pleasure of watching Kai’s eyes water, but no more than that.
Once, they accidentally put their spice of the week into Wu’s drink instead of Kai’s, when everyone had theirs crowded on the table, and that was how the rest of the team became clued in to their little challenge.
Kai takes it all in stride, drinking increasingly spicy, and disgusting, drinks.
One day, when Lloyd and Nya are happily pouring a combination of spices into Kai’s drink, Cole, who lounges on the couch behind them, says, “He really loves you.”
They look up, confused.
Cole shrugs. “I would have stopped making hot chocolate ages ago if this is what kept happening to it.”
“He’s too prideful to quit,” says Lloyd.
“Maybe,” says Cole, “but he wouldn’t keep drinking these drinks if he hated you.”
Lloyd almost disagrees, with the thought that Kai would follow an enemy to the end of the world to prove that he could meet whatever challenge they posed, but in the end, he keeps quiet.
That day, Kai drinks his hot chocolate and finally verbalizes a response, “Ugh.”
“Too spicy?” asks Nya, a smile twitching at the corners of her mouth.
“Never,” says Kai, lifting his mug, “I just thought you’d pick better tasting spices.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” says Nya, ‘I didn’t add anything to that drink.”
“Of course not,” says Kai, taking another sip.
He glances over to Lloyd, who smiles at him, and he sticks out his tongue in response.
Lloyd laughs.
Cole’s words come back to him, and this time, Lloyd is inclined to agree.
Not a question, but your fics are just so freakin' awesome! The imagery, the characterization, and everything else is perfectly written! Plus, THEY'RE SO CUTE. You're probably the only one in this fandom who actually writes wholesome fics, and that's a nice change! I mean, when I'm stressed out and stuff, reading a fic where the Ninja are suffering (as usual) is nice and all, don't get me wrong, but reading a story where the Ninja play together in the snow, hang out, or literally just sit happily together is even better! Your stories are practically my comfort ones, and I just can't help but reread them! I honestly can't understand why it took me so long to find your account, but it's becoming one of my favorite ones really fast!
Have a cookie as token of appreciation:
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I am so sorry that I didn't get to this ask sooner. I didn't realize it was in my ask box.
But goodness, thank you so much!! This was such a lovely message to receive, and it has made my day!
"My name is Misako Montgomery Garmadon. Destiny decided my family would always suffer. Trying to stop them from here only made things worse. Well. I'm going up to them to return the favour."
I don't know. This kept playing in my mind as I was drawing this, since I got the vibe she was about to go throw hands with the writers of destiny.
Second version, without bounce light or whatever it's called
