So, did you ever heard of the modern AU of Epic when the odyssey is just Odysseus trying to get home for Christmas after a work trip? And did you ever read a fanfic that was so good that you wanted to make a fanfic of it?
And because my love language is creating things based on peoples work, this AU is 100% based on the Empire of the darkest night AU from @katsmtmsdoodles. Seriously go follow her, her work is a master piece and if she ever put ite as a book for us to print I will make like 12 copies just to have on my bookshell-
(Obs: idk if kats is a girl or not, thank you english your neutral language-. So don’t take my word as true and Kats if your not a girl I’m so sorry 🙏)
So this non powers AU is centered in Kai-duh, in a significantly less extreme world and with significantly less trauma. Basically it features 25-years-old Kai being the new legal dad of two traumatized kids (guess who :3).
Kai and Nya lost their parents when they were 5 and 3 in some traumatic accident that led them to go into the system. (What? I said less trauma, not no trauma) Because they didn’t wanted to be separated and because Kai got some behaviour issues after the accident that the system never really cared to look up, they stayed a lot of years in orphanates until when they were 10 and 8 were they were put with Wu as their foster parent.
Please keep in mind that I have no idea how the system or foster houses work since my only knowledge for this comes from bad AI stories from Reddit.
Wu already had another foster kid (Cole) and a teenager that Wu used to foster but later adopted (Morro). Jay and Zane live nearby so they and Kai and Nya became friends real quickly.
When Kai was 16-17 the system arranged for him to be adopted by a super rich couple that was willing to pay (yes basically child traffic) for a teenager that in the man’s words “could take care of a baby and wouldn't run away from that responsibility". The social workers knew Kai’s history with taking care of his little sister and that he took care of the younger children at the orphanages as best he could, and immediately sold Kai to them.
The rich couple was Garmadon and Misako that were ready to try for a baby but none had much time to take care of it with their "business". I think you can guess how that will go.
Wu didn’t know about this and none of the kids really questioned because Wu always told them that the adults were there to help them and that their work was to guarantee that they were safe. So surely this can’t be a bad idea. Right?
With this Kai was shipped out to Garmadon’s house like a piece of furniture and not long after baby Lloyd came to the world. And not long after that, Garmadon and Misako had a really bad divorce. It all happened because Misako grew sick of Garmadon’s sketchy and mildly illegal business and tried to take Kai and Lloyd with her, but Garmadon had more money the pay the judge, so…yeah. 17-year-old Kai was left alone with a six-months-newborn living with a mildly insane man. Fun.
At this point Kai had lost total contact with his family and all the trust in the legal and social system so he said fuck this. If there is one thing that he learned with Garmadon it was how to play dirty. It took almost 6 years between taking care of a child, working his ass off to pay for lawyers and quite literally stealing proves of Garmadon’s illegal business but at 23 years old Kai finally won 100% custody of 6-year-old Lloyd. (+ a LOT of money as compensation from the old bitc*)
After that cane of worms was dealt with, Kai and Lloyd moved to a new city into an apartment on the fourth floor and lived a happy and calm life. For the next two years.
BUT, during these two years Kai and Lloyd got to meet people and kinda built a support system.
Like their neighbor Hutchins, an older policeman that because of his job chose to not get married or have kids. (Despite the fact that he really wanted a son). He basically took Kai as his own and spends a lot of time with that single dad and his kid.
Kai who never got a real family since Nya and his friends ended up resisting at first but ended up really warming up to Hutchins.
Bolobo, who lives on the fifth floor right above Kai and owns one of those massive plants shops that have everything, from flowers to orange trees. You know the type. He’s really nice and from time to time gives Kai fresh vegetables and fruits. Kai has no idea where he got them from since they all live in a freaking apartment building. He also met Bolobo when he needed to go knock on his door to ask Bolobo to cut a bit of his plants because they were growing into Kai’s balcony and blocking the windows.
Chamille lives next to Bolobo and she’s a model/makeup influencer. She knows everything about everyone, which freaked Kai out at first until Chamille warned him to be careful with the owner of the noodle house of the town since he was probably a creep who had a cult and was doing some scheme with money. She can pass as a Karen to those who don’t know her but she also respected Kai's request to not film Lloyd so he’s mostly cool with her.
Shade lives right under Kai and Lloyd and was first described by Chamille as a “grumpy and emo guy who could use some sun and color in his life”. And honestly, Kai mostly agrees with her but he understood why he is like that when he met Shade’s floor neighbor, Tox. A 19-year-old that plays in a band and looks a little bit crazy. Not in a Garmadon type of crazy but in a, too much coffee to such a small body type of crazy.
Doctor Eun-ji is Kai’s and Lloyd’s family doctor and him and Hutchins are the ones that know more about Kai’s past. Chamberlain Noble is an old Hutchins’s friend that ended up just sticking with Kai and being like an old annoying uncle to him.
I’m not entirely sure where Skailor stands in all of this. She lives on the last floor of the building and is really close to Kai and consequently Lloyd. But I don't see her being super maternal with Lloyd and I don't know if she’s the romantic interest of Kai or not. (I’m not sure if this is a Kailor or a Lava story, I guess you could do both depending on what you prefer)
And here is where the story officially begins. Yes, all of this was only the backstory. By the way did you notice that this peace only lasted two years? Yes? Great. Do you know what happens next? If you guessed Garmadon would return I’m sorry but I have to fail you because you're wrong.
At the super mature age of 25 Kai receives a call from Hutchins while Lloyd (8) is at school. He goes to the police station and then Hutchins delivers the bomb.
A big politician from old money (Fumero) died a month ago and his wife just terminated her parental rights to their kid. Kai is like, ’ok and what does this have to do with me?’ And Hutchins explained that he had talked a lot with the kid over the past few days and thought that Kai would really like him, and maybe could adopt him. Kai, who had serious traumas with the system, really thought about that and decided that if he could maybe save this kid from that type of life, he needed to at least try. After talking with Lloyd (that was all good with that and wanted to have more company) and having everything sorted with the social workers (having a friend cop really helped) Kai got the custody of 9 year old Ash.
From that on is Kai being a dad to a 8 year old that is trying to live with the fact that their parent love him but are objectively bad people that hurt a LOT of people (including Kai) and a 9 year old SEVERELLY emotional neglected. Like, he things it would be best if he died quietly in his sleep to not bother anyone, ok? Read The Archer, The Prey on ao3 to understand what I’m talking about >:3
Oh, and at some point they get a puppy, Lloyd named her Dreadmaw and Ash gave her the last name Smith.
“Oh and what about the ninjas?” That’s a great question.
At some point during this circus Kai is out with his kids just trying to buy cereals for the week the he’s seen by freaking Morro that is like, ‘WTF, IS THAT KAI?’ But he gets so shocked that by the time his brain unfreazes Kai and the boys are gone.
Morro calls home like, ‘Kai is alive and he has two sons.’ And everyone is like, ‘WTF?!’
Then the ninjas come to the city looking for Kai and then you can guess what happens next. Lots of cries and explanations, but, BUT, the main problem is, Kai HATES Wu. Almost as much as Garmadon. He sees him as someone who made Kai trust in people that ended up hurting him and Kai feels that Wu ultimately failed to protect him as well. And Kai has seen the worst of the system that Wu used to defend so he doesn't believe his friends when they said that Wu didn’t know about the adoption.
Second problem, Nya, Zane, Jay and Cole thought that Kai would move back with them to the city where they grew up but Kai doesn't want to. He has a new life now and for the first time in years he is really happy, he has his boys, his apartment, his friends, a whole life and he doesn't want to change this for his previous city where all those bad things happened in his life.
Ok, I guess you have the idea. It is really inspired on ite so it will make a lot more sense if you read it. At some point I would like to write it and I already have some doodles. If you have any questions you can ask me !
