Challenge: Lloyd finds an injured baby Treehorn and wants to raise it.

The museum echoed with crisp footsteps and the countless tak-click-tak-tak-a-tak-click of other feet. The guide was a short, pretty woman, maybe early thirties. Her strait chestnut hair was pulled into a tight bun. She pointed to various things, giving tasteful history in her high voice. Most of the guys were more interested in her low cut blouse then the dusty paintings and only a few of the tourists actually looked interested—the ones who had paid their own money for the tickets.

At the far back of the group, trailing behind—hands in his jean pockets and swath of blond hair falling into his eyes was a young man that if anyone had looked close enough would have seen was Lloyd Garmadon. The Lloyd. Green AND gold ninja. He sighed rather dejectedly and his shoulders sagged a little.

"Yuuuuup, you should go out and do something. You always work yourself to death." Lloyd hadn't taken Kai seriously as the red ninja mumbled over the top of his comic. When *did* anyone take Kai seriously? But the chorus of voices agreeing had been enough to convince him to go out and be a young single adult.

He scanned the white walls and the old portraits and landscapes that no one cared about any more. This in retrospect hadn't been the best idea. Just looking at all the uninterested faces of the people getting a tour was enough to depress him and he hadn't even been in the building for half an hour. Though he did get a bit of a kick out of what Jay's face would have looked like if he knew where Lloyd had decided to go.

Lloyd had been disappointed enough when the withered looking man at the check-in desk—with the crazy tuft of white hair—had said the tour was all for the day and he couldn't just roam by himself.

Lloyd sighed again and pulled his hand from its pocket in order to flip his bangs from his eyes, he stuffed his hand back. The hall was tall, the ceiling rising somewhere near 20 feet high, and the walkway oddly narrow. He had never been claustrophobic but he felt almost panicky thinking about it. As he trudged on, far enough in the back he couldn't hear the brunette anymore, a dark picture with a golden frame caught his eye. He stopped abruptly, his sneakers squeaking across the tiles and he stared.
He felt like a little child, stealing a candy bar from the pantry, he looked over his shoulder almost guiltily, then back to the picture. Red swirled into black, the colors blending in the middle and as he looked a face appeared.

No.

As he looked he knew the face had already been there but as he studied the details the picture opened to him. A delicate face, closed eyelids, soft lines contrasting with the grim background. Flowing inkblack hair—he was jolted from his mesmerized state as he heard a thump. Lloyd turned, startled. The last of the visitors had turned the corner at the far end of the hall. He looked around nervously.

He didn't like the thought of being alone in this place. The noise came again and now he was seriously creeped out! He did a double take, there was a little hall leading—he didn't know where—to the right and a thump and clatter was coming from the darkened area. He knew not to be stupid. But... What could it hurt? He licked his lips nervously, his eyes wide, trying to decide what to do. He eyed the way the group had gone and then the new hall again. His eyes danced between the two. Stealing his resolve he stepped into the new hall.

Something about the smell of old paint and the dim lights set his pulse hammering. He edged along, his hands clenching and unclenching in his jean pockets. He laughed lightly, "Come on, Lloyd. You're a spinjitzu master, what can you possibly find in a forgotten museum?" He tried not to think about it.

It sounded like a preeetty stupid question.

The hall abruptly ended. Two paintings faced each other and a little dry fountain sat dejectedly in the middle.

What had?—He jumped as something touched his leg. He yelped in surprise and then snorted in both relief and at himself.

At his feet, looking up at him with large glassy eyes was a treehorn. A baby, judging how small it was. He couldn't help but notice how completely adorable it was. "Hey, little guy. What are you doing in here?" It opened its little sharp toothed mouth and made a high noise, something like "Screeeep!" and rubbed its head against his leg.

Lloyd turned to look at the hall behind him. Nothing. He scratched his head. "Where?..." The treehorn head-butted his leg. Lloyd adopted the voice he would use with a cat or dog. "What? You don't like being ignored?"

He chuckled, his gloomy mood had vanished. The treehorn screeeep-ed again. "You need a name my friend." It blinked. "Leafy?" The terrible pun-y-ness of it made him cringe. "No. Arnold?" He shook his head. The treehorn reeeeet-ed. "Hmm. You don't like that either."

Lloyd looked around again, his ears pricking up. The empty hall was quiet but for the air vent, echoing down the thin hall and up the next one.

"What's a baby like you doing here?" He stooped and pet the creature. Its skin was rough and bumpy, almost white and gray camouflage. It cuddled his hand, "Baby? Do you like that?" It purred. Lloyd scooped Baby up, and even though it butted his arm he held on. With his arms full of treehorn, he fumbled but dragged the zipper of his sweat shirt down and tucked the small creature in. The resemblances to a cat just kept growing.

Baby poked his head out and the comic-ness of it was too much. Lloyd laughed.

He headed back to the desk and past the slumped over, snoozing man. He hurried out of the museum and up the walk to the car. All the while trying to keep Baby from jumping out of his arms.

o.o.o

The elevator doors slide open, and a loud 'ding!' filled the floor landing. Baby was wrapped in Cole's spare winter jacket that Lloyd had dug out of the trunk of the car. The blonde ninja was trying to hold back his grin, the excitement pumping through his veins was a great change from the glum air that had filled the apartment since the goodbye ceremony for 'Ninjago's Ninja.' Not being needed was a great way to dampen anyone's mood.

Plus sharing a three room apartment with six people was enough to make everyone unhappy, so... He couldn't help but feel Baby would help everyone cheer up.

He walked quickly down the hall, room 311 was on the left aaaand... "There we go." He stopped in front of a simple gray door, on a plain grey wall, under a boring grey ceiling, rummaged through his pocket with one hand and tried to hold firmly a squirming cat-treehorn. He brandished the key and unlocked the door, pushing it open. His ears were met with the usual. The tv blaring, an argument full swing and the shower going.

The shower was always going.

"I'm home!"

No one heard. The tv kept running full volume, the shower kept rushing, the loud voices kept yelling. Or if anyone had heard they didn't care enough to stop what they were doing and look at him.

The golden bubble that had been growing in his chest as he climbed the front steps of the building and rode the elevator and walked down the long hallway—popped. The feeling of maybe something going right for once, maybe a quiet—yelling-free—evening, maybe a little attention, maybe a homey feeling, maybe a "Hey Lloyd, how's life? Are you feeling alright? Do you feel lonely? Has going from Green/Gold ninja to 'nobody in the entire world cares the heck about you' been hard?", maybe a hug, or a little laughter—maybe—that feeling shattered like glass.

He shuffled into the room and smiled half-heartedly. "I'm... home." His voice was quieter this time.

Sitting in front of the tv on the faded blue couch folding his shirts was Zane. Next to him staring irritably at the tv and ironically plugging his ears was Kai. In the door way of the kitchen were both Nya and Cole. Nya was glaring, Cole was yelling. "Okay, okay, I get you need to study! Sure my life is completely empty too! I have nothing at all I need to do!"

Nya swung her arm down and threw her hip to the side. "Cole quit being a dork! It may not make you happy but guess what? It's your day to wash dishes! So don't give me this 'My life is hard' crap, washing the dishes takes like thirty minutes! So quit the baby attitude and do your job!"

Cole's eyes widened in disbelief, "Wha—wha—what, the heck? You telling me to do my chore? Who is it who always complains about being too much of a princess to do any work at all!? You sit on your lazy butt and complain about school all the time!"

She frowned, her eyes getting bright—"That is Kai! Sitting on his butt all day, moping about nothing, being a shower hog—Okay, I do my part every day and I'm in college, and you have a stupid job—You carry pieces of wood around and come home late and expect me to be cool about letting your chores slide?"

Cole looked ready to explode. "Pieces of wood? I work at a construction site! Give me a break! I—" Kai grabbed the remote, flicked the tv off and turned around. "Both of you shut up!"

They both shut up. Both looking very startled.

Surprisingly for the first time in about a month the apartment was quiet. Zane tried to keep folding his clothes and Cole and Nya were frozen in the kitchen doorway—Kai's face was red. The shower still could be heard and now that everything had quieted down everyone could hear Jay singing in the bathroom.

Lloyd cleared his throat and closed the front door with a little click. "I'm—" He coughed awkwardly. "...home." Four sets of eyes settled on him.

Nya smiled a little, she was still recovering from scowling so much. "Did you have fun?" Cole crossed his arms, "Is that my coat?" Lloyd nodded. "Yeah. To both of you."

Baby had grown tired of the wait and squirmed his way out of the bundle of puffy cloth. He dropped to the wood floor and Nya gasped. "Ahh, it's so adorable! Where did you find him?" She sprang over and scooped little Baby into her arms.

Kai stood up from the couch and grimaced. "Is that a tree... horn?" Cole was pouting in the door way, he looked a little too upset that the argument was over. "Didn't we fight one of those things a long time ago?" Zane's optics clicked. "Yes. If I recall correctly we encountered such a creature the day I learned of my robot design."

The bathroom door swung open and Jay sauntered out whistling merrily. A cloud of steam poured out of the small room. Jay took one quizzical look at the cluster of people, registered the silence and then saw Baby. He screamed.

"Eww! Is that—Eww!" He shook himself off and stormed to his room. Kai called after him, "Jay don't come out in just a towel seriously!"

Nya giggled as Baby purred. She snuggled the small treehorn close and kissed the top of its head. "Where did you find him?" Lloyd rubbed the back of his neck, "At the museum down on Kimber st." Kai scratched his head, yawned and stretched. "Weeeell, I don't really care so goodnight." "It's not even nine." Kai shrugged. "Whatever." And off he went.

Nya laughed as Baby licked her chin, "Can I keep him? Oh! Who gets to name him?" Cole looked ticked for whatever reason and slunk into the kitchen, probably to clean the dishes.

"I already named him. Baby?" Lloyd turned a little pink. "Oh," Nya shrugged, "That's kinda cute." Lloyd smiled to himself. "Thanks. And no you can't keep him." Lloyd looked to Baby, "He gets to sleep with me on the couch I guess." Baby looked back and screeep-ed.

Lloyd smiled.

o.o.o

Lloyd woke to a warm something by his side and a frozen nose. He rolled to that side and jumped as something yipped. He had rolled onto Baby. He pushed the covers away and shivered but there was his new pet all angry and skittish. Two weeks and he still wasn't used to sleeping with something practically under him. The cold morning air nipped at his bare arms and toes and he quickly pulled the covers back to his chin. Why did Zane—the person in the house without skin—get to control the AC?

His eyelids drooped and his breathing softened... But Baby was now awake and hungry. The small creature jabbed Lloyd with its nose. Lloyd swatted with his arm limply and rolled to the other side.

Baby was not so easily ignored. He sneakily slipped out from under the covers and padded across Lloyd's stomach. The blanket had gotten shifted by all the rolling and Lloyd's knee was exposed to the cold air. Baby sniffed the skin. Then licked it. Lloyd mumbled something and his knee twitched. Without any more thought Baby opened his small mouth and bit down. Lloyd yelped and sat up. "Ow!"

Awake.

Very awake.

o.o.o

The sound of Baby eating wasn't so bad. Lots of scraping, as the cat food clacked around the metal bowl and as he chased stray pieces across the floor. What was worse was Jay. Snickering.

"Do you need any help taming the beast?" Lloyd ignored him and dabbed some sticky white paste on the teeth marks on his knee. At least it had finally stopped bleeding.

"Guess what?" Lloyd looked up rather warily. "What?" Jay leaned forward, kicking the fridge door shut with his socked foot at the same time, "One, your gonna smell like an old person for a few days, thanks to the ointment in your hand and two—" He paused as Baby scitted across the floor and over Jay's foot. He grimaced. "—I was right! The little creep is feral. Can you get rid of it now?"

Lloyd rolled his eyes and twisted the lid shut on the little cylinder of medicine. "No." He clicked his tongue for Baby to come and sighed as he was once again ignored by the small creature. He stood up from the wooden stool he'd been sitting on and stooped to pick up the chirping treehorn.

"Thank you for your input but since when does a parent listen to someone without kids?" Jay snorted. "Excuse—What are you—Is that your baby or something?" He whistled and made a circular motion around his ear with a finger.

Lloyd scratched Baby's head and tried to push the giddy feeling down. "Yeah, my 'Baby'." And he walked out of the kitchen wincing at the bite but feeling like 1- Lloyd/Baby and 0- Jay.