All Different Shapes and Sizes

Father's Day always hurt for Lloyd.

When he was old enough to understand that his father was an evil warlord, it was bad. Once a year he would lock himself in his dorm room at Darkley's and hide from everyone while the other boys talked about their fathers and played with one another.

Even though most of his classmate's fathers were in prison, Lloyd would still rather hide than try to explain that his father laughed while people died.

After the Ninja adopted him, Lloyd found that Father's day was surprisingly easier. Kai and Lloyd would often spend the day together, as neither of them had fathers, and Lloyd enjoyed spending the day playing at the arcade or riding bikes around Jamanakai Village.

After the Final Battle, when his father had been redeemed, Lloyd had one Father's Day that he could spend with his dad before Garmadon was sent to the Cursed Realm, lost forever. He went back to spending the day with Kai after that until the Ninja discovered that Kai and Nya's parents were still alive.

Kai had invited Lloyd to join his family for Father's Day, and Ray had offered to be a surrogate father, but it still wasn't the same. Instead, Lloyd usually spent the day alone, hiding from his family members much the way he did at Darkely's.

Unfortunately, during the time resurrected Garmadon became Emperor, that time frame somehow managed to fall on Father's Day. It was also the day Harumi died. It was one of the only few days Lloyd had wished that one of his friends had been the Green Ninja instead of him. Surely Kai or Cole wouldn't be so weak in comparison to him, right?

Now, an entire year after that day, Lloyd wandered the streets of Ninjago City grumpily. Hands in pockets, he kicked a can across the sidewalk, and tried to avoid the neon signs on shop windows shouting 'FATHER'S DAY DISCOUNTS HERE!'. Lloyd tried to avoid sports stores for that reason.

Cringing hard after passing a Deck's Sporting Goods and another House Depot, Lloyd broke into a sprint, shoving people aside as he dodged and tripped, sprinting across the city as fast as his legs could carry him. Finding a wall in his way Lloyd scrambled over it and fell into a dark alleyway behind a bunch of shops. Racing down that alleyway, Lloyd found another section of the wall and scrambled over it, finally falling over in the mud and garbage.

With a groan, Lloyd picked himself up, looking down at his knees, which were skinned from falling off the wall, and his arms and elbows, both had been cut up pretty badly after he had climbed two walls.

"Sheesh, you look horrible," A voice behind him made Lloyd realize that he wasn't alone. Whirling around, expecting to see a street thug or drunk standing behind him, he almost jumped back over the wall in surprise when he saw Skylor standing behind him.

"Skylor!?" Lloyd took a step backwards, shocked. "What are you doing out here?"

"Um, it's my back alley," Skylor shrugged apologetically. She glanced at Lloyd's scrapes with a sigh. "Come on back here to the Employee Break Room while I get you patched up."

With no other options, Lloyd slumped over and followed Skylor into the back of the restaurant. He followed her through the neatly arranged back hallways, towards the Employees Break Room. Skylor pushed the door open and nodded to one of her Employes, a boy a little older than Lloyd.

"Lloyd, this is Tyler, Tyler, this is Lloyd," She introduced, walking over to a large cabinet against the far wall.

"Hey," Tyler waved, flipping through his copy of Harold Patter and the Magician's Rock.

"Hey," Lloyd waved back, turning towards Skylor, who pulled a First-Aid kit out of a collection of twelve.

"Now, care to tell me why you were running through the city scraping yourself up?" Skylor asked, motioning towards a chair against the wall.

"That's a lot of First-Aid kits," Lloyd stared at the cabinet, even while sitting down. Skylor noticed he was changing the subject, fortunately, and just laughed.

"Did you hear about the law that they decided on?" She asked, pulling out an antibacterial cloth and handing it to Lloyd. "Get your arms. The Mayor just mandated that every business in town had to have twelve kits and eight defibrillators. It was kind of a hassle but government-funded, so I was happy to have it."

"You have eight difibrillaters?" Lloyd asked, staring at the cabinet with shock.

"They're not all in there. Most are spread around the building. Old folks sometimes go into cardiac arrest from the shock of the attacks on the city," Skylor explained, pulling out some huge band-aids and handing them to Lloyd.

"That… makes sense, I guess," Lloyd answered, applying a band-aid to each of his knees. "With all the attacks and all, I mean."

"They just put it out recently," Skylor added, "Ever since the Princess resurrected Gar- wait- is that why you were running through the city?"

"Mm," Lloyd looked away from her, staring across the room. Suddenly the cream wall behind Tyler became a whole lot more interesting.

Skylor pulled up a chair and sighed heavily. She glanced at the watch on her wrist and then back at Tyler. "Your shift's staring in two minutes." She warned.

He looked up, then glanced at the time on his phone. "Oh, gosh." He leapt up from the couch, set down the Harold Patter novel, and rushed out.

Skylor looked back at Lloyd. "Oh, I forgot to ask, but where are the other ninja?"

Lloyd glanced at his hands. "Out. Zane's visiting his father's grave, Jay's with his family, Cole's chilling with his dad, Kai and Nya are…" he sighed, looking at his green tennis shoes.

Skylor gave him a sympathetic smile. "Let me guess, you used to hang out with Kai until he found his dad?"

"Yeah," Lloyd sighed, fiddling with the strings on his hoodie. "We used to spend the day together, but now he has Ray, so I've just… kind of been alone."

"I get it," Skylor responded, leaning back in her chair. When Lloyd shot her a look, Skylor shrugged at him. "I'm serious. People sometimes forget about us without fathers, especially on the day entirely dedicated to them."

She glanced at the wall. "I mean, I'd like to have my dad back, but then again…"

Lloyd winced. "Exactly. I miss how my dad used to be. During the tournament. When he… wasn't a crazy maniac or a product of necromancy."

"I miss my dad too," Skylor shrugged. "When I was little he wasn't so bad, the mania and snake obsession came a lot later when I was nine or ten. I wish he was here sometimes."

"What would you do if your father was here?" Lloyd asked, genuinely curious now. He had always wondered a lot about Kai's girlfriend and was surprised that he enjoyed getting to know her better.

Skylor looked at the ceiling, leaning back in the chair. "I don't know, actually. I think I'd like some of the things we did when I was little, back on the island. Like crab hunting, or cooking. He's the one who taught me how to cook. What would you do?"

"Play catch?" Lloyd suggested. "I don't really know. I've never thought about it."

Skylor laughed. "Same. It's fun to fantasize about it, though."

For the next ten minutes, the two of them talked about what they'd do. Lloyd fantasized about going to parks and playing games, practicing training moves, and even doing father-son things like getting ice cream or stuff like that. Skylor voiced her ideas about fishing, cooking, going swimming down at the bay, surfing and other things she'd grown up doing with her dad.

Finally, however, Lloyd looked at his watch in surprise. "Oh, gosh, I should be going!"

Skylor got up and Lloyd soon followed. "You want some takeout to bring home with you?" The restaurant owner asked.

"Yeah, actually, that would be great," Lloyd nodded.

"Cool," Skylor nodded. "It's on the house. A father's-day-for-those-who-don't-have-fathers discount."

Lloyd laughed while following her into the foyer of the restaurant. "Sounds great!"

And it was.

A/N: Behold, another random oneshot….

I'm being productive, I promise!