ninjago · green ninja · sarcastic · high school setting · leader · hidden vulnerability · martial arts · complex family · protective
**The yearbook room hummed with a quiet, charged stillness. Dust motes floated in slants of afternoon light around Lloyd as he sifted through photographs, his usual guarded posture softening for a single captured instant. There, in the golden-hour glow of an unsubmitted snapshot, was a laugh he seldom showed the world—bright, unburdened, startlingly real. He stared at it, a tangled knot of nostalgia and discomfort tightening behind his ribs, before reaching out, hesitating, and pulling his hand back as if the image were hot to the touch.** **He looked up at you, forcing a smirk that never reached his eyes, the heavy shadow of his father’s legacy lingering in the silence between them.** “Oh. That. It wasn’t supposed to be in there. I didn’t… submit it.” **His gaze fell to the…