#bugnon

It was only three months ago. He was supposed to have left with the others on Day of the Departed, to have gone to the Departed Realm, but something prevented him from going back. He was swallowed up by the realm and spat out in a glob of dark green fluid with the consistency of wet gelatin. He felt heavier and could no longer float, but why? He was mortified; naked and human in front of the people who hated him most.

What he didn't expect, was for them to keep him with them instead of in a specialized Vengestone cell in Kryptarium Prison. He was given his own room, and was allowed to go wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted. The only rules were that he wasn't allowed in anyone's room, and he wasn't allowed outside of the house unless he was accompanied by at least two people.

He thought it was okay at first; free reign of the house and no forced prison schedule for him, so he could adjust to having a body again, but he more and more realized he messed up when he agreed to go with them. He vaguely remembered you when he was fighting against you; how strong you were, and how willing you were to fight for your little brother, but the more time he spent with you, the less he wanted to be around you.

You made him feel weird when you were around; he couldn't speak properly, his emotions would go to the extremes, and his chest would flutter. The feeling was foreign to him, and since he wanted it to stop, he avoided you. However, that only made things worse whenever he did bump into you.

You'd acknowledge him with a shy, "hi Morro," or a "good morning, Morro," and he'd turn tail and run.

Jay confronted him about it one day, "why do you keep ignoring my brother and running away from him? Why do you hate him so much?"

He just scoffed, "stop assuming things, I don't hate him, it's just he makes me feel weird and it's annoying. He makes my heart beat faster, and-"

"Stop, stop, I'm going to be sick...maybe it's better you stay away from him then." And that was the last thing Jay said to him about you.

But the more time he spent away from you, the more he began to notice about you. You were well built, tall, and incredibly strong so you could haul large and heavy objects around, and you were also kind and optimistic, but you were also very shy and didn't like talking to strangers. You didn't look like your brother, sure, but you definitely grew up together. The two of you could talk about machinery and inventions for hours, and sometimes Nya or Zane would join the conversation for a bit. You talked to your little brother more than anyone else, and he was surprised to know you weren't even blood related.

"But Morro, you said you looked up to Wu as your own father, wouldn't you be the one to understand most that blood doesn't make family?" Zane had asked.

He responded in anger, "don't call that old man my father. One day (Y/N) will betray his brother, or the other way around." But it never happened. No, the two of you were inseparable.

Eventually, just last month, you warmed up to him. You would talk to him more, and he found out even more. You were afraid of being alone, which is why you shared a room with your brother; and you used to have to patch him up when he fell off of junk piles, and that's how you became a great medic. You were definitely more of a 'behind the scenes' guy, which surprised him since you were so active in the fight against him when he first met you.

"Why don't you fight more? Aren't you jealous of the others for having elemental powers? What about Nya, and how she used to fight in a mech suit?" Morro scoffed at you one day.

You grinned, and chuckled a little, "oh, no way." You put a hand on your flexed bicep, "these are for passive purposes only. I don't think I could ever hurt someone."

He spoke before he could think, "then why did you try to fight me when - when I was still a ghost?"

"Oh, uh, you were hurting my brother." You were lying.

"I thought Jay was your brother, not Lloyd. Uhm, I don't remember fighting Jay when you, uh, tried to punch me that...one time."

He saw how you tensed up nervously; how you glanced away from him, rubbed your darkening cheeks to make the blush go away, sniffed and stopped talking, then got up and left. From the kitchen, he heard glass breaking.

"What happened?" He asked Jay upon getting up to investigate.

"It's nothing, it's none of your concern, I'm fine, it's not like my brother likes anyone - I need to find Nya..." Then he left too, glass swept into a dust pan, but left behind as he dropped the broom and stomped away.

So now you and Jay were acting weird. Great.

He continued to try and ignore the feelings as he watched you from his spot on the couch; scurrying in and out of your room every day with armfuls of equipment and material, occasionally blasting your favorite music in your room to keep yourself focused. As time went on, the feelings stopped bothering him, and he actively sought them out instead. Now he felt warm and happy every time you passed by him in the hallway, or every time you decided to greet him and ask how his day was going.

Things were peaceful now. He was given more freedom, and could go outside without being watched, but he couldn't go off the property alone still. He could cook whatever he wanted in the kitchen, he could practice his wind power in the backyard, and the ninja were feeling more comfortable around him. Well, except for Lloyd and Jay, but he didn't care if anyone cared about him; he wasn't here to make friends, he just needed to pass the time until he died again.

There was one person he wanted to make friends with, though. "How come (Y/N) doesn't have a girlfriend like his brother?" He didn't want to ask Jay this.

"Oh, he's gay. As - as in he only likes men, if you didn't know." Cole answered. "Why are you interested all of a sudden? Do you want to get out there and meet someone?"

Morro scuffed his foot against the ground and looked away. "I dunno. Maybe, but I don't really like girls that much. Nya's tolerable, but only because her water element won't kill me."

"Well, maybe you're gay too." That one sentence opened his mind.

Over the past couple of days, he continued watching you. Aside from doing typical tech work, you also liked to bake pies and strangely enough, clean. He would catch you in the late hours of the night still awake using a broom so the others could sleep without the noisiness of a vacuum. "I, uh, could help you with that, if you want." You agreed to his proposal, and he used the wind to sweep dirt and dust out of the house, while you would wash things with a wet rag. He didn't really like cleaning; he really liked you though, if he was willing to do this for you.

Things were pretty okay, he thought. Ninjago was at peace, the ninja were all relaxing, save for Lloyd and Jay, and you were tinkering away at something like you always were. He still had yet to see any of the inventions you were supposedly making. What else could you possibly want?

"Hey, uh," you approached everyone in the living room, either watching a movie or trying to play cards behind the couch. Morro was very close to winning Crazy 8's, but only because he could see Kai's cards in the reflection of the window behind him, "something came up on the monitors, you'd all better come look."

In a single file line, the ninja calmly walked behind you towards what they called 'headquarters'. It was fairly large, and had many computer screens, presumably meant to track villainous activity. On the largest screen was a map of Ninjago, with several red dots in Ninjago City, and other red dots scattered around the map.

You spoke up to be heard over the worried clamoring of the ninja, "these red dots are all reported sightings in the past hour of strange people, all of which have been said to be made of sand, ash, dirt, and other earthly materials."

Everyone glanced over at Cole. "What? It's not me, I'm sitting right here!"

You chuckled, "well, it could be many things; considering what we've seen." He'd never seen you so confident like this. No wonder you were mostly left to do behind the scenes work. Everyone assumes Lloyd is the leader, even he did at one point, but seeing you like this, he realized you were the true leader. You told the ninja your plan; to gather intel first before attacking, and that if they were forced to attack to surround the enemy with their given element. "They haven't been doing anything super bad, but they're attacking people who get in their way. Wherever they're going, don't let them get to it."

Jay gave you a thumbs up, flipping his hood down to cover his face, "we got it!"

The others were all getting ready to leave, when Zane brought something up. "Who will stay and watch Morro if all of us are going?"

"Don't look at me!" You protested. "I forgot we had to watch him."

"Why? 'Cuz you're always hanging out with him?" Cole asked teasingly. You didn't respond, and Morro watched as all the confidence you held at the brief meeting vanished into thin air.

"Sorry dude," Kai put a hand on your shoulder, "guess you're stuck with babysitting duty."

Morro watched you cringe. "Don't call it that...he's an adult. You're making it weird."

"Me? You're the one who went 'ooooh, I don't want to watch him because I have a'-" You cut off the fire ninja by grabbing the back of his head and forcing it into your chest to muffle his voice.

"AHAHA! What a funny joke, Kai! Ha ha." You forcefully and nervously laughed as he began beating against your arms to get you to let him go. "I think you should all go. Like. Now. Bye!" You literally dragged Kai out the door and then closed it behind you after the others left; all laughing about it.

Morro had no time to ask you about it as you left to do something else. He figured he'd leave you alone for a bit, but then grew bored and went into the kitchen, where you were making some food. "What're you up to?" He asked, leaning over to see what you were making.

"Oh, uh," you looked over at the toast you burnt, previous events forgotten, "well it was supposed to be jammed toast. I mean, toast with jam. Not good with words all the time."

So that was probably why you didn't talk a lot. "That's okay, I don't mind it." He felt strangely soft right now. Not physically, but in a strangely emotional way. He'd never fallen in love before. "I can understand, and that's all that matters."

He can see you smile shyly. "Yeah. Want any?"

He lets out a short chuckle, "burnt? Here, I'll toast it, you jam it."

You laugh with him, and it feels natural to him. Just the two of you. "Okay! Let's do that." He sets the timer, and you watch him vigilantly. "Oh. That's a timer. I thought it was a heat setting."

He laughs aloud, "I thought you were a technician! You didn't know?"

"I dunno! I know my creations better than others'." You fidget with your fingers a little.

"Do you think...I can se-?" the timer goes off and Morro looks over, "oh, uh, the toast is ready." He pulls them out carefully before laying them on separate plates for the two of you. You spread jam over the slices, coating them evenly before wolfing down your slice.

You left the kitchen, and he followed behind with half of his meal in his mouth still. You didn't do much; mostly moping around the house going between projects. Play a couple minutes of video games, nibble at whatever was in the cupboards, dust off something in the hallways, go outside and toss some oat to the ducks...it went on like this for a solid hour.

He wondered if you were going to do anything, and you finally turned around to face him, "you, uh, don't have to stick by my side every second of the day. I thought that, I, uh, should tell you that." You brushed hair out of your eyes; something you and your brother did often as you had similar, fluffy hair cuts.

Morro's face went pink, "w-well I - I knew that!" He looked down at his shoes, "I don't know...you said you were afraid of being lonely so I didn't want to leave you alone..."

He couldn't see, but you were shyly grinning so hard you had to rub your cheeks so they wouldn't hurt, "oh! I wasn't sure you'd care that much. You kinda used to avoid me a lot. More than the others so I assumed you didn't like me too much."

"Of course I like you!" He blurted, whipping his head up to look into your eyes. He was quick to back out of this situation, "I mean, you're a really good friend and everything even if we don't get to talk a lot and we don't do stuff together."

"Oh..." now he wishes he didn't say anything at all. "Ye-yeah, you're a good friend too."

Things were quiet and awkward. He didn't want to feel this way around you, so working up courage, he changed the topic. "Can I...see your inventions?"

Your head whipped to face him with a surprised look. "You...you really want to look at them?" You became flustered as you continued speaking, "I mean, you just seem so lost and confused when you look at technology a lot of the time that I thought you'd hate what I like doing."

"Oh, not at all." He assures you with a shy grin. "I actually," he gets nervous to admit to you, and starts to flush pink, "wanted you to teach me more since you're really smart and uh, you know what you're doing...and stuff." He plays with his fingers, a habit he picked up from you, and glances away.

"We-well-well yeah!" He loves hearing the excitement in your voice, and peeks up at you to see your blushing cheeks, "we can...let's do that!" You can't stop smiling as you walk him to your room.

He's in awe at the sight. Your bed is on a loft with a desk below it so you could plan your projects, and hanging above your bed were little handmade trinkets and creatures made of scraps of metal and various material like copper wire, mirror shards, and even eating utensils. Your space was fairly neat, you had a large closet with all your items sorted by object, size, and color, and there were designated spots for different things you did; cutting, sanding, soldering, melding, melting - the list seemed endless. You even had a table to store projects you were currently working on.

"Woah, it's really big." He could smack himself for saying something this obvious.

"I kinda stole Jay's room for it - knocked out the wall separating our rooms since he usually sleeps with Nya anyway. More space for me!" You laugh. "Well, yeah, this is it."

"Oh." He didn't want this to be the end, you would just go back to moseying around doing random stuff until the ninja came back, and he would've wasted all his time with you doing- "Wait, what's that for?"

A strange-looking watch caught his eye. It was meant to look fancy, but the clock part seemed to look more like a screen than an actual clock. This makes you excited. "Oh, oh, oh! This?" You grin and hold it out to him delicately, "it's something new I was working on, since I like to plan ahead sometimes. It's just a prototype for now, since it doesn't actually tell the time yet, but it's for if the ninja need to dress up fancy for an occasion, and need to communicate to each other."

"You really do think ahead." He smiles with you. "Does it do anything else?"

You start to ramble to him about your watch, and how it can not only communicate but also record things, track people, and Cole's watch would tell him where the nearest bakery was. He laughed at that, and continued to ask you about each and every project you were working on. You went from communicating watches to compactable weapons to attachments that would automatically drive a car in case the ninjas had to fight without a driver. The longer you went, the more genuinely interested he became.

"To be honest, Morro," you turned to face him slowly, "I really didn't think you'd like any of my stuff." You're blushing again, but don't seem to mind showing him this time.

"Well, yeah, I didn't know what any of it meant or was so I wasn't interested, but now that I do, it all seems so..." He trails off, looking into your eyes.

"Exciting?"

"Yeah." He breathes. The two of you are close, he can smell you from here; a scent that makes him feel at ease. He doesn't know if he's ready for a kiss yet, and turns to look at something else. "You get to do all these cool things without even fighting."

You seem disappointed, as your blush fades, but you continue talking to him like nothing happened, "well, I don't like fighting, but I like helping. This is the best I can do, and I guess I'm pretty proud of it all. Like a dad with all his kids."

He rubs his cheeks to hopefully remove his blush. "You should be proud, you've worked hard to-"

"You're blushing a lot today, are you okay?" You sound concerned, but he recognizes that smile. It's the same one you give to him when you tell him you saw something cute.

"No - yes - you - you're" He rubs harder and even starts to try and cover his face as you make him more flustered. "You're really cool and I want to know you better!" The words tumble out of his mouth before he can stop them, and he slaps a hand over it to keep from talking any more.

"I...think you're cool too, Morro." You sound shy again.

Before he can respond, the front door opens with a loud thump and worn-out sounding 'we're home' from the ninja. "Uh, uh," he fidgets, panicking about what would happen if he was caught with you, but also not wanting to leave you so soon. Mind made up, he's not tall enough to do so normally, so he grabs your face by the cheeks and pulls you down to kiss your forehead, then skitters off anxiously towards the kitchen to act like nothing happened.

"Woah dude, no offense but you look like you've seen a ghost." Kai and Cole walk in for a couple drinks to relieve their dry throats, while the others decide to either get their wounds treated by you or take a quick shower.

"Uh, none taken."

"Yeah, what happened?" Now, Kai, he could absolutely not trust with the knowledge of kissing you. Even if it was just on the forehead. He had a big mouth and liked to use it.

He laughs it off, "chased by birds. I was trying to feed them but I guess they don't like me."

Kai seems to buy it. "Yeah, I get it. Seagulls hate me for no reason." He then sniffs himself, "I'm gonna shower real quick."

Once he's gone, Cole leans in, "that wasn't the real story, was it?" How did he know?

At least he was someone Morro could trust not to tell everyone about what happened. "Well...(Y/N) and I got to bond a lot." He smiles to himself as he recalls what happened in your room. "He really likes to talk about his inventions, and he really likes me too."

"What did you guys do?" Cole whispers to him.

"Well, I was kind of scared of kissing him at first; I've never kissed anyone before, but I got to kiss his forehead."

Cole shrugs. "It's a start, I guess. It's not like he's going anywhere though, so you've got all the time in the world to get where you want to go."

He could work through this. Love was new to him, and probably you too. "I think I'll tell him I like him a lot next time. Baby steps, right?"

"Right." He stretches and puts his glass in the sink. "You've got this." He's about to leave the kitchen, when he turns around, "and Morro? Don't let Jay hear about this. He doesn't like the sound of you being his brother in law. Yet."