Month 4

(Week 13 - 16)

Everyone had gotten used to the baby by this point and it did help that Lumi wasn't crying that often anymore–bringing a sense of peace to the monastery–and the ninja had fully accepted the two girls that had entered their lives and would not hesitate to help out whenever it was needed.

Harumi had been looking into her idea of getting a job for a few days now–bringing Lloyd with her as she did–but with her luck and reputation, she was immediately met with rejection.

"I don't get it! I've tried everywhere yet no one seems to want my help." Harumi groaned, hiding her face behind her hands, her elbows resting on the table of a local fast food joint.

The two were back at Skylor's restaurant–which Lloyd was still reluctant to call a date–after a busy afternoon of trying to find work. They decided to call it a day and get some dinner before they went back home.

Lloyd couldn't help but feel bad for the girl. She really was trying for the sake of their daughter and wished there was something he could do to help. "You need to understand where they're coming from, Ru." He sighed, picking up a dumpling with his chopsticks and holding it out to her. "You'll find something eventually."

Harumi moved her hands away from her face, her eyes glancing between the dumpling and Lloyd, and opened her mouth to eat the food.

"I get that but it's hard to deal with it too." She looked down and played with her hands. "Did you find any?"

"Well, Darreth told me he could hook me up with some commercials if I was interested." Lloyd shrugged, recalling the conversation he had with the brown ninja over the phone. "But it's embarrassing!"

Harumi couldn't help but snicker, a certain commercial playing from her memories, at the mention of it.

Lloyd narrowed his eyes, completely aware of what she was thinking. "Don't even think about it." He dared, making it harder for Harumi to hold back her laughter.

"I think it would be nice if the Green Ninja went out and advertised certain brands again. Maybe promote reading?"

A moment of silence passed between them before Harumi burst into a fit of laughter–much to Lloyd's annoyance–and continued teasing him.

"You were trapped in the palace, how did you even know about that?" Lloyd huffed, his lips forming a pout as the girl in front of him continued laughing.

"Oh, please. Everyone in Ninjago City has seen your ads and magazines." Harumi rolled her eyes playfully as her laughter died down. "Plenty of girls went crazy for you."

His face flushed red at the mention of the memory, bringing his hands up to cover his embarrassment. "Please, don't remind me."

"None of them were worthy anyways. In the end, it was me who got you." She shrugged and placed another dumpling in her mouth.

Lloyd's eyes lit up at that comment, a mischievous grin forming on his face when brought his hands down and Harumi was starting to wonder whether it was a good idea to tell him that. "Are you saying that the princess is...jealous?" He tested.

"What? No! Of course not." She quickly dismissed, waving her hands in front of him.

"So you wouldn't mind if some photoshoots include me having to pose with girl models?" He tried again, placing an emphasis on a certain word to get her attention.

"Over my dead body will they be allowed to do that!"

Lloyd smirked. "Gotcha."

Harumi huffed, slamming her hands onto the table. "And what if I am? Tell that Darryn or whatever that you are not agreeing to any of that!"

Satisfied, Lloyd let out a laugh he was holding back and nodded in understanding.

She's cute when she's mad.

"I was just kidding, Rumi. You know I'm not going anywhere." He sent a wink in her direction, making her cheeks tint a shade of red. "They're all promotional videos and safety guidelines, the pay is pretty good too. I'm sure I can cover Lumi's needs until you find your job."

Harumi sighed, she was definitely lucky with other things. "Thank you. It just seems impossible right now."

"What's impossible?"

The couple turned their heads to find Skylor at the edge of their table, a bowl of noodles in each of her hands.

"Rumi's been trying to find a job all day." Lloyd explained before taking a slurp of the hot and flavored soup.

"Why don't you work here?" Skylor offered, placing the bowl of noodles in front of her.

Harumi's eyes widened at the offer. She hadn't expected that, especially after their previous meeting during Garmadon's reign where she was able to take control of the Colossus.

Which is why she couldn't find the right words to respond with. "R-really?" Her words came out as a stutter, given how shaky her voice was. "You mean that, right?"

Skylor smiled, she understood the reason behind her behavior. "Of course! I could use the extra help."

"Then, yes!"

"Great, I'll give you my number before you leave and we can talk over the details."

Skylor left them to enjoy their meal and Harumi wanted nothing but to chase after her and give her a hug. She didn't. So she went up to hug Lloyd instead, squealing as she did so.

"Congratulations, Rumi." The boy laughed at her antics, dropping his chopsticks to hug her back. "Lu would be proud."

🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼

Lumi Garmadon did nothing but place her aunts and uncles in a state of panic. The ninja were running around the monastery carrying pillows, fluffy blankets, and anything else they could find that was considered "soft enough" by Cole.

"What is going on here?" Master Wu entered the living room to find the coffee table cleared, the couch arranged in a different position, and dozens of pillows leaning against the wall.

"Wu! Thank goodness." Nya exclaimed as she caught sight of the old man. "Could you hold her for a second? Kai got stuck in the storage room."

Baby Lumi cooed in her arms right before she was passed onto her granduncle. Master Wu placed his stick to lean against the wall and fixed his hold on the baby.

Lumi was playing with a gold-colored rattle–gifted to her by her grandmother–which she shook around violently while her other hand was busy getting covered by saliva as she held it in her mouth.

In all the time Lumi had been staying with them at the monastery, Master Wu had only held her a couple of times–often when the ninja weren't playing with her or when Harumi and Lloyd needed help–but he did watch her grow.

It came to him as a surprise at first, learning that Lloyd was irresponsible enough to get someone pregnant–let alone their enemy–but he soon accepted that he was now a granduncle and there was nothing he could do about it.

It also did not help that Lumi Garmadon was adorable, despite being fond of covering everything with her drool.

Lumi removed her hand from her mouth and reached out to touch Wu, who's eyes widened as he immediately moved away.

"No, Lumi. That is disgusting." He fixed his hold on her to carry her with one hand and used his other to lower hers. "Perhaps a lesson in discipline will help you."

Lumi cooed in response and proceeded to shake the rattle in her hand once again. Wu had to dodge the object through her attempts to hit him. However, his actions seemed to have caused a different sound to come out of the baby.

"What is going on here?" Lloyd asked, his voice loud enough to be heard from all the commotion, standing in front of the doors to their home.

A child-like giggle echoed through the monastery, getting louder and louder as Wu dodged her rattle, causing the chaos to die down for a few seconds.

"Was that–?"

"I think so!"

The ninja, along with Lloyd and Harumi, traced the sound of laughter towards the living room where they were greeted by Master Wu and baby Lumi.

"How did you get her to do that?" Harumi approached them, watching her daughter giggle, the sound was just pure happiness as she listened.

"I am not doing anything. She is simply using her toy as a weapon and I do not want it to hit my face." When Wu paused to explain, Lumi's toy landed on his cheek–leaving the surface wet with drool–making the old man shoot her a glare. "Please take your child."

Lloyd laughed and took Lumi from his arms. His daughter smiled at the sight of her father and clasped the side of his face with her tiny hands.

"Yes, Lumi. We're home." Lloyd answered with a smile, knowing exactly what she was trying to do. He shook his head, causing his blonde hair to bounce in the process, making Lumi giggle.

Harumi's heart was about to explode from all the cuteness she had just witnessed, until she caught sight of the mess in the living room.

"What is going on?" She pointed towards the cluster of pillows.

"Oh, right." Cole rubbed the back of his neck. "Um, about that–."

"Lumi was trying to crawl and we panicked because the monastery wasn't baby proofed enough so we started grabbing everything we could find to block off the walls and got rid of everything sharp and–." Jay started rambling, his words coming out as one sentence, and eventually came to a halt to catch his breath. "And we were worried she might poke her eye on the edge of a table and lose it!"

Nya came up beside him and started stroking his back. "Breathe, Jay. Breathe."

"Are you done?" Kai asked, his hand resting on his hip.

"Yes."

🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼

Harumi laid a tired Baby Lumi onto their bed. She was dressed in a beige onesie with a baby dragon plastered in the middle, and a pair of pajamas in the same color.

The ninja were right, Lumi spent the whole night proving that she was close to crawling. The second she was on her stomach, she tried to figure out how she could use her legs to push herself forward–of course that ended up with her landing on her face too many times–but it was progress and Harumi couldn't help but be proud of how fast her daughter is growing.

The sliding door to their room opened, to reveal a freshly bathed Lloyd Garmadon. He had a towel across his shoulders to catch the droplets of water that fell from his wet hair, the top half of his pajama set missing as he walked in shirtless.

"Rumi have you seen–." He was immediately shushed by the girl who was tapping Lumi's thigh to get her back to sleep. "Sorry. Have you seen my shirt?" He tried in a quieter tone.

"You left it here." Harumi grabbed the jade green shirt that was on top of the bed and held it above her head when she turned around to face him. "Try and get it."

Lloyd knew he was a few inches taller than her and that anything she held above her head, he could easily reach when he extended his arm. Deciding how to play this, Lloyd grabbed her waist and pulled her for a kiss.

"Mph!" Harumi exclaimed, surprised with his actions, but immediately kissed back.

As she let her guard down, she also managed to lower her hand–making Lloyd reach for his shirt behind her back–as she allowed herself to get lost in his lips.

Lloyd pulled away, a smirk of success plastered on his face. "If you wanted a kiss, you could have just asked for it."

"There's no fun in that now is there?" She teased back, her voice in a whisper as to not wake up their daughter.

They had been doing this for weeks now. Sneaking kisses to each other when they think no one is looking, and getting a few minutes to themselves while Lumi sleeps. Harumi didn't mind. In all honesty, she enjoyed having to sneak around with the Green Ninja.

Lloyd was no different either, occasionally being the first one to initiate affection such as tonight even when the ninja were right next door or had turned their backs for a second.

They'd been talking a lot more too, Harumi was slowly starting to open up about her pregnancy journey to him and in exchange, he'd comfort her and remind her that he would never leave her like that again. However, both seemed adamant on avoiding a certain night in their history–deciding to leave it like that–and thought more about what the night had brought.

Lumi Garmadon slept peacefully in the middle of the bed–taking more space now that she was growing–and did not care for the displays of affection her parents pass to each other when she's awake.

"We need a crib." Lloyd decided, eyeing the amount of space their daughter was taking even when sleeping on her stomach.

"What made you think that?" Harumi playfully rolled her eyes and climbed onto the space beside Lumi.

The baby turned her head to face the other side and squirmed as she did so, making Harumi tap her leg and hum a short lullaby to put her back to sleep.

"We're building one tomorrow."

"Don't you mean buying?"

"No."