The local teahouse

by Sagepebble

Summary:

Lloyd decides to work at his uncle Wu's tea house. During his time there, he learns more about his family, encounters new people and hear their stories.

Along the way though, he suffers the cons of working at a tea house and discovers what some of the customers go through.

Well, it won't be all that bad...right?

---
HAITUS / BEING RE-WRITTEN

Notes:

This fanfic was inspired by life in retail by Solar_Savory on ao3 as well as the game little corner tea house.

I myself don't even drink tea, much less make it so alot of the tea making process I write about is through research so please correct me on anything that may be wrong

I use my own headcanons alot which will be seen as the fanfic progresses

Sorry if the characters seem ooc!!

Chapter 1: First day + Morro (pt.1)

At 7 a.m, Lloyd's alarm blasted. With a groan, a hand reached out from under the tangled mess of a blanket to shut it off.

He instead accidentally knocked it off his nightstand, breaking it…again.

With a jolt, Lloyd sat up, glaring at the broken alarm clock. This was already the 9th alarm clock he'd broken within the month and he really didn't want to go back to the mall just to get a new clock.

*maybe I should start using my phone alarm*

Disregarding that problem for future Lloyd, current Lloyd rolled off his bed, landing on his ass. Groaning even more, he got up, his bones cracking as he did.

When he opened his bedroom door, he was ambushed by the smell of pancakes being cooked. He guessed that his mom was making his favourite that morning.

"Morning Mum, morning Harumi," Lloyd greeted as he dragged himself into the kitchen.

"Good morning sweetie!" Koko replied. The girl with unnaturally white hair for her age barely nodded in acknowledgement. Harumi had been the Garmadon’s adopted child for the last two years and finally had gotten comfortable with the fact that she had a home.

The three of them ate in (somewhat) comfortable silence, with only the sounds of cutlery and Harumi's phone filling the air.

"Lloyd, aren't you starting to work for your uncle today? At his tea house, right?" Koko asked. Lloyd nodded in response.

"Don't know why you choose to work for the old bloke," Harumi mumbled. She never really liked Wu in the first place. "Plus, wouldn't you be working with that emo cousin of yours? The one you're so scared of?"

"I-I'm not scared! We're just…estranged that's all!" Lloyd didn't convince either of them. "Besides, he does the late afternoon shifts so I wouldn't even run into him that much,"

"Whatever you say Blondie,"

~~~

At 7:45 a.m, Lloyd was ready to head out…well he would be if he could find his "lucky charm".

What would that be, may you ask, well it was a necklace that had a so-called "dragon tooth" attached to it. Lloyd didn't believe in dragons but he still liked it loads.

"Looking for this again?" Lloyd turned to face Harumi, who was leaning on the sofa, the necklace in hand.

"Thanks Harumi," Lloyd sighed as he took it from her.

"You should really stop leaving it in the bathroom," she said before walking back to her room.

Now actually ready, Lloyd grabbed his keys and headed out.

~~~

At 8:01 a.m, the blonde boy walked into the tea house. There wasn't anyone is sight, which was unusual as Wu was always somewhere around the h-

"Ow!" Lloyd yelled. He was just about to turn around and scold whoever dared to hit his head when he realised it was Wu.

"侄儿 (nephew), you are late." The man simply said.

"Oh come on, it was only by a minute!" Lloyd tried reasoning with him. Wu raised an eyebrow in response.

A familiar cough shocked Lloyd. Oh first spinjitzu master, don't let it be who he thought it was.

"Earliest is good for the shop. Morro will help take care of you for your first week," Wu said before walking away. If this was a cartoon, Lloyd would have comedic tears running down his face.

*Why oh why must Morro be here?! I would have preferred a stranger over him!*

Morro started dragging Lloyd by the hoodie, snapping the blonde from his thoughts. Lloyd turned his head to get a better look at his cousin.

He looked pretty much how Lloyd remembered. Tanned skin, dark black hair with green highlights tied into a half bun style, multiple ear piercings and one nose piercing, as well as dressed in a goth/punk style.

All in all, scary looking.

As Lloyd was lamenting his possible demise, Morro dragged him to the back, where all the tea leaves were kept. There were multiple jars of different sizes and contained tea leaves of different colours. Lloyd could only name a few that he could recognise from the collection.

"Now, Wu's organisation is unique at best and confusing at worst and he would give you the silent treatment if you decide to reorganise them without his permission."

"The further back the tea, the more it's worth. So if you were to pack some wŭ lóng tea," he went to pick the jar with the labelled 'Oolong', "it's worth $3.50 per 100g."

"While Dà Hóng Páo tea leaves back here," Morro reached at the very back, pulling out a jar labelled 'DHP', "is worth $20 per 100g."

"20 fucking dollars?!" Lloyd yelled. Morro quickly placed his hands over Lloyd's mouth, shushing him. Morro looked left and right for a moment before removing his hands.

"Another rule, never swear in the tea house." He explained, a semi stern look on his face.

"and before you ask, Dà Hóng Páo is very expensive. Even though Wu's leaves aren't original, they still take a lot of time to make. That's why they're one of the expensive ones," Morro placed back the jars in their respective places, making sure that the labels were in clear view.

Lloyd stared at his cousin in awe. Never would he have thought that Morro would be so knowledgeable, in tea no less! He had vivid memories of Morro yawning away as Wu spoke to him about what he assumed was about tea as he could remember constantly hearing the Chinese character for 'tea'.

Morro caught Lloyd staring at him. "What?" He asked, a smirk appearing on his lips, "thought I would be the slacker type?"

"H-huh?! N-no! No, it's just uh…"

Morro laughed, his laugh always reminded Lloyd of an evil laugh of sorts. "Don't worry too much, no hard feelings,"

"Now stop slacking and help me set this place up,"

~~~

Lloyd wiped the last of the tables. He didn't think that simply wiping down tables would be so tiring, people always made it look so easy! At least he didn't have to sweep the whole tea house as Wu had done so earlier.

"Oi," Morro's voice called out, "come over to the back. I gotta teach you how to make tea!"

Confused, Lloyd walked to the back. Isn't making tea just adding hot water and stuff?

Morro was moving side to side on the counter, placing items like cups and jars around. At the sound of Lloyd's footsteps, he turned his head.

"Hurry up bozo, we don't have all day."

Now that Lloyd was closer, he could see what the label on the jars said. One of them was Oolong tea and the other contained some lavender.

*there's such a thing as lavender tea?*

"First," Morro's voice snapped Lloyd out of his thoughts, "We are going to boil the water and pour it into the cup, cause this is common sense,"

"next," he said as he placed the kettle down, "we're throwing that shit out,"

"Wait, why? Why throw out perfectly good water? " Lloyd saw no problems with the water so why waste it?

"Tea is art, as Wu would say. Throwing out the water makes the cup warm, it makes the tea taste better…or something,"

"Then, we will place the tea strainer into the cup and pour in a teaspoon of Oolong. Pour in the hot water and let it…tea-ify for at most 3 minutes,"

"Don't you mean at least 3 minutes?" Lloyd asked.

"...right, at least 3 minutes,"

As the minutes passed, Lloyd was amazed at how the water changed as well as the smell. To him, it smelled like a mix of green tea and another kind he'd never encountered before.

"Wu accidentally let this batch of wŭ lóng dry for too long so it smells a little like red tea but it's still classified as wŭ lóng," Morro said. In response, Lloyd stared at him, blinking his eyes almost cat-like.

"You dry tea leaves?"

"It's kind of like, f-fermean-fermand-" Morro stumbled on the word.

"Fermentation?"

"Yes, that thing,"

Morro took out the tea strainer, the tea filtered out of it and the tea leaves remained as the residue. The tea was golden-yellow in colour, as expected of Oolong tea.

Putting the cup of Oolong aside, Morro reached for the jar of lavender, taking some of it out and putting it in a mortar. He then grabbed the pestle and started smashing them into smaller pieces.

After a few seconds of demonstration, Morro passed the pestle to Lloyd while he maintained his grip on the mortar. Lloyd remembered how he used to help his mother to grind up some sesame seeds for whatever dish she was making. He often gave up half-way through and abandoned the pestle, leaving his mother to finish up the work.

Like before, Morro poured the smashed up lavender into the strainer and poured in the hot water. All that was left was to let it sit and wait.

When the wait was finally over, the lavender tea was yellow but unlike Oolong, it was more brown than golden.

"There's still many different things I have to teach you about making tea but for now these are the basics,"

"Now, let's open this tea house, shall we?"

Chapter 2: First day + Morro (pt.2)

Notes:

Hi!! Sorry if this took awhile. I have never worked in any form of retail, cafe or any kind of money-paying jobs before so I was kinda out of my reach here.

I added alot of timeskips since I didn't know how to make tea making seen interesting and I don't think you guys want to read the same thing over and over again.

TW: alot more swearing than previous chapter, use of slur towards trans people (semi-censored)

Anyways, apologies if they seem ooc!!

At 9:30 a.m, Morro unlocked the doors to the teahouse. Most stores usually don't open until 11 a.m so naturally there weren't many people roaming around.

"Why do we even open at 9 30? The only people who are around would be old people," Lloyd asked as Morro pushed in a chair.

"That's exactly the reason why we open at that timing. Even though it's a bitch to wake up early if you have the morning shift, this helps with our money,"

"Old people contribute the most to how much we earn and since the majority of them are awake even before dawn and like tea over coffee. So we open at the earliest timing as possible."

*BOY THIS IS THE USUAL TIME I WAKE UP AND YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT OLD PEOPLE ARE UP BEFORE ME!?!?*

Lloyd already felt half-dead, having to wake up at 7 a.m on a Friday. Meanwhile, Morro was going along fine and was able to function properly. It's either because he's used to waking up at this time or Morro is an elderly himself.

"Before I let you handle this by yourself, you'll have to follow me first. Just observe how I interact with the customers,"

On cue, the bell placed at the top of the door rang, signalling to the two that a customer had arrived.

It was a pair of two old ladies, most likely friends. They chatted away as if they were still in their youth.

"Hello, welcome to Stepper Wisdom, how may I help you today?" Morro asked. Lloyd didn't remember them having a line to welcome customers.

"Oh Morro, good to see you. Is that a new worker behind you?" One of the ladies asked, pointing to Lloyd. He waved back in response.

"Yes, he's my cousin. I'm taking care of him for his first week."

"Oh that's so sweet of you Morro! Anyways, I would like Earl Grey tea while Mary here would like Qimen tea,"

The lady, presumingly Mary, passed over the money needed.

"You're able to make the tea right? Elizabeth, if you can't tell it's the chatty one-"

"She's the one who called you sweet right?" Lloyd said with a smirk, he certainly wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to mess with Morro.

Morro looked like he wanted to choke Lloyd before calming down.

"Yes, her. She won't stop talking to me even if I go to the back and I preferably wouldn't want Wu hearing what some of our customers talk about. So if you would stop being a pest, go help me make the stupid tea,"

Cackling, Lloyd scurried away to make the tea.

"Also, add milk to the Earl Grey one!" Morro shouted behind him.

Lloyd searched around the shelves for Earl Grey and Qimen tea. It took him about 2 mins before finding the both of them.

Making them was pretty much a breeze. The routine of making tea still fresh in his mind. The only problem he had was finding the milk…

*WHERE THE FUCK IS THE MILK?!*

"Morro, where do you keep the milk? I don't see it anywhere," Lloyd asked, interrupting the conversation.

"At the back of course," he simply replied.

"Well I don't see it,"

Morro sighed before apologising to the old ladies and walked towards the back, grabbing Lloyd's arm and dragging him along.

Almost automatically, Morro walked towards one of the taller cabinets and opened it. Revealing that the fridge was behind it all along.

"It's literally right here," Morro said, definitely unimpressed and maybe slightly annoyed.

"WELL HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW IT WAS BEHIND A CABINET??!!" Lloyd shouted.

"WHILE ALL THE OTHER WORKERS KNEW WHERE TO FIND IT! AND STOP SHOUTING!"

"YOU'RE SHOUTING AS WELL!!"

The two would've argued for the rest of the shift if a knock didn't interrupt them.

They slowly turned, fearing for the worse.

The First Spinjitzu Master must really hate their guts doesn't he?

At the doorway, Wu stood there with a stern look on his face, his iconic bamboo stick against the wall. The two of them presume the bamboo was the culprit behind the sudden knock.

Satisfied(?) that Lloyd and Morro had stopped shouting, he walked away.

~~~

Morro smiled as the two old ladies walked to a table to drink their tea, laughing away at what could've been the petty (and dare they say entertaining) fight between the two cousins.

Lloyd stood awkwardly at the side. He was never good with apologies. He thinks Morro probably isn't either.

Morro's sigh snapped Lloyd out of his thoughts.

"Look, I'm sorry I shouted at you. Can't exactly blame you for not looking inside the tall cabinet for the fridge. Hell, I didn't even bother looking, I just gave up."

"I think the other workers didn't ask where it was cause they were too afraid and instead choose to look for it themselves,"

"Either way, as your mentor I should be helping you with such mistakes and not blame you for everythi-NG!"

Morro was cut short when Lloyd came crashing for a hug. Lloyd didn't expect Morro to apologise to him. Lloyd rarely was given an apology and was often at the other end of that conversation.

Meanwhile, Morro stood awkwardly. His arms hung like a puppet and his head raised, as though he was avoiding any contact with Lloyd. Slowly but surely, he patted Lloyd's head.

"There, there? I don't know what you're hugging me for."

Cheekily, Lloyd hugged tighter.

"ALRIGHT ALRIGHT GET OFF YOU LITTLE BRAT!!" Morro tried pushing Lloyd off him, both of them chuckling at the action.

From the doorway from before, Wu stood there menacingly, glad the two were having fun with each other.

~~~

After their lunch break, Morro unlocked the doors of the teahouse just like the morning earlier.

"Since you observed how I handled the morning shift, it's your turn to take over. The late afternoon shifts mostly consist of children around your…age…wait, you're 13 right?"

.
.
.

"I'M 17!! WHY WOULD I BE HERE IF I WAS 13?!" Lloyd shouted, both confused and slightly annoyed.

"...okay now that you say that, it does make sense. Anyways, the late afternoon mostly consists of students. Mostly secondary school students but primary school students do come in sometimes."

"Thursdays are slow days so you should be able to handle yourself without my help! Anyways, good luck!" With that, he jogged/scurried away, happily escaping the job Wu had offered forced him.

Meanwhile, Lloyd was totally, extremely not ready. The elderly were kind enough, just a few impatient ones every hour or so. But teenagers? They were a whole different breed and would definitely tear him apart if they happen to be the rotten type.

At that moment, the bell rang. A trio consisting of two girls and one guy walked in, discussing away.

Actually, now that he thinks about it, it's more like they were arguing.

"Hello, welcome to Sleep-uh Stri-shit. Uh Stepper Wisdom, how may I help you today?"

"Hi, do you sell any bubble tea here?" The guy asked.

"Uh, sorry, no. We sell traditional tea here."

"I told you Finn, they don't sell bubble tea here," One of the girls said.

"Okay, okay, fine. You were right," The guy said sarcastically.

"Anyway, what teas do you sell?" the other girl asked.

"Our most popular one would currently be matcha tea. Others would be Oolong tea, Green tea and Peppermint tea,"

"Are you able to add milk to the matcha tea?"

Lloyd nodded.

"Then three matcha tea with milk pls, one cold and the other warm,"

~~~

As he thanked the trio, the bell rang again. Positive he could manage this without Morro, Lloyd greeted them.

""Hello, welcome to Steppest-Stepper Wisdom, how may I help you today?"

The group that arrived was a group of boys and they certainly didn't give off the feeling that they were the nice kind.

"Shitttt, there's a new employee," He heard one of them say.

"Oi, at least it isn't the emo one. This one looks wimpy af," another said.

As they got closer, some of their eyes widened while others raised their eyebrows.

"Oh fuck! You're that gang leader's kid aren't you?"

"Uh…which one?" Lloyd certainly hoped it wasn't who he thought it was.

"Fufcking Garmadon of course! The fucking bastard that got his stupid ass arrested like 2 months ago!"

Lloyd slowly breathed in and out. He was never in a mood to discuss his father and he certainly wasn't today.

"Unless you actually have an order, please get out of the teahouse,"

"Um, yea do you have any-" one guy started before being interrupted.

"Shut the fuck up J.D!"

"Sorry J.D,"

"And so what if we have nothing to order? No one except those girls and that tr*nny are here!" Lloyd was certainly starting to dislike these people now.

"Oh boo-hoo, is little grama-kid gonna tattle-tail on us to his papa?" The whole group cackled like hyenas.

*Hyenas probably sound better than them at this point*

"Anyways, as I was sayin-"

"OI!" a voice that certainly didn't belong to the wannabe gang called put, "like what the guy said, unless you have something to order, then get out!" this time it was another voice.

While the "gang" was torturing Lloyd, two new customers had walked in. And with how dejected the "gang" seemed, Lloyd could guess that they were people who definitely don't have the patience for their bullshit.

As the group walked away, it revealed a girl and a guy, with black and brown hair respectively.

"Sorry about them," the girl said, "they're from our school and they're total assholes," the guy nodded in agreement.

"Well, thanks for your help. Anything I can get for you both,"

~~~

Lloyd stretched out his arms as Morro locked the door to the teahouse. Lloyd would say it was a pretty good first day.

"Great job on your first day, you only had to call me like 20 times to help you,"

"Don't be dramatic, it was only like 7 times,"

Morro shrugged his shoulders, "I was in my school's drama club for a reason,"

"Also, I heard some shouting earlier, don't tell me you were fighting with a customer…"

"Oh, no, nothing like that. Just a wannabe gang showing up but it was dealt with,"

Lloyd left Morro standing there, processing what the blonde had just told him. While said blonde in question scurried off to the back to grab his bag to get back home.

Chapter 3: OH SHIT THERE'S A FUCKING CROWD. Also, meet skylor!!

Notes:

Kinda felt a little lazy with this chapter so sorry if it feels shitty.

As usual, apologies if they seem ooc!!

Luckily on his third day, Lloyd didn't have to wake up as early as the previous two days as the teahouse opened later on the weekends.

But it was still a bitch to wake up at 8 a.m. on a Saturday. Well, at least he could sleep in on Sunday.

As Lloyd waited for his toast to pop out, the door to Harumi's room opened, revealing a semi-ready to go out Harumi.

"Where are you going so early in the morning?" Lloyd asked. "You're as much of a morning person as me, which is not,"

"I have a job as well you idiot," She replied nonchalantly.

"Since when?!" As far as Lloyd could remember, Harumi only ever went out for grocery shopping or the rare occasion of going out with friends.

"Since today. The manager of the bookshop replied to me yesterday that I got the job. And since your teahouse is on the way there, I thought I could go with you before my shift starts," she explains

"The bookshop on ××× Street, right?"

"Yes,"

"The one that opens at 11, a full hour after the teahouse opens,"

"Yes,"

"I'm leaving in like 10, 15 minutes, almost more than 2 hours before the bookshop even opens,"

"I know that,"

The two adopted siblings stared at each other. Harumi daring Lloyd to say another word. Lloyd, unfortunately, was getting that message.

"Fine, fine. You can come along," Lloyd in the end relented.

"Sweet,"

~~~

The walk to the teahouse was extremely awkward. The two barely interacted with each other in the house so imagine the tension between the two out in public.

"Sooo…nice weather we're ha-"

"Shut up," Harumi interrupted, her attitude as a non-morning person definitely contributed to the fact that she didn't want any small talk at the moment.

*back to awkward silence I guess*

Luckily at that moment, Lloyd's phone buzzed. It was a text from Morro.

'You gonna meet two other workers today. Don't be late.'

Lloyd couldn't tell if he was supposed to be excited or nervous. Maybe both actually.

Actually no, he was feeling extremely nervous as he now remembers that he's bringing along Harumi! Who doesn't really have the greatest reputation of giving off great first impressions.

"What you looking at?" Harumu's voice surprised Lloyd out of his thoughts and by instinct, responded by attempting to punch Harumi in the face.

I say attempting because when Lloyd's fist almost would've come into contact with her face, Harumi stepped backwards.

"I'm starting to hate that old block for teaching you martial arts when you were younger," she said, already done with Lloyd's bullshit at the start of the day.

"Hey! It's useful, okay! Besides, if a burglar decides to break into our house, I can defend both you and mum!" Lloyd replied with enthusiasm.

Harumi cackled. "You? Defend us? Out of the three of us, you're literally the weakest. It'll be more like us protecting you,"

"W-what?! No way!" Lloyd tried to defend himself.

"Yes way! Hey emo, back me up here!"

While engrossed in their conversation, Lloyd had subconsciously opened the back door to the teahouse, allowing both him and Harumi to enter. This in turn meant that Morro, and the two other workers, were listening to their conversation.

"First off, I'm not emo," Morro started, "second off, totally agree with grandma over here. Little shit can barely throw a punch much less protect two other people,"

"Hey!" Lloyd seriously did not want to have this conversion in front of two strangers.

"Who you calling 'grandma' you emo?!" Harumi shouted. And there goes the tiniest of hopes that Harumi would at least try to make a good impression, for both hers and Lloyd's sake.

"I mean you of course with that white ass hair! Unless you tell me that you dyed your hair, which would be incredibly stupid,"

Morro must have pushed a button as his words caused Harumi to turn into an embarrassed, mumbling mess.

Lloyd internally chuckled. He remembered the day when Harumi came out of the bathroom with her hair bleached white as snow, claiming that it was 'the new her' like it was yesterday.

"Well, I like her hair. Pretty unique actually," the voice came from one of the two strangers, the female one specifically. Like Harumi, her hair was most likely unnatural since it was a strickenly bright reddish-orange colour.

"See? Someone agrees with me!" Harumi pointed out.

"Yea yea, Skylor the greatest 'fashion model' of all time!" Morro interjected.

"Well, what a way to take away my opportunity to introduce myself," The female, Skylor, mumbled.

At the mention of her name, Lloyd remembered seeing her on a chirp page for a small fashion company. The fashion company isn't popular by any means but it still had a loyal following of 10k followers.

"That guy's Jovan. He doesn't talk much at first but don't worry, he doesn't hate you," Skylor helped to introduce. At the mention of his name, Jovan poked his head out of the cabinet he was rummaging through.

He was very, very simple looking. He had undyed brown hair and wore square-framed glasses. The only notable feature about him would be his helix piercings on both ears. Another thing, his face radiated a lot of 'fuck off' energy, no wonder Skylor had to point out that Jovan wasn't mad at anyone.

*background character much* Harumi thought.

"Anyway, can you get me anything with caffeine in it?" Harumi asked.

"Aren't you more of a coffee person?" Lloyd asked.

"So do you have anything or not?" Harumi questioned back.

Jovan walked over with a jar of red tea. Most likely signalled that red tea would be one of the teas they have that contains caffeine.

"Thank you Jovan, finally someone useful!" Harumi said as she took the jar from him, "Make a cup for me, would ya Blondie?"

Lloyd fumbled as Harumi suddenly threw the jar towards him. Luckily, he managed to hold on to it without dropping it.

As he walked away to the tea making counter, a name he bestowed onto the counter himself, Morro shouted after him.

"Don't forget to charge her for it!"

"Aww, is there no family discount," Harumi 'innocently' asked.

"No," Morro replied bluntly.

—

Morro ended up giving the tea to Harumi for free after her and Skylor bugged Morro for a good thirty minutes about Harumi being able to get a free drink since, as Harumi notes, ‘took the time out of her day to come visit her favourite cousin in the whole world’.

Now, Lloyd and Jovan were busy preparing the teahouse while Morro made sure that Skylor and Harumi were not bonding too well with each other.

“Is she your sister?” Jovan nervously asked.

“Yea, my dad adopted her 5 years ago. But I doubt she sees me as her brother anyway. Only last year did she finally stop glaring at me every time she sees me around the house,” Lloyd notes.

“I-isn’t your dad like G-garmadon? The gang leader who got arrested a few months ago?”

Lloyd sighed. He wasn’t actually mad at Jovan, it’s just that his dad is, well, a very, very, sore topic for Lloyd.

Lloyd nodded in response.

The two of them continued with the preparations in somewhat comfortable and somewhat awkward silence, with the welcomed buzz of the conversation coming from the other three occupants in the teahouse.

~~~

Harumi had left 30 mins ago. The morning shift of the teahouse had started. When the doors opened, a small crowd consisting of elderly, young adults and maybe a few teenagers, practically burst in.

*If the morning shift is like this…how is the afternoon shift gonna be like?!*

Luckily, at least, Lloyd wasn’t stationed at the cashier for now and was instead at the back with Skylor, and was responsible for making the tea.

Which, admittedly, wasn't that much better with orders coming in and out almost every minute or so. Lloyd was struggling a lot with the multiple orders that came in, especially teas that had special requests added to them.

Unlike Lloyd however, Skylor was breezing through the orders quickly and even offered to help Lloyd with some of the orders he was given.

With a quick glance to the cashier's side, he could observe that even both Jovan and Morro were slightly struggling with the crowd. Lloyd knows Morro had been working at the teahouse for about 8 years, and Skylor couldn’t have been any older than Morro. At most, she could have been the same age as Morro.

Lloyd had a lot of questions to ask Skylor but for now, he had to focus on making teas because he had just accidentally burnt himself by missing the cup altogether and pouring the hot water onto his hand.

~~~

During their lunch break, Jovan packed away the first aid kit that was used on Lloyd’s hand.

Lloyd was pretty fortunate that the hot water only left 1st degree burns with some blisters so all that was needed to do was apply some ointment, which Wu had loads of, and paste on a bandage.

Lloyd was left alone with the two, somewhat new, coworkers since Morro was out buyiing food for everyone. And needless to say, it was severely awkward. And everyone knew it.

“So…Lloyd, when did you get the job?” Skylor asked.

“Thursday. Today’s only my third day,”

“Explains why Wu informed us that we didn’t have to come. He only does that when a newcomer arrives,” Skylor said, “Are you working part time or full time?”

“Part time, 30 hours a week. Only my first week would be about 35 hours since I worked the whole day on my first day,” Lloyd replied, “How long have you two been working here?”

“5 years, started when I was…17,” Sklor responsed, doing mental math in her head.

“I also started when I was 17 but I only started 3 years ago,” Jovan replied.

“Then Skylor,” Lloyd started, catching the redhead’s attention, “How come you seem totally unbothered by the crowd. Hell, even Morro was struggling abit!”

“Oh, well, I helped out with my dad’s noodle shop since I was around 14. You should probably know the name, Chen’s noodles,” Jovan seemed to recognize that name in an instant while it took Lloyd a moment to dig through his memories before it dawned on him.

Chen’s noodles was one of, if not the most popular noodle restaurant in all of Ninjago city! You would have to live under a rock to not know who or what Chen’s noodles was.

“Your dad owns Chen’s noodles?!” Jovan asked.

“Heh, yea he does,” You would probably expect a daughter of a super successful business owner to be extremely proud of her dad, which was the front that Skylor was putting up. But Lloyd noticed the strain in her voice, as if her dad was a sore subject for her.

Before Lloyd could question any further, Morro burst in through the back door.

"Alright suckers, better eat quickly and get ready for another wave of customers after our break!" The three of them groaned at that realisation, while Morro chuckled at them.

~~~

Lloyd wished he could recount the struggles he faced during the afternoon shift but for fuck's sake he was dead tired.

His feet hurt from standing too long, his throat felt scratchy from having to shout over the commotion that was caused when a whole basketball team came in and swarmed the place. His eyes hurt from looking at the cashier screen for too long and he was super ready to just plop down onto his bed and be dead to the world.

Just when Lloyd was about to open the back door, Skylor held onto his shoulder.

He turned and was presented with 4 pieces of paper.

"I give every newcomer this. It's coupons for Chen's noodles. You can give these to your family," Skylor explains.

"O-oh! Well thanks, I'll keep that in mind."

"Also, before you leave," Skylor adds, "can you give me Harumi number? Morro wouldn't allow us to exchange numbers earlier but he didn't say I couldn't get it from you,"

Full on ready to throw Morro under the bus of suffering, Lloyd gladly gave over Harumi's number.

Notes:

don't ask why I decided to make Harumi and Skylor friends, they just seem like a great duo (or smt)

Also thanks for you comments and kudos!! I very much appreciate them.

Chapter 4: two rascals

Notes:

Hi!! So, very sorry I hadn't updated this fic for a month. My writer's block not only affected my other fic but also affected this fic as well :((.

Anyways, please enjoy this chapter and as usual, I apologise if they seem ooc!!

Lloyd was very much not enjoying his shift right now.

By right there were supposed to be 2 other employees working the early afternoon shift with him, one of them being Skylor.

But she was busy at the moment with screaming her vocal cords dry, the thick walls of the teahouse barely muffling the noise.

*Gotta hope that we won't get a noise complaint any time soon. I really don't want a lecture from either Morro or worse, Uncle Wu…*

Luckily for Lloyd, it was a Tuesday so there weren't many people around at the teahouse. Furthermore, the early afternoon shift had only just started around 15 minutes ago. So for now, Lloyd doesn't have to worry about any sudden crowds coming in.

But that doesn't mean it won't happen any time soon. Since, contrary to popular belief, the teahouse was in fact quite popular. With only one other competition in Ninjago City. The next nearest teahouse was hours away, somewhere near the desert if Lloyd wasn't wrong.

He wonders though, who in the right mind thought it was a good idea to open any kind of shop in the desert?

Anyway, with no one else in the teahouse to entertain help Lloyd, it was extremely boring, even with the slight bustle of the small amount of people that came in.

Suddenly, the slight sound of feet pitter-pattering across the floor caught Lloyd's attention.

Within seconds later, two kids, around the age of 10 to 12, burst through the door laughing. Which earned them annoyed looks from the people around them, mainly the adults.

Both kids wore school uniforms, making it likely they just ended school. But they both wore different uniforms. The boy's one that Lloyd was familiar with, the primary school a few bus stops away.

But the girl's uniform was unfamiliar. Unlike most Ninjago school uniforms, which are light in colour, her uniform was black, contrasting ninjago school uniforms by a whole lot. It also had orange-yellow accents on it and looked almost like a one piece if it wasn't for the thin piece of white, showing that it was indeed a two piece uniform.

The boy's hair was weird to say the least. If Lloyd were to describe it, it looks like the boy had a buzz cut and let it grow out throughout the years and also shaved off the sides abit as well.

The girl's hair was also abnormal. It was styled in space buns, though not unusual, it was the colour of the hair that made her stand out. Especially because bubblegum pink was certainly not a natural hair colour.

And Lloyd was not one to discriminate against hair colour mind you, in fact he himself wanted to colour his hair abnormally at one point.

No, what really made Lloyd question things was how she was able to get away with it. Back when Lloyd wasn't homeschooled, he went through alot of trouble trying to explain to the teachers that his hair was natural and not at all dyed.

It took him a year, A WHOLE YEAR, for him to finally convince every teacher in the school that yes, he wasn't breaking any rules and yes, his hair was all genetics. (and no, his mum did not cheat on his dad with his uncle stfu)

“Hi!!” The boy's voice snapped Lloyd out of his thoughts. It was a humorous sight honestly. The boy could barely manage to look over the counter on his tiptoes while the girl had almost no problem doing so, trying her best to conceal her chuckles.

*Guess he's on the shorter side*

“Hello, what can I get you?” Lloyd asked.

“One small Chamomile tea please! And make it sweet,” the boy said.

“Sora!” the boy directed his voice to the pink-haired girl, “what do you want?”

The girl, Sora, simply looked at him before her mind fully digested the question directed at her. “Uh, whatever you got Arin,” she said, quite nervously.

As Lloyd put in their orders, Lloyd realised that the girl had a slight accent. Not obvious, sure, but if you strained your ears abit, you tell that she definitely wasn't a local.

*could explain the uniform then*

The two kids ran to an unoccupied table as Lloyd went to the back to make their tea.

Since Chamomile is already naturally sweet, all Lloyd needed to do was add some honey to it after steeping it for 3 minutes. Careful not to let it steep for too long or otherwise it would turn more bitter.

When Lloyd reached their table, there seemed to be a new addition to the table; a small box that was dark grey in colour and, like the girl's uniform, had orange-yellow accents.

“Thank you,” the two kids said as Lloyd set down their drinks. Nodding as he walked off, Lloyd grabbed a rag from the counter, cleaning up the tables that were dirtied by previous customers.

~~~

Lloyd had been zoning out the whole time while cleaning when a grimace zned him back in.

“Oh god, why's the velvet rounds so sweet?”

“What're you talking about? It's not that sweet!”

“Yes it is!”

“No it's no!”

“Yes it is!”

“Nuh uh!”

“Yea huh!”

“Nuh uh!”

“Yea huh!”

“Alright kids,” Lloyd started, getting the kids’ attention, “As much as I love seeing petty arguments, you both are causing a ruckus and disturbing the other customers,”

At the mention of the other customers, the two of them looked around the tea house and, sure enough, there were other customers who were trying their best to be discreet with their disapproval of the younger two. And were failing miserably.

Lloyd sighed when the two kids quickly turned back their heads, fiddling with their fingers and blushing from embarrassment.

“So, what were you two rascals arguing about anyway?” Lloyd asked, hoping that Skylor wouldn't come back anytime soon and reprimand him for slacking off.

“I brought along some velvet rounds to eat after school. And for some reason they taste sooooo much sweeter than usual,” Sora, if Lloyd remembered correctly, explained, “And I've eaten these since I was a little kid. And then BINGUS over here claims that they're not that sweet!”

“Because they're not!”

“They so are!”

“Not!”

“Are!”

“Not!”

“Okay, okay! Calm down both of you!” Lloyd diffused the petty arguments once again, “there isn't a reason to argue over something silly like this.”

“I mean, yeah you're right. But now I can't enjoy them anymore…”

Seeing the girl dejected made Lloyd's heart squeeze. Curse his weakness to children!

Suddenly, an audible cringe caught Lloyd’s and Sora’s attention. The boy, Arin was it?, was sticking his tongue out in disgust.

“I think you're right Sora, now they taste so much sweeter than before. Now they taste disgusting!”

“Haha!! See? I told you!”

Lloyd couldn't help but chuckle at the two's antics. Children really were hilar-

“LLOYD MONTGOMERY GARMADON! WHAT ARE YOU DOING THINKING SLACKING OFF?!” Skylor shouted across the teahouse.

“Sorry! Sorry!” He scurried away like a mouse, making the kids laugh at him in return.

Chapter 5: The Flora Pot

Notes:

Very sorry this took awhile!! School started back again and it's hard to find time and motivation to write.
Anyways, introducing more characters and this time we're outside of the teahouse!!

As always, apologies if any of the characters seem ooc

“As much as I ‘appreciate’ the fact that the three of you were able to make time out of your ‘busy’ schedules to visit me, did you really have to do it while I’m at work?”

“Of course, besides, your apartment’s like super gloomy. Brings the mood down,”

“My apartment is very much decorated very beautifully thank you very much,”

Lloyd sat on a stool next to Gene as he sipped on his coffee, arguments between Sally and Brad beats any reality TV show entertainment any day.

The smell of different flowers like roses, sunflowers and peonies filled the air. The flower shop, The Flora Pot, is one of the more popular ones in Ninjago city, despite the intense competition around. It’s also where Brad Tudabone, one of Lloyd’s old friends from Primary school, works at.

The Tudabone family used to be loyal to Garmadon, due to the fact that Brad’s grandfather was the one to help build it up in the first place. But an incident had occurred between Garmadon and Mr Tudabone, Brad’s father, which caused the Tudabone family to no longer support Garmadon.

Now, unlike his parents, Brad wasn’t big on the whole family business and had willingly given up his seat to be head of the business to his younger brother. Lloyd wasn’t entirely sure what the Tudabone family business really did but he did know that it caused a huge set back on his father’s gang for a few months.

But the Tudabone Family was anything if not accommodating. Brad, since young, had always had an interest in herbology and gardening. And even if Brad was no longer going to be the head of the business, he still had to do his part in it.

“They want me to learn how to grow drugs,” he told the group one night.

That also connected to Brad’s job at the Flora Pot, which was owned by some distant relatives of his, who were infamous within the criminal side of Ninjago for being one of the top sellers of crack and drugs. The flower shop was just a cover up for them so that the police force (or any other force) wouldn’t suspect them.

“Florist by day, crack maker/grower by night,” Sally said.

“So basically just following in his family’s footsteps?” Lloyd remarked, slamming down his cup like it was a shot glass.

“Oh my god, it’s destiny!” Sally said.

“I thought we were over the whole ‘Ever After High’ shenanigans?” Gene asked, clearly unimpressed.

“You can take the girl out of the ‘Ever After High’ but you can't take the ‘Ever After High’ out of the girl,”

Gene was contemplating his life choice to choose to associate with 3 ever after high enthusiasts.

“Next thing you know, Brad would be growing a poison apple and giving it to Lloyd,” Sally cackled at the faces the two mentioned boys made.

Ok maybe now the boys were contemplating their life choices to choose to associate with an ‘Ever After High’ enthusiast.

“Why am I snow white anyway? The only thing I have in common with her is being white and that's only because I don't go out,” As Lloyd finished his sentence, the black cat that had been situated outside the flower shop walked in. It looked around lazily before settling itself next to Lloyd's chair.

Lloyd silently glared at the innocent cat while the other three were doing a horrible job at sniffling their laughter.

“Looks like maomao likes you mister snow white,” Brad teased, his chuckles barely being stifled. At the mention of its name, the cat raised its head from its resting position to stare at Brad.

“It, it even has the same stare Lloyd always gives us,” Sally added on. With each tease and sentence the three, mostly Brad and Sally, made, the redder Lloyd’s face became.

With a huff, Lloyd stood up from his chair; the cat, maomao, right behind his tail. As though he was its mother now. This caused the chuckles to increase in volume and nearing the peak of being unbearably obnoxious.

“I’m leaving you three,” he grumbled.

“Oh great Lloyd Garmadon, Son of gang leader Garmadon, please do not leave us for your presence graces us,” Gene said, reusing the catchphrase Lloyd would often use back in Darkley’s Primary Boarding School.

This ticked off Lloyd more as he started storming off, his face redder than the roses Brad had placed on display.

Not wanting their teasing session to end, Brad and Sally, being the idiots they were, decided to tackle Lloyd, grabbing his legs and holding onto his torso respectively.

“Wha-?” Lloyd began before toppling down by the extra weight. The two idiots laid on top of him, cackling their asses off while Lloyd laid underneath them, his lungs being crushed with every laugh the two made.

Something caught maomao’s attention, its head suddenly raising by the, for now, unnoticed presence. Maomao strolled towards the person, rubbing itself against the person’s legs. The person chuckled, their annoyance washing away for just a moment as they picked up maomao. Maomao barely resisted, accepting its fate to be held in the person’s arms.

“Brad, what’s going on here?” The person questioned. Brad’s laughter cut off immediately while Sally remained oblivious to the person while Lloyd still laid there, accepting his fate to crushed lungs and barely being able to breathe.

“A-ah Cole! Aren’t you supposed to come in at 2:30?” Brad asked hesitantly.

“It is 2:30, Brad,” Cole replied, deadpanned, “it’s actually 2:35 right now,”

“So please be a dear and tell me why you’re holding a boy captive right now?”

The (semi) intimidating aura that Cole gave off finally got Gene and Sally to notice his presence and look his way. Lloyd would’ve done so to if only-

“CAN THE TWO OF YOU GET OFF ME ALREADY?!” The blonde boy yelled, flapping his arms and legs like a bird but still somehow being able to fling the two heavy teenagers/young adults off his back.

Lloyd rolled over onto his back, his stomach area now being freed from its previous smoosh. But he didn’t expect to be lying directly under the newly entered person, Cole.

The blonde boy sat up with a yelp, clearly only then just noticing Cole standing not even a few feet away from the group, Maomao, as though it prefers the blonde newcomer over its long time caregiver, lept from Cole’s arms and onto Lloyd’s lap. Cole pouted at this but recovered quickly enough that only Brad had noticed the slight shift on his manager’s face.

“I see Maomao found a new favourite person, hm?” Cole questioned, crossing his arms and standing in a manner a mother would when teasing her child. The four of them looked at each other, clearly confused at the sudden shift in atmosphere. Being friends for many years, even with the half a decade break they had, gave them the ability to communicate to one another just by looks and actions.

‘Who the fuck is that?’ Gene motioned his head to Cole, who just stood there ideally, completely unaffected by the fact that he was witnessing a silent conversation that was definitely about him.

‘My manager, Cole’ Brad pointed at Cole’s name pin attached to his apron as he copied Gene’s previous motion but widened his eyes at the end. They almost resembled dinner plates.

‘Why is he so scary then?!’ Sally shrugged her shoulders, a semi-panicked look on her face.

‘He’s…not that bad…when he isn’t angry’ Brad, like a copying machine, copied Sally’s gestures, but had instead morphed his face into a ‘eh?’ kind of face.

‘Well he certainly looks mad!’ Lloyd, the most exaggerated out of the four of them, flung his arms towards Cole. Cole chuckled at this action.

Sally slapped his arms down. ‘Are you insane?! Now he definitely knows that we're talking about him.

Lloyd rolled his eyes at her. He could honestly care less that someone was judging him now.

“So are the four of you gonna continue speaking in silent nonsense or will you start using your mouths?” Cole asked, a teasing smile still on his face.

Those said people stared at him as though he’d grown three heads before whipping their heads around to stare at the blonde.

“WHAT DID I DO?!” Lloyd shouted, feeling like a prey surrounded by wolves.

“YOU GOT US CAUGHT!” Gene yeller.

“YEA WELL THE THREE OF YOU WEREN’T BEING DISCREET EITHER!!” Lloyd argued back.

Cole sighed as he watched the ridiculous drama unfold. He was really starting to think that they were just a bunch of toddlers trapped in teenage bodies.

Anyhow since he had a flower shop to manage, he picked up Brad as though he weighed like nothing, threw him over his shoulder and carried him all the way to the register.

Brad huffed at Cole as Cole placed him on the designated register stool whereas the other three were staring at Cole dumbfounded.

Before they erupted into chaos.

“CAN YOU DO THAT FOR ME?!”

“HOW ARE YOU SO STRONG?”

“IS BRAD REALLY LIGHT OR ARE YOU JUST REALLY STRONG?”

“HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!”

Cole looked at with fondness in his eyes, as though reminiscing about his younger days.

*They really are toddlers trapped in teenage bodies*

 

***

Two weeks after the visit to the flower shop, Lloyd was making his own solo trip to it to make a delivery.

“AYO!! TUDABABE WHERE YOUR ASS AT?!”

Lloyd burst through the flower shop's doors, shouting like a madman. He was lucky that there was an elderly couple there who just fondly chuckled at his antics.

“BACK HERE!” Brad's voice called out.

Lloyd pushed through the door that read ‘employees only’ and only because Brad called for him to go back there and definitely not because he can't read pssh.

And oh boy, the sight of Brad caught him by surprise. He was covered head to toe in soil, an empty bag flopped on the floor. Cole sat not too far away chuckling at Brad.

“What happened?” Lloyd asked between chuckles.

Brad grumbled as more soil fell onto the floor, a faint blush spreading across his face.

“Brad was trying to carry a particularly heavy bag of soil,” Cole said as he pointed at the bag in the ground, “and even after I specifically told him that it'd be too heavy for him to carry, he, like the brat he is, says noooo I can do it and then promptly drops it on himself and now we're here,”

He ended the explanation with a smirk towards Brad, who successfully brushed off as much soil off of himself. Brad sighed in exasperation.

“If you two bastards are done making fun of me, I'll be in the bathroom trying to wash out as much soil from my hair,” With that Brad dragged his feet off.

That left Lloyd and Cole alone together. And even though they have grown used to each other due to Lloyd's delivery to Brad every other day, it didn't mean that it wasn't awkward.

“So what drink did you make this time?” Cole asked, taking the initiative of starting the conversation.

“It's uh, I'm not sure,” Lloyd confessed. Cole deadpanned at him, utterly confused at his answer.

“How do you not know what drink you made?!”

“Cause my cousin made it since Brad asked for a surprise and, Brad’s words not mine, ‘I make the same 5 teas every time I come over,”

Cole, very poorly, stifled a chuckle which insulted Lloyd to an extent.

“What’s that laugh for?!” The blonde asked, his voice cracking a little.

That only further Cole’s laughter even more, now becoming a full blown wheeze as Cole attempted to get some air into his lungs. He kept trying to get his words out but everytime a made so much of a sound, he regressed back to laughter. Presumably due to Lloyd’s offended face.

“I'm bac- oh my god what happened?” Brad questioned when he noticed his manager on the floor.

~~~

Brad flicked at Lloyd's ears that were still coloured a tint of pink from the earlier antics. Lloyd swatted away Brad's hand.

“I can’t believe you’re such an idiot to even admit to that!” Brad chuckled as he still continued flicking. Lloyd, seemingly having given up on stopping Brad, simply grumbled in response. Cole was still chuckling away at the two’s antics and from the incident from before.

Not too far away on the window sill in the break room, two cats, Maomao and a new one called Taro, stared at the group, as though judging them. Could one of the humans please acknowledge their presence so that they can finally be fed?!

Notes:

Don't worry guys, Lloyd can read.