Imagine this: You're 14 years old. Your whole life you've been hated by everyone except for your mom and uncle for something you have absolutely no control over, but all of a sudden you have friends. Not just one or two. You have five great friends. If all you had to do to keep being their friend was to hide your real identity, wouldn't you do it too? At least that's what Lloyd Garmadon decided to do.

Yeah you heard right. Garmadon. As in he's the son of Garmadon. Yeah, you wouldn't tell anyone either would you?

At first it hadn't been much of a problem, since the team was new and they didn't really know nor trust each other, but as they grew closer and went from strangers to teammates to friends the others started to discuss their secret identities. More specifically they wanted to have a reveal.

Now you can understand why Lloyd wouldn't want that. He tried to sugest that the others just went on to do the reveal without him, and then he'd just be the only one who wouldn't know, but as the others pointed out, and he bitterly had to agree, that would be quite messy.

"Well, we can't really exclude you from the group." The fire ninja said. He leaned back in his chair, letting it balance on the two back legs. Lloyd almost warned him to be careful, but caught himself in it. "Besides, when we learn each other's identities we won't need codenames anymore, but then you would find out anyways."

Lloyd bit his lip. Not that they could see it. It was a habit of his, but they didn't really know that since they'd never seen more of his face than just the eyes. He did it quite often though, especially during conversations like this one.

He couldn't help the wave of anxiety that hit him at the thought. "Look, I know, but... can't we just not reveal our identities?" They couldn't know. They'd hate him. In fact, they already did, they just didn't know.

The earth ninja raised an eyebrow at him and leaned against the table. "I just don't really get why?" Lloyd just stared at him, trying to figure out an answer that would make sense and not give his identity away, but nothing.

He felt like he almost had an excuse when the water ninja spoke up. "Yeah, why? Don't you trust us?" Fuck. They weren't supposed to think that! Of course he trusted them. I had nothing to do with them and everything to do with him.

He bit his lip again. He probably bit a little too hard. "Of course I trust you." He let his tongue run over his lip. The taste was salty, but slightly metalic. He was bleeding, but only a little right? Didn't matter. He reminded himself. He was wearing a mask anyways, so they wouldn't notice.

"Well why won't you tell us then?" She sounded annoyed. He knew that they really wanted to be able to hang out in their free time too and that they really didn't care about the whole keeping your identity secret. He was the only one who was really in the way of them getting to hang out outside of missions. He felt the wave of panic rise and fall against him.

"Because I'm Lloyd fucking Garmadon!"

Silence.

Then laughter. "Ha!" The fire ninja shook his head. "Good one, bro. That was a joke, right?" Lloyd felt it as if he'd been punched in the face. They made it so easy to back down though.

"Yeah, it was a joke. Of course it was a joke." He tried to force a laugh, but it was way too high pitched. Very clearly staged. They didn't seem to notice though.

"Phew." The lightning ninja smiled. Lloyd could see on his eyes. It was that kind of smile you give when yku just thought the world was gonna end, but it turned out to be fake news. In other words, he was relieved.

One thing was sure. Now Lloyd certainly couldn't tell them who he was. Cause he'd already told them who he wasn't. He'd already told them that he wasn't Lloyd Garmadon.