It had all started the day Blake told him he wanted to go to college. Sure, it was easy for Blake: only been out of high school a year or two, quick with the books and lured into it by a cute girl who'd probably been bound for higher education since before she could walk. His SAT scores were still good, and living on his own meant he qualified for massive amounts of federal aid.

Or so he said. Hunter didn't know. He'd never considered college, didn't want to consider it now, and honestly couldn't imagine what his younger bro was thinking. School, and especially teachers, had never agreed with him. Hunter had been relieved to get a diploma and get out. And now Blake wanted to go back?

They had done everything together for as long as he could remember, but he wasn't going to college. It just wasn't gonna happen. But it looked like it might for Blake, and the possibility had shaken him up enough all on its own.

Then Leanne had come home. It had been a while since either of them had had family around, or even anything resembling family, and it was a little unnerving to have a sister around that wanted to spend time with them. A sister who took them out to lunch, visited their apartment, and actually called to check up on them every now and then.

She had backed Blake's college ambitions one hundred percent--like he needed any encouragement. He had Tori prodding him to keep up with the thousand and one deadlines for admissions and aid and touring, for goodness sake. They toured colleges. It was the craziest thing Hunter had ever heard of, but the two of them had spent entire weekends taking road trips on which he was definitely Not Invited.

Not that he wanted to go, or had any reason to, but still. It was exclusive. It was just the two of them. It was Blake and someone else, off on some potentially life-changing adventure without him. It was disturbing.

At least Shane and Dustin didn't have any messed up ideas about further academic torture. Last Hunter knew, Kelly was planning to pick up Dustin full-time as soon as school let out, and Sensei Watanabe was trying to get Shane to increase his teaching responsibilities at the Wind Academy. The three Wind Rangers had been teaching there on and off since defeating Lothor, but Shane was the only one with any real talent for it.

Spring trials were almost over now. It was only another couple of weeks before the motocross season began in earnest, and Hunter would be out of here. He'd signed on with Factory Blue when he'd gotten tired of waiting for Blake... but he'd always kind of hoped that the decision would jolt his brother back on track. Make him remember what he really wanted, what he loved.

Maybe it had. Maybe Blake wasn't crazy after all, maybe he'd just found something he loved more than motocross. Or someone.

Unfortunately, that didn't leave Hunter any less alone. All he had now was their respect for taking the sport he loved and going pro. He was the only one who had done it, and they all clapped him on the back and praised him for it. But they weren't part of it, anymore than he was part of their new lives.

Last night he'd gone out with some of the guys from Factory Blue and gotten wasted. It wasn't a long term solution, or really any kind of solution at all. He'd forgotten how well it didn't work, actually, until he woke up this morning and swore off alcohol for the second time in his life. The first had been the day after his twenty-first birthday... he doubted it would stick this time either.

If it did, though, it probably wouldn't be the hangover that did it. It'd be the fractured memories that came with it. He didn't remember anything from that birthday binge--why did he have to remember this?

At least now he knew why kissing girls had never seemed that exciting.

He had to get out of this town. He needed to leave them before they left him first. It was some sort of weird pattern in his life, that everyone who mattered to him would go away, and before the Rangers he had sort of gotten used to it. Now it was going to start happening again, and he'd been stupid not to see it coming.

Blake had gotten a letter of acceptance from Angel Grove University yesterday. Today Hunter had told him he was thinking about moving. Maybe Sacramento.

It made sense, really. Blake would be living in some tiny dorm room somewhere, and Hunter would be out on the road for half the year anyway. They didn't need a two-bedroom apartment in a town neither of them had any connections to now.

Blake had been surprised. It had been a conversation Hunter hadn't really wanted to have when he was already feeling like crap. And he definitely wasn't going to have it four, five, even six more times. He tried to calculate the most efficient way to make it seem like he had made an effort without having to actually make an effort.

The best he could come up with was one. He would have to tell at least one other person directly. But if he picked the right one, that's all it would have to be. Which was why his truck was parked halfway up the mountain while he hiked the rest of the way in to the Wind Academy on a Saturday morning. Or afternoon. It was probably afternoon by now.

Funny how open Ninja Ops was now, he mused, striding right past the campus traffic and down into the cool air of what was basically an underground bunker. A bunker with doors flung open to the outside and lights that practically invited people in. Everything changed.

Even this, he thought, surveying the sleek rebuilt interior. Cam was nowhere to be seen. There had been a time when he would camp out in that computer chair for the entire weekend. It hadn't even occurred to Hunter that he might not be here.

Footsteps in the hallway drew his attention just as Cam walked in, and Hunter smiled. Not so different after all. Cam had his laptop under one arm and a backpack over his shoulder, probably full of technical equipment that would all end up attached to the laptop at some point in the near future.

He stopped when he saw Hunter, a strange expression on his face. "Yes?"

Hunter raised an eyebrow at him. "Hi to you too. Whatcha doing?"

It was an idle question, one that he thought might lead to a long and boring explanation about whatever pet project Cam had set his sights on this time. Instead he was surprised by the curt reply. "None of your business."

Stung, Hunter affected a casual shrug. "Okay then. Just stopped by to drop off my new cell number. Distribute at will."

Cam transferred his laptop to his other arm and eased his backpack off before setting them both down on the low table in the middle of the room. With a put-upon sigh, he said, "Do it yourself. I'm a little busy, here."

"And I'm moving," Hunter informed him. "You don't have to do it today. Just eventually. Whenever you see them."

"Them?" Cam repeated, turning to look at him. This was what he picked to focus on?

"Yeah, them," Hunter said defensively. "You know, those people. The ones we used to hang out with, fight creepy aliens, rescue trapped ninjas, all that stuff."

"The former Rangers." Cam folded his arms, the weird expression on his face fading a little as he scrutinized Hunter. "Why do you think I'm going to see them?"

This wasn't quite what he'd expected. "Well, y'know..." He gestured vaguely. "They work here, right? And you work here. So..."

"No I don't." Cam turned back to the table and unzipped his backpack. It was his laptop carrying case, Hunter realized a moment later. Cam almost never took the thing out of Ninja Ops, so he didn't have much reason to use it. But now he was loading his laptop into the padded bag, zipping it with some finality, and standing up again. "Did I mention that I'm busy?"

"What are you doing?" Hunter asked, frowning. "Since when do you not work here?"

"Since I got tired of waiting for the Academies to decide I'm 'worthy' and admit that I can actually do something," Cam snapped. "I can pass every test they have but I didn't get formal training, so what good am I?"

The venom in his voice took Hunter by surprise. "So, what..." He couldn't come up with a good argument when he didn't really understand the problem. "You're just gonna give up?"

Now he recognized that expression, the one Cam had come in with. It was starting to come back. Cam was seriously pissed. "I've been fighting this for months, and I don't need to justify myself to you. I'm leaving. Find someone else to be your messenger boy."

"Leaving?" Hunter stared at him in total noncomprehension. He couldn't get his brain around the idea that Cam might ever check out of Ninja Ops permanently.

"Leaving, as in packing my stuff and moving out, submitting my resignation, quitting ninja school and running away to join the circus." Cam stared at him defiantly for a moment, then added, "Insofar as the university at Blue Bay Harbor is a circus, which is debatable. I personally could make a case for it."

Was everyone going off to college? What was the draw? "You're moving out?" Hunter demanded. It probably came out a little meaner than he planned, but compared to Cam, who'd notice?

"No, Hunter, I like to pack my laptop up every few hours just to see how fast I can do it. I'm going down the mountain to meet the truck rental guy at two."

Hunter frowned at that, then shook his head abruptly. "No, you're not. This is ridiculous."

Cam headed for the hallway. "I don't need this," he said over his shoulder. "Go ride a bike or something."

He managed to decipher that just before Cam disappeared. "Not the moving," he protested, raising his voice to make his point. "The truck. I have a perfectly good truck here already, and it won't cost you anything."

"Don't need it," Cam's voice called back.

Hunter shook his head irritably. "I didn't say you needed it," he muttered, walking out of the command center and taking the direction he knew Cam had to have followed. "Poser."

Cam was ready for him when Hunter walked into his room. Hands on his hips in the middle of an obviously boxed up living space, he inquired, "What did you just say?"

Hunter shrugged. "Called you a poser," he admitted.

Cam rolled his eyes. "Would it kill you to grow up for two seconds?"

"Would it kill you to accept a ride from a guy who doesn't have anything better to do?" Hunter countered. "I guarantee I can get my pickup a lot closer to the academy than you can bring a rental."

That made Cam hesitate, and finally he gave Hunter a wary look that meant he'd won. "Don't try to drive it through the holographic entryway again," he warned.

Hunter just smirked at him.

The truck drew a fair amount of attention on Academy grounds. None of the students had authorization to bring vehicles up here, even if they had vehicles that could have managed the terrain. A couple of the teachers probably did, since there was some maintenance you just couldn't do without a good engine. But they were probably more subtle about it than Hunter was.

With all the commotion he and Cam were causing, the absence of Sensei Watanabe was even more conspicuous. A couple of ninjas did actually come up to find out what was going on, which Hunter thought was interesting. How many people had Cam told about this decision, anyway?

Once informed, the ninjas in question helped load the truck and wished Cam well. Students of his, Hunter found out later. Unofficial students, studying the way of the samurai--not the way of the ninja. Cam hadn't been allowed to teach ninja classes, something he was clearly bitter about.

Hunter didn't ask about his dad until they were turning off the logging trails onto a real road again. "So," he began casually. "Sensei can't knock some heads together over this lack of formal training stuff?"

Cam didn't answer.

"Cam?" Hunter prompted after a moment. Silence wasn't Cam's standard evasion tactic. He usually laid on the sarcasm until whoever he was talking to forgot what they were trying to ask.

"What?" Cam snapped. "You expect my dad to tell all the other ninja masters that they should make an exception for his son?"

"Well..." Taken aback, Hunter could only shrug. "Yeah. You're an exception. All of us are. Blake and I didn't exactly attend classes at the Wind Academy, but we graduated along with Tori and Dustin and Shane. And you." He frowned at that. "Wait, you're a Wind Academy graduate but you can't teach at the Wind Academy?"

"I wasn't trained as a ninja," Cam muttered. "So I can't teach as one."

"That's stupid." And it made no sense. "You're as good a ninja as I am. Can't your dad make a case for you?"

"My dad doesn't want to show favoritism," Cam said evenly. He didn't sound mad anymore. He just sounded apathetic. Hunter read that as concealed hurt. "He says he has to abide by the wishes of the other ninja masters."

"But he knows you better than any of them," Hunter argued. "They were all stuck in space while he was watching you fight. Obviously he should be the one to tell them what you can do."

"Yeah." Cam's voice was completely toneless. "Try telling him that."

"Cam." Hunter didn't like this new side of Cam. "You can't just give up. All the Rangers got special consideration, and you can't just let this go. Maybe we can all get together, try to--"

"No," Cam said harshly. "I'm sick of it. I grew up in the shadow of the great and glorious ninja tradition, and I've been through every channel there is to try to circumvent it. I can't do it, my dad won't do it, and I'm tired of talking about it."

Hunter hesitated, but he knew when to back off. "Okay," he said at last. "Fine. No more Wind Academy. Got it."

"Turn right at the light," Cam muttered. "It's the grey building on Kendall."

Hunter followed his directions without comment, asking only, "Apartment?"

"Yeah. Sublet for the summer."

"Where are you going in the fall?" Hunter wanted to know.

"Campus." Cam was staring out the window. "Grad student housing."

Right. College. He was really over this whole university thing, and he had never even gone. "This the one?" he asked, slowing down even more.

"Yeah." Cam unfastened his seatbelt as they pulled into the driveway, but Hunter left the engine running as he considered the building in front of them.

"Which door are we using?" He hit the locks as Cam tried to open the door. "Hey. Still talking, here."

Cam glared at him. "Unlock the door."

"If you want to move this stuff in yourself, I'll leave the truck right where it is," Hunter informed him. "If you want help, you can tell me which door we're going in and I'll back the truck around so we don't walk any further than we have to."

Cam flipped the lock up himself, but he didn't try to open the door again. "The side door on the porch," he told the windshield. "I have the left side of the downstairs."

"Fine." Hunter backed out of the driveway, pulled down the road a little, and put the truck in reverse. He backed all the way up to the edge of the porch, then rolled forward just enough to leave space for unloading. Turning the truck off, he told Cam, "Now you can get out."

Cam gave him a look, but he didn't say anything. He went up to the door first, putting a key in the lock and disappearing inside. Hunter took that as an invitation to follow, so he left everything in the truck and wandered into the house behind Cam.

Interesting, he decided, looking around. Whoever actually had the lease on the apartment had cleaned it up pretty well, but it certainly wasn't empty. "Did you know they were leaving their furniture?"

"Obviously," Cam replied, coming back into the kitchen area. "Otherwise I would have brought more."

Hunter blinked. "You have more?"

"I haven't always lived at the Wind Academy." Cam walked past him and went out onto the porch, leaving him to think about that. He hadn't? The idea that Cam hadn't been a permanent fixture at the academy all his life had never really occurred to him.

"I thought you grew up--" Hunter broke off as he stepped outside, catching sight of a group of girls walking down the street a couple of houses away. Okay, not the most private place to talk about secret ninja academies. "I thought you'd always lived where you grew up," he said, going over to open the tailgate.

Cam gave him an arch look. "You thought I commuted from there to college?" he inquired. "I don't even have a car. It's quite a walk."

"I didn't even know you'd gone to college until today," Hunter grumbled. "Give me a break."

Cam didn't look inclined to give him much of anything. As they wrestled the first of the boxes out of the back of the truck, though, he offered, "My dad wanted me to go. I wanted to stay and... you know. But he sent me off to the university at eighteen, and I lived in town for five years."

"You're kidding." He frowned at Cam as he followed him up the stairs. "Five years?"

Cam nudged the door open with his foot and gave Hunter an ironic smile. "Masters in teaching."

Hunter flinched as his hand banged against the doorframe. "You have a masters degree?" he demanded. "What are you going back to school for?"

"Same reason I went the first time," Cam said sharply. "To get away from my dad." He started to lower the box to the floor without warning, and Hunter hastily did the same.

"I thought you didn't want to go the first time," Hunter objected.

Cam was busy propping the door open with a rock from the porch. "I wanted to be a student somewhere else the first time," he said over his shoulder. "That obviously didn't happen, and I wasn't going to waste four more years of my life arguing about it."

On his way back to the truck, something occurred to him. "If you were in school for five years," Hunter said slowly, "you must have graduated the year before we met you."

Cam yanked a futon cushion out of the back of the truck and started back toward the house. "Yes," was all he said as he passed Hunter.

Hunter thought maybe that explained some of his attitude. Or maybe Cam was just naturally stuck up... both were probably true. Being a recent grad and being naturally stuck up on top of that might possibly add up to the level of attitude he had given them.

It took less time to take all of Cam's stuff inside than it had to get it out of Ninja Ops in the first place--fewer stairs, Hunter figured--and Cam didn't seem to care much about unpacking. So they locked the place up and went out to find something to eat. Hunter didn't mention the academy, Sensei Watanabe, or anything to do with ninjas, and Cam reciprocated by becoming marginally easier to deal with.

By the time Hunter got home, he had been kind of put off of the idea of moving. Watching Cam do it had reminded him what a hassle it was, and if he was going to go through it himself then he was thinking he'd at least take the time to do it right. Maybe wait until he'd looked around a little, found a place that was worth it, take the rest of the year to get things settled, packed, all that stuff. Run out the lease on the apartment he shared with Blake.

The next day found him back at the track. The week started early for Factory Blue riders, and by the time they headed out on the racing circuit it would be ending late. Weekends were about to become a thing of the past. It couldn't happen soon enough for Hunter.

They rolled out for the season at the end of May, and he didn't set foot in Blue Bay Harbor again until July. It was right after the Fourth of July races, and he had three days totally free--he and Blake became each other's shadows. It was like it used to be, tearing up the town at night, hanging out during the day, doing everything together. The way they used to, before the Rangers.

Then Hunter was gone again, but he got Blake passes for all the local races and sent him doubles whenever his bro mentioned that Tori was free. They came out to see him, which was cool and kind of weird at the same time. It was strange to see Blake on the sidelines, cheering him on in regular clothes instead of a moto jersey and racing gear.

The summer went by faster than he'd expected. It was so easy, so crazy to have nothing to do but race, and train, and watch everyone else race and train. He kept waking up and thinking he had to get to work, and then he would realize he was there. Wherever "there" happened to be on any given weekend.

He was good at drifting; the constantly changing environment didn't bother him, and he didn't miss Blue Bay Harbor. He missed Blake, yeah, but Blake was busy and Hunter was having the time of his life. He loved the track, he loved the feeling of the bike underneath him, and he was even learning to like the crowds instead of just tolerating them.

He was learning how easy it was to lose himself in the lifestyle. He didn't even realize it until he came back after the Action Games and everything was... exactly the same. Only different. Tori's parents had practically adopted Blake in his absence, and they had all driven down to AGU to move both the kids in at the same time. It was kind of disturbing how close they were.

Dustin was working full time at Storm Chargers and dating, of all people, Lothor's niece Marah. Shane was still teaching at the Wind Academy, and Cam had vacated his summer apartment in favor of the university campus. In fact, everything had changed--except Hunter.

He was exactly the same. Still riding, still rootless, still alone in the middle of other people. It was what he wanted. This really was the life he wanted. It was just that sometimes, he almost wished he didn't want it quite as much as he did.

Only sometimes.

There wasn't any food in the apartment, and he didn't really like the way it felt without Blake anyway, so he went out with some of the guys from the team. Well, two guys and one girl... they were all "the guys," even to the girls. Hunter liked that. He had always liked Tori, but her unpredictable forays into girly-ness had bugged him during their Ranger days.

"You gonna eat that?" Keisha asked, leaning across the table to eye his plate hungrily. "Too slow is just an invitation to pass!"

"You don't have the balls to make a pass at Hunter," Jules teased.

She gave him an assessing look while he and Charlie shared a high five. When he caught her eye again she just looked down deliberately and told him, "Neither do you, honey."

"Oh, honey," Jules exclaimed, clapping both hands over his heart. He gave her a pointed look that was at odds with his dramatic flourish. "Just because I can quote musicals doesn't mean I can't stick it where it counts."

"And a few places it doesn't," Hunter put in, deliberately shuffling his few remaining pieces of sushi further away from Keisha.

"Demonstration," Jules declared in a falsetto. He swiped a piece of sushi without asking and stuck his little finger straight through. "Mmm," he sighed, popping his finger into his mouth and nibbling the sushi off of it with deliberate relish. "Now that's raw."

Next to Hunter, Charlie stole a piece for himself and Hunter had to object. "What's a guy gotta do to eat around here?" he demanded.

"How did you make that look so easy?" Charlie wanted to know, trying to get his first finger into the seaweed-wrapped sushi. "Ah!" He lifted his finger and crooked it at Hunter. "Come and get it," he said smugly.

Hunter raised an eyebrow at him. "You think I won't?"

"I'm counting on it, baby," Jules murmured. He had propped his elbows on the table and was leaning forward to watch.

Hunter smirked. Reaching out, he grabbed hold of Charlie's hand and pulled it closer. Instead of going right for the sushi, he ran his tongue over Charlie's palm before sucking the seaweed off of his finger. Charlie grinned at him, Jules sighed eloquently, and Keisha laughed.

"You been outdone," she informed Jules, poking him none too gently in the side. "Better start practicing."

"Just as soon as I wipe the drool off my chin," he assured her earnestly. "Hunter, you're killing me here! What are you hanging out with that clown for when you could have a piece of this?" He spread his hands out to the side like he was showing off a particularly stunning piece of merchandise.

Which, come to think of it, he was. Still--

"I'm high maintenance," Hunter said, echoing Jules' daily complaint but not bothering to affect a lisp. "There's only room for one of us in a relationship."

"Honey," Jules replied condescendingly, and there was the lisp, "you don't truly know what high maintenance is until you've spent some quality time with me!"

"Then may none of us ever truly know," Keisha interjected. She lifted her tea cup in a mock toast.

"Here here," Charlie agreed, lifting his cup, and Hunter followed suit.

With a put-upon sigh, Jules petulantly agreed and clinked his cup against theirs. "It's just as well," he told them after taking a sip. "None of you are on my level."

"Amen," Keisha said fervently, but by now Hunter had been distracted. Was that--

He leaned back in his chair, trying to see around a woman who was walking the slowest kid in the world toward the bathrooms. Slow Kid had caught his attention, weirdly, but it was the figure on the other side of him and his mom that held Hunter's gaze. That couldn't be...

It was Cam. Slow Kid and his mom finally moved far enough for Hunter to get an unobstructed view of the windows. Most of the smaller tables were unoccupied, like the rest of this place so early in the evening. But one had a lone occupant that was both familiar and completely unexpected--Cam sat there with a plate and some kind of electronic device, and it didn't take a genius to know which one had more of his attention.

"Hey, guys." Hunter pushed his chair back without taking his eyes off of Cam. "I'll be right back."

"You want dessert or what?" Charlie called after him, but Hunter just waved it off. Of all the people he hadn't expected to see on his first day back in town, he would bump into Cam totally by accident.

"Hey," he said, stopping in front of the table when Cam looked up. "Whatcha doing?"

Cam actually smiled at him, and he hadn't seen that coming either. "Hunter. I didn't know you were back in Blue Bay Harbor."

"Yeah, the, uh--well, the Action Games are over, so we've got a little time coming." Hunter frowned down at Cam's picked over plate, figuring it still wasn't more than half-empty. "You been here long? I didn't see you when we came in."

Cam glanced at his watch, then shrugged in a sort of noncommittal way. "A little while. Didn't want to interrupt."

Hunter stared at him. "You saw us and didn't even say hi? Some kind of friend you are," he muttered. He was vaguely disturbed by the idea that Cam might have been watching them.

"I came to get some work done." Cam sounded suddenly defensive. "And you were busy. Sorry for not wanting to throw myself into the middle of a moto bonding moment."

Yeah. He had definitely been watching.

"We're just hanging out," Hunter informed him. "You should come over and meet the guys."

Cam hesitated, and that kind of surprised Hunter too. He hadn't expected Cam to even consider the idea. Did he really want Cam watching them goof off? He had gotten so used to Jules that he didn't spend much time wondering how other people would react to him. And, okay, if he wanted to admit it, he and Charlie weren't the most subtle people on the planet either.

Yeah, so maybe he wasn't exactly the same.

On the other hand, if Cam was going to watch them anyway, he might as well be in the middle of it. Cam was polite enough, despite his tendency toward the sarcastic, that Hunter didn't worry about him offending anyone. Whether Cam would be freaked out was another thing entirely.

"I'm trying to work," Cam said at last.

"Sure." Hunter was surprised to feel disappointed instead of relieved. He grabbed Cam's little electronic thing and took a step back from the table. "Come on and work with us, then."

Cam glared up at him, but he didn't look as annoyed as Hunter had expected. "Stealing my stuff is supposed to convince me?"

"Nah." Hunter smirked at him. "I was going for baiting, actually."

With a sigh, Cam started to pile his silverware onto his plate. "Don't let me get in the way of your relentless pursuit of immaturity," he muttered. It was an open question as to whether he was getting ready to leave or picking up his stuff to join them.

When Cam stood up, plate and glass in hand, he just paused and looked at Hunter. "I assume that me following you means you'll give me my Palm back at some point."

Hunter grinned. "I'll think about it," he teased, secretly amused by Cam's capitulation. He was getting soft.

Cam only rolled his eyes, confirming Hunter's suspicion. Maybe leaving the academy had been good for him after all. Or maybe he was just tired tonight. Hard to say.

He led Cam back to the table they'd taken over, grabbing another chair from an empty table as they passed. "Guys," he said, swinging the chair into place at the end of the table, "this is Cam. He's a friend of mine, goes to school around here."

Hunter pushed his own stuff down a little to make room while Keisha did the same on the other side. "Cam, this is Keisha, Jules, and Charlie. Keisha and Charlie ride for Factory Blue, Jules just hangs around for the hot guys. We try to ignore him."

"He must not bother you, then," Cam said blandly. He took a seat like he was perfectly comfortable here, and it actually took Hunter a moment to figure out what he'd said.

Keisha chuckled, and Jules was staring at Cam with open admiration. "Oh, I like you," he declared. "Trust me, sugar, I won't even notice Hunter with you around."

"Did you just diss me?" Hunter asked Cam. "Did you seriously just say that?"

Cam raised an eyebrow at him. "For someone who never wears anything but red and black, you're awfully sensitive about your looks all of a sudden."

"That's Hunter," Charlie agreed, slapping him on the back. "Mr. Sensitive."

Hunter just stared at Cam. He definitely wasn't freaked out. When had he gotten all... social?

"You should introduce us to more of your old boyfriends," Jules told him. "This is fun."

"Oh, Hunter and I weren't together." Cam spoke before Hunter could, and he sounded perfectly calm about it. "You know how Hunter is. He's so shy about that sort of thing."

Charlie was laughing. "Not our Hunter!"

"You've come a long way, baby," Jules reassured him. Then he immediately turned to Cam and added, "So spill! Tell us what Hunter was like in the early days of gay!"

Cam gave Hunter a neutral look. "Closeted," was all he said.

"Yeah, okay," Hunter said firmly. Time for drastic intervention. He held up Cam's Palm. "If you ever want to see this again, you can stop talking right now."

Cam just smiled, and it was a knowing smile that kind of made Hunter nervous. But he looked down and began arranging his silverware, which might keep him out of trouble for two seconds. Hunter had spared a passing thought to worry about the effect the moto team might have on Cam--it hadn't occurred to him to worry about Cam's effect on them.

On the other hand, he fit right in, and if that was totally unexpected then it was also kind of cool. Hunter hadn't seen any reason to introduce his new friends to his old ones until he saw Cam sitting there alone, and if he'd thought about it beforehand he probably would have changed his mind. But he hadn't, and it was a good thing. Once Cam got finished making fun of him he started in on the rest of the table, and Hunter had forgotten how much fun it was to watch Cam be clever.

He offered Cam a ride home afterward. Cam accepted, and if it took them longer to figure out the bill than it did to say goodnight, he didn't seem impatient about it. He seemed kind of cheerful, in fact, which made Hunter think that maybe he'd get away without serious mocking after a meal like that.

Hunter hadn't even closed the driver's side door when Cam remarked, "You never mentioned you were gay."

Or maybe not.

"It didn't come up," he said, sticking the key in the ignition.

"But it came up with them?"

"Yeah." As he backed out of the parking space, he saw Charlie's truck turning for the exit up ahead and he flashed his lights. Charlie's truck honked in return.

For a few minutes, neither of them said anything. Then Hunter asked what Cam was doing with himself these days, and when Cam actually started to tell him he figured the gay subject was gonna drop. Good. That was the way he wanted it.

Cam paused in his quiet but amusingly sarcastic recitation of recent events to offer directions. They reached his new place before he finished answering the question, which was weird since Cam wasn't usually chatty. But it prompted Hunter to ask what he was doing tomorrow, 'cause maybe they could catch up or something.

Cam was surprisingly receptive to the idea, which meant there must be truth to that whole "absence makes the heart grow fonder" thing. Hunter figured he shouldn't be surprised that people liked him better when he wasn't around. Traveling a lot was just self-defense, really.

"I'm meeting with my advisor tomorrow morning," Cam told him. "But I have the afternoon free."

"I think I have an interview or something." Hunter frowned. "Maybe at ten? I could stop by afterward and we could get some lunch or something."

"You think you have an interview at ten?" Cam echoed. "You don't think it's important to know?"

Hunter shrugged. "I have a thing. You know, where you write down the places you have to be and when? I'll check it."

"A day planner?" Cam guessed.

"Yeah, whatever. If it doesn't work, I'll call you."

Cam seemed inordinately amused by the whole thing. "Do you even have my phone number?"

Hunter thought about that. "Uh..." He'd had the old one, the number for the summer apartment. Which this definitely wasn't. "Well, no."

Cam just shook his head. "Give me your phone."

"My cell phone?" Hunter tried not to squirm. "I left it at home."

"On purpose?" Cam inquired, very politely.

"Yes," Hunter said defensively. He glanced sideways at Cam and accidentally caught his eye. "No," he muttered. "I forgot it."

"Okay," Cam said slowly, drawing the word out. "Well, I can see why it's useful to have a cell phone that you don't carry with you. I'll call you when I get inside and leave you my number."

"Fine." Hunter really wanted to tell him not to forget, but he knew when he was just asking for it. "See you tomorrow."

"See you." He could hear the grin in Cam's voice.

It occurred to him, as Cam got out of the truck and slammed the door behind him, that he'd forgotten his Palm. Hunter debated for a split second, weighing the entertainment value of teasing Cam about his forgetfulness against the possibility that Cam would find a way to blame it on him instead. He pushed the door open and got out.

"Hey," Hunter called, holding the little electronic device up. "Forget something?"

Cam turned around without stopping. Walking backwards, he replied, "You need it more than I do." Then he spun around, grabbed the railing and jogged up the stairs to the second level. He unlocked his door and went in without another word.

A light came on inside a moment later, and Hunter just stood there staring up at it. Then he looked down at the thing in his hand, which he had no idea how to use. Cam was in a weird mood tonight.

He had gotten back in the truck and started it up before he remembered that he was going to have to find this place again tomorrow. He squinted, but he couldn't see the number on Cam's door in the shadows. So he counted doors from the end of the building, made a mental note about which building it was, and headed home.

His cell phone had four messages on it when he got in. He rolled his eyes, called voice mail without bothering to see who it was, and blinked in surprise when Jules' voice greeted him instead of Cam's. He couldn't remember Jules ever having called him before.

"Hunter, babe!" the voice exclaimed. "Jules here. Loved your boyfriend. Call me."

The second message was also Jules. "Oh, Hunter," he singsonged. "It's Jules again. I'm calling to rave about your boy. Call me back."

The third message was Cam, which made a nice change from Jules' wacky world. He left his phone number and his apartment number, which reminded Hunter to write down what he could remember about the location. All the buildings looked the same, unfortunately, and except for the sign that welcomed guests to "Forest Park," there were very few identifying features.

The fourth message was Jules again. Hunter hadn't gotten past the initial greeting when his phone beeped an incoming call, and he glanced at the screen to see the name Jules. Of course. Hunter shook his head, but he punched the call button out of sheer curiosity.

"Yeah," he said. "What do you want, Jules."

"Cam's phone number," Jules replied promptly. "Come on, be a pal."

Hunter snorted. "He's straight, Jules. He doesn't need you bugging him."

"Nobody's perfect," Jules countered. "And I'm not going to bug him. I save that for guys like you who like it."

Hunter ignored that. "Jules. He's not gay."

"I can work with the undecided," Jules said cheerfully. "Come on, feed me his number."

"Forget it," Hunter told his phone. "If you hang up right now, I'll give him yours and tell him you called. You have three seconds."

"Thanks doll!" The line went dead in less than two.

Cam was going to love this, Hunter thought.

It turned out he was right about the interview, and he found the right building in daylight without any trouble. He was glad to have Cam's apartment number for his own peace of mind, but when he counted doors his result matched Cam's. Cam's voice yelled for him to come in, so he did.

Oh yeah. This he remembered. There was Cam, sitting in front of a laptop with all sorts of blinking devices on the table around him. "I'm almost done," Cam said, glancing over at him briefly before looking back at his computer. "I figured you'd be late."

"I'm not late," Hunter protested automatically. Then he realized the trap, since he hadn't ever told Cam what time he'd be here in the first place. "Hey--"

"That's my point," Cam agreed, paying no attention. "You surprised me."

Wow. Hunter considered that. It was an insult no matter how you took it. That was pretty impressive, even for Cam.

"Got anything to drink?" Hunter asked, deciding the best defense was to not reply.

"Sure. Check the fridge." Cam gestured vaguely over his shoulder. "Glasses in the cupboard to the left of the sink. Help yourself."

There were several cupboards to the left of the sink, but Cam didn't complain when he opened one after another. He found the glasses, some ice, and considered the sink like he could tell by looking. "Is the tap water okay to drink?"

Cam's activity paused for a moment, and he turned all the way around. "There's a filtered pitcher in the fridge. Tastes better."

"Cool." Hunter found the water and poured some for himself, then thought to ask, "You want any?"

"Thanks," Cam said, turning back to his computer. Hunter took that as agreement, and poured a second glass before sticking the filter under the tap to refill it.

He brought Cam the water just as he was shutting stuff down, and Hunter caught a glimpse of a zord symbol over his shoulder. "Hey, is that ninja stuff?"

Cam shrugged a little. "No one changed the passwords after I left. Just doing a little... independent research."

Hunter watched the windows close, one after another, and then the screen went dark. "Too bad you can't use it for public stuff."

"You'd be surprised," Cam remarked. "A lot of the network stuff is pretty abstract. When I can extrapolate to my own studies without compromising the academies, I do."

"Really?" Hunter pondered that for a moment, then decided he liked it. "Sneaky," he said admiringly. "You're cheating."

"I'm being resourceful," Cam corrected. "Just because Lothor's gone doesn't mean the zords should sit around collecting dust. Figuratively speaking."

Because they were, in fact, sitting around collecting dust. That was kind of a depressing thought. Hunter shook his head. "Cheating," he said firmly. "I like it. Let me know if I can help."

Cam rolled his eyes as he turned around in his chair, but his mouth had quirked up at the edges and he didn't correct Hunter again. Hunter leaned back against the arm of the couch, making short work of his water and deciding to get the Jules thing over with. "So," he said, setting his glass down. "I have weird friends."

Cam just looked at him, but Hunter didn't get it right away. Instead he plowed on. "You remember Jules, last night?"

"Hard to forget," Cam said dryly.

"Yeah, well, he liked you," Hunter said with a sigh.

"That does make him unusual," Cam replied, straight-faced.

"Yeah--" Hunter broke off, only now suspecting that Cam wasn't hearing the same things he was saying. "Hey, cut it out. He called me three times last night trying to get your phone number."

"He must have been disappointed to find out you didn't have it," Cam remarked.

Cam wasn't going to let up. "I told him you don't swing that way," Hunter said defensively. "But once he gets an idea into his head, he's just..."

"Stubborn," Cam finished. "Birds of a feather."

"I said I'd give you his number if he'd leave me alone," Hunter informed him. "I assume you don't want it."

Cam gave him an uninterpretable look. "If you don't give it to me, you'll have broken your word."

"Jules is used to disappointment," Hunter told him. "He'll get over it."

Cam shrugged. "I'd hate to make a liar out of you." He reached for the phone, grabbed the pad of paper beside it, and fished a pen out from beside his keyboard.

Honorable Cam, Hunter thought, retrieving Jules' number from his cell phone. That was a new one. He might even wait until Hunter left to throw it away, at this rate.

Mission accomplished, they went out to lunch and Hunter forgot all about the Jules incident. At least until the next time he saw Jules. The man was irrepressible once he set his sights on something, and for whatever reason, he was focused on Cam. They didn't hear the end of it until Hunter came back to Blue Bay Harbor for the winter and found that Cam was dating a girl from one of his classes.

"Oh, well." Jules' sigh could be heard over the phone when Hunter passed on the news "You can't convert 'em all."

Hunter met her when he stopped by Cam's apartment to drop off his Palm for the dozenth time. The thing had never worked right, although Cam insisted it wasn't a hardware problem. Or a software problem. Or a compatibility problem. Which left user incompetence, even if he'd stopped pointing that out after the first three times Hunter had returned it for Cam to fix.

He'd called ahead, so he was a little surprised to find that Cam had company when he showed up. But they weren't in the middle of anything either, as far as he could tell... she looked like she was just hanging out because Cam's couch was more comfortable than hers. Or, Hunter thought, catching sight of the open backpack full of clothes at the far end of the couch, because it was easier to stay than go.

"Hunter, this is Kendrix." Cam introduced them absently, like whatever Hunter had done to his Palm was more important than they were. "Kendrix, this is my friend Hunter. Technologically inept, but I cut him some slack because we used to work together."

We used to work together? Hunter tried to decide whether that was a fair description of their current relationship, figured it was, and smiled at Kendrix. "Nice to meet you," he offered, only belatedly realizing that Cam hadn't said anything about her.

This was Cam's new girlfriend, wasn't it? He hadn't introduced her that way... but then, he hadn't introduced her any other way, either. No, "Kendrix" was right, he couldn't have gotten a name like that wrong. "So you're in classes with Cam, huh?"

"You could say that," she said, taking off her glasses as she stood up. It wasn't a self-conscious gesture, Hunter thought, since she didn't make any effort to straighten her shirt or brush her hair out of her face. Must only need them for reading.

When she smiled, his rapid assessment of her came to a respectful halt. Oh yeah. He knew what Cam saw in her. Geeky and beautiful. A combination to be appreciated, female or not.

"We're teaching the same class," Kendrix was explaining. "I mean, different sections of course, but the same class."

Wow, Hunter decided. Very geeky.

So that was Kendrix, and she lasted four months. She would turn out to be one of Cam's longer relationships. He saw her again, a few times--she came to dinner with him and Cam twice, and he went to a really boring lecture with them once. Between her and school, Cam was pretty busy, and although Hunter drove out to see Blake a couple of times he always felt like he was intruding there too.

Mostly he trained, traveled, and did an increasing number of promos for various things. He and Charlie did a lot of that stuff together, which was usually fun and only sometimes annoying. Jules disappeared for the winter, which surprised no one, and Keisha took off on some southwest circuit that had her away from California for months. They drifted.

It was only when the holidays came that Hunter reclaimed any real sense of "home." He headed back to Blue Bay Harbor, and wonder of wonders, Blake came back from school and settled in for the rest of December and most of January. Tori, of course, showed up with him, and when Hunter called Cam he found a fourth person to involve in their nostalgic little reunion.

It felt weird, to hang out with all of them and talk about their lives. It had only been a year since they'd graduated from their respective ninja academies, and sometimes it seemed like less time and sometimes it seemed like so much more. It was both strange and familiar to fall into their old routines of teasing and games.

To make it feel more festive, Tori finally announced, they should go visit Dustin at Storm Chargers. He was slammed with pre-holiday work right now, but she insisted that was all the more reason to bring the party to him. Kelly wouldn't kick them out.

Hunter noticed that she didn't suggest visiting Shane, and he wondered about that. Because Shane wasn't as locked into his schedule as Dustin was? Because the Wind Academy wasn't such a great place to bring a party? Or because she knew that Cam wouldn't go?

He had no idea how much the others knew about Cam's departure from the Wind Academy. Maybe more than he did. Maybe they knew what he'd been through before deciding to leave. Maybe they'd even tried to help him. That would explain why Cam got so upset when Hunter suggested it, back in the spring. It had already been done and hadn't helped.

He made plans to ask Blake later.

In the meantime, Tori was right. Going to Storm Chargers did make it feel more festive. Not because Dustin was there, but because half the town was there with him. Holiday shopping, Hunter thought with a grimace. His least favorite part of the season.

He felt Cam sidle up next to him and nudge his shoulder. "At least she's not playing Christmas music," Cam murmured, surveying the store from Hunter's vantage point by the door.

That was true. Maybe the music was his least favorite part, and shopping was his second least. "Want to make a list of the worst things about the holidays?" he whispered to Cam.

"Way to get in the spirit," Cam muttered back.

"Like you're any better," Hunter said under his breath. "You've been pissy all afternoon. What's your deal?"

He expected to hear some wisecrack about the holidays. Or at the very least, an unusually worded version of "mind your own business." So when Cam said, "Someone in one of my classes filed a sexual harassment complaint," Hunter wasn't sure he'd heard him right.

"What?" he asked, frowning. "Against who?"

"Against me, Hunter; who do you think?"

Hunter just blinked at him, not understanding. If that had been a joke he was supposed to get, it had failed. "I don't get it."

Cam just shook his head, and abruptly, Hunter did get it. Cam wasn't kidding. "Someone complained about you?" he said incredulously. "They must've gotten you confused with someone else."

Cam snorted, but a little bit of the stiffness went out of his shoulders. "That's what I thought when I heard it. I still don't know how she could possibly have thought I was harassing her."

"So you know who it is?" Hunter pressed. "Can you, I dunno, kick her out of class or something?"

Bizarrely, he thought that made Cam smile a little. "Oddly, the sexual conduct code dictates exactly the opposite."

Hunter had to think about that for a moment. Not because it was hard, but because he just couldn't get his mind around it being applied to Cam. "They're kicking you out?"

Cam shrugged. It was a tiny gesture, an effort that was totally at odds with what he was saying. "I can't teach for the rest of the year at least. Maybe ever, depending on what the review board decides. They're finding substitutes like crazy."

Something about the way he said it made Hunter narrow his eyes. "For your class?"

"And Kendrix's." He said it so casually that Hunter took it wrong.

"She leave when you did?" he guessed.

Cam's small smile didn't look even remotely happy. "No. She dropped out two days ago. Special government project, can't say anything about it."

Hunter just stared at him. "She... wait, she dropped out of school now? Isn't this kind of a weird time?"

"Apparently not," Cam said evenly. "Not if the federal government taps you for something so important that you can't even tell your boyfriend where you're going."

It was the first time he'd heard Cam refer to himself as Kendrix's boyfriend, but that was overshadowed by the rest of the statement. "She took off?" Hunter demanded. "Is she coming back? What kind of... that's crazy," he bit off, for lack of any other appropriate adjective.

"She didn't know," Cam said quietly. "She said she didn't think so."

She didn't think she was coming back, Hunter assumed. Cam was harder to understand than usual, but okay, maybe he had reason. "Wow," Hunter muttered. "What is it, so super secret that she can't even contact you, right?"

Cam didn't answer.

Hunter winced. Yeah, it was that super secret. Geez. Hazards of dating a geek.

"So," he said, a couple of silent minutes later. Relatively silent, anyway, considering that they were surrounded by crazy shoppers and non-Christmas music. "Want to make a list of the worst things about the holidays?"

He snuck a sideways glance at Cam, who actually didn't look disgusted by the idea. Hunter hated not knowing what to say, especially when he knew he really ought to say something. Most of the time he could get away with just keeping his mouth shut, but after he'd practically dragged the details out of Cam, he felt he owed him some kind of response. He just didn't know what kind.

"I have a pen," Cam said simply.

Yeah. That was the spirit. "Bet Kelly'd give us paper."

She probably wouldn't have, actually, but when he sauntered up to the counter he found Marah working the cash register. "Hunter!" she squealed, totally ignoring the customer who was waiting for her to finish bagging his stuff. "How are you! I haven't seen you in, like, forever!"

"Yeah," he agreed, cracking a smile at the weirdness. Must be Dustin's doing. "Glad to see you staying off the streets. Listen, do you have some paper or something that we could use to write on?"

"Let's see," she said, holding up her left hand. "I have--" She ticked each kind of paper off on a different finger as she listed them. "Receipt paper, note paper, and store letterhead. Which can I get for you today?"

He grinned. "I'll take some note paper, if you don't mind."

"No problem," she said happily, reaching into a drawer underneath the counter. "Here you go!"

"Thanks, Marah." He heard her apologize to the customer she had kept waiting as she turned away, thanking him politely for his patience. Weird didn't begin to describe it.

Cam had been surrounded by Tori and Blake while he was gone, which he guessed meant that Dustin was busy. He folded the paper in half and tucked it into his pocket before joining them. "Everybody finish their shopping?" he asked innocently.

"Actually, yeah." Blake grinned at the skepticism that greeted this response. "Hey, I can plan. I survived my first semester of college, remember."

"Too bad you have to do it seven more times before they give you a degree," Tori teased.

Blake pretended to be confused. "I have to do the first semester seven more times?"

Tori put her hands on her hips, which with her was never an admission of defeat. She was just gearing up to tell you why it didn't matter. "Do you think it would make a difference in your grades?" she inquired sweetly.

To Hunter's surprise, Blake just laughed. "I'm making you look good," he reminded her. "It's not so easy."

Tori giggled, and Hunter glanced over at Cam. He met raised eyebrows and a tolerant expression, which pretty much confirmed his assumption that this was a private joke. "Thanks for trying," Tori was telling Blake. "I like you more every time I talk to my parents."

"She does, too," Blake told them. "Because the first thing they ask is, how's Blake doing? And then when she tells them they ask how she's doing, and somehow she always comes out sounding like Wonder Girl."

"Hey, guys!" Dustin spun out of the crowd to join their group, grinning like only Dustin could in the middle of this chaos. "I'm back! What's up Hunter! Cam!"

"Hey, Dustin." Hunter reached out to clasp his hand. "Do me a favor, man. Don't ever drink coffee."

"Nah, don't need it," Dustin assured him, oblivious to the amused looks Hunter and Blake exchanged. "What's up Cam!"

Cam managed a smile for Dustin's enthusiasm, and only now did Hunter appreciate how much of an effort he was making to act normal. The guy's world was falling apart, he had zero family support, and here he was spending time with people who didn't have the faintest idea what he was going through. And all Hunter could do was watch.

"Good to see you, Dustin." Cam clasped his hand calmly, like he didn't have anything else on his mind. "Kelly keeping you busy?"

"Yeah, totally," Dustin agreed. "She hired on Marah as seasonal help too, did you see her? She picked up the cash register--" He snapped his fingers. "Just like that!"

Cam was looking around like he really hadn't seen Marah. Hunter took a step back, giving him a better view, and Cam looked genuinely surprised when he caught sight of his cousin behind the counter. "I kind of feel like I'm in an alternate dimension," he said at last. It was hard to tell whether he was joking or not.

"Yeah, isn't it great?" Dustin was unperturbed by his surprise. "Hey, I've gotta go--you guys want to hang later? Maybe go out tonight or something?"

Tori and Blake agreed immediately, and Hunter was nodding when he noticed Cam's expression. "I can't," Cam told them. "I've got work to do this evening. Maybe some other time."

"Yeah, sure, that's cool," Dustin agreed. "When are you free?"

Cam hesitated. "I don't know," he said at last. "Maybe this weekend."

"Great!" Dustin exclaimed. "Saturday afternoon okay? Last minute Christmas shopping, food, friends, fun. I'll call Shane and we'll all catch up!"

Cam didn't answer, but his reluctance was lost in the general agreement that followed. Hunter snuck a look at him, but he figured Cam didn't want any more attention right now. If he had something to say, he'd say it.

It didn't stop Hunter from questioning him on the way back to his apartment later. "You planning to be around Saturday?" he asked.

Cam was staring out the window. "I don't know."

He wanted to bug him about that, but it didn't feel right. "What are you doing tonight?"

"Working on a paper."

Ah. School. Just one more reason he was glad it wasn't him. "What about tomorrow?" he pressed.

"Class. Exams. Meeting with the review board. Tutoring," he added, "if I'm still allowed to do that."

Cam didn't get upset the way other people did, Hunter reminded himself. It was hard to remember when he was yelling at you for some stupid thing you'd screwed up, but Cam only got mad when he wasn't really. When he was really upset, he got quiet and withdrawn and pretended not to care.

He was pretending not to care now, and that gave Hunter a really bad feeling.

"Cam," he said carefully. "Do you like teaching?" It was a dumb question, he thought, since Cam had been doing it for months and had studied it for at least a year. But he was trying to make a point, here.

Instead of answering right away, Cam was quiet for a long moment. "I'm starting to rethink it," he told the window. "Maybe it's just not meant to happen."

Hunter frowned out at the road. First the academy, now the university. And now suddenly Cam was a believer in fate? Destiny? A life you couldn't control? Why--because a few ignorant people had gotten in his way?

"I don't buy that," he told Cam. "I think, if you don't fight this, you're going to spend your whole life running from it."

"You think I'm not fighting it?" Cam asked the window softly. "You think I'm just letting this happen?"

What did he know about what Cam was doing? Only what Cam told him. "I think if you give up," Hunter answered at last, "you'll regret it for a long time."

When Cam didn't answer, he added, "Nothing's worth hating yourself for, Cam. Nothing and no one."

The rest of the ride passed in silence. When they pulled up outside of Cam's building, he climbed out of the truck without a word. Just as Hunter thought that was it, though, he paused with the door open and looked back inside. "See you later, Hunter."

"Yeah." Hunter lifted his hand from the stick in acknowledgement. "See ya."

That was all he heard from Cam for two days. By Thursday evening he couldn't stand it. He picked up his cell phone as he pulled into the driveway and called Cam's apartment. Turning off the engine, he just sat there, waiting to see if Cam would pick up.

"You've reached Cam Watanabe." Answering machine. Damn. "Leave a message with your number."

"Hey, it's Hunter." He paused awkwardly. He didn't really have anything to say, and he couldn't think of any way to make that sound cool. "I was just calling to, y'know. See how it's going, or whatever."

He hesitated again, and this time there was a click. "Hey," Cam's voice said.

Hunter raised an eyebrow, a little embarrassed for no reason he could explain. "Screening your calls?"

"Yeah," Cam answered. No explanation. "What's going on?"

"I was just..." He floundered. "Well, I was just gonna, y'know. Ask you the same thing."

"Not much," Cam said after a brief pause. It occurred to Hunter suddenly that they rarely spoke to each other over the phone, outside of leaving messages. "Exams are over. Finished the papers that were finishable. Met with the review board."

Yeah, that was what he was calling about. Hunter waited, but Cam didn't elaborate. "And?" Hunter demanded at last. "How'd it go?"

"Well, it's an interesting thing about this particular student," Cam said, in a voice that Hunter couldn't read at all. He wished he could see Cam's expression. "I guess this isn't the first complaint she's filed."

"Really." Hunter really wished he could see Cam's face. "The board tell you that?"

"No..." There was a longer pause this time. "Her lab partner did, when I talked to her after class."

Hunter's eyes widened as he considered this information. "Cam... did you stalk someone from the class that charged you with sexual harassment?" He couldn't quite keep the amusement out of his voice.

"I didn't stalk her," Cam replied, with a tone that somehow expressed his wounded dignity. "I just waited in a friend's office down the hall until her class got out, and then, coincidentally, I happened to bump into her as we were both leaving."

"I see," Hunter agreed. He was grinning now, and he waited until he could speak in a half-normal tone of voice. "And she talked to you?"

"I was very polite," Cam informed him. "I just reminded her to watch out for a particular question on the upcoming exam, and she then she asked if she could talk to me for a minute. Naturally, I wasn't going to turn a student away in the middle of finals."

"You bribed her," Hunter translated. He was enjoying this story.

"I did not bribe her," Cam said indignantly. "It turned out she wanted to talk about her lab partner, but I didn't know that before I agreed to meet with her. I had no idea she was going to offer to submit a statement on my behalf."

"Yeah, I bet you didn't." Hunter was smirking. "Sneaky. Did I mention I like sneaky?"

"No, seriously," Cam protested. "I didn't bribe her." He hesitated, then Hunter heard a sigh. "All right, fine, maybe a little. But I didn't ask her to do that. She said her partner has complained about professors before, but one student against a tenured professor doesn't get very far. A student against another student, unfortunately, has more serious consequences."

"What is that?" Hunter wanted to know. "Some kind of power trip? Who makes accusations like that for the hell of it?"

"Someone who needs therapy," Cam muttered, barely loud enough to be audible over the phone. "Anyway--"

"Or someone who wants to ruin someone else's life," Hunter interrupted darkly. "Stay far away from that girl."

He heard Cam sigh again. "Thanks for the tip. Anyway, her lab partner said the student who accused me told all her friends about what supposedly happened. Her lab partner overheard them talking, and she asked me if she could submit some kind of statement or something. Because obviously, she didn't see anything."

"Neither did this other girl," Hunter grumbled. "Outside of her imagination."

"Vivid imagination," Cam said dryly. "She should think about switching to creative writing or something."

"So, the partner helped you out?" Hunter prompted.

"Hand delivered a signed statement to the dean's office yesterday," Cam admitted. "She promised she would, and during the board meeting I was told there was 'counter testimony'. In light of that, my room and board will be covered for the rest of the term and I'll be allowed to go back to teaching next semester."

Damn. Room and board. He hadn't known that was part of the teaching deal. "That's awesome, dude. Way to go finding the lab partner."

"I think my advisor probably spoke up for me too." Cam sounded strangely uncomfortable. "I told her I didn't think there was anything she could do, but she was determined that she was a character witness."

"Don't diss character witnesses," Hunter chided him. "Anyone who knows you could tell the board they were suspending the wrong person."

"Well." Cam still sounded odd. "Thanks for the pep talk, the other day. It made a difference."

"Oh yeah?" Hunter smiled, pleased by the news. "Glad to hear it. And hey, way to go, Cam. I knew you'd beat this."

Cam's voice might have been more normal now, but it was hard to tell when he only said one word. "Thanks."

"So," Hunter drawled, when the silence stretched a couple of seconds too long. "We gonna see you on Saturday, or what?"

He thought he could hear Cam smiling. "I don't have a ride," he told Hunter. Like that had ever stopped him before.

"Yeah, whatever," Hunter grumbled good-naturedly. If that was Cam's way of asking, he'd take it. "Just get me a hat and call me a chauffeur. Is two okay?"

"I'll be here," Cam answered. He sounded considerably lighter than before, and that made Hunter feel kind of good.

The good feeling persisted into the weekend. He picked Cam up early, and they met Blake and Tori downtown. Dustin showed up with both Shane and Marah, which Hunter thought he probably should have expected. The seven of them hung out together until Dustin pointed out that they could skip the dinner crowd by eating early and shopping during dinnertime.

It was one of those sort of weird ideas that actually worked, which he didn't usually expect from Dustin. During "dinner," he and Cam managed to start their list of Things We Hate Most About The Holidays. Tori retaliated by getting Marah to help her with a counter-list: Things We Love Most About The Holidays.

The girls' list was longer. Not because it was truer, Hunter was convinced, but simply because of the sheer volume of inane things they put on it. "Fluffy things" shouldn't count, and "marshmallows"? Not even holiday related, as far as he was concerned.

Afterward they split into smaller groups based on the amount and type of shopping they still wanted to do. Which meant that Tori and Marah took off on their own immediately, while the rest of them just sat around looking at each other for a few minutes. Then Shane asked for Cam's pen, and they all went to work on the list of hated holiday things.

By the time they were done, their list surpassed the girls' by eleven things. It included "fad toys" and "holiday versions of normal things" as well as "shopping with women," "shopping for women," and "listening to women talk about shopping."

It was a good day.

The holidays turned out to be okay too, which Hunter hadn't been so sure about. Sensei Omino didn't celebrate Christmas, but Leanne said she wanted to celebrate whatever they were celebrating, so they all ended up having Christmas lunch together and then going out to a movie. Cam came too, which made it more fun. He and Leanne got into the most ridiculous arguments, and Hunter and Blake had learned it was more fun to watch than to try to break it up.

The only negative thing about it was that Cam's presence probably meant bad things for his relationship with his father. Hunter made it a point not to ask, and Blake and Leanne didn't question him either. But Hunter was pretty sure that Cam had spent Christmas with his dad in the past, and this year it didn't look like he even rated a phone call.

Not good. But none of Hunter's business, either, so he tried to ignore it.

Or he tried to ignore it until Blake found an envelope wedged in their doorway three days after Christmas. The first Hunter knew of it was a banging on his door at eight-thirty Monday morning. "Hey bro!" Blake called. "You expecting an anonymous manila envelope from anyone?"

Hunter groaned something that Blake had better take as a "no" before turning his back to the light and burying his head in the pillow. There were a few moments of blissful silence. Then, just as he was starting to drift again, he heard the words, "Hey, I think this is from Cam."

He rolled out of bed and stumbled toward the door before he even opened his eyes. He had to scrub at them to get them to stay that way, but by the time he made it out into the apartment he was pretty sure he knew what day it was. Maybe.

Blake was shuffling through some papers, and he caught a glimpse of the Wind Academy logo as his bro turned the pages. "What is that?" Hunter mumbled, frowning through the post-sleep haze. "From Cam?"

"Yeah." Blake rifled through the papers and held one of them up for Hunter to see. "Check it out. Petition to get retroactive training credit for life experiences."

Hunter squinted at it, but the words didn't make a lot of sense this early in the morning. "Huh?"

"I think he's trying to get his Ranger experience to count toward the ninja training requirements," Blake offered. "He needs witnesses to detail the nature of the experience."

Hunter thought about it for what felt like a long time, but it wasn't coming back to him. "That doesn't sound familiar," he said at last, falling into one of the chairs at the kitchen table to stare at the papers from a closer vantage point. "Can he do that?"

"This says yeah," Blake said with a shrug. "According to this, they usually use it for transfers, people coming in from different training styles that might have overlapped with the ninja at some point. He can definitely use it for his samurai training. And I guess being a Ranger is kind of..." Blake shrugged again. "The same thing?"

"Sneaky," Hunter muttered. He felt the corner of his mouth lift as he considered the spread of papers in front of him. Cam hadn't given up after all. "I like it."

He also liked Cam's timing. He had picked a time when they all had time to care and couldn't put it off with lame excuses. He wondered, idly, if Cam had asked everyone on the team. Even Shane?

He didn't get a chance to ask right away. He wrote his thing up that day. Blake finished later that week, and Hunter took the stuff over to Cam himself. Cam wasn't home, but there was a mailbox-thing outside his door so Hunter stuck the folder in there and left a message on his answering machine saying it was there.

He added a question about New Years Eve, since it was the next day and he hadn't heard a thing from Cam since Monday and The Folder... or since Christmas, if he was only counting actual verbal interaction. Which he wasn't. Cam could do whatever he wanted. It was just, if he hadn't had anyone to spend Christmas with, what was he doing on New Years?

His cell phone rang almost the second he hung up, and at first he thought it was Cam. Screening calls was one thing, but ignoring knocks at the door? That was a little paranoid.

Then he saw the name on the screen, and he blinked. Last he knew, Jules was home in San Mateo. What could he possibly want?

"Yeah," he said, flipping his phone open again.

"Hunter!" Jules' ebullient voice was unmistakable. "Where are you? I brought you a present!"

"I'm at home," Hunter answered. "In Blue Bay Harbor. Where are you and why are you sending me things?"

"Darling, I hate to break it to you, but you're not at home," Jules told him. "I'm at your home, and I didn't send you a present. I brought you one."

Okay... Hunter headed down the stairs to the sidewalk. "What are you doing in Blue Bay Harbor? Wait, don't tell me," he said quickly. "You're bringing me a present."

"Exactly so!" Jules crowed. "So? Are you coming to pick it up or not?"

"Will you go away if I don't?" Hunter countered. He couldn't think of anything realistic that Jules would consider a "present," but all of the unrealistic things were bad.

"Not even if you asked nicely," Jules replied. "Later, dear!" And he hung up.

Hunter looked at his phone for a moment, then decided it was in his best interests to get back to the apartment as soon as possible. When he pulled up it still looked normal from the outside, but that only worried him more. That meant that Jules was inside, which meant that Blake was home and probably stuck in an enclosed space with him. A sane person could only take so much of Jules at a time.

A sane person, Hunter thought to himself? Or just a straight one?

No, he decided. Jules made everyone crazy.

But he hadn't told Blake. He hadn't actually told anyone, but everyone at Factory Blue knew after that night with Charlie. Cam knew after seeing him with Charlie. Would Blake know after meeting Jules? Or would he just write him off as another crazy moto guy?

No, Hunter thought grimly. Jules couldn't go five minutes without being flamboyantly gay, and he drew everyone around him into it. He would make some offhand comment that included Hunter, and Blake would know. The only question was how he would react.

This wasn't quite the way he'd expected to tell his bro, but if he admitted it to himself, he could have gone his entire life without telling Blake. It just wasn't something he felt the need to share. With anyone. Even his little bro.

Maybe especially his little bro. His very straight, college-educated, chick magnet little bro. He loved Blake, and he was proud of him. He'd just as soon it continued to go both ways.

He took the stairs two at a time. Jules was nowhere to be seen when he pushed the door open, but Blake was there. He was in the kitchen, talking to--

"Charlie?" Hunter couldn't help the grin that spread across his face. "Man, what are you doing here?" He strode forward, and Charlie met him halfway with a handclasp that yanked him into a bear hug.

They clapped each other on the back and grinned like idiots, and Jules glided out of Hunter's room with a smug smile on his face. "Didn't I tell you I had a present?" he demanded. "Let this be a lesson to you: never doubt the power of the Jules!"

Hunter gave Charlie a final slap on the shoulder before waving in Jules' general direction. "I'd be less doubtful if I didn't suspect some sort of ulterior motive," he warned, narrowing his eyes as he glanced from Jules to Charlie. "What are you guys doing here, anyway?"

"Oh, poo," Jules said, coming forward to catch his hands before he could back away. "You have such a suspicious mind!" He made a kissy face at Hunter, then let go of his hands to dance away. "We just came to get the inside scoop on your bachelor pad.

"And of course," he added as an afterthought, "to investigate the Blue Bay party scene on the biggest party night of the year. So," he continued, turning around and perching elegantly on the arm of a chair. "Do tell us what to expect!"

Hunter raised an eyebrow at him. "You're here for New Years? Why here? And where are you staying?"

"Oh, don't worry," Jules assured him, giving a casual wave of his hand. "We have a motel room. And we came to see you, of course!

"Well," he amended. "Charlie came to see you. I came because San Mateo is deadly dull when all the tourists go home and I really can't stand to ring in another year there. So here we are!"

Hunter turned his quizzical look on Charlie and got a shrug in return.

He leaned around Charlie to check out Blake. "I guess you all know each other, huh?"

"He recognized us," Jules interrupted blithely. "You, my dear boy, have been telling stories!"

"To my bro?" Hunter retorted, rolling his eyes. "Imagine that."

"I've met Charlie before," Blake reminded him. He looked amused and more than a little interested in the conversation. "And, well..." He shot a grin in Jules' direction. "Jules wasn't hard."

"Ah!" Jules exclaimed, rearranging his legs fastidiously. "My reputation precedes me."

"The cloud of cologne precedes you," Charlie corrected. "Your reputation tags along behind, keeping its head down and hoping no one notices it."

"Only because it's ashamed to be seen in such a travel worn state," Jules said smoothly. He rose to his feet and executed a small bow. "My friends, if you will excuse me, I must adjourn to the powder room to freshen up."

He headed unerringly for the bathroom, and Charlie just shook his head. "Well, we won't see him for half an hour at least."

"Safe," Hunter agreed dryly. "Have you guys been here long?"

"Jules called as soon as we got here," Charlie told him. "Your bro was cool enough to let us in, so we've just been chilling."

"Yeah, telling stories about you," Blake added with a grin.

Which was kind of what he'd been hoping to avoid, but no such luck. He didn't find out until later that Blake hadn't picked up on the gay thing at all. Well, Jules, yeah, but not Charlie. And not him.

He was glad he hadn't known that before he told Blake that he didn't want the thing with Charlie to freak him out. Blake had just given him a really weird look and asked, "What thing?"

It was too late to go back, so Hunter said bluntly, "We're dating."

Blake was quiet for way too long. "You're gay?" he asked at last.

It was a loaded question. Hunter just shrugged.

Blake considered it a moment longer, then shrugged back. "Okay," he agreed. "Thanks for giving me the heads up before I asked Charlie what you guys do for fun or something."

Hunter just stared at him until Blake started to grin. "Cause he'd probably tell me, right?" Blake prompted. "I'm not even sure I'd have believed him if he had."

"Yeah, well," Hunter muttered. He wasn't sure he liked the sound of that. "We're not all like Jules."

Blake snickered. "Be funny if you were, though."

Hunter smacked him without thinking, Blake pretended it hurt, and they were good. Totally, not talking about it, good like they'd always been. He didn't realize what a relief it would be until it was over. He hadn't actively hidden it from his brother. But he hadn't made any effort to tell him, either, telling himself it shouldn't matter.

It turned out that it didn't matter. And he might have told himself that before, but he didn't know it until after. It was a lot better to be in the after than the before.

So Jules had done him a favor, in more ways than one, but Hunter didn't find out why he was really there until the next day. Cam called to thank him and Blake for the stuff they'd written, and he said he'd meet them at First Night a little after seven. He didn't need a ride. Hunter still didn't put it together.

When he and Charlie stopped by the motel after dinner, Jules wasn't there. Hunter shrugged it off. He knew where they were meeting; he'd catch up.

Tori and Blake were already at Storm Chargers when they got there. Inseparable as always. Hunter decided it didn't bother him as much when he had someone else to trade snarky comments with. He introduced Charlie and Tori, and it was debatable whether Blake had told her or not because she didn't bat an eye.

Shane showed up next, with Dustin and Marah strolling along after him. Hunter thought it was kind of weird that Shane and Marah got along so well. Dustin was the common denominator, sure, but when he wasn't there? Shane was more serious after another year of academy life, while a year away from Lothor had made Marah even more... well, fluffy. Even with Dustin, the three of them were a strange combination.

Cam was the only one missing when First Night officially began at seven. Cam and Jules, actually. It was an indication of how unlikely the idea seemed to him that he didn't make the connection even then.

When they showed up together, several things clicked into place at the same time. Cam hadn't had to be talked into attending First Night. He'd turned down Hunter's offer of a ride. And Jules had driven across the state for no admitted reason other than that his hometown was "deadly dull."

Jules lasted two months.

In that brief time, he made Hunter's world weirder than he'd done in the entire time they'd known each other. New Years Eve was only the beginning, dramatic though that beginning was. Jules was gay, and he made sure everyone knew it. Therefore, by simple association, Cam became gay.

It might have been different, Hunter thought darkly, if anyone had actually asked him, since it was obvious to him that Cam was not gay. Kendrix had been the second girlfriend that Hunter knew about, if anyone had bothered to ask. But no one did, and so for the two months following New Years Cam was gay.

Hunter was also gay, and he had Jules to thank for that too. Indirectly. He eventually found out that Cam had called Jules, but he didn't find out whether the trip to Blue Bay Harbor had been their idea and just supported by Charlie, or if it was the other way around. But being with Charlie on New Years Eve involved a single, ceremonial, public display of affection that would haunt him for months to come.

Watching Jules and Cam together on New Years Eve made him feel uncomfortable in a way he hadn't expected, and that could have haunted him for even longer if he'd let it. Fortunately, champagne had been invented for a reason, and by three in the morning on New Years Day, nothing seemed quite as catastrophically significant as it had at midnight. Falling into bed with Charlie erased the rest of the discomfort, and by the time the condoms came out he couldn't even remember what it had been like to see Jules and Cam kiss.

That was his first time. Contrary to what most of the Factory Blue team believed, he and Charlie hadn't been banging each other since spring, and after New Years it never happened again. They didn't break up. They just agreed, in the wake of that night, that they weren't really together.

In terms of their practical relationship, very little changed. He and Charlie were still teammates and friends. They did stuff together when they were both interested, they fooled around when the situation called for it, and to all outward appearances they were just the same as they'd been before. But the sex had been incongruous, weird, more out of place than either of them had expected. So they backed off.

Cam and Jules were totally oblivious, as far as Hunter could tell. Charlie stayed in Blue Bay Harbor for three days. Jules didn't leave for a week, and even after he left they couldn't keep him away. He'd show up for a few days here, a weekend there, and sometimes Hunter didn't even know he'd been in town until after he'd gone. Cam, too, flitted in and out of his radar, showing up with more academy-related paperwork and then vanishing until the next bizarro request.

By the end of the month, Hunter was starting to wonder what the Wind Academy thought it was doing. Cam didn't seem to mind the legwork, but then, this was the guy who'd let them run him out in the first place. Hunter couldn't figure out if all these weird transfer requirements were legit or just invented to keep unwanted students from getting anywhere.

He finally asked Leanne what she knew about training credit for transfers, and she told him it was at the discretion of whoever ran the school. Just like that, Hunter wanted to know? The sensei who runs the school could waive formal training requirements whenever he or she saw fit?

When she acted like it was the most obvious thing in the world, he went to see Sensei Omino. One of the good things about having been the Sensei's ward was that he didn't need an appointment. Blake had gone back to school, so he didn't ask any questions when Hunter headed out to the Thunder Academy for a private chat with its head instructor.

The head instructor was happy to see him. He dismissed both his afternoon classes when Hunter told him he needed some advice, and they took an extended walk around campus. No one would eavesdrop on the sensei.

"I'm fine," Hunter began, when Sensei invited him to talk. "But I think someone I know is in trouble. I'm trying to figure out whether I'm... y'know, overreacting."

Sensei put his hands behind his back and considered that statement as they walked. "Do you have reason to think you're overreacting?" he wanted to know.

No one had a casual conversation with a ninja master, so Hunter made sure he listened to the questions. "No," he said after a moment. "All I'm really doing is talking to you about it."

"To seek advice is a natural reaction to a challenging situation," Sensei agreed. "However, I would guess that this is not the only thing you are doing."

Hunter frowned. "I think it is, Sensei."

Sensei smiled, and that was never a good sign. "You are also worrying about the situation, are you not?"

Oh. Yeah, okay, he was worrying. Why else would he be looking for advice?

"Do this person's actions have some effect on you?" Sensei inquired.

Hunter grimaced, but it wasn't the question he didn't like. It was the answer. "Other than making me worry?" he muttered. "No... I guess they don't."

"Then your concern is purely altruistic," Sensei said calmly. "It must be someone you care about."

"It's a friend of mine," Hunter admitted. "We've been through a lot together."

"And do you think this friend is not capable of handling the situation?" Sensei suggested.

"No..." Hunter stared down at the ground for a minute. "It's not that I don't think he can handle it. It's just that I'm not sure he'd ask for help if he needed it."

"If you believe he needs help that he will not ask for," Sensei pointed out, "then you must also believe he is not capable of handling the situation."

Hunter thought about that, then sighed inwardly. "I think he might not be able to handle the situation. Yes," he added, before Sensei could jump in with a summary. "Okay, I doubt his ability to handle it. You're right."

"One is rarely right or wrong when giving advice," Sensei told him. "One is simply more or less helpful."

Hunter tried not to smile. "I'll let you know," he said dryly.

Sensei inclined his head, and they walked in silence for a minute.

"Can I ask you some stuff about what counts as formal ninja training?" Hunter asked at last.

Sensei looked over at him as they turned along the perimeter of the campus. "Does this relate to your previous questions?"

Hunter hesitated, but Sensei would figure it out eventually whether he told him or not. "Yeah," he admitted. "It does."

Sensei just nodded. "Ask, then."

"Okay." Hunter took a deep breath. "Say someone fights alongside ninjas for, I dunno, a year or so. He doesn't get any formal training, but he picks up a lot. He can test out of the first year requirements at a ninja academy, right?"

Sensei considered that. "Any student with prior ninja experience may request an assessment for the purpose of advanced placement," he said at last. "No matter what that experience is."

"What if that person grew up at a ninja academy," Hunter continued, "like me and Blake? No formal training. Just constant exposure. He can pass more than the advanced placement tests. He can test to teacher level without taking a single class."

There was a longer pause this time. "Such a thing is not unheard of."

"Can he do that?" Hunter insisted. "I mean, he can, but will the academies recognize it? Does it count, or does he have to take classes he doesn't need before he can teach them?"

"You have mentioned 'counting' twice now," Sensei observed. "You want to know if a person's credentials 'count.' A ninja master wants to know if a person's understanding is sufficient to educate others."

Hunter opened his mouth, then closed it again. It wouldn't do him any good to protest without thinking, without trying to get what Sensei was telling him. Yeah, training and understanding were supposed to be roughly equivalent. But in some cases they obviously weren't--

"So a ninja master can assess a person for a teaching position whether that person has the training or not," Hunter guessed, looking over at Sensei for clues. It was basically what Leanne had said.

"Most of the masters recognize that some people have experiences that are equivalent or superior to the formal training offered at a ninja academy," Sensei replied.

Hunter's eyes narrowed. "Most of them?" he repeated.

"As I said," Sensei agreed calmly.

That didn't explain why Cam was submitting some kind of crazy petition. "What if a master decides that someone's experiences aren't enough?" Hunter wanted to know. "Is there anything that person can do?"

"Aside from entering at the recommended level and receiving formal training?" Sensei prompted gently.

"Yeah," Hunter said with a sigh. "Aside from that."

"In the past," Sensei said thoughtfully, "students of other disciplines have sought to study the ninja way. Many of them felt that they were above the level of first year, and sought to have their previous training considered when being assessed."

He paused there, and Hunter forced himself not to interrupt.

"The samurai were notorious for this sort of arrogance," Sensei mused, and Hunter's head swung around in surprise. Sensei was gazing off into the distance as though remembering. "In times past, the Wind Academy was known for its easy acceptance of their skills. Sensei Watanabe's predecessor admitted samurai to all levels of the academy--including, on one notable occasion, that of a ninja teacher with no formal ninja training."

Hunter couldn't help asking, "Does he still teach there?"

"No," Sensei said quietly. "Miko Watanabe rose quickly through the ninja ranks, but unfortunately her time as a student and teacher at the Wind Academy ended with her death twenty-three years ago."

Watanabe? He tried to remember what little Cam had volunteered about his family. Twenty-five minus two would be--

"Cam's mom was a ninja?" Hunter demanded incredulously.

Sensei didn't deign to give a direct reply. "Surely you knew of this connection."

Miko Watanabe. Really? He was gonna remember that name. "He told us his mom was a samurai," Hunter said, frowning. "Which... I guess she was, but--he didn't mention the ninja part."

Sensei didn't say anything, and Hunter guessed it would be bad form to quiz his sensei about another student's parents. He tried to remember how they'd gotten onto the subject. "So... the Wind Academy used to let samurai substitute their training for ninja training?"

"Do you have reason to believe this is no longer true?" Sensei asked.

"Yeah," Hunter said grimly. "I do."

"It is at the discretion of the ninja master in charge of the school," Sensei reminded him gently. "At the time Miko Watanabe entered the Wind Academy, the Thunder Academy was not nearly so accepting of samurai. She would not have found such a welcome here."

"What if she'd wanted to train here?" Hunter wanted to know. "We teach way cooler stuff than the Wind Academy. Is there anything she could have done to get accepted here at the same level as at the Wind Academy?"

"Someone who felt their skill level had not been fairly assessed by a particular master could petition an assembly of ninja masters. This usually leads to reassessment, but it is a long and somewhat involved process."

"A petition, huh?" Yeah, "long and involved" sounded about right. "Would this petition involve written testimony from people who could vouch for the petitioner's experience in... well, whatever?"

"If such people could be contacted," Sensei agreed. "Yes."

"What else does it involve?"

"Typically the petitioner must also submit proof of skill and some sort of statement explaining why the original assessment failed. The process can be expedited," Sensei added, "if another ninja is willing to speak for the petitioner."

"Oh yeah?" Hunter looked up just in time to catch Sensei's eye. "How does that work?"

"The ninja is required to present verbal testimony concerning the assessment failure," Sensei told him. "It is not something to be undertaken lightly. Although this should not be the case..." He seemed to be considering his words. "It has been known to generate ill will between the ninja and the master in question."

Hunter's mouth quirked. "I can imagine," he said evenly.

They were heading away from the training fields now, angling back toward the main building and the grounds that surrounded it. They walked in silence for several moments until something occurred to Hunter. "You said the Thunder Academy didn't used to accept samurai," he said, glancing over at Sensei. "There aren't any training here now, are there?"

The hesitation was so brief that Hunter might have imagined it. "There are not."

"Could there be?" Hunter pressed.

Sensei lifted his gaze to the imposing structure that represented the Thunder Academy, still some distance away from where they were. "I do not believe," he said thoughtfully, "that it is my approval your friend wants."

That was probably true, Hunter thought with a sigh.

"However," Sensei continued. "If you believe it matters, you may tell Cameron that the Thunder Academy recognizes his skill, and that he is welcome to teach here at any time."

Hunter had to smile at that. "Thanks, Sensei."

They continued to walk, and he thought about the whole petition situation for a long time. Sensei didn't interrupt him. Finally Hunter decided he should actually make an effort to be social, but the moment he opened his mouth Sensei remarked, "Those who put aside thought for a more convenient time may find that they never think at all."

Hunter snorted. He kept his mouth shut, though, and they completed their rounds in silence. By the time he left the Thunder Academy, he'd decided that he couldn't do anything without talking to Cam. And with that decision, he admitted to himself that he'd already decided to do something. Cam might think that he could take on the whole world alone, but if he did then being a Ranger had taught him exactly nothing.

He got Cam's answering machine twice before he remembered that the university was back in session. Cam was probably off tutoring some hopelessly geeky student somewhere. Which was really annoying for Hunter, since once he decided to do something he didn't like to sit on it for any length of time.

Cam didn't call him back until the next morning. Ridiculously early the next morning, to the point where Hunter almost didn't pick up. But his cell was within reach of the bed, and some obnoxious voice in the back of his mind told him that anyone who called this early was probably someone he really wanted to talk to. So he made the supreme effort of rolling over to fumble around on the floor until he found the phone and lifted it up to his face to squint at the display.

Cam. Of course. "Yeah," he grumbled, flipping the phone open and glaring at the ceiling as he fell back onto his pillow. "D'ya know what time it is?"

"Do you?" Cam's irritatingly awake voice inquired.

"Yeah. Early," he muttered. "I wanna talk to you about something."

"I gathered," Cam said dryly. "Should I call back when you're coherent?"

"Nah..." He blinked hard, shoving himself up on one elbow and swinging his legs over the side of his bed. The action gave him enough leverage to sit up, and he stared hard at the floor while he waited for his vision to clear. "Give me a second."

"When you say 'a second,'" Cam began.

"You got somewhere to be?" Hunter demanded.

"As a matter of fact--" Cam paused dramatically. "No."

No? Really? "Then stop giving me a hard time," Hunter muttered. "Geez. I knew I should've called you at two o'clock this morning."

"I might have picked up," Cam agreed. "That's about the time I got back."

"And you're awake?" Hunter shook his head in disgust, rubbing his eyes and then pushing himself up to his feet. "Freak. Hey--"

He stopped, thought about that, decided that no, he was right. "What were you doing out at two o'clock in the morning?"

"None of your business," Cam replied, not as though he meant it.

"Jules?" Hunter guessed, frowning. Still weird.

"What does 'none of your business' mean to you?" Cam asked.

"What is it with the two of you, anyway? I never would have figured you to go for--" A guy, he thought. "A guy like Jules."

"Why are we talking if you already know everything about me?" Cam's voice had cooled noticeably, and Hunter's brain finally caught up with his mouth.

"Right," he muttered. "None of my business. So, okay," he said, trying to focus, "I wanted to talk to you about this whole petition thing."

Cam's tone didn't change. "I'd rather not."

Nice try. "Are you trying to convince an assembly of ninja masters that your dad screwed up?" Hunter wanted to know.

There was silence from his phone.

"Cam?" he asked, when it dragged a little too long.

"That's not quite the way I'd put it," Cam said finally.

"So put it another way," Hunter told him. "I want to know what's going on."

"Why?" Cam countered. "It doesn't have anything to do with you."

"I was talking to Sensei Omino the other day," Hunter admitted. He was awake enough to realize that mentioning this might get him into deeper trouble, but there wasn't any way around it. "He said another ninja could help you make a case against your dad."

The phone was quiet again, and Hunter decided he was going to need coffee. Fast. He also decided that it would be safest to let Cam respond before he said anything else. He made it into the kitchen and had actually put a new filter in the coffee maker when Cam spoke again.

"Why did you talk to Sensei Omino?" His voice didn't give any hint as to what his expression might look like.

Hunter considered a number of possible answers as he dumped the coffee in and added a mostly random amount of water. "Because I wanted to know what was going on," he said at last, "and I didn't think you'd tell me." That was only the truth.

It provoked another long pause from Cam. "You already helped," he said, as Hunter leaned back against the counter and stared at the coffeemaker. "With your written testimonial. You don't have to do anything else."

"I can't do anything else," Hunter corrected. "If you don't ask me. I don't like this anymore than you do, okay? But you're shutting us all out, trying to do it all yourself. It's like you don't trust us or something."

"It's not about trust." Cam sounded irritable. "It's about my dad, and how mad he already is that I challenged his decision. I don't want to inflict his wrath on anyone else."

"So, you don't trust me to make that decision for myself?" Hunter thought that sometimes just the smell of coffee helped. "'Cause I thought it was pretty easy.

"Let's see," he added, pretending to weigh the options. "Who do I like better... Cam, or Sensei Watanabe? Cam... Sensei Watanabe. Huh. That's really tough." It came out more like a snarl than a joke, and he gritted his teeth to keep from going on. He didn't know why the implied slight annoyed him so much.

"It isn't a popularity contest," Cam snapped. "This is serious, Hunter. My dad could ban you from the Wind Academy for siding with me on this."

"Yeah, that would really suck," Hunter retorted. "The Wind Academy is such a big part of my life."

"This isn't a joke!"

"I know that!" Hunter shouted back

There was no reply.

Hunter hung up. He narrowed his eyes at the phone before tossing it on the counter in disgust. Why did he try to help people, again? Oh yeah. He didn't.

Except Cam.

He braced an elbow on the counter and rested his chin on his fist, watching the coffee dribble down into the pot. He probably shouldn't be allowed to talk to anyone before he'd had coffee. Or maybe--and this was an idea--he should just stop answering the phone in the middle of the night.

He glanced over at the microwave clock and grimaced. Okay, not exactly the middle of the night. But there was a reason he didn't like people waking him up with stuff that mattered. He couldn't even really remember what he'd said that had set Cam off.

There was enough coffee in the pot to pour when his phone rang again. Cam's name appeared on the display, and it only rang once. "What?" Hunter demanded, pressing the phone to his ear. It sounded a little more sullen than he meant it to.

"You don't know anything about my dad's assessment of my abilities," Cam informed him.

Hunter squeezed his eyes shut, telling himself to count to three. Three. It wouldn't take that long. He couldn't focus enough to do it, but trying kept him from speaking, so it was basically the same thing.

Cam doesn't ask for help, he reminded himself. He hadn't called back to insult Hunter. He'd called back to apologize, but Cam didn't apologize, either. So he was trying to win the argument. Trying to... prove that Hunter couldn't help him?

Just like that, it clicked, and Hunter let out a breath. Yeah. That was it.

Cam was lucky Hunter could read his mind.

"Yes, I do," he said clearly. "Want to know what I know? I know he's your dad. He's not objective. I know he promised your mom that you wouldn't be a ninja. That's not gonna be easy to explain to the other masters. And I know that the ninja master in charge of the Thunder Academy thinks you should be allowed to teach--and he hasn't even seen you test.

"Your dad is wrong, Cam. You wouldn't be going to all this trouble if you didn't think so too. But face it--if he'd listen to you, you wouldn't be going through this to begin with. He probably won't listen to me either," Hunter admitted, with a self-conscious shrug that Cam couldn't see, "but the other ninja masters might."

"Maybe," Cam muttered, but that wasn't really the point as far as Hunter was concerned. The point was that Cam was listening.

"Thanks," Cam said at last, and it might have sounded grudging but Hunter would take it. "That would... well, it might make a difference, if you told the masters that."

"Tell me when to show up," Hunter replied.

So three weeks later, he canceled everything he could get out of to show up at the Wind Academy at six o'clock on Friday evening--and potentially to spend the entire weekend, if the assembly agreed to reassess Cam. It wasn't that he needed to be there while Cam tested. If was just that he thought someone should be.

It had been a long time since he'd been at the Wind Academy--since Cam left, in fact--so he made sure he was wearing his ninja uniform before he tried to walk through the holographic entryway. There were guards, even if one usually didn't see them. And they probably wouldn't recognize him.

Everything on the other side was pretty much the way he remembered it. Not the way he was used to it, since he had trained here when the academy was abandoned and mostly in ruins, but the way he remembered from the days following Lothor's defeat. Back when the team still met here, still practiced together, still knew what was going on with each other.

Cam wasn't the only one who was keeping his problems to himself, really. They weren't as close as they used to be. No surprise there: they'd lived and breathed the threat of evil space ninjas for almost an entire year, and there were some bonding experiences you just couldn't duplicate. They'd gone their own ways since, and Hunter figured they had all gotten used to dealing with stuff themselves.

Didn't meant they couldn't stand up for each other, though. He was kind of surprised that Shane hadn't turned up sometime during all of this. He was at the Wind Academy more than not, according to Dustin. He must know something was going down.

Hunter was early, but he figured better early than late. He was following the directions Cam had given him when a ninja in blue trim fell into step beside him. Hunter looked over at her in surprise, tempted to stop and ask if he could help her somehow, but something about her determined casualness made him keep walking.

"Sensei Hunter?" she asked, keeping her gaze fixed in front of her like she was looking for something. Or like she didn't want to be seen talking to him.

The "sensei" was nothing more than a formality, since he didn't teach. He nodded anyway, bemused. "And you are?"

"My name's Nena. Sensei Cameron is in the meditation hut on the far side of the east training grounds."

Hunter raised an eyebrow, considering that. She had called Cam "sensei" too, which meant that either she was trying to make a point, or she had been one of his non-ninja students last winter. "He send you to tell me that?"

"No, Sensei." She still didn't look at him. "I just thought you should know."

Well, that was... cryptic. "Thanks," Hunter said slowly. When she nodded, he was suddenly sure she was about to vanish. "Hey--"

She stopped mid-vanish, looking at him for the first time. "Yes, Sensei?"

"You a friend of Cam's?" he asked, studying her.

Her impassive expression didn't change. "If he'd let me be," she said quietly. "I'm just a student, Sensei. And Sensei Cameron is a good teacher."

"Yeah." He gave her a half-smile. "He is."

She nodded once, and this time he let her go.

He found Cam in the meditation hut, wearing the green-trimmed ninja uniform they'd given him when he first joined the team. Cam didn't look up when he walked in, so he folded his arms and waited. Probably some special preparation ritual or something.

Hunter preferred not to think about things in advance any more than necessary. What happened, happened, and the stuff that went wrong was never the stuff that he worried about beforehand. Better to take it as it came.

Of course, Blake would say he made up for that lack of pre-event worry by brooding over things for days afterward. Maybe that was true, Hunter didn't know. But he definitely wasn't worried about this assembly. Sensei Watanabe had this weird blind spot when it came to his freakishly competent son, and Hunter was pretty sure it was obvious to everyone except him.

"You're early," Cam said at last, standing up gracefully.

"Hi to you too," Hunter replied. "I left time for traffic."

Cam should wear black more often, Hunter thought inconsequentially. He almost said something, then realized how gay it sounded and he kept his mouth shut. Great. Jules was rubbing off on him.

"The logging roads are always jammed on Friday nights," Cam was saying. Totally straight face. Everyone was a comedian.

"Funny. One of your students told me where you were," Hunter informed him. "I thought you'd set watchdogs until I realized she was just doing it out of the goodness of her heart."

That made Cam pause. "Nena."

"That's her," Hunter agreed. "Nice girl. Water ninja?"

Cam gave him an odd look. "Obviously, unless she's wandering around campus in civilian clothes. Why?"

Hunter shrugged. "Just making conversation."

Cam frowned. "I gave her some weapons training after the academies were restored. I guess she hasn't forgotten."

The statement sounded strange to Hunter. "Did you expect her to forget?" he asked, trying to figure out why he would put it like that.

Cam rolled his eyes like Hunter was giving him a hard time for no reason, which he kind of was. But something about it bugged him. When Cam went to push past him without answering, he grabbed his arm.

"Cam." He wasn't sure what he was doing until he said it. "Are you going all... martyr complex on me here?"

Cam glared at him. "What are you talking about?"

Hunter searched his face, but there was no help there. "You know. Like with the Rangers, when you always... I dunno. Pretended we trashed our stuff on purpose, just so you'd have to fix it. Or when you did practice sessions on top of Ops work. You took care of your dad on top of everything, and you never asked for help."

"I didn't need help," Cam said, pulling his arm free. "I did it, didn't I?"

"Do you think you get some big prize if you go through your whole life without needing anything from anyone?" Hunter wanted to know. "If you do more than anyone else, and no one ever thanks you for it, does that make you better than us?"

"Is there a point to this?" Cam demanded.

"You know what your student remembers about you?" Hunter continued. "That you won't let her be your friend. She thinks you're a great teacher, but when she wanted to do something nice for you she came to me because she knew you wouldn't let her."

Cam turned away, shaking his head. "I have to go."

"We all know you're brilliant," Hunter told his back. "None of us have forgotten what you do for us. But the fact that you get nothing in return is your fault. Not ours."

Cam paused just outside, but he didn't turn around. "You know," he said, and Hunter got that he was being mimicked. It sounded stiff, coming from Cam. "Shane came to see me this afternoon."

"Yeah?" Hunter had a bad feeling about this. Maybe because Cam sounded like he didn't care.

"He said my father had asked his advice. About me. About whether he had made the right decision by not letting me teach."

That had to be weird to hear about secondhand.

"Shane told him he didn't want to get involved," Cam said, his back still to Hunter. "He caught up with me to tell me he was staying out of it. That was it, just, 'I want you to know I'm staying out of it.'"

"Wuss," Hunter muttered under his breath.

"I don't know why you're here," Cam said, as though he hadn't spoken. "But not everyone's like you, Hunter. So don't tell me how to handle my own life."

He walked off without another word, and Hunter watched him go until it occurred to him that Cam's sense of time was way better than his. And he didn't have a watch. If an assembly of ninja masters was supposed to convene at seven o'clock, you could bet it would convene at seven. Not six fifty-nine, and not seven-oh-one... he'd better go.

The assembly was weirdly anti-climactic. Maybe the masters figured that anyone willing to go through all that paperwork and evidence and stuff had to be pretty serious. Whatever it was, the whole process took a little over an hour and then they were setting up Cam's testing times for the next day.

Sensei Omino was there, along with two other masters that Hunter recognized. The rest of them weren't ninjas he knew, which actually made them easier to talk to. It was hard to say whether his testimony influenced them either way, but Cam would get his reassessment and that was what mattered.

Hunter didn't really want to go home afterward. Especially considering how early he'd have to be there the next morning. But he didn't have any place to stay on academy grounds, and he didn't feel like asking Sensei Watanabe to find one for him.

Cam wouldn't be going home. But Hunter couldn't find him, either, and he wondered if that was on purpose. He figured it was possible Cam was avoiding him. Or maybe he just didn't see any point in talking more. Maybe it didn't even occur to him that Hunter would want to.

He didn't, not really, he just felt like he should be doing something. Older brother syndrome, Blake called it. The oldest sibling always took responsibility for stuff. Even stuff that had nothing to do with them, according to his bro.

He was about to give up when Cam's water ninja showed up again. He heard her before he saw her, and it kind of creeped him out to hear his name come from a disembodied shadow. She appeared as soon as he looked around, but still... she was good at that.

"It's good," Hunter told her, without waiting for her to ask. "He gets tested tomorrow."

She smiled. "That is good news. Are you planning to stay to see him assessed?"

"I'm planning to come back to see him assessed," Hunter grumbled. "I don't know anyone here well enough to ask for a guest room. Except Sensei Watanabe, and I don't think he's going to be doing me any favors for a while."

"I can get you a guest room," Nena offered unexpectedly. "Do you know your way around the campus?"

He thought he remembered the basics. He caught her subtly pointing out the important stuff as they passed it, though, and he grinned when he realized what she was doing. By commenting on the differences between campus structures before and after Lothor, the new things that had been added, or asking him casual questions about how the Thunder Academy compared, she gave him a tour without seeming to doubt his memory. Very sneaky. She must have learned that from Cam.

She did get him a room, which he appreciated even more than her disguised tour, and then she left him alone. He set the alarm on his phone to wake him up at five and then he tried to get some sleep. His body protested the early bedtime, but it wasn't gonna like sunrise any better if he stayed up till midnight. He lay in bed and stared at the ceiling for a long time, trying not to think.

The next morning was even stranger than the night before had been. He rolled out of bed as soon as his phone started chiming at him, slid back into his ninja uniform, and cursed the academies for being obsessed with daybreak. He was used to being on the road, so he'd slept fine. But he wasn't used to waking up at five in the morning, and there was gonna be trouble if the dining hall didn't have coffee.

He saw two of the masters from the assembly in the dining hall. He saw Nena, eating with a couple of other students and apparently totally distracted by their conversation. He caught a glimpse of Sensei Watanabe, but by the time he'd finished adding cream and four sugars to his coffee the head of the Wind Academy was gone.

He didn't see Cam. Maybe that wasn't so strange. Cam wasn't big on breakfast, if he remembered right. But it was going to be a long day, and Hunter would have wanted food beforehand.

The reassessment began at six. It was possible that he was only allowed to watch because he'd been at the assembly the night before. He wasn't sure, and he wasn't about to ask in case someone changed their mind. All it would take was one master telling him to get lost, and it would be a really long, boring day of waiting at the Wind Academy.

As it was, at least he got to see what was going on. He never got to see Cam practice anymore, so that part was cool. Cam was good. Like, visually impressive good, on top of being all skilled and stuff. He was fun to watch.

They took a break in the middle of the morning. Hunter hung around when the ninja masters left, and Cam paid no attention to him until he got right in his face. "Hey," Hunter said deliberately. "You looked good."

Cam looked up like he was surprised, and he really did seem startled to see Hunter standing there. "What are you doing here?" he asked, and up close the physical toll the morning had taken on him was easier to see. He was fine, but he was working at it. No question.

"Watching you," Hunter replied, suiting actions to words. "Nena got me a room last night so I wouldn't have to come back."

Cam just stared at him. "You were here overnight?"

Hunter shrugged. He'd told Cam he was going to stay. He had, hadn't he? He couldn't actually remember the conversation, but he was pretty sure it must have happened at some point. "Sure. Didn't want to miss anything."

He was kidding, but Cam didn't smile. "I didn't know that," he said at last. "You didn't have to do that."

"Trust me, I know the difference between what I have to do and what I don't," Hunter told him. "I also know you skipped breakfast. You want to eat anything now?"

"Actually... I am kind of hungry." Cam said it like it was a big surprise to him, and Hunter was careful not to make fun of him for it. Maybe later.

"Cool," Hunter said instead. "I'll come with you." Cause there were so many other interesting things he could be doing at the Wind Academy on a Saturday morning.

This time he didn't see anyone he recognized in the dining hall. Cam ate, Hunter got more coffee, and they didn't really talk. Hunter wouldn't be able to watch the second half of the morning, since it was all about mental discipline and would probably be indoors, so he wished Cam good luck before he took off again.

Hunter stayed in the dining hall a little while longer. He didn't have anywhere else to go, and Cam probably didn't need an escort. Probably. Actually, when he was wearing that ninja uniform he probably did, since the guy had kind of a history of getting into trouble when left alone. But he should be safe enough on academy grounds.

Thinking back made Hunter realize that was totally untrue, so he decided to stop thinking about it. Lothor was gone. Whatever interest he had in Cam was gone with him. And if one of his nieces was still around to drive Cam crazy, well, Marah for Lothor was a pretty fair trade as far as Hunter was concerned.

"Good morning, Hunter." Sensei Watanabe's voice surprised him, and he looked up to see the head of the academy standing next to his table. "May I join you?"

The politeness didn't fool him, but he gestured at the table in vague acceptance. "Please do, Sensei."

Sensei took a seat across from him, arranging his robes as he sat without seeming to make a production of it. Hunter guessed that was something that came with practice. He wondered if Shane was that casual at it yet.

"Thank you," Sensei was saying. "I trust your team is doing well?"

His team--Factory Blue? "It's the off season, Sensei," he said warily.

"The well-being of a team is not determined solely by their performance in competition," Sensei reminded him.

Was there a point to this, Hunter wondered? "The team is doing fine, Sensei."

Sensei inclined his head. "I appreciate your support of my son in recent events."

See, in the mind of a ninja master, there had probably been a logical segue in there somewhere. In fact, a ninja master probably thought that last sentence made sense by itself. All evidence to the contrary.

"Sensei," he began, trying to find a way to say it that didn't sound overtly hostile. "With all due respect? It's not my support he wants."

"Cameron has always had my support," Sensei said calmly.

Could have fooled me, Hunter thought.

"It is not easy to be the son of a ninja master," Sensei continued. "Especially when one wishes to follow in his footsteps. If there have sometimes been what seem unnecessary obstacles in Cameron's path, it is only because I wished for him to make his own decisions instead of trying to be what he thought I wanted for him."

"Yeah, well, maybe it gets to a point where you have to actually let him to make his own decisions," Hunter told him. "There's got to be some kind of happy medium between telling him what to do and telling him what not to do. Sensei," he added belatedly.

"And have you found this middle ground?" Sensei inquired.

Hunter frowned. Something about the cool tone put Hunter on guard. "I don't tell Cam what to do, Sensei."

"It would seem that you exert considerable influence over his actions," Sensei observed. "Whether you directly dictate them or not, it is clear that he respects your counsel."

This was the first he'd heard of it. "Cam doesn't listen to me, Sensei. I'm lucky when I can figure out what he's doing, let alone give him advice."

"I do not believe this is true."

Was Sensei accusing him of lying, Hunter wondered? Or was he just being paranoid? In another context, it could almost have been a compliment, but he was pretty sure this wasn't that context.

"It is clear to me," Sensei was saying, "as perhaps it is not to you, that my son has gone to great lengths to imitate your lifestyle."

It was the word "lifestyle" that gave him his first clue what this was really about. He kept his mouth shut, fuming inwardly but not about to give Sensei anything else to use against him. If he had something to say, he was gonna have to spell it out.

"Or perhaps it is clear to you?" Sensei suggested smoothly.

Between gritted teeth, Hunter repeated, "I do not tell Cam what to do."

"He left the academy at your urging," Sensei remarked. "He follows your career with some amount of envy. And recently, he has begun to exhibit a similar preference for the company of men."

He really couldn't believe he was hearing this. "Sensei, I hate to break it to you, but your son makes his own calls. I was just as surprised as you when Cam left the Wind Academy, and if you think he has any idea what I do then you don't know him as well as you think.

"Maybe you didn't notice," Hunter added, his anger mounting, "but Cam got pretty badly burned by girls last semester. I don't know who told you being gay was contagious, but it's not so weird that he wants to play the field for a while, maybe check out what the other side has to offer. It's not like it's gonna last."

At least he, he didn't think it would. How was he supposed to know what Cam was doing? Sensei didn't answer right away, and Hunter figured that anything he could come up with would only be bad, so he decided to get out while he could.

"Excuse me," he said, picking up his coffee cup before standing. "Sensei." The honorific wasn't really an afterthought, but he didn't care that it came out sounding that way. He turned in his cup and left the dining hall without looking back.

He wandered around campus for a while after that, trying to decide what to do with himself. It wouldn't kill him to practice. It wouldn't really hold his attention, either. So he kept wandering, looking in on a class, checking out the tech wing when he stumbled over it by accident, wondering what Sensei thought he was doing.

That was the real question, wasn't it. Why had Sensei come to see Hunter in the first place? He hadn't thought he'd see Cam's dad at all this weekend. There were two obvious answers: either he was trying to warn Hunter away from his son, or he was trying to justify himself to his son's friend.

Neither reaction seemed particularly fitting for a ninja master, but if there was one thing the Rangers had taught Hunter, it was that they were all human first and ninjas second. No one was perfect. And family meant something different to all of them.

He didn't see Cam again until that afternoon. Cam had to take the written test alone, but he must have finished early because Hunter saw him talking to Nena just after two-thirty. He drifted in their direction.

Cam didn't acknowledge him at all, although Nena glanced in his direction briefly. She took the first opportunity to leave, but Cam still didn't look at him. He just stared after her until Hunter got tired of being ignored and demanded, "Well?"

That was all it took to make Cam turn on him. "What the fuck did you say to my father?" he hissed, keeping his voice quiet in the middle of a mostly empty lawn.

"What?" Hunter frowned. "When, this morning? He ambushed me in the dining hall right after you left. Why?"

"What did you say?" Cam insisted. "He thinks you've turned me gay! I didn't tell him about Jules--how does he even know about that?"

"I didn't tell him," Hunter protested. "I figured you must have. Maybe Shane told him, I don't know."

"What did you tell him?" Cam kept his voice low but he wasn't giving up. "Apparently I'm going through some sort of phase because I'm having trouble with girls. Where did he get that idea?"

Split-second decision, to confess or brush it off. "I told him you'd been burned," Hunter admitted. "I figured he already knew, right? He was blaming me, I got mad, I shouldn't have said anything." He shifted a little, folding his arms. "Sorry."

"Blaming you for what?" Cam wanted to know. "What do you have to do with any of this? I don't even know why he was talking to you."

"Yeah, well, me neither," Hunter muttered. "He thinks I'm, I dunno, telling you what to do or something. I told him that was crazy and I left. Haven't seen him since.

"How's the testing going?" he added, before Cam could answer. "Is he even allowed to talk to you while you're being reassessed?"

Cam shrugged irritably, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm done. The masters are meeting to discuss my performance. My dad caught up with me after the written section, talking cryptically about making my own decisions or something."

"So?" Hunter suddenly realized they were mirroring each other's positions, and he dropped his arms uncomfortably. "How'd you do?"

Cam gave him a weird look. "That's what the masters are deciding," he said, with exaggerated patience. "I have to stay on campus until they're done."

"Well, how do you think you did?" Hunter countered, mimicking his patronizing attitude. "You're as good a judge as they are."

"My dad obviously doesn't agree," Cam said dryly.

"You're dad's not right about everything," Hunter reminded him.

Cam sighed, closing his eyes, and for the first time Hunter had some clue of how hard this had been for him. Not just the assessment itself, but challenging his father in the first place, having to face him after that challenge, and now being stuck in his dad's territory while an assembly of ninja masters decided between them.

"Hey," Hunter said abruptly. "You did a good thing, here. Okay? Come on and relax or something. Or pretend to, anyway. You want to eat something?"

Cam just shook his head. He didn't open his eyes, and Hunter was starting to get worried. This wasn't Cam's typical indignation over some perceived slight, or his carefully constructed apathy over a real one. This was... different. Foreign. Kind of creepy, if Cam didn't snap out of it soon. What was he thinking?

"Why does he do this to me?" Cam whispered. Then he opened his eyes, shook his head, and the moment was gone almost before Hunter registered it. "I'm going to go get something to drink."

"Wait." Hunter had no idea what to say. "I'll get it. Sit down, okay? I'll be right back."

It surprised him when Cam actually nodded, turning away to stare off into the distance. Okay. Well, he hadn't expected that, but he could deal with it. Maybe Cam just didn't want to talk to anyone for a little while.

Operating on that assumption, Hunter decided not to hurry on his way to the dining hall. He wandered up the nearest path, took a slight detour on another, and pretended he didn't have anything better to be doing this afternoon. He grabbed a couple of reusable water bottles from the dining hall, one with regular water and the other fortified, since Cam hadn't actually expressed a preference, and then made his slow way back to the place where he'd left Cam.

He found Cam a little distance away. He was standing in a shaded meditation alcove near one of the ornamental gardens. His eyes were still focused on something far away, or maybe not on anything at all, but he looked around when Hunter joined him and he seemed pretty composed. Hunter passed him the fortified water, and Cam took it without question.

Hunter watched as he pulled the top open and took a drink. He didn't look surprised at the taste. Probably needed all the vitamins and minerals he could get, after today.

"Thanks," Cam said, lowering the water bottle.

"Sure." For lack of anything better to do, Hunter took a drink from the other bottle and joined Cam in contemplation of the mountain. They stood in silence for several minutes, but it was more comfortable than he'd expected.

"If I ever have a son," Cam said suddenly. "I want you to do me a favor."

Hunter glanced over at him in surprise. "What?"

"Don't let me hold him back," Cam told the garden in front of them. "Don't let me hold him back just to make him prove himself."

Hunter didn't know what to say to that, so he didn't say anything.

Cam shook his head, lifting the water bottle to take another drink. "The kid'll probably have enough problems without his father doubting him anyway," he muttered.

He doesn't doubt you, Cam. That was what he wanted to say, but he didn't know for sure that it was true and he didn't think it was what Cam wanted to hear either way. It was the easy thing to say, but not necessarily the right one.

"I won't," Hunter said at last. It was a hell of a promise to make, given that he couldn't really even envision the future that was tomorrow, let alone the future that was Cam with kids. But maybe it was what Cam needed to hear.

He saw Cam smile a little, and he lifted his water bottle in Hunter's direction. And maybe Hunter really could read his mind, because he knew what Cam meant by that. He lifted his own water bottle, tapped the plastic top against Cam's, and as one they both took another swallow of water.

Promise made. He wondered if he would ever look back on this day and laugh at the way things turned out. Would Cam really end up with kids? Would Hunter ever know them well enough to keep his word? It didn't really matter, Hunter figured, as long as Cam didn't forget. He was already harder on himself than anyone else ever would be.

They were still there, in the meditation alcove, when the gong rang out across campus and summoned Cam back to the assembly. The quick decision made Hunter a little nervous, but he told himself it was a good thing. Cam was obviously qualified. There shouldn't have been any discussion.

Hunter hung back when they reached the assembly, taking Cam's water bottle from him before he went out to face the ninja masters. He watched a pronouncement that was decidedly in Cam's favor. Reassessment reversed the original master's decision--Cam was qualified to teach at any ninja academy, formal training or not.

He smiled to himself when Cam bowed. It wouldn't fix his relationship with his father. But maybe it would convince him of what the rest of them already knew: he was just as capable as any of the Rangers.

The assembly dissolved quickly, which was probably some part of the rules. They weren't allowed to take more than forty-eight hours to reach a decision, and once the decision had been made they didn't get to rehash it. Hunter couldn't tell if Cam was glad of that or not, since he was left alone in the wake of what was probably one of the most intense ninja experiences there was.

He headed straight for Hunter when it was over. Hunter tried not to smile at that, too, because he was thinking, well, what do you know? He is trainable. It was a silly thought, and he figured Cam wouldn't appreciate it right now. Maybe later.

"Way to go," he said, when Cam was close enough to hear him. He offered the water bottle again, and Cam took it automatically. "So you can teach."

"I could teach before," Cam countered. "They just wouldn't let me."

That was it. He had to grin. Good to see Cam getting his attitude back. "You gonna stick around here, or what?"

Cam gave him an unfathomable look. "I've seen enough of the Wind Academy today to last me the rest of the year."

"Want a ride, then?" He didn't know how Cam had gotten here. Maybe he already had a ride out. "I don't know about you," Hunter added, "but I'm hungry. I could go for some food."

Cam shook his head. "If it's not take-out, you're on your own. I'm not going anywhere but home after that."

Hunter considered. Had that been an invitation? It really sounded like it. He decided to find out. "Take-out it is," he agreed. "Name your place."

Cam picked a Chinese restaurant near the university campus, and Hunter concluded that it had in fact been an invitation. So they headed for the holographic entryway, not even bothering to return their water bottles first. It did occur to Hunter, but he wasn't going to interrupt Cam's momentum. The guy was actually looking more tired by the minute.

He thought he saw Sensei Watanabe on the path by the gate as they left, but when he looked again there was no one there. Didn't mean there hadn't been, of course. Not when it came to ninjas. But that might be the absolute last thing that Cam needed, so Hunter didn't say anything.

The portal flashed closed behind them. No matter what Cam said, Hunter didn't expect that day to be the last either of them saw of the Wind Academy. He didn't realize until later that Cam and his father had stopped speaking to each other. Cam's teaching badge, so hard won, sat in his closet with his ninja uniform. There was no reason for Hunter to be on campus without Cam, and somehow the months slid away and the academy just never regained its former level of importance.

The night after the assessment, they ate Chinese food at Cam's apartment and talked about anything except ninjas. Hunter hung out until Cam fell asleep during an old samurai movie, then decided he couldn't leave without picking up. He couldn't do that without waking Cam, and he wasn't gonna leave everything for Cam to deal with in the morning, so he stretched out on the floor and made himself comfortable.

He stared at the ceiling for a long time, but it had been an early morning for him too. He drifted off to sleep eventually, waking up every time he heard Cam move. The couch was probably more comfortable than the floor, but Hunter didn't begrudge him the advantage. He'd earned it. No question.

Cam was quiet and grumpy in the morning, so Hunter took off as soon as he'd cleared off the table. And started some coffee. It always helped him, and Cam didn't complain, so he left the coffeemaker percolating while he let himself out.

"Hey--" Cam's voice caught him just as he was opening the door.

He paused, hand on the doorknob. "Yeah?"

"Thanks," Cam said. Right now, he sounded way more toward the quiet than the grumpy.

"Sure." Hunter glanced back at the disheveled figure standing in the doorway to the bathroom. "See ya around, Cam."

Cam just looked at him. He figured that was as much as he could expect, so he stepped outside and closed the door behind him. The stairs were still in shadow, but the grey light of dawn had penetrated everywhere else as he made his way to the truck. Strange weekend, he decided, getting in and starting it up.

He went in search of his own coffee, then drove home to change and get something to eat. He wanted to call Blake, but it was too early, so he sat down on the couch and caught up on ESPN's recap of the weekend thus far. Despite the coffee, he dozed off. As it turned out, the nap made the rest of the day way easier.

He did catch Blake, finally, a little after noon. He gave his bro the condensed version, leaving out the personal stuff as much as possible. Then he headed downtown, checking in to Storm Chargers' bike shed to pull out the ol' number eleven. His old bike was in constant need of maintenance these days, and there was nothing that would get his mind off of things faster.

It was the last calm day he had for a while. That was the week that Cam broke up with Jules, which Hunter had to hear about from Charlie, and it was also the week that a new freestyle trick finally landed Dustin in the hospital. He'd never realized how central Dustin was to their dynamic, new or old, until he was laid up for days.

Marah flipped out. Shane got in Hunter's face. Tori called him every night for an update, claiming she didn't trust Dustin to tell her the truth. Cam stayed away entirely, until Hunter finally called him and told him to get down to the hospital during visiting hours or else.

Unfortunately, Cam's visit overlapped with Shane's--which, in retrospect, might have been what he was trying to avoid--and that was when things really fell apart. For the first time, Cam blew up. He chewed out Shane, which was possibly fair, Dustin, which definitely wasn't, and Marah, who had just started to cry when Hunter walked in.

Kapri was right behind him. She took one look at her sister and started to screech. Cam, to everyone's surprise, shouted right back at her, and Hunter stood there in shock as everything went straight to hell.