Hunter was pretty sure the high point of his day had been that coffee. Everything had gone downhill after that. Not just compared to the coffee, either, although it had been pretty good. But the screwiness of his day wasn't relative.

Almost immediately, Cam had managed to treat Blake like crap and get away with it by telling Hunter to mind his own business. At the time it had seemed way more reasonable than it did now. He blamed it on the early hour, but he would be hearing about that later. If Blake remembered it after everything that had happened at the track.

Not only had Cam scared off everyone Hunter normally associated with by gluing himself to Hunter's side and glaring--constantly--but he had forced a very public display of affection that Hunter hadn't had time to regret yet. Blake had shown up with a crazy story about Tori, a nameless alien had shown up with kelzaks that seemed intent on separating them, and none of the Rangers had bought a clue until it was too late.

Every last one of those kelzaks had converged on Cam and he was gone before they realized just how brazen Lothor could be. He hadn't waited to catch Cam alone at all. He had set up the situation he wanted and they hadn't even seen it coming.

The alien, minus its kelzak reinforcements, kept the rest of the team busy by growing to a ridiculous size that had only one purpose: to prevent them from going after Cam. Hunter didn't find out until later that Marah had still been with Dustin when the attack began, and he had "protected" her by dropping her at Ninja Ops on his way to his zord. If anything about Cam's return could have made the day worse, it did--when he showed up in the company of Marah's sister.

"It wasn't sabotage, I swear it wasn't!" Marah was babbling even before the Rangers descended on Ninja Ops, one defeated alien left behind and way too many undefeated aliens still ahead. Starting with this one.

"Yeah, she totally had to do it because we had this plan and if she hadn't Cam would have been stuck on the ship forever--" The only thing that could make Kapri pause was running out of breath, and it didn't happen often enough as far as Hunter was concerned.

"It's true, they figured it out days ago." Dustin wasn't trying to talk over them so much as he was trying to explain himself to Shane, who didn't look any happier than Hunter felt, but at least Shane was listening.

Hunter didn't feel like listening right now. Where was Sensei? This was chaos. His bro was safe and Cam was back but those were first impressions that needed serious confirmation. And were they a Ranger short?

"I need to learn to fight as a wolf." His attention narrowed to Cam's voice the moment he spoke, and Hunter forgot to count. "Do you trust me enough to help me with that?"

Hunter stared at him. Cam's eyes were glowing, his sunglasses were gone, and he was very, very focused. On Hunter. Hunter didn't get it. He couldn't look away, either. Couldn't do much of anything, actually. So he just stared.

"It's important," Cam continued. His voice was low, but Hunter had no trouble hearing him. Cam was the only thing he was hearing, now. "There are things the wolf can do that I can't, but that doesn't help me when I don't have the control to pull them off."

Hunter dropped his hand the second he realized he was reaching for Cam, but it was too late. Cam saw the gesture, gaze flicking to his hand and then back to his face, and he just waited. So now they were standing there in the middle of a very loud room, staring at each other, without even saying anything. Great.

"You all right?" Hunter blurted out. No one was paying any attention to them. Probably. He still didn't care enough to look at anyone but Cam, so what did he know?

Cam should have said something sarcastic then. He should have had a cutting reply on the tip of his tongue, something so obvious that it was reassuring, something that meant Cam was fine--the guy he had always been. Unaffected by whatever had just happened.

But no matter what had happened, Cam wasn't the guy he had always been. His next words only reminded Hunter that he had changed. "Do I look all right?" he said simply. Not sarcastically. Almost curiously, like he wanted to know the answer.

He looked hot. Cam looked like he had just figured out what he wanted, like for once he didn't care what anyone else thought. He looked intense in a way that he normally didn't unless he was staring at a computer. Focused on something he would figure out or die trying.

Focused on Hunter.

Hunter was pretty sure that any move he made here in Ninja Ops would be a bad idea. He was equally sure that anything he could say would be worse. So he didn't say anything. He put an awkward hand on Cam's shoulder and just hoped for the best. It was a mostly meaningless gesture until Cam took it as an invitation and stepped forward to wrap his arms around Hunter.

Shit. Not what he had expected. No way was anyone gonna miss this. It was obvious as hell and since when did Cam not care? Since when did Cam forget that Shane and Dustin could make their lives miserable with very little effort? Since when did Cam think his dad would overlook any more physical affection from them than he did from Blake and Tori?

Since when did Cam get himself kidnapped in full view of everyone who should have been able to keep him safe? Hunter was hugging him back before he'd really even thought through the consequences, and when he did they weren't enough to make him let go. Which was good, since it looked like letting go wasn't really an option at this point.

"Where's Tori?" Blake's question cut through the chatter around them. Just like that, the others' voices were real again, understandable, urgent, and yeah, he was standing in the middle of their command center hugging Cam but the team definitely had bigger problems right now.

"I don't know!" Kapri exclaimed.

At the same time, Shane said, "She should have been back here by now. Cam, can you--"

Shane stopped just as Hunter let go of Cam, and whether it was because he realized what Cam was doing or something else they would never know, because Tori's voice answered before anyone else could. "She's right here," the Blue Ranger declared from the stairs.

It was actually the Blue Ranger, and that made Hunter frown. It turned out it was easier to direct his confusion at her than it was to send it Cam's way, though, so he demanded, "What's with the suit?"

"Ooh, that's a fashion nightmare," Kapri commented, disdain evident in her voice.

"So much better in purple," Marah agreed.

"Shut up," Blake snapped, folding his arms and glaring at them for good measure before he turned a more solicitous tone on his girlfriend. "You all right, Tor?"

She'd paused at the bottom of the stairs. Even as Blake asked, her Ranger uniform disappeared, and it was just Tori standing there looking uncertain. The expression vanished almost as quickly as the suit, though, and next thing they knew she was throwing Kapri's disgusted look right back at her. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh," Kapri said, with an utterly unconvincing effort at nonchalance. "Saving my cousin's life."

"Like you did it all by yourself!" Marah exclaimed indignantly.

"Neither of you were worried about me," Cam interrupted. "You were worried about yourselves. By all rights, we should send you back to Lothor right now."

This time it wasn't just Marah and Kapri who clamored to protest--Dustin jumped in with his own objections, and Cam held up a hand. It didn't do any good, so he just spoke over them. "I said should," he reminded the room loudly. "Not will."

Their protests turned to thanks, except for Dustin, who gave Cam a thoughtful look and said nothing. No one else got a chance to ask him what was going on, because Sensei's habitat cart rolled into the room and even Marah and Kapri shut up at that point. They were all quiet, in fact, moving out of the way so he could roll right up to Cam.

"It seems that Marah was telling the truth," Sensei said, after what seemed like a strangely long moment of silence. "I am glad to see that you are well, Cam."

"Yeah, me too," Cam agreed. "Thanks, Dad."

Okay, what? What had Marah done? Why had Cam shown up with Kapri? And why was Tori shushing Blake? Hunter could see them over there, Blake trying to whisper something to her and her totally brushing him off. Something was going on there, no question. And he had learned not to ignore Tori Problems, since anything that went wrong in Blake's love life lately had a weird tendency to affect the rest of the team.

Hunter was too slow to get any of his questions out, but he heard Shane start at least the first one before Cam continued, "Speaking of telling the truth..."

Oh. No. He didn't like the sound of that at all.

"Lothor seems to think he's an alien," Cam said conversationally.

Hunter blinked. What?

"What?" Shane echoed aloud.

"Well, duh," Marah and Kapri chorused, rolling their eyes at each other in perfect synch. The two of them weren't just annoying. They were seriously disturbing.

"He can't be," Tori put in, ignoring the Terrible Twosome. "I mean, you're twins, right?"

This last seemed to be addressed to Sensei. "Lothor is no kin of mine," he replied gravely. "Not anymore."

Yeah, they'd heard that before. But her point stood. If Lothor was an alien, then that meant that Sensei was an alien too. Which made Cam half-human at best. Which he obviously wasn't.

Was. Human, that is. He was human. Cam was human, so Sensei was human, so Lothor was either lying or deluded about the alien thing. So he was crazy. No shock there.

"He is, however," Sensei continued, "completely truthful when he asserts that he is not of Earth origin."

"Excuse me?" Hunter's protest was drowned out by Tori's disbelief and Shane's bark of laughter. Dustin got in on it too, but in typical Dustin style, he refused to jump to conclusions.

"Dude, are you saying that Lothor's an alien?" Dustin wanted to know.

"That is what I am saying," Sensei agreed slowly. "The answer to your most logical follow-up question is also yes. I believe you would call it... something of a family secret."

Dustin asked the question anyway. "So does that, like, make you an alien too?"

The guinea pig in senseis' robes inclined his head solemnly. At least, as solemn as a guinea pig standing on two legs and wearing clothes could be. He was looking at his son now, and Hunter couldn't help following suit.

The crack was probably inevitable, and in retrospect, Hunter should have expected it to be Blake that delivered it. "Explains a few things about Cam, then," his brother quipped.

"I knew being smart didn't cover everything," Shane added, a smirk on his face.

Cam didn't so much as twitch, and if Hunter had thought he was really as calm as he looked then he wouldn't have said anything. But Cam wasn't calm, he was angry and hurt and Hunter could feel it somehow, as clearly as his own impatience. He didn't know how he knew, and right now, he didn't care.

"Hey," he snapped. He glared at anyone who looked like they might be about to speak. "Cam saves our lives every other week, so maybe you should keep the snide remarks to yourselves."

"And maybe we should have a little family chat," Cam said evenly. He hadn't taken his eyes off of Sensei. "Cousins included."

"I'm sure the rest of you have some clean up work to do." Sensei's gaze swept over them, and maybe it was Hunter's imagination but he thought he got the eye a little longer than anyone else. "You must still have things that require your attention at the track?"

There were half-hearted agreements from his students, even from Blake, but Hunter wasn't going anywhere until Cam told him to. He held his ground while Kapri started to whine about something, Cam told her to stop, Sensei told her to stop, and she paid no attention to either of them. Yeah, she'd be really fun to have around more.

Hunter caught Blake's questioning look at the bottom of the stairs and shook his head. Quick, subtle, enough to make Blake nod in understanding and enough to draw Cam's attention at the same time. Cam just raised his eyebrows at Hunter, waiting.

"Want help?" Hunter asked under his breath. Probably loud enough that anyone could hear, but it had to be pretty clear he wasn't asking their permission. It was Cam's call.

To his surprise, Cam's expression lightened a little. "Ask me again later," he murmured, ignoring his father and cousins just as completely.

Okay. Message received. "If I don't hear from you in an hour," he said, still talking to Cam but frowning over at Marah and Kapri, "there's gonna be trouble. Just so you know."

"More trouble," Cam corrected dryly. "Or so one presumes."

Hunter felt his mouth quirk upwards in acknowledgement. "Yeah. That."

Cam nodded, and that was enough for him. Message received, yeah. It really was a family thing. But message delivered, too. Cam's business was his business, and if they messed with him they messed with Hunter.

He headed for the stairs, and he thought he could feel Sensei's stare on him the entire way.

The rest of the team was waiting just outside the entrance. At first he thought they were waiting for him, but Tori was the center of attention when he stepped into the light. Something about her zord had taken her longer than she'd expected, she was saying.

"Dude, they practically dock themselves," Dustin reminded her. "How can that take longer than you expect? We do it all the time."

"Did you have to read it a story?" Shane wanted to know. "Tell it that it's a good dolphin?"

"Shut up," Tori complained, but she was smiling in that way she had that was just short of laughing. Whatever was going on, at least she thought they were funny. After the alien jokes, Hunter wasn't so sure.

"Hey, bro." Blake reached out to knock fists with him as he joined the group. "They kick you out, too?"

The way he asked rankled, even if it wasn't meant to, but Hunter had to admit it was the truth. "Basically," he agreed. "Didn't expect to see all of you still here."

"Just ragging on Tori for being the last one back to Ops," Shane put in, nudging her with his shoulder. She bumped him right back, probably used to their teasing by now.

"And hey, you, for being the last one out," Dustin said. It was a typically Dustin remark, in that it was a little too obvious for comfort but didn't make any sense taken out of context.

Blake got it too. "Yeah, what do you know about this alien thing?" he wanted to know. "You and Cam are pretty tight lately."

"Nothing," Hunter said shortly. "I'm just as surprised as you are."

"It makes sense," Tori pointed out. "If Cam didn't even know..."

"You'd think Sensei would have told him or something," Dustin said. "I mean, keeping a secret like that--that's pretty harsh."

Yeah. That was one word for it. He didn't realize he'd said it aloud until they all turned to look at him. Hunter shrugged uncomfortably. "I just think Sensei's got some explaining to do," he muttered. "That's all."

"And we've got some picking up to do," Blake added, getting everyone's attention. It was reassuring, in its own way. No matter what had gone down with Cam, his bro still had his back. "We better get going."

"Maybe on the way you can tell us what Marah's up to," Shane said, clapping Dustin on the shoulder as they turned to leave. "What's that all about?"

"Yeah, since when does she miss a fight?" Tori didn't look like she thought there was anything Marah could do to prove herself, and this latest whatever-it-was was no exception. "And why did you take her to Ninja Ops, anyway?"

"Lothor totally set her up," Dustin protested. "He knew she was with me and he sent that thing anyway. He's always waited for her to get back to the ship before--this time he didn't care. He must have figured out what she was doing and decided to, I dunno, get her with us, I guess."

"Yeah, or he was just waiting for you to feel sorry for her so he could get someone on the inside," Shane warned. "She's played us before, man."

"I told you, that was an accident," Dustin insisted. "Lothor's after her now. She needs our protection.

"Besides," he added, like it was just an afterthought. "Sensei told me to bring her to Ops."

"Sensei said what?" Shane demanded.

At the same time, Tori repeated, "Wait, Sensei said that?"

"No way," Blake said. "He did not tell you to bring that freak into Ninja Ops."

"Guess that makes it easier to believe the alien thing," Hunter muttered. He kind of wished he hadn't been listening. "Maybe Sensei figures they have to stick together."

That shut them all up. And as much as he'd wished he hadn't been listening, now he wished he hadn't said anything. He didn't care so much about Sensei, but he didn't really want to lump Cam in with the rest of the crazies.

Suddenly, like he'd just realized what Blake had said, Dustin came to Marah's defense. "She's not a freak, all right? She's just confused."

"Yeah, about which side she's on," Blake agreed.

"If Sensei trusts her," Shane said, shaking his head, "that's good enough for me." His tone said it wasn't at all, but Hunter figured that--appearances aside--it probably was. Shane had a lot of respect for Sensei Watanabe, even if he did have a weird way of showing it sometimes.

"Me too," Tori said, in the same tone. Unlike Shane, she probably liked Cam's dad more than she respected him, and sometimes it showed. "I guess."

Dustin looked at Blake, but he just shrugged. "Whatever," he said.

Hunter didn't bother to answer. He was reserving judgement until Cam explained the Kapri thing. He didn't think it would be too hard to get Lothor to kidnap both the Strange Sisters back if he didn't like what he heard.

Unfortunately, he didn't get to hear the explanation for quite a while. It wasn't that there was that much to do at the track, especially since he hadn't actually ridden his bike that morning and he wasn't gonna let Blake talk him into practice laps now. Everyone was staring at him, and if no one had the guts to say anything to his face, he could still hear them thinking it: Hunter is gay.

Like he cared. Let 'em think whatever they wanted. He just didn't really want to be around while they did it. And he didn't want to hear about it here when someone finally got around to mentioning it to his friends.

So he spent very little time at the track, marginally more time putting his bike away, and then skulked around the grounds of the Wind Academy until Cam's hour was up. No surprise that he didn't hear from anyone in the Watanabe family by that time, no matter his threats on the subject. In reality, he thought he'd have been more surprised if Cam had called him back.

The logical thing to do, in the absence of any news, was to bring the trouble he had promised. He was pretty sure that him just showing up would fulfill the first level of "trouble" at Ninja Ops. He was perfectly prepared to take things to the second (questioning) and third (complaining) levels of trouble if it seemed like they might get results.

What he wasn't totally prepared for was the realization that Tori had beaten him there. When had she left the track? Okay, "after him" included most of the last hour, but still... what did she want with Cam?

He paused just outside the control room, taking advantage of the shadows at the bottom of the stairs. It wasn't the first time he'd used that particular ninja trick to sneak up on Cam. It wasn't even the first time he'd used it to overhear one of Cam's conversations. But Cam was irritatingly good at seeing through it, so even in the shadows he was careful to stay out of his direct line of sight.

"If it was that easy I just wouldn't do it," Tori was saying. "But it's not."

"Part of it's that easy." Cam was giving Tori his full attention, something that wasn't typical and made Hunter wonder just how serious this conversation was. "You said yourself they don't manifest at all if you don't use them, so at least that's the immediate problem solved."

Her ninja powers. Cam's disappearance had totally driven the issue from his mind. He wondered suddenly if that had anything to do with her reluctance to demorph--but no, she hadn't had any trouble fighting. Whatever was affecting her ninja powers, at least it didn't seem to interfere with the Ranger powers. That was good, right?

"The very immediate problem," Tori agreed. "The problem of the hour, not the problem of the day. If I don't use them, I can't train."

"Which makes you different from me how?" Cam's deadpan tone made Hunter want to step into the room, just to see his expression. Annoyed or amused? He couldn't tell from here.

"Even less different than you'd think." Tori, too, sounded strange all of a sudden. Were they teasing each other? Hunter was uncomfortably aware that Cam liked Tori, liked her better than maybe anyone else on the team, but he'd never been able to figure out just how close they were.

Not for lack of trying. He'd wanted to know, first because his bro had it bad for the blonde in blue, and then because... well, because Cam was a mystery. What did he like about Tori? Did they have some kind of history? Or was it just that she laughed at his jokes and he treated her like an equal and that was more than anyone else did for either of them?

"That does sound like a problem," Cam was saying, and yeah, of course Tori laughed. It made Hunter frown, which was bad, because who was he to say Cam shouldn't make fun of himself? He made fun of everyone else.

It was none of Hunter's business, anyway. He either liked Cam or he didn't. He didn't like him "but," he didn't like him "if," he just liked him. Or he didn't. Trying to change a guy he was only barely, arguably, dating, was not what he was about.

"You have no idea." Tori sounded like she was smiling, but her next words were, "Seriously, Cam. This is bigger than my ninja powers, and I don't know who else to talk to."

"Okay, sure." Cam sounded more approachable in that moment than Hunter had ever heard him--friendly, trustworthy, competent. Just a regular guy, ready to listen, happy to help out. Why didn't Hunter ever get to see that?

"Although I warn you," Cam added, "if you've suddenly started turning into a wolf, there's not a lot I can do."

This time Tori didn't laugh. "Not exactly," she said. "Um... maybe I should just show you. Could you come to the beach with me?"

There was a long pause. "Yeah, of course," Cam said at last. "Give me a minute, though. Can I meet you there?"

"Do you have a car I don't know about?" Tori countered.

"I'm sure Hunter will give me a ride." Cam didn't bother to raise his voice. He seemed to know he didn't have to, and Hunter sighed.

"How long have you known I was here?" he asked, stepping out of the shadows. Tori, at least, looked surprised to see him.

Cam gave him an amused glance as he shuffled into the control room, and perversely, that made him feel better. "Since you arrived," Cam answered. "It's hard to sneak up on the wolf."

"Yeah, well." Hunter stopped a few feet away and folded his arms. "Tell him I said hi."

Cam smiled. "Hi back."

Yeah, see, Hunter thought. This wasn't the Cam he knew at all. This was a nicer Cam. Calm, laid-back... confident without being arrogant. Very--cool. This was Cam being cool. Was this what Tori got from him?

She was looking from Cam to him and back again. "Okay, so..."

Hunter was with it enough to figure out what she was waiting for. "I'll give him a ride," he said gruffly. "We'll be right behind you."

Tori nodded, but it was Cam to whom she directed her threat. "You better be," she warned, backing up a few steps.

Cam lifted his chin in acknowledgement, and that seemed to be enough. Tori turned and darted for the stairs, casting only one curious glance over her shoulder before she disappeared. Hunter thought she was pretty trusting. He sure wouldn't have left Cam alone--especially with him--for nothing but a promise to follow.

"I take it my hour's up?" Cam's voice interrupted his thoughts, and Hunter blinked when he realized he'd been staring again.

"Yeah." It was awkward, but then, he hadn't really expected Cam to remember. "Where's the rest of the family?"

"My cousins went off to prove their allegiance by showing Dad where Lothor's surveillance equipment is." Cam's reply was so matter-of-fact that it took Hunter a moment to process it.

"Seriously?" he asked at last.

Cam's lips quirked, and for a second Hunter forgot his question entirely. He knew what it was like to kiss this guy. Despite his cutting remarks and command of sarcasm, Cam had a very friendly tongue. It was a hard concept to get his head around all of a sudden.

"So they say," Cam replied. Okay, maybe it had been more than a second, because he was totally lost. Who said what?

"Dad trusts them," Cam continued, and Hunter filled in the blanks. Marah and Kapri. Right. "I don't know why, but apparently there are a lot of things he hasn't told me, so what's one more secret?"

"Yeah," Hunter said uncomfortably. "What about this alien thing?"

"I'd rather not talk about it," Cam replied without missing a beat.

Hunter opened his mouth to insist when it occurred to him that Cam wasn't calm about this either. The kind of anger that had prompted the wolf to go after Sensei, not once but several times, didn't come out of nowhere. It wasn't this secret that pissed him off, it was this secret on top of all the others. And Hunter should know when not to push by now.

It was Cam who broke the sudden silence. Maybe an idle remark, maybe an apology, Hunter couldn't tell, but he offered, "Turns out that's why I can change, though."

Hunter blinked. "Change?" he repeated.

"The animal spell," Cam said, like that helped. "You know that Wind Academy masters can turn themselves into animals, right?"

"Uh... no." Hunter frowned at him, but Cam just shrugged.

"Wind Academy masters can turn themselves into animals," he repeated, and Hunter thought, yeah. Not calm at all. Cam was kind of creeping him out, here. "Lothor's figured out how to turn other people into animals."

"You and your dad." Hunter felt stupid even saying it, because obviously, but Cam just nodded.

"Plus a whole bunch of other guinea pigs," he added, then he seemed to reconsider. "Bad expression. Lab rats. The wolves at the community center: Lothor got that idea from Shimazu, and he's been practicing it on humans ever since."

"He turns them into shapeshifters," Hunter said slowly. "But why? Looks like he's got it down. Why does he keep doing it?"

"Because it doesn't work on--" Cam hesitated, grimacing. "His people. Aliens, whatever. When he tries it on them, they just get stuck in the animal form."

Hunter got it. "Like your dad."

"And like me, at first." Cam shook his head. "Looks like I have my mom to thank for my ability to turn human again."

"Guess I owe her too," Hunter said without thinking.

Oddly, that made Cam smile. "I do less damage as a human," he admitted, and he didn't look at Hunter's chest or wrist but Hunter was very aware of the bandages there.

"Nah," he heard himself say. "I was just thinking you kiss better as a human."

Cam started to answer but the alarm cut him off and Hunter probably should be glad, because that was definitely not his smoothest line ever. But he wasn't, because Cam really had been smiling there. And Hunter was pretty sure that no matter how pissed he was at his father, he had finally been distracted enough to have an actual conversation, which Hunter wasn't sure he wanted but it had to be better than letting Cam seethe in silence, right?

That was when things started happening faster than he could keep up with. Cam was saying something about a spaceship, which, okay, that sounded cool, so he came over to look. Only instead of leaning on the back of Cam's chair, the way he usually did, he put a hand on Cam's shoulder and braced the other one next to the computer. Cam muttered something, he leaned in to hear, and suddenly Cam's mouth was on his and he honestly hadn't seen that coming but he sure as hell wasn't complaining.

Cam wasn't kidding, either. He'd turned away from the monitor, one hand fisting in Hunter's t-shirt and the other snaking around his neck to pull him closer, tongue already in play like he had a standing invitation. Which he kind of did, but--

Hunter had to grip the chair arms to keep his balance and he kissed back as hard as he could without crushing Cam. God, this was nuts. This was fucking crazy. Cam acted like he'd been holding back on this since... How come he could never tell what was going through this guy's head until he totally lost it?

"Cam," he gasped, when he started to realize Cam's make-out threshold was seriously higher than his. He was gonna be way too turned on by the time Cam let him go. And geez, how was that even possible? He wasn't the one attacking people with kisses, here.

"This is why," Cam murmured, loosening his grip on Hunter's t-shirt and then clenching his fingers again when Hunter tried to pull away. "You should never be a psychologist."

"What?" That came out a little higher than he'd have liked, but his shirt had ridden up and Cam's hand was on his skin crawling around his back and it made him shake and what the fuck was he supposed to do about that?

"Trying to talk me down." Cam was forming complete sentences, which was impossible, because Hunter couldn't even listen and kiss like this so how the hell was he talking? "Making me focus on you instead of my dad."

Cam was breathing the words straight into his mouth, into his skin when Hunter turned his head, lips on his face, tongue trailing across his jaw. Hunter closed his eyes because that stupid computer was still showing some kind of alien invasion and this wasn't even real. This was a fantasy of being with Cam in Ninja Ops while something big went down outside and Cam said, Screw duty, let's make out.

"I know psychology," Cam whispered, and that was not fantasy dialogue, that was Cam being... Cam. He was with Cam, Cam was kissing his neck and running fingers across his spine and his shoulders hurt and ow, he really wanted to straighten up--

"And it's fine," Cam continued. Hunter barely heard him. "But I can ignore my dad, and when there are unidentified spaceships in the atmosphere that's important. That's vital. That's what keeps the Rangers on top of alien invasions."

"D'you--" Hunter swallowed hard, because Cam was sucking on his collarbone and why did that feel good? God, he had zero experience making out and he'd never really thought there was much to know until Cam started ambushing him like this.

"D'you ever," he tried again, totally unable to hide the fact that he was panting and completely out of his league here. "Shut up?"

"I can't ignore you," Cam breathed. He pressed his mouth to Hunter's again and Hunter leaned into the kiss with a moan he couldn't believe had really come from him because he did not moan--

"Oh!" It was a woman's voice, and he didn't care. "Is this a bad time?"

"It looks like a bad time," another voice agreed. "Maybe we should come back later."

Cam was pushing him back, getting up, and Hunter was disappointed and relieved at the same time because he was in way over his head and there was no way he wouldn't screw this up if it didn't stop now.

"Go. Away," Cam growled. His fingers in the waistband of Hunter's jeans kept him closer than his wrinkled t-shirt would have, and then Cam's body was pressed up against his and Hunter barely realized he was being kissed because Cam's hands were even more distracting than his mouth.

"Going," Marah's voice agreed.

"We're going now," Kapri echoed immediately, and this time Cam didn't answer.

Hunter couldn't. This was bad. This was really bad: he was out of control, Cam was out of control, he didn't know what to do and he didn't want to do anything except what he was already doing which was basically to let Cam do whatever he wanted.

"Sit down," Cam said, and the growl was gone from his voice. He was quiet and gentle and very present, and for the second time Hunter thought maybe Cam had come to his senses. Cam was pulling himself together. Cam was not putting on a show for his cousins, he was going to ID that spaceship, and everything would be fine.

Cam nudged Hunter carefully into his chair and fuck if he wasn't in Hunter's face a second later. Seriously, knee between his legs, elbows on the chair back to either side of Hunter's head, in his face. He was all but sitting in Hunter's lap and this time when he brought his head down for a kiss Hunter felt it through his entire body.

Making out was easy. Kiss, grope, repeat. Hunter had been so sure that was all there was to it that after a couple of tries with girls he had given up and gone back to training in his free time. Waste of time and energy, as far as he was concerned, and at that point he'd figured he had all the experience he needed anyway.

He didn't have this kind of experience. The kind of kissing that made him pant, the kind of touch that made his skin hot and his brain useless. Cam was on top of him, Cam was in control, but he was always in control--even yesterday when he'd been on the floor pinned underneath Hunter he'd still decided what and when and how.

Cam's how made him shudder, and he wasn't just gasping for breath, he was actually seriously moaning--he didn't do that--and he couldn't stop himself because shit, Cam...

He let his head fall back against the chair when Cam went for his neck again. He unclenched his hands, finally getting that there was something a lot more interesting to hold onto than the chair, and fumbled his way across Cam's chest and down his sides. He wasn't paying much attention, honestly, he couldn't, and of course that was when Cam decided to wrench away.

Hunter stayed where he was. He couldn't think. He was pretty sure there wasn't much he could do, at this point. He could hold still. Breathing hard and staring mindlessly at nothing, but he could stay where he was. He could do that.

"The ship cloaked itself," Cam muttered, glaring at the screen.

So much for staying. He was up and out of the chair before Cam could turn around. The flash of anger made walking away easier than it should have been. He didn't need this.

Cam sounded surprised when his voice caught up with him halfway across the room. "Where are you going?"

He did need this, and Cam obviously didn't, and it was so frustrating he actually turned around and yelled at the guy who'd been kissing him senseless seconds ago. "What the fuck was that! The cool alien ship is actually boring, guess I'll kiss Hunter, no wait it's interesting again, Hunter doesn't exist--Hunter who?"

Cam was staring at him.

Okay, so it wasn't his most articulate rant ever. The point stood. Hunter only mattered when the wolf wanted something. When Cam was in charge, he got nothing.

Today sucked. Cam got snatched from right in front of him, brought back by one of his worst enemies, and then demonstrated his apparently considerable sexual prowess just for kicks. He was bored, so he might as well make Hunter feel like nothing. What else was a fake alpha good for if you couldn't push him around when the rest of the pack wasn't watching?

"I'm gone," Hunter growled. He turned away, made it all the way to the stairs before Cam called for him to wait, and he almost didn't listen.

"Please," Cam added urgently, and Hunter hesitated with one foot on the bottom stair. "Hunter, please. Don't go."

Hunter gritted his teeth. "I'm getting tired of you using that word to get whatever you want," he told the stairs.

He shouldn't have said that. He regretted it the moment it was out, but he couldn't change it now. He could turn back, though. He could even apologize, if he had to.

Cam didn't give him a chance. "It's the only power I have," he pointed out. Evenly, calmly, like he was trying to hold it together without letting on that it was a struggle. "You're the alpha; you call the shots. I only have one safeword if you do something I don't like, and 'please' is it."

Hunter opened his mouth, then closed it again. That was the craziest thing he'd ever heard: It's the only power I have. Cam was the power here. Hunter was just along for the ride.

"I didn't ignore you," Cam continued carefully. "I wasn't paying any attention to that ship, and yes, I'm appalled at my lack of priorities, but for some reason kissing you seemed more important."

"You stopped," Hunter muttered, folding his arms. Geez, was he whining? What the hell was wrong with him?

"Well, I--" Cam shrugged, obviously uncomfortable. "You... you're... I can only try to suck your brain out through your mouth for so long before I start to worry about not being able to stop."

"I'm what?" Hunter prompted suspiciously, not convinced this was a compliment.

"Hot," Cam snapped. "Okay? What do you want me to say? Sexy? Doable?"

Cam. What was wrong with him was the fact that he wanted Cam. And he was willing to do pretty much anything to get him, including playing alpha to his occasionally controllable wolf and being utterly gay in the presence of his human (alien?) side.

"You're kind of cute when you're flustered," Hunter observed. He didn't know exactly why he said it, except that it did fall into the "utterly gay" category, and also it was true.

It made Cam sigh. "You know, Hunter, I'm the oldest Ranger here, and it would be nice if that meant something. For instance, oh, say, never having to use the word 'doable' to describe one of my teammates. Since it obviously doesn't, however, I'd just like to point out that calling someone 'doable' and getting 'cute' in return is something of a blow to the ego."

"I've never done it with a guy," Hunter blurted out. Or a girl, but that wasn't really the point as far as he was concerned. He hadn't even really meant to say it, he just kind of... did.

"Okay," Cam agreed after a moment. "I assume you mention this as an explanation of your seeming reluctance or inability to qualify a person's sexual appeal?"

"I mention this," Hunter informed him, "because just being in the same room with you turns me on, and I don't think you get how amazing it is that I'm not totally freaked out by this."

The pause was longer this time, but finally Cam repeated, "Okay." Then he added, "That's probably fair."

If this was Cam being approachable again, then Hunter was starting to see why Tori went to him with her problems. He actually was kind of good at the friendly advisor thing, when he wasn't engrossed in his work or practicing his sarcasm. Too bad that was most of the time.

Tori. Right. They were in trouble. "Tori's gonna kill us," Hunter muttered aloud.

Cam didn't seem to get it. "Why?"

"Uh, 'we're right behind you'?" Hunter prompted.

Cam glanced at his watch. "Assuming she actually took her van, she hasn't even gotten to the beach yet. As long as I leave in the next ten minutes, I can get there before she does by streaking."

Hunter stared at him. "You mean, by breaking academy rules and using your ninja powers for personal gain?"

Cam just raised his eyebrows. "Do I look like my father?"

Seriously? Was this not a wolf thing, then? Did Cam really lie and cheat as much as the rest of them--he just hid it better?

At least that would explain why he and Tori got along so well.

"Actually," Hunter said, keeping his face as expressionless as possible, "you have been a little on the furry side lately."

Cam grimaced at him, but there was a smile behind it that he couldn't totally suppress. "Well," he said, drawing the word out like he was thinking about it, "I can see why identifying family resemblance wouldn't be one of your strong points."

Hunter let him have that one. "You gonna at least ID that spaceship before we go?"

"It's Vexacus," Cam said, barely glancing at the screen. "And who said anything about 'we'? Tori asked me to meet her there."

"Vexacus?" Hunter repeated. "The guy Shane chased off with the Battlizer?"

"Yeah." Cam was frowning, but he had turned away from the computer. "More specifically, the guy who came here looking for the power Shane now has, refused to ally with Lothor, and escaped without surrendering when he failed to destroy the Red Ranger."

Okay, he did sound more threatening when Cam put it like that. "So we're gonna, what," Hunter demanded, "just ignore him?"

"He's not doing anything right now," Cam pointed out. "We can't go attack him just for landing his ship on our planet. We've already seen that he doesn't like Lothor, and I've got a bug set to track him the second he or his ship moves. I'll warn Shane he's here, but there's not really anything else I can do."

Hunter didn't like it, and he said so. Cam called Shane from the stairs, explaining the situation without looking at him. But he finished with, "Hunter doesn't like it," and Hunter snorted.

"Yeah, me neither," Shane's voice agreed from Cam's morpher. "Let me know if anything changes."

"Will do." Cam dropped his amulet, then stood frozen at the bottom of the stairs for a moment.

Just as Hunter was about to ask, Cam strode over to the storage closet and yanked it open. Kapri actually stumbled out, like she'd been leaning on the door when it swung open, and Marah just stood there blinking at them with really wide eyes. They both burst into apologies and reassurances that they hadn't meant any trouble, all of which Cam ignored.

"I'm leaving," he told them sternly. "Don't touch anything."

Hunter glared at them, but he followed Cam without a word. Once outside, though, he asked, "You think it's really a good idea to leave them unsupervised in Ninja Ops?"

"Dad's problem," Cam said shortly. "Not mine."

Right.

"Besides," Cam said, apparently as an afterthought. "All the labs are locked, and the rest of my stuff is keyed to Ranger Power signatures. Dad can fake it, but there's no way they'll be able to get in. The supercomputer will shut down before it tells them anything."

Hunter had to grin. "You know," he said conversationally, "you're way more badass than I ever gave you credit for."

"Thank you," Cam replied.

"But," Hunter added, "next time can we do the making out thing someplace where your cousins can't accidentally wander in?"

"Oh, right," Cam scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Like having your brother walk in on us was any better."

Hunter closed his mouth again, because okay, yeah. Point.

On the other hand, Cam didn't question him on the beach thing again, so that was at least partly a win. If Tori didn't want him to come, she wouldn't have let him give Cam a ride, right? This way he got time with Cam and intel for Blake at the same time.

When they got there, though, it looked like Cam had miscalculated a little. There was no sign of Tori down by the water, but that was definitely her van parked by the road. "Ten minutes?" he repeated.

"Fine, I lost track of time." Cam was frowning at the deserted beach like Tori might really be here somewhere and he had just missed her. "I can't imagine how that could have happened."

Hunter just smiled, deciding to count that as another one for his side. It wasn't so hard to think of himself making out with Cam when Cam acted all... normal about it. Yeah, the wolf embarrassed him, no question--but the gay thing?

Not so much, apparently.

"Hey, Hunter?" Cam didn't usually stop there, but it was the tone that got his attention more than anything. Something about his voice said, You're going to think I'm crazy but I've considered every possible angle before saying this out loud.

"Did you hear what Tori said," Cam continued slowly, "about being like me?"

Cam wasn't looking at the beach, Hunter realized suddenly. He was looking out at the water. Following his gaze, it still took him a moment to pick out the motion beyond the breakers.

There was a dolphin out there. Not a pod, not a pair... a single dolphin, frolicking just offshore. Alone. Not stuck, either, not trapped, but the longer he watched the more obvious it became that it wasn't going anywhere. It was happy to play--alone--just beyond the surf on a deserted stretch of coastline.

Hunter looked at Cam and found Cam's yellow eyes staring back at him. "No way," Hunter said aloud. "That's crazy."

Cam just turned back to the ocean. He watched for a long moment, and Hunter watched him. Then, very deliberately, Cam lifted his hand above his hand and waved slowly in the direction of the water.

There was no mistaking the way the dolphin turned toward shore. The dorsal fin marked its progress when the rest of it disappeared, until even that was obscured by a breaking wave. It--she--was swallowed up by the rush of white and foam.

As the wave fell apart, Tori stood up in its place, bright blue swimsuit, shorts, blonde hair made darker by the water. She was heading straight for them. And when Cam lifted his hand again, she waved in return.

The dolphin was gone.