She sat on an old blanket at the edge of the clearing. Not because she didn't have any new blankets, but because this was the one they had given her at the academy when she enrolled last year and she liked it. She probably wouldn't be getting another one.

She pulled back a corner touched the earth underneath it. Tracing a line with her finger, she slowly drew an "M" on the ground. It wasn't an indented "M", dug into the ground. It was a raised letter, the way they taught all earth ninjas to draw during their first week of class. She slowly filled in the next four letters, then hesitated.

She ran her finger over the earth, finishing her signature.

"That can't be your real name," a voice from behind her remarked.

Marah jerked back, eyes wide as she stared up at her cousin. "How did you--" She bit her lip. She really should have sensed him coming. She was an earth ninja, after all.

He seemed to understand what she was saying, and a brief smile touched his face. "I'm a ninja too," he reminded her mildly. "Mind if I sit down?"

"No, of course not!" She tried to smile back. "Cousins are always welcome."

He took a seat beside her, addressing the blanket as he did so. "It's probably better if you call me 'Sensei' while we're on Earth."

"Oh," she said with a sigh. "Okay."

"So." He nodded at the name she had written on the ground next to her. "What's your real name?"

She hesitated, but it must be all right to tell him. He was family, after all. "Marahsayizena," she told him. "But nobody's called me that in a long time."

"Marahsayizena," he repeated. "That's pretty."

She smiled, surprised and pleased. "Yeah. There was a star, see, and it was just coming up on the horizon when I was born. Sayiz, that was the name of the star. And my mom said she knew I would be a star too, bright and shining and pretty."

"My mom and my dad argued over what to name me," he offered. "My dad wanted me to have a more traditional name. But my mom said she was the one who had to deliver me, so she got to decide. And she liked 'Cameron'."

"It's a nice name," Marah agreed, studying him carefully. He was dressed in street clothes--kind of carelessly dressed, she thought, but he hadn't asked her for fashion advice, so. He was wearing that amulet their uncle liked so much over his shirt.

"Where did you come up with 'Jennings'?" he asked, glancing back at her signature in the earth. "It doesn't sound like either of your names."

Oh, see, she was fine. Kapri had obviously told him her real name, too. So she wouldn't get in trouble for that or anything.

"Kapri picked it," she said with a shrug. "I don't know why."

"I saw Kapri on the ship," he remarked. "She said you like to come here when you're thinking about something."

Marah looked at him in surprise. "She told you that?" She hadn't known Kapri had any idea where she went when she wasn't on the ship. At least, when they weren't going somewhere together.

"Well, what she actually said was, 'when you're sulking,'" he said.

She huffed, probably proving her sister right, but what did it matter? "It's her fault we can't go back to the academy," she complained, waving her hand over top of the name she'd written in the earth. The letters disappeared, leaving undisturbed ground in their wake. "And Uncle blames me for it! He says if I hadn't tattled, we'd both still be students and everything would be fine."

There was no answer, and she thought back over what she'd said and made a face. Oops. He probably didn't want to hear about any of that. Bad memories, and all. So Kapri had messed up the sleeping potion they'd put in his water. She swore she hadn't, that it was because he was partly human that it hadn't worked right, but if it hadn't worked then someone had messed up and Marah wasn't the one who had made it.

"That's not true, you know," he said at last.

She glanced sideways at him. Uncle could sometimes read her mind. But he said only ninja masters could do that. Her cousin definitely wasn't a master... was he?

"I already suspected you," he continued. "Both of you. If you hadn't confessed, I wouldn't have trusted you enough to let you in that morning you kidnapped me. So, yeah, you might still be students, but you never would have gotten me onto the ship."

Hey, the ship. Hadn't he said he'd gone to the ship looking for her?

"Did you say you saw Kapri on the ship?" she asked, frowning.

"This morning." He was leaning back against his hands, still staring at her blanket like it was the prettiest thing in the clearing. "She and Lothor were having some kind of weird ninja lesson."

Marah couldn't help pouting. "She's not even studying earth. I don't know why he's always helping her. I mean, what does he know about air elements?"

"What does he know about any of our elements?" he wanted to know.

"Oh, he studied earth when he was at the Wind Academy." Like her. He should be helping her at least as much as Kapri. But somehow Kapri managed to remember more of her lessons than Marah did, so she could answer more of Uncle's questions.

"Really." It didn't sound like a question, but she nodded anyway.

"Yeah, he was earth and his brother was air. Kind of like me and Kapri," she said wistfully. "Except they were students for longer than we were."

There was another long pause. "Tell me about the space elements," he said at last.

She blinked. "Um... what? What do you mean?"

He shrugged. "Well, you grew up with them, right? I grew up with planetary elements, which you now know something about, but I don't know anything about yours."

"Oh, they're not mine, not really," Marah said quickly. "I didn't grow up with them either. I mean, I grew up on a planet, just like you. Well, not just like you, 'cause it wasn't just one planet, but kind of like you..."

She trailed off, because that probably wasn't what he was asking about anyway. "What was the question, again?"

He smiled a little. "I have a lot of questions," he admitted. "But I'd like to know something about the space elements, if you don't mind."

"Sure," she said doubtfully. "I don't really know that much, though."

"You know more than I do," he pointed out. "Just summarize them for me. What are they, what do they do, who uses them. That's all."

That was all? Just a comprehensive test of everything she'd learned? She sighed, wondering why everyone had to be a teacher. "Well, there's time and space, and, oh, stars, so those are the three elements.

"Time ninjas use time to, like, go back and forth and confuse people by not being where you saw them last. Space ninjas use space to, um, create cool energy beams that move things around and stuff. Star ninjas..."

Here she hesitated. She'd never seen a star ninja, not a real one, anyway. "Well, I don't know what star ninjas do, but Uncle says I'm a star affinity and that's very rare."

"Why is it rare?" he asked.

Marah shrugged. "I don't know. It doesn't seem very special to me. I can't do any of the cool things that Kapri does."

"Why," he said, "what's Kapri?" He sounded kind of worried, she thought.

"She's a space affinity, like Uncle. I think that's why he likes her better," she said with a sigh. "Well, that and the way she remembers things. She remembers way more than I do. But don't tell her I said that," she added quickly.

"I won't," he promised. Then he asked, "What about the dark ninja powers? I thought they were a space element."

"Oh, no, they're just part of the space element." She made a face. "That's why I'm not as good at them as Kapri. She and Uncle keep trying to teach me, but I'm mostly just good at teleporting. Which is good, I mean, it's really useful, but it sure would be nice to be able to make those forcefields like Uncle can do."

"I thought anyone could learn to use the dark ninja powers," he said.

She looked down at the blanket, wishing he didn't sound so surprised. "Anyone except me, I guess."

"I didn't mean it like that." He sounded startled. "I mean, you can teleport, so obviously you can use them."

She hadn't expected him to try to cheer her up. "Well, sure, 'cause I'm a ninja. I can use any of the space elements, but my affinity for stars is the strongest. So learning about stars should be lots easier than learning about space. Except there isn't anyone to teach me," she added morosely.

"That's what we say about planetary elements," he murmured. "I have an affinity for earth, but I can use air. It just doesn't come as easily."

"Well, yeah." She gave him a sideways look. "All the ninja elements are pretty much the same. Planetary or space, it doesn't really matter.

"You're probably a space affinity," she said, a little envious. "Since you learned to teleport so fast. It took me hours."

"Well," he said after a moment. "If I ever learn how to make forcefields, I'll try to teach you."

That made her smile. "Does that mean you're going to still visit us?" she asked eagerly.

He lifted his head, looking at the trees for a while before turning his head toward her. "Do you want to stay at the academy? Keep studying as a Wind ninja, I mean?"

"Yeah, of course!" She was a little indignant that he even had to ask. "But I can't, because now everyone thinks we were trying to kill you or something."

"Not exactly," he said carefully. "Yes, it's going to be harder for Kapri. But your cover story was ambiguous enough that I don't think you'll have as much trouble."

She'd like to think he was giving her a chance, but she knew better. "I wish I could," she said with a sigh. "But if Kapri can't stay, then neither can I."

"I already talked to Kapri," he reminded her. "She managed to convince me that you were both just trying to get me to listen to Lothor. She was a little... overenthusiastic about it, but she's promised not to accidentally kill me if she comes back. I'm probably safer if I have her where I can keep an eye on her anyway."

Marah gave him a wide-eyed look. "You're letting her back into the Wind Academy?"

He nodded. "Both of you can come back if you want to."

"But--really? What about Sensei Watanabe?"

He got kind of a funny look on his face then, but he shrugged it off. "Dad said it's up to me, since I was the one who was attacked. I think he's trying to make up for the whole Lothor thing."

She frowned. "The whole what?"

"Let's just say, if it were up to Dad, I wouldn't even know Lothor existed," he said, shaking his head. "Needless to say, he'd prefer me to never speak to your uncle again. I prefer otherwise."

She tried to figure that out, and he saw her expression.

"We had a fight," he clarified. "He lost, and now he's trying to apologize without having to actually say the words. So I get to decide whether you and Kapri can stay at the academy or not."

"Oh!" She brightened. "And you decided that we can?"

A smile flashed across his face. "Yeah... cousins are always welcome."

Hunter would be the first to admit that he wasn't paying attention. He'd had a good weekend. In fact, he'd had a great weekend. But it seemed like it was a long time ago, even if it was only Tuesday, and he was impatiently waiting for the end of class.

Cale seemed just as distracted. The kid was barely looking at him, and they'd been jousting partners for the last ten minutes. It was supposed to be a cool-down exercise, a way to relax at the end of class, but between the two of them they might as well be tripping over each other.

He thought Nena might have made a mistake putting him with the youngest person in the class. Apparently Thunder ninjas were still too intimidating to make eye contact with, no matter how long the kid had spent at the Thunder Academy. Weird, though. He'd thought he and Cale had sort of bonded over motocross outside of class, but maybe it didn't count when they were trying to hit each other with wooden laths.

"Matte!" Nena's voice called a halt to their final exercise, and he managed not to roll his eyes in relief. Finally.

He turned to his partner and bowed, getting a stiff bow in return before they went to line up with the other samurai students. As the newest members of the class, he and Shane stood at the end of the line. There were only four other people in the class with them, and he wondered where their missing samurai was.

"Kiotsuke!"

They came to attention, and Hunter was only half-listening until Nena deviated from the expected script. "Advanced samurai has been rescheduled for four-thirty tomorrow," she told them. "It'll meet right after basics and it will be taught by Sensei Cameron."

Hunter wondered absently if they always announced teachers here. Even guest teachers weren't usually announced in advance at the Thunder Academy. It was possible that the information had been aimed at him, though--he wouldn't be welcome in tomorrow's class, and not because it was advanced.

Cam had made it very clear that Hunter was not to show up to any of his classes. He had actually taken Hunter's samurai schedule back and written in the days he knew he would be teaching. He had gotten Hunter's schedule in return, free evenings and afternoons, with the promise that he and Nena would try to switch off often enough that Hunter could meet his two-class-per-week minimum for the program.

"Don't forget the camping trip this weekend," Nena was saying. "We'll be leaving from campus at three o'clock on Friday afternoon. You can bring ninja family and friends, but the activities will be based on your samurai training and everyone will be expected to participate."

Hunter glanced sideways at Shane, wondering what he'd missed. Shane gave a tiny shrug, apparently just as surprised, and Nena must have seen their confusion. "Everyone in the samurai program is welcome to join us," she added. "Shane, Hunter, you can see me after class if you're interested."

"Yes, Sensei." They replied at the same time, but Hunter's mind was already somewhere else. Still somewhere else, more likely. Somewhere with--

He caught sight of Cam just as Nena called them to attention again, so he didn't get to watch the other samurai teacher wander around the outside of their practice arena. He bowed out with the rest of the class, then turned to Shane and clasped his hand, rapped their knuckles together, and slapped his shoulder absently. Nice to have another new guy in the class, and Shane was okay.

Cam was better. He also seemed to be suddenly invisible. Hunter turned around, trying to spot him--geez, how did he do that? He'd just seen the guy!

"Have a good day?" Cam's voice came from right beside him, and no way did he not know that Hunter had been looking for him. Hunter turned, a complaint on his lips that was wiped away with a brief kiss. "Hello."

"Hey," Hunter said, and he couldn't help smiling. "You here to pick me up, or what?"

"Yeah," Cam agreed. "Want to get some coffee?"

"Sure. Let me just--" He gestured around the arena vaguely. "You know.

"Hey," he added, starting to gather up his gear. "You didn't mention this camping thing--"

He caught Cam's eye then, and he was surprised to see the samurai shake his head slightly. Okay. Right. "And I want to catch up with Nena and ask her a couple of questions about it," he finished. "You mind waiting?"

"No," Cam said, like Hunter wasn't about to go get coffee with someone who probably knew everything there was to know about the trip. "Go ahead."

So he did, trying to ignore the weirdness. Nena acted like it was normal, so that helped, but Shane gave him kind of a strange look. You and me both, he wanted to say, but it was Cam's campus and he would play by Cam's rules.

Luckily, they weren't staying on Cam's campus. He'd thought "coffee" meant "coffee in the Wind Academy's dining hall," but apparently Cam had been thinking off-site. Hunter hadn't brought his bike, but Cam seemed fine with streaking back to Fairhaven with him. So that was what they did.

Once they came to a halt out behind the garage, Hunter resettled his gear bag and started for the stairs. Better if he didn't make a big deal of it, maybe, but he'd never been good at laying low. "So why is the camping trip off limits?" he called over his shoulder. "I could have asked any of the other samurai about it and they'd have told me."

"Yeah, but you didn't," Cam answered. "You asked a samurai teacher whom you happen to be dating."

"You're kidding." He might not have rolled his eyes if Cam could see his expression, but he couldn't and he did. "You're not even my samurai teacher anymore. I can't ask you anything about the program at all?"

"Sure you can." Cam sounded wry. "Just not where anyone from the Wind Academy can hear you.

"I'm sorry," he added. "I know it's annoying, but when you grow up being the son of the sensei, you hear endless lectures about favoritism and going through the proper channels."

The son of the sensei. Yeah. That was a whole other thing that Hunter was trying not to think about. He fumbled with his keys, managing to get the appropriate one into the lock, and he shoved his way into the apartment. "If one of the other students had asked you about the trip, would you have answered them?"

"I didn't say it made sense." Cam closed the door behind them, and Hunter looked back in time to see him shove his hands into his pockets. "Believe me, I had this argument with my dad a thousand times. Which is why I eventually ended up at the Fire Academy," he added.

Yeah, well, as appealing as dropping the program sounded, he was interested in this whole camping trip thing. "So tell me about it now," he said, dropping his bag at the end of his bed and turning back to catch Cam's reaction. "The camping thing, I mean. You going?"

Cam gave him a skeptical look. "You must be kidding."

Hunter raised his eyebrows. "Don't want me to go?"

"No." Cam's skepticism was quickly turning into amusement. "I just can't imagine why you think anyone would mention me and camping in the same sentence."

Hunter let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "Maybe 'cause they want you to go," he suggested. "Maybe 'cause they want to see you drinking from plastic cups and eating off of paper plates."

"Maybe they've never met me," Cam replied dryly.

Hunter smiled. "Maybe they're hoping to share a tent with you, and they want to see what your pajamas look like."

"I don't camp," Cam informed him.

"Well, until last week, I didn't date guys," Hunter countered. "Things change."

"I've been through a lot of change recently," Cam responded. "I'm not sure my identity can stand another radical shift like this."

Hunter smirked at him. "Scared to find out?"

"Scared to be anywhere without running water," Cam told him.

"Oh, there you're in luck." He really didn't camp, Hunter realized. It didn't get closer to the Wind Academy than the Bear Brook campground, and Cam hadn't even been there. "Campground's got bathrooms, showers, bug lights outside, the works. Plenty of modern conveniences."

"First off," Cam said, eyeing him, "how do you know what the campground is like? And second, I'm afraid the fact that you just referred to bug lights as a modern convenience tells me something about your standards."

Hunter grinned. "Don't underestimate the power of a good bug light," he teased. "If there were more of them at the academies, dawn classes would be a lot more fun."

"I'll mention that to Dad," Cam said dryly. And it was weird, but suddenly Hunter got what he meant about favoritism. Because he was in the most exclusive program at the Wind Academy for no reason except that he had shown up at a few of their classes... and he also happened to be dating the sensei's son.

"We--" He shook his head, looking around for something to do. "Uh, me and Blake go camping a lot. We've been down to Blue Bay Harbor for races a couple of times, and we stayed at Bear Brook overnight."

"The closest I've been to camping is the three days I had to spend outside earning my ninja element," Cam said, watching him kick some socks under the bed. "I can't say I'm eager to repeat the experience."

"That wasn't camping," Hunter said over his shoulder. "That was survival."

"And this isn't?" Cam inquired. He sounded amused, at least, so that had to be a good sign. Hunter was pretty sure that anything Cam really didn't want to do wasn't open for debate, so the fact that they were still talking about this meant the odds were in his favor.

"This," Hunter assured him, abandoning the pretense of activity, "is an outdoor hotel. I've got an all-weather recliner, a portable stove, and a tent you can stand up in."

Cam was smiling as he shook his head. "I'm not sleeping on the ground."

"Air mattress or cot?" Hunter inquired. When Cam eyed him, he added, "I have both."

Cam folded his arms. "I wouldn't be able to stay all weekend," he warned.

"So we'll leave early," Hunter said with a shrug. "No problem."

"You're changing my identity," Cam informed him.

Hunter didn't have a lot of sympathy. He might yet turn Cam into a camping biker, but Cam was turning him into a gay samurai, so he thought they were pretty much even. And he knew agreement when he heard it.

"I'll buy you coffee," he promised, holding up his keys. "The good kind that costs, like, ten dollars a cup."

"Now I can be bought for a cup of coffee," Cam said, rolling his eyes. "It just gets better."

Hunter grinned, but he wasn't kidding when he said, "I could've told you that."

"And you'd be right," Cam agreed, catching the change in tone. "My entirely characteristic complaints notwithstanding."

"I figured," Hunter told him. But it was good to be sure.

Cam smiled. "So, when I said I was picking you up, earlier? What I really meant was that I was letting you pick me up."

Hunter laughed, grabbing his wallet and waving toward the door. "Yeah," he said. "I figured that, too."

"It can't be a three or a four," she said, leaning over the book from the other side of the table. "You've already used those in that row."

"Yeah, okay." Chitzu kept staring at the page like that didn't help at all.

"And both these squares have to be either six or nine, so this one can't be either," she told him.

He frowned at that. "Huh."

"So it's obviously a seven." Nena reached over and plucked the pencil from his fingers, writing a big "7" in the middle of the grid.

"Do you want to do this yourself?" Chitzu demanded.

"I already am," she pointed out. "How can you be bad at this? Your country invented it."

"No, your country invented it," he countered. "We just gave it a cool name."

"Oh, not you too." Cam's tone said "you've got to be kidding me" without him having to actually voice the words. "Aren't there enough challenges at the academy without numeric crossword puzzles?"

"That's the whole point," Nena said, moving her chair over so he could join them at the table. "It's relaxing."

"It's mindless," Cam countered. He turned over his cup as he sat down and reached for the teapot next to Chitzu. "And when you're done, what do you have? A bunch of numbers in a grid. Great. Frame it and hang it on the wall."

"It's arbitrary," Chitzu agreed, "but it's not mindless. Seriously, can you do this? I suck at it."

"I'd rather not damage my reputation further by letting the rest of campus see me doing sudoku in the dining hall." Cam didn't even glance at the book while he served himself.

"Yeah, because your reputation has so far to go." Chitzu let go of the page he'd been studying and leaned back in his chair. "Did you make anyone cry in advanced samurai today?"

"No, surprisingly, without you speaking Japanese at them every five minutes they were all perfectly fine," Cam replied. "And where were you, anyway? Do you not show up to samurai classes anymore?"

Chitzu frowned. "I left you a note on the notice board. Ash asked me to go hiking with the air elements. You didn't get it?"

"Oh." Cam looked somewhat mollified. "I didn't have time to stop by the teacher's wing before class. Sorry."

"Yeah, you get a 'sorry'," Nena complained, reaching for the rolls. "He would have chewed me out for not sending a personal messenger."

"Special dispensation for former boyfriends," Cam informed her. "He could seriously embarrass me if I make him mad."

She shook her head. "I think you should date me," she said with a sigh. "I'm the only samurai teacher who's not related to you somehow."

"Oh, exes are relatives now?" Chitzu grinned across the table at her. "My family just got a lot bigger."

"People you go out with once aren't exes," Cam corrected. "You have to date someone for more than a day for them to count as a former anything."

Chitzu laughed. "You just can't stand not being special, can you."

"No," Cam agreed with careful dignity. "I can't."

Chitzu picked up his glass and leaned forward. Cam lowered his tea cup and clinked it against Chitzu's glass before setting it back down. "We get along well," Chitzu told her. "He tells me what he wants, and I give it to him."

"I should date you instead," Nena decided. "When you get bored with being gay, let me know."

"We won't be able to go out more than once," Chitzu warned her. "Cam likes being the only real ex."

"Don't be ridiculous," Cam said. "You can date someone for at least a week before they become potential ex material."

"Oh?" Nena raised her eyebrows at him. "So, Chitzu has three more days before Hunter is competition?"

"Two," Chitzu said, hanging one arm over the back of his chair and regarding Cam with an amused look. "So what are you doing for your one-week anniversary? Got anything romantic planned?"

"Insofar as sleeping together is romantic," Cam said calmly. "Yes."

Nena choked on her water and Chitzu let out a whoop. "Leave it to you to plan it! Did you write that on your day planner? Week one, sleep with Hunter!" he crowed. "Week two, propose! What are you saving for week three? The wedding?"

Cam closed his eyes, but he was smiling. "That's what I get for trying to make a joke," he murmured. "I didn't realize you were going to yell it to the entire dining hall."

Chitzu was laughing at him, and Nena glared at them both as she set her water down carefully. "I swear to god," she told them, "if you weren't so entertaining, I would never eat with you."

"I'm going on the camping trip," Cam said with a sigh. "Apparently Hunter thinks that sharing a tent in the middle of the wilderness will be a bonding experience."

"In the middle of the wilderness, maybe," Chitzu agreed, smirking at Nena. They liked to gang up on Cam for his not-very-well-hidden dislike of the outdoors. "But a campground with roads and parking lots and half the samurai program hanging around?"

"Still a bonding experience," Nena put in. "Maybe not as romantic, though."

"Why do you like camping?" Cam wanted to know. He was looking at Chitzu. "Your country doesn't even have wilderness."

"How would you know?" Chitzu countered. "It's not like you looked for it while you were there."

"Or anywhere else," Nena added, smiling when Cam gave her a look. "Come on, it'll be fun."

"It will be a disaster," Cam predicted. "I don't even know what tents look like, let alone how to set one up. I don't own a sleeping bag. And I'm definitely not at my best first thing in the morning."

"That's true," Chitzu interjected.

"You can borrow a sleeping bag from the academy," Nena told him. "And Hunter must have a tent, right?"

"Why do you just assume he has a tent?" Cam wanted to know. "What, all normal people have tents?"

"He's the one who wanted to go," she said patiently. "And he talked you into it, which can't have been easy, so he really wants to go. He has a tent. And if he has a tent, he knows how to set it up, and he'll probably enjoy the chance to show off for you. Don't worry."

"Yeah, give him a chance to be better at something than you are," Chitzu remarked. "Your ability to be frighteningly knowledgeable about everything is kind of intimidating."

"Somehow I don't think that's going to be a problem," Cam muttered.

Not the most important one, anyway. She didn't realize there were issues beyond Cam's fear of looking stupid until they joined Sensei Miko later that evening for their weekly staff meeting. Cam opened with a question about Cale, who hadn't shown up to the advanced samurai class, and Miko got very quiet. Or at least, quieter than usual, and for her that was saying something.

"Cale's parents have talked to me about withdrawing him from the samurai program," she said at last. "They haven't made a final decision. But for the time being, he won't be attending your classes."

Nena and Chitzu exchanged glances, but Cam sounded more startled than offended. "He won't be attending samurai classes in general, or my classes in particular?"

"For now, he'll just come to Nena's classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays." Miko's expression was inscrutable.

"Because she's a better role model?" Cam's dangerous tone made it clear that he got it, now.

"He's twelve years old, Cam." Miko's deliberate calm slipped a little when she sighed. "His parents have a right to raise him however they see fit."

"I've been gay all along," Cam snapped. "They never had a problem with my teaching style before."

Miko put her hands on the table, pressing her fingertips together. "It's not your orientation they object to, exactly. From what I can tell, it's more about the fact that you're seeing one of the samurai students."

Cam didn't seem to have an immediate answer for that, so Nena jumped in. "We moved Hunter out of his class as soon as they started dating," she pointed out. "And it's not like Cam isn't an expert at dealing with issues of favoritism."

"It's not about favoritism either, is it." Chitzu was watching Miko closely, but whatever he was seeing, Nena wasn't getting it. "They can't really believe Cam would make a move on their son."

"It's more about what they believe Cale would think," Miko said carefully. "His teacher just started dating one of the other students--a male student--and that makes him aware of possibilities he might not have considered before."

"If he made it to junior high without knowing that adults have relationships," Cam said stiffly, "then someone was going to have to disillusion him."

"That's not our decision," Miko pointed out. "He's a minor, and it's his parents' responsibility to make that decision for him. Not ours."

Cam folded his arms, but he didn't refute that.

"So--" Nena glanced from one of them to the other. "The fact that being in my classes puts him with Hunter doesn't bother them?"

"They're still discussing it," Miko said again. "Right now, not so much. They prefer that Cale train with Hunter rather than study with Cam."

"Still in the room," Cam muttered.

"There are rules about this," Miko reminded him. "You've followed them to the letter. You've gone beyond what official school policy asks of you and made an effort to make this as easy as possible for everyone involved. You're not responsible for one family's paranoid flight of fancy."

Nena blinked. She sometimes forgot how sharp Miko could be when she thought people were being foolish. The senior samurai teacher was kind and gentle and stronger than anyone else she knew. It was hard to remember, sometimes, that Cam carried a double dose of intensity in his genes. His father wasn't the only one who could see right through you.

"Maybe not paranoid," Chitzu said mildly. Of course he would dare to contradict Miko. "Overprotective might be a better word. They're not residential, and they're sending their only child off to an academy they haven't trained at for years. They just want him to feel safe."

Cam's mom just inclined her head, accepting the correction with a small smile.

"Thank you for implying that I don't make students feel safe," Cam told him.

Chitzu rolled his eyes. "Not everything is about you," he replied. But he put a hand on Cam's shoulder and squeezed as he said it, and the words came out sounding more like reassurance than anything else.

"Let's talk about the camping trip," Miko suggested. She probably meant to give Cam a break, let him off the hook for a few minutes, but of course it wasn't going to work out that way.

"Would it be better if I didn't go?" Cam asked immediately.

"Nice try," Nena told him.

"Hunter's going," Chitzu explained, for Miko's benefit. "He talked Cam into coming along."

"You're not getting out of it, either," Nena added. "Cale's bringing both his parents. He'll feel plenty safe."

"You're camping?" The amusement with which Miko regarded her son was obvious. "You know you won't be able to plug in your laptop. How long does it run on battery power? Six hours? Seven?"

"Yes, very funny." Cam gave her an annoyed look in return. "I'm happy to miss the trip if it's going to cause problems for the program."

"Your sense of social justice is disturbingly transitory today," Chitzu observed.

"There's no reason for you to change any of your activities," Miko said firmly. "Obviously, we don't want to lose Cale if he's getting something from the program, but we don't cater to--" She glanced at Chitzu. "Overprotectiveness, here."

"Fine," Cam muttered. He didn't look like someone who was being supported. "I won't change my activities."

"Just remember," Chitzu added blandly, "it's a family camping trip. No shaking the tent."

Nena's eyes widened, and she darted a look at Miko. But Cam's mom was looking down, like she was hiding a smile, and all she said was, "If you're sharing a tent, be discrete. The same rules apply to everyone on the trip."

It was Cam's expression that finally made Nena crack. She started giggling even as he yelped, "Mom! We just started dating! There's nothing indiscrete going on!"

"Even on your anniversary?" Chitzu inquired.

Cam just glared at him.

Blake had other things to worry about. Like the wave-running competition and how to get Tori to sign up for it. He was pretty sure that she could get permission to train for it at the Thunder Academy, since they were the only local school with an invisible beach, and if she was training there she'd be allowed to streak up from the Wind Academy.

The restriction on student streaking was really kind of annoying, he decided. Potential misuse of power, the possibility of the academies being revealed by people who didn't know what they were doing... there were plenty of legitimate and totally arbitrary reasons for it. After all, skilled ninjas could screw up too. And they could do a lot more damage than a student.

As it stood, though, Tori wasn't allowed to streak anywhere without teacher-level permission or higher. And he was pretty sure someone would catch on if it was Blake Bradley's name that kept approving her supposedly academy-related use of ninja streaking. He had to find something that actually would be related to the academy, so someone else could approve her. Then if the two of them happened to go out after her training, well, that was just an efficient use of the circumstances.

Wave running would be a great skill for a first year water ninja to develop. He could make a great argument for that to anyone who asked. The fact that he was particularly good at it was just an added bonus. He still had people to convince, though--and first among them was Tori.

So Blake had plenty to worry about other than whether or not his older brother had come out to their parents yet. Or if he ever would, for that matter. It wasn't like Blake went around discussing his brother's social life with just anyone, and aside from one excruciatingly awkward conversation with his dad, he didn't have any plans to start doing it with his family.

Unfortunately, it seemed that his family had other plans.

He would have liked to blame his brother, since it wasn't like Hunter had to bring it up while he was around. But all Hunter did was answer when their mom asked if they had plans for the weekend. It was just before dinner Thursday night, and she was probably trying to figure out if they should bother with a meal list for the weekend. If everyone was going to be out or at the academy anyway, they might not have dinner together again until the next week.

"Camping," Hunter said briefly. "Leaving tomorrow, back on Sunday."

Blake might have appreciated his effort to keep the information to a bare minimum if he'd had any idea what was going on. He hadn't known Hunter was going camping that weekend. He definitely hadn't known who was going with him.

If he had, he might have excused himself from the kitchen right then.

"Oh?" Their mom was pulling leftovers out of the fridge, and she sounded only mildly curious. "Are you and Blake going together?"

"Nah." That was all Hunter said, and Blake was starting to catch on. Wherever Hunter was going, apparently he didn't really want to talk about it.

"I'm trying to get Tori to try wave running," Blake offered, doing his part to distract their parents. "I figure if Sensei Omino agrees, maybe she can come up to the academy on Saturday to practice."

"Isn't there a competition coming up?" their father wanted to know.

"Yeah," Blake said with a grin. "I can probably get her to come to that even if I can't convince her to practice with me."

"If she sees the competition, she might be more inspired to learn herself," his dad remarked.

Blake smirked. "That's my backup plan." Wave running was almost as amazing to watch as it was to actually do.

"Where are you going, Hunter?" their mom asked. "Somewhere local?"

"Kind of." Hunter's hesitation was noticeable, and Blake wondered what was going on. He found out when Hunter added reluctantly, "Bear Brook."

Damn. Right next to the Wind Academy. Blake knew instantly that this had something to do with Cameron, and there was no way they were getting out of this conversation without full disclosure. He glared at his bro's back, wishing he'd had a little advance warning. Wishing either of them had, really. Dinner was going to be fun tonight.

"Isn't that in Blue Bay Harbor?" Their dad's tone was a little too casual. Blake knew what was coming.

All Hunter said was, "Yeah."

Their mom hadn't gotten it, because she sounded genuinely curious when she asked, "Is there a race this weekend?"

Hunter had finished setting the table and he wasn't making any move to help with the food. Blake figured he could at least take over that part of meal prep, since he didn't really want to get involved in the conversation. Plus, if their mom got totally distracted, Blake didn't want to wind up with no dinner just because no one had bothered to warm up the leftovers.

"Actually, the Wind Academy's sponsoring some kind of camping trip." Hunter managed to sound definite about the event and vague about the details all at the same time. "Sensei Nena invited her entire class."

Blake came very close to snorting. Yeah, he was sure Nena's participation had a lot to do with it. He kept his mouth shut, but sure enough, their mom paused in what she was doing. Blake pulled a tinfoil package out from under her hands and put it into a warming dish. He was going to eat no matter what happened.

"Who's Sensei Nena?" their mom inquired.

Blake winced. Yup. There was that same tone of voice their dad was using, the deliberately non-judging, "you can tell me anything" voice. The one that meant exactly the opposite.

"Samurai teacher," Hunter said matter-of-factly. "Been going to her class since they left the Thunder Academy."

"You didn't mention that," their dad remarked. Like he expected a reply, an answer. An explanation.

Hunter shrugged. "I know how you feel about it."

This brought silence to the kitchen, and Blake thought his chances of getting dinner had just gotten a little smaller. He needed a backup plan. A quick glance at the clock revealed that he might make it to the academy before their food ran out if he left in the next half hour or so.

This couldn't go on longer than half an hour, could it?

"If you want to learn their curriculum," their mom said at last, "that's up to you. But you don't really need to spend all your free time with them, do you? I mean, this camping trip... don't you have other things you need to do this weekend?"

"I can manage my own schedule, Mom." Hunter sounded exasperated already. Definitely not more than half an hour. At this point, Blake gave it another five minutes. And that was only if Cameron's name didn't come up. If it did, he was shortening it to two. Tops.

"Why the sudden interest in samurai?" their dad wanted to know. "It seems to have come on very quickly."

Blake heard what he didn't say, and he figured Hunter did too: brainwashing. Their mom had leveled the brainwashing charge against the samurai before. She had never forgotten that thing with her teacher back when she was a student at the Wind Academy.

"Probably has something to do with the fact that I'm dating one of the samurai teachers," Hunter was saying. Just like that. He just told them. "Tends to encourage interest."

Blake sighed silently, trying not to roll his eyes. Great. Now Hunter had to get smart on top of everything else. So Cameron's name hadn't technically been mentioned--he was lowering his guess to two minutes anyway. Someone was gonna start shouting any second now.

"Ah." Their dad sounded weirdly satisfied with that answer, and Blake looked at him in surprise. "She's going on this camping trip, I assume?"

"Yeah," Hunter said wryly. "He is."

There was a pause, and then their dad repeated, "He?"

Blake was careful not to move, since moving would draw attention and attention would lead to questions. He didn't want to look like he was hiding, though, so he did his best to look casual. Like he was thinking about something else entirely. He just happened to be standing in the room while they had a conversation that he wasn't really paying attention to.

"Sensei Cameron." Hunter folded his arms, looking from one parent to the other. "You met him at the smorgasbord a couple weeks ago."

"Nice guy," Blake put in, abandoning his attempt to hide in plain sight as soon as he saw Hunter getting defensive. Because come on, it wasn't fair. They'd met Tori at the same time and they'd practically tried to adopt her. "Doesn't seem like the type to go camping, though."

Hunter threw him a tight smile, and he knew there was gratitude behind it. "He took some convincing."

"And... you're going camping with Sensei Cameron?" Their mom sounded like she was suddenly having trouble with the name. "This weekend?"

"Yeah, Cam and half the Wind Academy," Hunter reminded them. "It's just a group thing. No big deal."

"When did you start seeing... Cameron?" their dad asked carefully.

"Last week." Hunter shrugged again, but he sounded uncomfortable. "I just met him when the kids from the Wind Academy came up to train with us."

"Kids?" Their mom's tone was sharp, which wasn't really fair either, since Hunter called every student "kid" regardless of their actual age. "How old is he?"

"I dunno," Hunter muttered. "My age, I guess."

"Twenty-four," Blake said. Two years older than Hunter, but who was counting?

Everyone in the kitchen stared at him in surprise. Oh, right, he thought sourly. Everyone. "What?" he demanded, holding up his hands in surrender. "I grilled Tori. That's all."

"What does Tori think of him?" their mom wanted to know.

Blake blinked. What? What did that have to do with anything? "Uh..." He couldn't come up with anything better, so he stuck with what he knew. "What?"

"Tori trains at the Wind Academy. Does she know Cameron? Does she like him? Has she heard anything about him? What kind of teacher is he?"

Wow, the mom interrogation. He'd kind of hoped to avoid this. Obviously Tori knew him, she'd talked to him while Hunter was introducing him to their parents, and what did it matter what she'd heard about him? And how was he supposed to know what kind of teacher the guy was? Wasn't Hunter the one to ask about that kind of thing?

"Yeah, she likes him," he said at last, shooting a look at Hunter. He really hadn't wanted to get dragged into this. "And he's probably a pretty good teacher if he teaches samurai students. They're like elite at the Wind Academy or something."

"He trained in Japan," Hunter informed them. "He's a great teacher. And if you want to know what he's like, maybe you could actually talk to him next time you see him instead of pretending he's not there."

"You didn't introduce him as anything more than an acquaintance when we met him," their dad reminded him. "In the interests of fairness, I think you should take that into account before you make accusations."

Hunter set his jaw, looking totally unintimidated. "We weren't dating then. What did you want me to say? 'Hey, I think I might be gay, so you might want to be nicer to my friends just in case they show up at the dinner table in the future?'"

"Honey," his mom interjected, "you've always been interested in girls. I don't think you suddenly became gay overnight."

"You're just going through a curious phase," their dad added, when Hunter didn't answer. "First the samurai, now... alternative lifestyles. Just remember that other people will remember what you do even after you've had enough. You might want to keep it a little quieter."

Hunter was just staring at them. As defiant as he'd looked before, now he looked totally blank. He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but no sound came out.

"Dinner's getting cold," their mom said briskly. Yeah, like it had ever gotten to the "warm" stage. Blake kept one eye on the food and the other on his bro, who looked like he was ready to bolt. Or maybe flip out. With Hunter it was sometimes hard to tell.

"Don't worry, honey," his mom added, obviously catching the look too. And that was twice in a row that she'd called Hunter "honey," Blake noted. Weird.

"We still love you," she was telling him. "No matter what happens, you're still the same wonderful son we raised. Here, why don't you carry this over to the table, and Blake can serve the--"

"I'm going out," Hunter said abruptly. "I forgot... I--I have a student meeting tonight. Sorry," he added, turning away without waiting for an answer.

Their mom sighed, loud enough that Hunter had to have heard it. He closed the door to the deck behind him, and they could hear his footsteps crossing the deck and going down the steps before they were swallowed up by the ground. He was heading for his apartment, Blake figured. His license was up there, and "student meeting" or not, Blake was pretty sure his bro would be taking his bike tonight.

His parents were looking at each other. They looked back at him when he glanced from one to the other, and he liked this even less with Hunter gone. "I'm gonna go check on him," he muttered.

"Leave him alone," his dad said quietly. "He just needs some space."

Yeah, and the days when his parents knew his brother better than he did were now officially over. "I'll be back," Blake said firmly. He followed Hunter out into the gathering dusk and headed for the stairs behind the garage.

This was what he got for worrying about other things.