Normal. He felt normal when he woke up, and he was almost afraid to move in case the feeling vanished. Because he might feel perfectly normal but then his ear would twitch or his whiskers would prickle against the floor or his arms wouldn't bend in quite the right way and he would have a tail. And then it wouldn't have been a dream.

He couldn't stay still forever. His fingers clenched first, and he had fingers, and that was such a relief that he felt tears sting his eyelids. Which, unfortunately, was disturbing in and of itself, because it meant that his emotional control was still tenuous at best.

Cam drew in a breath, a breath that was meant to be calming but actually had the opposite effect when the movement reminded him of where he was. On the floor--because he had been a wolf when he'd fallen asleep. Next to Hunter... because Hunter hadn't left his side since learning what had happened.

Hunter. He moved when Cam did. He would get up now, he would leave, he would--

No. He couldn't deal with this. Not now. Hunter shouldn't be here. No one should be here, he should be alone, the darkness should be empty save for him. He couldn't stand to have anyone see him like this.

He dared to open his eyes, and every detail of Hunter's appearance leapt out at him. Features still relaxed in sleep, body sprawled across cushions that were little more than a formality on the hard floor. Cam's eyes went to his left wrist--still bare--and then drifted guiltily to the other, swathed in a bandage that wound all the way to his elbow.

Hunter moved again: waking up, he could tell. He heard himself growl in warning. The Crimson Ranger wasn't going anywhere if he could help it.

"You think that's funny, but it's not."

Hunter hadn't opened his eyes, and his voice was still sluggish with sleep. Yet he was awake enough to know who he was talking to... wasn't he? Suddenly Cam needed the reassurance of another human being's acknowledgement. He meant to say, "Hey," but the sound that came out was more of a bark than a greeting.

It got Hunter's attention. His first glimpse of Cam made him jerk away, pulling back like he expected violence. Cam sighed soundlessly. He probably deserved that.

He tried to brush it off, forcing a smirk and praying his voice would cooperate this time. "Gotcha," he murmured. The word came out after all, and he might be surprised but Hunter didn't seem to be.

"If you don't kill me, it'll be because I kill you first," the other Ranger warned. Almost as an afterthought, he added, "And don't think your toothy alter ego will save you."

"Saving him" wasn't his first expectation when it came to his new wolf form. Quite the opposite, in fact. He wasn't sure he could articulate something that complex right now, though, so he went with something simpler.

"Can't kill you," Cam muttered. He was torn between pronouncing the words as carefully as he could and uttering them very softly in case something went wrong. "Can't--you're... need you," he whispered, then repeated more determinedly, "I need you."

What was it about first person pronouns, anyway? Didn't wolves ever think "I"?

"Yeah," Hunter said, after an awkward silence. "Well. About that. You wanna tell me what happened?"

Sure, that was exactly what he wanted to do. Right after his empty stomach stopped radiating dull pain throughout his midsection and he found a bathroom while he was still human. He didn't want to let Hunter out of his sight. But he wasn't about to be walked, either.

"Food?" He had meant it to be a declaration, an assertion of fact: he needed food. He felt his face tingle with warmth when it came out as little more than a whimper. What was wrong with him? Even when he wasn't an animal, he wasn't himself.

"Yeah, right, food, sure." Hunter actually sounded chagrinned, which Cam might have found funny if it didn't make him even more miserable. He preferred normal Hunter, the Hunter who made fun of him endlessly, to this... embarrassment. Because if Hunter was embarrassed, then it must be really bad.

He watched Hunter patting the floor clumsily, not sure what he was doing until the other Ranger's fingers closed on the flashlight. What did he need that for? Cam winced away from the light instinctively, but he didn't realize he'd growled until Hunter glared at him.

"Just because you can suddenly see in the dark doesn't mean the rest of us are so lucky," Hunter informed him. "I gotta know where the walls are, at least."

Cam stared at him. He couldn't see them? He glanced around quickly, but it was perfectly easy to see the outlines of the room--except within the searing cone of light from the flashlight. "You can't... see?" he asked, dismayed. "Without it?"

Hunter sounded disturbingly tentative. "Look, Cam..." He even hesitated, and Cam hated it. "You've obviously got a lot of wolf in you, okay? Even when you're human. Weird wolf. I've never heard of a wolf that doesn't like light."

Weird wolf. "Werewolf," Cam whispered.

Hunter scoffed, and it was the most reassuring thing Cam had heard since he woke up. "That's ridiculous. Lothor did this, just like he did to your father. Your dad's not supernatural.

"At least," he added as an afterthought, "no more than he was before." There was a pause. "Right?"

Cam tried to smile, then gave up when he realized Hunter apparently wouldn't be able to see it anyway. "No," he agreed. Everything his dad did now was no more than any Wind ninja master could do. "He does what he... did before."

"Okay." Hunter seemed to think that proved his point. "You're no different. Maybe Lothor just changed you into some kind of weird nocturnal breed."

A weird nocturnal breed that shapeshifts? Cam wondered, but he didn't say it aloud. He chose to believe that was because he didn't want to, rather than because he couldn't.

"Speaking of," Hunter said, careful to keep the flashlight pointed away while he got to his feet, "that changing thing you do. Not so convinced it's because your mind isn't as strong as your dad's.

"In fact," he continued, heading for the door, "I'm kinda thinking it's the other way around." He paused when he reached the door to glance over his shoulder, and he seemed surprised to find Cam right behind him.

"No," Cam said firmly. He didn't know why he was sometimes human, but he knew he didn't have anything on a trained ninja master when it came to strength of perception. Whatever the explanation was, that wasn't it.

"No?" Hunter regarded him for a moment. When he started down the hallway again he moved slowly, like he was waiting to see if Cam would follow his lead. "Okay. You got any other ideas?"

He didn't like being a wolf anymore than Hunter did. There were a couple of obvious differences between him and his father, though, and he was a little impatient with the Crimson Ranger's obtuseness. "The attack," he said. "Ra--my Ranger powers."

"Your amulet," Hunter agreed. They were heading for the living quarters, Cam realized suddenly. "Yeah, okay, that's a difference. What about the attack?"

"Don't know," Cam snapped. Obviously. If he did, wouldn't he have said so? "Maybe he..." He was beyond frustrated with not being able to find the right words. "Did it differently."

"You think maybe Lothor did it on purpose?" Hunter repeated. "Made it so you would change, or that you wouldn't have any control over it? That actually makes some kinda sense," he added, not waiting for Cam's answer. "You can do more damage as a human, right? At least to the computers. The wolf thing just makes you--"

He gave Cam a quick sideways glance, but the flashlight remained pointing straight ahead. "Irrational."

"No," Cam said irritably. He wasn't just irrational. Even irrational people knew words. "More."

"More... irrational?" He heard the smirk in Hunter's voice, quickly erased from his face. "Or more than just irrational?"

"More," Cam insisted. "Can't... I can't--" How could Hunter not get it? "I can't talk," he burst out. And getting upset didn't seem to help, because that had been dangerously close to a howl.

"Yeah, okay, good point." The humor was definitely gone from Hunter's voice now, and finally he didn't sound placating either. He sounded like he was talking to an equal again, which was good and annoying at the same time, because who did he think he'd been talking to before?

"But you can use the computers," Hunter was saying. "Why is talking a problem if programming isn't?"

Programming. He was glad Hunter had supplied the word for him, even if he was wrong. "Not programming," Cam said emphatically. He supposed it was an indicator of how little experience the other Rangers had with computers that his inability looked the same as skill to them. "Can't. Habit. Like talking."

He could hear Hunter frowning. "But yesterday you were--"

"Not programming," Cam snapped. They didn't know anything. He couldn't even trust himself to answer "yes" or "no" to a simple script prompt. "Habit."

Hunter was quiet for a moment. It was hard to tell whether he understood or not, but Cam couldn't explain it any better. The question that eventually followed was chilling in its precision. Maybe the words were vague, but the concern they expressed was all too familiar.

"So," Hunter said quietly, "you can't do things, but you can still think them... right?"

Cam didn't answer, and it wasn't because he couldn't. Just that he didn't want to.

"Can you tell?" Hunter asked carefully. "Whether you think the same way you did before?"

He breathed out. There must have been something wolfish in the sound, because Hunter looked at him sideways. And there was no avoiding the question that haunted his own thoughts. He could only guess how unreliable his own impressions were right now, and unfortunately that was his answer.

"No," Cam said flatly.

"No, you can't tell?" Hunter pressed. "Or no, you don't... think, the same as before?"

He recognized the door to his own room, and he started to turn away. Hunter's hand fell on his shoulder. It was a pressure that was meant to hold him in place and Cam whirled, a snarl on his face.

Hunter didn't flinch.

Cam glared at him for a long moment, but Hunter didn't move. There was a steadiness in his gaze that said he had been prepared for exactly that reaction. He didn't back down and he didn't look away--and the wolf, damn him, found it terribly appealing.

Cam swallowed, letting his gaze fall. "Sorry," he muttered.

"Answer the question," Hunter said, just as quietly.

He couldn't tell. That's what he wanted to say, he couldn't tell how differently he thought now compared to the way he'd thought before. He felt like he thought normally, the same way he always had. But yesterday...

He had bitten Hunter. That was not the action of a normal, rationally thinking human being. Okay, he had been a wolf at the time, but as far as he could tell the physical distinction was sharper than the mental one. Occasionally he had felt that things made more sense as a wolf than they did as a human, and that couldn't be right.

He tried to keep his voice as even as Hunter's when he answered, but it was almost impossible. "Don't... think right," he admitted, still staring at the floor.

"But you understand more than you can say," Hunter insisted. He could feel those intent eyes on him, and he bristled a little. He wasn't going to play submissive out of some misguided sense of guilt forever.

He lifted his gaze to Hunter's, meeting his eyes deliberately. "Yes."

Hunter's steadiness wavered, and Cam felt his mouth twist into a smirk without any instruction from him. Nice to see Hunter flustered again, even if only for a moment. He used to be able to do that easily, more often, with a single snide remark. Now even his snide remarks sounded basic and broken, when they weren't completely unintelligible.

He hated this.

But he liked Hunter.

It didn't take Hunter long to recover. "Okay," he said, gaze flicking away and back. "Then we'll figure this out. No problem."

Cam kept watching him until he realized why he was doing it. "After," he said abruptly, turning toward his door again.

"Mind if I come in?" Hunter asked from behind him. "Use the bathroom?"

Cam nodded, unlocking his door and then pausing. He wouldn't be able to do that as a wolf--would he? He'd been able to manage the Ninja Ops controls only because they had floor overrides. His room didn't. He would have to leave it unlocked if he wanted to be able to get in when he wasn't... human.

"You be able to do that as a wolf?" Hunter seemed to have read his mind.

"No," Cam muttered. He left the door unlocked as he went in, heading for the bathroom without another word. Hunter didn't have to worry about how long he'd be able to make use of the most basic parts of his environment. He could wait his turn.

It wasn't until Cam was standing at the sink, washing his hands and splashing water on his face, that he actually looked in the mirror. And he froze, water running down his skin and dripping from his jaw as he stared at his eyes. They were... glowing. Glowing yellow and illuminating the shadows around him in a seriously creepy way.

And Hunter had been looking at that... looking him in the eye all this time?

Suddenly Cam forgave Hunter for his reaction when he first woke up.

Somewhat subdued, he didn't meet Hunter's eyes when he left the bathroom. He saw the flashlight flick in his direction, the light not quite touching him before it glanced away. The fleeting assessment must have satisfied Hunter, because he vanished into the bathroom without a word.

Cam changed his clothes by rote, not sure how much good it would do him if--when--he became a wolf again, but thoroughly sick of his training uniform. Any amount of comfort was worth the trouble of finding decent jeans and a shirt. He felt a pang of guilt when he realized that Hunter hadn't been home at all. He wouldn't even have the chance to change as long as he had to keep babysitting Cam.

Maybe Hunter should just go. It wasn't like he couldn't keep himself out of trouble for a little while, at least. And part of him embraced the idea of solitude, the chance to hide from everything that had happened... while another, louder, part rebelled angrily at the thought of losing the only good thing to come from this: Hunter's undivided attention.

The door opened and light spilled into his room from the hallway. Cam howled, flinging his arms across his face and crouching into the corner instinctively. He heard his father's voice, calm words barely penetrating the roaring in his ears as rage flooded his brain.

Light. His father. An intruder. His uncontrollable reaction.

He wheeled, bracing himself to lunge. He was already in the air when someone he didn't want to hurt got in the way. He tried to twist, shoulder slamming into Hunter's gut, yelping in surprise when arms came up to support him before he could crash to the ground. He slid clumsily backward, turning his eyes away from the door while he got his legs under him and buried his nose between his paws.

"Close the door already!" Hunter's voice was impatient and not at all respectful. "Geez, Sensei, what are you doing here? Why'd you turn on the lights? What did you say to him?"

The painfully bright light disappeared momentarily. "I did not realize Cameron was here." The words made his ears twitch, and he felt his hackles rise at the sound of his father's voice.

Then there was a familiar presence at his side and a tentative touch on his shoulder. Hunter. He would know the man by touch alone. "You okay, buddy?"

His breath wuffed out through his mouth, somewhere between a sigh and a whimper, but he struggled gamely to straighten his front legs and push himself into a sitting position. He turned his head, nuzzling Hunter's hand without thinking. Fingers slid through the thick fur at the base of his ear, and he sighed gratefully.

"Sensei, what did you say to him?" Hunter's tone was low and soothing, and if the words were aimed at his father then the voice was for him. It did help, but it wasn't enough to keep him from shifting when Hunter added, "He's been human all morning, and now we're right back where we started."

His voice might be calm, but somehow he could sense Hunter's frustration. It bothered him. He glared at the tiny form of his father, perched almost at eye level on his gliding habitat cart.

It was a shocking thought.

"I only greeted him," his father was saying. "I told him I was glad to see him as he usually is again, and I apologized for the light when it became clear that it bothered him. I assure you, I said nothing out of the ordinary."

"He was human when you came in," Hunter repeated, the tension in his frame communicating itself through the hand that was still buried in his fur. "And now he's not. So it was either you, or the light... or something else."

Yes, thank you Hunter. That narrows things down a lot. The thought sprang into his consciousness fully formed, but he had no way to express it. He could only listen as his father pointed out, "He was exposed to light intermittently yesterday, and there appeared to be little or no lasting physical effect."

"After he was a wolf," Hunter pointed out. "I dunno, maybe it only works one way. Light changes him but darkness doesn't change him back."

It wasn't the light. He would know if it was the light. The light hurt, but it definitely didn't make him turn into a wolf.

"What does cause him to change back?" his father inquired. "So far he has only managed to maintain human form in your presence."

"That's 'cause I'm the only one he's been alone with for very long," Hunter shot back. "Obviously he's not gonna relax when everyone's standing around staring at him."

He straightened. Relax. Now that sounded... right. Familiar. Relax. The wolf shape faded when he was relaxed. It returned with a vengeance when he was angry, surprised, upset. Hunter had figured it out.

"You believe he can control the shift of his form by calming his mind?" His father sounded as close to skeptical as he ever got.

The combination of his father's disapproval and Hunter's obvious distress made him growl. Hunter was right. His father was wrong. And he couldn't even tell them.

"It would seem that Cameron disagrees," his father remarked.

He gave the little furry thing as angry a look as he could manage. It didn't know anything. And no wonder. What kind of brain could fit into something so small?

The thought sent him staggering back, whining. Where was it coming from? Why wouldn't it go away? He was starving. It shouldn't matter. He couldn't--it just wasn't possible--

He bolted, skidding to a halt in front of the door and pawing anxiously at it while it thought about his presence. He heard Hunter speaking to him, but he didn't understand a word of it and that scared him as much as anything. When the door finally deigned to open he was gone, eyes squeezed shut against the bright assault as panic overwhelmed the urge to hide.

He knew the turns and he knew which door was which, even if distance was totally skewed by his lupine form. He found the kitchen without banging into too much. The room was dark but the door didn't close behind him, and it was several long seconds before he could concentrate enough to slit his eyes against the light and force it shut. He was so, so hungry...

And he couldn't get to the food. He snarled in frustration, the sound trailing off into a whimper as he realized exactly how helpless he was here. Just because the doors responded to him didn't mean he could open the refrigerator. And there wasn't much in the cupboards that he would want even if he could reach it.

He wanted out. Out of this body, out of this place, out of all of Ninja Ops and into the mountains and away. But he wanted food more. There was no way he was going to find anything to eat out there; he had no hunting skills and he wasn't sure he could bring himself to kill something even if he did. He had to stay here.

He prowled the little kitchen until he heard footsteps in the hallway--a long stride moving quickly, with no accompanying cart sounds or human company. He knew who he wanted it to be. But he slunk down in the corner just in case.

The door opened, but no light from the hallway came with it. Not even the glow of a flashlight. A tall figure stood there, light hair bright against the shadows as he made a token effort at peering around. The way he swung his head made it clear that he wasn't seeing anything in the darkness.

"Cam?" It was Hunter's voice, cautious but not frightened. "You in here?"

He lifted his head enough for an affirming growl.

"Okay." There was a pause, and then, "I'm going to turn my flashlight back on, okay?"

He grumbled under his breath.

"Yeah, well." Hunter didn't seem to take him seriously. "I'm not gonna be much use without it. And I'm the one with the opposable thumbs, so I'm pretty sure I get to decide."

It might have made him smile, had he been human. As it was, he just crept out of the corner and settled himself closer to Hunter. He needed food. He needed it yesterday. And Hunter wasn't leaving till he got it.

"Your dad's gone off to meditate or something," Hunter remarked, heading for the refrigerator. "He didn't say what he was doing in your room to start with, but I figured that was a family thing so not really any of my business." His tone said he would have liked to make it his business, though, and for some reason that was gratifying.

"I'm guessing you don't want cereal," Hunter added. He set his flashlight down to crack the refrigerator door open, and more light washed across the floor. "There's some, uh... hey, are these the leftovers from the weekend? If I'd known you weren't going to finish 'em I would've eaten them myself!"

Steak. There was steak in the leftovers. Which just went to show how much he knew, because that meant there had been a time when some other food had won out over steak. That time was definitely not now. He lowered his head to nudge Hunter in the back of the knee, silently urging him to hurry up. He was hungry.

"Yeah, I know, I get it." Hunter sounded more amused than annoyed. "Sucks to be you. You want a plate, or what?"

He sat back on his haunches and fixed Hunter with a glare. It wasn't as satisfying as it could have been, mostly because he knew Hunter couldn't see him that well with the light from the refrigerator blinding him. But if his eyes were still doing that glowing thing? Maybe the point would get across.

"Right." Hunter opened one of the cupboards and pulled something out, setting it on the counter before proceeding to unwrap the foil packages and dump their contents onto it. "Plate it is."

Hunter was turning away from the counter when it happened. He was looking right at him, but he didn't so much as blink. He just put the plate back on the counter and opened the silverware drawer. Pulling out a knife and a fork, he held them out handle first and offered the plate again.

Cam took them without a word. He wanted to say, Thanks, but he didn't trust his voice. Nor did he trust Hunter's continued lack of reaction if he tried to say something and it came out as a growl, or worse.

"Were you wearing your amulet under your uniform before?" Hunter's question seemed to come out of nowhere, but it made him look down automatically.

The samurai amulet hung over top of his shirt now. He hadn't bothered to tuck it underneath when he changed his clothes. It was glowing, the light faint but very noticeable in the dimly lit kitchen. Probably even more so to Hunter, who would see the room as totally dark except for the flashlight he'd set on the counter and aimed at the wall.

Cam set his knife down and reached for the amulet. He touched it tentatively, surprised at its warmth, and he hesitated a moment before wrapping his fingers around it. He frowned, wondering at the feeling of calm that came with the gesture. Was that significant, or just psychosomatic?

He lifted his gaze to Hunter's, puzzled. "It's warm," he said simply.

"Yeah?" Hunter was watching him closely. "It usually glow like that?"

He shook his head.

"Your eyes aren't glowing anymore," Hunter observed.

Cam let go of the amulet, but the light had faded from it now.

"You doing okay?" Hunter asked after a moment.

He concentrated on eating, knowing enough to prioritize by now. What time was it, anyway? He glanced around and caught sight of the clock on the microwave. 5:37. He must have fallen asleep awfully early last night.

"Yeah," he muttered, when he realized Hunter was still waiting. He swallowed, then continued, "You're right."

"I'm right?" He could see Hunter raise an eyebrow, even in the shadows. "About what?"

"Before," he clarified. Apparently wolves weren't used to using the past tense, either. "Change when--I change when I'm upset. I don't know why."

"To a wolf, you mean?" Now Hunter was frowning. "You turn into a wolf when you're upset... and you turn back when you're--" He stopped, seemingly unwilling to say what he'd said before to Cam's face.

"When I relax," Cam finished quietly. "I think you're right."

Hunter folded his arms, and it seemed to Cam an unconsciously defensive gesture. "Yeah, well, your dad didn't think so."

He couldn't keep himself from growling, but he did manage to choke it off when Hunter raised an eyebrow at him. "No," he muttered. "He didn't." He turned his attention back to his food, trying to suppress the sudden urge to lash out at something, anything.

His father made him angry, that much was obvious. Why was less so.

"You sound clearer," Hunter said carefully.

The non sequitur caught him by surprise, dissipating his discontent and putting him strangely off-balance. He looked up at Hunter, trying to understand. "What?"

"You're talking..." Hunter trailed off, maybe fishing for words, maybe just expecting him to get it without them. "More normally," he said at last. "Did you notice?"

Cam shook his head, unwilling to jeopardize this new perception by saying anything else. But a half-hearted witticism sprang to mind anyway, and he opened his mouth before he thought. "Maybe it's the food."

He saw Hunter's grin, quickly smothered, like he didn't want to offend Cam by being too amused. His tone was casual, as noncommittal as ever when he offered, "Maybe it's the amulet."

Cam looked down at it for a moment, then back up at him.

"You were clearer when you woke up this morning than you were last night," Hunter pointed out. "And you're better now than you were when you woke up. Maybe the amulet is countering the dark ninja powers somehow."

In that moment, he really, really liked Hunter. He was overwhelmed by the thought of everything the Crimson Ranger had done for him, and he couldn't find the words to say so. He wanted... he wanted to--

He closed his eyes, at least able to recognize the mood swing for what it was, but still utterly unable to deal with it rationally. "Hunter," he whispered. He swallowed, hoping Hunter wouldn't ask, hoping something would happen that would shatter the moment.

"Yeah?" Hunter sounded concerned, sympathetic, way too involved for a teammate who had just happened to get in the way when he'd needed someone to hit. Someone who had taken the abuse and given it right back when he deserved it--he had known this was the only person who would be able to keep him sane.

Now he knew more than that, and he clenched his fists in an effort to ignore it. "Don't be too nice to me," he murmured. Hunter was the only one strong enough to take whatever he could dish out when he lost it, and the wolf in him respected that like nothing else. Wanted that like nothing else.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hunter demanded. All trace of sympathy was gone from his voice. "I've been with you for going on twelve hours now, okay? I haven't been home, I haven't showered, I haven't even eaten, and all I have to show for it is a torn uniform and a bandaged arm! I don't know what else you want from me, Cam!"

Don't you? He opened his eyes, staring hard at Hunter. When he looked, all he found was frustration in the other Ranger's expression. Hunter probably didn't realize that challenging him would only make the situation worse.

"Gonna turn into a wolf now?" Hunter sneered. "Change 'cause I pissed you off? Great. Do it. Maybe I'll have time to eat something while you go find someone else to attack."

Hunter came close enough to snatch the fork away from him, and Cam barely heard him snap, "I'll take this, if you don't want it."

Cam grabbed his hand. In a blur of motion, Hunter went to block with his good arm and Cam knocked it out of the way, moving in too close too fast for Hunter to shove him back. He stopped a breath away from Hunter's face. If Hunter would just look away, if he would drop his head, give in...

Their gazes locked. Hunter was tense. Defiant. Nowhere near backing down.

Proud.

Possessiveness washed over Cam, and he pressed his mouth to Hunter's hungrily. He took it for granted when Hunter tilted his head and opened his mouth, letting him in, his very presence dominating Cam in return. This was how it should be.

He heard a sound from Hunter, a soft, grateful sound that made his skin flush with heat. He felt the hand he had grabbed relax a little, the fingers curling over his, and he let up in surprise. Hunter didn't let him go. His mouth teased Cam's, his reaction tickling his senses, turning his clumsy kiss into something more gentle but no less intent.

There was a knock on the kitchen door.

The fork clattered to the floor when their hands jerked apart.

"Don't--" Hunter began, but it was too late.

He snarled in frustration, and he heard Hunter swear. That must have been enough to alarm the person at the door, because it opened without any further warning and a second flashlight cut a careless swath through the kitchen. He flinched, growling a warning.

"Don't," Hunter repeated. This time there was no appeal in his voice. It was a threat, pure and simple. Don't mess with my bro.

He swung his head around to snap at the Crimson Ranger. He wasn't doing it on purpose.

Unfortunately, the motion only drew the intruder's attention, and that flashlight found and focused on him. He cringed, baring his teeth, trying to glare through eyes that were squeezed shut. Hunter was saying something, but the light wasn't going away and he was this close to just tearing it out of Blake's hand--

He took one stiff-legged step forward and he heard Blake warn, "Don't even think about it." Anger and indignation and shame surged through him, and he could feel the fur on his back standing up. How dare he!

"Give me that," Hunter snapped, yanking the flashlight out of Blake's hand and flipping it off in one smooth motion. "Doesn't anyone around here listen? He doesn't. Like. Light!"

He lunged forward, and Hunter held the flashlight out to one side almost casually. He ripped it free without even touching Hunter's fingers, but he heard Blake shout in surprise. He skidded a little as he slid into the farthest corner, dropping the flashlight with a satisfying crack and shoving it up against the counter before turning around to sit in front of it. One, he thought, was plenty.

"He's not gonna hurt us," Hunter was saying disgustedly. "His eyes are sensitive, okay? It's probably like getting stabbed in the head with needles."

"So, is that better or worse than getting your arm mauled by fangs?" Blake demanded.

"Let it go already." Hunter sounded irritable, and he watched worriedly as they argued for the second time in as many days. Over him. "I can take care of myself, bro."

Blake seemed to realize it too. "Yeah, okay, I know," he agreed, holding up his hands in surrender. "I just came by to drop some stuff off before practice. Your gear bag's in the control room, and I brought you a change of clothes."

Gear. Blake was on his way to practice. Even if Hunter skipped it, he would have to go to work eventually. He would have to leave.

"Thanks, bro." The sincere relief in Hunter's voice shamed him. Hunter shouldn't be here at all. He didn't need anyone to babysit him. Why had he insisted? Why had he let Hunter stay with him for so long? So he was a wolf. So what. He was fine.

"I'm not gonna go to work today," Hunter was saying. "You mind letting Kelly know?"

"Yeah, I'll cover for you." Blake didn't question it, not even bothering to ask what Hunter wanted him to say. "Sensei says to tell you he'll bring you up to speed whenever you want. Said he'd seen you before but Cam wasn't in the mood to talk."

"Breakfast was more important," Hunter said with a straight face. "We'll catch up with him in a while."

"Right," Blake agreed, apparently accepting this without curiosity. "I'm gonna head. Take care of yourself, bro."

"You too." Hunter clasped his hand briefly.

Blake nodded to Cam, then paused. "Hey, can I have my flashlight back?"

He didn't move. At least, not until Hunter walked over and held out his hand wordlessly. Then he sidled reluctantly out of the way, allowing Hunter to retrieve the flashlight and hand it back to Blake. To his credit, the Navy Ranger put his hand over the light before turning it on to make sure it worked.

"Thanks," Blake said, turning it off again and heading for the door. "Later, guys."

The door closed behind him, and Hunter didn't say anything for a long moment. Finally, though, he picked up the plate off the counter and set it down on the floor. Then he turned away, pulling open one cupboard after another as he dug out the aforementioned cereal. He cracked the refrigerator door as little as possible when retrieving the milk, and he left it out on the counter when he was done with it.

When he leaned back against the counter, he seemed surprised to find the plate on the floor clean. "Damn," Hunter said, pausing with his spoon just above the cereal. "Think how fast you could eat a sandwich. Even, like, a foot-long sub."

The words were awkward, attempted levity that sounded almost foreign, but still reassuring in a way that was hard to explain. He found himself suddenly kneeling on the floor, hands braced against his thighs as he glanced down at his amulet. Glowing. And warm again when he reached up to touch it.

Hunter didn't say a word.

Cam picked up his plate and pushed himself to his feet, just catching himself when the floor seemed to shift.

Hunter didn't miss the slight stagger. "You okay?"

"Yeah." He crossed the room and set the plate in the sink carefully. "Balance. My balance changes. It's--weird."

That made Hunter scoff, but his tone was amused. "Could be weirder."

He ran the water in the sink, watching it pool and flood over the edge of the plate. He'd forgotten his silverware. "It is weirder," he said softly.

He heard Hunter moving behind him. A moment later, a knife and fork were dropped into the sink beside his plate. He waited until Hunter had gone back to his cereal before looking up. "You... you don't have to stay." Here, he meant to say. With me, all day.

He didn't want to say it, but he meant to.

There was a long pause. When Hunter's voice replied, it was no more confident than his had been. "I know," he said uncertainly.

Cam pushed the sponge slowly across his plate, watching the bubbles squeeze out and collect on the surface of the water. "You're not," he began, then stopped. "You didn't... hit me, this time."

There was no answer.

What was he doing? He really didn't know. It was starting to come back to him, or maybe his memory was just crystalizing, becoming clearer as it sorted out the differences between human and lupine perception. He remembered the attack, the frantic instinct to get home afterward, his dad, the blur of Rangers coming and going around him...

He remembered landing on top of Hunter and knowing him, responding to him like none of the others. He had responded instinctively to that presence--or rather, the wolf had responded. And as far as he could tell, it hadn't stopped.

He needed Hunter. Not just to open the refrigerator, either. He needed Hunter to keep him from doing something stupid when the emotion surged through him and blotted out all rational thinking processes. He needed Hunter, because Hunter was the only one the wolf would listen to.

"You didn't startle me this time," Hunter said at last. His voice was even now, neutral, impenetrable, revealing nothing.

Cam tipped the plate to one side, letting the suds run off of it as he turned the water back on. He rinsed it, set it in the drainer, and swiped the sponge up and down his silverware before doing the same to it. He dropped the sponge and let the water run over his hands, then turned it off and watched it drip from his fingers.

The dishtowel landed on the counter next to him. He just looked at it for a moment. He could feel Hunter's gaze on him as he reached out to dry his hands. At that moment, the situation seemed maybe more surreal than ever.

Maybe that was what prompted him to ask, "Did you... kiss me?"

The spoon clattered against Hunter's cereal bowl. "Buddy, you kissed me."

Buddy, Cam thought distractedly. That was what Hunter had been calling the wolf. He wasn't sure whether he liked it or not, and he didn't know what it meant that Hunter was using it now.

"Tried to warn you," he muttered.

This time, Hunter's silence seemed surprised. "You--is that what that was? 'Don't be too nice to me'?" He didn't seem to expect an answer. "I thought you were being sarcastic, but you were serious, weren't you. What is that... like the anger? You can't control it?"

He might not be able to control his anger, but that didn't make it any less real.

Did it, he wondered? What was he feeling, really? If he wasn't sure what he was thinking, how could he be sure what he was feeling?

"I don't know," he mumbled at last. "I don't know what it is."

"Okay." Hunter's voice was almost... gentle. "It doesn't matter." There was a clink as he set his cereal bowl down on the counter, and then he asked, "You be okay for a few minutes if I go get my bag and change?"

He just nodded.

"Cam?" Hunter prompted. Whether he couldn't see the movement or it just wasn't enough for him was open to question, but he apparently he wasn't going to leave without a verbal confirmation.

"Fine," Cam managed. "Use my room. If you want."

"Okay." Hunter didn't hesitate. "Thanks."

He took the flashlight with him when he left, even if the lights were still on in the hallway. Cam sighed to himself. Those lights were going to make it harder to move around. As a human he could turn them off himself, but as a wolf it would be difficult.

Before trying to do anything else, he washed Hunter's dishes and put the milk away. He held down the button that kept the refrigerator light off, closing his eyes when he had to let go to close the door. Keeping his eyes shut did seem to help, which he was pretty sure it hadn't yesterday. Maybe that was a good sign.

He lifted his hand to the amulet again, but there was nothing out of the ordinary about it now. Maybe Hunter was right and it really was counteracting the dark ninja powers somehow. Maybe the effects of Lothor's attack were temporary and just happened to be fading all on their own. Or maybe he was just more human in the morning and he would revert to his confused wolf-state as soon as it got dark again.

Maybe he was screwed no matter what, because he was never going to be able to fix the relationships his wolf form was ruining every time he changed.

He felt normal, and that was the only justification he had for leaving the kitchen. After turning the hall lights out it seemed easy enough and safe enough to move through the underground base alone. After all, there shouldn't be anyone here except for him, his father, and Hunter. He wouldn't hurt Hunter, and no matter what he tried he didn't seriously believe he could hurt his father.

He should have stayed put. It had never seemed so clear as it did after Hunter found him in the control room, completing the lockout that would keep CyberCam offline. It was only reasonable, he thought. He had come across the virtual replicant sitting in his chair, running his programs, and taking over every routine he had put in place. They didn't need two of him.

"Cam." Hunter's voice was wary. "What are you doing?"

"Fixing him," Cam replied absently.

He didn't register the brief pause while Hunter tried to work that out, but when he spoke the steely note in the other Ranger's voice brought him up short. "Get away from the computer."

He hesitated.

"Cam. Get away from the computer."

Reluctantly, he turned his chair away from the mainframe. All it took was one look at Hunter's face and the dread settled into his stomach. He had just turned off CyberCam. His own backup, the Rangers' only failsafe should something happen to him, and he had disabled it. And it had seemed perfectly natural--it had seemed right that he do it.

"Where's CyberCam." Hunter said it like he already knew.

He couldn't answer.

"Will we be able to get him back online without you?"

He put his hands on the arms of the chair, clenching his fingers tightly. "No."

It took Hunter a moment to ask the obvious question. "Can you do it?"

His knuckles were white on the chair now. "I don't know." What if he suddenly decided to deactivate the security protocols instead? It would make it easier for him to--

He sprang out of the chair, horrified by the thought. "No!"

It sounded like a howl, even to him, and Hunter was in his face before he had time to blink. "Don't you fucking dare," Hunter hissed. His hands gripped Cam's arms, holding him as tightly as he had held the chair a moment before. "You're human, you got that? You don't get to go and hide just because something goes wrong!"

Cam sneered at him, as offended as ever by Hunter's patronizing attitude. He tried to yank his arms free but Hunter was ready for him and he wasn't letting go. Cam fought harder, angry at the confinement, at the protectiveness, at his own failure, and Hunter still won. He pinned Cam's arms and yanked him back against his chest when Cam tried to twist away.

He stood immobilized, the arm that had been wrenched behind his back trapped between them as Hunter held him in place. His eyes were hot and he bit his lip hard to keep another howl from escaping. He couldn't do this. He wasn't trained enough, skilled enough, strong enough for this.

"You picked me because I'm stronger than you," Hunter breathed in his ear. "Didn't you. You knew I could stop you."

Rage flared inside him and he went up on the balls of his feet to free his arm and slam his other elbow into Hunter's gut. He clawed his way free, the ferocity of the attack obviously taking Hunter by surprise, and he swung even as he turned. Hunter jerked back, stumbling in the face of the assault, and Cam kicked his feet out from under him.

Hunter went down, and Cam was right on top of him. It wasn't until his fingers dug into the lightweight material of Hunter's t-shirt that he realized he hadn't changed. Still human. He stared down at Hunter in shock.

Hunter had the audacity to grin back at him. "Okay," he said unexpectedly. "So it's mutual. Gonna beat me up just to prove you can?"

He closed his mouth, scrambling off of Hunter and shoving himself to his feet. He held out a hand automatically, and Hunter actually took it. When they were both standing again, Hunter gave him a lopsided smile. "I think you hit harder as a wolf."

Cam glared at him, and for some reason that made Hunter laugh. "Yeah, sorry. That's not scary anymore."

Against his will, Cam felt his mouth quirk upward at the corners.

"You realize that you'll never be able to threaten me again," Hunter continued. "Short of physical violence? The glare, the scowl, the 'how stupid are you' look... those just aren't going to cut it after this."

He was trying and failing to suppress his smile. "Did they before?" he muttered under his breath.

"Not usually," Hunter agreed. He seemed just short of... cheerful. "Think we should look for your father now? Blake said he could catch us up on anything the others found."

His father wasn't at the top of his list of people to see, but since there wasn't anyone on that list right now that probably wasn't saying much. He settled for a nod. Hunter stayed within arms' reach as they made their way out of the control room.

Ironic, Cam thought, that he was a calming influence.