The setting sun was still warm on his back, grass tickling his skin where his elbow hung off the edge of the blanket. He probably could have taken over the whole thing when the others went off to play frisbee, but it seemed like too much work to get up and move himself. Even to roll over would require effort, and right now he was just as happy to lie here undisturbed.

He didn't think he dozed off. He could hear the shouts of kids, and the occasional excited teenage exclamation, when they pierced the low rumble of a crowd that was already hundreds strong and spread out all over the track and surrounding area. The fireworks would be set off from the far side, the staging area marked off with orange tape while the barbecues and family picnics and even racing kids kept a respectful distance.

Someone had firecrackers, his sleepy brain noted distantly. He could make out the pop and snap from where he was without even lifting his head. There had been a kids' moto earlier, and a couple of the 50ccs were still puttering around at the edge of his hearing. And as always, there was more noise from entertainers either tuning up or blowing off steam than there was from people actually performing.

It was a typical Blue Bay Harbor style event. The whole town had turned out for the fourth of July, and for once he was glad to be in the middle of such a crowd. There wasn't a ninja uniform to be seen, nor would there be for the rest of the evening. No one would call him "sensei" until he set foot through the Wind Academy's holographic entrance later that night. Much later. Tomorrow, if he could manage it.

Someone ruffled his hair before he even registered a person sitting on the blanket next to him, and when he lifted his head it was harder to open his eyes than he had expected. He really thought he hadn't been asleep. But he barely knew it wasn't Hunter, and Tori's voice seemed to come from far away.

"Hey, Cam," she called, in a tone that was probably soft but sounded unreasonably harsh to his ears. "Wake up. Our boy toys are here."

"Our what?" he mumbled. Yeah, his voice was questionable. Whether he'd been napping or not, he definitely sounded like he had. He squinted at the figure beside him, wondering when sunset had gotten so bright.

"Hey, did you just call me a boy toy?" Blake's voice demanded. He sounded more amused than anything, but in that street-smart way that he had, making it sound like you should be happy he was amused because if he wasn't he'd kick your butt. "Really Tor, I'm flattered, but I think Hunter's more the type."

"Oh, is that how it is?" Hunter sounded considerably less dangerous, tough-guy attitude totally gone when he was relaxed. He didn't need it, after all. He had the look. "This boy's gonna take his toys and leave again if he doesn't get some respect around here."

"Don't look at me," Cam muttered, putting his head back down on his arms. He smiled to himself when he heard Hunter's brother laugh out loud.

"You are so whipped!" Blake gloated. It might have been completely spontaneous, but Cam couldn't help the sneaking suspicion that the comment was a continuation of an earlier conversation. "I gotta say, bro, I never thought I'd see the day."

He couldn't let that pass. Just as Cam opened his mouth, though, Tori beat him to it. "Blake," she said sweetly. "I'm kind of thirsty. Would you get me something to drink?"

"Sure thing, Tor." The response was gratifyingly immediate, and Cam's smile widened. "What d'you want?"

There was a moment of silence, and he could only imagine the looks that were being exchanged. Blake's sigh was drowned out by Hunter's whoop of laughter, and Cam finally pushed himself onto his elbows and turned into a sitting position, staring up at the Thunder brothers. Blake's expression was unusually tolerant, both amused and resigned as Hunter did some literal ribbing. He only laughed when Blake shoved him back, and Cam glanced over at Tori.

She just rolled her eyes at him. "Boys," she said, making the word an affectionate epithet. His mouth quirked, and he offered a half-shrug of silent commiseration.

"I saw that," Hunter declared, throwing himself down on the blanket. They were both forced to shift when he wasted no time insinuating himself between them. He draped an arm over Cam's shoulders and turned to Tori.

"Hey, why am I automatically the boy toy?" he wanted to know. "What about him?"

"Cam is much too mature to be a boy toy," Tori informed him. "He's more the type to have one. Or more," she added impishly.

"More?" Hunter's tone was dangerous, and his reaction would have made Cam laugh if he wasn't too busy being alarmed that Hunter's arm had dropped to his waist and his hand was on Cam's stomach. Low on Cam's stomach. "You saying I'm not man enough for him?"

"How do you know his other 'boy toys' are men?" Tori teased.

"Tori," Cam said with a sigh. The interjection was half-hearted at best. He knew how hard it was to stop the two of them once they got going. They only egged each other on. Hunter was really the only one of the former Rangers who challenged Tori on a regular basis. Cam got the impression that she didn't mind.

"Cam?" Hunter countered. "You got something you want to add, here?"

"You need an excuse to be even less mature?" Cam said sharply. "No, I don't."

Hunter took the hint, unsubtle as it was, but he didn't resist dragging his hand across Cam's... stomach, as he freed his arm and rested it over his shoulders again. "Spoilsport," he murmured, but he turned his attention back to Tori. "So, let's talk about how many boy toys Tori keeps in reserve!"

"Dude, that's one conversation I definitely missed the beginning of," Dustin's voice remarked, and Cam didn't know whether to roll his eyes or sigh in relief.

"You didn't miss anything," he informed the Earth ninja, craning his neck to look up at Dustin as he regarded the blanket with a bemused look. "Believe me."

"Oh, but I did!" He could always count on Marah to miss any and all social cues about what wasn't a good topic of discussion at any given moment. "Tori has boy toys? Why isn't she sharing?"

"Hey, Blake," Dustin added belatedly. "I hear you're on a winning streak, dude; that's great!"

"I was," Blake corrected. "Some punk beat me a couple days ago..."

"But he's got it coming next weekend," Hunter finished. He and Blake smirked at each other, and Cam looked away to hide a smile. They certainly hadn't grown apart any since last fall.

"Where?" Marah wanted to know, giving the blanket a worried look before arranging herself very carefully on the corner opposite Tori. What was that, Cam wondered, the cleanest spot on the blanket? "Will we get to see?" she asked of Blake.

"Nah, probably not." Blake barely looked at her, less accustomed to her occasional presence than the rest of them were at this point. He was polite, but it was odd to see Hunter paying more attention to someone than Blake was. Cam suspected that Hunter had his own reasons for tolerating Marah.

"It's in-state, but barely," Blake was saying. "The travel time is the bad news. The good news is the down time," he added, throwing Tori a grin. "I'll be in town most of the week."

Tori must have already known that, because she just smiled up at him and inquired innocently, "Going to guest teach, like Shane?"

"I should guest train," Blake countered. His grin turned rueful, and he added, "I'm way too out of practice to be in charge of students."

"Not really one of those things you forget, bro," Hunter put in.

Blake just shrugged, but it was Tori who redirected the conversation by commenting, "I'm sure you'll find something to do. I mean, this is Blue Bay Harbor."

"Yeah," Blake added smugly. "I hear there are some hot surfer chicks around here."

"I wouldn't know about that," Tori said, with a clearly feigned casualness that dissolved the instant Hunter leaned over to tickle her. "Okay, okay!" she yelped, squirming away from him in between giggles. "I might know one!"

"I only want one." Blake was positively leering at her, and Cam just shook his head. He had forgotten how bad they could all be together. He was thinking about getting up when Hunter's fingers closed around his arm.

"We embarrassing you?" Hunter asked with a grin. "Afraid some of your students are gonna see you hanging out with us?"

With me? The unstated question was there, in his eyes if not in his words. It was maddening and endearing at the same time: there were things Cam had trouble saying once, let alone a dozen times, and yet... Hunter wasn't as cocky as he seemed. Who'd have guessed? And when had he gotten so good at reading Hunter's eyes, anyway?

"Don't you think his students are used to it by now?" Dustin asked, oblivious as ever to the less than flattering implications of his remark.

"Not the ninja students." Hunter gave him a sideways glance, silently asking if he was going to tell this story or not. "I mean his future college students."

Tori got it immediately. "You decided to do it!" she exclaimed. "Congratulations, Cam--that's really great!"

"Do what?" Marah chirped. "What are you going to do, Cousin?" She had no trouble dropping the "sensei" appellation off-site, Cam noted.

"I've been accepted to grad school," he said, to forestall any other versions of the story.

"Like that was ever in question," Hunter added. Cam shot him a look, but Hunter just raised an amused eyebrow in his direction. He wasn't mocking, Cam realized belatedly. He actually sounded friendly. Sort of... fond?

How long had he been subconsciously expecting Hunter to make fun of him in public? And how long had Hunter not been doing it? Thinking back, he was struck by sudden uncertainty: Hunter talked about him often enough, even talking for him on occasion, but was he teasing? Or--bragging?

"For programming, right?" Tori was saying. "And you've already taken some of the classes? Did they ask you what you've been doing since you graduated?"

"Hello, saving the world from his family!" Marah exclaimed. Then she paused, and added in a more subdued tone of voice, "Oh. But I guess you can't really tell them that, huh?"

"It probably wouldn't go over too well, no," he told her. Glancing at Tori, he added, "Yes, I took grad classes as an undergrad, and when they asked what I've been doing I said I was helping my father run the family business."

"Which is true," Hunter admitted. "Defending the earth from your uncle... your cousins... your boyfriend..." He stopped and gave Cam an arch look. "You really like evil, don't you?"

"It's drawn to me," Cam said dryly. "It just followed me home, Mom, I swear."

"Your mom would probably buy that, too," Dustin put in. "She was kind of an evil magnet herself, right?"

"Must have been the amulet," Blake said with a grin.

Cam just looked at him. Then he looked at Hunter, and when Hunter caught his eye, he transferred his gaze to Marah. Very deliberately, he looked from one to the other until Hunter protested. "Hey, we're not evil now!"

Tori was laughing at them. Dustin grinned like he wasn't really listening, which didn't surprise Cam. Blake took it with good-natured humor, but Marah just looked confused.

"You know," she said, frowning down at her fingernails as though the color wasn't what she remembered. "It's not like we went looking for Cam. Any of us, really. I think maybe you've got it backwards."

She lifted her gaze expectantly, eyes wide and a small pout on her face. It was an innocent expression that had long ago started to trigger warning bells in Cam's mind. She really wasn't stupid, and he tried not to forget. But her demeanor was a defensive act that had been honed by years of necessity--her survival instinct--and it still threw him sometimes.

Hunter's startled laughter said that he wasn't the only one who underestimated Marah. "Yeah!" Hunter crowed, extending a hand in Marah's direction. She slapped it happily, comfortably, the way she and Kapri high-fived each other all the time. How Hunter knew that they did that, or what made him think of it now, was beyond Cam.

"What about it?" Hunter added, bumping his shoulder deliberately. Cam nudged him back without thinking about it, ignoring the smirk on his face when Hunter continued, "You drawn to the dark side, or what?"

"Hey, dude!" Dustin was still staring off into the distance, and his shout distracted everyone from their new focus. Apparently the words didn't have the desired effect, though, because after another moment of looking at something they couldn't see, he waved a hand over his head and shouted again.

"It's Shane!" Tori leapt to her feet, joining Dustin in the effort to get the attention of someone Cam hadn't been able to see before and definitely couldn't now with the two of them in the way. "I thought he wasn't going to be able to make it home this weekend!"

"Change of tour plans?" Dustin suggested.

"He's so not seeing us," Tori said at the same time.

They looked at each other. "Last one there wears the other's color for a day?" Dustin suggested.

"Oh, it's on now!" Tori exclaimed. They took off, the slight blurring of their forms in the fading light the only indication that the contest wasn't just one of physical speed. The effect was invisible if you weren't looking for it, but it still made Cam shake his head. How the population of Blue Bay Harbor had lived with a Ninja Academy on its outskirts all this time without more of a clue was a mystery to him.

"Dustin's gonna look good in blue," Hunter muttered in his ear.

Cam scoffed, very quietly. "Dream on." He had seen Dustin training the other day. "Tori won't know what hit her."

He could feel Hunter's speculative gaze on him. "Want to put money on that?"

"Cost of an ice cream says Dustin wins," Cam agreed.

"You're on," Hunter said with a grin.

Blake's exclamation drew their attention, but he was staring across the track. "No way!" he declared, again with that amusement that existed in between tolerance and danger. Months on the road had definitely perfected that tone, Cam thought, catching Marah's eye by accident.

She was smiling. It was a delighted, pleased-with-herself smile, childishly smug and about as close as she came to smirking. It vanished like it had never been as her eyes widened, and she jumped to her feet to hover a respectable distance from Blake. "Ooh, what happened?" she demanded, clapping her hands. "Did Dustin win?"

Cam shook his head, wondering if she would ever be herself around them. Or anyone. The fact that she had let him see her smile probably said more about her comfort level than anything else, and he supposed that was improvement. But he couldn't help wondering what exactly went on behind those guileless brown eyes.

"Damn," Hunter muttered. "You'd think I would have learned my lesson after last time."

"You should stop betting against me on people I know," Cam remarked, squinting past Blake to catch a glimpse of flickering red and yellow and blue. Tori and Dustin were using Shane as a shield as they tried to tag each other, hindering their forward momentum significantly. "Especially my own students."

"No one in the entire school thought Nena could beat Sensei," Hunter informed him. "That whole bet was ridiculous."

"And yet I won," Cam pointed out. "You shouldn't underestimate her. She knows a lot more than she can do."

The Wind teachers were close enough now for Shane to call out to them, and Hunter lifted his hand to wave. Cam just watched as Marah bounded out to meet them. Blake had folded his arms, wearing the same lopsided smile that Hunter favored. Cam wondered idly if they had known someone who smiled like that when they were younger. One of their parents, maybe? It certainly hadn't been Sensei Omino.

Suddenly Hunter asked, "You ever think that maybe she just isn't a ninja?"

Cam gave him a sharp look, but Hunter was still watching the others. "No," he answered, sounding a little more defensive than he'd meant to. "She thinks that enough for both of us."

"No, I mean--" Hunter glanced at him. "What if she's something else? You said she does better in your classes than anyone else's. What if it's not just because she thinks you're cute... what if she's a samurai?"

"Hey, guys," Shane greeted them all with a laugh, clasping Blake's hand and nodding to Hunter when he unfolded himself from the blanket. "You miss me?"

"Nah," Blake teased. "It was quieter without those skateboard wheels around."

"Look who's talking!" Shane retorted with good-natured disbelief. "Hey, Cam," he added, inclining his head in Cam's direction with maybe a little more reserve than he once had.

"We saved you some food," Tori was saying, and Cam felt Hunter's hand on his elbow the moment he stood up.

"We'll be right back," he interrupted, catching Blake's attention first but not avoiding anyone's gaze. "I owe someone about two-fifty in ice cream."

"Did I say I was getting a kiddie ice cream?" Cam inquired. "I think you'll be paying more than two-fifty to settle this one."

Shane's gaze slid away with the barest acknowledgement, but Blake grinned. "Sure thing. Make sure you eat it before it melts this time."

"Ha ha," Hunter told him, ignoring Tori's bemused look.

"Dude, what?" Dustin wanted to know.

"Cam has you to thank for that," Blake was saying as they walked away. Cam rolled his eyes, catching Hunter's smirk out of the corner of his eye. "You been running a lot lately?" Blake added.

"Yeah," Hunter said under his breath. "That's what I want to know, too."

"Like you've ever bet against Tori," Cam responded, just as quietly.

"Hey, she's good," Hunter defended himself. "I'd have bet against her if I'd expected her to lose. But I didn't."

Cam didn't bother to reply to that. The silence was as good an answer as any, and he was just as happy to turn his attention back to Nena's situation. Could Hunter be right? There shouldn't be anything to prevent samurai from learning ninja techniques: he had done it, after all. As he reviewed her classes in light of that distinction, though, there was no doubt that she was consistently and significantly better in those that involved the training style of the samurai.

"Whatcha thinking?" Hunter wanted to know. He had let his hand fall, so that they were no longer in contact. Cam could tolerate being steered occasionally, and it was less conspicuous than holding hands... but it wasn't easy to make it look natural for an extended period of time.

"I'm thinking," Cam said with a sigh, "that if you're on to something with Nena, I'm going to kick myself for not seeing it earlier."

He saw Hunter shrug. "Just a thought," he offered. "A totally uninformed thought. It's not like I know anything about her that you don't."

"Sometimes people on the outside see things better than you do," Cam murmured, mostly to himself.

He could feel Hunter's inquiring gaze. "Something I said to her once," he explained. Then, reluctantly, he added, "About something you said to me, actually."

"Oh?" That was all, just the one syllable. His tone was more curious than amused.

He caught himself just as he started to reach for the choker at his throat. That was a habit he really had to break, he thought, aborting the motion. It had started back when he was wearing the star of the samurai, which had been innocuous enough. But he really didn't need to draw any more attention to the gold chain than it already got--especially on Academy grounds.

"You asked if I really wanted to stay on at the Wind Academy," he said at last. "One night, in the kitchen... right after the Abyss. Before you and Blake left. You made pancakes," he added inconsequentially.

"I remember." Hunter's tone was neutral, but he was staring ahead like he was trying for "casual" and failing. "Weird night."

Exactly three nights after the security camera in Ninja Ops mysteriously failed. The first time they had been alone since the back of the Storm Chargers' van, and the infamous "cruising" incident that followed. Cam still didn't know how much of that had gotten back to Blake, and through him, to Tori and the others.

"Yeah," he agreed finally. "But... you were right. Just before Christmas, I told Nena that sometimes people who aren't involved are more objective about what's happening."

"Because," Hunter prompted.

"She wanted to drop out." Strange that it was easier to talk about it here, in a crowd of strangers, than it was to mention it anywhere on Academy grounds. "I wouldn't let her."

"She wanted to drop out," Hunter repeated thoughtfully. "I didn't know that."

"Yeah, well." Cam grimaced. "Between her wanting to leave, and everyone else wanting Marah and Kapri to leave, sometimes I feel like teaching is secondary to just maintaining a class."

Hunter didn't say anything for a moment. "Funny that you used my argument for you leaving to convince someone else to say," he observed at last.

Cam decided not to mention his promise to tell her what Hunter had said.

"Hey, sparklers!" Just like that, Hunter had caught his arm to make him stop and was pointing to someone he apparently knew near the vendors' tables.

"Ice cream," Cam reminded him, but Hunter was already changing course for this shiny new distraction. Cam followed, more amused than resigned and in truth just as happy to be away from the others for a while. Between Shane's discomfort and the combined tactlessness of Marah and Dustin... well, the word "relaxing" wouldn't be the first adjective he chose.

Hunter would have a lighter with him at a fireworks display. By the time Cam caught up with him, he had conned someone Cam only vaguely recognized out of a box of sparklers and was happily peeling the top open. With the lighter in one hand and his nose to the near end of the box as he shook it impatiently, he could have been the poster boy for What Not To Do With Fireworks.

"You do know that you should take them out of the box before you light them," Cam commented, pausing at what wasn't nearly a safe enough distance. "And that no one here will thank you for catching them on fire?"

Hunter looked up long enough to scan their surroundings, his gaze settling on the nearest edge of the crowd and then catching Cam's to make sure he would follow. "Come on!"

He did follow. He was admittedly intrigued by the promise of handheld fireworks, and he was secretly enjoying Hunter's enthusiasm. He wasn't surprised to find a piece of metal wire in his hand a moment later. Giving the coating a cursory inspection, the snapping sound caught him by surprise when the one Hunter was holding caught fire and started to spark.

"Hold still," Hunter said impatiently, tilting his lighter in Cam's direction.

Cam met the flame halfway, and the end of the wire lit up in a miniature explosion. It glittered and fizzed, casting off glowing magnesium dust and gas as the sparkler's coating slowly burned itself up. He hadn't realized how dark it was getting, or even that the sun had set, until he looked up and saw the shadows flickering across Hunter's face.

"I don't care who sees us together," he said suddenly. "You know that, right?"

The look Hunter gave him was impossible to read in the unsteady light. "Yeah?" he said at last. It was more a question than an agreement.

"Yeah." He wasn't embarrassed by Hunter. Annoyed, overwhelmed, occasionally driven to distraction, yes. But not embarrassed.

Hunter was smiling at him. "Cool," he said easily. The response was sincere--unusually so. Hunter made it sound like this kind of thing came naturally to him, but it didn't. He was only now beginning to realize how much trust Hunter had put in him.

And if that was the case, Cam's own trust might not be misplaced.