Note: National Novel Writing Month 2008

Warning: Chapters marked (R) contain non-graphic erotic content. Chapters 14, 15, and 17 are rated for two boys making out and foreplay that includes gentle scratching and biting.

Chapters:

1. In Your Space

Lily was the first one to notice.  Not that it was subtle, and not that any of them wouldn’t have noticed too if they’d been with her.  But they hadn’t been, and she had a hard time explaining it to them after the fact.

“My animal spirit!” she exclaimed, bursting into the kitchen with her hair loose and her eyes wide and bright.  “It was with me on the street!”

“Ah,” RJ said, turning neatly around Casey at the baker’s table and sliding two orders into the oven at once.  “That’s very good.  You’re becoming closer to your totem.  Hat, please.”

“Yeah, really close,” Lily said.  She pulled her hair back, fumbling a scrunchy out of her pocket and twisting it into place.  “Like right next to me!  Walking beside me!”

RJ smiled indulgently, but Casey stopped what he was doing long enough to frown over at her.  “When you say ‘walking beside you,’” he began.

“I mean I’m not kidding about this!” Lily declared.  “There was a cheetah walking down the street next to me!  This high.  This long.  Yellow!  With spots!”

Casey’s frown deepened.  “An actual cheetah,” he repeated.

“Yes!” Lily exclaimed.  She yanked her apron down off of the hooks and wrapped it around her waist.  “An actual cheetah!  What part of ‘there was a cheetah walking down the street with me’ isn’t clear?”

“Could other people... see this cheetah?” RJ asked, holding up one hand to illustrate the people.  The other hand, presumably, represented some kind of abstract sight.

“Yes,” Lily said impatiently.  “They could see the cheetah, because the cheetah was an actual completely solid wild cat, standing right there in the middle of the sidewalk with me!”

RJ and Casey exchanged glances.  “I see,” RJ said after a moment.  “Well, that’s... unusual.”

“Where did it go?” Casey wanted to know.  “It’s not still with you, is it?”

Lily rolled her eyes at him.  “Do you see it with me?”

Casey squinted at her.

Noise from the floor preceded Theo’s dramatic entry into the kitchen, looking only a little less startled than Lily had a minute before.  “Uh, guys?  Big problem.”

A ghostly mottled glow followed him into the kitchen.  Like dusty light spilling through the door, it could have been a trick of the afternoon sun except that even after the door swung shut the light swirled around him.  Yellowish, as high as his waist... with faint spotting?

“The jaguar,” Lily said.

“Yes,” Theo said.  “Yes, I’m being followed by a not-so-invisible animal spirit.  Could we do something about this, please?  It’s creeping out the customers.  Not to mention me.”

“Oh, does it creep you out?”  Lily sounded disappointed.  “I thought it was kind of cool.  Except for the scaring other people part.”

“Wait, this happened to you too?”  Theo looked outraged.  “You couldn’t have said something?  A little warning would have been nice!  What’s going on, anyway?”

“No idea,” RJ declared, sounding positively cheerful.  “I’m guessing it’s...”

He paused, and they all stared at him, waiting for the answer.  “Some kind of cosmic puzzle,” RJ finished at last.  “We should probably check on Dominic.”

Casey rolled his eyes, but Lily and Theo exchanged wide-eyed glances.  An exotic cat, large and predatory though it might be, was one thing.  A rhinoceros was something else entirely.

The moment Casey got it was very clear, because he froze.  “Uh, Lil?  You said yours was sort of... solid?”

“What?”  Theo looked from one of them to the other, but Lily and Casey caught each other’s eyes and bolted for the stairs at the same moment.

Theo looked at RJ, who hesitated.  “I think maybe we should...”  He held a hand over the table, waved it at the kitchen door, then pointed with both hands toward the stairs.  “Go with them.”

“Fran!” Theo shouted at the door.  He backtracked, pushing the door open and calling again, “Fran!  Code white!  Back in a minute!”

“I love you too!” Fran’s voice replied.

RJ smiled.  He and Theo arrived upstairs to find the loft deserted, but the eerie quiet probably boded well.  Surely a rhinoceros would make more noise in such a confined space?

“The porch,” Theo said.  The glow around him was gone, but his animal spirit had always been able to find Lily’s.  “They’re outside.”

Since Dominic slept on the porch, and he spent most of the days he had off sleeping, that wasn’t surprising.  He looked more surprised than any of them, still tangled in pajamas and a blanket in the middle of his hammock while Lily and Casey both talked at once.  He found RJ with his eyes when they followed their teammates out onto the porch, and he relaxed a little.

“Okay,” Dominic said, interrupting Lily and pre-empting Theo, who had just opened his mouth.  “No offense, guys, but I was out kind of late last night and I’m not really sure I’m awake yet.  Could you pick a spokesperson or something?”

“Our animal spirits are appearing without being called,” Theo said, without waiting for anyone to elect him.  “Mine and Lily’s, anyway.  And we’re not the only ones who can see them.”

“Huh,” Dominic said.  “That’s weird.”

“Mine was see-through,” Theo said.  “Like a ghost.  Lily’s wasn’t.”

“I was walking down the street and all of a sudden there was a cheetah walking next to me,” Lily told him.  “An actual cheetah.  I could touch it and everything.”

“Huh,” Dominic repeated, lifting his hands to scrub at his face before he looked around.  “That sounds... distracting.”

“I’m a little concerned that a rhino might not--fit on the porch,” RJ said thoughtfully.  “You might want to sleep inside for a while.  At least until we know whether or not your spirit is going to start manifesting at random.”

“Is yours?” Dominic wanted to know.  He’d completed his survey of the porch, apparently not turning up any rhinoceroses lurking in the corners.

RJ held his hands out to the sides.  “Not so far.  Casey?”

“Well, mine wouldn’t, right?”  Casey folded his arms, looking vaguely uncomfortable.  “I mean, if it’s me... it’s already here.  I haven’t noticed a second me around anywhere.”

“That’s a terrifying thought,” Theo muttered.

“Okay,” RJ said.  “Here’s what we’re going to do.  Dominic, I think you should move inside.  Just in case.  The rest of you--”

He eyed them for a long moment, then held a hand above his head and turned away.  “Back to work.  The after-school crowd is on its way.”

“But what about the cats?”  Lily followed him, Theo falling into step beside her.  “What are we going to tell everyone downstairs?”

“Well,” RJ said, “there’s nothing to see right now.  If that changes, we’ll just say we’re... testing a new holographics system.”

“We don’t have an old holographics system,” Theo pointed out.  “Do we?”

“We will when this one isn’t new anymore,” RJ replied.

Casey and Dominic were left on the porch, eyeing each other warily.  “Sorry to bust in on you like that,” Casey muttered.  “We were... Lily was pretty freaked, what with the whole cheetah thing.”

“Nah, it’s cool.”  Dominic didn’t move.  “Better to be woken up by you guys than by a giant rhino.”

“Okay.  Well.”  Casey shrugged awkwardly.  “You can, you know.  Sleep in my hammock today, if you want.”

“Thanks.”  Dominic looked surprised.  “I’ll probably just crash on the couch.  I don’t want to get in anyone’s space.”

“I don’t think RJ’ll mind,” Casey offered.  “I mean, you guys know each other, right?”

Dominic frowned, reaching up to scratch his fingers through his hair.  “Uh... yeah?”

“Yeah,” Casey echoed.  “So.”  There was a pause, and he added, “See ya,” as he turned to go back inside.

“Casey?” Dominic called after him.  “Why would RJ mind me sleeping in your hammock?”

Casey stopped in the doorway, hanging on the frame as he looked back.  “Because it’s in his room?”

Dominic blinked.  “Oh,” he said.  “I... didn’t know that.”

“I don’t sleep there,” Casey told him.  “It just didn’t fit anywhere else.”

“Oh,” Dominic repeated.  “Right.”

Casey lifted his hand in a half-wave, but Dominic’s voice caught him again before he could go.  “Casey--you and RJ--are you guys...?  I mean, are you... how close are you?”

Casey just stared at him.  “Close enough.”

“Right.”  Dominic nodded, like that was all he’d been asking.  “Got it.”

This time, when Casey turned to leave, Dominic let him go.  He waited, maybe long enough to be sure Casey was gone, before he said under his breath, “He always had to go for the dangerous ones.”

2. Unique Connection

“It’s not unheard of.”

RJ’s dad was sitting at the table on the landing in the loft that evening, watching Lily’s cheetah rest its head in her lap.  She was patting it carefully, ghosting her fingers over its fur and past ears lying flat against its head.  The rumbling noise coming from its throat was either a warning growl or a very pleased purr.

“Students’ animal spirits don’t usually manifest so strongly, of course,” Finn continued.  “But Casey tells me that Lily has always had a... unique connection to her spirit.”

“We’ve seen it before,” Casey said, shrugging when they all turned to look at him.  “Lily’s spirit shows up whenever she’s happy.  We’ve all felt it.”

“Not like this,” Theo added, eyeing the very solid cheetah.  It blocked the entire landing from table to railing, long tail twitching idly against one of the chairs.  “This is--different.”

“And you say you’ve seen yours as well?”  Finn considered Theo.  “Was it this corporeal?”

“No,” Theo said quickly.  “Not even close.”

“His was kind of like... light,” Lily offered.  “The way mine sometimes looks to me, except that everyone could see it.  Even people in the restaurant.”

“People outside of Pai Zhua?” Finn asked.

“People who’ve never even heard of Pai Zhua,” Theo confirmed.  “RJ’s blaming the new holographics system at JKP.”

Finn looked at his son in surprise.  “I was unaware you had a ‘holographics system.’”

RJ smiled.  “It’s still somewhat... hypothetical.”

“Ah.”  Finn sounded exactly like RJ in that moment.  “In that case, I’m sure there are a great many quirks to work out of the system.”

“Yes,” RJ agreed.  “The unfortunate tendency of those quirks to follow certain employees around town, though... that may be harder to explain.”

“How many of the employees?” Finn wanted to know.  “Have you seen your animal spirit recently?  Or has anyone else?”

“Well, technically,” RJ remarked, “I’m not an employee of myself.  And Casey’s animal spirit doesn’t manifest that way.”

“I’m not sure why you asked for my help if you’re not going to answer my questions,” his father told him.

“We haven’t seen the wolf around yet,” Casey put in.  “And I’ve never actually seen my spirit.  RJ thinks it’s... me.”

“Of course it’s you,” Finn said.  “It’s your animal spirit.”

“Yeah, but--”  Casey glanced at RJ.  “It manifests through me.  Not with me.  Not like Lily’s and Theo’s.”

The older man frowned at this.  “Show me.”

Casey looked around at all of them this time, and when he caught Lily’s eye they both looked down at her cheetah.  “You okay with that?” he asked her.

“Yeah,” Lily said, with a confidence that was obviously fake.  “What could happen?”

Casey gave her a look, but he got up and took a step back.  Lifting his hands, he took a deep breath and focused his energy.  “Spirit of the tiger!”

“Tiger” roared, his yell turning ferocious and feral in the space of a few words.  Finn actually drew back a little, covering the motion by sitting up straighter in his chair.  The faint suggestion of stripes and whiskers faded from Casey’s face as he shook it off, and the self-conscious shift of his frame was very human.

“Interesting,” Finn said slowly.  “I’m surprised that never came up before.”

“He doesn’t have to share his life story just because you taught him how to fight,” RJ said, the words belying his offhanded tone.

“The way he channels his animal spirit would have been helpful,” Finn countered.

“Sorry,” Casey interrupted.  “I didn’t think of it.  I didn’t know it was important.”

“That’s all right,” Finn said.  His tone softened perceptibly.  “So you haven’t noticed anything unusual with your animal spirit?”

“No.”  Casey looked back at Lily’s cheetah, seemingly undisturbed by the tiger’s brief appearance.  “Not Dominic, either.  Just Lily and Theo.”

“Well.”  RJ’s father folded his hands on the table.  “You’re newer to Pai Zhua.  I would have expected RJ and Dominic to notice something, though.”

His tone implied that perhaps they simply had not been paying attention, and RJ sighed.  “If you’re done taking shots,” he said, “we’re all waiting to hear your wisdom.”

“Some of you with more sincerity than others, apparently,” Finn replied.  “No matter.  I have no answers for you, I’m afraid.  Only more questions.”

“I thought you said you’d seen it before,” Lily blurted out.

“I said it’s not unheard of,” he told her.  “I’ve never actually seen it myself.  But I’ve heard of times when the clans were so out of balance that animal spirits began to manifest randomly among the population.”

“The clans?” Casey repeated.  “Pai Zhua, you mean?”

“And Dai Shi,” RJ said.  “The Order of the Claw includes them both.”

“It used to include them both,” his father corrected.  “Dai Shi was, until recently, a clan of the past.  Lost to history.”

“Perhaps nothing is ever really lost,” RJ observed.  “Everything... is, after all.  Forever.  Maybe it just continues in a way we don’t recognize.”

“So you think the Order is coming back into balance, now that Dai Shi is back?”  Casey directed the question at RJ.

RJ tilted his head, but it was Finn who answered.  “The Order was in balance for generations.  If the restoration of Dai Shi has done anything, it’s disturbing a status quo that has remained unchallenged for longer than I’ve been alive.”

“And,” RJ said smoothly, “how else do we progress, if not by challenging the status quo?”

“I’m not sure the emerging presence of Dai Shi can be considered a step forward,” Finn said.

“Sometimes we have to go backwards in order to go forward,” RJ remarked.

“So, do we think this is bad?” Lily interrupted.  She was still patting her cheetah.  “'Cause I kind of like it.”

“Lil, you can’t walk around with a cheetah for the rest of your life,” Theo said.

“Why not?” she wanted to know.  “No one thinks it’s real.”

“Yeah, no one at JKP,” Theo agreed, “because, no offense, they’re all kind of weird.  What do you think’s gonna happen when you try to get on a bus with that thing?”

“She’s not a thing,” Lily protested.  “She’s my animal spirit.  I’m thinking about naming her.”

“How do you know she’s a she?” Casey asked curiously.

“I don’t know.”  Lily’s shrug was careless.  “She just seems like a she.”

“Not every animal spirit has a gender,” Finn said.

“Jarrod’s does,” Casey said.

They all looked at him again, and he looked around at Lily and Theo.  “I mean, right?  It’s obviously a male lion.  His animal spirit.”

No one said anything until RJ asked slowly, “How do you know that?”

Casey shrugged.  “'Cause it has a mane?”

“You’ve seen Jarrod’s animal spirit?” Lily asked.

“We all did,” Casey said.  “That day at the academy, with Master Mao.  When he told Jarrod to leave?”

Lily and Theo exchanged glances.  “I didn’t,” Lily said.

“Neither did I,” Theo said.  “I can only see the spirits of people I know really well.  Like Lily.”

Casey raised his eyebrows, and Theo amended, “Before.  I could see Lily’s spirit before today.”  Somewhat grudgingly, he admitted, “You could, too.  But that’s because we’re friends, right?  You only met Jarrod once.”

“And...”  RJ held up a finger on each hand, framing Casey briefly.  “You said you channeled your spirit around him.  Master Mao saw the way you did it, and that’s what made him choose you.  What if the way your spirit comes through you lets you see other people... more clearly?”

Casey held his hands out to the sides, unconsciously echoing RJ.  “Beats me.  You guys studied this stuff a lot longer than I did.”

“Yeah,” Theo said.  “Like at all.”

Lily slapped his shoulder, but Casey grinned at him.  “Yeah,” he agreed.  “So.  Whatever you say.”

“Have you seen my spirit?” Finn inquired.

“Uh--”  Casey glanced at RJ.  “Yes?”

RJ looked politely interested.

“Not when we were first training,” Casey said, looking a little uncomfortable.  “Just... lately.”

“Today?” RJ suggested.

Casey hesitated.  “Maybe.”

“And this is the first time you channeled your spirit around him,” Lily said.  “Maybe that’s it.  Maybe you can see everyone’s spirits when you’re channeling yours.”

“What about when you’re not?” RJ wondered.  “If you’ve seen them once, can you keep seeing them?  All the time?”

Casey shook his head.  “I definitely don’t see them all the time.”

“What about right now?” RJ wanted to know.  “Can you see any of our spirits now?”

“Other than Lily’s?” Theo added.

Lily patted her cheetah’s head reassuringly.

Casey cast a cursory look around the table, but he shook his head.  “No.  Just the cheetah.”

“How would you feel about an... experiment?” RJ asked.  “If we were to step away from the others, and you channeled your spirit--I’d be interested to know if you could see the wolf.”

“That’s cool with me,” Casey agreed.  “Lily?”

“Seemed okay last time,” she said.

“We’ll go--”  RJ pointed over the landing.  “Down on the mats this time.  Just in case.”

The others got up too, coming over to the railing with varying degrees of interest.  Lily made Theo stand on her other side, so the cheetah would have room to watch if it wanted--it didn’t seem to want to--and Finn folded his arms, studying the scene with no expression.  RJ put his hands behind his back, smiling a little while Casey centered himself.

That should have warned them: the smile, all by itself.  And maybe it did warn Casey, because he got as far as, “Spirit of the--” before he whirled, ducking under the arm that blocked a blur of motion and rolling out of the way.  A faint four-legged shadow hit the ground behind him before dissolving into nothing.

“I’d say that’s a yes,” RJ said calmly.

Casey was on his feet again, and he spun toward RJ with a snarl.  RJ blinked, holding up his hands as his smile fell away.  “Sorry?”

It was possibly the first time RJ had ever apologized for his unorthodox training techniques, but it didn’t seem to make any impression on Casey.  The tiger coalesced around him, slamming into RJ hard enough to knock him down.  RJ didn’t strike back, even when Casey landed on top of him, and for a moment they were frozen there on the floor.

Then Casey lifted his hand, rubbing the back of it against RJ’s cheek, and RJ tried to follow with his eyes.  “Uh, Casey?” he said carefully.  “You know how you said you hadn’t noticed anything... unusual about your animal spirit?”

“Yeah?”  Casey actually answered, and his voice was normal.  Everyone on the landing moved as though suddenly released.  Finn took a step forward, letting his arms fall, while Lily and Theo ran for the stairs.

“You’re... furry,” RJ said.

“I knocked you down,” Casey countered.  “I totally win.”

“You’re furry,” RJ repeated.

“What?”  Casey lifted his hands, inspecting them carefully.  “What are you talking about?”

“Casey?”  Lily was kneeling beside them, the cheetah looming behind her shoulder.  “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he said, pushing himself up.  “Did you see that?  I just knocked RJ on his butt!  That was awesome!”

“Yeah, because he let you,” Theo interjected.  He was eyeing Lily’s cheetah warily as he stood guard over her other shoulder.  “You got kind of weird there for a second.”

Casey offered RJ a hand, and Lily stood up with them.  “Someone... touch Casey, please?” RJ said.  Lily put a hand on his shoulder without hesitation.

“No--his skin.”  RJ was frowning at Casey’s hand.  “Give Lily your other hand, please.”

Casey held out his hand to Lily, who took it.  “Why?” she wanted to know.

RJ tilted his head.  “It doesn’t feel... strange, to you?”

Lily and Casey exchanged glances.  “No,” Lily said.  “Does it to you?”

RJ hesitated.  “Not anymore,” he said at last.  “Maybe it was my imagination.  Just the spirit manifestation.  That was probably it.”

“You should be more careful with that.”  Finn was frowning as he came up behind Lily and Theo.  “Casey’s obviously not in complete control of his animal spirit.  He needs more practice.”

“That’s... never happened before.”  RJ looked like he wanted to protest but couldn’t quite come up with the words.  “It must be part of the strengthening of spirit presence that Lily and Theo have noticed.”

“You think the tiger could take Casey over?” Theo asked bluntly.

“Wait, whoa,” Casey said, holding up his hands.  “That’s ridiculous.  The tiger is me.  It can’t take me over.”

“You didn’t see you jump RJ just now,” Lily told him.  Casey glanced at her, and she glanced at Finn.  “Attack him,” she amended.  “You didn’t see you turn on him for no reason.”

“He attacked me first,” Casey protested.  “The wolf went for my throat!  I totally had a reason!”

“It wouldn’t have... injured you,” RJ said.  He sounded taken aback by the idea.  Maybe a little hurt himself.

“I know,” Casey said, giving him a puzzled look.  “But you always say we should treat every attack like it’s real.  You called your animal spirit.  I called mine.”

They didn’t usually involve their animal spirits in training unless they were morphed.  The potential for mistakes or misunderstandings was too high.  And maybe that was all this was: a misunderstanding.  A mistake on RJ’s part; a miscalculation on Casey’s.

“You might want to avoid that,” Finn said.  “At least in the immediate future.  If the animal spirits are becoming less predictable, we should be more conservative in our interactions with them.  Until a new balance is established.”

“What if we can’t avoid calling them?”  Lily’s hand was resting on the head of her cheetah as it sat beside her.

“What if we need them in a fight?” Theo asked.

“Always weigh the risk of taking action against the potential cost of doing nothing,” RJ reminded them.  “Your animal spirits will be beside you when you need them, as they always have been.”

“Sometimes even when we don’t,” Casey said, giving Lily’s cheetah a significant glance.

“Those are probably the times you’ll want to minimize,” Finn said.  “If you can’t, you can’t, of course.  Perhaps RJ could help you with that.”

They all glanced at RJ, whose smile looked a little strained.  His father didn’t wait for him to reply.  “First, though, if I could have a word?”

“Sure, Dad,” RJ said, with a slight emphasis that sounded like a sigh.  “Anytime.”  His tone implied that as long as “anytime” was “never,” this was perfectly true.

“We should go--”  Casey glanced over at Lily and paused in the middle of his sentence.  “I’ll go talk to Dominic.  Let him know what’s going on.”

“That would be good.”  RJ looked like he wished he could talk to Dominic instead.  “I’ll join you in a few minutes.”

“We’ll stay here,” Theo announced, in the tone of someone who had the best job and knew it.  “With the cat.”

“Good idea,” Lily agreed.

They smirked at each other.  Casey and RJ both sighed at the same time.  The cheetah stayed right where it was, large and yellow and very real in the middle of the loft.

3. Namaste

“I’m concerned about your relationship with your students,” Finn said bluntly.  “You’ve never been a teacher before.  I’m not sure you understand the responsibility that comes with the position.”

“Well,” RJ said.  “Thank you for your... concern.  It’s always nice to know you care.”

“Has it occurred to you that your actions as a Pai Zhua master affect the balance of the Order?”

RJ tilted his head, considering his father.  “I think it’s unlikely that everything that’s happening is a result of my sleeping with Casey.”

Finn stared at him.  “You’re--you’ve had sex with Casey?”

“No,” RJ said, a small smile touching his face.  Turning away, he lifted a hand over his head to hold his place in the conversation.  “But you took that better than I expected.”

“This is hardly a joking matter,” Finn said sternly.  “The boy worships you.”

“And I worship him,” RJ replied.  Putting one hand on the outside wall of the courtyard, he lifted the other to address the air.  “I honor the divine in each of my students.”

“Your respect for them is admirable, of course.  But you can see how it might be misinterpreted,” Finn said.  “Especially by one so young.”

RJ settled both hands on the wall behind him and tilted his head, considering.  “No,” he said at last.  “I don’t.”

“Your tendency toward free expression of appreciation and gratitude,” Finn began, but RJ held up a hand.

“I understand how Casey might think that I have a... deep appreciation for his company,” he said.  “What I don’t see is how that could be misinterpreted.”

Finn’s expression was stern.  “If you have feelings for a student that go beyond respect and friendship, now is hardly the time to express them.”

“I disagree,” RJ said.  “Now is all we have.  Tomorrow is a possibility, not a promise.”

“Don’t hide behind those philosophical thoughts of yours,” Finn told him.  “Casey isn’t one of your yogic friends, full of peace and free love.”

“Indeed,” RJ said, frowning.  “You can see how I would be confused.”

“RJ, you’re his teacher, his employer, and his landlord,” Finn said.  “You really don’t find anything inappropriate about that?”

“The situation is the same as any master-student relationship on academy grounds,” RJ insisted.  “We simply find ourselves in a... non-traditional setting.”

“On academy grounds, master-student relationships are forbidden,” Finn said darkly.

“Ah.”  RJ nodded, extending his hands as though forfeiting the point.  “Not exactly the same, then.”

“If I can not convince you to see reason,” Finn warned, “I will try to dissuade Casey from this foolishness.”

RJ looked down, apparently serious for the first time.  “If you can,” he told the ground between them, “then perhaps it’s for the best.”

“Most sensible thing you’ve said all evening,” Finn muttered.  “I’ll take my leave of you, then.  I expect to see Casey for training as usual.”

“I don’t dictate his schedule,” RJ told him.  Then he frowned.  “Actually, I do.  But he’s free to train with you as long as he wishes.”

Finn just shook his head.  “It’s a dangerous road you’re on, RJ.  Take care you don’t crash.”

“I’m sure you’ll do everything you can to prevent it,” RJ replied.

Finn put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed briefly.  “I’m only trying to look out for you,” he said.  “Good night, RJ.”

“Namaste,” RJ said with a sigh.  Watching his father walk away, he added under his breath, “I’m only trying to look out for you.  By the way, everything you do is wrong.  Have a good night!”

He stood outside for too long after that.  Obviously, when someone questioned your ties to a friend or... something else, the best way to alleviate doubt was to seek said person out.  It was also, unfortunately, the hardest thing to do.

But he had to go inside eventually, and Casey and Dominic and Fran were huddled together in a booth by the door.  It was getting late, and this close to close there were only two tables still occupied.  Alicia must be out back.  There wasn’t anyone at the counter, but there wasn’t anyone who looked like they wanted someone at the counter, either.

Dominic caught his eye first, and that made Casey turn.  Lifting his chin, he drew RJ in by the simple expedient of sliding over.  Not just an invitation, but an expectation of companionship.  Of course RJ would come over, because...

Well.  Why, exactly, he was expected to join them was something RJ had only recently begun to take for granted.  The fact that his father could make him question it again with a few short sentences was disturbing.

If you can, then perhaps it’s for the best.

If the seeds of doubt were so easily sown, then perhaps the original crop of dreams was unrealistic.  A house was only as stable as the foundation on which it was built.  And weren’t faith and confidence a necessary basis for any successful endeavor?

“Hey,” Casey said, nudging his shoulder.  He’d sat down without really noticing, and Fran and Dominic were watching him worriedly.  “How’d it go with your dad?”

“Well,” RJ said with a sigh.  “Suffice it to say, I think he’s onto the me liking you a little too much thing.”

Dominic didn’t bat an eye.  Nor Fran, but that wasn’t really a surprise.  Fran usually knew what was going on.  Equally reassuring was Casey himself, who seemed to take their support for granted.

“Sorry,” Casey said.  He made a face, but he wasn’t casting any uncertain looks around the table.  “You think it was something about the tiger?”

“I think it was something about us being in the same room together,” RJ admitted, staring down at the colored tiles under his hands.  “He was bound to figure it out sooner or later.”

“Well, but he should be happy for you!” Fran said.  “Right?  What’s bad about that?”

RJ frowned at the table.  “I think it’s safe to say that... happy wasn’t the first word he chose.”

“I’ll talk to him,” Casey promised.

“Yes,” RJ agreed, not looking up.  “You will.  Now that he’s given up on me, you’re next.”

Dominic scoffed at that.  “Come on,” he said, putting his hands on the table and leaning in.  Maybe trying to catch RJ’s eye.  “What can he do?  It’s not like he can break you up just by talking at you.”

“Never underestimate a Pai Zhua master,” Rj said glumly.

“You look like you need a hug,” Fran decided.  “Casey, you should take him upstairs and give him a hug.”

“We’ll be up after we finish cleaning,” Dominic added.

“Well, I won’t be,” Fran said, a little awkward.  “Unless you want me to be, I mean.”

“We do,” Casey told her.  “Of course.  We always want you.  If you have time.”

“I do,” she said, beaming.  “Okay.  So.  We’ll be up after we finish cleaning.”

Casey pushed at RJ’s shoulder.  “We have our orders,” he said.  “Move it.”

He reached out to straighten a menu as they passed, and Casey slapped his hand away.  “No working,” Casey told him.  “Shift’s over.”

RJ frowned at him, but he let himself be steered into the kitchen and up the stairs.  To the loft, where Lily and Theo were sitting on the couch--with Lily’s cheetah.  Or, more precisely, Lily’s cheetah was sprawled across the pile of practice mats they used as a futon, and Lily had her head up against the cheetah’s and her feet in Theo’s lap.

“I don’t know, Lil,” Casey said with a grin.  “You sure you’re comfortable enough there?”

“I’m trying to come up with a name for her,” Lily said, as though this answered the question in any way.  “Theo thinks it should be a flower.”

“Like Lily,” Theo offered.  “But something yellow, because it’s her spirit.”

“There are yellow lilies,” Lily protested.

“I didn’t say there weren’t.”  Theo had that look of patience that he wore only when dealing with Lily.  No one else would have gotten away with assuming he didn’t know what he was talking about.  “I just said your spirit should be named for a yellow flower.”

“Daisy,” Casey said, making his way over to the couch.  “Is it okay if I sit here?”

“I think so,” Lily answered.  She shifted her head a little so it was propped against the cheetah’s shoulder, eyeing Casey over the cat’s body as he sat down.  “She doesn’t seem to mind.”

“She doesn’t seem to mind much of anything,” Theo said.  “She’s pretty laid-back.  For a wild cat.”

“Unlike Casey’s,” RJ murmured, his gaze wandering over the group on the couch.  It was hard to tell whether this was actually directed at any of them, or just him speaking a thought aloud.

“What about mine?”  Casey put his arms over the back of the futon-style arrangement and stared up at him, curious and noncommittal.  “You don’t think I’m laid-back?”

The cheetah pressed one of its hind legs up against his knee, and Casey’s gaze flicked to the cat in acknowledgment.  “Hi,” he said.  “You and Lily are perfect for each other.”

The cat’s tail unfurled, draping over his leg, and Casey grinned.  “Oh, I like you.”

A sound like a loud sigh preceded a token purr, a rumble in and out before it trailed off into another sigh, and Casey patted the tail on his leg.  It flicked away from his hand, then came back when he didn’t follow.  “Okay,” Casey said.  “No patting the tail.  Got it.”

“You two seem to get along well,” RJ observed.

“It’s cause I like Casey,” Lily said flippantly.

“Oh?”  RJ considered that, hovering at the end of the couch without making any move to sit.  “Well, that bodes ill.”

“What are you talking about?” Casey wanted to know.

“If her spirit likes you because she does,” RJ said, pointing appropriately if half-heartedly, “and your spirit attacked me...”

“RJ,” Casey said.  “I like your dad a lot, don’t get me wrong.  But whatever he said, I think you’re taking it too seriously.”

“What did he say?” Lily asked, craning her neck over the cheetah’s shoulder again.

“You were training,” Theo said at the same time.  “Your spirit attacked, Casey’s defended.  It doesn’t have anything to do with liking or not liking.”

“That’s true,” Lily agreed, without waiting for an answer to her question.  “My spirit and Theo’s fight all the time, and we like each other just fine.”

“Black-Eyed Susan,” Theo said suddenly.

“Oh, yellow with black spots.”  Lily toed one of Theo’s hands gently.  “Good call.  Except she doesn’t really seem like a Susan.”

“How about Agrimony?”  RJ finally sat down next to Casey.  Back straight, legs crossed.  “Yellow flower of emotional honesty.”

“I was going to say Daffodil,” Casey offered.

“I like Dandelion,” Lily said, “but I don’t think she likes having ‘lion’ in the name.”

The cheetah’s tail twitched in a way that did in fact seem irritable.

“Marigold,” Theo said.

“That’s pretty,” Lily agreed.  “I think she likes the ‘gold’ part.”

“Buttercup,” Casey added.

Lily twisted a little to look in his direction, clearly amused.  “Casey, have you noticed that all your suggestions are really cute?” she asked.

“What are you saying?” Casey countered.

“Celandine is for clarity,” RJ said.

Not to be outdone, Theo suggested, “Goldenrod.”

“If she was named Sunflower, I could just call her Sun,” Lily mused.

“But she’s a girl,” Casey pointed out.

“Cinquefoil is yellow,” RJ remarked.

“Cattails,” Theo said.

“I think pussywillows have yellow flowers,” Lily said, “but that doesn’t sound dignified enough.”

“What’s cinquefoil for?” Casey asked RJ.

“Channeling,” RJ said, a thoughtful look on his face.  “I think.  It might have something to do with... hands-on healing.  Amplifying the energy conveyed through touch.”

“Huh.”  Casey reached out and took his hand, turning it over and sliding his fingers across RJ’s.  He made it look matter-of-fact, but that didn’t keep Theo from nudging Lily’s foot and nodding in their direction.

Lily was naturally facing away from them, so there was nothing subtle about her effort to see.  Especially with her cheetah’s head in the way.  She didn’t say anything, but she and Theo smiled at each other while Casey and RJ pretended not to notice.

“I think it should be something different,” Lily said, settling back against the cheetah’s shoulder.  “Something unique.  A name that no one else has.”

RJ was watching Casey’s fingers press against his: easily, casually, like it didn’t mean anything at all.  When really, the fact that he could do it meant everything.

“Hypericum,” RJ said.

Theo frowned over at him.  “What?”

“Hypericum,” RJ repeated.  “The latin name for the genus that includes St. Johnswort.”

“St. Johnswort,” Casey echoed.  “Isn’t that, like, the cure for depression?”

RJ tried to shift so that he could stare at Casey without pulling his hand away.  It didn’t quite work.  “Do you have a personal reason for knowing that, or do you actually listen when I tell you things?”

“My personal reason for knowing is that I listen when you tell us things,” Casey told him.

“Hypericum,” Lily murmured.  “I like that.”

“It’s different,” Theo admitted.

“What do you think?” Lily asked, and her cat didn’t move.  At all.  Except to breathe, and maybe a brief whisker twitch.

Still, Lily seemed to get something out of it.  “She likes it,” she declared.  “Hypericum it is.”

“Well,” Casey remarked, “I say as long as Lily and Hypericum are happy, we’re all happy.”

“That’s very metaphysical,” RJ said.

“Gee, I wonder where I get that from,” Casey said dryly.

That was the moment the cheetah chose to start purring.  Quietly at first, but strengthening as they sat there together.  A sound that almost seemed to bind them, one to another.

“See?” Lily murmured with a smile.  “It’s not so bad.”

4. Tiger Eyes

For a while, it looked like she was right.  Lily’s cat was gone in the morning, and Theo’s didn’t appear again.  If Lily seemed a little more tired than usual, she covered well and it didn’t keep her from training or affect her work in any way.

Until the day Casey didn’t wake up and the whole world ground to a halt.  Like Lily, he had tried to shake off an inexplicable hit to his energy level and had been mostly successful.  But on Thursday, RJ went downstairs to open alone and it was Lily, not Casey, who finally joined him.

“RJ,” she said.  Quietly.  Urgently.  Unusually serious, for Lily, and she looked around as though expecting to see someone else in the kitchen with him.  “I think something’s wrong with Casey.”

RJ froze.  Not the peaceful kind of still, but a particular shocked silence that few things drew out of him.  “Wrong as in, he has a cold, or wrong as in, he’s acting like he’s under the influence of something... not positive?”

“We can’t wake him up,” Lily said, lowering her voice further.  “We tried, but--”

RJ was already brushing his hands off on his apron.  “When you say you tried,” he began.

“We really tried.”  Lily looked somewhere between worried and afraid.  “Do you need someone to watch the kitchen?”

“Tell Marcus we’ll be upstairs for a few minutes,” RJ called over his shoulder.  From halfway up the stairs.  “Then come up.”

Theo was in the room Casey shared with Lily, hovering beside a bed covered with red blankets and jungle sheets and one very unconscious teenager.  “Casey,” RJ said inadvertently.  In an effort to cover his instinctive dismay, he added, “It’s a beautiful morning, Casey.  Time to get up and share the sun with us.”

It provoked no reaction.  Of course.  Lily had said they’d tried.  He caught Theo’s eye, and Theo shook his head.  “We tried talking, shaking, threatening... nothing worked.”

RJ took this as permission to try more drastic measures.  Sitting down on the bed, he made sure he was as close as humanly possible before stroking Casey’s cheek.  “Hi,” he said softly.  His hand came to rest on Casey’s neck and he squeezed gently.  “Time to wake up.”

It was no more effective than anything else had been, and he resorted to checking Casey’s pulse and counting his breaths.  Temperature, heart rate, respiration; all normal.  He seemed physically fine, leaving either the Power or the animal spirits as the most likely explanation for his state.

Unfortunately, Casey was the one best at diagnosing Power problems, and the animal spirits hadn’t exactly been cooperative of late.  When Lily showed up in the loft a few minutes later, all he could tell them was that Casey wasn’t dead and he probably wasn’t dying.  The latter being his criteria for involving hospitals, RJ was reluctant to take further action without some sort of preliminary diagnosis.

Some time after Lily and Theo left again, he realized he was sitting on the floor beside Casey’s bed with his head in his hands.  It finally occurred to him that the fact Theo was gone probably meant that Lily was covering for him in the kitchen while Theo covered for her on the floor.  Theo hadn’t been scheduled to work this morning.

He took a deep breath and tried to pull himself together.  At least enough that he could sit reasonably.  He knew better than to try to go downstairs; clearly that wasn’t going to happen, but he should at least be able to sit in one place without looking like he was melting.

The sound of the bed shifting behind him made him still again, breath caught as he listened without looking.  Imagination?  Wishful thinking?  His own movement disturbing the blankets?

“Hi,” Casey’s voice said.  Maybe a little thicker than usual, but recognizably his and definitely conscious.  “What time is it?”

RJ closed his eyes as Casey’s hand brushed against the back of his shoulder--accidental, maybe, as he stretched, but a reminder of his continued presence nonetheless.  “It’s... rather late, actually.”

“Yeah?”  The hand on his shoulder was more deliberate this time, coming to rest gently beside his neck.  “What’d I do to deserve this?”

He sounded light, curious.  Unconcerned.  Like he was just waking up, and hey, here was RJ.  Bonus.  His voice was still a little rough, but he seemed otherwise normal.  Inexplicably so.

Until RJ turned around, and the eyes that caught his were strange.  “Casey,” he said carefully.  “How are you... feeling?”

That made Casey sit up, giving the room a quick look before holding his hands out in front of him and glancing down at himself to make sure he was still there.  “Fine,” he said.  “Why?  What’s going on?”

RJ’s gaze followed his, but there was nothing else obviously off about him.  Except that he seemed to have totally forgotten he was opening that morning.  That wasn’t unusual; RJ was pretty sure Lily woke him up most mornings.

“I don’t know,” RJ said, when Casey looked back at him for an answer.  “But whatever it is seems to have multiple symptoms.”

Casey raised his eyebrows, perhaps correctly connecting symptoms to sickness.  Perhaps not.  “You slept all morning,” RJ said slowly.  “Or, it might be more accurate to say, you were unconscious all morning.  We couldn’t wake you up.”

“I was kind of tired last night,” Casey admitted, clearly not grasping the magnitude of the problem.  “I hope I didn’t sleep through anything--”

He broke off, his eyes widening.  “It is Thursday?” Casey blurted out.  “I was supposed to open!  I can’t believe--why didn’t you wake me up?”

“We tried,” RJ told him, unable to look away from those eyes.  Not just because they were finally open.  “Are you sure you feel all right?”

“Does it count if I’m kind of weirded out by you staring at me like that?” Casey countered.  “What?  Did I grow an extra head or something?”

“Your eyes,” RJ said, gesturing vaguely to his own and then in Casey’s general direction.  “They’re... not quite the same.”

“RJ!”  The sound of feet accompanying the shout, pounding off the landing and across the parquet, was loud and obvious and oddly muffled by--something.  Like white noise around the edges, the footsteps weren’t quite as crisp as they normally would be.

He was already up when Lily and Theo burst into the room, and he saw Casey slither out of bed from the corner of his eye.  Some part of his brain registered the grace as a far cry from his usual scramble--and some other part took too-careful note of Casey’s pajamas.  But most of his mental process was occupied by the cats.

“RJ, we have a--”  Theo stopped in the doorway even as Lily and two giant cats flooded past him.

“Casey!” Lily exclaimed.  “You’re okay!”

“Wait, you have two cheetahs now?” Casey demanded.

The larger of the cats lifted its head and roared--crankily, if it had to be said--in Casey’s direction.  He held up his hands.  “Okay.  You’re not a cheetah.”

“The jaguar,” RJ said thoughtfully.  “Interesting.”

“You could have told us he was awake!”  Lily sounded indignant.  “Marcus was asking and we had to tell him Casey was sick, but then he wanted to know where you were, so Theo said you were sick too--”

“Wait, I’m not sick,” Casey interrupted.  “When did Theo’s spirit show up?  Is it solid?”

“If you’re not sick,” Theo said, “could you work?  Because seriously, I had plans today.”

“You can’t take your jaguar shopping with you,” Lily told him.

“Well, if someone would tell Casey that anything that lists sugar as one of the first ingredients doesn’t count as food, I wouldn’t have to,” Theo retorted.

“Out of curiosity,” RJ said, “when did the jaguar... manifest?  Physically?”

“A few minutes ago,” Lily said quickly.  “They both showed up at the same time.  Theo had just come into the kitchen so no one else saw them except Marcus who, by the way, is totally not buying the holographics explanation.”

“Ah.”  RJ frowned.  “Well, no.  He wouldn’t.”

“Why are we sick?” Casey wanted to know.  “How come no one woke me up for my shift?”

“We tried,” Theo said, in a tone of voice that said he would be happy to keep trying now, whether Casey was awake or not.

But Lily was closer, and just as RJ was about to ask if he was seeing things she squinted at Casey and said, “Uh, Casey?”

“What, are you practicing ninja stealth moves now?”  Casey was giving her the eye.  “Since when do you not make any noise in the morning?”

“First off, since always,” she said, “and you’re welcome for me being your personal alarm clock.  Second, what’s with your eyes?”

“What are you talking about?”

“We made a lot of noise,” Theo said, coming the rest of the way into the room where the cats were slinking quietly around the furniture, investigating everything in their path.  “We shouted in your ear and you just laid there.  If I thought you had that kind of self-control, I’d have thought you were ignoring us on purpose.”

“I don’t know,” RJ said again, when Lily looked to him for an explanation about Casey.  “I don’t know what it means.”

“I have self-control,” Casey told Theo.  “And what were you doing waking me up, anyway?”

Now Theo was looking at RJ too.  “Didn’t you tell him?” he wanted to know.  “Why is he acting like he has no idea what’s going on?”

“He just woke up,” RJ offered.  “I might have been a little distracted by... the eyes.”

“Okay, why does everyone keep talking about my eyes?” Casey demanded.  “I can still see.  I’m not blind or anything.

“Not that there’s anything wrong with being blind,” he added quickly.  “I’m just saying.  Do my eyes look weird or something?”

Lily and RJ exchanged glances.  Lily looked at Theo, who stepped around a prowling cheetah to stare up at Casey’s face.  Casey stared back at him, growing steadily more alarmed as Theo frowned.

“That’s weird,” Theo said frankly.

“Okay, so, yes,” Casey said.  “Anyone want to share, or should I go find a mirror?”

“I have one,” Lily said, turning away.  “Oh, hi,” she added, as she almost tripped over Hypericum, now lounging behind her on the floor.  “Excuse me.”

“They’re not people,” Theo pointed out.

“They have feelings,” Lily countered.  “You should be nicer to yours and maybe it would appear more often.”

“Um, I don’t want it to appear more often,” Theo said.  “What am I supposed to tell people who want to know why there’s a jaguar following me everywhere?”

“I suppose you could tell them it’s your animal spirit,” RJ offered, smiling a little at the thought.

“Here,” Lily said, stepping over Hypericum again to hand Casey a little mirror.  “It’s kind of cool, really.”

“You think everything about this is cool,” Theo said.  It was hard to tell whether he thought that was good or bad.

“Huh,” Casey said, staring at Lily’s mirror.

And that was it.  He just looked at it, and RJ sidled closer, peering over his shoulder as though Casey’s eyes might appear different in the mirror.  But no: still gold, with a funny grey-ish rim around the pupil.

Tiger eyes.

“Well, it is,” Lily was saying.  “I mean, so far, it’s not hurting anyone and it must mean we’re closer to our animal spirits, right?  I like having Hypericum around.”

“Casey was arguably comatose for several hours,” RJ said.  His tone was mild, but he definitely didn’t consider this cool.

“Right,” Lily agreed quickly.  “Obviously that’s bad.  And also he’s turning into a tiger.  Why is that?”

“I’m not turning into a tiger,” Casey said, handing her mirror back.  Then he glanced at RJ.  “Am I?”

RJ tilted his head, but it was Lily who replied.  “Uh, Casey?  Can I--”  She was looking at her mirror, but she put it down on the bed and held out her hand to Casey.  “Can I have your hand for a second?”

“Not this again,” Casey said with a sigh.  But he held out his hand obediently, and Lily slid her fingers into his.  “Hi,” he said.  “Problem?”

“Um--”  She looked at RJ.  “Remember... the other night?  When you asked...”

RJ reached out and covered their hands with his.  “Ah,” he said.  “So it wasn’t my imagination.”

“What?” Theo demanded.  “What’s going on?”

“Yeah,” Casey agreed.  “Should I be looking in the mirror again, or what?”

“You’re furry,” RJ told him.

Casey stared at him.  “I wish I thought you weren’t serious about that.”

“He doesn’t look furry,” Theo said doubtfully.

“No, but he feels all soft,” Lily told him.  “RJ’s right.  It’s like he’s furry and we just can’t see it.”

“I’m turning into a tiger,” Casey said, like he was daring someone to contradict him.  “That’s really disturbing.”

“Well,” RJ said, glancing at the other cats, both of whom were now lounging on the floor, “on the plus side, you’ll have company.”

“Thanks,” Casey told him.  “Remember that when you’re alone in the kitchen tomorrow.”

“I didn’t say I wanted you to turn into a tiger,” RJ said quietly.

“Is that going to happen to us?” Theo wanted to know.

“It’s because he’s his animal spirit,” Lily said.  “Right?  Our animal spirits are manifesting, and so is Casey’s.  Through him.”

“They get stronger and weaker.”  Theo was staring down at his jaguar, now as solid and real as Lily’s cheetah.  “Mine’s stronger now than it was the first day everyone else could see them.”

“And so is Casey’s,” Lily finished for him.

“Lily, you started complaining of fatigue the day after your cheetah disappeared,” RJ said thoughtfully.

“I didn’t complain,” Lily protested.

“But you were more tired than usual?”

She nodded reluctantly.

“Casey, you said you were unusually tired last night,” RJ continued.  “Maybe that was a waning of the animal spirits?”

“Great,” Casey said.  “You’re saying I’m unconscious when they’re weak and I’m a tiger when they’re strong.  I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m not really happy with that.”

They were all looking at RJ, and the only answer he had for them wasn’t one he particularly liked.  Making an effort not to sigh, he remarked, “It looks like it’s time for a field trip.”

5. Interest

The only vehicle RJ actually owned, other than the scooter, was the Jungle Karma delivery jeep.  The zords didn’t count, he said, since they went with the morphers.  And public transportation was better for the environment, after all.

This meant that Lily used the jeep to drop them off, which turned out to be good and bad.  She could take them deeper into the mountains, but she was away from JKP longer.  RJ only reminded her to keep Fran in charge three times before she made them get out and start walking.

After which, they were both uncharacteristically silent.  It was a pleasant hike in good weather, and it was relatively well-monitored.  Pai Zhua probably knew they were on their way already.

Finally, though, Casey had to say something.  Since nothing safe sprang to mind, he settled for, “You’re quiet.”

“Am I?”  There was no hesitation, but no real answer, either.  “I suppose the journey lends itself to contemplation.”

“Are you telling me to be quiet?” Casey asked.  “Because I will be if you don’t want to talk, but I do, so.  I’m trying to start a conversation.”

That made RJ smile.  “I didn’t mean to stop you.”

“You didn’t,” Casey promised, flashing him a smile in return.  “Just wondering what you’re thinking about.”

“The Order of the Claw,” RJ said.  “Pai Zhua.  The academy.  My own extreme reluctance to visit, as it were.”

Casey blinked.  “Wait.  You don’t want to go?”

RJ held up a hand to give some vague form to the concept before him.  “I want to go, insofar as I hope someone there will be able to share something helpful regarding the current situation with the animal spirits and your apparent transformation in particular.

“I don’t, however, relish the idea of returning in general.”  RJ lowered his hand and shook his head.  “We didn’t... part on the best of terms.”

“Yeah?”  Casey didn’t hide his interest.  “What happened?”

“I turned in my belt and walked away,” RJ said.

Casey stared at him in surprise.  “You’re kidding.  Why?”

“It was a long time coming,” RJ said.  “It wasn’t any one thing.”

“So give me a list,” Casey told him.  “Start with why you took us in if you didn’t want anything to do with Pai Zhua anymore.”

“It was mutual,” RJ insisted.  “I’m afraid they wanted me gone as much as I... wanted to be gone.”

“Master Mao sent us to you,” Casey said.  “You obviously weren’t on the ‘do not call’ list.”

“Master Mao was... sympathetic,” RJ admitted.  “He felt for Dominic as well.  Neither of us were considered ideal students.”

“Who is?” Casey wanted to know.  “Isn’t that the point of teaching?  To help someone become better than they were?  I’m pretty sure ideal students don’t need teachers.”

“And I’m sure Master Mao wishes he’d had the chance to know you better,” RJ said with a smile.  “I suspect he was watching Lily as well.  Smoothing over relations with her other instructors as best he could.”

“It’s hard to imagine Lily needing anyone to smooth things out for her,” Casey said.

RJ shrugged, staring down the path ahead and maybe a little bit backward into time.  “She offers her opinion freely.  Pai Zhua believes that individual opinions have their place, and rarely is that place the mouth of a student.”

“You always listen to us,” Casey pointed out.

“I’m hardly a traditional Pai Zhua master,” RJ countered.  “As the academy was well aware.”

“Why, because you questioned things?” Casey wanted to know.  “Because you listened to students?  Because you ate too much pizza?  Why?”

“All of the above?”  RJ was tentative about this, as though there was more he wasn’t saying and wondered if that would be enough.

“Keep going,” Casey told him.

“It’s possible they perceived me as being... overly involved,” RJ said.

Casey frowned.  “In what?”

“Everything,” RJ said simply.

“Are you sure it didn’t have anything to do with your tendency to give cryptic answers to easy questions?” Casey asked.

RJ smiled.  “That may have been the thing they liked best about me,” he admitted.

They walked in silence for a few minutes, and when Casey stopped pushing RJ finally offered, “I don’t take Pai Zhua seriously enough.”

Casey frowned.  “Is that what they told you?”

“No,” RJ said.  “It would be more accurate to say, that is what I eventually identified as the root of our disagreement.”

“RJ, you take everything seriously.  You take three-year-olds screaming about kittens seriously.  You see omens in the way the cheese falls.  I’ve literally never met anyone more sincere than you are.”

RJ preened a little.  “Well.  Thank you.  Obviously your opinion means more to me than theirs.”

“It does?” Casey blurted out.

RJ gave him a look, and Casey blinked.  “Right.  Okay.  That was kind of a stupid question?”

“Hence the reason I preceded my statement with ‘obviously,’” RJ said, and it took Casey a moment to be sure he was agreeing.

Time to take the compliment and move on, he decided.  The way RJ had tried to.  Kind of.

“How could you possibly think you weren’t serious enough for them?” Casey wanted to know.

“You just said that I take everything seriously,” RJ pointed out.  “For every truth, there is an opposite truth.  Something that is true to the same degree as the original.  Only the reverse.”

“I don’t get it,” Casey told him.  In case there was any doubt.

“If you like some things,” RJ said, “you also don’t like some things.”

Casey twitched a hand in acknowledgment.

“You can please all of the people some of the time,” RJ added, “and you can please some of the people all of the time.”

Casey hesitated, but he shrugged to indicate agreement.  “Okay.  Sure.”

“Someone who takes everything seriously must also take nothing seriously,” RJ said.

“I knew this was going somewhere zen,” Casey said with a rueful smile.  

“If someone takes everything seriously,” RJ told him, “two things must be true about each of the things they take seriously.”

“Let me guess,” Casey interrupted.  “Two opposite things.”

RJ tilted his head.  “Well, yes.”

Casey let out his breath in an amused huff.  “Okay.  Hit me.”

“When it comes to any given thing,” RJ said, “there is nothing more important than that thing.  There is also nothing less important than that thing.  Because everything... is equally important.”

Casey considered that, mentally filling in the blanks with “RJ” and “Pai Zhua.”  Finally he figured he either got it, or he had something that sounded like he wanted to get it, one or the other of which should be enough to keep RJ talking.  “So you’re saying, because you take everything seriously, there’s nothing less serious to you than Pai Zhua.”

RJ actually brightened.  “Yes,” he agreed, apparently pleased.  “Just so.”

“And,” Casey continued, since he was on a roll, “while you were at the academy you kept getting distracted by things that weren’t Pai Zhua.  Because you’re interested in everything.  I’m guessing the masters didn’t appreciate that?”

“Yes.”  RJ sounded surprised.  “I mean, no.  No one likes to think their students aren’t paying attention.”

Casey angled a little to one side, getting close enough to bump RJ’s shoulder as they walked.  “I’m paying attention,” he said.

“Yes,” RJ repeated, but his tone was softened by his smile.  “Clearly.  Please remind me to return the favor if I ever forget.”

“You won’t,” Casey said confidently.  “But I will.”

There was another moment of comfortable silence before Casey asked, “Is that why you took us in?  Not because Master Mao asked you to, but because you were interested?”

“My door is always open,” RJ said.  “It’s just that not everyone needs to walk through it.  You seemed to, so... I was glad to have you.”

“That doesn’t answer the question,” Casey told him.

“I think it does,” RJ said mildly.  “Perhaps it doesn’t answer what you wanted to ask?”

“You did it because you did,” Casey said.

“I believe that’s what I said,” RJ agreed.

“Do you regret it?”

RJ stopped where he was.  Casey, watching out of the corner of his eye, turned at the same time.  “Have I given you some reason to think I do?” RJ wanted to know.

“No.”  Except for the obvious.  “But, you know.  We’ve made your life a lot harder.”

“And a lot better,” RJ said evenly.

Casey couldn’t have said what it was that made him put it together at exactly that moment.  Maybe it was something about RJ’s expression, or the memory of Master Finn, or the conversation about Pai Zhua.  But Lily had said once that RJ being so weird made thinking about him with Casey seem more normal.  He’d suspected her of teasing him ever since, but all of a sudden he wondered if she’d meant it.

“The academy isn’t going to like this,” Casey said.  “Is it.”  He didn’t really need an answer, but he got one anyway because RJ didn’t even pretend not to know what he meant.

“Each of us individually?” he said.  “Yes.  Both of us together, the way... we are?”  RJ lifted a hand, then let it fall.  “No.”

“I’m liking this idea less and less,” Casey told him.

The shift in RJ’s expression was significant and terrible and he didn’t even get it until after he’d clarified, “This whole visiting the academy plan.  I think maybe we should stay away.  At least for now.”

“Now is when we need help,” RJ pointed out.  The flash of hurt had melted into one of calm acceptance, but Casey wasn’t fooled and he felt awful for the brief misunderstanding.

“Do you think they can help?” he asked.  For the first time.  He’d just assumed that RJ felt a kinship with the academy, and would naturally turn to them in times of trouble.  Now he was less sure.

RJ hesitated, and Casey made his decision.  He waited, though, until RJ said, “I think that the number of Pai Zhua disciples there makes relevant insight more likely at the academy than it is at the loft.”

Casey had been listening for it this time, so he didn’t miss the veiled insult.  “You’re a lot more sarcastic than we give you credit for,” he said with a smile.

RJ’s lips twitched, but he held his arms out to his sides expansively.  “The universe has room for all things.”

“I don’t want to go back to the academy,” Casey told him.  “I think we have a better chance of figuring this thing out together, and I don’t want to risk that.”

RJ’s expression sobered, and he lowered his hands.  “I’m not going to leave you there.”

“Yeah, but what’s the first thing they’re going to make me do?” Casey countered.  “Send me off to meditate.  For as long as it takes.  You can’t hang around for days.”

“Are you trying to get rid of me?”

Casey rolled his eyes.  “That’s exactly what I’m trying to do.  Yes, RJ, I’m clearly trying to get as far away from you as possible.  Can we go now?”

RJ gestured in a way that wasn’t clear until he said, “Pai Zhua posts sentries around the academy.  At quite a distance, if I recall.”

Casey didn’t like the sound of that.  “Are you saying we can’t leave?”

“No.”  RJ turned as though to survey their surroundings, incidentally stepping closer.  More quietly, he said, “I’m just saying they’ll know if you walk away.”

That was a decision he’d already made, and he wasn’t going to agonize over it.  “I was with Pai Zhua for a week,” he told RJ.  “I’ve been with you guys ever since.  You’re the Order of the Claw to me now.”

“I’m sure they’ll be... disturbed to hear that,” RJ murmured, but his expression had lightened and he looked like he was trying not to smile.

“How much do you care what they know about us?” Casey wanted to know.

RJ didn’t get it, but he treated it like any other question.  “It’s everything,” he said, holding out his hand palm up.  Turning it over, he added, “And nothing.”

Casey grinned.  “Have I mentioned how much I like you?” he asked.  He put a hand on RJ’s shoulder to make him turn, looking at him for a long moment to make sure RJ knew what he was about to do.

RJ tilted his head.  The same innocent gesture he used to change topics, indicate that he was thinking, to ignore or invite discussion... but this time, this close, Casey knew it for what it was.

Interest.

He pressed a brief kiss to RJ’s mouth, and he felt the lips under his smile.  He wanted to do it again.  He wasn’t sure RJ would object, but he figured now wasn’t the time to push it.

Casey counted it a win when RJ turned away with him, and a moment later he felt a hand brush against his.  He squeezed RJ’s fingers gratefully as they headed down the path again.  Back the way they’d come.

6. Code Pink

Lily tried to explain on the way back.  But it didn’t  prepare them for the full magnitude of the chaos they were about to be witness to.  For one thing, the rhinoceros hadn’t been there when she left.  Neither had the Little League team.  Or RJ’s dad.

“I had nothing to do with this,” Dominic muttered as he passed.  “We all tried to get him to go away, believe me.”

“The... rhinoceros?” RJ said hopefully.

Dominic grinned over his shoulder as he cleared a nearby table.  “Yeah, sorry about that.  Can’t get rid of him.”

“Him?” Casey repeated.

Dominic’s eyes widened.  “The rhinoceros,” he said, turning around to find Master Finn glaring at him.  “It’s--uh, yeah.  I’m gonna... take this stuff out back.”

That might have been easier if there hadn’t been an entire baseball team of seven- to twelve-year-olds surrounding four pushed-together tables in the middle of the room.  Not being dogged by a very large and thankfully non-corporeal rhinoceros also might have helped.  And if he hadn’t tripped over a small gold chicken, he probably would have looked more graceful running away.

“Where did the chicken come from?” RJ wondered aloud.

Casey shrugged.  “No idea.”

“Wow,” Lily said.  “It wasn’t this bad when I left.”

“RJ,” Finn said sternly.  “Casey didn’t train with me today.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Casey said.  “We had to go--somewhere.  It was important.”

“RJ,” Finn warned.

“Alicia,” RJ said, paying no attention.  “Where’s Fran?”

The skater set down two more pitchers of water at the Little League tables, whipped an extra salt from her apron for the monkey table by the door, and ducked easily around Finn to answer, “She’s in the kitchen rounding up the rest of the chickens.  We haven’t been able to catch that last one.”

Pulling a rag out of her back pocket to wipe down the table Dominic had been bussing, she added, “We had a little problem with the hot water, and the back door, and the sprinkler system.  Dominic’s been handling the kids, and Theo’s taking care of everyone else, but we’re understaffed in the kitchen and I have to go.  I’ll tell her you’re looking for her.”

With that Alicia was gone, leaving a shiny table of tiles behind her.  RJ glanced at Casey.  “Was any of that related to the chickens, do you think?”

Casey shrugged.  “At a guess?” he offered.  “No.  But only because I know how Alicia talks.”

“Yes,” RJ said thoughtfully.  “She and Fran are on the same...”  He used both hands to indicate a backwards wave.  “Wavelength.”

“Casey, your workday is over,” Finn declared.  “I want to see you for training.”

And Casey, who usually agreed to anything the shark master suggested, put his foot down.  “I can’t train right now,” he said.  “My animal spirit’s doing a weird thing.”

“There’s no better time,” Finn told him.  “Come, we will discuss it together.”

“No,” Casey said.  “I’m sorry, Master Finn.  I need to stay here.  If you want to come upstairs, I can tell you what’s going on.”

“I can see perfectly well what’s going on,” Finn said, casting a dark glance in RJ’s direction.  “But if you have an explanation, I’d be interested to hear it.”  To compare it to the truth, his expression seemed to say.

“You need me down here?” Casey asked, giving RJ a look of his own.  A far more sympathetic look, and one that spoke to the chaos around them.  “I have some experience wrangling chickens.”

It was an unfair thing to say, since RJ would much rather hear that story than wonder what Finn was saying to Casey in the relative privacy of the loft.  But he knew what he had to do.  He couldn’t keep them apart forever.  He was just going to have to trust that, if Casey had picked him over Pai Zhua once, he would do it again.

“It sounds like Fran has it under control,” RJ said.  “I’ll go back and... make sure the kitchen’s still there.”

“Good plan,” Casey said with a grin.  “Yell if you need us, okay?”

He already needed Casey, and it was unlikely that he would yell for his dad whether he needed him or not.  Still, in the spirit of the parting he said, “Indeed.  The same to you.”

Theo emerged from the kitchen just as they entered it, preventing RJ from watching them climb the stairs.  “Hey, how did it go?” Theo asked, juggling a tray and a basket while propping the door open with his foot.  “You weren’t gone long.”

“We weren’t gone at all,” RJ said.  “We... changed our minds.  Why are there chickens in the kitchen?”

“Fran’s handling it,” Theo told him.  “Back in a minute!”

Fran was, indeed, handling it.  He found her addressing a small group of chickens in the corner by the back door.  “Look,” she was telling them.  “I know you’re confused, but we really can’t have you running around the restaurant, okay?  You need to stay back here--”

“Fran,” RJ said, and she barely paused.

“The Cheetah Pitas are ready to come out of the oven,” she said.  “If you could grab them and put them on the--”

Then she whirled.  “RJ!  You’re back!”

He held his hands out to the sides.  Fran, as had become more typical for her of late, hugged him.  “We missed you!  Are you and Casey okay?  Lily thought you’d be gone for days and we were all, with the trying to divide up the shifts and figure out who could cover what, and then your father showed up and no one was sure what to tell him--”

“Myself included,” RJ said ruefully, because he’d finally learned that interrupting Fran was not only expected, but appreciated.  It was the only way she caught her breath.  “But it turns out that he doesn’t really want to talk to me, so.”

“Oh, yeah, he seemed kind of upset that Casey wasn’t here,” Fran blurted out.  “So Lily told him you were on a retreat, but Theo had already said you were sick, so they agreed that it was a retreat for health and then he asked me and I said I didn’t know.  Because I didn’t; I really had no idea.”

“Thanks for taking over the restaurant,” RJ told her.  “I heard there were a few... unexpected moments?”

“Well, there always are,” she said, waving her hand with a little laugh.  “The fire extinguisher, and the pig, and I heard the food fight involved a table fort but I didn’t actually see that part--”

What struck him more than the litany of odd occurrences that seemed to take place at Jungle Karma Pizza on a weekly, if not daily basis, was the fact that Fran’s laugh sounded genuinely amused.  Not nervous, or frazzled, either of which she had every right to be.  But no: odd was her home now.  She had finally settled in.

And that gave RJ an idea.  “Fran,” he said thoughtfully.  “How would you feel about a promotion?”

“Um, a what?”  She gave him an odd look.  “I don’t think you can afford to pay me more than what I’m making now.”

“You do the work of five people,” he reminded her.  “But that’s not what I was thinking of.  I was actually thinking that our code system could use an update.”

“Why, what’s wrong with it?”  She frowned.  “Although, if you’re going to change it, do you think you could add some numbers?  Just put how many minutes you expect to be gone at the end; would that be so hard?

“It doesn’t have to be accurate,” Fran added quickly.  “Just best guess.  There’s a big difference between ‘Code White 5--we accidentally left Dom chatting up an onlooker and now someone has to go rescue her,’ and ‘Code Red 360--Casey’s tiger spirit is under attack and it could be tomorrow before you see any of us again.’”

RJ opened his mouth, then reconsidered.  “Huh,” he said, not even realizing who he was echoing.  “That’s a good idea, Fran.”

She smiled.  “Well.  Every now and then.”

“This is why I think we need a sixth color,” RJ told her.  “Code Pink.  What do you think?”

“But there are only five of you,” she said.

He held out both hands to indicate her, and her eyes widened.  “Me?  You want me to be Code Pink?”

RJ smiled back.

“But I can’t--I don’t--I’m not like you!” she exclaimed.  “RJ!  What do I know about fighting, or training, or whatever it is you do?  See!  I don’t even know what you do!  I can’t be Code Pink!”

“Yes, you can,” Dominic’s voice called through the double-sided oven.  There was a scraping sound as he removed the pitas from the restaurant side, and then, “Keep talking until she agrees, RJ.”  Then the door banged shut and he was gone again.

RJ pointed at the oven, raising his eyebrows to say, See?

“No, but, I mean, I’m flattered,” Fran blurted out.  “Really, I really, really am, but I don’t think I’m the person you’re looking for.  I don’t understand your... Pai Zhua, not at all, and I definitely don’t have a, you know, big ghostly animal following me around all the time.”

“The morphers aren’t related to the animal spirits,” RJ told her.  Then he frowned.  “At least, they didn’t used to be.  They’re kind of... melding.  But the Power doesn’t have anything to do with Pai Zhua.”

“But you all do,” Fran said.  “That’s how you know each other.  You have that in common.  I don’t have any of that.”

He lowered his voice just to be on the safe side, but he thought it was important that she know.  “It’s not a Pai Zhua team, Fran.  It’s a Ranger team.  It’s not about cubs and Order masters and the hierarchy of animal spirits.  It’s about people who go out and watch each other’s backs while they keep the things they care about safe.”

“Whoa, secret conference.”  Theo made it three steps into the kitchen and looked like he was about to turn around when the door banged into his shoulder and he stepped out of the way automatically.  “Sorry if I’m interrupting; I just need more place settings and I’ll be out of your way.”

“Theo, what do you think about making Fran a Ranger?” RJ asked.

“Finally!” Theo’s voice answered.  He barely gave them a second glance when his head came back into view.  “Plus, she won’t be affected by whatever’s making our animal spirits weird.  Double bonus.”

“There you go,” RJ told Fran.  “Theo approves.”

“Well,” she said awkwardly.  “I guess if Theo thinks it’s okay...”

“I heard that!” Casey’s voice called down the stairs.  “Don’t think I don’t know what he’s up to!  Theo, stop being the man!”

“Get back to me when you start shaving!” Theo shouted back.

“Casey, is it okay if I join the team?” Fran called, now hanging on the railing as she stared up toward the apparently empty landing.

“You’re already on the team, Fran.”  Casey appeared suddenly, leaning over the railing at the top even as Fran did it at the bottom.  “You have been all along.  But if RJ finally turned up a morpher for you, we better watch out, ‘cause you’re going to make us all look bad.”

Fran scrunched up her nose at him.  “Was that a no?” she wanted to know.

“That was a hell yeah,” Casey said.  “Go ask Lily if you don’t believe me.”

Fran turned eagerly back to RJ, folding her hands in front of her like she was trying to contain herself.  “Can I?”

“As long as the chickens know what to do without you,” RJ said, eyeing them with some amount of interest.  Unlike the one out on the floor, this group seemed content to huddle together, fluffing and being largely unadventurous.

“Oh, they’re fine,” Fran assured him.  “They’re very smart.”

Bird spirit, he thought, almost absently.  No wonder she’d been nervous around the cats at first.  He probably should have noticed that earlier.

“Out of curiosity,” Alicia said, poking her head in the back door, “you do know I’m not completely deaf, right?”

Fran paused mid-bounce, on her way out of the kitchen and brought up short by Alicia’s unexpected reappearance.  “Um, are you partly deaf?”

RJ tried not to smile.  “So, when you said you had to go,” he began.  “What you meant was, you had to go on break?”

“The restaurant is teeming with children and the kitchen is being overrun by livestock,” Alicia pointed out.  “A break seemed like the obvious thing to me.”

“Well,” RJ said.  “I... hope you enjoyed it?”

Fran had taken the opportunity to sneak away, presumably to find Lily, but Theo was watching with an indecipherable expression on his face.  It was hard to tell whether he liked Alicia or just tolerated her under normal circumstances.  It was even less possible to guess whether he trusted her with this secret--or if he recognized that there was nothing they could do about it either way.

“I did kind of enjoy it,” Alicia agreed.  “I mean, you’re all so creative.  What a great story.  Now I want to know how it all turns out.”

“You’ll probably find out,” RJ told her.  “At least, if you’re planning to keep working at Jungle Karma Pizza.”

“Someone’s going to have to,” Alicia said.  “Now that you’ve taken Fran away from us.  I see a developing tendency to run off mid-shift in her future.”

“We’ll try to organize some sort of rotation,” RJ promised.  “I think our threat assessment process could be more efficient.”

“Tell Casey to stop leaving his sunglasses lying around the restaurant,” Theo suggested.  He had apparently decided that the danger of Alicia running out and broadcasting their identities to the street was waning.  “That would make us more efficient right there.”

“I was thinking of some sort of on-call system,” RJ said thoughtfully.  “Where only assigned members of the team respond to threats on any given day, evaluate the situation, and decide whether to call in reinforcements from there.”

Theo shook his head.  “Casey’s sunglasses still won’t do him any good if they’re out on the counter while he’s in the kitchen.”

“Lily likes the idea!” Fran exclaimed, flying back into the kitchen and hovering at the bottom of the stairs.  “Can I go upstairs for a minute?”

“Of course.”  RJ waved her on, but Theo frowned.

“Why?” he wanted to know.

“Lily says that no one joins the team without hugging Casey first!” Fran called back down to him.

One of the chickens squawked loudly, and it was RJ’s turn to frown.  “How come I didn’t know about this requirement?”

Alicia was onto them.  He saw her roll her eyes, but it was Theo who scoffed.  “Like you need an excuse,” he said.

RJ considered this.  “If that’s true,” he said at last, “maybe I should ask me if I can go upstairs.

“Self,” he added politely, “can I go upstairs?

“Why, yes, Self,” RJ replied.  “Of course you can.

“Thank you,” he concluded.

Alicia shook her head, addressing the entire kitchen.  “It turns out there are some things that nothing can explain,” she said.

7. Mine

The rinshi showed up just as the animal spirits disappeared.  The two were probably related, and Casey had a lot of time to think about it when RJ all but ordered him to stay behind.  Fran made Finn come downstairs and wait tables with her and Alicia, which was probably hilarious but Casey didn’t get to see that either.

Instead, he stayed in the loft trying to figure out who all the people on the monitors were.  It was a really terrible time for the planetary monitoring system to go down, and he would have been more upset if he’d been sure the images being displayed were random.  Something told him they weren’t.

One of them was displaying the kitchen, which was probably some default RJ had set and since forgotten about.  One of them showed a remote site that looked so much like Pai Zhua that Casey had to look again: there were definitely students training and familiar temple architecture, but the forms weren’t quite right.  One of the monitors showed another teacher with a much younger audience, happily mucking about in some sort of swamp or marsh or something, but unless they were RJ’s long lost relatives Casey couldn’t even guess what they were doing on the screen.

Then there was the monitor that didn’t show any human life at all, just a little robot on a rusty barren landscape that looked suspiciously like Mars.  Casey knew what the Mars stuff looked like, landers and rovers alike.  He also knew what their camera results looked like, and this wasn’t it.  What kind of satellite feed could the monitors possibly be tapping on Mars?  Weren’t all the space program feeds encrypted?

“Hey,” he said aloud.  “I know you’re probably trying to tell me something here, but RJ’s remotes are a total mystery and I’d really like to know if the others are okay.  Do you get that?  At all?”

The Mars monitor flickered, as if sensing his frustration, and switched to an interior shot of some sort of... sterile-looking halls and uniforms.  That was probably bad.  But he was distracted by a sixth monitor, finally lighting up with an image of the rinshi.  And the team.

And RJ, on the ground.

The wolf was still fighting, springing into defense over RJ’s head, and distantly Casey knew that it shouldn’t be that solid.  It slammed into its opponent and stuck instead of knocking the thing back and dissipating--the wolf rode its victim to the ground and whirled, snarling and snapping in a very present, very corporeal, very continuing way.

He didn’t see RJ get up.  He didn’t see Lily, or Theo, or Dominic anywhere.  He also didn’t see the fire exit, the back stairs, or the street when it turned to jungle in his eyes.  He was racing through the trees, over ground that gave beneath his feet, into a mess of threat and prey and pride.

The world fragmented when someone yelled a name he should know.  A sound that meant something outside of the jungle.  It split into color recognition, the desire to defend, and the realization that these interlopers weren’t prey.  All jumbled together, inseparable, them and the others, everything in his head, the concrete and the canopy and the challenge.

Mine.  The lion stood before him.  My land.  My people.  My right.

The tiger was longer and leaner and lacked any concept of agreement except as it applied to hunting grounds, water sources, and cubs.  My territory.  Now under threat.  My responsibility.  Mine.

No challenge would stand.

The next thing Casey knew, he had a really ridiculously painful headache and a lot of people staring at him.  A lot of people.  And a really painful headache.

It took a moment for the noise to resolve itself into words, for the ground underneath him to register as pavement and the shadows all around as buildings.  He found himself looking for the lion without even realizing it and oh, man, did his head hurt.  He put it down, pressing his hands against his forehead hard, trying to get the pain out.

“--not a good place for us to be,” Theo’s voice was saying, and he didn’t know why that was what he heard first when RJ was so much closer.

“If he can’t move,” and that was right, that was what he was listening for; RJ’s voice was right next to his ear and there were hands on his shoulders and arm.  “This may not be an option so much as it is the reality of the situation.”

“I don’t know if this is the time to practice staying down,” Lily said, and she sounded uncertain.  “Can we move him ourselves?”

“I can help carry him,” Dominic’s voice offered.

Casey snorted, and he felt the hand on his arm tighten.  “Casey?” RJ was asking.  “Can you understand us?  We’re in the middle of... we’re downtown, and it would be good to not be here anymore.  Can you get up?”

Yes, he tried to say, but he couldn’t.  The word didn’t come out.  The headache was subsiding, down to just bad instead of excruciating, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a headache but he definitely hadn’t missed them.  He tried to clear his throat, and it sounded the way he’d expected so he took another shot at speaking.

“Yeah,” he managed to get out.  It sounded funny, but everything looked kind of strange too so maybe he was just out of it.  All around.  “I’m good,” he added, because he thought he could.  And they looked worried.

“Well, that’s still open for debate,” RJ said, and his voice sounded funny too so maybe it was just him.  “Ready?”

Apparently he thought he was going to help Casey up.  Casey clenched his hands and found nothing, so maybe that was how it would go.  “Yeah,” he said.

But getting up was easy.  It was standing that was hard, just for a moment, when the world twisted in a weird way and he was too dizzy to know whether or not he was still on his feet.  Then it was gone, and he was standing there with everyone around him and no bad guys anywhere to be seen.

“Hey,” he said.  Still expecting the lion, somehow.  The thought didn’t make his head hurt as much this time.  “Did we win?  What happened, anyway?”

What was he doing in the fight?  Hadn’t RJ asked him to stay at the loft?  He was a little worried that asking would make him sound more messed up than he felt, so he didn’t.

“We won,” RJ said, still holding onto his arm.  “You won.  Or rather, your tiger spirit won.  Now we’re... not totally sure we have you back.”

“We should talk about this at the loft,” Dominic interjected.

Casey’s head pounded a resurgent beat that made him glare at Dominic.  “I think we should talk about it right here.”

“You’re looking very tiger-like,” RJ observed.

“What?”  Casey looked down at his hands, intending to dismiss them.  Instead he was stuck with a double take, because that wasn’t normal and Dominic was right.  He really shouldn’t be standing around on a public street right now.

His hands had faint stripes running across them.

They went back to the loft.  That was where they found two people who claimed to be from the future, three chickens who had somehow managed to get up the stairs, and monitors that were now showing significantly larger groups of people.  Except for the one that was still stuck on the restaurant.

“Did you set that one to display downstairs?” Casey wanted to know, waving in the direction of the malfunctioning monitors.  “I’m starting to worry that you’re spying on us.”

“That’s odd,” RJ said, frowning at them.  “They shouldn’t be doing that.”

“Tell me about it.”  Casey kept looking at his hands, those being the easiest part to his body to see, and he hadn’t gotten over the stripe thing yet.  But the screens weren’t usually so... temperamental.  “I swear, I couldn’t get the fight to come up at all until I asked nicely.”

“Is that when you decided to come help?”  RJ’s voice was deceptively calm.  He insisted that he didn’t make the decisions, that Casey led the team, and he would support whatever action Casey chose.

As long as it was the right one.  Or as long as RJ thought there was a lesson to be learned from the wrong one.  A gentle lesson.  He didn’t let them walk into danger unknowing, not when he could help it... it was just that sometimes his definition of “danger” didn’t quite match up with Casey’s.

It was hard to tell whether or not this was one of those times when they were going to have to agree never to discuss it again.  Mostly because Casey was still pretty fuzzy on the details.  But RJ was clearly upset about something, and it wasn’t the random people standing around the loft.

“Yeah,” Casey said, since he thought that was right.  He didn’t really remember seeing them on the screens at all, but he couldn’t have known how they were without it.  He must have flipped out about something: how it was going, how underdefended they were, something.  Because he had definitely ended up out there with them, and he was pretty sure he’d taken on his share of targets.

Not completely sure.  The whole running-jungle-lion thing was kind of a blur.  But they’d won, and he didn’t think they’d been winning before, so that was probably good.  For him, if RJ was going to try to pull some sort of subtle, New Age, passive-aggressive guilt trip.  He could totally beat that--if he’d made the difference in the fight--with “I’m the leader and I was following my instincts.”

“You’re welcome,” he added aloud.  And that wasn’t what he’d meant to say at all, but it made RJ pause, which gave Casey time to study the random people on the landing.  “Can we help you?  Did someone downstairs send you up?”

It had to be Ranger-related.  That was the only way Fran would have let someone into RJ’s loft.

“We’re here to help you, actually,” the woman said.  “We detected the activation of the pink astromorpher.”

The boy held up his wrist on cue, even if he looked kind of annoyed at following cues.  There was a gold watch-like band around his right wrist, striped with red and looking very un-morpher-like.  And very familiar.

Fran’s morpher disguised itself, RJ said: as a gold watch-like band with pink stripes.

8. Shiff to Say

“Fran!” RJ called down the stairs.  “Code Pink!”

“Code She’s Busy!” Alicia’s voice yelled back.  “We’ll trade you Fran for Theo!”

Theo and Lily looked at each other, and they were already moving by the time RJ looked back at them.  Lily touched Casey’s shoulder as she passed, and he smiled when she caught his eye.  She and Theo disappeared down the stairs without their animal spirits, who were nowhere to be found, and Dominic half-raised his hand.

Before he could say anything, though, RJ shook his head at him.  Casey didn’t think much of it until Dominic wandered casually in his direction and RJ was left to face the strangers on the landing.  His vision sharpened, picking out the fine chain around the woman’s neck, the ring on her left hand, and the faint trace of Power that lingered around her.  The boy didn’t have it, even if he was the one wearing the morpher.  He also didn’t like the woman with him.

That wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement for their safety, and Dominic had just been assigned to protect him.  Casey didn’t appreciate that on so many levels.  “RJ,” he said evenly.  “Get off the landing.”

Something in his tone must have been convincing, because RJ only took a single look at him before stepping down into the loft.  Casey lifted one hand and set down a paw, the forward rush bringing everything about their visitors into sharp relief.  Except that the woman stepped in front of the boy, which irritated him into snarling at her and he couldn’t help a hint of amusement when she hissed back.

Intrusion, the tiger told her.  My family.  Like him for you.

She wavered.  The boy wasn’t family, he realized with surprise.  She was defending him because she was a defender.  Not because he was her cub.

“My family,” she spat.  Which was a lie.  “That’s no excuse.”

Out of the way.  The tiger was no longer amused.

She wouldn’t have moved.  The boy solved the problem by stepping forward, holding his hands out to the sides like a--the world shifted, tiger perception faltering, familiar human recognition fighting to reassert itself when Casey saw that street surrender.  Subtle, silent, a message for him and him alone.

Accepted.  The tiger surged when the Power flared, vouching for the boy.  Your family?

“She’s with me,” the boy said, with a false confidence that made Casey want to laugh even as the tiger fell back.  Then he did laugh, sitting abruptly on the floor of the loft and the stab of pain in his head was sharp and fleeting.  He’d barely lifted his hands before it was gone.

His hands looked watery and indistinct for the heartbeat it took him to remember they should be strange.  But they weren’t.  The loft looked exactly the way it should, his skin was completely normal, and he had RJ on one side and Dominic on the other.  Both crouching beside him, doing... who knew?  Trying to steady him, maybe.

I’m fine, he tried to say, but the words wouldn’t come.  That was frustratingly familiar, and he heard himself growl, which was totally wrong and annoying and vaguely embarrassing.  This whole tiger thing was getting old fast.

“Casey?” RJ was asking.  He sounded less worried than last time but a whole lot more wary, and Casey didn’t like that at all.  He also didn’t like the way Dominic’s hand brushed against RJ’s on his shoulder, and he shrugged them away as best he could.

“How are you feeling?” RJ asked, letting him go with obvious reluctance.  Dominic sat back without question, but RJ was definitely hovering.

“Fine,” Casey got out, trying to force his way into words.  The first one made way for the others, and he relaxed a little when he managed a full sentence.  “He’s a Ranger, and she was.”

Maybe not the best full sentence, since Dominic didn’t get it.  “She was what?”

“A Ranger,” Casey said impatiently.  “She’s not now.  He claimed her.”

“He what?”  Dominic looked at RJ, which annoyed Casey all over again, and he saw RJ give his head a small shake out of the corner of his eye.  “Uh, right.”

“Cut it out,” Casey snapped.  “I’m right here, you know.  It’s not like I can’t see you.”

“You seem a little more irritable than usual,” RJ said carefully.  “We’re trying not to... set you off?”

“Gee, why would I be irritable?” Casey demanded.  “I’m turning into a tiger!  I’m sure that won’t cause any weird personality changes!”

RJ actually laughed.  Casey could feel himself relaxing.  “That helps,” he blurted out, which was maybe a strange thing to say but it was the first thing he thought of.  “I mean--if you guys act normal, it’s easier for me to--tell the difference.”

“Tell the difference?”  RJ’s gaze was bright with curiosity, and the easy way he asked was totally typical.  Wariness, gone.  Casey snuck a quick look at his hands, but they still looked the way they usually did.  Like regular hands.

“It feels different,” he said.  “When I’m... channeling the tiger.  Now, I mean.  It feels different than it used to.  Less--human, I guess.  When you guys act weird too, it’s harder to tell when it stops.”

He wasn’t sure that even counted as an explanation, let alone a clear one, but RJ just nodded thoughtfully.  “Act normal,” he said.  “Got it.”

Dominic snorted.  “The irony of that coming from you is deadly.  I think RJ acting normal is one of the signs of the apocalypse.”

Casey had to grin, and RJ pretended to be affronted.  “I always act normal,” he informed them.  “It’s just that the rest of the world sometimes acts... differently.”

“RJ?”  Fran’s voice interrupted.  She was hanging over the landing, alternating between wary looks at their visitors and worried looks for Casey.  “Should I be throwing them out?”

“Can you do that?” Casey asked, interested in spite of himself.

“No,” RJ said at the same time.

They looked at each other, and RJ added, “Yes, actually.  She’s very good with customers who refuse to leave.”

“Want me to show you?” Fran offered, and she had a remarkably innocent way of sounding menacing.  Casey had a bad feeling that her morpher was going to mean he had to train harder.

“Kind of,” he admitted, “but this isn’t their fault.  I got in their face; they didn’t do anything.”

“The tiger spirit tried to help,” RJ said.  “It turns out they’re all right, but I suspect Casey may be trying to turn sympathy points into extra ice cream.”

“Hey!” Casey protested, then he paused.  “Is that an option?”

“Very likely,” RJ admitted.  “Can you get up?”

“Yeah.”  RJ was up before him, offering him a hand, and Casey didn’t have the weird vertigo issue this time.  “Thanks.”

“So who are they?” Fran wanted to know, the wariness starting to win out over the concern.

RJ paused long enough that Casey could give Dominic a “back off” look when he stood too close.  Dominic held up his hands, shifting a step aside.  Casey folded his arms, looking back at the people on the landing.

“We don’t know,” RJ said at last.  “Perhaps they’ll introduce themselves.”

“We tried,” the woman pointed out.  “And I think you’ll find your tiger knows more than he’s saying.”

Casey stiffened, but no one so much as looked at him.

“Try again,” RJ said mildly.

“I’m T,” the boy blurted out.  “She’s Kat.  We’re from the future.”  The corner of his mouth curled, and he hooked his thumbs into his pockets in a very deliberate kind of ease.  “That’s shiff to say.”

Casey saw it again: the street side, the attitude, and it made him smile.  “You’re a Red Ranger.”

The kid eyed him, and Casey suddenly had a bad feeling that this “kid” was older than he was.  But all T said was, “So are you, I figure.”

Casey glanced down at himself, then held his hands out to the sides in unconscious echo of the boy’s earlier gesture.  “The shirt kind of gives it away, I guess.”  He was wearing his bright red Order of the Claw t-shirt.

T smirked at him.  “Only if you’re looking for it.”

“Casey said you used to be a Ranger,” RJ put in, apparently addressing the woman T had introduced as “Kat.”

“Once,” she agreed, eyes flicking from Casey to RJ and back again.  She was talking to Casey when she said, “I filled in for someone else for a few months.  I’m here mostly as his guardian.”

Huh, Casey thought, glancing at RJ.  She’d just totally written RJ off.  That was probably a mistake, but they might as well let her make it.

“You’re not related,” he told her.  The tiger was sure of that.

Interestingly, Kat hesitated.  “Not exactly,” she admitted.  “But I’ve been given responsibility by someone to whom I owe my life.  So there’s not really any difference.”

It made a difference in the jungle.  But if they claimed each other then the actions of one were the actions of the other.  “Good enough for me,” Casey told them.

Stepping away from the others, he made his way up to the landing to stand beside Fran and offer his hand.  “I’m Casey.  Nice to meet you.”

9. My Favorite

The problem with the wolf manifesting in the loft was that there were still chickens there.  And they were real chickens, not spirit animals, which made the wolf suspicious and jumpy and harder to control than usual.  RJ still wasn’t sure where the chickens had come from, and he would hate to have to explain to someone that his sometimes-physical totem had eaten their pet.

He also didn’t want to explain to anyone that Casey had found someone... easier to relate to than he was.  It was a ridiculous thought, and he didn’t know where it came from.  So he ignored Casey and Fran and Kat and T trying to work out the time difference on the landing and turned to Dom, lowering his voice.  “Do you have any sense of your animal spirit right now?”

Dom’s eyes flicked to the wolf, pacing restlessly in ever-decreasing circles around them.  “Not like that.  Has it done that before?”

“No.”  RJ frowned.  “Yes.  Against the rinshi, earlier.  It was corporeal.”

“Is it now?” Dom wanted to know.  “I mean, it looks it, but Theo’s has been doing that too.  It looks solid, but your hand goes right through it.”

RJ held out his hand, and the wolf slunk over to slide under his palm.  He caught his breath, closing his eyes, because the wolf was angry.  He didn’t get angry, as a general rule, and he didn’t need it right now.  He needed the opposite of anger.

“RJ?”  Dom’s voice was quiet, and the wolf disapproved.  The wolf wanted attention.  Now.  “You okay?”

“Yes,” he said, and it came out calm and light and he opened his eyes as he lifted his hand away.  “Solid, though.  And not particularly pleased.”

“That’s not good.”  Dom didn’t bother to ask why.  “You should tell Casey.”

RJ wasn’t stupid, and he wasn’t in the habit of pretending things weren’t the way they were.  “Casey,” he said, raising his voice.  Everyone on the landing turned to look at him.  “I need your help... with the wolf.”

“Sure,” Casey said agreeably.  The irritation from earlier seemed to have dissipated.  He didn’t even seem to notice when Dom clapped RJ on the shoulder and headed for the landing, intending to trade places with Casey--

But the wolf saw.  The wolf saw Dom twist to one side to avoid bumping into Casey, and he had to, because Casey came down the middle of the stairs without making any effort to move over.  Their eyes met briefly and Dom looked away.  Casey’s gaze sought RJ instead.

“Hey,” Dom was saying, a charming grin on his face as he joined Fran.  “Dominic.  Glad to meet you.  From the future, huh?  Don’t hear that every day.”

“Unless you read,” Fran added, with a little laugh, and Dom bumped her shoulder affectionately.

“Books are our friends,” he agreed.  “You wouldn’t believe the weird stuff books have prepared me for.”

“He’s mad at me,” Casey said, coming to a halt a few steps back from RJ--and the wolf, who was glaring at him.  It was a dark look, to be sure, but there were several other words that would have been more appropriate.

“I don’t think that’s quite it,” RJ said with a sigh.

“No?”  And in defiance of all logic or common sense, Casey went down on his knees in front of the wolf and stared curiously back at it.  “What’d I do?  It’s not cause I’m a tiger, is it?  I’ll make it up to you.”

The wolf’s lip curled, baring his teeth in a silent snarl.  It was probably a terrifying look, and no reasonable person would try to stare down an animal that size when it was so clear they weren’t in favor right now.  Casey, as usual, scoffed in the face of reason.

“Don’t do that,” he told the wolf.  “You and RJ, you’re two sides of the same coin, aren’t you.  He’s obviously the nice side.”

A warning growl rumbled in the wolf’s chest, and RJ opened his mouth to warn him off.  One of them.  Either of them.  He didn’t know who he would have spoken to if the wolf hadn’t chosen that moment to lunge.

Casey’s eyes flashed, his arm came up, and the tiger coalesced around him.  Without a flinch, without a snarl--seemingly without effort--he knocked the wolf away.  His face resolved itself into Casey’s again, skin normal even as gold tiger eyes contemplated the wolf with what looked like private amusement.

“Don’t do that,” Casey repeated.  “You’re fine.  We’re all fine here.  You know you’re my favorite.”

This gave the wolf pause, and Casey, ever fearless, reached out to scratch the side of his face affectionately.  RJ closed his eyes.  It occurred to him, somewhat distantly, that Casey’s lack of an independent animal spirit might mean he had no idea what he was doing.  If so, RJ wasn’t going to tell him now.

No matter who was watching.

“Okay?” Casey was asking.  “We good?”

RJ could feel the wolf’s body tilt, rubbing against a hand that slid behind his ear and cupped his head.  He heard Casey laugh, felt knees press up against his shoulder as Casey scrambled closer, trying to keep his hand under the wolf’s head as it rolled into him.  Casey’s other arm went around his neck, hugging him and rubbing his shoulders and surrounding him with a familiar warmth.

“Casey.”  It was Dominic’s voice, loud and sharper than usual and not at all welcome.

The smile was still there in Casey’s reply, though, and RJ buried his head in Casey’s arm.  “Yeah?”

“You’re good,” Dominic said.  When Casey didn’t answer, he added, “Casey.”

“What?”  Casey turned this time, and RJ’s eyes snapped open.  Casey was sitting on the floor next to him, one arm still around the wolf, and the gentle scratch against his shoulder was enough to keep RJ frozen in place.

“You’re good,” Dominic repeated.  He gave RJ a significant look from the landing, but Casey was too close.  He couldn’t see without standing up, and he couldn’t stand up without letting go of the wolf.

RJ drew in a deep breath, taking a step back as Casey rose in front of him.  “Thank--”  His voice caught and he had to swallow before he could continue.  “Thanks.”

Casey’s eyes were still gold with grey and he didn’t have to do more than look at RJ to get it.  “Sure,” he said, backing off.  “Sorry.  My bad.”

RJ shook his head, but that was about all he could do and Casey gave him an apologetic grimace.  “I’ll go downstairs,” he offered.  “Let the others know what’s going on.”

Casey didn’t wait for an answer, but he didn’t go for the back stairs, either.  He went all the way back up to the landing, voluntarily approaching Dom and perhaps not coincidentally blocking their visitors’ view of RJ.  RJ sat carefully in his chair and glared at the wolf when it tried to come over and lean against him.

“Thanks,” he heard Casey tell Dom.  “Thanks for stopping by,” he added, presumably to Kat and T.  “Everyone else is pretty busy downstairs, so I’m just going to go fill them in.  Let me know if you need anything.”

Then Casey was gone.  The tiger’s presence lingered, though, and RJ had no idea how long it would last.

10. Cat Spirits

“Casey!”  Lily was at the sink, washing for Alicia and Fran, and she threw bubbles in his direction the moment she saw him on the stairs.  “Tell us what’s going on!   Who are they?  Are you okay?  What’s up with the tiger, anyway?”

“I need your help,” Casey said firmly, taking her by the shoulders and pulling her away from the sink.  She squawked, dripping wet hands held out in front of her, and he grabbed a towel off the counter for her.  “Where’s Theo?”

“He’s out--”  She flapped her hands up and down as she dried them, making the towel wave in the direction of the door.  “Supervising Master Finn, or something.  What’s going on?”

“Tell me about the animal spirits,” Casey said, lowering his voice.  He knew perfectly well how much you could hear from the loft.  “What happens when I touch your cheetah?”

“What?”  Lily blinked at him, her hands slowing in the towel.  “Well, you can’t, normally.  Right?  They’re not usually... I don’t know, solid.  Usually I’m the only one who can even see her.

“Except you,” she added.  “Apparently.  I’ve never heard of that before, that someone can see so many other people’s animal spirits.  No wonder Master Mao picked you.”

“So people can’t normally touch them?” Casey insisted.  “Can you?  Could you pat Hypericum before--”  He waved his hand vaguely.  “All of this?”

Lily shook her head.  “No.  Never.  I’ve heard that the masters can, though.  Being able to manifest your animal spirit is supposed to be a matter of will and training and all that.  They didn’t tell us a lot about what it was like--they just said we’d ‘learn in time.’”  She made the little quote marks with her fingers.

“So RJ might have been able to do it,” Casey muttered.  “Dominic, too?”

Lily shrugged.  “I don’t know.  I’ve never seen either of them do it in practice.  Sometimes when we’re fighting, but it’s hard to tell how solid they are then, you know?”

Casey put both his hands on his head, running his fingers through his hair.  “So, you don’t know if there are any rules about touching them?  Like, you pat Hypericum, but is it okay to pat someone else’s animal spirit?  Have you ever touched Theo’s?”

Then it occurred to him, “Wait, I’ve patted Hypericum.  Was that weird?  Could you feel it?  Can you tell what she’s feeling, or thinking, or whatever?”

“Whoa, Casey, slow down.”  Lily reached out to touch his shoulder.  “What’s going on?  Is this about the tiger?  Was it bad that we were crowding you downtown?”

“RJ’s wolf is upstairs,” Casey blurted out.

Lily’s eyes widened.  “Ohhhh.”

“What, oh?” he demanded.  “I tell you the wolf is here and you immediately know what’s wrong?  What did I do?”

“Nothing,” she said quickly.  “It’s okay, Casey.  Just calm down.”

“Mop!” Theo called, shoving through the door.  “We definitely need--hey!  Casey!  Are you okay?  Can you toss me the mop?”

“Do I look like I’m mopping something?” Casey wanted to know.  “It’s over behind the stairs, where it always is.”

“Are your eyes still yellow?” Theo wanted to know, coming over to join them.  “Do you feel okay?  You totally kicked Jarrod’s butt!  That was amazing!”

Casey turned to stare at Lily, who was making shushing motions in Theo’s direction.  She smiled brightly when he glared at her.  “The lion?  Jarrod was the lion I was fighting?  I didn’t think that was even real!”

“Theo, why don’t you go get the mop?” Lily suggested sweetly.  “Casey... how much do you remember from the fight this afternoon?”

“I remember winning,” he told her.  “I also remember that it hurt a lot.  Are you sure you don’t know anything about touching other people’s spirit animals?”

“About what?” Theo interrupted.  “Touching spirit animals?  You’re not supposed to do that.  I mean, unless it’s Lily’s, because obviously she doesn’t care.”

Lily swatted his shoulder, but Theo just grinned at her.  “You’re such a cat.”

“You’re not supposed to touch them?” Casey repeated.  “Why not?”

“Because it’s weird,” Theo said frankly.  “How would you like it if someone came up to you and hung all over you without warning?”

“Okay, first off, Lily never said anything,” Casey said, “and second, you all do that!  That’s like, the Pai Zhua way!  You’re all touchy-feely!”

Lily and Theo exchanged glances.  “It’s not actually... Pai Zhua,” Lily said, much too slowly for him.  “It’s kind of... um--”

“Us,” Theo finished.  “It’s us.  We’re touchy-feely.”

Casey stared at him.  “You and Lily?”

“No!” Theo said quickly.

“Cat spirits,” Lily said.  “People with cat spirits tend to be more tactile.  That’s just the way cats relate to each other.  You know; you’re the same way.”

“Because you are!” Casey protested.  “What do I know?  I’m just imitating you!”

“Well, we’re all cats,” Lily said with a shrug.  “So it works.”

“RJ isn’t!” Casey exclaimed.

Theo laughed at that.  He held up his hands when Casey and Lily both glared at him, but he didn’t stop grinning.  “RJ is the most physically expressive guy I’ve ever seen,” he said.  “His concept of personal space is to not sit in a chair that someone else is using.  Most of the time.”

“Keep your voice down,” Lily hissed, and Casey silently thanked her.  “Casey was patting RJ’s wolf, and now he’s all worried that RJ’s going to be mad at him.”

“The wolf?” Theo repeated, before Casey could correct her.  “The wolf is showing up now?  Can everyone see it, or just Casey?”

They both looked at him, and Casey shrugged uncomfortably.  “Everyone could see it,” he muttered.  That was part of the problem.

“Well, you’re not supposed to touch a master’s spirit without permission,” Theo told him.  “But I can’t believe RJ, of all people, would care.  Especially since it’s--”  He gave Casey an up-and-down glance.  “You.”

“I didn’t just pat it,” Casey admitted.  “I kind of... hugged it.”

“In front of everyone else?” Lily asked, her eyes dancing.  She looked like she was about to burst out laughing, and Casey gave her a look.

“Yes, in front of everyone else.”

“Probably shouldn’t have done that,” Theo said.

“Yeah, I’m getting that,” Casey agreed, still eyeing Lily.  “Too bad no one told me.”

“I can tell when people pat Hypericum,” Lily said, ignoring him in favor of Theo.  “Is that normal?  Like, if Casey was hugging RJ’s wolf, would RJ feel like Casey was hugging him?”

“What?”  Casey stopped frowning at Lily in favor of staring at Theo.  He folded his arms when Theo shot him an apologetic look.  “Are you serious?”

Theo shrugged.  “I don’t know,” he admitted.  “I’ve never felt it.  But that’s the rumor, anyway, and if Lily says it’s true...”

“Pat her shoulder and it feels like you’re patting mine,” Lily confirmed.  “It’s nice, actually.  I like it.”

“Yeah, but you’re Lily.”  Casey ran his hands through his hair again.  “RJ’s going to kill me.”

“Come on,” Theo said, rolling his eyes.  “So you hugged his wolf.  Aside from being sickeningly cute, it’s not that big a deal.  The guy thinks you’re the best thing since granola.  He’s not going to get hung up on a little PDA.”

“Theo?”  Finn’s voice preceded him through the door and made all of them jump.  “Have you located that mop?”

They turned guiltily, and he paused to survey their expressions.  “I see,” he said.  “Perhaps if you tell me where it is, I could get it myself.”

“I’ll get it,” Lily said quickly.  “Theo, you should stay here and talk to Casey.  Master Finn, maybe you could help.”

The double-sided oven opened and Alicia yelled through, “Is there anyone who can cook in there?  We need a medium Soy Joy with peppers and artichoke hearts!”

“On it!” Theo called back.  He was already backing away.  “Sorry.  Kitchen calls.”

“Is there something I can help you with, Casey?” Finn inquired.  “Lily and Theo appear to have everything under control here.  Perhaps we could step outside for a moment.”

“Sure,” Casey said, shooting Theo a look that he completely ignored.  “Thanks.”  He couldn’t quite bring himself to call RJ’s dad “Master Finn,” and Finn had never insisted.

“Did something happen while the others were fighting?” Finn asked, stepping out into the alley with him.  “It’s hard to be the one who’s left behind.”

“That’s not it,” Casey said.  He’d already answered when he realized Finn might not be talking about him.  But, hey, he had a Pai Zhua master right here.  He might as well ask.  Taking a deep breath, he said, “I’m curious about the animal spirits.”

“You’re in good company,” Finn said, with some amount of humor.  He seemed to have let their earlier conversation about RJ go, for which Casey was profoundly thankful.  It probably wouldn’t take much to start that argument again, so he tried to keep it general.

“With all the spirits manifesting lately,” he began, “I was just wondering if there’s any Pai Zhua protocol about, uh, touching someone else’s animal spirit.”

“Someone’s in particular?” Finn asked, and Casey sighed.  So the general thing had lasted for a whole sentence.  Maybe.

“Your friends seem very open about that sort of thing,” Finn observed.  “It seems to me that the best course of action would be to simply ask them individually.”

Casey hesitated.  Had Finn not gotten it after all?  “So there isn’t some kind of rule about it or anything?”

“The rules of common courtesy apply,” Finn said.  “Don’t go around picking up other people’s animal spirits.  Don’t push them out of your way.  Treat them as you would any human, and you shouldn’t ruffle any feathers.  So to speak.”

He could feel his face heating up, and he knew it had to be obvious.  “I might have forgotten to think of them as humans,” he mumbled.

“Casey.”  Finn sounded amused.  “I doubt there is anyone here who would hold a minor instance of disrespect against you.”

“Is it true that you can feel it when someone else touches your animal spirit?” Casey blurted out.

Finn gave him a puzzled look, so he added, “I wouldn’t know.  I mean, I don’t have a separate animal spirit.  So I was just curious.”

“You mean, if your spirit physically manifests,” Finn said slowly, “and someone puts a hand on it.  Yes?”

“Yeah.”  Casey tried not to squirm.  “Lily says she can feel it when I pat Hypericum.”

Finn raised his eyebrows.  “Well, I’d say that’s conclusive, then.  I don’t have much experience with the phenomenon, myself.”

Because he had a shark spirit, Casey realized.  Why would he make it manifest on land?  “Oh,” he said aloud.  “I guess that makes sense.”

“You could ask RJ,” Finn said.  “He is your master, after all.”

“He’s my friend,” Casey said automatically.  He’d switched from one defensive track to another so quickly that he didn’t even think before he said, “Besides, he’s the one I’m curious about.”

Finn just looked at him, and Casey winced.

“I kind of wish I hadn’t said that,” he admitted.

“Are there things you feel you can’t ask RJ about?” Finn asked, deceptively calm.

“He’s busy,” Casey said.  “Right now, I mean,” he added, when Finn folded his arms.  “Or I would ask him.  I can ask him anything.”

“Even things that might compromise his opinion of you?”  Finn was probably going somewhere with that, but Casey didn’t need to hear it.

“I know what RJ thinks of me,” he told Finn.  “I’m just trying to learn from anyone who’ll teach me, not avoiding RJ because I don’t want him to think I’m stupid.”

“You wouldn’t have to worry what he thinks about you if your relationship didn’t depend on personal opinion,” Finn said.

“Any relationship worth having depends on personal opinion,” Casey pointed out.  “That’s what friendship is about.  That’s what a Ranger team has to be about.  And that’s what we’re about.”

“That’s not what Pai Zhua is about,” Finn said sternly.  “Not when it comes to masters and cubs.  There must be an objectivity that fosters education without bias.”

“Yeah, well, when we’re out there on the street with rinshi all around us and Dai Shi trying to kidnap or kill anyone who stands half a step removed?” Casey countered.  “Trying to be objective is dangerous.  He who views from afar has no one to watch his back.  The Rangers are about connection, not disassociation.”

“Some kinds of connection are more desirable than others,” Finn pointed out.

“Out there?”  Casey waved in a way that was meant to indicate... well, everywhere.  “The stronger, the better.”

“He who tries to be too many things may wind up being nothing,” Finn warned.

“I can prioritize,” Casey told him.  “RJ first.  Then everything else.”

“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of,” Finn grumbled.

Casey held his hands out to his sides.  “I don’t know what you want me to say.  I’m not giving up RJ.  I don’t think it endangers either of us, I don’t think it compromises the team, and frankly, I’m not sure it’s any of your business.”

Finn didn’t have a quick reply, and when it came, it wasn’t at all what Casey had expected.  “I’ve been shut out of my son’s life for seven years now,” he said quietly.  “Don’t ask me to step aside just because I’m getting in your way.”

That stung.  “It isn’t me I’m worried about,” Casey retorted.  “This isn’t even about me; I know that.  I’m not blind.  This is about you and him, and I just happened to be convenient.

“You’re not getting in my way,” he added, because it was true.  “RJ has a perverse streak.  If anything, you objecting makes him want to be with me more.  I’m asking you to step aside for him.  You’re getting in his way.”

Finn eyed him.  “I’m afraid you don’t understand the history I share with my son.”

“That’s probably true,” Casey allowed.  “I don’t think you understand the history I share with your son, either.  He’s told me he’s given up on getting your respect.  He’s just trying for tolerance, now.  But he’s not going to change his life just to make you accept him.  So what does that leave?

“It leaves you,” he continued, before Finn could answer.  “RJ is who he is, and now it’s up to you to accept him or not.  Neither choice will change him.  It’ll only make him more or less happy.”

Finn studied him for a long moment.  His reply was, again, unexpected.  “And who have you accepted that you can argue for tolerance so eloquently?”

Casey felt himself flush again, slow heat creeping into his face.  “Myself, I guess,” he muttered.  He offered a self-deprecating smile.  “I wasn’t always a well-adjusted gay kid from the city.”

“Indeed,” Finn said slowly.  But his only follow-up was, “I seem to remember some mention of chicken-wrangling, earlier.”

“My parents have a gentleman’s farm,” Casey admitted.  “No cows.  Pretty much everything else, though.”

“And are you on good terms with them?” Finn wanted to know.

He cleared his throat, aware that this wouldn’t help his cause.  “My dad and I... e-mail.”

“But not your mother?” Finn pressed.

Casey shook his head.

“I see.”  Finn continued to regard him.  “You speak from experience, then.”

He managed to shrug.  “High school didn’t go well.  The point is, it wasn’t about me being gay any more than your thing with RJ is about me.  That was just an excuse.”

Finn raised his eyebrows.  “An excuse?”

“Everyone has a right to make their own mistakes,” Casey said.  “Parents are always trying to find a reason to take responsibility.  Mine thought kissing guys proved I wasn’t ready to be a responsible citizen.  You think RJ is showing bad judgment and has to be pushed back on track.”

He tried to remind himself that he didn’t know Finn, not that well.  He didn’t even know RJ’s past that well, and here he was, explaining their lives for them.  Great.  No baggage there.

“Look,” Casey said.  “You already pushed RJ into leaving once.  Your way or the highway, he said.  He picked the highway.  Don’t make him do it again.  That’s all I’m saying.”

Finn leaned back, considering.  “I think you’ve said a good deal more than that,” he observed.  His tone was flat and unforgiving.

“I’m probably way out of line,” Casey said.  “For a cub.  I’ll understand if you don’t want to train me anymore.  But if you’re planning to stay in RJ’s life, you’re going to have to deal with me.”

“So it would seem,” Finn agreed.

Casey pointed at the door behind him.  “I’m going to, uh... go inside.”

“Casey.”  He was already halfway into the kitchen when Finn’s voice stopped him.  “I’ll see you for training on Saturday.  As usual.  Tiger or not.”

Casey felt himself grinning, and he turned around so Finn would see it too as he stepped backwards through the door.  “I’ll be there,” he promised.  “Thanks.”

A faint smile touched Finn’s face.  “Thank you.”

11. Waiting on You

RJ gave up when the children started appearing.  “Why don’t we all go... downstairs?” he suggested, catching one of the small pointy-eared children just as she tried to pounce on his wolf.  Or the wolf tried to pounce on her.  It was hard to tell who was antagonizing who at this point, but the animal spirit seemed to be in a better mood and RJ trusted it with young people.  Mostly.

“We’ll get some dinner going,” Dom said, putting an arm around Fran and one hand on the little boy who was trying to hit T.  Dom was exactly as strong as he looked, and he only needed one hand to turn the boy toward the stairs and propel him across the landing--all while making it look pleasant and friendly and completely a matter of choice.

“I’m starving,” the red-haired naturalist agreed.  She scooped up the girl RJ was trying to redirect without asking anyone if it was all right, and the girl shrieked.  Ignoring her, the woman asked Kat, “Any allergies we should know about?  Food restrictions?”

“They need meat,” Kat said.  “And don’t give them anything that stains, or your wardrobe will regret it until you replace it.”

“We can do that,” RJ declared.  “White ch--”  He saw one of the chickens roosting on the back of his chair and abruptly changed his mind.  “White meatball pizza it is.  Anyone else?”

“Vegetarian,” the ninja said, and the naturalist seconded it.

“You’ve come to the right place,” RJ told them, waving them all toward the stairs.  “Although how you’ve come here is still something of a mystery to me, I assure you that we are set up to please every palate.  After you,” he added, stepping out of Kat’s way.

She flashed a smile at him, taking her boy from Dom when he tried to cling to the railing--she had fingernails and she wasn’t afraid to use them, RJ noted--and T followed with a theatrical sigh.  “You probably don’t have donuts at a pizza place,” he said, like it made his whole day terribly gloomy.

RJ frowned, not because they didn’t have any, but because he wasn’t excited about the similarities between Kat’s Red Ranger and his own.  “No,” he told T’s back.  “I’m afraid we don’t.”

Dom shook his head as he stepped out of Fran’s way.  “You’re going to regret saying that,” he said under his breath, and RJ sighed.

“Yes,” he admitted.  “I know.”

They could hear Lily’s happy greeting from the kitchen as the first of their visitors wound their way down the stairs.  “I’ll get the tables ready,” Fran called back, but RJ went after her and managed to stop her from pushing through everyone else on the stairs.

“Fran, I think you should take the evening off,” he told her.  “Sit down.  Eat.  Be a guest.  These are your teammates--in a manner of speaking--and there’s plenty of us to wait on you.  All right?”

“Um...”  She looked from him to Dom.  “Well.  I guess I could do that?”

“You can,” Dom said firmly, putting hands on people’s shoulders to warn them as he eased around the group toward the kitchen door.  “Come on, we’ll go move tables and then everyone can sit down.  Follow me!”

It was a necessary shepherding moment, since the kitchen wasn’t designed for this many people to begin with and it definitely wasn’t childproof.  Apparently Kat’s children were native time travelers, and the moment she had left her own time they had innocently decided to follow her.  Immediately.  Her husband, she said, wasn’t a time traveler at all, and so wouldn’t be appearing to collect them any time soon.  She was hoping to convince them to go home on their own as soon as they saw that she was perfectly fine.

Fran brought up the rear of their little group, which helped tremendously, and Theo came in the kitchen door as soon as they had cleared it.  He looked incredulous.  “Okay, where did they all come from?” he demanded.  “Do you have a clown car upstairs?”

“It’s a fairly involved story,” RJ said, “involving time travel and teleportation and morphers that were apparently quasi-active until the last one came online.  Why are there still chickens in the kitchen?”

“We’ve been busy,” Lily told him.  “Also, Casey is convinced you’re mad at him.”

RJ stopped where he was, giving her a curious look.  “Why would he think that?”

“Whoa, could we focus for a second?” Theo demanded.  “You just sent a group of teleporting time travelers out into a restaurant that’s still cleaning up from the Little League lease of doom, the 5:37 rush has barely gotten served, and I’m not even sure all those people were human!  What are we doing with them, anyway?”

RJ shrugged.  “Feeding them, I imagine.  Is... Casey around?”

“He’s out on the floor with Alicia,” Lily said.

“What?” he heard her add, as he headed for the kitchen door.  “Like he was going to be so helpful until he talked to Casey anyway.”

“Why did you even tell him?” Theo’s voice countered.  “Casey’s going to fire you as his confidant.”

Note to self, RJ thought: Lily and Theo may start keeping secrets better.  Talk to Casey more.

He almost bumped into Alicia on her way into the kitchen, and as he turned out of her way he noticed her watch.  She saw him glance at it even as she lifted a tray high over her head and she grimaced apologetically.  “Sorry,” she said.  “I can’t get it to stop beeping.  I’ll leave it in the kitchen.”

“No no,” he said, smiling a little.  A better disguise than he’d been expecting.  “I thought we were missing someone.  I guess that explains why that monitor kept showing the kitchen--why don’t you take off your apron and join Fran over there by the windows?”

“Because I’m working ‘til seven tonight,” she called over her shoulder, too used to his non sequiturs to even bother asking him what he was talking about.  Apparently he should make more of an effort to lead people through his stream of consciousness.

“Let me rephrase that,” RJ said, stepping back into the kitchen and letting the door close behind him.  “Alicia, you’re wearing a morpher.  Your shift ended the moment four similar morphers entered the building, and I’m sure your teammates are anxious to meet you.  So.  I suggest you set down the tray and go have dinner with Fran.”

She did set down the tray, but RJ was relatively sure it was only because that was what she had been planning to do anyway.  At least this time she asked, “What?”

Lily, however, was staring at her, so hopefully she would be able to handle it from here.  “Ask her where she got the watch,” RJ suggested, pushing the door open again.  “I’m going to go find Casey.”

“That should be easy,” Casey’s voice replied.  He was standing at the register, still wearing his red t-shirt with an orange JKP cap and apron.  He handed the couple at the counter change, thanked them and wished them a good night, then grinned over his shoulder at RJ.  “You want me to go for a run, make it more of a challenge for you?”

“Please don’t,” RJ said with a smile.  He wouldn’t deny that there was something appealing about chasing Casey, but he wasn’t going to say so in the middle of the restaurant.  “I see my father’s left.  Or am I being too optimistic?”

“No, he took off,” Casey confirmed.  “After another long discussion about, you know.  Everything.”

“It’s amazing to me how often he feels the need to cover ‘everything,’” RJ said, waving his hands in exasperation.  “You’d think the first twenty-three times would be enough, but no.  He has to walk us through it again.”

“RJ,” Casey said, eyes laughing at him.  “Breathe.”

“Garlic is for vampires, right?”  RJ tilted his head, pondering the question.  “Do you suppose there’s anything like that for sharks?  I could hang it around the restaurant.  We could call it... shark repellent.”

“Subtle,” Casey agreed, pulling the menus out of the menu stand and straightening them against the counter.  “Maybe you could introduce some Jimmy Buffet while you’re at it.  ‘Fins to the left, fins to the right, and you’re the only game in town.’”

RJ brightened.  “Do you think that would keep him away?”

“No,” Casey told him.  “But it would be funny.”

“It might be worth it,” RJ decided.

Dom pounded on the counter as he walked by, one hand and then the other, and offered, “I’ll cover the alien table.  Booth.  Whatever.  You want to keep a tab?”

“On the house,” RJ told him.

Dom pointed at him as he swung into the door.  “You got it.  Hey, sorry--”

Alicia was coming out the door just as he went in, and RJ held up a hand.  “Dom, maybe you could... show Alicia to the ‘alien table’?  She’s number five.”

“No kidding,” Dom said, catching the door to keep it from swinging.

Alicia held up her left wrist, adorned as always by the thin silver watch she’d worn since she’d started working at Jungle Karma Pizza.  Dom barely glanced at it, holding up his left hand in return.  The bracelet RJ had given him sparkled, and Alicia raised her eyebrows.  “Really?”

Dom smiled, and she shook her head.  “I should have known.  So that’s--”  She held up her thumb and started counting fingers.  When she got to four total she stopped and looked at RJ.  “It’s you, isn’t it.  That’s why everything here is purple.”

“I prefer to think of it as... violet,” he said.  “The color of the seventh chakra.  It’s a spiritual reference.”

“Yes,” Dom told her.  “It’s him.  And now it’s you.  Ready?”  He offered her his arm.

Alicia eyed RJ.  “You do realize that someone has to actually run the restaurant.”

“Yes,” RJ agreed calmly.  “I believe that’s my job.”

She looked far less reassured by this than he would have liked, but she let Dom escort her over to the alien table.  It was perhaps an unfair moniker, given that the majority of its occupants appeared to be human, but Kat and her offspring drew more than their share of attention.  Not for the ears, interestingly, but for the sheer appeal of their interaction.

The children were, RJ thought, unseemly adorable.

Casey leaned on the counter beside him.  “So who are the kids?” he whispered, breath tickling RJ’s ear when he swayed close enough to be heard.  “Bring me up to speed.  That’s definitely more people than I left in the loft earlier.”

“The children are Kat’s,” RJ murmured.  “Janecha and Mirlot.”

Fran and Dom had pushed a table up to the end of one of the booths, letting Kat, T, and Fran share it until Alicia arrived.  Then Kat squeezed into the booth with her children, giving her seat to Alicia.  The kids seemed perfectly happy to climb over each other and her whenever they wanted something, so they didn’t look squished or uncomfortable.

“The one in green is Nena,” he added quietly.  “She teaches a different style at another academy.  It turns out that the friend who gave her the morpher also has a teleporter.  Very convenient.  The woman beside her is Krista.  Also knows someone with a teleport system.  I’m feeling a little left out.”

“They both have morphers, I’m guessing?”  Casey’s voice sounded totally different when he whispered.  RJ almost wanted to make him stop, except that the ways he would silence Casey’s whisper were not particularly conducive to a work environment.

“Five astromorphers,” RJ whispered back.  “Dispersed and hidden when the media got hold of the Astro Rangers’ identities a few years ago.  Apparently now they’re... resurfacing.”

“Five new Rangers,” Casey finished.  “Does that give you a bad feeling?”

“That they’re appearing now because we need them now?” RJ said softly.  “Yes.  It does.”

He saw Casey’s heard turn toward him out of the corner of his eye.  “RJ, did you just give me a straight answer?” Casey whispered.  The smile didn’t come through when his voice was so quiet, but it was there on his face.

“I could try to vague it up for you,” RJ offered, trying not to look at him.  “Make it more of a challenge.”

Casey stifled a laugh.  “Please don’t,” he teased.  “I’m struggling to keep up as it is.”

“I feel the same way,” RJ said thoughtfully.

“See, that worries me,” Casey murmured back, “because I was kidding, and I don’t think you are.”

RJ took a step back so he could turn and look at Casey without being in his face.  “Lily says you think I’m mad at you,” he said, aware that he had given away his source of information but under no illusion that it could have stayed a secret.

Casey straightened up, but he didn’t move any closer or father than he already was.  “I’m sorry about the wolf,” he blurted out.  “I wasn’t thinking.  I just--I treated it... like a pet.  Not like you.  And I should have; Lily told me, and Theo, and your dad, that you’re supposed to treat animal spirits like you’d treat--anyone else.  Like a human.”

“Not like anyone else,” RJ said slowly.  “I think... you should treat them as you would treat the person they totem.  And in that sense--you did.  More or less.”

“I didn’t,” Casey began.  “Obviously I wouldn’t--I didn’t mean to embarrass you,” he finished awkwardly.

RJ had to smile.  “You didn’t embarrass me.”

“Well, I would have,” Casey muttered.  “If Dominic hadn’t said something.”

“I wish he hadn’t,” RJ said.  “The wolf would have stopped you if I was... uncomfortable.”

Casey was studying him with disconcerting intensity.  “You’re lying to me right now, aren’t you.”

He hesitated, because curiosity like that didn’t deserve automatic denial.  “Possibly?”

“Can I ask you something?” Casey wanted to know.  “About Pai Zhua and--”  His hand gesture could encompass anything or everything.  “This?”

“Can we have this conversation somewhere else?” RJ said hopefully.

Casey’s expression didn’t look promising.  “When?”

RJ frowned.  “I was thinking right now.”

“Oh.”  Casey’s look lightened considerably.  “Yeah.  Sure.”

“Theo,” RJ said as he passed.  “Would you ask Dom to watch the counter?  Thanks.”

“So much for running the restaurant,” Casey said, following him into the kitchen.

“Delegate,” RJ said over his shoulder.  “You’re doing a fantastic job, Lily.  Build morale,” he added, already heading out the back.  “The keys to a successful business.”

“Give people food for free so they don’t mind waiting?” Casey suggested, stepping through the door and closing it behind him.  “Gee, I feel like I’ve been out here for a private conversation once already today.”

“If it was with my dad,” RJ warned, “we’re finding another alley.”

Casey gave him an amused look, and RJ shook his head.

“Come on,” he said, turning away.  “There’s a good spot around the corner.”

12. Staying

Of course RJ went for the alley with the windowboxes.  Casey suspected him of sneakily watering the plants in them himself, or maybe giving them some weird zen energy to help them grow, because no way did the alley get enough light to make those flowers happy.  But they hung over the sides of the boxes in the dark, catching just enough glow from the streetlights to look like actual colors.

“Very romantic,” Casey said, because he had defended RJ to his dad too many times today not to think in terms of crushing and dating and maybe an actual relationship.  Which he wasn’t totally sure they had, if it had to be labeled, but he was more and more sure that he wanted to label it.  He wanted to call it something.

Without a word, RJ reached up and tweaked one of the stems.  The flower dropped into his hand, easy and obliging.  He offered it to Casey with an odd smile.

Casey took it, and everything he’d wanted to say was gone.  There was nowhere he could go with that.  Nothing he could do except want to kiss RJ and not know how to ask.

“You probably shouldn’t whisper in my ear while we’re working,” RJ said abruptly.  “If only because I don’t actually hear anything you say when you’re that close, and if you’re asking something important you might end up with an answer that involves horses and wireless mice.”

Casey blinked.  “I actually thought you were easier to understand than usual.”

“Maybe you weren’t listening closely enough,” RJ suggested.

“Maybe you’re trying to protect your reputation,” Casey said, lifting the flower to the side of RJ’s face so he could tuck it behind his ear.  And not coincidentally, be that much closer if kissing started to look like a possibility.  “I think you like it when people don’t really get what you’re saying.”

“I like not worrying whether people get what I’m saying or not,” RJ said.

Casey smiled.  “So I’m right.  You are clearer when I stand right next to you.”

“I’m a little concerned that I may have just destroyed your concept of personal space,” RJ murmured, but his gaze dropped to Casey’s mouth and that was totally an invitation.

“Only when it comes to you,” Casey promised.  He kissed RJ before he could come out with anything else, clear or confusing or anything in between.  And he lingered, because they were out here in the dark with no one to accidentally stumble over them.  Because he would rather kiss than talk.  And because RJ was breathing warm against his skin, kissing gently back.

“You didn’t embarrass me,” RJ whispered.  His fingers were soft on Casey’s cheek as he kissed him again.

“Okay,” Casey breathed, tilting his head into the kiss.  When he had a moment, he added, “Next time I’ll just turn him into a teddy bear, then.  If I can’t whisper in your ear, I can still whisper in his, right?  And hey, think how useful that is if you’re working--you can just keep doing whatever you’re doing and I can kiss him.”

He didn’t even recognize the pain at first but he jerked away instinctively when something pinched his lip.  “You bit me!” he exclaimed, and then immediately wished he hadn’t.  First off, he wasn’t totally opposed to biting--probably--and second, alley or not, they were still outside.  Someone could have heard him.

It was worth it for the brush of a hand against his neck and the whisper-light flick of a thumb across his lips.  “I’m... sorry?” RJ offered.  He was right about one thing: it was impossible to gauge sincerity in a whisper.

“You’re not at all,” Casey said.

This time, he could hear the smile when RJ murmured, “No kissing the wolf.  Also, how do you know it’s a he?”

Surprised, Casey asked, “How do you not?”

He could feel RJ shrug.  “I suppose I’ve always thought of the wolf as somewhat... androgenous.”

“Give it a girl’s name, then.”  He wasn’t going to keep calling the wolf “it,” and he didn’t really want to think of it as “she.”  Probably.  Maybe he could get used to it.

“Like what?” RJ wanted to know.

Lily had named hers after a flower.  “Like Iris or Lavender or Hyacinth or something.”

“I like Iris,” RJ decided.  “She was the goddess of the rainbow, you know.”

“I didn’t know that,” Casey said, amused.  “But somehow I’m not surprised you do.”

“How would you feel about kissing some more?” RJ asked.

Casey couldn’t help but grin.  “I’d feel really great about that.”

But when RJ leaned in, he frowned and didn’t move to meet him.  “Hey, wait a minute.  Are you going to bite me again?  I’d just like a little warning.”

“Are you going to...”  RJ’s classic hesitation made Casey’s mind fill in the blank with all kinds of things.  “Remember who you’re supposed to kiss?”

“Yes?”  He’d already answered before he got it: the crack about the wolf.  “Yes,” he repeated, more decisively.  “I promise to only ever kiss RJ, for as long as we both shall--”

RJ’s mouth covered his before he could finish, and that was okay.  That was better than okay.  That was them standing there, together, being... a lot better than okay.  He still didn’t know what to call RJ.  Or what he was doing with RJ.  And he shouldn’t let it get to him, because if there was ever a guy who’d flat-out said that he didn’t label--

“You wanted to ask me something,” RJ murmured.

Casey felt his breath escape in a huff of laughter.  “You’re psychic.”

“No,” RJ said.  “I’m pretty sure you mentioned it earlier.”

He couldn’t actually ask.  He knew that.  But sometimes RJ said stuff, whether by accident or on purpose, that kind of... clarified things.  Therefore, RJ talking equalled good.  Despite the implicit lack of kissing involved.

“I said a lot of stuff to your dad today,” Casey offered.  It prompted RJ to move a hand across his shoulder to cup his neck again, and that wasn’t bad.

“There must be better things we could talk about,” RJ muttered.

“I told him I was in your life too,” Casey said carefully.  “I kind of told him he was going to have to get used to me if he wanted to stay.  In your life, I mean.”

“How did that go over?” RJ asked.  “Wait... let me visualize it.”  There was a pause, and then he added, “No.  It turns out I still don’t care.  Is this important?”

“Yeah,” Casey said.  “I just told you I’m staying in your life.  Did you get that?”

RJ tilted his head.  “It does sound... vaguely familiar, yes.”

“If this ends tomorrow,” Casey said, then tried again.  “I mean, the morphers, and the--if Dai Shi disappears overnight, and the academy calls us back... I’m not going.”

When RJ didn’t say anything, he added, “Unless you want me to.  I’m just saying--I’m not waiting to go back.  This isn’t... training for me.  It’s my life.”

“I’m afraid that often happens to Rangers,” RJ said quietly.

“I’m not talking about being a Ranger,” Casey insisted.  “I’m talking about being here.  Working at JKP.  Living with you.  And all the...”  He sighed when he realized there wasn’t really more to it than that.  “I’m talking about you, RJ.”

RJ didn’t answer right away.  When he did, all he said was, “Do you suppose this is why Pai Zhua frowns on... overly familiar master-cub interaction?  Because it promotes loyalty to the master, rather than to the discipline?”

“Do you suppose you could recognize that this isn’t an intellectual exercise for me right now?” Casey demanded.  “You want to have that conversation in bed, fine, it’s abstract.  But right here, at this moment, it sounds a lot like you breaking up with me.”

“That isn’t how I meant it to sound,” RJ said.

“Keep going,” Casey told him.

“The bird who hears everything he hopes in someone else’s song doesn’t stop being a bird.”

Casey tried not to smile, because really, that didn’t even make any sense.  “I don’t know what that means.”

“It means I don’t want you to leave,” RJ said, “and I don’t know how to tell you.”

He lost the battle with his smile, which he was afraid had the potential for a really silly grin in it somewhere.  “You start with ‘I,” he said.  “Then you follow it with some sort of negation.”

“Ah,” RJ interrupted.  “I believe you have to negate the action, not the person.”

“You just said you didn’t know how to say it,” Casey reminded him.  “So be quiet.

“As I was saying,” he continued, “you start with ‘I do’ or ‘I want’ and you negate it somehow.  Then you add me, or you, and whatever action you want.  Or don’t want.”

RJ was staring at him in the shadows of the streetlight.  “If I stand closer to you,” he asked, “will you get clearer?”

“It’s worth a try,” Casey said.  “You’re going to have to stand really close to get closer than you are now, though.”

“I enjoy a challenge,” RJ said mildly.  “And also... I don’t want you to leave.”

“Well, that makes two of us,” Casey agreed.  “We’re in this together, right?”

RJ nodded once, squeezing his shoulder.  “Together.”

This time when Casey kissed him, he felt that hand stay on his shoulder and the other land on his waist.  He was being held: not just hugged, not just kissed, but held.  Like RJ knew where he was and wanted him there.  Wanted him to stay there.

Like RJ wanted him to stay.

13. Blending In

For a few days, they found a new kind of normal.  Nena offered to put Kat and T up at her academy, and if Kat’s children still wandered through the loft from time to time, they weren’t terribly disruptive.  The fact that they seemed to wander through at different ages was a little disconcerting, but RJ assumed the reason for that was still in the future.  For him if not for them.

Krista went back to her naturalist school, promising that she had someone who would see to her Ranger education.  Alicia and Fran stayed right where they were.  RJ was a little wary about putting Dom in charge of their training, but the man needed something to do and RJ just didn’t have the time.

His father probably wouldn’t appreciate the fact that he was going to movies with Casey instead of training new students, so RJ didn’t tell him.  Casey did.  Casey seemed to have a policy of acclimatization when it came to his dad: the more he got used to the idea that the two of them were... together, the more tolerant he would become.

RJ wasn’t convinced of this strategy, but since so far it hadn’t involved him in any way, he was fine with it.  What he wasn’t fine with was the cheetah and the jaguar appearing at random in the restaurant.  The wolf remained relatively obedient, willing to stay out of the way even when it manifested unexpectedly, and the tiger had limited itself to expression through Casey’s eyes for the last few days.  The other cats were starting to make even Lily nervous.

“It’s just that I can’t go everywhere with you,” she was telling Hypericum early Monday morning.  “I don’t want you to leave, I’d just like you to be slightly less... conspicuous.”

“Practice calling her to you,” RJ suggested as he passed.  “You won’t be able to get her to stay behind until she knows you can summon her when she’s needed.”

“Really?”  Lily looked intrigued by this idea.  “I never thought of it that way.”

He smiled.  “When what you’re doing isn’t working, it’s sometimes beneficial to try the opposite.”

“I will,” she agreed.  “Thanks!”

That turned out to be the high point of the morning.  He got rapidly less useful from there.  First one of the ovens wouldn’t light, then he missed Casey coming downstairs until he was returning from outside, and finally the wolf appeared and refused to be sent upstairs.  Completely refused.  RJ couldn’t figure out what he was doing wrong until he saw Casey staring at them and remarked, offhand, “Your eyes are normal today.”

Casey gave him an odd look.  “Are they?  I didn’t notice.”

The wolf growled.

“I thought you’d worked out your issues,” RJ said, looking from him to Casey and back again.  “I don’t understand why you’re being so stubborn today.”

“Maybe I’ll just go upstairs for a while,” Casey offered.  “Give him a chance to calm down.”

That wasn’t exactly what RJ had expected, but if he thought it would help...  “Would you get my tie while you’re up there?” he joked.  “I forgot it this morning, and I feel naked without it.”

Casey didn’t bat an eye.  “Yeah, sure,” he said, already turning for the stairs.  “I’ll get it.”

RJ frowned after him.  Maybe after he got the oven going.  Or maybe one of the others would talk to him and tell RJ what was going on.  Maybe he wouldn’t have to ask if he’d done something wrong, or if his dad had said something, or--

Breathe, he heard Casey say.  He was relatively certain Casey had started saying it because he did, because it was what he always told Fran and he might have tried it on his students a few times before he realized how little it helped.  But Casey hadn’t forgotten.  Casey didn’t forget things like that.

Where “things like that” apparently equaled “anything RJ said.”  It was flattering and unnerving at the same time.  He hadn’t figured out yet whether it was him more than anyone else, given that Casey seemed to pull up idle remarks from everyone he’d ever known from time to time--it was possible that Casey just remembered everything anyone told him.

He got the oven lit.  Marcus arrived for his shift, and he ate while RJ was trying to decide whether to go up to the loft or not.  When he stood at the bottom of the stairs, though, he heard Casey’s voice and Lily’s together, so he decided not.

“So, they’re not real,” Marcus’ voice said from behind him.

RJ turned, tilting his head in Marcus’ direction before he realized Marcus was looking at the wolf.  Who still wouldn’t go upstairs.  “The... stories we tell about the future?” RJ suggested hopefully.  “No, I suppose not.  Though it’s hard to say.  I do know someone who could probably tell us for sure.”

“The animals,” Marcus said.  “They look real, but I’ve never seen you feed them.”

“Since we’ve told the customers they’re holographic,” RJ pointed out, “it would be somewhat counterproductive to feed them where anyone could see.”

Marcus caught his eye.  “Do you feed them?”

“No,” RJ said.

“Do they feed themselves?”

RJ hesitated.  “Spiritually, I guess you could say we all feed ourselves.  What is existence but a sustained energetic equilibrium?”

“So they’re not real,” Marcus said flatly.

“No,” RJ agreed.  “Not in the sense that they are what they appear to represent.”

Footsteps on the stairs made him look up, and Casey was watching where he put his feet.  Not entirely unusual--except that he tended to skip stairs.  RJ wondered if his energy was lagging again.

“Did you get my tie?” he asked lightly.

“Uh, no.”  Casey gave him a quick look.  “I actually... left something outside.  I’ll be right back.”

“What?” RJ wanted to know.

Casey hesitated in the doorway.  “What?”

“What did you leave outside?”

Casey rolled his eyes.  “My sanity; what do you care?  I’ll be back in a minute.”

The wolf’s head swung toward him just as RJ glanced in his direction.  “Yes,” RJ said aloud.  “That’s what I thought, too.”

The wolf growled as the door started to close behind Casey, and RJ only had a second to decide.  If it had been anyone else, he might have needed it, but it wasn’t.  And he didn’t.

“Get him,” RJ said.

The wolf lunged for the door, banging through and disappearing into the restaurant proper.  RJ winced at the all too Casey-like yelp of surprise.  The sounds of a scuffle had ended by the time he made it through the door, and the wolf was snarling down at Camille’s prone form.

“Whoa,” Marcus said from behind him.  “Where did she come from?”

“Marcus,” RJ said.  “Why don’t you go... put out some seed for the birds?”

Marcus snorted.  “If taking your eyes off of someone means they turn into someone else?  No thank you.”

“Just this particular person, I think,” RJ remarked.  “Hello, Camille.  You should know that I consider impersonation rather more serious than a random disguise.”

“How did you know?” she hissed.  “And what is the wolf doing here?  So much for Pai Zhua being the subtle clan.”

“We’re not the ones sneaking into your stronghold,” RJ pointed out.  “I believe you’ll find the wolf was minding its own business until you tried to convince it you were--”

He broke off, because there wasn’t any subtle way to end that sentence.  He felt eyes on him and was fairly sure that nothing he could say would come as a surprise to Marcus.  Pretty much everyone at Jungle Karma Pizza knew what Casey was to him by now.  There was only so much one could pass off as favoritism.

That still left everyone outside of JKP, though.  Camille might not make any secret of her loyalty to Jarrod, but RJ wasn’t sure the Rangers needed Dai Shi knowing all about their interpersonal relationships.  Every strength was a weakness, after all.

Or maybe he just didn’t know what to say.

“I have a message for your Red Ranger,” Camille spat, apparently tired of waiting for him to finish the sentence.  “Tell Casey that Jarrod wants to meet with him.  Tonight.  Before moonrise, at the quarry.”

That was the end of Marcus not knowing, RJ noted.  “If you wanted to deliver a message,” he said, “which, by the way, the answer is no--why wait until you were caught sneaking out to do it?”

“The message wasn’t for you,” she snapped.  “I was looking for Casey.  Tell him.”

Camille disappeared.

He couldn’t see what happened after that, but it involved a lot of growling and snapping and the wolf flying back against the counter.  The impact made him cringe--normally the wolf would dissolve harmlessly and reappear somewhere else, but this time there seemed to be some effort in shaking it off and standing up.  “You okay?” he asked aloud.

The wolf just growled in the direction of the door.  Still open.  The fact that it didn’t follow reassured RJ somewhat: intent confirmed, then.  She really had just come to deliver a message.

Which left the question of why she hadn’t been able to find Casey.  RJ turned, brushing past Marcus into the kitchen, because if Camille had been upstairs--if she had talked to Lily--and she still hadn’t been able to deliver her message in person, something was wrong.  He made it all the way up the stairs before he realized what it had to be.

“Hey, RJ!” Lily said cheerfully.  Theo looked up from the stove, nodding in his direction, and Lily added, “Thanks for giving me a day off from being Casey’s alarm clock!  I totally expected him to sucker you into letting him sleep late, so.  Way to go.”

RJ strode past them on the landing, under the arch and up to the door he’d closed behind him that morning.  Knocking softly, he waited a beat before pushing it open.  He already knew what he’d find.

Casey was sprawled in his hammock.  Blanket thrown off, eyes still closed, pajamas askew from restless sleep.  He clearly hadn’t budged since he’d fallen into it the night before.

“Casey,” RJ said quietly.  Camille had to have walked right past him on her way to the room Casey shared with Lily.  Just like that, she would have come upon the tiger spirit asleep and undefended.

“Huh?”  Casey was blinking at him, sitting up, looking around.  “What--oh.  Did I miss--what time is it?”

“Time to be more careful about who we talk to,” RJ said with a sigh.  “Jarrod sent a message for you.”

“How?” Casey wanted to know.  “E-mail?”

“Camille was here,” RJ told him.  “It turns out the chameleon is... disturbingly observant.  And it mimics very well.”

Casey might have just woken up, but he knew the score.  “She looked like one of us.”

RJ just nodded.

“That’s not good,” Casey said, gold eyes holding his.  Tiger eyes.  “We’re going to need a plan.”

“Or,” RJ offered, “a vacation.”

It made Casey smile.  “Plan first,” he said.  “Vacation second.”

14. Communication

He had maybe five minutes before he was way more than late for the morning shift.  Since the restaurant actually opened in five minutes, being not way more than late probably wasn’t the best goal, but it was the one he was stuck with.  He didn’t even clear his stuff out of RJ’s room, just left it where it was and knocked on the porch door at the near end.

“Yeah,” Dominic mumbled, from the other side of the screen.

“Hey, man.”  Casey pushed the door open and grimaced at him apologetically.  “Sorry.  Can I borrow your computer?”

Dominic muttered something incoherent, accompanied by a hand gesture in the direction of his  backpack.  Casey figured that was as close to permission as he’d get from someone who was half-asleep.  He grabbed the laptop and crouched down against the wall, figuring it would take less time to check it out here than to take it in and bring it back.

“Casey?”  Dominic didn’t sound totally sure of this.  “Why’nt you just use RJ’s?”

“It’s downloading something,” Casey said absently.  “I flipped off the SETI screensaver and got a status bar, so I left it alone.”

Dominic grunted, and that was the end of the questioning.  From him.  Casey had plenty of questions, and several of them involved the anonymous e-mail threats he’d been getting through the KFA site lately.  The community coordinator had warned him not to respond, but...

Tigers fall, the last e-mail said.  Lions rise.

He hadn’t replied to any of the e-mails.  He would almost rather think it was a random stalker.  But if he had a chance to find out, he figured he owed it to the team to take it.

Casey hit “reply” and wrote, moonrise?!

He sent it, closed the browser, and stowed Dominic’s computer in his bag again.  He wasn’t sure why RJ’s friend felt the need to stay packed all the time--what, was wanderlust going to strike in the middle of the night?  And if it did, didn’t he have a flashlight?  It wasn’t like he had so much stuff that he wouldn’t be able to gather it up in a matter of minutes.

Casey didn’t have a chance to check his e-mail until his lunch break, and RJ gave him a funny look when he said he was going upstairs.  So Casey told him the truth: he wanted to check his e-mail.  RJ looked even more taken aback at that, possibly because Casey rarely bothered with the internet during work hours.  He also looked vaguely concerned.

“No worries,” Casey added, as he headed up the stairs.  “I’ll tell you later.”

RJ nodded, but Casey figured he had minutes at most before RJ found an excuse to follow him and ask about his sisters.  Which was fair.  Most of the e-mail Casey talked about, let alone waited on, came from Shelly or Celerity.

Not today, though.  RJ’s computer had finished whatever it had been doing earlier, and Casey logged in to find two more messages forwarded from his KFA address.  One was from Todd, explaining that he would have to miss a class.  The other was anonymous, and he’d swear he could feel phantom hackles rise when he saw it. 

Before moonrise, moron.  Unless you want everyone to see you.

Great.  It was official.

Dai Shi had his e-mail address.

“Uh, hi,” RJ said, poking his head into his own room without coming in.  “If you’d rather be alone--”

“No, hey, come in,” Casey told him.  “You’re going to love this.”

“You say that in a tone of voice that leads me to doubt it,” RJ said, but he came in anyway.  “Family e-mail?”

“Not so much.”  Casey frowned at it, but there wasn’t any way around it.  “From Jarrod, actually.”

“Jarrod, one of your students whom I haven’t heard about?” RJ asked.  “Jarrod, one of your sisters’ boyfriends?

“Or one of yours?” he added, after a brief pause.

“I only have one boyfriend at a time,” Casey informed him.  “Nice try, though.”

RJ tilted his head, and Casey figured now would be a good time to move on.  “Jarrod, exactly who you think he is,” he said.  “He’s been sending weird e-mails to KFA for a couple weeks now.  I wasn’t sure it was him until today when I replied and he said something about the quarry.”

“Did you just tell me you’re getting e-mail from Dai Shi?” RJ asked, with a calm that was definitely a disguise.

“It’s not like they don’t know where we live,” Casey pointed out.

“I’d have felt better if I knew about this two weeks ago,” RJ remarked, frowning.

Casey deliberately didn’t smile.  “No,” he said.  “You wouldn’t have.”

“Assuming I was going to know about it eventually,” RJ amended, “I would have felt better finding out when it first started than I do finding out now.  Weeks after it started.”

“I didn’t know who it was,” Casey reminded him.  “I used something Camille said this morning to confirm it was him.  Or her, I guess.  How many of them are online, anyway?  Do you think they have a dedicated server?  Dai Shi at internets of doom dot com?”

“Well, you’d know better than I would,” RJ muttered.  “Also, I submit that getting weird e-mails from someone you can’t identify is no less significant than knowing those e-mails come from Dai Shi.”

Casey raised his eyebrows at him, and RJ frowned a little.  “Maybe incrementally less significant,” he admitted.  “But only because getting them from Dai Shi is so stupendously... disturbing.”

“I didn’t want to worry you guys,” Casey said.  “People send weird e-mails all the time, and it’s not like he signed it ‘Jarrod, the Evil Lion of Dai Shi.’”

“I wouldn’t know, would I,” RJ mused.  “Given that I never saw them.”

“Okay, you’re a little heavier on the aggressive side of passive-aggressive than usual,” Casey told him.  “Obviously this is more important than I thought it was, and next time someone sends me a threatening e-mail I’ll tell you, okay?  I’m sorry.”

“Thank you,” RJ agreed.  “That would be appreciated.”  He paused, then added, “Is it selfish to feel offended that I was included in ‘you guys,’ as in, ‘I didn’t want to worry you guys’?  Because I do.  And I’m not really used to that.”

“I came this close to calling you my boyfriend a few minutes ago,” Casey pointed out.  “Any grouping I did there included friends and... others.”

“I think I like being a boyfriend better than being an other,” RJ said thoughtfully.  “It’s entirely possible that ‘boyfriend’ is a label I could live with.  Were you to use it.”

Casey tried to suppress a grin and a whoop of triumph.  He succeeded with the latter, but the former leaked through despite his best efforts.  “Likewise,” he agreed, with as much solemnity as he could muster.  Which wasn’t much.

“I... don’t want you meeting with Jarrod tonight,” RJ said, and Casey almost laughed.  RJ was terrible at this.  For all his ease with strangers, he seemed to get more awkward the closer the relationship got.  Any relationship.

“I’m not too excited about it myself,” Casey said, since the least useful thing he could do right now was probably to call RJ’s attention to Things He Needed To Relax About.  “On the other hand, we’ll probably learn something.”

“Yes,” RJ replied with uncharacteristic sharpness.  “Whether Jarrod wants you dead, or just a captive toy for his own amusement.”

“We’ve fought before,” Casey pointed out.  “We’re evenly matched, RJ.  He’s not going to kill me.”

“Even if he couldn’t get in a lucky shot one-on-one,” RJ said, “I don’t know why you think he’s going to fight fair.”

“I don’t think he’s going to fight at all.  I think the whole point of meeting when we are is so that no one knows it’s happening and he can say whatever he wants to say without being overheard.”

RJ stared at him.  “He has your e-mail address.”

Casey shrugged.  “Maybe it’s a clan thing.  All he’s done in e-mail is insult me, anyway.”

“Don’t think that makes him harmless.”

“Oh, and I was just thinking that,” Casey told him.  “Good, I’m glad you cleared that up for me.”

RJ gave him a reproving look.  “If I can’t talk you out of this, I’m going with you.”

“You’re not going with me,” Casey said.

RJ folded his arms.

“You’re my second-in-command,” Casey added.  “Come on, RJ.  You know as well as I do that if something happens, we can’t both be there.”

“Do you have any idea how hard it would be to watch you walk off to meet Dai Shi?” RJ asked.  “Alone?”

Casey looked at him for a long moment, because either RJ had something else to add or he hadn’t thought that through at all.  When he didn’t say anything, though, Casey said, “Yeah, I do.”

RJ actually frowned, and Casey glared at him.  “You surrendered to him.  In front of us, in broad daylight; we watched you walk away and we couldn’t do a damn thing, so don’t tell me I don’t understand.”

RJ opened his mouth, but he didn’t say anything, and that was probably the smart choice.  After a moment he looked down, and Casey turned away from the computer and stood up.  “Hey,” he said quietly.  “It’ll be all right.  I know it will.”

“And that,” RJ said half-heartedly, “is probably why it will.  Because you know.”

“You should know too,” Casey said.

RJ tilted his head, and Casey smiled.  “If you say ‘know what?’ I’m going to have to kiss you.  That’s just the way it is.”

That made RJ brighten.  “Know what?”

Ultimately, Casey did go alone and RJ didn’t stay behind.  Of course.  He should have expected the Wolf Ranger to follow him.  What he wouldn’t have expected even if he’d known, though, was that Camille would catch RJ sneaking around the quarry while she was doing exactly the same thing.  For disturbingly similar reasons.

Luckily, he and Jarrod didn’t know either of them were there until afterwards.  Even better, their meeting didn’t result in anyone’s death or captivity.  It wasn’t particularly helpful otherwise, except in that it did confirm the Dai Shi spirits were acting just as unpredictably as those of Pai Zhua.

At least, Casey thought that was what Jarrod meant.  It was hard to tell with all the growling and insulting and posturing that seemed to be the backdrop for most of his communication.  And efforts to figure it out in retrospect came to a halt when he found RJ waiting for him at the edge of town.

Blending into the shadows that spread from the corner of the large animal veterinary clinic, long closed at this hour, Casey wouldn’t have even noticed him if the tiger hadn’t looked first.  And second.  Because that figure, here, deserved a double take.

RJ didn’t look up.  He was leaning back against the wall, one foot braced against it, head tilted back.  Eyes closed.

Waiting.

Casey couldn’t explain the feeling that came over him.  He knew.  He just knew what had happened, what RJ was doing here, that he had never really been alone.  That he might never be again, if tonight was any indication, and someone had to draw the line.

RJ didn’t move when Casey changed course, cutting across the deserted lot, through the light and into the dark.  Casey wasn’t trying to sneak up on him, and he had no illusions that he could even if he’d meant to.  He wanted to be acknowledged.  Right now.

“RJ.”  It came out as a growl, and for once he didn’t care.  “The loft is back the way you came.”

RJ’s eyes opened.  They flashed purple in the dark, and Casey felt the tiger surge.  He knew a challenge when he saw it.  They’d had this conversation over and over again, and every time, RJ agreed that Casey was in charge of the team and Casey should assign them as he saw fit.

The agreement never seemed to stop RJ from doing whatever he wanted to.  It didn’t stop him from making his own assignments, unilateral decisions, and Casey crazy.  Most of the time it was a toss-up between the good kind of crazy and the bad.  That was the only reason Casey hadn’t fired him yet--or jumped him.  If you could fire your boss, which he wasn’t totally sure about.

He was pretty sure you could jump your boss, but he was still afraid it would be horribly awkward the next day.  Or immediately, depending on RJ’s reaction.  So far, the potential awkwardness outweighed the short-term gain.  Barely.

“I told you that I was coming with you,” RJ said, sounding light and puzzled and exactly the way he always did.  Like he hadn’t noticed Casey’s frustration--or he didn’t care.

“And I told you that you weren’t,” Casey said.  “What part of me being the leader doesn’t matter to you?  Because you always make it sound really good when we’re talking about it.”

“Ah, but part of being a good leader,” RJ began, lifting one hand to emphasize his point, “is knowing what your people are capable of.”

“I think you’re capable of staying away from the quarry for one night,” Casey told him.  “It’s just a guess.  Call it leader’s intuition.”

RJ tilted his head.  “You may find that reframing the situation makes it more clear.”

“It looks pretty clear to me,” Casey replied.  “I told you to stay behind--”

“And I told you I couldn’t,” RJ interrupted.  “I did tell you, Casey.  There are things that you can ask and still never receive if they go against someone’s basic nature.  You can’t ask a bird to be a fish.”

“What is it with you and birds lately?” Casey demanded.  “You’re not a bird.  You’re a wolf.  And last I knew, wolves could take orders just fine.”

Once, he had pushed RJ far enough that he actually apologized.  And it wasn’t unheard of these days, just in general, to hear the words “I’m sorry” from their Wolf Ranger.  Tonight, however, didn’t look like it would be one of those times.

“Why is it so important to you that I do what you tell me?” RJ asked.  He was odd and unreadable in his black and violet uniform: the only time they saw him wear dark colors.

“Because I do what you tell me all the time!” Casey exclaimed.  “I train however you say, I run the restaurant when you ask, and I spend a frankly frightening amount of time trying to guess what you want so you won’t have to tell me directly.  When you can’t even do the few things I ask as Red Ranger, it feels like you don’t trust me!  Like you think I’m not good enough to make those decisions!”

RJ was staring at him.  “I want you to know,” he said thoughtfully, “this isn’t meant as an excuse, or a reason, or even a diversion.  I just...”

He paused, absent gesture landing unexpectedly alongside Casey’s face.  “Can’t get it out of my head,” he said, stepping closer.

Do it, Casey thought.  Just do it already.

But RJ waited, watching... inviting.

Casey kissed him.  The conversation wasn’t going anywhere anyway, he told himself.  And RJ was wearing his uniform, which was really easy to grab onto and it had been a long day and he didn’t have any excuse except that RJ’s hands were on him and he had never done this before.  Not like this.  Not with RJ, who was as distant as he was familiar, who held everyone just close enough that they would think they knew him without him actually having to answer their questions.

RJ made a small sound that prompted another growl and a shove and the fact that he had RJ up against the wall only meant that he could push harder.  Not rough.  Not now.  But his hands flexed and clenched on RJ’s shoulders, kneading, warm and strong and he could feel heat through his shirt where RJ was holding him in return.  His mouth, trying to steal that breath, careful to avoid sharp movements that might send his head into the wall.

“I trust you,” RJ mumbled, the words slightly muffled by Casey’s repeated attempts to kiss them out of him.

“Me too,” Casey said, just in case some sort of response was required.  “More kissing.”

A slight huff, a catch in his breath that might have started in his throat, was the only indication that he recognized the irony.  “That’s an order I can follow.”

“Oh--”  He didn’t really want to talk--it took away from kissing--but it was better than having the conversation without kissing.  “This is the kind of decision...”  Casey didn’t get it all out in one breath.  “You think I can make?”

“One among many,” RJ muttered, easy to understand even so soft because the words went directly from his throat to Casey’s lips, “that I think you’re perfectly capable of.”

He was talking and Casey was kissing his neck and why hadn’t he even noticed when that happened?  Because he’d only been kissing RJ’s mouth, and then the side of his face, and then his jaw, and--RJ wasn’t saying anything.  Wasn’t stopping him.  Could he have done this any time?  Had RJ been waiting for him to do it?

Was he going too far, or not far enough?

“I have to follow you,” RJ gasped, and hey, he sounded kind of ragged and that had to be a good thing.  Casey flicked his tongue over skin and the body against his moved subtly.  “That’s why, sometimes... I can’t follow your orders.  If you--”

The sound he made was incomprehensible when Casey licked again, sucking on his neck this time, and the movement unmistakable.  RJ’s head tipped back, the rest of him arched forward, and Casey totally knew what he was doing now.  He danced.  He knew when to slide an arm around his partner’s waist and cup the other hand behind his head.

“If you get that,” RJ breathed, eyes closed, like he was finishing the sentence by rote.  “Oh, this is... so not where we should be, right now.”

He was either going to scare RJ off or make him moan, and he wasn’t thinking clearly enough to weigh the consequences this time.  He shuffled his feet, shifted into RJ, and they were pressed together in a way that got the better response.  From both of them.

Not just kissing, not anymore, and he probably shouldn’t have said anything but he whispered, “I think the tiger wants you.”

“Ah.”  And it was hard to tell if this was a response, intentional or involuntary, but RJ mumbled, “Sure, mi amor.  Blame the cat.”

He didn’t have to ask what “mi amor” meant.  He wasn’t totally sure he’d heard right, but if he hadn’t, now wasn’t the time to ask.  “I want you,” Casey whispered against skin turned damp and sweet with kisses.

“Yes, well.”  He thought RJ was teasing when he said, “The wolf is very flattered.”

RJ had started it.  He nipped the skin under his teeth playfully and was surprised at the whimper it evoked.  He ran his teeth over RJ’s neck again and felt the body pressed against his shudder.  Then he was getting pushed away, and no, Casey was not excited about that and no, he wasn’t letting another order be countermanded this soon.

He cupped RJ’s face with his free hand, the other still behind his head, and pressed a gentle but insistent kiss to lips that were already open.  Breathing hard.  The hands that were pushing him back stopped, lost their focus as the mouth under his responded.  Too much.  So biting was too much.  Okay.

Funny that RJ was allowed to bite him, but he apparently wasn’t allowed to return the favor.

15. Wordless

He couldn’t think.  He was on fire.  He hated feeling this out of control and he loved it.  He was flying, soaring, burning up, and he knew he was going to crash and he knew it was going to hurt.  He didn’t care.  He cared more than he should.  He didn’t care enough.

He never had, really.  He had never been able to care enough for anyone.  So far Casey either hadn’t noticed or didn’t care himself.  Which was good--so far--because RJ really, really cared.  About Casey.  About what Casey thought, what he did, what he wanted.

“I want you,” Casey whispered again.  Like he was responding to RJ’s thoughts.  Like he was giving RJ another chance.  Like he knew the wolf was a joke but he wanted to hear the real reply, he wanted to hear it aloud, and he was going to push until he got whatever he was looking for.

I want you too.  They were the words in his head, but they never made it to his tongue.  He couldn’t say it, because what if he shouldn’t?  What if this wasn’t what he was supposed to have, to do... to be?  Zero action meant infinite potential.  If the potential wasn’t important, it could be risked for actuality.  The dream of one could be given up for the reality of... whatever the reality turned out to be.

But if that potential was potentially everything, then to take action was to give up--well, everything--with no guarantee of a suitable replacement.

“Don’t push me,” RJ breathed, wishing Casey wouldn’t hear.  It was an entreaty meant for the universe, not for his--not for Casey.  Please, let him keep the dream of Casey.  Just for a little longer.  Just the rest of his life.  Just forever.

“Are you telling me what to do?” Casey murmured, mouthing his ear and not backing off in any way.  One hand still behind his head, the other spreading warmth over his back as Casey started to engulf him again.  It was like he hadn’t heard, after all.  Except for his question.

“Right now,” RJ mused, “telling you what to do would be sort of like... telling me what to do.”

“A fun exercise,” Casey said, his hand coming to rest in the small of RJ’s back, “but ultimately pointless?”

Feeling Casey wear that red jacket, having it under his hands, was like proof of every good he had ever done.  And somehow he managed to undermine it over and over again.  What would the Power think, he wondered, about him seducing his young team leader?

“I meant,” he offered, but Casey was kissing him again and he couldn’t finish.  Not right away.  This was so clearly more important.

“You meant,” Casey whispered after a moment.  Tongue trailing over RJ’s lower lip, he was certainly encouraging a response.  It just wasn’t a verbal one.  “Want me to guess?”

If he wasn’t so afraid of what Casey might guess, he would have said yes.  What did he think?

“You meant you don’t expect me to do what you say,” Casey murmured against his mouth.  “Except I always do, so I don’t know why you’d think that.  So... you meant...”

“You don’t always--”  That was as far as he got before he felt Casey’s hand on his skin, beneath his vest, and it could have been incidental except that fingernails scratched gently, absently, almost unbearably intimate, and a tingle he couldn’t ignore shivered through his body.

“No,” Casey whispered.  The tips of his fingers were still hot against the skin just beneath RJ’s uniform, and he would have felt the way RJ trembled everywhere.  “I don’t.”

Not for the first time, RJ was aware of the terrible example he set for the rest of the team.

“I meant,” he repeated, because he didn’t want Casey thinking too long about it, “we’re doing the same thing.  At the same time.  In the same place.”

“Together,” Casey whispered, like he might not know the word.

“Precisely,” he agreed.  “Thus a decision about what either one of us should do necessarily determines what the other does as well.”

“Uh-huh,” Casey mumbled.  “Because we’re together.  You realize you just described the Rangers, too.”

He might have replied, but he wasn’t sure because Casey’s fingernails tickled his skin again, making sparks shoot up and down his spine.  If his brain had a fuse box then several of them had just blown at once.  For a long moment he couldn’t even tell if Casey was kissing him, because his body was winding tighter and tighter and he had to close his eyes.  He couldn’t feel it.  He couldn’t stop feeling.

“Everything we do,” and Casey’s voice was low and soft and everywhere around him, “affects everyone else.  If you’re going to do something--or not do it--you need to make that more clear.  You have to talk to us, RJ.”

He talked to them all the time.  All he did was talk to them.  And all Casey did was kiss him.  All he could think about was Casey kissing him, the hand that still held his head so carefully sliding to cup his neck, and the funniest thing he noticed was the way Casey didn’t seem to notice at all.

A police car went by on the road, siren wailing, and Casey didn’t even twitch.  He must have felt RJ stiffen, though, because he huffed his amusement against RJ’s skin.  “Do you distrust all authority?” he mumbled, and the smile was there in his voice, suddenly fond and unimposing and almost as young as he was.  “I don’t know if that makes me feel any better: at least it’s not just me, but on the other hand, somehow I equal the police.  That’s not cool.”

“You equal everything,” RJ breathed.  I want you, he added silently, but he still couldn’t say it aloud.  Not here.  Not now.

Not yet.

If he’d known how soon he would lose the chance to say anything at all to Casey, he might have reconsidered.  The dream was alive as long as Casey was, and in weighing the risk of reality against the pleasure of potential, he had forgotten to take into account the possibility of loss.  How could he lose Casey, after all?  The Red Ranger always survived.

So he just let Casey kiss him until he muttered something about public indecency and Casey suggested going back to fill the others in before they got arrested and RJ had an actual reason to resent the police.  You laugh, RJ told him--or he tried, through the breathless sense of falling that Casey’s hands seemed to compound instead of alleviate--but they’re not perfect.  And no one’s watching them.

“Who’s watching us?” Casey wanted to know.

Which meant that the last conversation he had with Casey was about the responsibility of power.  Instead of saying he was sorry, even if he wasn’t, or telling him that he trusted him more than he trusted himself some days, he offered a rambling and somewhat distracted commentary on the dangers of unchecked authority.  Distracted because he would rather have been kissing Casey, and because Casey wasn’t actually holding his hand but did manage to bump his shoulder every other... breath or so.

And then they were back at the shop, and everything went to hell.

He didn’t realize how bad it was at first.  Dom met them at the door, and the fact that he didn’t say anything should have tipped RJ off right away.  But RJ breezed past him, too flustered by Casey’s almost-attempt at stealing a kiss outside the door and then the sudden realization of someone just inside and really, he had to walk away.  “Jarrod’s still evil,” he called over his shoulder, “Casey’s alive, and Camille’s a better conversationalist than you might expect.  All things considered.  How are things here?”

When he turned, he saw both of them staring at him.  Casey tipped his head toward Dom, who grimaced apologetically and held up his fingers in the shape of an “x.”  In front of his throat.  RJ frowned, looking around for some sort of recording device.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Casey’s hands echo the “x” before sweeping out to the sides.  He looked back at them just as Dom shook his head, crossing his index fingers and then tapping his hand against his mouth.  It was Casey’s turn to frown, and he glanced at RJ.

RJ had no idea what was going on, except that it seemed to involve being quiet.  So he was quiet.

Casey looked back at Dom and gestured again, this time from his temple and against his chin.  Dom’s mouth quirked into a relieved grin, and the hand he lifted to heaven was clearly meant as a “hallelujah” gesture.  What followed was a startlingly fast exchange of hand signals that reminded RJ Dom’s sister was deaf, and he had taught RJ a couple of signs before they went to visit last time.

“The last time” had been a long time ago.  He had never known Casey could sign.  And right now, this was the sort of thing he couldn’t stand.  They were talking, right there in front of him, and he had no idea what they were saying.  Not because they were trying to exclude him.  Because he was literally incapable of understanding.

“Key case it far the best bad out,” Casey said aloud, finally translating.  Or... something.  “Now socks with stay fact like love does that.”  He looked over at RJ, gaze intent and worried.  “Socks stayed me pumpkin lost, for fighting stayed me sun tape sock, now cinnamon keep doing.  After cloud be far extra lay baby cable mine that extra win.”

RJ stared at him for a long moment, but it didn’t come any clearer in his mind.  “Uh, I didn’t really... get that,” he said at last.  “Do you think you could give it to me again?”

Casey’s eyes widened, and the look he gave Dom was nothing short of terrified.  RJ looked over his shoulder automatically, but there wasn’t anything there.  “You okay, compadre?  You look like you just saw a Phantom Beast.”

Casey didn’t answer, his hands going to his head as he buried his fingers in his hair.  It was a look they didn’t see on their team leader often: frustration so tremendous that he tried to keep himself from expressing it violently by occupying his hands with something else.

“Cats,” Dom said.  It was the first time he’d spoken aloud, and RJ didn’t get it but it made Casey look up.  Dom didn’t say anything else, just started signing again.  It looked like he started off with some version of “relax,” but after that RJ was just as lost as he’d been so far.

They went back and forth, which was somewhat reassuring in the sense that Casey started to look less freaked out, but RJ still had no idea what was going on.  He was trying not to let it get to him and mostly failing.  “I realize you’re, uh, having a bonding moment,” he said carefully.  “But could you, just... give me the ten-sentence summary?”

Casey made a violent throat-stabbing gesture in Dom’s direction, but instead of alarming the White Ranger he just grimace sympathetically.  Dom tapped the side of his head.  Casey turned his hands upside-down and let them hang limply for a moment, then slapped his chin with the back of his hand, and Dom just nodded.

Casey took a deep breath, almost wincing when he glanced in RJ’s direction.  “Escape favor stayed me after?”

RJ frowned.  “I don’t--I still don’t really... understand what you’re saying?”

“And stayed water of!” Casey exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air.  “Pizza stair first fax sunny play first stayed love?”

“Well,” RJ said slowly, “I’m with you on the pizza love.”

“Pizza love?”  Casey’s look was sharp.  “Identified cold again too.  Pizza stair first love?  Fax favor me ID?”

“Me,” RJ repeated.  “You keep saying me.  Is that important?”

“Me.”  Casey looked intent.  “And leaf favor like me.”

“And leave favor like me,” RJ echoed, frowning.

“Leaf,” Casey said.  “And leaf favor like me.  Favor when is grow cold again fall, fax favor.”

“Favor,” RJ said.  “You keep saying favor.  What favor?”

“After,” Casey said, pointing at himself.  Pointing at RJ, he added, “Favor.”

RJ pointed at himself too.  “Favor?” he guessed.

“Is,” Casey said, but he looked carefully interested again.  Not impatient.  Pointing from himself to RJ again, he repeated, “After.  Favor.”  Then he came forward and caught RJ’s hand before he could move.  Using RJ’s own hand to point at RJ, he repeated, “After.”  Then he turned RJ’s finger toward himself and added, “Favor.”

“Favor,” RJ said again, frowning.  Okay.  “Me?” he asked, hoping the explanation of that would make more sense.

Casey’s face lit up.  “Me!” he agreed.  “Favor me!”

Casey signed excitedly to Dom--who looked somewhat less than impressed, if RJ had to say so--then waved for RJ to follow him toward the stairs.  RJ glanced at Dom, who shrugged.  It was the most he thought he’d understood either of them since he and Casey had walked through the door.

“Iris,” Casey’s voice said.

The impatience was back, but it was the sound of the wolf’s name that made RJ look up.

“Code call,” Casey added, waving when he caught RJ’s eye.

RJ started after him, no less confused but--what else was he going to do?

It was only when he saw Lily and Theo running around the loft, pointing at things and talking gibberish at each other, that he began to understand the true magnitude of the situation.  They were coding.  All of them, at the same time, were using new words for old things.  Different words.  For the same things.  And unless he was seriously misunderstanding, it wasn’t on purpose.

It was, however, consistent.  If Lily and Theo’s activities were any indication.  That must have been what had Casey so excited in the kitchen.  He thought RJ was getting his words, that he was figuring out what they meant.  What Casey meant.

“Me,” RJ said aloud.

Casey turned to him, and the look of relief on his face was heartbreaking.  “Me,” he agreed, and the sign he was using finally clicked into place in RJ’s mind.  Understand.

Lily and Theo clustered around them, and communication--such as it had been--came to an abrupt halt while they all waved and stamped and occasionally yelled in frustration.  Lily, in particular, was very willing to be vocal despite the fact that it was obvious no one had a clue what she was saying.  She got across a significant amount with her tone of voice, but it was heavy on emotion and not so much on information.

It didn’t take Theo long to figure out that Dom and Casey were signing to each other.  Or rather, that they were understanding each other through signs, and he immediately wanted to be taught.  But Dom didn’t understand him the way Lily did, and Casey wasn’t paying attention.  He and Lily were trying to play a twisted version of charades with RJ, which failed utterly when it became obvious that they couldn’t understand his guesses.

So Lily waved her hands over her head until they all finally stopped and looked at her, and then she started organizing them.  She set them up as though they were downstairs, working in the restaurant, and then she mimed bursting through a door.  She faked fighting with each of them.  She let them beat her, fell down, and pretended to play dead.

Dominic and Theo were into the role-play by now, and they did an adequate job of conveying that they could no longer see her.  She got up, silently, stealthily, and waved an invisible wand.  Or something.  That was what RJ guessed she was doing, anyway.  And in her scene, suddenly none of them could understand each other.

“Me?” Casey asked, his voice subdued.  It was the first word since the scene had started.

“Me,” RJ said, glancing at him.  Of course.  He’d already gotten the story from Dominic.  Pointing at him, RJ asked cautiously, “Favor?”

The corners of Casey’s mouth quirked, and he gave RJ a thumbs-up.

You, RJ’s mind thought.  Pointing indicated pronouns in sign.  “Favor” must be “you,” and “after” was “me.”  Or “I.”  He wasn’t sure it mattered.  “After me,” he said aloud.

“And,” Casey said.  “And me.”

RJ frowned.  “And?” he asked, pointing to himself.

“And,” Casey agreed, pointing to himself.  “And on dragon.  Favor if Iris.”

“Iris,” RJ repeated.  “My wolf?”

“Favor,” Casey said.  “Favor.”  He put his hands on RJ’s shoulders and said slowly, “I, RIS.  Me?”

RJ had the distinct feeling that he was being treated like a child.  “Iris,” he repeated.

Theo, Lily, and even Dom surprised him by saying, “Iris,” one after another.  Okay.  Apparently he was Iris now.

Then Lily pointed at Casey and followed with an obvious shrug.  Hands out to her sides, she was clearly asking, Well?

“Dragon,” he said.  Then he pointed at her.

“Sparkle,” Lily said.  She looked at Theo.

“Tough,” he said.

When they looked at Dom, he offered, “Win.”

Everyone nodded, very solemn.  RJ wanted to ask them what they thought they were doing, but it obviously wouldn’t do any good.  He took back anything he had ever thought about sign language, because he didn’t dread it at all.  Not compared to this.  This was his worst nightmare.  He was surrounded by people and he couldn’t even talk to them.

Dom signed something to Casey, and Casey answered with enviable ease.  They went back and forth for what seemed like several minutes but might have only been seconds.  Finally Casey gestured from himself to RJ and Dom nodded.  He left, came back with his computer, and turned it around for them to see.

There was a lot of a gibberish on the screen, and that, at least, RJ got immediately.  The computer had recorded their efforts at talking to each other.  Or it.  Casey said something, then motioned for RJ to try.  “I... don’t know why you’d want to record me,” RJ said.  “Clearly reading is no different from speaking, in terms of our current comprehension level.”

Casey and Dom both peered over his shoulders, shaking their heads at the screen.

RJ sighed.  His words were as strange to them as theirs were to him.  So each of them probably thought they were the only ones speaking correctly, and they had tried out Dom’s voice recognition to prove it.  And it hadn’t worked.

“Minimize active window,” he said aloud.

The recording window slunk down to the bottom of the screen.

He was actually a little relieved to see it respond, given everyone else’s certainty.  Maybe he was affected by... whatever was going on too, and he just thought he was speaking normally.  The same way the rest of them did.  But no, the computer agreed with him.  He had to tell it to do a few more things to prove it to them, but for whatever reason, it seemed that he was the only one currently capable of communicating with the rest of the world.

That was incredibly depressing.  If he’d had the choice, he would have chosen them over the rest of the world.  At least Dom and Casey could still communicate with each other.  Lily and Theo seemed determined to rebuild a common language from the ground up.  And RJ...

RJ really didn’t want to be the one on the outside just because he was still in.

16. Understanding You

Casey decided to stop talking.  He didn’t like seeing all those blank looks, and it wasn’t like it helped.  Unless you were Lily, who continued to chatter un-self-consciously about... well, presumably whatever she would have said anyway.  None of them could tell what she was talking about, specifically, but she did manage to convey general intent through tone.  Mostly “good morning” and “coming through” and “excuse me,” which was more than the rest of them were doing.

RJ declared a Day of Silence in the restaurant.  He put a sign on the door, demonstrated for customers how to custom order things by pointing at various parts of the menu, and kept the faith by not saying a word himself.  Which was awful, because Casey knew his favorite part of running Jungle Karma Pizza was talking to the people who came in.  But it wasn’t quite as awful as the looks RJ gave him when he thought Casey wasn’t looking: like there was some endless distance between them all of a sudden, and RJ was the one who’d been left behind.

He and Dom hadn’t been able to figure out what was going on, though they did manage to mime some of Casey’s encounter with Jarrod for the others.  He and RJ hadn’t seen any Phantom Beasts while they were out there, or on the way back, so if the one that had stumbled into JKP had come after them next, it had gotten smart and gone invisible first.  That didn’t explain how Casey had been able to talk to RJ right up until the moment they walked through the door at the restaurant.  It didn’t explain why RJ’s words were still normal--at least according to the computer.  Not to mention Fran and Alicia, to whom RJ had explained the situation... somehow.

Casey sounded normal to himself, but apparently not to anyone else, and they all sounded like gibberish to him.  So who knew what RJ had told them.  Or why he was the one who could still talk.  He seemed to be taking that as badly as any of them were taking the fact that they couldn’t, to the point where Casey almost thought RJ would have preferred to be in it with them.

He managed to get RJ to take lunch with him, and when they were out of the kitchen and in the restaurant proper it seemed a little better.  Out here everyone could talk; they were just playing a game.  It lightened the mood a lot.  By the time they’d finished eating, RJ was building concept maps out of silverware and Casey was laughing at his exaggerated pantomime.

He was tempted to catch Fran, who knew a little bit of strictly English sign, on their way back to the kitchen.  He wanted to ask her to tell RJ it was going to be okay.  But he figured that reminding RJ how hard it was to talk right now wouldn’t do anyone any good, so he just signed “hi” and “you rock” to Fran as he passed.

“Same,” she signed, beaming back at him.

But RJ had seen it, and he turned around to walk backwards through the kitchen door as he repeated “you rock” and “same.”  With a frown to indicate curiosity.  Casey grinned.

“You rock,” he signed again, and as the kitchen door closed behind him he went down on his knees in front of RJ and pretended to pay homage by praying.  “You rock,” he repeated.

RJ looked not only amused but enlightened, so Casey got up and signed, “Same.”  Then he turned to face the opposite direction, like he was the second person, and repeated the mime.  “You rock,” he signed, then added, “Same.”

RJ actually laughed, and out loud he said, “I understand.”

Casey smiled.  He had no idea what words RJ was actually saying when he used the ones Casey’s brain currently heard as “I understand,” but he appreciated RJ’s effort to remember them.  “We can talk,” he said, because RJ seemed to have figured that out too.

RJ’s smile faded, but he said, “I talk you.”

Casey didn’t bother to correct him.

It turned out they were lucky there were no rinshi all day, because training made clear yet another problem that none of them knew how to handle.  They could still morph... but their animal spirits were completely out of control.  Lily’s appeared beside her the moment her Ranger uniform appeared.  Theo’s and Dominic’s spirits got into a scuffle that would have amused Casey on any other day.  Even RJ’s wolf paid no attention to him.

When they demorphed, it got worse.  Casey’s tiger manifestation was back.  He couldn’t see right, and of course now he couldn’t understand anyone whether he was human or not.  So he had no idea how strong the tiger was until RJ put a tentative hand on his shoulder.

His tail twitched.

He had a tail.  Theo was staring at him, and Theo was looking down.  They were all looking down, but in order for Theo to be looking down at him, he had to be a lot closer to the ground than usual.  

On the plus side, he thought as he sat back on his haunches, he had really great paws.

RJ’s voice was sharp and smooth and brooked no argument.  The tiger had no idea what he was saying, but he did agree that it was a leader’s voice.  Well done.  A worthy backup in the event of his own conflicting concerns elsewhere.

A worthy lover.

The part of him that was human found itself watching through very feline eyes as RJ held up his own morpher, stripped it from his wrist, and held out his free hand to Lily.  She got it right away, taking off her sunglasses and putting them in his hand without question.  Theo frowned, but one glance at the tiger and he followed suit.

Dominic resisted.  The bracelet was too small, he seemed to indicate.  Too tight.  Too much a part of him; he couldn’t get it off.

RJ very clearly pantomined a horn growing from his head and a large, lumbering gait.  Dominic didn’t look convinced.  The tiger growled, and Dominic had the cheek to wave his fists in Casey’s direction.  The tiger was on him before he could finish the joke, and he heard RJ yelling his name.  His actual name, which meant that he’d been listening the night before, and somehow that was enough.

The tiger fell back.  Dominic gave up his bracelet.  RJ turned his expectant look on Casey, but hey, what was he supposed to do?  He couldn’t reach his morpher this way.  He felt the tiger wavering, though, as if the human thoughts weakened its grip.

It’s all good, he told himself.  As non-tiger-y as he could get.  You have to change, because it’s freaking RJ out.  Look at him, he can’t talk to a human, let alone a tiger.  Give the guy a break, will you?

“Casey,” RJ said quietly.  “Talk.”  It got steadily less comprehensible from there, but he heard the word “talk” a few times so he made the effort.  Not as a tiger.  He hung on to the human thoughts as hard as he could, and somehow, he thought he managed to wrestle control away from the tiger.

The way RJ squeezed his shoulder seemed to indicate that he’d had success.  A tiger’s shoulder definitely didn’t feel like that.  “Casey,” RJ repeated, and he sounded so uncertain that Casey turned into him and he didn’t even think about it when RJ’s arms went around him and they held each other, right there in front of everyone.

Dominic was signing, “You okay?” and he was trying to say “yeah” and “fine” behind RJ’s back when Lily and Theo ambushed them.  Piling into place around the two of them, he suddenly found himself in the middle of a group hug.  Because they couldn’t talk, he realized.  This was how they checked on each other now.

Dominic even joined in, and RJ didn’t make a single comment about hugging versus training or the relative merits of being human.  Of course, none of them would have understood him anyway, but it was still nice that he went with it.  Casey decided to keep them all.

Not being able to morph didn’t become a problem until he woke up two seconds before Camille killed him in his sleep.  Or whatever she was doing with a particularly nasty looking weapon that seemed to be short range.  Morpher or no, tiger or otherwise, his instincts kicked in at T minus two seconds, and the clock always stopped at one in the movies.  So he had a whole second to wake up, consider what was happening, and get out of the way.

Some days, he thought, this job was so not worth it.

The commotion woke Lily and brought the rest of the loft into their room right behind her.  He had a sneaking suspicion he was a tiger again, because it was really easy to hold Camille down and the tiger had some serious weight on its frame.  No one else freaked out, though, except for Camille who was definitely not supposed to be a poisonous chameleon, and RJ, who totally lost it.

Lily and Theo were talking to each other--he didn’t know how, but they were on either side of him as the world got kind of shaky.  He worried that he was collapsing on top of Camille, and enemy or not, she wasn’t going to be able to breathe.  RJ solved that problem by shooting her, and Casey wasn’t sure he’d actually seen that because the world was really weird at that point.  He could hear words that didn’t make any sense, and his name, and Lily was trying to make RJ do something.

That was the last thing he was sure of until he realized there was a blanket wrapped around him and they were still talking.  Why were they talking?  No one could understand each other.  But he heard Lily’s voice say his name when he lifted his head, then Dominic’s name, and the rhino was kneeling in front of him.  Asking him if he was okay.  How he felt.

Lily said something else, and he saw Theo’s hand in his peripheral vision.  Dominic signed, “They’re totally freaking out, C.  You’re a tiger again, so I don’t know if you even understand me, but Camille did something weird and you got all fuzzy.  I mean, not literally, just, you know.  In the head or something.  I thought RJ was going to kill her.  Seriously, man, we’re lucky your boy is still with us.  If you can talk to him at all, like, I don’t know, reassure him or something... we could still lose him.

“RJ,” Dominic added aloud, and the tiger didn’t question his use of the name.  He felt Lily yield her place to the wolf, but he reached for Dominic’s hands again.  Nudging them as best he could.  Keep talking.

“What?” Dominic signed, then, “Oh, right.  You said to talk, right?  I guess that’s kind of hard right now, what with all of us... can you understand me?  You must, right?  If you want me to keep signing?”

The tiger narrowed his eyes at him.  I understand you.

“You get me,” Dominic signed.  “Okay.  Uh, did I mention RJ’s got Camille tied--he’s gonna know what I’m saying.  Uh, Lily told me about the whole giving himself up thing, right?  And how Jarrod messed him up, and you guys had to fight for him... I can’t tell if he’s got some kind of PTSD reaction going on with Camille right now or if he’s just that freaked over her sneaking up on you--”

The tiger pushed himself up.  This wasn’t acceptable.  He swung his head around, surveying Theo, Dominic, Camille thoroughly tied up and apparently unconscious.  Lily was eyeing her worriedly, glancing from Camille to RJ and on to the tiger.  Who was mostly concerned with his wolf.  The others looked okay--perhaps especially compared to RJ’s wild eyes and tightly wound twitchiness.

The tiger blundered into him, and maybe Casey couldn’t overpower RJ but the tiger could do it with sheer mass if the wolf didn’t fight back.  And he didn’t.  He let the tiger push him down, onto his back, giant paws on his chest and a large striped head lowered to rub against his cheek.

RJ closed his eyes.  His chest rose and fell.  And he calmed down.

Thank you.  The tiger appreciated that trust.  This is mine.

RJ opened his eyes, but it was the wolf looking back at him.  What is?

Everything.  Camille was a threat he could handle.  Lack of language was a challenge he could overcome.  And RJ was his for the rest of his life.  I’m claiming you.

The wolf’s response was too long in coming, and when it finally emerged it was unclear whether the words came from RJ or his animal spirit.  I understand you.

Good.  Casey could feel the tiger’s hold on him easing, and he was torn.  RJ was right: he did understand Casey as a tiger.  Their animal spirits were talking to each other conceptually... without language.  Free of the restrictions the unseen Phantom Beast had placed on their ability to communicate.  But the tiger bothered RJ in a way he hadn’t managed to articulate yet, and Casey was pretty sure it had to do with not being able to see his face.

“Dragon,” RJ murmured, and as he reached up Casey could feel the world shift.

It was RJ’s hand on his own face, fingers on skin instead of fur, and where did “dragon” come from?  “What?” Casey asked, reaching up to catch RJ’s hand and lean into it.  The tiger was gone.  He was leaning over RJ on the floor and he sat back, pulling RJ up with him, and he felt Lily’s hand on his shoulder a moment later.

“Group hug,” she whispered, sliding her arm around him.  “Sorry, RJ.”

“Hey!” Theo exclaimed.  “I understood that!”

“Well, you would,” Lily pointed out.

“No,” Theo insisted.  “I wouldn’t!  You didn’t teach me ‘hug’!”

“You didn’t teach me ‘teach’!” Lily exclaimed.  “Oh my gosh!  I can understand you!”

Since Lily and RJ were the only ones within reach Casey hugged them both.  He was so happy to hear his friends using words that made sense again that he almost didn’t care if he could talk or not.  But RJ whispered in his ear, “Say something,” and he felt a grin stretching across his face as he closed his eyes.  He could listen to them all night.

“I understand you,” Casey murmured.

“No,” RJ said, “I already know that one.  Say something else.”

“Why ‘dragon’?” Casey asked.  He figured if he kept it short, at least it wouldn’t be as obvious if he got it wrong somehow.

“That’s what you said your name was,” RJ told him.

He felt Lily laugh against his other shoulder.  “Your name is Dragon?”

“Careful, amiga,” RJ said, without lifting his head from Casey’s.  “You thought you were Sparkle.”

“What was my name?” Theo wanted to know.

“Well, it was confusing,” RJ began, and Casey sensed an embarrassing moment for Theo in the near future.  “Because you all heard different words whenever you spoke, so you could say your name for me and I’d know how to call you but whenever someone else said your name I couldn’t tell who they were looking for.  So you all really had four or five different names.”

“Hey,” Casey said, sitting up.  “Dominic?”

“He was Win,” RJ said helpfully.

“I’m almost afraid to talk,” Dominic admitted, when Casey turned to look at him.

Casey grinned in relief.  “I hear that,” he said, offering his hand for the other Ranger to clasp.  “Thanks, man.  You totally kept me sane there.”

“Yeah, you guys could talk to each other!” Lily exclaimed.  “Why was that?”

Dominic shrugged.  “Your hands use a different part of your brain than your vocal cords?” he suggested, squeezing Casey’s hand and pulling him into a one-armed hug.  “I dunno.”

“Then why couldn’t we write to each other?” Theo wanted to know.

“Perhaps a better question,” RJ remarked, “is why you can talk to each other now.”

“And to you,” Casey said into the sudden silence.  He drew away from Dominic, but he wasn’t awkward about it and Dominic didn’t make it a big deal.  “If you can understand us, we must be okay.  But why?”

“You’re welcome,” drawled a voice from the door.

Casey whirled, on his feet and pushing past Dominic before anyone else could speak.  He held up a hand even as he heard them scrambling up behind him.  No talking.

Jarrod’s eyes slid over each of them in turn, flicking only briefly to Camille, still unconscious on the floor.  “I’ll take my chameleon back now,” he said offhandedly.  “Whatever she’s done to you, I’m sure it’s trivial compared to the restoration of your ability to speak.”

Casey’s hand clamped down on Theo’s shoulder without looking, and he heard Theo close his mouth.  “You didn’t do this,” Casey said aloud.  “The language thing.”

Jarrod’s gaze touched on Camille again.  “She thought you did it,” he rumbled.  “Perhaps this is too obvious, but you might consider locking your door.”

“We didn’t do it,” Casey told him.

Jarrod sneered at him, as though to imply that he couldn’t imagine any of them having the power.  “A Phantom Beast got out of control.  It’s been taken care of.”

Casey folded his arms, letting his own smile show.  “It got you too.”

“It’s been taken care of,” Jarrod snapped.  “Let her go.”

“Dominic,” Casey said.  “Untie her, please.”

Dominic didn’t comment, didn’t argue, just went over and knelt down next to Camille.  He untied her gently, then looked up at Jarrod and back at Casey.  She obviously wasn’t going to be walking under her own power any time soon.

“Do you want help carrying her?” Casey asked.

Jarrod glared at Dominic.  “Back off.”

Casey glanced sideways at Dominic, who was waiting for his okay.  He nodded, and Dominic got up and moved away.  Jarrod swept in to take his place, lifting Camille as though she were some sort of weapon: easy, light, and valuable.  Which, Casey supposed, she was.  Dai Shi’s personal assassin.

Jarrod turned his back on them and strode out of the room.

Casey didn’t move.  He didn’t expect any of them to move, either.  He felt the rush of the jungle crowding his mind, making everything brighter, and when he took a step forward it was one front paw after the other.  Not an actual paw.  He was still standing there, standing in front of them, defending them.

He was also following Jarrod.  Ghost light and soft even as the hall flared around him, Jarrod’s shadowy form clear and distinct in the dark, and he could see Camille unresponsive in his arms.  She was cradled appropriately, head supported and arms bent so as not to strain her joints in transit, and the chameleon was tougher than that.  Her spine could take a little distortion in the name of speed and efficiency... but it didn’t.  She was being carried for her comfort.

The spirit of the tiger followed them silently down the stairs and out onto the street before it was satisfied.  They were gone from the lair, if not from the territory.  They would cause no more trouble tonight.  Jarrod claimed her, and she had attacked in error.  He would withdraw silently so as to avoid compounding the offense.

Casey found himself standing with the others--falling, actually, as the tiger snapped back.  RJ was holding his arm, steadying him, and this time it was Theo on his other side.  “I’m okay,” he gasped, and at least the words came out the way they were supposed to.  He staggered when he tried to move, and he found himself leaning move heavily on RJ.

“You don’t really... look it,” RJ said carefully.

“No, it’s cool,” Casey said.  “They’re gone.  And hey,” he added, suddenly realizing.  “My head doesn’t even hurt.”

“Ah, so... it’s getting easier for you to be a tiger.”  RJ was frowning.  “I’m not so sure that’s a good thing.”

“Okay, what did you just do?” Theo demanded.  “I’ve never seen that before.”

“He... projects the tiger spirit,” RJ said, when Casey just shrugged.  “Quite useful, really.”

“Weird,” Casey corrected.  “Very weird.”

“Imagine if you could project a bird spirit,” Dominic said.  “You could go anywhere.  See anything.”

Casey looked at him.  He wasn’t the only one, but right now, he wasn’t even sure he wanted to know.  “Can we get something to eat?” he asked.  “I’m starving.”

“What time is it?” Lily added, glancing around.  “I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m so not going back to sleep after all that.”

“I think Jarrod had some good advice,” Theo said.  “Could we start locking the doors downstairs?”

“Well,” RJ admitted, “the front door is the only one that actually... has a lock.”

“And you don’t know where the key is,” Casey finished.  “How is this getting me food?”

RJ smiled, and it was the easiest expression Casey had seen since the night before.  “After you,” he said, extending a hand toward the door.  “Dragon.”

“Hey,” Lily said, and for a moment Casey thought she was going to ask about Theo again.  Instead she said, “RJ, what did we call you?  Casey said your name was Leaf, but we must have all heard something different, right?”

“Leaf?” RJ repeated, following them toward the door.

“I didn’t say his name was Leaf,” Casey protested.  “I said his name was RJ.”

“I heard Castle,” Theo offered from somewhere behind them.

“Aw,” Lily teased.  “The dragon and the castle.”

“Hey!” Theo exclaimed.  “I didn’t hear anything about dragons!  I thought Casey said his name was Fun!”

“Really?” Casey asked, amused in spite of himself.  “I’m Fun to you?”

“This isn’t a psychological analysis,” Theo informed him.

“Yet,” Dominic added.

“Casey called me Iris,” RJ offered.  “Interestingly, the same name he gave to my wolf spirit.”

“Iris?” Lily said, turning on the paper lights over the landing.  “Isn’t she the goddess of the rainbow?”

“How do you know that?” Casey wanted to know.

“I thought Casey said his name was Tiempo,” Dominic said.

“Casey’s?” Theo asked, already looking through the refrigerator.  “Or RJ’s?”

“RJ’s,” Dominic answered.  “Casey was Hacen.”

RJ looked curious.  “Did you hear all of our words in Spanish?”

“Most of them,” Dominic admitted.  “I guess the first language kicks in when your brain rewrites itself.”

“Theo,” Casey said.  “Toss me some ice cream.”

“You’re tall,” Theo said.  “Get it yourself.”

“How quickly communication breaks down again,” RJ observed, handing Casey a spoon.

Casey grinned at him.  “This is communication, Iris.  Enjoy.”

“I do,” RJ said quietly.  “Very much, in fact.”

Casey clinked his spoon against RJ’s.  Lily handed them a carton of ice cream, and Theo was trying to get Dominic to teach him more signs.  No one seemed totally focused on the details of the night’s break-in, the tiger takeover, or even why they had or hadn’t been able to talk before.  Because they could talk now, and that was what mattered.

At the end of the day, Casey decided, it wasn’t what they said.  It was just getting the chance to say it.

17. Talk to Casey

It turned out that they could go back to sleep.  They just weren’t willing to leave each other’s company to do it.  Theo fell asleep with his head on Lily’s shoulder, and she put her head on his and closed her eyes.  When Casey leaned his head back, staring up at the ceiling, he couldn’t put it off any longer.

RJ reached out and touched his hand, and Casey rolled his head to one side and smiled at him.  “There are... things I wanted to say,” RJ said quietly.  “Last night.  Today.  Now.  Do you mind?”

“‘Course not.”  Casey sat up, sensing the seriousness of the situation.  “Hit me.”

Dom, watching, seemed to understand better.  “You mind turning on the radio when you leave?” he asked, keeping his voice low.  “Whatever’s fine.  Something with words.”

RJ got up and went over to the tuner, and by the time he found a Spanish station Casey was lurking by his chair.  Dom flipped him a thumbs-up, so he glanced at Casey.  Casey held out his hands, palms up.  Open to whatever came.  At least he’d gotten the “private” part.

“Are you... going to sleep in here?” RJ asked, looking over at Dom.

Dom smiled.  “Yeah,” he said.  “Sure.”

“Porch?” Casey guessed.

RJ held out one hand with a flourish, and when Casey turned away RJ signed “thank you” in Dom’s direction.  Dom just signed it back.  Apparently they didn’t use “you’re welcome” in... whatever sign language this was.

The early morning air was cool, but pleasantly so.  It spoke of a warmth that had abated, not one that had been left behind.  The sky was lightening, though the stars still came through clearly.  They weren’t facing the right direction for dawn, but it would find them anyway.  Eventually.

“At least we won’t have to have another Day of Silence,” Casey offered, leaning on the railing.  “I know that drove you crazy.”

“It wasn’t not being able to talk,” RJ blurted out.  “It was not being able to talk to you.”

Casey braced his hands on the railing and nodded sympathetically.  “Sucks to be in the kitchen with someone you can’t even say ‘hi’ to, right?”

“Cheese,” RJ said.  “That was ‘hi.’”

Casey eyed him.  “I don’t know whether to be flattered or incredulous when you say things like that.  Did you really memorize my words, or are you just making things up?”

“I love you,” RJ told him.  “I kept trying to say it, and I couldn’t.  Then I really couldn’t, because you wouldn’t have understood.  It would have been like... cheating, somehow.  But ‘talk’ was ‘love,’ did you know that?  Every time you said ‘talk,’ it came out as ‘love.’”

Casey smiled.  “That must have been weird,” he said quietly, searching RJ’s expression.

“I want you,” RJ continued, though he looked less sure about this.  “You said it.  Last night.  I wanted to say it and I didn’t know how.  How do you say it?”

“I think you’re doing a pretty good job,” Casey offered.  “But in fairness, it’s a lot easier while you’re making out.  You get super bonus points for trying to do it cold.”

“I could kiss you,” RJ suggested.  “If that’s part of the process.”

“I’m in favor,” Casey told him.

He didn’t move, though, and RJ looked at him for a long moment.  “Come here,” RJ said at last.  Asking was somehow easier than just making the decision.  But he had made it, hadn’t he?  Every time he couldn’t do it yesterday he’d promised himself that the next time he could, he would.

Now he could.  He wouldn’t go back on that promise now.  It was time to give up the dream.  He was going to stop visualizing and start seeing what the future actually held.

Casey came over, but he didn’t reach out and RJ kind of understood that.  Casey wasn’t trying to take responsibility for him... he was trying to share it.  Rather than fighting in his place, he was offering to fight alongside him.  And RJ kept pushing him away, trying to reassert something that had never been threatened. 

Casey wasn’t going to do this for him.  But he was pretty sure Casey would do it with him.

He touched Casey’s shoulder.  He always touched Casey’s shoulder, though, and it wasn’t until RJ slid his hand up to cup his neck that it started to feel right.  Like he could feel Casey breathing.  Like Casey was in his space: obviously, remarkably, without even moving but suddenly it mattered that he was there.  Suddenly it meant something.

RJ went to kiss him quickly, self-conscious in a way he rarely understood.  The world narrowed to breath and warmth when Casey closed his eyes and just like that, it was easy.  Because that was trust.  Why had he never seen that before?  Why had he never realized how strongly Casey believed he was worth it?  Worth the inevitable misunderstandings, the hurt feelings, the uncertainty.  The way they were two different people who would never look at anything exactly the same way, and yet Casey could still close his eyes and trust what RJ saw.

He didn’t pull away.  He’d meant to, maybe, not wanting to push it, but Casey would push if he thought it was okay.  And it was okay.  Because Casey had definite ideas about what was and wasn’t acceptable, and just because he laughed a lot and liked to see people enjoying themselves didn’t mean he wouldn’t enforce those ideas when they affected him or his team.

He would humor RJ, to a point.  And this was that point.

Casey’s mouth curved against his, but he didn’t open his eyes and he didn’t withdraw.  “I swear,” he mumbled, “I can hear you thinking.”

RJ kissed his lower lip experimentally, and those lips parted in an effort to catch his own.  He smiled back, knowing Casey would feel it.  “I’m cataloguing the process,” he offered.  “I like that you closed your eyes.”

Casey’s breath huffed out in amusement.  “You’re welcome,” he murmured, tongue flicking against RJ’s lip before he mouthed it gently.  “I like that you have your hand on my neck.”

“Oh?”  He let his free hand settle on Casey’s hip, very aware of how thin and stretched his pajamas were.  “How about this?”

Casey made an affirmative sound, and his own eyes slid shut when hands landed gently on his ribs.  It was a soft warning touch, asking permission to be there more than anything else, and RJ didn’t know how to give it.  So he stepped into him and kissed him again and Casey’s fingers tightened and apparently permission had been granted.

It was cool on the porch, but Casey’s frame exuded a surreal amount of heat.  All the time.  He voluntarily wore elbow-length sleeves at work to hide a triangle tattoo, but RJ had made it clear he thought the coverage unnecessary--especially in the summer.  In the kitchen.  The best he’d been able to do was to convince Casey to stop hiding it after hours.

So it was, perhaps, to his own credit that Casey’s bare arm was pressed against his right now, hot and reassuring and he hadn’t realized how much he craved that contact.  His hand was on Casey’s arm, sliding up until his fingers tangled under the short sleeve, before he gave any thought to how unusual the opportunity was.  By then it was too late: Casey’s shoulder was smooth and warm under his shirt and he couldn’t stop rubbing it, smoothing his thumb over skin and feeling the muscle give under his fingers.

Casey hummed against his mouth, alleviating any uncertainty, and he decided to take that as an invitation.  His other hand left Casey’s neck and slid under his sleeve.  He was gripping both bare shoulders now, easy to kiss and easier to hold and maybe he was wrong.  Maybe Casey shouldn’t wear t-shirts at work, because how would he ever forget that he could--that they had-–

“You totally owe me a shoulder rub,” Casey whispered, and wow, it was like the best meditation aid ever.  Everything else vanished from his mind and his entire focus narrowed to one thing.  Maybe he could get Casey to record a tape or something.

“You don’t forget,” RJ managed, not quite making it a question.  “Do you.”

This prompted another huff of amusement.  “When your new master demands a massage?” Casey countered, teeth brushing against his lip in a way that was probably accidental.  “No.  Strangely.  I don’t.”

“I’d be happy to repay that debt.”  He would be more than happy, in fact.  He couldn’t actually think of anything better he could be doing right now.  Possibly ever.

“Great,” Casey said, easing back.  He disentangled himself gently, keeping his hands on RJ as he turned him around.  Toward the door.  “Let’s go.”

“Inside?”  RJ was sure he shouldn’t be disappointed, but he was.  He was pretty good with shoulders, and if he managed to make Casey gasp he would have preferred no one else be around to see his reaction.  Still.  Fair was fair, and if Casey wanted to go inside, they would go inside.

He hadn’t realized Casey meant inside your room.  Where the wolf spirit was waiting, in a very sleepy but decidedly corporeal way, and that gave Casey pause.  “If I promise to brush you,” he said, apparently talking to the wolf, “would you do me a huge favor and sleep somewhere else?”

The wolf eyed him for a long moment, but finally it pushed itself to its feet and wandered slowly in the direction of the door.  Casey dropped a hand toward the wolf as it passed.  He didn’t actually reach for it, but the wolf adjusted its stride slightly to brush against his fingers.  RJ shivered at the ghostly feel of a hand running down his back.

“Thanks,” Casey said aloud, and the wolf disappeared without a backward glance.

“Is that weird?” Casey asked, casually pushing the door shut behind him.  “If he comes up to me?  I mean, I wouldn’t have patted him if he hadn’t let me.  Does it matter, or is it rude either way?  I won’t touch him again if you tell me not to.”

“Well,” RJ managed, “that will make it harder to keep your promise to brush him.”

Casey smiled.  “Yeah.  I’ll ask you first.”

“That would be appreciated,” RJ said, relaxing enough that he could take a deep breath.  For the first time in what felt like forever.  “Have a seat,” he added.  “I always pay my debts.”

“Yeah,” Casey said with a grin.  “Just not always the way we expect.”

RJ raised his eyebrows as Casey sat down on the floor between the hammock and the tent.  There were several rugs with a patterned blanket thrown over top of them in the middle of the room, because he wasn’t meditating on an air mattress every day but he didn’t see any reason to do it on the hard floor, either.  RJ might have asked if Casey felt he had some sort of outstanding debt, except that Casey was currently wiggling out of his t-shirt and that was both unexpected and thoroughly distracting.

He closed his mouth after a moment, deciding that sitting down was the logical next step.  He managed to make his voice sound mild when he remarked, “I don’t remember being shirtless when you did this.”

“No,” Casey agreed with a laugh.  “I’d definitely remember that.”  Twisting to face RJ, he added, “I can put it back on if you want.  I don’t want to be weird.  It just felt really good, before.”

“It’s fine,” RJ said quickly.  “It’s... more than fine.  I just--I was only making an observation.”

“Okay,” Casey said, turning around again.  “Just checking.”

“I was just... thinking,” RJ began.  He put his hands on Casey’s shoulders, closed his eyes for a moment, and added, “We could get you longer sleeves to wear downstairs, so you don’t have to wear two layers all the time.  I don’t know how you keep from overheating.”

Casey rolled his shoulders, shrugging, and RJ’s fingers tightened automatically.  Right.  He had offered to do a little more than just... touch.  The moment he opened his eyes, though, he found that looking alone put a significant dent in his brain function.

“I grew up in Washington,” Casey was saying.  “At least it’s dry here.”

“I thought you were from San Jose,” RJ blurted out.  He was a little miffed that he was only hearing about Washington now.  He tried to channel it, distance and separation making it possible to squeeze Casey’s shoulders without getting lost in the feeling of skin under his hands.

“I ended up in San Jose,” Casey corrected.  “That’s where I found my people.  I was from there by the time I came here.”

The separation evaporated into the sound of shared loneliness, and RJ sighed.  “Just out of curiosity,” he said with a familiarity that bordered on resignation, “where do you draw the line between shoulder rub and back rub?”

“Same thing,” Casey answered promptly.

“Yes,” RJ said, feeling himself smile a little.  “I thought you might say that.”

He slid his hands down, pressing his knuckles into one muscle group after another, and Casey’s back straightened with a sharp inhalation that made RJ close his eyes.  He could do this by feel.  He definitely couldn’t watch without wanting to kiss.  He put his palms down on either side of Casey’s spine, warming and relaxing before pushing again, shifting muscle and skin so easily that the massage was almost unnecessary.  Casey wasn’t anything but loose and responsive.

“Tell me the story of chicken-wrangling,” RJ said, not opening his eyes.  The only physiological reason to give someone like Casey a back rub was because it felt good.  And it did, indeed, feel very good.

He felt Casey chuckle.  “Which one?” he asked.  “My parents were always afraid of losing chickens, so they didn’t let them fend for themselves.  But they wouldn’t keep them in the coop all day, either.  So twice a day, me and my sisters had to let the chickens out of the coop and watch them.

“Like walking the dog,” he added, “except the dog actually was allowed to roam free, and the chickens had to be rounded up and herded back into the coop before we could go anywhere.”

“What kind of dog did you have?” RJ wondered aloud.

“Mmm.”  Casey shifted under his hands, pressing harder against the right one, and RJ dug the heel of his hand in before turning his hand over and knuckling the requested spot.  “A yellow one,” Casey said absently.  “Some kind of golden-lab cross, Dad thought.  Mom gave her a fancy name, but we always called her Daisy.”

“The same name you suggested for Lily’s cheetah,” RJ observed, easing off with intent.  He let his fingertips tap over the area he’d been rubbing, and Casey stilled.

“Well.”  His voice sounded sheepish.  “She’s yellow.”

“Indeed.”  RJ ran his fingernails gently over skin, and Casey twitched violently.  “Oh, sorry,” RJ murmured, with as much innocence as he could muster.  “Is that like biting?  Should I warn you first?”

Casey’s breath hitched, but he ended up laughing.  “Okay,” he said, twisting where he was and bracing himself with one hand on either side of RJ as he leaned in.  “Who’s seducing who, here?”  His mouth covered RJ’s before he could answer and RJ found himself being pushed back onto the floor for the second time that night.

This time, though, it was a very human Casey on top of him and he didn’t have any complaints.  Casey’s lips were on his face, his jaw, sometimes his mouth, kissing thoroughly without being frantic and it felt affectionate and warm and not quite enough of a distraction from Casey’s hands.  His hands were hot.  They were crawling across RJ’s chest, tickling through his shirt, and he felt himself arching up into the touch, trying to shift under it enough that it would become a real pressure.

Casey moved off him and he tried to catch his breath.  Casey wasn’t--this wasn’t--oh, he was flying again and all he wanted was more, please.  Touch.  Come closer.  Keep going.  “Roll over,” Casey whispered in his ear, and he would have done absolutely anything Casey said at that moment.

And then Casey was pressing down on his back, hard, rubbing over his ribs and kneading his shoulderblades and how he knew to keep it up RJ had no idea.  He was talking, too, while RJ was trying to magically will his shirt away, because he really wanted those hands on his skin right now.  Everything was too hot, too itchy, but it didn’t matter because Casey was sitting on top of him and he was in heaven.  He was in the heaven that existed everywhere, the one Adam and Eve thought they’d been thrown out of... the one the apple had let them in to.

“...so I’m not asking for anything,” Casey was saying, and RJ had a feeling he’d just missed something important, “but I just want you to know I think you’re really hot and I’m totally willing to find out.  Whenever.”

“Okay,” RJ breathed, turning his head to one side to answer because this sounded like the kind of thing that shouldn’t hang.  “I only heard about half of that, but I agree with all of it and is there any way you’d feel comfortable with me taking my shirt off?  Because that would make whatever you’re doing even better, which may unfortunately mean that my brain shuts down the rest of the way, but speaking of things I’m willing to find out... this is definitely one of them.”

It prompted a laugh from Casey, and he shifted enough that RJ could sit up, shucking his shirt without paying any attention to where Casey had ended up--which was why the scratch on the back of his shoulder caught him by surprise.  Casey smiled when their eyes met, arm resting lightly on his shoulder while his fingers just brushed RJ’s back.  “Sorry?” he offered.  “Couldn’t resist.”

“I won’t be resisting if you do that again,” RJ told him.  “A lot.  More, I mean.  Right now.  Could you do that again?”

Casey grinned, sliding around behind him, and RJ sucked in a sharp breath as fingers danced over bare skin.  “Could you--”  Casey would ask if there were something he wanted, wouldn’t he?  “If you could do that harder,” RJ blurted out, “and, say, everywhere...”

Casey’s fingernails tingled across his back, soft and gentle and utterly maddening.  RJ closed his eyes, trying to breathe, trying not to reach back and just do it himself.  His skin was prickling, demanding, hot, and all he needed was to feel something.  “If you could just do that harder,” RJ whispered.

“I’m leaving marks,” Casey murmured.  Like he might not know.

“They’ll fade,” RJ said, reaching for his hand.  Casey let him pull it over his shoulder and RJ dragged his fingernails across the top of his arm.  “Like that,” he said.  “Please.”

Casey increased the pressure on his back without further protest.  RJ shivered as sensation exploded across his skin, leaving it warm and sweet in the wake of Casey’s fingers.  “Thank you,” he murmured.  He squirmed under those hands, trying to get every part of his back, but everything else was starting to--

He turned and Casey lifted his hands abruptly, like he’d done something wrong, and it was easier than it had ever been to kiss him, to surprise him by kissing.  Casey relaxed, hands settling on his shoulders again even as RJ reached up to cup his face.  It wasn’t a harsh thing--he wanted Casey to know that, somehow--it was just, it felt good.  He wasn’t going to do anything to Casey that Casey didn’t like.

“Hey,” Casey whispered, smiling against his mouth.  “Care to fulfill a fantasy of mine?”

He could only imagine.  “Please,” he murmured, stroking his thumb up against Casey’s temple.

“I want to kiss you in the hammock,” Casey told him.

RJ felt a smile spreading, unstoppable, across his face.  “That’s pretty tame, as fantasies go.”

“Are you judging my fantasy?”  Casey pulled back, eyes warm and very brown and not at all tiger-like.  “‘Cause here’s another one.  Someday we’re going to pretend I’m the leader, and I get to make the decisions.  Oh, wait!” he added, lips twitching.  “You’re right!  It’ll never work.  It’s too far-fetched.”

“I’ll be over here,” RJ told him.  “In the hammock, apparently.”

“Thank you,” Casey said.  He accepted the hand RJ offered to help him up, leaning into him as they stood to kiss.  Their hands stayed together.  Casey’s free hand found his waist, and finally RJ had to pull away because he was pretty sure the hammock would involve more contact than this.

Casey let him sit down first, sideways, stretching the silk up over his head to brace his back, and then Casey climbed in beside him.  It was awkward, but he wasn’t kidding about the fantasy part.  He’d clearly given it some thought: he didn’t even try to curl up next to RJ, just straddled his legs, braced his body against RJ’s to keep them from spilling, and kissed him long and sweet and slow.

“Well,” RJ said when he had a moment to breathe--his voice came out rougher than he’d expected, and he couldn’t clear it.  “If I’d known this was what you meant by kissing in the hammock, I wouldn’t have questioned you.”

“Try to share my vision,” Casey told him, running his tongue over RJ’s lower lip and catching it in his teeth.  He didn’t bite or pinch or do anything except make it completely clear that hadn’t been an accident.  “I see a positive future for us if we work together.”

RJ saw himself being completely at the mercy of someone who might know the power he wielded.  Might have known all along, if it came to that.  “Do you know,” he gasped, trying to sound detached and failing miserably, “some people think I’m taking advantage of you?”

Casey pulled away.  Unfortunately, pulling away in this particular position meant that he effectively shifted his weight in RJ’s lap, which RJ was trying desperately not to think about.  He was failing, of course.  Again.  He was starting to think this had been a mistake.

Not all of it.  Not even most of it.  None of it, really, except the hammock part where he was suddenly and unbearably turned on with zero idea of how to communicate this appropriately to his partner.  Especially when Casey was looking so serious.

“You can’t keep people from thinking things,” he was saying.  “All you can do is think about them yourself and agree or not.  I don’t agree.  And I really hope you don’t either, because I can’t change what anyone thinks.  Including you.”

“Casey.”  His voice broke, and he whispered, “I think we’re having... different conversations.  You just effectively ordered me into your bed--an instruction, I might add, that I was glad to follow--and I offered that comment merely as a humorous contrast to our current situation.”

Taking a shallow breath, RJ added, “Also, I apologize for mocking your hammock fantasy.  It’s clearly too strong for me.”

Casey frowned down at him, not understanding, and RJ closed his eyes.  “If you could... not sit right there, I could possibly--wear these pants again.  Ever.”

The frown disappeared and Casey rolled off of him with remarkable smoothness.  He knew what he was doing, RJ thought absently.  The fact that the hammock rocked, that Casey yelped and stifled a laugh while he struggled to catch his balance, was not only distracting but reassuring.  RJ felt himself smiling, but he didn’t open his eyes.  He was still in bed with Casey, after all.

“Tell me something about you,” Casey said, still trying to find a way to sit next to him without hanging over him.  It wasn’t working.  “Did you have a dog when you were a kid?”

“No,” RJ mumbled.  “My parents didn’t believe humans should casually exert dominance over animals.”

“Uh-huh.”  Casey sounded distracted.  “Can I kiss you?”

Why would he think that was okay?  RJ was seconds from tearing his clothes off, and he only had that much self-control because he was pretty sure the chances of managing it in the hammock included even odds of them both getting dumped on the floor.  He didn’t know why Casey would even ask, but he wished he had skipped the asking step altogether because it would mean they were kissing again.

“Yes,” he said recklessly, turning his head into a kiss that was easy and warm and he couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that they didn’t actually have that many clothes to tear off.

“Wait.”  Casey drew back, frowning at him.  “Your dad’s not a vegetarian.”

RJ opened his eyes, staring at him.  “Are you seriously thinking about that right now?”

Casey’s lips twitched, but he insisted, “Doesn’t eating them count as dominance?”

“Consumption of resources is a necessity,” RJ said, “unlike casual dominance, which is what I will be exerting over you to make sure you never mention my dad while we’re in bed together again.”

“You’re kind of focused on this bed thing,” Casey remarked, bracing his arm on RJ’s chest as he leaned in for another kiss.  “You know this isn’t technically my bed.”

“You sleep in it,” RJ mumbled into his mouth.  He was far less committed to clear speech than he was to making this particular tongue feel welcome.  “Also, I submit that focus is a matter of perspective.  I think I’m much more focused on you not being naked than I am on being in bed with you.”

“Can I be naked?” Casey asked eagerly.  Too eagerly.  “Are you cool with that?”

That, RJ supposed, answered the question of who was seducing who.

“I can’t think of anything I’d like more,” he murmured.

After a moment’s consideration, RJ added, “Unless it was me also being naked.  With you.”  He could feel Casey’s smile against his lips.

“I think we can manage that,” Casey agreed.

18. Same

The next morning was a total disaster.  Alarms went off in Theo’s room, in Lily and Casey’s room, and possibly out on the porch where Dominic usually slept.  No one heard them.  Half the team didn’t wake up until Fran let herself in through the kitchen door downstairs and yelled up to them.  This made Theo and Dominic, who was working a rare morning shift, leap up.  It made Lily, who was supposed to be off, pull a pillow over her head and go back to sleep on the couch.

So the fact that Casey wasn’t in his own room didn’t become clear until Theo and Dominic arrived in the kitchen to find Fran and... only Fran.  No RJ.  Which was, Casey assumed, the reason Dominic came back upstairs and banged on RJ’s door hard enough to dislodge the only partly closed latch.  It could have been more embarrassing if RJ didn’t sleep on a quirky assemblage of air mattresses beneath a large domed tent--the front of which was open, but still afforded some privacy when a well-meaning friend stuck his head into the room and looked around.

“RJ?” Dominic called.  “You still up here?  Restaurant opens in half an hour!”

Oops.  Casey opened his eyes and found RJ staring back at him.  He tried not to smile, but he couldn’t help it and given the feeling welling up inside him he counted himself lucky not to laugh aloud.  RJ’s lips twitched in return, and instead of answering Dominic he mouthed, I love you.

Casey freed one hand to sign, “Same.”

RJ’s smile widened, and the air mattresses rocked as he pushed himself up into a sitting position.  “Sorry, Dom,” he said, his voice still sleepy around the edges.  “I’ll be down in a minute.”

“You feeling all right?”  Dominic hadn’t moved from the door.  “I’ll get Casey if you need some time.  He can handle the ovens for crew.”

Casey rolled to one side to hide his smile in a pillow.

“I’m feeling... quite well,” he heard RJ say, and then a hand ghosted over his shoulder.  Pushing the pillow back, he caught RJ’s eye.  RJ tilted his head toward the sound of Dominic’s voice, and the silent question was clear.

“S’fine,” Casey mumbled, since it was.  He didn’t know how he would keep it a secret if someone didn’t find out, anyway.  He’d take his share of teasing for the grin he was sure would stay on his face all day, but at least he wouldn’t have to try to explain it away.

“No need to get Casey,” RJ continued smoothly.  “I’m afraid he’s already awake.”

There was a moment of silence from the door, and Casey sighed.  “Hi, Dom,” he muttered, trying to keep the smile out of his voice, at least.

Dominic sounded annoyingly amused.  “So,” he began, “when you told me you had a hammock in RJ’s room, and you said you didn’t sleep there... what you meant was, you don’t sleep in the hammock.”

RJ looked down at him again.  “You sleep in the hammock,” he said.

“Well, not all the time,” Casey mumbled.

“I’m going to go back downstairs now,” Dominic said, “and one or both of you can show your face in the kitchen whenever you want us to stop talking about you.  How’s that?”

“We’re getting a honeymoon,” RJ mused thoughtfully.  “It’s like they think this is the first time.”

“It is the first time,” Casey reminded him.

“Yes, but how do they know that?” RJ wanted to know.

“Don’t look at me,” Casey said.  “I always thought a honeymoon would involve a pool or a beach or something.”

“Us talking about you isn’t going to motivate you at all, is it.”  Dominic’s voice was still filled with a grin that Casey could hear from where he was.  “You want me to wake Lily up and ask her to come help?”

Casey looked at RJ, who looked back at him speculatively.

“She’d kill us,” Casey said.

“I’m relatively certain there are rules against that sort of thing,” RJ remarked.

Casey shrugged.  “It’s your restaurant.”

“It’s your team,” RJ countered.

He had to laugh.  “Oh, now it’s my team!  Thanks, RJ.  That means a lot.”

“I’ll go wake Lily up,” Dominic said from the door.  “I’ll tell her Casey told me to do it.”

Casey could hear the door click shut again even as RJ murmured, “If he tells her you asked her to work a shift that she knows is mine...”

“It’s too late,” Casey said, rolling over and pretending for a moment that he was the kind of person who would let someone else do his work for him.  “Neither of us is going to get dressed fast enough to beat Dominic downstairs.”

“We might be able to beat Lily downstairs,” RJ offered.

Casey considered that.  “Yeah,” he agreed at last.  “That sounds doable.”

Neither of them moved.

Finally, Casey lifted his head and looked up at him.  “This is nice,” he remarked.

RJ tilted his head.  “Having people to wake us up when we oversleep, or conspiring against said people?”

Casey smiled at him.  “I was thinking of lying in bed with you.  Is that corny?”

RJ eyed him.  “You’re asking me?”

Finally he had an excuse to laugh.  “No,” he said, pushing himself up on his elbows and then giving up when it didn’t really get him anywhere on an air mattress.  Casey sat up the rest of the way and added, “I’m not asking you.  I’m taking for granted the fact that corny equals good and I’m moving on.”

He wanted a kiss and decided against it at the last minute on the grounds that, yeah, the morning after was awkward anyway.  But so far neither of them was fired, and Dominic seemed to think it was funnier than it was shocking--like Dominic would ever be shocked by anything--and RJ was... joking.  Acting the same way he always did.

Wait, Casey thought.  Was that good or bad?

RJ was watching him intently.  His voice was quiet when he said, “Is that a sudden moment of doubt I’m sensing?”

Casey tried not to wince.  “Everything... looks different in the morning?” he offered.

“I prefer corny true things to corny fake things,” RJ said.  He hesitated, maybe gauging Casey’s reaction, and then added more softly, “Not everything.”

“Nothing?” Casey said hopefully.

“Nothing works for me,” RJ agreed.

“Okay then.”  Casey grinned at him.  “Doubt resolved.”

“I would ask how you felt about kissing,” RJ said thoughtfully, “except I’m afraid that if you said anything positive, getting downstairs before Lily would go from ‘doable’ to ‘completely impossible.’”

“I feel positive,” Casey said, leaning in, “that there’s some kind of middle ground there.”

RJ closed his eyes, and Casey felt the same warmth he’d heard in RJ’s tone when he mentioned it the night before.  He tried to return the favor, even if RJ wouldn’t know, because it felt more real somehow.  There was just something about kissing someone who had their eyes closed.

There was also something about kissing your naked lover on a bed that your friends had--probably--agreed you could stay in for the rest of the morning.  With a groan, Casey pulled away and tried to find something else to do with his hands.  And his mouth.  If RJ’s hands and mouth could also be occupied with something else, that would help.

“Perhaps if we were wearing clothes,” RJ murmured.  “This would be... safer?”

“Keep a good thought,” Casey said, rolling away from a body that would stand alone, no memories or fantasies necessary to make it the best thing he’d ever wanted.  Because it was RJ’s.  Because who knew RJ even--

“I don’t think visualizing is going to help,” RJ called after him, as Casey climbed out of the tent and looked around for their clothes.  Then, like he was talking to himself, he added, “Quite the opposite, in fact.”

“Do you want your pajamas?” Casey asked.  He tossed them onto the air mattress without waiting for an answer because it gave him an excuse to pick them up, and he’d kind of wanted to.  He had to put his own back on, because he wasn’t walking out of RJ’s room wearing RJ’s clothes even if it was only Lily.

“Practically speaking?” RJ replied.  “I suppose so.  In principle?  Not at all.”

It took him a minute to figure that out, but when he did he came back and put his knees on the edge of the air mattress, tipping the near side just enough that RJ could slide into him.  And hey, it actually was a little easier to kiss your hot naked boyfriend when you were wearing clothes.  Even if said boyfriend totally cheated by sneaking his hands under your sleeves to hold your shoulders again.

Casey decided it was still early to accuse RJ of a shoulder fixation, but he was definitely taking notes.

“I’ll go find Lily,” he murmured, pulling away at last.  “Thanks.”

“Thanks?” RJ repeated curiously.

He wasn’t blushing yet, but he could tell he would be soon.  “For... you know, everything.  It seems appropriate.”

“Ah.”  RJ considered that.  “Well.  Thank you.”

Casey changed his mind about stealing RJ’s clothes.  “Can I borrow a sweatshirt?”

RJ eyed him, and Casey would have loved to know what he was thinking right then.  Before he could ask, though, RJ waved a hand around the room and said, “Help yourself.”

Lily was fast in the morning, so Casey grabbed RJ’s grey striped sweatshirt and headed for the door.  The shirt was warm in a way that had nothing to do with temperature when he swung it over his shoulders, and that stupid smile was back on his face when he closed the door behind him.  Luckily--or not, depending on how you looked at it--Lily was gone from the couch by the time he looked out over the landing.

He found her in their room, already wearing her pants and JKP t-shirt while she ran a brush through her hair.  “Hey,” he said, knocking on the door as he came in.  “Sorry about that; you don’t have to work.  RJ’ll be downstairs in a minute.”

Lily turned away from her dresser, putting her hands on her hips as she looked him up and down.  “And you know this because?” she demanded, looking exactly as amused as Dominic had sounded.  Maybe a little more surprised than he had been.

“Uh, ‘cause I was just in his room?” Casey offered sheepishly.  He tried not to grin, even if he knew it wouldn’t work.  And it didn’t.

“You were just in his room because you went to wake him up,” Lily asked, “or you were just in his room because you woke up there and that’s why you’re still wearing your pajamas?”

“Did Dominic really not tell you, or are you just giving me a hard time?” Casey wanted to know.

“Dom said RJ wasn’t up yet and would I mind working for him,” Lily told him.  “Since RJ oversleeps approximately never, I said of course.  I thought you were already working.”

“Nope,” Casey said.  “I thought I’d go downstairs anyway, though; make sure everyone’s okay, see what RJ told Fran about yesterday, that kind of thing.”

Lily brandished her brush in his direction.  “You are not going anywhere until you tell me what you were doing in RJ’s room!”

He pretended to flinch, but he couldn’t keep a straight face.  “Uh, waking up?  And putting my pajamas back on?”

Lily’s grin was bright as sunshine.  “And stealing his sweatshirt, I notice; very territorial of you.  I can’t believe Theo and I fell asleep and just let you sneak away!”

“Oh, he announced it,” Casey assured her.  “To Dom, at least, who was apparently the only one still awake.  We went out to talk on the porch.”

“And ended up waking up in his room,” Lily said, rolling her eyes.  “Totally the same thing.”

“Sorry?” he guessed.

“You should be!” Lily exclaimed.  Her eyes were laughing at him.  “You realize I’m going to have to tell Theo, now!  Because I know you won’t, and Dom will hold it over his head forever if he doesn’t find out with the rest of us.”

“How do you know RJ won’t post a PSA?” Casey teased.  “Stranger things have happened.”

Lily pointed at him.  “He might actually do that,” she said, “in which case I will laugh at you, because you’re in so far over your head with him.  In the meantime, I’m telling Theo.”

“In the meantime,” Casey realized, “maybe I should go ask RJ to keep the PSAs to a minimum.”

“What you should do is get dressed,” Lily told him.  “Cute though it may be, no one’s going to listen to you while you’re wearing RJ’s sweatshirt over your pajamas.  Least of all RJ.”

19. Not Used to That

He hadn’t actually expected Casey to keep wearing his sweatshirt.  It was remarkably distracting to glance around the kitchen and see it on someone else.  Lily and Theo were whispering whenever he looked the other way, so he guessed he wasn’t the only one distracted.  He pretended not to see the horrified looks Theo was shooting him until Lily slapped him on the back of his head.

“Okay, so the first thing is, can everyone still talk this morning?”  Casey asked this question with apparent seriousness, and it amused RJ that everyone stopped whatever they were doing to check.  Mostly by asking each other if they were understandable.

“Well, I can understand everyone.”  Casey glanced at RJ, who nodded when he realized a response was expected, and then at Fran.  “Fran?”

“Um, I can understand you?” she offered.

“Thanks for covering for us yesterday,” Casey told her.  “You guys were great.  Seriously,” he added, including RJ in his look.

“At least, we think you probably were,” Dom put in.  “You could have been reciting rock for all we know, but no one was looking over their shoulder as they left, so that seemed like a good sign.”

“Thanks for putting up with Dom and me asking you questions all day,” Casey added, coming as close to agreeing with Dom as he ever had.  And hey, had he just called him “Dom”?  RJ couldn’t tell if Casey had actually used Dominic’s nickname or if he’d just heard it because that was what he was used to.

“Oh, I’m just glad you’re all okay,” Fran was saying.  “I mean, that was really weird and everything, but this is Jungle Karma Pizza and these things happen.  I think that’s what keeps some people coming back, to tell you the truth.  You never know what you’re going to see when you walk in the door!”

RJ let out a breath of amusement, and he wasn’t the only one.  Lily and Dom both laughed.  Casey and Theo grinned, and RJ just happened to be looking in the right direction when the two of them looked at each other.  So he saw Theo roll his eyes and open his mouth, which was more warning than anyone else had.

“Yeah,” Theo said, “like one of the employees wearing his boss’s sweatshirt.  Call me crazy, but I think there’s something in the dress code about that.”

Dom caught RJ’s eye before he could say anything.  “We have a dress code?”

“Yeah,” Casey answered.  “It says, ‘wear whatever RJ tells you to when you’re at work, and when you’re not working, mind your own business.’”

“I’m not gonna be able to fit that on a sign,” Theo told him.

The corner of Casey’s mouth quirked, and RJ assumed that meant they were okay.  He still couldn’t read Theo for anything.  Casey seemed to do a better job of it, and if he thought Theo was making a joke, then RJ thought so too.

“I’ll get you a fine-point pen,” Casey replied, and sure enough, Theo smirked.

“Just out of curiosity,” Fran began, “why are you wearing RJ’s sweatshirt?”

Lily clapped her hand to her forehead.  “I knew I was forgetting someone,” she muttered.  “Frannie, come with me for a second, okay?  We’re going to go--”  She gestured vaguely at the door.  “Open the counter.”

“We are?”  Fran was onto them, because it wasn’t Lily she was glaring at.  It was everyone else.  “You all slept late, you know.  I don’t understand how you had time to pass around all this gossip in the five minutes between me yelling up the stairs and the rest of you getting down here.”

“Come on,” Lily insisted, taking her hand and pulling her toward the door.  “We’ll be back in a sec.”

“I’m not actually working this morning,” Casey told Theo and Dom.  “Just in case that wasn’t clear.  This isn’t, like, my new uniform or anything.”

“Yet,” RJ remarked, then frowned when they all turned to look at him.  “Hmm.  That probably wasn’t the best thing to say, was it.”

“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,” Casey said.  “Moving on.  We can talk, good.  Problem: we still can’t morph.”  Glancing at RJ, he added, “Though I hesitate to involve you in the conversation at this point... is that true?”

“That you can’t morph?”  RJ considered this.  “Well, strictly speaking, no.  You probably can morph.  Or you could, if I gave you back your morphers.  But I’m not going to, because I personally like you human.  All of you,” he said, gaze sliding over Casey to Theo and Dom.

“And you think we’re going to turn into our animal spirits if we keep morphing,” Casey said.

RJ held up a hand to amend this statement.  “Actually, I think your animal spirits are bonding to your Ranger powers.  They’re both with you all the time, just in different ways: the Power manifests physically as strength and resilience, and the animal spirits manifest mentally as totems and guidance.  I’m concerned that the manifestations may be starting to... overlap.”

“That would have been a good thing to mention before,” Dom observed.

“Yes,” RJ agreed.  “Especially if I’d thought of it before.”

“How do we fix it?” Casey wanted to know.

“Well, it’s not technically broken,” RJ mused.  “So... I don’t know.”

“You realize the short-term solution to this problem is standing right outside,” Dom said.  He pointed toward the door Lily had taken Fran through just as the two of them walked back in.

And stopped.  “Um, hi?” Fran said, looking around nervously.

“What?” Lily wanted to know.  “What did we miss?”

“Dom wants to put Fran and Alicia in charge of defending Ocean Bluff,” RJ said.

Dom shrugged at the stares this elicited all around.  “It’s good practice,” he said.  “And really, what’s Dai Shi going to do?  Everyone’s fighting everyone else over there.  We take a few days off, do some meditating, get this thing straightened out and by then they can show us how it’s done.  No problem.”

“We’re not leaving two people to fight Dai Shi,” Casey said.

“Where are we going?” RJ wanted to know.  “Is there some magical meditation place where our animal spirits will come talk to us and tell us the answer?”

It made Casey laugh--or it would have, if he hadn’t been trying to cover it up--but it drew an unimpressed look from Dom.  He supposed he’d have to be careful about that.  He was feeling lazier than usual today, and not only was he setting a bad example, but the obvious sarcasm might alienate everyone except Casey.

He firmly ignored the part of him that said amusing Casey was worth it.

“Sorry,” RJ said aloud.  Because he owed Dom that much and, much as he liked it, Casey laughing had only made it worse.  They couldn’t afford to look clique-ish now.  “I’m just frustrated that I didn’t see it earlier, that’s all.  I should have.  It was right there.  And now that it seems so obvious, I still don’t know what to do about it.”

“Hey.”  Dom put a hand on his shoulder.  “We don’t expect you to have all the answers, okay?  No one does.  All we have is each other.  And so far, that’s enough.”

“Yeah,” Casey agreed.  “If we stick together, we can figure it out.  That’s what we do.”

“But,” Fran said uncertainly.  “You don’t have to do it alone.  Right?  I mean, other people could help you.  Other Rangers.”

“You are helping,” Lily told her.  “You’re helping a lot.”

“Not me,” Fran insisted.  “What about all the rest of this new team that you gave free pizza to and babysat for and everything?  Krista could help, and Nena’s all...”  She waved her hands.

“Ninja-y?” Theo offered.

“Samurai-like,” Fran said.  “And Kat doesn’t actually have a morpher, but I bet she could help figure out the whole morphers bonding to animal spirits thing.  I don’t know what T’s good at, yet, but he seems like he’s useful?”

“That’s a good idea!” Lily exclaimed.  “I mean, having them come to watch the city, but also asking them if they can help us with the animal thing.  They all have other Ranger contacts, right?  We can’t be the first people to have ever had this problem.”

RJ saw Casey and Theo exchange glances.  He was inclined to agree with their skeptical looks--humans were all basically the same, yes, but he had studied the Order of the Claw pretty thoroughly and as far as he knew no one had ever given an order member a morpher before.  On the other hand, weird things did seem to happen to Power Rangers on a regular basis.  Maybe they would have advice for a comparable situation.

“Nena says people at her school can turn into animals,” Fran offered, and RJ straightened.

“I’m convinced,” he said, when Casey looked at him.

Casey nodded.  “Let’s do it.  Fran, if you want to contact your teammates, Dom and I will talk about the meditation part of the plan.”

RJ managed to keep himself from frowning, but it was a near thing.  It was also totally... stupid, if it had to be said.  He was the logical choice for Pai Zhua advice, but Dom wasn’t exactly ignorant and it had been his idea.  Casey knew as well as he did that he couldn’t just drag RJ off for a “private conference” every five minutes.  And, especially before the restaurant was actually open, Dom was a little easier to replace.

“I’ll help out on the floor,” Lily said, and Theo sighed.

“Thank you,” he said loudly.  “We do have a job to do, you know.”

“Yeah,” Casey agreed.  “To defend against Dai Shi.  You’re just mad that you have to counter fear by handing out food instead of fighting the rinshi.”

Unexpectedly, this made Theo pause.  “I never thought of it that way before,” he admitted.

Casey, wisely, quit while he was ahead.  “Dom?  You want to grab a table?”

Yes, RJ realized.  He was consistently using Dominic’s nickname.  Had that just started, or had he been missing it all this time?  He’d hate to think he hadn’t taken note at the beginning of something so... noteworthy.

The kitchen was a lot easier to move around in without all of them standing in the way.  It was also quiet.  It felt a little uninspired.  He wasn’t used to that.  The best thing about being your own inspiration was that wherever you went, there you were.  He couldn’t tell if it was just the contrast that made him notice the change this morning, or if something more fundamental was happening to his perception.

Reality was so much more confusing than dreams.

20. Help

The most surprising thing about asking for help was the sheer amount of support they received in return.  It was kind of like the opposite of Pai Zhua, even if he had to admit that they hadn’t really gotten to the “asking” stage with the Order of the Claw.  If RJ was right, though--and he usually was--then the academy knew perfectly well they were in trouble and wasn’t exactly going out of its way to contact them.

Talking to other Rangers was like activating some sort of telephone tree helpline.  The moment Fran mentioned to Nena that they had some questions, Nena offered to come immediately.  And bring a friend.  And the rest of Fran’s team, if they needed stand-ins, and Krista’s contact in case hers wasn’t enough.

Casey would have been amused if he wasn’t so busy being surprised by the fact that not only did they have contacts, all their contacts had contacts too.  A lot of them.  They weren’t all Rangers, they weren’t all from Earth, and they definitely weren’t all human.  But between them they’d lost powers, regained powers, given up their powers, shared their powers, changed sides, changed sides again, been turned into animals, and a whole host of other things that seemed... less relevant.

Though possibly more interesting.  It was hard to say.  They made everything sound interesting.

“Psst,” Lily said, sitting down next to him in the shade of a little twisty tree.  “How’d you manage to sneak out of the VIP conference?”

“Easier than it sounds,” Casey told her.  “It was harder getting away from RJ.”

They’d left JKP in Fran’s capable hands, and Ocean Bluff to her and her teammates.  Most of them.  Kat had come back to the grounds of Nena’s school with Casey’s team, but then, she didn’t actually have a morpher so maybe she didn’t count.  Her children were kind of distracting.  So far, everyone here seemed willing to put up with them in order to have her input, so Casey assumed she knew what she was doing.

“Who’s in there?” Lily wanted to know.  “Dom and Theo went off to meditate with one of the transfiguration classes,” she added, before he could answer.  “But there’s only so much of that I can take, and after the first three hours of novice focus, I figured I’d better see what else was going on.”

“Not sure,” Casey admitted, running his fingers through the grass on one edge of the perfectly groomed grounds.  “Kat’s in there, with her kids, talking shop with the guy who does the tech around here.  And Krista’s tech contact.  Between the three of them, I’m a little scared they could rewrite every computer system in the world.  But they won’t bother, because it wouldn’t even be a challenge.”

“And RJ’s interested in that?” Lily asked, wrinkling her nose.  “What does that have to do with our animal spirits?”

Casey shrugged.  “The other guy, Tommy?  He doesn’t do computers either.  He and RJ are taking turns coming up with stories that make whatever the rest of them are talking about sound ridiculous.  It’s actually kind of funny,” he admitted, “but they’re outnumbered, and the others are only sometimes paying attention.”

“So you left,” Lily said.  She said it in that way that meant she was sympathetic even if she didn’t really understand.  “You’re not missing anything out here, let me tell you.  On the other hand, if you want to meditate...”  She waved her hand out in front of her, indicating everything.

He had to smile.  “I’m good.  Thanks.”

They were quiet for a few minutes, and finally Lily leaned forward to try to catch his eye.  Her movement made him look at her, so it was easier than it could have been.  He got the impression that she hadn’t expected it to be.

“You’re thinking about something,” she said.  “The animal spirits?”

“RJ,” he admitted.

She laughed, but he shook his head.  “It’s not that,” he insisted.  “It’s just--the other night, right?  When he followed me to the quarry.  We never talked about that.  I tried, but...”

Lily sounded puzzled.  “What’s to talk about?  He just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I told him to stay behind!” Casey burst out.  “I specifically told him not to follow me, and he did!  I don’t know, Lily... it’s not like I ask him for stupid things, you know?  And whenever we talk about it, he’s all, ‘yeah, you’re the leader, it’s who you are,’ blah, blah, blah.  But then when something like this comes up, he’s like, ‘well, I had to do it ‘cause that’s who I am.’  How do you argue with that?”

“Why do you want to argue with it?” Lily wanted to know.  “He’s just doing what he thinks is best.”

“What about what I think is best?” Casey demanded.  “Why is he automatically right just ‘cause he’s RJ?  Why even bother pretending I’m in charge if he’s not going to listen to me?”

“Okay, calm down,” Lily told him.  “You’ve been sitting here way too long.  Have you talked to him about this?”

“I tried!” Casey exclaimed.  “It turned into...”  He trailed off, shaking his head.  “We got distracted.”

“You can’t sit here and have this conversation in your head without him,” Lily said firmly.  “If it bothers you this much, you have to talk to him.  But if you want my opinion?”

When it was obvious she was waiting for him to say yes, he waved for her to go on.

“Cold feet,” she told him.  “You’re getting cold feet.  This is a stupid thing to worry about--with RJ, of all people!  He’s like the least manipulative person I know.  And yeah, maybe you can’t control him, but who can?  Who’d want to?  Tell me you’d like him anywhere near as much as you do if he was predictable.  Boring.”

“Reliable?” Casey suggested.

Lily slapped him on the shoulder.  “I can’t believe you just said that,” she scolded.  “RJ’s more reliable than all of us put together.  Just--not always the way you’d expect, that’s all.”

The corner of his mouth quirked.  “That’s what I said, too,” he muttered.  “What other way is there, though?  Aren’t there some things you have to do like everyone else?  Otherwise, what’s the point?”

“RJ is totally devoted to you,” Lily said.  “If you don’t believe that now, then I don’t know what he could possibly do to change your mind.  What would you do if he was worried that you were going to leave him?”

“I’m not worried he’s going to leave!” Casey exclaimed.

“Yes, you are.”  Lily put her hand on his arm to keep him from standing up.  “That’s normal, okay?  Getting something you want means you can lose it, too.  But what’s the point of having someone you can’t trust to choose you?  If you have to order him to do what you want, what kind of a friendship is that?”

Casey stared at her.

“I’m on totally the wrong track here, aren’t I,” she said.

“No,” Casey said quickly.  “No, I--sorry.  I was wondering when you got so smart.”

“I didn’t,” she said, rolling her eyes.  “You just got kind of dumb there for a minute.  You’re not going to lose RJ, Casey.  He worships you.  He always has.”

“Maybe,” Casey said.  “But does he respect me?”

“I want you to know,” Lily told him, “I’m only taking you seriously right now because you look so upset about this.  Totally aside from the fact that RJ respects everyone, that’s a ridiculous question.  We live with you guys, remember.  We see you every day.  All day.  And if there’s anything in the world that RJ wants more than your good opinion, I don’t know what it is.”

“Then why does he think I can’t take care of myself!” Casey blurted out.  “I swear, if he’s not following me, he’s trying to make me stay behind, or he’s--”  He waved his hand in frustration.  “Today I didn’t even think he was going to let me out of that meeting without an escort!  Everyone else had to promise him that this was the most secure academy on the planet, and there were ninja everywhere if my spirit acted up, and what does that say if he won’t even let me out of his sight!”

Lily tilted her head just the way RJ did, looking thoughtful.  “Maybe,” she said after a moment, “if you practiced calling him to you, he’d stay away when you asked.”

Casey frowned at her.  “What?”

“That’s what he told me to do with Hypericum,” she offered.  “RJ said maybe she’s following me because she’s not sure I’ll be able to call her when she’s needed.  His wolf doesn’t follow him.”

“Because he’s a master,” Casey said.

“But what’s the difference?” Lily said.  “What does a master know how to do that keeps their animal spirit in line?  Maybe it’s just knowing how to talk to their spirit.  How to communicate.  So they each know what the other needs, and what they’re capable of.”

Casey considered that, but eventually he shook his head.  “I ask RJ for help when I need it.  He knows that.”

“Are you asking him now?”  Lily held his gaze steadily when he looked at her.  “Don’t you need his help right now?  Don’t you think he’s feeling just like you are?  Spending the night together changes things, Casey.  Maybe he feels just as weird, and he’s trying to keep an eye on you because he wants to know if you are too.”

He was shaking his head again.  “Nah, he’s cool.  We already talked about it and he said it was fine.”

“Did you agree with him?” Lily asked pointedly.

“Yeah, of course.”  Casey caught her eye and paused.  “Oh.”

“Yeah,” she said.  “Oh.”

He hesitated, but he pulled out his sunglasses and tapped the comm.  “Not an emergency,” he said, when he heard the click of RJ’s morpher activating in return.  “Do you have a minute?”

“I think I can tear myself away,” RJ’s voice replied.  “Where are you?”

Like their morphers didn’t have locators in them.  He gave basic visual instructions anyway, then tossed a look in Lily’s direction when the link closed.  “Happy?” he asked, taking his sunglasses off again.

She just smiled.  “When you are.”

Okay.  He believed that.  “Go save someone else,” he suggested, waving her away.

“Call me if you need me?” she said, innocent smile brightening.

“You know I will,” Casey told her.

She pointed at him.  “And that,” she said triumphantly, “is why I’m leaving!  Bye Case!”

“Have fun, Lil.”  It occurred to him as she made herself scarce that he probably should have asked where she was going.  If only because it was the first thing RJ was going to say when he caught up: Where are the others?

“Hi,” Casey said, looking up from his not-really-meditating position when he sensed RJ’s approach.  “I don’t know.”

RJ frowned down at him.  “Whether computer programming is an acceptable substitute for actual engineering work?  Because I’d be happy to tell you the right answer, if you’re curious.”

That made Casey grin.  “Oh, I’ll take the actual engineering work any day.”

“Hmm,” RJ said, sitting down beside him.  “You’ve chosen well.  But if you’re so certain, where at first you were not, I can only conclude that this isn’t the question you were replying to.”

“I figured you’d ask where the others are,” Casey told him.  “Lily was just here, counseling me, and I forgot to ask where she was going when she left.”

“Probably to meditate,” RJ said.  They glanced at each other, and he added, “Albeit in a... non-traditional way.  What was she counseling you about?”

“You,” Casey said.  “Well, me,” he amended.  “In relation to you.”

“Indeed.”  RJ was quiet for a moment, and Casey was about to say something else when he added, “Were you in need of counsel?”

“Yeah,” Casey said.  “I mean, no.  Yes.  I didn’t realize I was, but I was.”

“I see.”  RJ didn’t smile.

“I need your help,” Casey said bluntly.  “That’s what I have to say, isn’t it.  You had to admit you wanted me, and I have to admit I need you.  I didn’t get that until now.”

RJ brightened.  “Yes?”

“Not with the Rangers,” Casey said, then changed his mind.  “I mean, yes, the Rangers, and Pai Zhua, and all of it, but you know that.  You help me with that all the time.”

RJ lifted one finger.  He looked like he was about to say something, but he didn’t.

“It’s this,” Casey said simply.  “I need your help with this.  With us.”

He couldn’t think of anything else to say, and RJ was quiet again.  Finally, RJ offered, “You seem... remarkably good at it.”

“Yeah?”  Now he couldn’t help but smile again.  “Well, that’s what I do, right?  I’m the leader.  I trust my instincts.  Doesn’t mean I know what I’m doing.”

RJ tilted his head.  “That isn’t quite what I meant for you to get out of that lesson.”  He sounded amused.

“Lily was just telling me that it’s the things you can’t control that are the most worth having.”

RJ raised an eyebrow.  “Was that directed at me?”

Casey grinned.  “Well, not when she said it.”

“I see,” RJ mused.  “So you’re saying... our friends could give us both exactly the same advice.”

“Actually, I’m saying they could save time by just giving it to just one of us,” Casey remarked.  “As long as we keep talking to each other.”

“Ah.”  Finally RJ was smiling, and it made his voice lighter.  “Well, in service to the team, I think we should try to make this as easy as possible for them.”

“Agreed,” Casey said.  “In that spirit, I promise to tell you when I need you.”

“I promise to... tell you when I want you?”  RJ frowned.  “That doesn’t seem like quite the same thing.”

Casey couldn’t stop grinning, and he leaned over to bump the shoulder nearest him.  “Everyone has their own lesson, RJ.”

21. Seeing the Future

There was nothing quite like the sound of children shrieking at the top of their lungs.

Well, RJ amended silently, one child actually sounded a lot like multiple children shrieking at the top of their lungs.  And one child in a small space could sound like a whole pack of children.  He had a lot of experience with the phenomenon.

Today, though, the children were outside.  They also had plenty of entertainment, which meant that the shrieks were mostly screams of joy and excitement.  The fact that they weren’t human didn’t bother any of their babysitters, and the fact that one of their babysitters was Casey made RJ’s day unfathomably better.  More amusing.  More touching.  More... something.

Casey wasn’t just good with children; he was as good with children as he was with everyone else, and that was saying something.  Children were a different animal, no matter what species they were, and they frankly confused RJ.  He tried to treat them the way he treated everyone else, and sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t.  They were unpredictable.

They’re not little adults, Casey had tried to tell him again and again.  Their brains are different.  You have to talk to them differently.  But “differently” seemed to be some sort of euphemism for “secret code you will never understand,” so RJ had mostly given up.

Instead, he watched Casey and Lily running around after Kirlian, Chichi, and Janecha.  He still wasn’t totally sure how many children Kat had: some of them seemed to have different nicknames at different ages, and he was sure he’d met Janecha at least three different times now.  The others he couldn’t match up with each other at all.  But they all seemed to be relatively good-natured... and they loved Casey.

“Hey, twinkletoes!”  Casey scooped up the littlest sable-haired child, who immediately shrieked again.  In protest or in delight, it was hard to tell.  “Watch where you’re going, or I’ll turn you into a kitten!”

“Chichi!” the child shouted, and Casey just laughed.

“Okay, you can be Chichitoes the kitten!” he declared, swinging the child up on his shoulders with a strength that only Rangers had.  Chichi had to be five or six years old, lack of language skills notwithstanding.  There was no way someone like that was easy to throw around.

“Hey.”  A word from the person approaching made RJ glance over his shoulder: he’d assumed it was Tommy coming to tell him he and Theo were done, or maybe Cam wanting Casey to try his morpher again.  It wasn’t, though: it was someone who instantly reminded him of Fran’s teammate T, though he couldn’t say exactly why.

“Jack,” the man said, offering his hand.  “Jack Landors.  You helping keep an eye on the kids?”

RJ took his hand and shook it, but he had to admit, “Only insofar as I have my eyes focused in their general direction.  I’m afraid I possess little in the way of... youth supervision capabilities.”

“Well, every pair of eyes helps,” Jack said.  “There’s just so many of them when they start bouncing around the timeline to visit themselves.  And when they start impersonating each other?  Forget it.  I told Kat, tattoos, but she says she can tell them apart.”

“Ah,” RJ said, eyeing him again.  “You’re Kat’s Jack, then.  From the future.”

“Kind of,” Jack said with a grin.  “I’m Kat’s Jack.  But I’m actually from my own past.  We had kind of a revolution in my time, and some of my friends gave me a way to keep up.  Turns out it works in reverse, too.  So here I am.”

RJ considered that.  “You’re from my future, then, but you’re not a native time traveler?”

“Nope.”  Jack leaned back to study him, the city stamp much heavier on his body language than it was on Casey’s.  “You followed that, though.  Ranger?”

“Call me RJ,” he said with a smile.  “One of Casey’s,” he added, nodding toward the pile of kids and Rangers.  Casey was helping stack the kids on top of Lily, who seemed to be practicing her... balance.

“Casey Rhodes?”  Jack sounded surprised.  He followed RJ’s gaze.  “This is 2008, isn’t it?”

“Last time I checked,” RJ agreed, frowning a little.  He was pretty sure that was right.

“Huh.”  Jack folded his arms.  “He looks younger than I expected.”

RJ had two choices: get annoyed or be amused.  Since he was aware that the annoyance would be directed more at himself than at anyone else, and also that it wouldn’t help anything, he went with amused.  “Yes,” he told Jack.  “That’s his disguise.”

Jack laughed, which he appreciated, and he agreed, which RJ hadn’t expected.  “I guess it would be,” he said.  “We’re all too something, aren’t we?”

“Maybe that’s what makes us different people,” RJ offered.  “If no one was too anything, would there be anything to be?”

An odd look crossed Jack’s face, and his smile looked thoughtful.  “RJ, you said?  You don’t do any work with autistic kids, do you?”

RJ tilted his head.  “Did I mention my lack of youth supervision capability?” he wondered aloud.

“Right.”  Jack shook his head.  “Never mind.  So, how’s T doing?  Cause any major disasters yet?”

RJ held up his hands, trying to reframe that.  “Were you... expecting him to?”

“I might have a bet on with someone about it,” Jack admitted.  “I bet no, if that makes it sound any better.”

“Not really,” RJ said.  “He’s currently helping out in my pizza store.”

“Great!”  Jack sounded unexpectedly pleased about this.  “It was either send him back to do community service or let them throw him in juvey, so.  I personally think this works out better for everyone.”

RJ wasn’t sure how he felt about that.  “The past as... rehab?”

“Worked for me,” Jack said flippantly.  Then he caught RJ’s eye.  “I’m not trying to dump him on you,” he added, sobering.  “That’s why Kat agreed to come.  I just figured, some responsibility and a fresh start?  It can do a lot for a guy.”

RJ inclined his head.

Jack cleared his throat.  “So, uh, what’s Kat helping you with?  Or did you just kidnap her children for the cuteness factor?”

“Ah.”  RJ considered that.  “Difficult to say.”

“The help, or the kidnapping?” Jack asked with a grin.

“In fairness,” RJ said, “both.  But Casey does have a tendency to... attract children.  I haven’t been able to determine whether they gravitate to him of their own accord, or if their parents recognize his affinity for them and--”  He wiggled his fingers in Casey’s direction.  “Sneak them into his supervision when we’re not looking.”

Jack was still grinning.  “You really remind me of a friend of mine,” he said.  “You might want to reconsider your stand on the supervision of autistic youth.”

RJ blinked.  “I’ll... bear that in mind,” he said at last.  “Are you looking for Kat, by chance?”

“That depends,” Jack said.  “Do you know where she is?”

RJ frowned.  “No,” he admitted.  “But I could make an educated guess.”

“If it involves computers, morpher programming, or any technology that’s past the design stage but not yet under construction?” Jack said.  “I’ll pass.  I might be able to free up one or both of your babysitters, though.”

He might not be able to help it.  Chichi had caught sight of him--possibly because Casey was watching their conversation, sporadically and from a distance, but with obvious interest nonetheless--and the kids clearly knew Jack.  RJ supposed that boded well for the idea that Jack was telling the truth.  Not that he was in the habit of distrusting people, but there were children involved and he didn’t actually know anything about Kat’s time or former team.

“Hey Cheech!” Jack yelled, and the child finally detached itself from Casey to make a beeline for Jack.  RJ found himself looking at Casey--he didn’t even realize why until he saw Casey flash him a thumbs-up, and he relaxed.  Casey didn’t let kids go unless he knew where they were going.

Kirlian was following Chichi, but Janecha had vanished and Casey and Lily didn’t look too worried about it.  RJ assumed that meant everything was fine.  He further assumed that taking care of time-traveling children required massive amounts of... something.  Some mysterious quality that Casey, Lily, and Jack all apparently possessed.

Figuring out what that was should occupy him for a while.

“Hey, Lian,” Jack said, laughing as a second child attached itself to his leg.  “You guys picked the coolest kids on campus to hang out with!”

“Hi Jack,” Casey said, lifting a hand over the kids’ heads.  “Kat told us you were coming.”

“Oh yeah?”  Jack sounded more amused than anything.  “Too bad she didn’t tell me.  I had a big fight with someone just before I left over whether it was a good idea or not.”

“I take it you won?” Lily said lightly.

Jack’s smile turned rueful.  “No.  I definitely lost.  I’m planning to stay here until I get over it or he does, whichever comes first.  Which should be easy,” he added, his tone rising again as he looked down at the kids, “with my best buds here to help me out!”

“Hey,” Lily said to the kids, “do either of you like really big cats?”

This produced a generally positive response, although it was still hard to say that they were using actual... English.

“Progress,” Lily said, still smiling even though she was clearly talking to RJ now.  “Check this out.”  She held out her left hand--and after a brief pause, the cheetah appeared beside her.  Bright, textured, and very real-looking.

The kids shrieked.  They threw themselves at the cat, which made RJ wince, but Lily just laughed and the cheetah took it with good grace.  And... solidity.  “It’s really there, huh?” RJ asked.

“Yup,” Lily said proudly.  “And watch this.”  She turned around and started walking.  She made it halfway across the clearing before Hypericum even looked up.  And when that big head swung to follow Lily, she just waved, and the cheetah settled where it was.  Hypericum continued to let the kids maul her, even as Lily walked all the way to the other side of the clearing before coming back.

“You’re learning to work together,” RJ said, inordinately pleased with her progress.  “That’s great, Lily.  And--can you...?”

“Make her invisible again?” Lily suggested.  “Absolutely!”  She clapped her hands to get the kids’ attention, and RJ exchanged amused glances with Casey for that Pai Zhua tradition.

“Could you guys do me a big favor and let the cheetah go for a sec?” Lily was asking them.  “Hypericum?” she added, without waiting for them to answer.

The cheetah reached back and neatly plucked one child by the back of the shirt and the other by a sleeve, setting them away from her in quick succession.  Jack didn’t protest.  The children seemed so surprised by it that they just stood there, staring at her.

Big teeth, RJ thought absently.

Then the teeth and the cat were gone, leaving not even a grin behind, and he raised his eyebrows.  Lily lifted her hands to shoulder height, flipping them over and doing a little curtsey.  “Ta dah!”

“Well,” RJ said, beaming at her.  “That’s very impressive.  Very impressive indeed.  Let’s hope Theo’s making similar progress with Tommy.

“If the jaguar we saw lurking around earlier is any indication?” Casey said with a grin.  “He is.”

“Lurking alone,” Lily added.  “Theo can get way farther away from his spirit than I can.”

“Not for long,” Casey said.

“That’s right!” Lily agreed with a smirk.  “He thinks he’s so good.  Just wait ‘til he finds a cheetah under his bed tonight.”

“Ah,” RJ said.  “The old ‘frog in the bed’ trick?”

“Only funnier,” Lily said smugly.

“Frogs don’t have teeth,” Casey added.

“Grr,” Lily said, pretending to growl at him while Casey laughed at her.

When both of the kids echoed her growl, Lily looked down to ruffle their hair and Casey glanced at RJ.  Brown eyes, untouched by tiger--and hopefully they’d stay that way, after whatever Cam had done to his morpher--the only suggestion of his animal spirit was the hand he half-lifted in RJ’s direction.  His fingers curled as he mimed a playful scratch.

RJ couldn’t completely suppress a smile.  He tried to hide it by looking down as he folded his arms over each other, but he was only partly successful.  His best effort would have to be good enough.

Some things were meant to be shared.