The good mood lasted, for all of, well, not as long as either of them would have liked. After they picked up take-out they were headed back to the apartment when work came up. And not like Storm Chargers or anything. But ninja work. And Marah had slipped up.
Or maybe she hadn’t. Because she couldn’t remember Kapri explicitly saying that their encounter with Shimazu should be kept a secret. They hadn’t mentioned it to anyone at the time. To tell would let everyone know they were spying on the samurai class. Which Marah figured everyone would figure out anyway since they appeared so sudden-like after the fight with the Kelzaks.
But they hadn’t mentioned Shimazu. Till now. Till she had let a random comment about the former general slip during conversation. She wasn’t even sure how they had ended up on the topic. But as soon as she had said his name she realized that it might not have been the best idea.
“Shimazu was here? Like right near the Academy and stuff?” Dustin asked incredulously.
“Well, kinda yeah. Back when the samurai class was attacked,” she shifted uncomfortably. “But we totally took care of him. He ran off before anyone else even saw him.” She rolled her eyes, trying to lift the spirit of the conversation. “He’s such a wuss at times. I mean, without his Wolfblades he’s not so tough.”
The expression on Dustin’s face was so hard to read. She couldn’t tell if her explanation was helping or hurting things. So she just kept going. “Of course, he had two of his Wolfblades with him. But they didn’t help him much.”
Okay, that was definitely not a good expression.
“He had his Wolfblades? Marah, those things are like wicked strong!”
“Only two of them,” she pointed out. “Dustin, we were fine. Really. I mean, it’s not like we haven’t handled him before. We took him out the first time.”
His expression may have been hard to interpret, but there was cautious curiosity clear in his tone, “First time? You mean at the samurai class, right?”
“Uh,” she floundered, searching for a way out of the conversation. When was she going to learn to just shut up? “Actually I meant before that. Kapri and I were kinda the ones who sent him into the Abyss.”
He didn’t say anything at first. He just kept walking slowly forward. They had reached an apartment complex, and he headed toward a building over to the side. There was a balcony on the second floor that she knew had to belong to Shane and Dustin. The out of season Christmas lights in Wind Academy colors was a giveaway. She randomly wondered if Sensei would approve.
But that thought was just a momentary distraction. Because as he set foot on the stairs, Dustin turned to look at her.
“Marah, look,” he sighed, and set his trophy down. He took the food from her, and set it down as well. They sat down on the landing then, and she waited to hear what he wanted to say. He ran a nervous hand through his hair, as if searching for where to start.
“I know you can take care of yourself. I mean, you’ve been proving that ever since I first met you. So you don’t have to prove it anymore, okay? You’re part of the team now. We look out for each other. Help each other. You shouldn’t have to face the bad guys alone anymore.”
“So we should tell you whenever we get visits from old family and friends, right?” She knew he was serious, and that her answer sounded joke-y. But it was more that she was distracted. Dustin had taken her hands in his, and she was staring at them in a strange new light.
“Yeah, so important,” he tried to smile. “’Cause you guys know so much about them that we don’t. You are just so important.” He paused hesitantly, looking down at their hands as well. “And not just to the fighting evil stuff. But to us. Like Ninja and me. I, I just don’t want something bad to happen to you. We’re here to back you up now. I’m here.”
She sniffed unexpectedly. She wasn’t going to cry. Really she wasn’t. He was so very sweet though.
“Oh, dude, are you okay? Please don’t cry, I mean…”
“Dustin, I’m fine,” she looked up again and smiled. “But thank you. It’s just different, you know? Between then and now. Who says they’ll be there for you, and who really means it. It’s nice to know you can trust people.”
“Of course you can,” he returned her smile. He stood then, grabbing the trophy in one hand, and helping her up with the other. “C’mon, let’s go eat.”
She nodded happily, grabbed the food in her free hand and followed him up the stairs. Ninja had been patiently waiting at the apartment door. The correct apartment door, Marah discovered, despite the fact that he’d never been there before.
“So I guess we need to tell Cousin about Shimazu then,” she asked as he unlocked the door.
He met her eye for a moment, as he pushed the door open and gentlemanly allowed her to enter ahead of him. “Yeah, we’ll have to tell Cam. So he can add him to the list of sightings. He’s figuring something out with all this information I think.”
Dustin followed her in, flipping on the lights. “But it can wait till tomorrow. I feel like I could sleep for a week.”
“Me too, “ she echoed. “But food first. You can give me the grand apartment tour afterward.” He laughed and joined her on the couch as she opened up the food on the coffee table.
“No, seriously. He really said that! And then he went and…”
“He what?” Kapri asked when Shane stopped mid-sentence. She was clearly eager to hear the rest of the story about her cousin.
Shane put his finger to his lips, then pointed ahead of him. They had just arrived back at the apartment, and Shane had stopped just a few feet into the room.
Kapri looked past him into the apartment. There was food on the counter, and the tv was on. Some movie was playing, but the volume did nothing to wake the occupants of the room. There on the couch were Dustin and Marah, sound asleep.
Ninja had been sleeping on the rug in front of the couch, and he had jumped up excitedly at the sound of the door opening. Kapri motioned to her sister’s dog, and he ran past her out onto the landing. She grabbed his leash and headed down the stairs. Shane closed the door quietly and followed them down.
“I think Ninja really needs a walk,” she grinned, watching the dog run for the nearest tree.
“Yeah, I’d say so.”
“He’s so much better trained than he used to be. You should have seen some of the things he did on Uncle’s ship! Yuck!”
“I think I’m glad I missed that,” he laughed as Ninja went to sniff another tree.
“Well, unless we want to wake them up, I guess Marah is sleeping over.” Kapri had a distinctly amused look on her face. Shane half-expected her to break into a monologue about how cute Dustin and Marah were together. And as much as he loved his friend, he just didn’t think he wanted to discuss his “cuteness”.
“We should probably let them sleep. You’re both going to miss curfew at the Academy anyway. But we can cover for you.”
“Thanks!” she said brightly. “But it’s really no problem. I can teleport back like so fast. Even after curfew if I have to. Just tell her I took Ninja back with me, when she wakes up, okay?”
He stared at her curiously. He’d always wanted to ask, and this sounded like a great opportunity.
“What does it take to do that? Teleport, I mean. Like, could you teach me?”
“Well, it wouldn’t be impossible,” she stopped for a moment to think. “Okay, like the Thunder Academy teaches all that flashy lightning stuff and the Wind Academy doesn’t, right?”
“Yeah. So you’re saying teleportation is just something that’s school specific?” he concluded.
“Shyeah, totally. I mean, it being space and all, you gotta have a way to get around. And there isn’t a lot to jump off of for streaking.”
Shane watched as she got completely distracted by explaining the idea of ninja streaking through space.
“Unless you like used planets. And that’s like so not really possible. I mean, wouldn’t that be a BIG leap,” she extended her arms, “from one planet to another! And what if you tried to bounce off a gas giant! Whoosh!” She waved her hands, one of them flying past him as if a ninja plummeting through the figurative planet.
He couldn’t keep from laughing any longer. “So it’s not impossible to teach me then.”
She turned back to him, “Oh no. Hard, but totally doable. It would be like me learning about being an Air Ninja from you. Only backwards.” She smiled and continued. “And if you pulled it off, you could totally be like the most powerful person on the team.”
“What do you mean?” He cocked his head and tried to figure it out. And he made a mental note to think later about this ‘team’. Because since Lothor’s defeat it was definitely more than just the Rangers.
“Like, well, you know. You’re an Air Ninja already. So if you like learned teleporting that would put you one up on everyone.”
“Wait, I would just know my own discipline and part of yours. Wouldn’t that make me the same as where you are right now?”
“Shyeah right. Only if you can teach me to do that!” she gestured ahead of them.
“Oh. Yeah, right,” he smiled sheepishly as he glanced at the ball of fire.
He had been practicing every chance he got with this new aspect of his power from Skyla. He had been experimenting to see just how much control he had over fire. Usually with Dustin and a fire extinguisher nearby just in case.
At first he didn’t know if he could create a flame. But after several attempts he figured out that he could.
His latest trick was a ball of fire like the one currently hovering in front of them to light their way. Not exactly the safest flashlight, but not really that harmful either. He’d already discovered if he lost his concentration the ball of fire simply went out.
“Um, yeah. I kinda can’t teach anyone that, can I?”
“No. But there are some Fire Ninjas like way, way, well, not around here,” she winked and grinned widely. “Totally different power sources, but I bet they could teach you some tricks.”
“How do you – nevermind.” Shane had wondered how she knew about Fire Ninjas. But then he’d realized that she had probably been in on their capture.
Kapri caught on to where his thoughts had been headed though. She smiled slightly anyway, and called to Ninja who ran to her.
“I’m going to get going. Congratulations again on the competition, Shane.”
“Kapri, wait.”
“No, it’s okay. I need to get going. We’ll talk again about the teleportation thing, yeah?”
“Yeah,” he sighed. “Night, Kapri.” She waved as she and the dog disappeared in a flash of light.
Shane headed back to the apartment, putting out his fireball as he went. They had been having a great time there for a while. He just hoped he hadn’t ruined things by bringing up her evil past.
He entered the apartment, and locked the door behind him. He wandered around, trying to be quiet, and yet shut everything up for the night. He turned off the lights and the tv, and walked over to the sleeping couple on the couch. He took the comforter off the back and draped it over them.
With one last look around the apartment, he went to his room to try to sleep.