And we seek Casey in a huge 180 when around Faith!

Chapter 25: A Change in Casey

"YAHOO!" Casey exclaimed, in jubilee.

Casey had loosened up as he played hide and seek with Faith and chased after her to see if he can catch with her and she sped in all fours to lose him quickly, but Casey knew that he'll go much faster than her and he instantly amped up his speed to catch up with her because jaguars have that speed mentality that's more advanced than other felines, but is second to cheetahs. Faith looks over her shoulder and saw Casey catching up with her, much to her shock.

She instantly had that feeling that he's gonna reach his speed and is determined to not let him go more faster than her, but Casey had other plans. He immediately caught up with her and lets out a smirk and just runs right in front of her, taking the lead. Faith knew that she would summon every ounce of chi she can muster to beat him and she lets out a smirk and quickly leapt into the air and tackled him down and then pins him to the ground.

With a smile, she looks at him in the eye and said, "I caught you! You know what I'm gonna do to you?"

"Uh...what is it?" asked Casey, a little unsure.

"I'm gonna...tickle you!" Faith exclaimed, tickling Casey's ribs at the last sentence, causing Casey to laugh uncontrollably as he gets tickled.

Faith kept on tickling him and tickling him as Casey kept laughing out loud as he tries to get her off of him, but her tickles have become very strong that he couldn't stop laughing and she was laughing too as she was tickling him and she tickled his stomach, which made him laugh uproariusly, knowing that that's his ticklish spot and he exclaimed, "It tickles!"

Several seconds later, Mako walks into the courtyard and sees Faith tickling him and Casey just laughing like he's having fun and it was like a huge switch from the worried, reserved cub that he met to suddenly, this happy kid that he barely saw. He was completely speechless on how Faith did it, but that made him smile as well for seeing that and he walked over towards the two and he said, "Hey, guys."

Faith looks up and sees Mako right in front of him and stops tickling Casey, but the young jaguar was still laughing as he got up and then he saw Mako standing by and said, "Hi, Mr. did you get home?"

Still stunned by this turnaround, Mako answered, "I just got back. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm cool." Casey responded.

"Casey and I had so much today; we played checkers, played a little bit of hide and seek and we just had a tickle fight! He's like so much fun to be around with once you get to know him a little bit." Faith answered.

"Yeah, Faith and I are like best friends now." Casey said, chuckling.

That impressed Mako the most to see this and he nods his head at this because he's tried to reach out to him multiple times to just shyness and reluctance to open up and what Faith did was just see the fun side of him and happy side that he had missed. He smiled at Casey and rubbed his head and said, "Did you have fun with Faith so far?"

"Yeah, the best!" Casey answered, excitedly.

"I think this guy is adoptable. You should probably adopt him because he's just that amazing." Faith responded.

Casey blinked his eyes multiple times and he looks at Mako for a second and he's a little hopeful that he could be adopted and Mako knelt down to his level, looked at him straight in the eye and said, "You will be adopted soon and before we leave, I will talk with the folks at Bao Gu and go from there."

It wasn't what Casey expected, but he hopes that he'll get a chance to be taken in by the Bushido-Akio's soon and just wait for a while. The uncertainty is still lurking inside his head when a load of 'what if's' rush through his head, but a comforting paw from Faith helped ease his worries down a little and a smile from her adds to his hope and he smiles back as well.

He then looks back at Mako and nods his head in understanding and said, "Okay."

Mako couldn't help but wonder how he got that positive attitude from, but he certainly knew that in his heart of hearts that he's gonna be a Bushido-Akio soon. With that, Casey went with Mako as both of them head out for a while and see most of the other siblings while Casey waves bye to Faith and she waves back to him. From the looks of it, it looks as if the two are starting to become best friends...

...which was something that Casey never had and is really happy that he got that in Faith.

Looks like Casey's starting to accept others now...slowly but surely! Stay tuned for more!