Chapter 2 : There's A Ghost Ninja In My Bathroom!

Kade was probably the last member of his family still waking up, which was saying something, considering his family. His dad said that probably meant he was about to hit a growth spurt, which would be great, because all of his siblings were so much taller than him.

But it was a Saturday, and he didn't have to be anywhere, so he took his time getting ready. Brushing his teeth, hair — fending off a bamf with funny glasses with a fake nose. The usual.

He was having a good, easy morning all the way up until a ninja materialized out of his mirror hissing out something in Japanese — complete with throwing stars in hand.

"Augh!" Kade bit out, teleporting up to the ceiling with his tail straight up behind him — and ready to teleport again if the ninja didn't go away. He still wasn't very good at teleporting farther than he could see.

The curses in Japanese continued, quick and quiet as the ninja floated toward him, and that was about all he was going to take.

He teleported out into the main room of his parents' suite, wide-eyed and breathing hard. "Mom!" he shouted at the first parent he saw. "There's a ghost ninja in my bathroom."

Kate stared at him for a moment, completely taken aback. "There's a what?"

"There is a ninja. In my bathroom," Kade repeated again, his eyes still wide before he teleported right to her to grab her hand. "Come on."

Kate looked dubious but let Kade pull her to the bathroom — where there was absolutely nothing to be seen.

When Kate turned to face him, he already had his hands up and the most sincere expression he could manage. "I swear, Mom. I'm not making things up."

"And this is the same as the demon in the shower?" Kate said with one eyebrow raised.

Kade shook his head quickly. "No! This was an actual, real ghost ninja. Came right out of my mirror and started speaking some other language and floated up to me on the ceiling like — like a ghost ninja, Mom!"

"Kade, I'm really sure that even if there were such a thing as a ghost ninja — which I doubt — then they would come after Logan, not you," Kate pointed out. "You are not the ninja bait in this family."

"But Mom—"

"Kade, we're really going to have to work on your believability. You have to take things seriously sometimes, baby. Ninjas are an actual problem," Kate said as she simply grabbed Kade by the hand and started to pull him toward the room she shared with Kurt so he could know what their youngest son was up to now.

There was a soft knock on the door, and when Kate opened it, looking irritated, she truly wasn't expecting Cody to be standing there. "Can I talk to Kari, please?" he asked in a quiet sort of tone. "I won't get in the middle of this … ninja sighting."

"Don't encourage him," Kate said tiredly.

"I'm not," Cody said, holding both hands up. "He did see a ninja. He's projecting it like crazy."

"See?" Kade said, gesturing to Cody with both his hands and his tail. "He believes me!"

Kate frowned at Kade for a moment before the expression turned into something a little sharper before she turned to Cody. "Kari's back in her room. You know the rules — door open. All that. I think I need to talk with Logan if there is actually a ninja problem."

"There's too much detail for it to be a lie," Cody said. "And thank you." He headed for Kari's door and, again, gently knocked and stepped back to wait for her.

When Kari opened her door, she looked surprised to see Cody and then broke into a grin. "Come on in. Try not to step on anything… I've sort of got a whole bunch of pictures scattered everywhere. Looking for inspiration."

He carefully found a path through her organized chaos and tried to be as small as he could as he took a seat at her desk. "I was hoping that you might help me." He gestured to some of the artwork on the walls around them. "I wanted to use one of your pieces."

"Of course," Kari said quickly. "Which one did you want?"

"I don't know," he said honestly. He frowned to himself and then rested his hand on his opposite upper arm. "But I wanted to put something here."

"Ooooh," she said, nodding her quick understanding as she shifted focus, looking through all of her artwork. "Okay, then you probably don't want anything with a face… something else... what about something from space?" she asked. "Sying sent me all of his pictures from his space trip, and Ael sent me a few more last time they were on Hala. There's a few really neat symbols..."

"Maybe," he said, nodding.

Kari rifled through her sketchbook until she found one that she liked — a series of little sketches from the artifacts Sying found in his explorations. "Some of these don't even have a translation… but this one is 'life' and this one is 'strength' and this one is 'love'," she said as she pointed them out. "And the next three pages are pencil drawings from the sunsets on other planets. The skylines create the coolest shadows when the suns are at different angles…"

He nodded at that and thought about it for a long moment. "Would it be too much to ask for something new?"

"No, not at all!" she assured him quickly. "I love trying new things."

He let out a breath and frowned deeply. "I don't have a picture … but … more like a memory." He looked up at her and weighed it out for a long moment. "Can … can I just show you?"

"Go right ahead," she said. "I've done that with Tristan before - he wanted a picture of his mom without her knowing."

He nodded at that and took a moment to concentrate before he reached out to show her a memory from when he was younger — on one of the short trips that he'd taken with his father to Alaska. The mountain range was almost lit up at night as the northern lights danced overhead, silent and shifting the whole while, moving through the color spectrum, though most of it was blues and greens.

Kari's eyebrows shot up, and she couldn't help but gasp at the beauty of the lights before she blinked back to reality, still with the image seared in her mind. "Oh, yeah, I can definitely do that," she promised him, already rummaging around for her pencils to get a rough sketch while it was still in her head. "That needs to be painted… I can have it for you by the fall formal if you're in a rush."

"I don't want to rush you," Cody replied. "Just whenever."

"Well, it's not like I'd be going anyway," Kari said, waving her hand. "Graduated. Not on the staff…"

"Yeah, I … kinda missed all of that."

"Oh yeah, that's right." Kari glanced up at him with some of the spark of her artistic fervor gone as she tipped her head at him. "You missed the last two…"

"It's fine. Everyone our age is going out and doing their own thing that day anyhow, I'm sure," Cody said. "It's probably nothing that big."

Kari frowned at him for a moment and then shook her head. "No, no. You missed out on the two years where it's most fun," she said. "We should give you a senior formal. You don't have to wear a costume, but we could totally go together. I'll even wash off the paint smears," she teased.

"I … that … might not be bad," he said. "But that's a lot of people too."

"It's always a lot of people," she said. "And you don't have to go if you don't want to, really. It's just a shame you missed out. The dances were always fun."

"I … could try it?" he said. "I should be trying to be around more people, right?"

"And if you hate it, we can always just leave. I'm a homebody anyway; I wouldn't mind cutting it short and spending the time painting instead," Kari assured him.

"As long as I'm not taking up too much of your time," Cody said slowly.

"Cody, we grew up together," Kari said with a smile. "I think we can handle one dance together, can't we?" She paused. "Unless… you'd rather go with Zoe?"

Cody also stopped, one hand at the base of his neck. "I…" He tried to reorder his thoughts. "I think you're the safer bet."

Kari wasn't sure how to react to that, so she simply raised one eyebrow. "I am? How?"

Again, Cody rubbed his neck as he tried to find the right words to explain himself. "Zoe… has made her interest pretty clear. You're asking as a friend. She…" He sighed. "I don't want to start anything I don't think I'm ready for. That's not fair to her."

"That's actually kind of romantic or you." She smiled his way. "I'm glad - you need the time to figure you out."

He tried to give her a little smile. "Maybe eventually," he said. "But thank you. For helping me."

"That's what friends are for," she assured him, still with the same smile she'd had on the whole time before she shooed him out the door so she could get to work on the sketch while it was still fresh in her mind.

Meanwhile, Nina had simply phased through the floor after scaring Kade in the bathroom and made a rush for her room — straight through anything that was in her way. She changed quickly and stowed the costume and the throwing stars that she'd 'borrowed' from Logan's collection of weapons in his combat classroom and tried to quickly catch her breath and look relaxed, sure that someone was going to figure it out fast.

She grabbed the first book on her shelf and dropped onto her bed - then started to try to read.

Of course, there was a knock at her door before she had settled in too comfortably. And when she called for the knocker to come in, she barely managed to keep a smile on her face.

"A ghost ninja," Logan said, crossing his arms over his chest. "And you really thought you were gonna get away with it?"

"Ghost ninja?" Nina said in as innocent a tone as she could manage.

"Cut the crap, princess," he said flatly. "You smell anxious, and I'm entirely sure that your brother couldn't pull off the Japanese part. Come on. You need to start by going to the Wagners. All of 'em."

"Oh come on!"

"The longer you take, the more you're gonna be running with me."

Nina finally let her shoulders drop. "Okay, but you have to admit - he had it coming!"

He tipped his head to the side and raised one eyebrow. "I'm gonna want those throwing stars too."

"They — they're in my closet," Nina admitted at last. "I was going to give them back!"

He held his hand out and waited for her to give them to him. "Uh-huh. Come on; they're waiting for you."

Nina sighed as she went back to the closet to get the throwing stars. "Oh sure. Kade's been a little demon but he can't take it," she said, shaking her head.

"So this is your first time seein' that little boys can't take it?" Logan asked out of the side of his mouth as they headed down to where the Wagners were waiting. "I find that hard to believe."

"I have a brother; I already knew that," Nina said, rolling her eyes. "But come on."

"Go on," he said, gesturing for her to move forward. "He's not off the hook either."

She let out a sigh as she went to meet the Wagners — though it was clear that Kade was the most annoyed out of all of them. Kurt looked like he was trying his best to look stern, and Kate looked more annoyed with Kade than anything else.

Not that Logan was helping him at all from where he stood behind Nina, smirking crookedly where she couldn't see him, with a hand on her shoulder. "Whatcha got to say for yourself, punkin'?"

"I'm not a ghost ninja?" she said with a troublemaking sort of look that she couldn't quite stop.

"That's right. You're a ghost ninja in training," Logan said with a nod.

Nina couldn't quite help but smirk at that, and she especially couldn't help smirking when Kade insisted, "You scared the crap out of me!"

"You … do it all the time," Nina said. But when the adults all gave her a look at that, she let out a breath. "Sorry for scaring you."

"And now you know how it feels, right, Kade?" Kate said pointedly. "So you won't do it again."

"But Mom-"

"Excuse you?"

"Yes, Mama," Kade said, his ears drooping with his sigh.

Logan and Kurt were clearly remembering a different era, though, by the way the two of them were smirking at each other. "I'll take mine …" Logan said. "Have fun with yours."

"I'm sure I will," Kurt replied, still not quite able to stow the smirk.

As Logan steered Nina away from the Wagners, he leaned forward to whisper over her shoulder. "If you want to learn Japanese, all you gotta do is ask. Kurt never learned more than enough to order drinks."

Nina glanced up at him and grinned. "I… may have asked Sadie some of the best curses…"

"Uh-huh," he said, shaking his head. "We'll be running before class for all of next week."

She let out all her breath in a sigh. "Fine," she said. "But it was totally worth it."

"I'm sure it was," Logan agreed as he put his arm around her shoulders. "Since you've already got your punishment — why don't you tell me how you nailed him?"

She broke into an even wider grin. "He never saw me coming," she said.

"Course not," Logan replied, smirking a little bit for her now. "You're learning to be a ninja. He hasn't got a chance."

"He squeaked so loud and ended up on the ceiling."

He chuckled at that and shifted their direction to head for the garage. "Did you get his tail to stick out like a cat?"

"Oh yeah. Straight up."

He didn't even bother hiding the smile at that point. "Unrelated — how about a bite out?"

"Oh yeah, that's definitely unrelated," she giggled.

Cody had started shooting again, first with his mom because he was rusty and because Annie wanted to spend time with her son every chance she got and then by himself in the mornings because he liked having something that was his and not Sinister's. Sinister had looked down on his love of weapons; this felt like a rebellion the same way sleeping in and drinking coffee did.

He was just winding down for the morning when he heard the bright mental voice of Zoe Barton as she came skipping over, her red hair giving her away long before she was close enough that he could see her face.

"Mind if I join you?" Zoe asked, grinning.

Cody gestured wordlessly. "Go ahead. I'm almost done, actually."

Zoe pushed her lips out in a pout. "Oh. I was hoping we could shoot together. I am a Barton. I can pull off trick shots with anything with range."

"I know you can," Cody said, smirking.

"Then why don't you hang out? We can talk in between targets," Zoe offered. She set down the case she'd been carrying and started to put her bow together.

Cody shrugged lightly. He still wasn't sure what to do with Zoe, though he did enjoy hanging out with her. So, he found himself leaning against the wall as Zoe fired her first round of arrows.

At first, they actually did just hang out while she did some target practice, but after a while, Cody could hear her thoughts — he still wasn't good at staying out of others' minds, especially when it was quiet.

Wonder if he'd freak out if I asked him out to ice cream….

Cody swallowed hard, thinking of the conversation he'd recently had with Kari, and knew he had to say something to prevent any misunderstandings. He didn't want to end up like his big brother, with a girl who was actually interested but backed off because he went on dates with other girls.

He cleared his throat. "So, um…" When Zoe turned his way, he found himself having to clear his throat again, because she was flush with the joy of archery for a Hawkeye, and she looked so good he very nearly asked her out. Except… he wasn't ready for that. And he'd just told Kari he didn't want to mess things up with her by jumping into something he wasn't ready for. He liked her too much for that.

So, he tried again.

"So, um… Kari informed me I need to have the senior dance experience so I can get used to being around crowds," he said, then winced, because he wasn't trying to throw Kari under the bus, but it sure sounded like it. "I mean… I told her I'd missed out on a lot of stuff but that I wasn't ready to dive back in and, you know, date or go to big parties or whatever… And she said I should at least go to the dance and duck out if it gets overwhelming."

A slow smile started at the corner of Zoe's mouth. "Cody," she said slowly, "are you asking me to the dance?"

Cody rubbed the back of his neck, letting his gaze fall to the ground. "Actually, I'm going with Kari." When Zoe didn't respond, he looked up to see her slightly open mouth and rushed to explain himself. "Just as friends. She doesn't have anyone she's interested in, and I wanted to go with someone I'm not romantically interested in, because the last thing I need is to screw up a good date with someone I actually like because I can't handle all those minds in one room."

Zoe blinked at him a few more times before she nodded softly. "It's alright," she said. "I know you're still picking up the pieces."

"Yeah, well…" Cody took a deep breath and let it out. "I'm … still not good at asking for anything for myself…"

"It's okay," she said quickly. "I'm not trying to pressure you. I get it." She paused, bouncing her weight from one foot to the other. "I asked my parents about what it's like to care about someone who's been through something like this, you know. And I know not to push."

"Yeah, well…" Cody took a deep breath and let it out. "Like I said, I'm not good at asking for anything for myself, but can I be selfish for a minute and ask you something?"

Zoe nodded, her eyes wide. "Yes, please."

He smiled at her response. She really was cute, and when she looked that excited, he kind of wanted to kiss her.

Which was new. And he really liked that development.

So, he broke into a grin and stepped toward her to take her hand and squeeze it. "Please don't give up," he said.

Zoe grinned up at him, and he could hear her desire to kiss him too. But she didn't, and he didn't. He wasn't sure why.

Instead, she simply squeezed his hand back. "I won't," she promised.