I had every intention of just writing a oneshot because I've always admired how an author can organize their thoughts into one little chapter. However, because of the feedback I've gotten from and other sites, I've decided to draw it out a few more chapters, maybe solve this problem. ANYway, thank you for your reviews and such and I do hope these next few installments don't ruin the story.
Lithium, Chapter II
Like You
Their appearance at the Wind Academy was more than shocking to the other 3 former-ranger-now-sensei. Shane, Tori, and Cam seemed to be in a state of disbelief when they saw their crimson comrade come bounding out of the waterfall with their missing sensei.
"Hunter! Wow, it's great to see you!" Tori greeted, hugging him lightly.
Hunter smiled, returning the embrace; "Good to see you too, Tor."
Shane and Cam shook hands with Hunter in a sort of way to prove hugging was too effeminate for their taste.
"So what brings you back to our side of Blue Bay?" Shane teased.
"Well, I haven't been in Blue Bay in a while, actually. I went up north for some physical, mental, and spiritual training to master this new technique Sensei Amino taught me," Hunter explained.
Cam raised an eyebrow; "Are you talking about the—"
"I'd…rather not say," Hunter interrupted him, giving a cautious grin afterwards.
"Well how come you never came to say anything to us?" Tori asked as they all started to walk; Dustin had remained relatively quiet as they covered the campus.
"Well, he thought it'd be best to keep it a secret at the time," Hunter said, a little bashful of the subject, "So that no one would want to come along for 'protection.'"
They all laughed, excluding Dustin, who merely smiled at their laughter. It had been so long since almost all of them had been together, laughing like there was nothing else in the world but them.
"So are you back here for good?" Cam asked.
"Uh…yeah, I start back at the Thunder Academy in about a month; Sensei wanted me to have some time off."
"We all know your idea of time off is riding and training," Tori joked.
More laughter, before questions of recent happenings arose.
"Yeah, Cam and I are engaged," Tori revealed, pulling on said man's arm. "We haven't set a date yet, but we're in no rush," she giggled.
Cam blushed.
Hunter looked incredibly taken aback; he'd always suspected Cam to come out of the closet sooner or later with some of the looks he'd received from the samurai before.
"Dude, congratulations!" Hunter enthused
"And you, Shane?" Hunter asked.
"You know me; I'm too wild for just one girl to handle," Shane bragged, expanding his arms dramatically.
Dustin, Hunter, Tori, and Cam rolled their eyes with small chuckles.
"Did Dustin tell you about Kelly giving him the store?" Tori chimed in, remembering the big event.
"What?!" Hunter asked, his surprise evident.
Dustin smiled meekly, "Yeah, she's moving to Florida; Storm Chargers is going national."
Hunter grabbed him, shaking him almost dizzy; "Dude, that's great!"
Tori cocked an eyebrow. Hunter hadn't been that excited upon hearing news of the engagement, but seemed like Dustin had won the Olympics because he'd acquired a store?
"Yeah…really great," Tori replied half-heartedly.
By the time they reached the actual academy, they'd run into Marah and Kapri who quickly told Hunter all the latest gossip, including who was dating who and an entire recap of how Cam proposed to Tori, much to their cousin's dismay.
"Sounds like you've all been busy while I was away," Hunter summed up.
"You could say that, Hunter," Sensei replied to him, coming out of the Academy's front door.
Hunter turned towards his old sensei with a smile, bowing traditionally out of respect.
"Hey Sensei," Hunter greeted as he stood upright.
"It is a pleasure to see you again, Hunter," Sensei said, returning the bow.
"Oh, oh, sensei, we're ready for our test!" Kapri squealed.
Sensei looked skeptical, then smiled, "Alright girls, follow me."
Sensei bowed again, then bid Hunter and the others farewell as he re-entered the academy, accompanied by giddy Marah and Kapri.
"Yeah, we better be going too; we've got to finalize our lesson plans," Cam spoke up.
Shane and Tori nodded, "You comin' Dustin?"
"Yeah, in a minute guys," he replied as they began to walk away towards the academy doors.
That left Hunter and Dustin alone again.
"Man I miss those guys," Hunter said, breaking the small silence creeping in.
"Yeah, yeah, they're pretty amazing," Dustin said, "You should be around more often."
Hunter sobered up, "Yeah…I know. I haven't talked to Blake in 5 months."
"Whoa…man, 5 months?" Dustin asked, careful not to pry too much.
"Yeah, I didn't know how much time had passed until this week," Hunter replied, now starting to stroll away from the front academy doors where students were beginning to enter.
"Have you really been training that long?" Dustin asked.
"Well, yeah, this technique is near impossible; it was thought to exist only in myths and accomplished by people who were perfectly in tune with their element," Hunter responded.
"You really don't wanna say, do you?" Dustin questioned with a small grin at his secret boyfriend's secrecy.
Hunter was quiet, and then he looked at Dustin—their eyes meeting in some intense emotional meeting. A slight breeze ruffled Hunter's hair, but it didn't distract his soul-filled gaze piercing Dustin's own deep eyes.
"I…I found a way to talk to my parents," Hunter said quietly.
Dustin's eyes flickered a bit before he blinked several times; "You mean…you can talk to…to dead people?"
Hunter nodded, "I want to teach you."
Dustin looked away.
"I just…I want to be with her…"
"What do you mean?"
"Sometimes I just wonder if maybe it'd be easier if I was de—" Hunter cut him off.
"Dustin, no."
Dustin didn't look back at Hunter, their eyes not meeting; in fact their eyes were more frantically dodging the other pair that neither of them even knew who was looking at who. It was indeed a tense moment that seemed to be interminable until finally, Dustin walked off without a word.
"Maybe I shouldn't have said anything," Hunter whispered to himself.