Weight of the World-p.r.s

27-little brother

A hand snapping fingers in front of her face snapped Brooke out of her thoughts. She got a glare at Mike, pushing his hand away, and he laughed. "Wow, you were really deep in thought. You just stopped walking." He teased, and Emily hit his shoulder.

"Be nice!" Emily chided, and Mike snickered. Shaking her head at him, she turned her attention to Brooke. "Are you alright? You were really quiet." She asked, and Brooke averted her gaze, her cheeks heating up.

Well, shit. She hadn't realized she had just stopped walking, and her eyes flashed multiple times as her canines grew in. "Yeah, yeah. I was just thinking about a lot, my bad. Sorry." Brooke rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly, and the team was rather nonchalant about it.

"Just making sure you're okay," Mia responded, and Brooke flashed her a sheepish smile.

"Yeah, I'm good. Sorry." Brooke apologized, and they started walking again. Everything went back to normal, and the embarrassment subsided rather quickly, but it returned at full force when Jayden spoke.

"You muttered my name. What were you thinking about?" Jayden wondered, partly teasing and partly curious. He was happy Brooke thought of him- and while it was extremely stupid, it was the truth. Seeing her struggle to come up with a response was also amusing to him, and he raised his eyebrows at her.

Fuck, Brooke thought, and she knew her face was going to be the color of Jayden's ranger suit in a matter of seconds. What could she say? That she was thinking about her pretty much unbearable crush that she had on him? No. That would spell disaster, so Brooke just made a random hand motion to answer. She didn't know why she was so embarrassed, usually, she wasn't- she used to be able to maintain her cool around guys she liked. Used to.

She couldn't be more grateful when the six started walking down the gravel path that led to the Shiba House. Brooke could avoid facing Jayden's question by taking a shower and a nap, and that sounded great. Though, he seemed to be fine with her nonverbal answer, just shaking his head with a small smile and not pressing the issue. Which was great.

The seven walked through the gates, Antonio joining the rest of the team, to find Ji picking tomatoes. He raised his head at the sound of footsteps crunching across the gravel, holding a basket of tomatoes. "Hey guys, how'd it go?" He asked, and Jayden shot his mentor a weary smile.

"It was fine," Jayden responded, and he glanced at Brooke, who had her brows knit. Her eyes flashed, landing on a color that was more gold than grey, her upper lip curling around her canines. "Everything okay?" He asked, and she shook her head.

"Someone else is here," Brooke muttered, having a slight lisp due to her canines. The smell of a forest- not Jayden's old cologne, but an actual forest, stuck out against the familiar scents.

It was a trail, and Brooke didn't wait for the others to respond before she was power-walking to the doors. One of them was left open, and she shifted, following the scent trail into the meeting room. She was on guard, the six other rangers trailing the brown wolf, Antonio and Jayden sharing a confused glance at their childhood friend's actions. She rounded the corner to see a boy- probably thirteen, sitting on one of the chairs in the meeting room and resting his feet on the coffee table. He had dirty blonde hair and was wearing a flannel tucked into some jeans with a brown belt, paired with red converse, and wolf-Brooke glanced at Jayden. She flicked her ears, and he walked into the meeting room, furrowing his brows.

"Hello?" Jayden greeted, sounding more skeptical than anything.

The boy instantly stood up, wiping the dirt off the coffee table. He also hurriedly grabbed his satchel, turning to face the rangers and the brown wolf. "You must be the red ranger," He greeted, stretching out a hand and walking towards Jayden. Who took it, the two shaking hands. The boy's eyes then landed on wolf-Brooke, who wagged her tail slowly. "A shifter." He blurted, and in a series of cracking noises, Brooke shifted back.