Hope you enjoy.j

Bryan's POV

After I told everyone my reason to come and join the Protectors, Firework walked us back to our spot since he was still refusing to let me get down. The white haired girl stepped up to introduce herself.

"My name is Relena peacecraft. Before I came here, I was a guard in my old village called Drasol.'' (There's a large chance I got the name of the village wrong so let me know if I did)

''I basically just helped people and defended them from evil creatures and such.'' When she said that, I was slightly worried that some of the creatures weren't evil but were attacked because of their species. Lo Pho either had the same worries as me, noticed my worry, or was just completely curious based on what happened next, but I believe it was the 2nd option as he looked me in the eyes as he spoke up.

"And what exactly makes these creatures evil?" It seemed like she was expecting the question as she gave a soft yet sad smile.

"They stole things, killed people, you know evil things like that." Lo Pho nodded and Bri looked towards him.

"What do you think Lo Pho? She seems to have a good history when it comes to this." He nodded in agreement before the blue haired boy stepped up to introduce himself.

"Hi, my name is Jake but everyone calls me Jakey-" he was cut off by Kay saying "hi" to him.

"Hello, and this here is Oliver." He pointed to the animal I didn't recognize. Kay and I were both awing over how cute he is. I wanted to do something but asked for permission first.

"C-can I p-pet him?" Jakey smiled at me before nodding.

"You can pet him if you like." I gave a quick thanks before kneeling and sticking my hand out towards him. Everyone except for Jakey, Lo Pho, Oliver and Firework looked confused. I gave a quick explanation to what I was doing.

"If you're petting an animal, even if it's someone's pet, than it's best to let them come to you and sniff you. Because even if the owner gives you permission, the animal might not want to be pet." Jakey nodded at my answer while Lo Pho added his own part to the explanation.

"It's true, but another reason you should let the animal come too you because it might have trust issues and will attack anyone who tries to touch it." When Lo Pho finished the 3 girls seemed to understand why I was sticking my hand out.

Oliver slowly made his way towards me, and stopped in front of my hand. He started too sniff my hand before licking it. I started to pet him and he seemed to enjoy it as he jumped onto my lap and started quickly licking my face. I started laughing and tried to speak.

"H-h-hey th-that t-tickles." I was laughing the entire time and I heard the others laughing. Once everyone calmed down (except for me since I was still being licked) Jakey said something that surprised most of us.
"I've never seen Oliver act this way with anyone other than me." Everyone was surprised to hear that.

I could sense Firework making his way towards us. I felt his fur against my body as he laid down next to me. Oliver stopped licking me and looked towards Firework with curiosity. They sniffed each other and Oliver licked Firework on the face, as they both started nuzzling each other. I could tell everybody's heart was melting at the scene. I let out a chuckle and said what crossed my mind.

"Well would you look at that, they're already friends." After I finished that sentence, Firework and Oliver looked at each other before tackling me and lick all over my face.

When they finished licking me to death, Oliver went back to Jakey and Firework curled up around me. I soon realized that everyone was looking at me with smiles on their faces. I felt blood rush to my cheeks and buried my face in Firework's fur. I heard a few voices say "awww" before Bri cleared her throat which resulted in Firework bringing me over to where we were standing earlier.

"I would like to ask you guys a few more questions, so are you guys okay with me asking a few questions?" We all have our own versions of the answer yes.

"So who would like to go first?" No one answered so Firework decided to take action by pushing me towards the centre of the room and curling up near my feet.

"I... guess I'm going first." She softly smiled before going back to the serious look she had earlier.

"Now this question isn't one that I was planning on asking you guys but I do feel like I need to ask it." I felt nervous at that and the others took notice of this.

"O-oh you don't need to answer it if you don't want too." Bri said with worry lacing her voice.

"U-m I-it's fine, I-I'll answer it." She nodded her head before asking the question.

"How did you and Firework meet? And why do you only seem to speak up when he convinces you?" I sighed before answering the question.

"Well, w-we met quite a few years ago, about 4 after my parents death. I would usually play with wild animals all my life and once I bonded enough with the animals, I could understand what they were saying if they wanted me to know. I was playing with some wild rabbits at the edge of the forest next to my adoptive family's house when all of a sudden, I felt like I had to go into the forest and told the rabbits about my feeling. They left but not before telling me to be careful and get back before the sun starts to set so I don't get lost." I was so focused on the story I didn't notice everyone staring at me with interest or how they reacted when I mentioned I could understand animals if they want too.

"The feeling seemed to guide me to a clearing in the forest. I saw an abnormally large, grey wolf with black, tiger stripe markings on their fur. I knew that wolves are dangerous but it was like something was telling me to go to it. When I got close enough, I saw that it had one of its legs stuck in a bear trap. I tried to get over to the wolf as quickly as possible without scaring it but it seemed to notice me. It seemed startled but calmed down when we locked eyes. I told the wolf that I was going to try and open the bear trap and that when I do get it open, the wolf was going to have to move its leg away from the bear trap." I smiled softly as I talked about the memory.

"After I opened the bear trap and the wolf got their leg out, it healed almost instantly. I was extremely surprised when the wolf actually spoke. The wolf thanked me and told me that they were a male, I asked if he had a name and when he said that he didn't, I asked if he wanted the name Firework, he thought for a moment and nodded. We talked for a bit and I realized that the sun was starting to go down. I than realized that I didn't know how to get back home. He seemed to sense my distress as he gave me a lick and asked what was wrong. I told him about how when I was near the edge of the forest, something was telling me to come here and that I wasn't paying attention to where I was going so I don't know how to get back. He laid down and told me to get on his back, and once I did he told me to hang on tight." The others were silent as they listened to my story.

"He sniffed the ground where I once was and took of running, in about 10 minutes we got to the edge of the forest. He helped me get off of his back and steady myself since I almost fell over. I asked him if we could talk tomorrow and he agreed. We hung out everyday and I eventually told him about my what happened to my parents and wasn't upset since he didn't want to talk about his past because it was probably really personal. He also told me about his powers and we later found out that we were somehow connected with each other, which is why I got that feeling to go into the woods and he got a feeling that he could trust me." I took a breath before continuing.

"The reason why I don't really talk unless Firework convinces me is because I'm incredibly shy, according to Firework, and the only times I really talk without Firework convincing are when I'm talking to animals or when I'm telling a story and I start rambling, and when I realize I was rambling, u-uh, I s-st-start stuttering a-and umm..." My face went red which caused Firework to sit up so I buried my face into his fur. After a few seconds, I took my face out of his fur even though my face was still red.

"That was a nice thing you did Bryan, you don't see many people with that kindness towards animals these days." I blushed more and buried my face into Firework's fur when Lo Pho complimented me. They all look confused but Firework spoke up.

"He's easily flustered and embarrassed, and whenever he's feeling one of those emotions, he buries his face into my fur." I buried my face even deeper into his fur. I heard giggles and lifted my head when they stopped.

"C-can we j-just move onto the next questions?" Bri nodded with a smile.

"The first, or in this case second, question is: why did you want to join the Protectors? I know you already said why earlier but I am required to ask why." I nodded before giving my answer.

"I-I have 3 reasons, the 1 that y-you don't know is I want to be more c-confident. Th-the other 2 reasons are th-that I want to protect people who can't protect t-th-themselves and to f-find out wh-who started the fire th-that killed my parents..." I trailed off at the end as small tears appeared in the corner of my eyes and I felt something soft hug my legs before I felt myself get pulled into a hug, I looked down and saw Lo Pho hugging my legs while I could tell by the clothes that Jakey was the one who pulled me into a hug. I leaned down to pick Lo Pho up and I hugged him back for a moment before the tears in my eyes disappeared and gave both of them a small smile.

"Thanks Lo Pho, thanks Jakey, I really needed that." They nodded as I placed Lo pho down and he went back to Bri while Jakey went back to his spot. I noticed the girls and Oliver were looking at me with worry on their faces. I knew Firework was worried because I felt him licking my hand.

"S-sorry about that, I never really talked much about my parents after they died so I just kept the feelings bottled up." Kay smiled softly and spoke.

"It's okay Bryan, everyone has things they don't like to talk about. Even if they don't know about it." Everyone nodded as I gave a small smile.

"I-I'm ready for the next question." Bri gave a nod before moving onto the next question.

"If you saw an innocent about to be murdered, what would you do?" I had already knew what I would do.

"I would start by getting the innocent away from the threat, after that I would try to knock out the threat and when I do manage to get them unconscious, I would bring them to a prison." Everyone looked at least a little impressed, even me, when I didn't stutter.

"*gasp* I didn't stutter, this probably won't last but at least I can manage a sentence without stuttering for a bit."All of them except for Firework looked slightly confused at that.

"For a bit?" I looked at Relena before confirming her sentence.

"Yeah, every so often, I'm able to speak without stuttering, but it has never lasted more than a month." Everyone nodded and Bri spoke again.

"The final questions, isn't exactly a question but can you demonstrate your powers?" I smiled brightly and nodded so quickly I almost fell over, the reason I didn't fall over is because Firework caught me before I could. Bri looked at me with concern and was about to speak when I beat her to it.

"I'm good. I just got a bit... Excited." She nodded with a small amount of concern in her eyes.

I walked a bit closer to the door and told them to back up. Once they did, I pulled out my staff and took a deep breath. I summoned a small ring of fire around me and before anyone could say anything, I summoned a Fire pillar around me and yelled "fire pillar!!"

I heard a bunch of sounds of amazement from the others, but the fire pillar lasted much longer and was much stronger than it should have, I suddenly felt kind of dizzy. They all noticed but Firework was the first one to react and dashed towards me which caused me to fall into him. The others rushed over to me but gave me space as they didn't want to stress me. Firework was also the first one to realize that I could barely stand.

"Help him get onto my back." I'm not sure who helped me since there was black dots in my vision and my ears started ringing. Firework realized that I couldn't hear anyone because of the fact we're somehow connected, and any words from the others came out as mumbles, but I guess he told them because the mumbles stopped.

No one's POV

"Wh-what happened to Bryan?" Is what came out of Bri's mouth when Firework told everyone that Bryan can't hear them.

"And what do you mean he can't hear us?" Lo Pho was extremely worried, along with Oliver who wanted to jump up and cuddle with Bryan but decided against it because it was obvious Bryan wasn't doing so good. Jakey, Relena, and Kay were also worried but didn't speak.

"To answer Bri's question, I believe it might have been the fire pillar because that was much more powerful and lasted much longer than it should have, so it's probably drained most of his energy. And to answer Lo Pho's question, we can communicate because of our connection and he told me that he's dizzy, has some black spots in his vision, and that his ears are ringing." Bri was confused when he said the part about the fire pillar.

"What do you mean, the fire pillar was more powerful and lasted longer than it should have?" Everyone looked at Firework and he sighed before answering.

"You see, the fire pillars that Bryan summoned in the past which were the closest to the power and how long it lasted, was half as powerful and lasted less than half the time of that one we just saw. He's going to be good by tomorrow the latest and by the time everyone is done the fastes, but he needs to lay down. You guys can continue and I'll use my connection to tell him what's going on." Everyone was hesitant but still did what Firework suggested.

~time skip since this part is getting long~

Bryan was feeling better by the time everyone finished and was asked if he was okay. He told the others that the only thing that wasn't okay was that his ears were still ringing a bit, but he could hear them. Everyone left after saying goodbye and telling the others to be safe (mostly directed towards Bryan).

Hope you enjoyed, remember to always try and have a good day/night. Bye wolf pups!!