Effren was about to spout some doubt ill-conceived come back, and nobody needed that.

I shot him a wink, partly to show that there were no hard feelings and partly to let him know that I was ending the interaction on my terms.

I turned to Buster, injecting extra enthusiasm into my voice.  “Buuuuusteeeer!”.  Little pause for effect.  He knew what was coming and he was loving it. “Hi!”
“No” rumbled the big guy around a huge grin “just really happy to see you!”
I freely admit it’s not the best comedy routine in the world, at least I very much hope it isn’t.  It had taken me about three weeks to teach Buster the joke and I’m still not convinced that he understands it, but that wasn’t the point.
Bonding, including teamwork and associated mumbo-jumbo was the point, at least that’s what I wanted everyone to believe.  The actual point was making sure Buster was my best friend so if he should fly into indiscriminate violence, hopefully there wouldn’t be any indiscriminate coming my way.

Prue spoke up, cutting through the banter.  “Now that we’re all here, let’s get to it.”

As everyone shifted focus, I held up one hand for Buster to slap so the big guy would know he’d done well.  It had taken me a long time and a lot of bruises to get him to dial back his enthusiasm, but we had it sorted now.

Prue raised an eyebrow and I held up my hands.  It was time for business.

“Word from the shops and markets is that Aldor Thiviar, a very well-known wizard, has been making the rounds trying to buy identify scrolls. He’s after several scrolls, so that tells us that he has come into a few magical items. We’re going to steal them!”