The Time Love Takes

Conflicting Objectives – Hunter

Summary – Being a ranger does not always guarantee a happy ending. Romantically speaking, sometimes the will of a few humble rangers doesn't play out the way they'd want it to, for a multitude of reasons. Hunter knows this better than others. So does Eric, and Damon, and…

Notes – Six year anniversary, and I'm ashamed that for the first time, I missed the mark by a few days :(. While December 2nd marks the official passage of my writing anniversary, things have been particularly busy this year, so please accept this humble offering of story a few days after the fact.

This is a prompt that toys with the idea of failed romances, of relationships that weren't quite meant to be, which is an angle that's yet to be explored in the 'Any Moment' verse. This story takes place during many different time periods, but this first chapter can be placed between the events of 'Happiness is a Firefly' and 'All Things Great and True'. You don't really need to read either of those to ride the angst-train though, that's free of charge :).

Thank you to everyone who's read my stories – be they long-time reader or new to the fold. I am forever grateful to have an audience crazy enough to have stuck around for this long, and I sincerely hope that these stories have provided some kind of happiness or entertainment for you, however little.

Extra thanks to The Real Vampire and Kei Luna Shoryu, for their kindness, support, and friendship. Vamps, you've helped me grow into the writer I am today and Kei, you rekindle my enthusiasm for Power Rangers with prompts and ideas that make me fall in love with the fandom all over again. I am grateful for both of you, and forever in your debt :)

Warnings – References to boy/boy relations, adult language, and general angstiness.

This baby is raw and un-beta'd, so all mistakes are my own.

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At this point, hating Cam was a safety net for Hunter.

He knew it wasn't kind, knew it hurt Shane in a small way – the same hurt the air ninja suffered whenever his friends were attacked ('kind' didn't even begin to breach the depth of words required to accurately describe the other ranger's character), but it was… necessary.

For a time, Hunter had honed his rage into a shield that had made the situation bearable – had met the standards required to justify any guilt or potential shame – but that time had long since passed. Now Hunter was left with the bitter ramifications of his actions, the results of his survival mechanisms seeming to perpetuate in an endless repetition.

He didn't like it. Didn't like the way his hatred hung over all their interactions like a second skin, something so inherently accepted that the others no longer saw need to question it, to fight it, to deter it. The fact that something so negative had become a given standard made Hunter feel nauseous, even more so when faced with the fact that this result was directly by his hand. He had made this. He was the one who couldn't end it.

He was the one who was holding onto something with the sheer terror that the moment that he let it go, his entire world might crash around his feet.

Here was the plain and simple truth of it:

Hunter liked Cam.

Hunter liked Cam a lot, had always liked Cam and – once the tech felt comfortable enough around them to actually come out of his shell – Hunter liked his sarcastic and snarky ass even more.

Which had been a particular problem, because Cam hadn't liked him.

Hunter wasn't sure where they stood now (though if his understanding of socially-wayward individuals was up-to-date, he and Cam held each other with begrudging respect), but he knew for a fact that the Cam of old was not particularly fond of Hunter. Some might have called him 'jealous' or 'borderline hostile' in the wake of conflicting emotional interactions that his shut-in ass had probably been struggling to come to terms with, but Hunter was just spitballing here.

The point of this little diatribe was ultimately that Cam – Cam did not like Hunter. In the moments where Hunter had been striving to work for the opposite opinion, Cam had been cultivating a dislike for Hunter, and when the blond had dared to even try – gasp – making a move on Cam, well…

The entire ordeal had been a train wreck so goddamn spectacular, Hunter was just – amazed that he had managed to miss it.

Cam had hurt him.

Now that they knew each other better – now that Hunter had a taste of the actual and real Cam – the blond knew that the tech's actions had not been intentionally malicious. In hindsight, his motivations seemed almost… innocently naïve.

Because Cam must have thought… he must have thought there was no way he could have ever hurt Hunter. He must have assumed that the blond was either so grossly uninvested in him that any kind of rejection would have just rolled off of Hunter's back or that he, himself, was not a big enough – a grand enough – prize to warrant any kind of ill-feeling upon not being deemed worthy of being his significant other. Or something.

The only reason Cam could have possibly pulled the shit he had was because he couldn't have thought that it mattered.

For Hunter, it had been the exact opposite.

The only reason he had been really willing to try was because he thought, just– based on what Blake had going with Tori – he thought maybe this would be a situation he couldn't lose. Cam wasn't some random teenager, Cam was a ranger, and before that, he was team support and–

And that meant something. Hunter had seen all the old news reports about the previous ranger teams. Every newscast about Wes Collins and Eric Myers, about Carter Grayson and the Lightspeed Rescue team. He saw these people – the damn Space rangers, who had revealed their identities for the sake of protecting innocent civilians – all of these people, they were just… greater, than your average person. They had this…they just knew, alright? They had to know, know the cost of a battle and what was at stake, they had to know determination and the unyielding need to do the right thing. Their teams had it and Hunter's team – while scrappy and thrown together and, frankly, all kind of assholes – they had it too. In their own ways.

Hunter saw Cam – this, one and a million person – and thought, for the first time, that he might be safe. That there might be something there that he could actually pursue. That this might be a road he could possibly go down without fear of total failure, or condemnation, or rejection.

If there would be a refusal, Cam would have been nice about it, Hunter thought. He was a ranger, and just – inherently good – so he wouldn't be- he couldn't be cruel.

This mindset – these projections – that was all on Hunter. Cam had entered into an understanding that the blond had never been stupid enough to explain, because he had thought – assumed (and you know what they say about assuming) that Cam just…knew. He was a smart guy, he had to know.

Hunter threw himself in and he never bothered with any of the warning signs – never mind that Cam was a genius, completely devoid of any peers that could shield him from isolation. Never mind that he was a non-ninja in a goddamn ninja academy, further pushing him into a life of solitude, of otherness. Never mind that he had been homeschooled and never mind that he apparently hadn't spoken much to the teens at the academy, or that his mom was dead, or that his father, while loving, also had an academy full of students and faculty that looked to him for constant guidance and protection.

The indicators had all been there, but Hunter had never bothered to see them, because Cam had them. Cam was one of them, and they were rangers, and a really stupid part of Hunter had always taken comfort in the fact that their morphers and the very notion that they were willing to put their lives on the line for the sake of others automatically made them good guys. Like, seriously. Hunter knew he was a piece of shit, but he was a piece of shit who was a ranger, so clearly, he was not past the point of redemption. There was some hope for his stupid soul.

And clearly, Cam wasn't Hunter, so he was obviously better, and-

And Cam had never had any meaningful teenage interactions in his life until he had started working with the team, and the constant life-threatening situations tended to cut into the time one might have taken to like, probably adjust to that situation.

Cam had been faking it – faking it as well as Hunter faked normality – faking the fact that he knew what was going on, that he had a normal understanding of social interactions (not that Hunter was exactly a shining example of that himself, but Cam kind of made him look like a demigod), and he really just…didn't.

It had been a recipe for disaster that Hunter had been too relieved to acknowledge, because he could have something. He-

He didn't have to be alone.

And he had liked Cam.

At the time, he had been trying very hard to downplay it – had successfully kept his expectations low up until the point where it all came back to blow itself up in his face – until he realized how deep the damage went, how real it was.

Cam was a genius – not just tech-wise, but from a strategic standpoint, the teen was almost frighteningly prepared. He was paranoid of worst case scenarios in a way that had Hunter glowing with approval. His wit was sharp and dry and just – the timing with this guy – perfection. He was clever in a way Hunter wanted to study, he was…

Well, he wasn't bad to look at either, and sometimes, Hunter contemplated what it would be like to have that soft look of approval aimed at him, that warm kind of appreciation and pride intended for the crimson ranger, in a way that wasn't sarcastic or deriving or-

Hunter had wanted it.

So bad so that he hadn't- he hadn't even thought about Dustin. Hadn't factored the yellow ranger into the equation when he was exactly Cam's type – something small and unpredictable that needed Cam's guidance, that Cam could guide in return. Someone at as great a social disadvantage as Cam was, someone who was, unquestionably, not a threat.

Because threatening things were not exactly boyfriend-material.

Hunter had come on too strong. He had wanted it too much, he had- he had been really stupid about it.

And then the thing with Dustin and- it just seemed like it fit, right? They were rangers and rangers weren't conventional, so why the hell should they have a conventional relationship? Why should they allow society to dictate the structure of their emotional connections when they were constantly putting their lives on the line? In what way was the world qualified to judge their relationships? It wasn't, so fuck it, if Dustin was game, Hunter was game, and he already knew Cam liked him, so-

Then they got to the point where it became very obvious that Cam did not like him, and Hunter had thrown himself into rage to avoid the horrifying certainty of heartbreak that would follow.

For a while, it worked.

And then four or five months went by, new relationships were developed, friendships discovered, the real Cam came into light, and…

And then it didn't, anymore.

Hunter held onto this hate – this dislike, really, it wasn't even intense enough to be classified as hate anymore – because it was the only protection he had left. Hunter loved Shane – he did, as stupidly terrifying as that was – but he couldn't…

He couldn't squash that initial attraction he had for Cam – and in a truly detestable way – he found that he didn't really want to.

You could love more than one person. Hunter had decided on that a long time ago. You could love more than one person because love was, in itself, a choice. There was no such thing as 'soulmates', there were no 'one true loves' because people weren't two dimensional stereotypes. They grew with time. They changed. Their needs changed, and as was the case with so many things in life, there are multiple ways to satiate the romantic needs of an individual. Different ways to fill the void. Different people to decide to be known by, to decide to care for, to decide to grow with.

Hunter loved Shane. And Hunter – damn his stupid ass to hell – he loved Cam too. He knew this without doubt.

He hated it, but knew it – then moved on.

Hunter would hate Cam for as long as reasonably possible – because hating Cam was safe. Hating Cam did not risk a friendship that could accidently slip into something greater, that would accidently push into something the tech did not truly want. Hating Cam was the coward's way out, but it was also unquestionably safe.

The day would come where Hunter would have to be a mature adult, where he would have to follow in Cam's footsteps and swallow down the affection (because the green ranger loved Shane, as little as he would admit it, but he had never allowed it to affect him because he was so damn good) in trade for decency, in trade for the comradery they could get, that would be good but not enough – and a piece of Hunter would die inside.

Hunter loved Shane, and he hated the fact that there could possibly be another that could shake his devotion (shit, he was at the point of labeling it 'devotion' and not shuddering in disgust, fuck him), but it was there, and unlike the past, Hunter was not going to deny the truth that was in front of him.

He had learned from his mistakes - too late, but he had no regrets.

It was enough. It had to be enough.

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Endnotes:

For those of you who didn't slog through the muddy trails of 'Any Moment' – this chapter is basically eluding to an early storyline between Cam and Hunter. Cam essentially leads Hunter on to keep the blond's attention off of Dustin – which, while unquestionably awful, had seemed like a good idea at the time. Myself, like past-Cam, did not have the greatest decision-making process. Probably didn't help that I wasn't all that fond of Hunter. Oh, how the times have changed :)

There will be more chapters. As to when or how long, I cannot say for certain. Sorry, folks.

For previous anniversary pieces, see below:

1. Any Moment – Chapter 45: The Rainbow Connection

2. Songs About Rainbows

3. Beyond that Bright World Lies Despair

4. All Things Great and True

5. Happiness is a Firefly

Until next time :)