Legal: I do not own Power Rangers or the associated names, characters, places, events etc. Anything not covered by the above rights should be presumed to be purely the creation of the author.
Rating: T – may be some mild adult themes.
Timeline: Directly following the events of "Stix and stones".
Emily sat, holding her cell phone, staring at it as she breathed deeply, sadly, almost hoping that it would dial itself. She had done this many times, and every time, it always ended the same way. She never plucked up the courage.
She hated herself for her weakness and her cowardice. It had been a couple of months since she had been sent to Master Ji to take up her responsibility as the Yellow Samurai. She shook her head at that thought. No, it wasn't her responsibility, it was her sisters. She had never been intended to be the Yellow Ranger, or indeed a Ranger at all. She had only been sent once it was made clear that her sister was not fit to go. She had been sent as what she had been her entire life. She was the second choice, the spare, the substitute.
Her sister had been everything she hadn't as a kid. She was strong, confident, popular, graceful...Emily had been none of those things. She always used to smile and laugh to cover for how she really felt, but she knew exactly what she was. She was clumsy and unexceptional. Her grades were middle-of-the road, and her extra-curricular activities were far from spectacular to put it mildly. On her first day of little league baseball, she had brained herself with the bat, and broken her nose when she was unable to catch. Her first dance recital, it was more than just her butt that ended up bruised when she was laughed off stage after messing up a routine.
A tear rolled down her face as she looked back to the phone, willing herself to call. She loved Simone. She idolised her. She was everything she wanted to be. Whenever she was upset because the kids made fun of her, Simone was the one who cheered her up by playing her flute. Whenever she hurt herself in yet another freakish and uniquely clumsy way that seemed to defy all laws of physics or logic, her sister was there with a damp cloth or bag of frozen peas and some kind words to comfort her. Although she wanted to call to ask how she was and speak to her, a voice kept telling her, reminding her that Master Ji had told them that contacting their families would only put them at risk, and had all but forbidden it.
She wiped her nose with her sleeve, and only then noticed that her hand was covered in what was left of her ice cream. She had been sitting so long that it had melted and dripped over her hand. She just threw it aside and wiped her hand off on her jeans. It was just another in a long line of things she screwed up. Her sister was an infinitely better choice as a Samurai, but fate had intervened on that part. Simone had tried to keep going, and hid her complications as long as she could, but soon her breathing problems become so bad that she simply couldn't function. By the time Emily was given her morpher and sent to the academy, she was bed-ridden. It was just another thing that constantly played on her mind. The doctors had told them they didn't know if she would live out the year. She appreciated how important her duty was, and why she couldn't visit her sister anymore, but it didn't help with the fact that she knew it was possible that by the time she was able to return, she would be gone. It was possible she would never see her sister again.
She felt an arm around her and looked across, seeing Mike. He held her into himself, something that created a warm, safe feeling in her. She always felt good around Mike, he had a quality about him that reminded her of her home back in the country with her family. It was a place where she could feel safe and feel good about herself. She turned a little pink as she felt him holding her and wiped away a tear.
"Is this about earlier?" He asked her. "You know...about what Negatron said to you?"
"That's part of it." She told him honestly. When Negatron had told her that she would never be as good as her sister, it hurt her deeply. She was able to push through it, to withstand his power to turn mental pain into physical pain, but it had taken its toll on her to do so. She had passed out straight after the battle, only waking up when she heard Mike say that he thought she was great. "It's just...this has all reminded me a lot of home."
"We all miss home." Mike told her. "You just have more waiting for you than the rest of us."
"It's just...Simone, my sister, I really miss her." Emily told him. "It should have been her here instead of me."
Mike didn't know much about Emily, she didn't really talk too much about her home life. All he knew was that she was from the country somewhere, and that she had been sent here instead of her sister because she was ill. He also knew, especially after today, that she was her own harshest critic.
She constantly put herself down and regularly ended up in a complete depression whenever she messed up, which unfortunately was quite a lot. She was slightly accident prone, and a little clumsy but if anything, he found those things cute. She was such a bubbly, lively and friendly person that it was impossible for him not to like her. No one at the academy ever blamed her for any of the accidents that occurred around her, but she always did. Although they would laugh whenever she spilled something or tripped or did something else that sometimes baffled everyone as to how it was even possible, but they were always quick to apologise and cheer her up. Mike could see it in her eyes, those large, beautiful blue eyes that generally shone with a light that stirred something in him he couldn't explain, whenever something like that happened, it took a little piece of her. Although she always laughed through it with them, he could see it hurt, and it always hurt him to see that look in her eyes.
"I thought you liked raspberry ripple." He commented, pulling off his shirt and using it to wipe the melted ice-cream off her hand. "If you would have preferred something else..."
"I know what you're trying to do Mike, its sweet." She sighed. "I guess I wasn't really in the mood for ice-cream..."
"I've seen you do this a few times." He interrupted her. "You were going to call your sister weren't you?" Emily just nodded in response.
"I wanted to tell her about today." She replied. "I wanted to tell her she gave me the strength..."
"Emily, you won the day, not her." He corrected her as he saw where she was going with her statement. "I meant what I said earlier, you keep doing this to yourself. Why do you keep running yourself into the ground like this?"
She didn't really have an answer for that. She had just done it her whole life.
"I spent my whole life having everyone tell me I was a screw up." Emily told him. "The kids at school, the neighbours, even my parents. You can only live so long listening to that before you believe it yourself."
She looked away from him, unable to look him in the eye.
"I guess I'm not as immune to what people say as I thought." She muttered under her breath. "That's why I was weak enough to faint like that."
"Hey, you're not weak." Mike assured her, nudging her chin a little with his finger. "We were getting punted around like tetherballs by what he said about us. You were able to stand up to it. If you're weak, what does that say about us?"
"I'm sorry..."
"Stop saying sorry." He cut her off abruptly. "I know I'm an idiot at times, and I don't always say the right thing, but I know this. You were amazing today."
She could feel herself blushing again as he said this. She always loved it when he talked to her like this. He had a lot of bravado about him, and almost made a show out of how little he cared about anything important, constantly flouting Master Ji's rules, but she always knew that there was something more to him than just skateboarding and video games. She saw how upset he was when he got his friends hurt by meeting with them. She also saw how much he constantly tried to include the others and get them together as a team. It was because of him she got her first ride on a roller coaster, and even though she threw up all over him afterwards, she still loved the day and looked forward to doing it again.
"I wasn't always." She told him, pulling out a wallet. She handed him a picture. "See what I mean?"
He suppressed a snigger as he saw it. Neither of the girls in it looked like the Emily he knew, one of them was about 13, with sandy blonde straight hair and a dazzling smile. The other was a little more frumpy, with a baggy jumper, dungarees and large glasses. Her smile exposed extensive braces.
"You look...different." He admitted.
"You can see why the kids had a go at me." Emily sighed. "I had the braces out about six months after the photo was taken. My parents took out a huge loan for laser eye surgery when they heard I was going to have to take Simone's place. I told you I was accident prone."
"Yeah?" He asked her.
"I had to wear long sleeves and trousers until I came here." Emily told him. "Mom and dad figured if people saw the bruises they'd think they were beating the shit out of me."
"You were just a late bloomer." Mike stated. "I know I was."
Emily just looked at him, wiping away some tears.
"Really?" She asked him.
"I did need training wheels on my bike until I was 10." He reminded her. Emily just laughed as he told him this, but he didn't care. Seeing her smile and hearing her laugh always lifted his spirits. He missed his life, especially his friends, and the fact that Mia, easily the worst chef on the planet insisted on cooking all their meals only made him long for home where he could get a steady diet of TV dinners and take-away pizza again made him long for it more. Emily though was a breath of fresh air. She was lively, brilliant, fun, and more importantly, she was always willing to lend an ear or a kind word. When he had been hurt defending the friends that he had been forbidden from contacting, far from reprimanding him, she had just tended to his wounds and assured him their injuries weren't his fault. "You know, I just couldn't figure out the whole 'keep moving or you fall over' thing."
"You can always make me laugh." She responded. "Thanks Mike."
"You're welcome." He answered. Emily decided that now was the time to take a chance. Reaching up to his face, she turned it towards her and pressed her lips to his. She had never taken that step with a guy, and her heart raced as she waited for his reaction. In that moment, she felt an equal measure of pleasure, and crippling fear. She had laid her heart on the line, something she hadn't done since...well...ever really. Mike finally ran a hand through his hair.
"Um...maybe we should..." He flicked a thumb over his shoulder. "Mia's making chicken madras...at least...that's what she says it is."
Emily's smile faded a little, and she just nodded, before patting him on the shoulder as he left. Mike watched her go, before turning to look at her discarded ice cream cone and couldn't help but smile. He didn't know how to respond when she kissed him, but he was glad she did. Emily was the most engaging and beautiful woman he had ever met, and he couldn't wait to find out more.