Disclaimer: I don't own anything but some sweet sweet love for the Power Rangers.
She finds him gazing out at the gently rolling hills of her family's farm. It's not a surprise to her that he would be drawn to the view by his symbol power; on the horizon, there were trees as far as anyone could see. His piercing eyes aren't really focused on anything in particular, not on her horses that are grazing their way up to the fence in front of him nor on the way the wind is sweeping peacefully through the foliage. The vibrant shades of green that reflect his irises and are deeply rooted to the essence of his samurai spirit are enough.
He's thinking again.
She looks on from her spot on the deck in silence, smiling as he absentmindedly tosses his bear folding zord into the air and it soars around his head before landing on his shoulder. The display doesn't disturb his concentration, not even when it then charges down to his elbow and scurries back up his forearm to his waiting palm to repeat the process.
After several moments and a few impatient nudges at his hand, Mike breaks free from his trance. He sends a half smile to his companion before repeating the process, earning what Emily guesses is a delighted roar from the small bear. She finds the exchange between them cute, but Mike had never been one to just sit and think, not unless something was really bothering him. The way he returns to prior form confirms her suspicions.
She tries her very best to descend the steps without startling him. It works, albeit momentarily. Because once she hits the last step to go out into the yard, her ape folding zord breaks free from her necklace and she knocks a planter over, nearly tripping herself trying run after it. Despite her best efforts, it easily beats her to his side and both Rangers crack a smile when their zords begin chasing one another.
"We missed you at dinner," she greets him, cover blown, offering up what hadn't spilled from the glass of lemonade she was bringing out to him.
He raises an eyebrow at her obvious choice of drink, grinning at her sweet smile as she settles beside him on the bail of hay. His face falls again and she joins him in looking out across the land. This had always been her favorite place to get away as well and now she cannot even recall how she saw the world before she knew him, before she was a samurai.
Mike takes a swig of her peace offering, "Your family is so close, Em."
She smiles fondly, "Yeah, we are." She didn't know what exactly it was that she was expecting, but she looks up to find his expression pensive and still hardened, her eyebrows knit together. "Is that bad?"
"No…no," he places a hand on her knee and brushes a comforting thumb. He searches her eyes as he continues, "of course it isn't."
She ducks her head and then quickly looks back out into the nothingness they had been studying. Mike follows her lead and fixes his eyes in front of him once more. He hates that he's responsible for putting the frown on her face, it seems he does it a lot. It's often easy for him to forget how vulnerable she can be. Especially since, in his opinion, he had spent the last few years witnessing how she was nothing short of amazing.
At this point, their folding zords had made their way airborne and were now circling around them, blissfully unaware of the now shifted mood. Mike expertly grabs his bear out from in front of him on a pass and it settles into its perfect square—almost as if it had been reprimanded—that he clips onto his belt. Neither Emily nor her zord had expected the abrupt change so she softly opens her hands and it lands with precision to be attached back in its proper place.
The fresh silence is deafening for a few moments before Mike cracks again.
"I don't deserve to be here. Your family works so well together, never fighting, always happy. I don't fit in with all of that…"
"Don't say that!"
"No, it's true, Em. And now that I've gotten to know your sister, the way you dropped everything—including spending time with her—to step up like that…I couldn't have done that. ...Do you know why I agreed to be a Samurai?" She barely shakes her head, batting her widen eyes at him when she realizes he was the only one in the group who had never brought it up. "I wanted to prove to my dad that you could fight as a Samurai Ranger and still be there for your family. I wanted to drop in after my first battle and rub it in his face...and then quit. Quit the team and my family."
He shakes his head in frustration, pulling his folding zord back out. She lays her head on his shoulder and rubs his arm as he mumbles an apology to his long time pal that had once assisted his father in battle before him.
"You were young, you couldn't have known, Mike."
"I was so hard on him for leaving and then never visiting… I didn't understand it until I became a Ranger myself. Then I heard about what happened to Jayden's dad, and what's going on here…wow, that's tough. I mean, I've apologized, I did it as soon as I could but since I've been here…I don't know. I feel like maybe I never deserved to be a Ranger in the first place."
She snuggles further into his side and he wraps an arm around her and gives her a squeeze.
"You were going to sacrifice yourself and become a Nighlok to save me. You trained, you fought, you helped us save the world. You even gave away your only Christmas present! ...That's not the heart of a selfish person. You've proven yourself worthy of being a Power Ranger and you deserve everything good that will happen in your life." She nudged her elbow into his side, "Afterall, you can't forget that you're our 'Mighty Green!'...it was your destiny, Mike."
He smirks and kisses the top of her head, "I don't deserve you either."
She closes her eyes, drinking in his scent and feeling his warmth all around her. He'd been a rock that she'd needed in her life from the very moment he had uttered those words in their first meeting together.
"I'm really glad you came with me."
He smiles and tosses his bear zord into the air once more, causing her to giggle at how quickly it perks up.
"I'm glad I came too. Sure, it's not exactly what I'm—I mean, what we're used to…but you're here."
She pulls away and takes a hard look at him. His eyes always seem to look right into her soul and it fills her with happiness. She brings his cheek to her lips and it's his turn to close his eyes, feeling nothing but Emily, absolute perfection.
"Why don't you come inside, I saved you a plate."
She stands, offering a hand out to Mike. He playfully slaps his palm into hers and picks himself up out of his doubts and reservations. She grins at him but he waits for her 'go ahead' nod before leaning in to kiss her properly.
"Whoa!" he rears back, started, before their lips even get the chance to meet. Emily's ape folding zord had zoomed between them, nearly taking Mike out in the process, as it went to ambush its pal. He grumbles under his breath at the interruption and she giggles, tiptoeing to deliver the stolen kiss and a smile back onto his face.
"You can probably tell it gets lonely out here away from battle." He laughs in agreement and she motions her head towards the house, "Come on, let's go inside."
"What do we do about them?" he asks over their shoulders as he let's her think she's successfully pulling him along.
"They'll catch up. I won't tell Mentor we let them out of our sight if you don't…"
A/N: To my subscribers...sorry this isn't HOA but I love me some Mike/Emily (you probably would too...you should watch PRS) and I needed to write this, bye.