Disclaimer: Hunter and Cam don't belong to me. Neither does anyone else I may happen to mention in this fic. It is all from my slightly twisted but overall fluff-making mind, and I don't make any money. Series name from AFI's This Celluloid Dream.
Title: Blue Bay
Series: Like Romantic Verses
Author: Dingo
Summary: Four weeks back on home soil, Hunter and Cam have settled into secretly married life well. Until now.
Notes: Massachusetts, hurrah! Bravo, judge-type people. And to mark the occasion…hell, the next state to pass the same-sex marriage law gets another chapter dedication.
It was strange that it had really been that long, Hunter reflected.
It had been a friggin' fantastic four weeks – the best of his life. If he had to choose between just the memory of the last few weeks and ever touching a bike again, motocross, Tsunami, Glider or otherwise…well, his riding, as much as he loved it, would go down the drain in the blink of an eye. No thought would need to go into it.
He was officially a husband.
Gah.
Although this day, – and this monster – very not fun.
He grunted as he was hurled back to the ground – any more and in some cultures they'd be married. Cam probably wouldn't be very happy about the bigamy.
Anyway, a very strong dude. Very big. Very annoying. Also having very bad name – Taleteller. He didn't know exactly what that meant, but Lothor had the worst tendency to name his monsters – excuse me, alien life forms, as Zurgane had drilled into him – spot-on.
"No!" Tori cried out suddenly.
Hunter shot his gaze over to her, but seeing her in no obvious danger, glanced around until he saw someone who was.
Blake.
"NO!" he screamed, adding his cry to Tori's.
His little brother was caught in some kind of dark blue bubble, a shade that was a clear representation of his Ranger colour. Hunter could dimly make out Blake's outline before he dropped suddenly to the ground. A shudder wracked the Navy Ranger's body, and with a small crack he saw shards of Blake's suit shatter off.
"Blake!" he heard Dustin call.
He heard nothing after that.
A haze of dark blue shuttered his vision, and a quick flash of Blake as he'd first met him – a screaming four year old crying after being separated from a favourite teddy bear – flashed before his eyes. He then heard Blake's voice in his mind, not even as if Blake had just spoke, but as if Hunter was remembering something Blake had said a long time ago –
"I'm in love with Tori Hanson."
- another quick flash of Blake, this time pleading for him to remember their brotherhood link, and he was back to normal sight.
Instantly he looked over at Blake. The bubble had disappeared, thank God, but Blake was still demorphed. He was struggling to his feet, but looked unsteady.
Hunter growled low in his throat before launching himself back at Taleteller. He landed one hard kick to what resembled a head, and managed to flip back and land another kick to the 'chin'. It was only an instant after he landed that he was hit – hard.
He felt like all his senses were emblazoned with crimson – the darkest shade of true red possible before purple. It scorched his fingertips as if he had dipped his hands in liquid flame. It was burning his eyes, the bright colour fixing itself to his corneas. It was nearly as if he heard the burning, the light snap-crackle of tinder and flames blazing next to his face. It was fixing itself to his skin, acting as a burning mask that brought tears to his eyes from the pain. It was as if the Crimson Thunder Power was literally attempting to burn its way from the inside out, and he was just a casualty. He wasn't even aware of demorphing in splintering pieces of dark red. It was agony.
In a sudden lull he saw five flashes of himself – a quiet six year old, strong and curt at the track, two slightly different pictures of him at Storm Chargers, scowling in his training uniform in Ninja Ops – before he heard himself speak.
Words he'd never said. Words he'd never needed to say.
"I've been married four weeks."
He saw five more quick clips of himself – falling to his knees onto gravel, another shot of him at Ninja Ops, growling on the beach in his training uniform, shirtless and running away over sand, smiling as if his world had begun again – before the crimson power flood of his senses finished. Hunter weakly moved himself to hands and knees before he looked up.
The three Wind Ninjas had backed Taleteller into a corner. Blake was leaning weakly on a large boulder, and Hunter realized dimly that it had been his husband who put him there. Cam himself was sprinting for Hunter, and he could tell Cam was beyond worried.
"You okay?" Cam asked anxiously, skidding to a halt just before he would have knocked into Hunter.
Hunter allowed himself a brief moment of weakness as Cam assisted him up. Unconsciously, Cam supported most of his weight as he was brought to a standing position. He then allowed himself another moment enjoying Cam's warm embrace before pulling his mind back to other matters. "What about the alien dude?" he asked, hating himself as his voice betrayed the lingering pain he was still feeling.
"The Wind Rangers are putting him away," Cam answered, lightly touching his helmet to Hunter's forehead. It was the closest show of affection they allowed themselves on the battlefield…or pretty much anywhere. Except sometimes at Ninja Ops when the door was locked.
Hunter shut his eyes for a second as he tried to will away the remnants of the attack on him. " 'm okay," he managed, his voice fairly steady.
"We've got a bigger problem to deal with, dudes!" Dustin yelled out.
Cam sighed. Without even looking up, he brought his wrist to his mouth. "CyberCam, you know the drill."
"Righto, cyber bro!" he heard back.
Cam gently brushed Hunter's shoulder in what could have been seen as a teammate's show of concern, but what was really a light, loving caress. "Take Blake back to Ninja Ops. Neither of you are any good out here now, after that."
"Thanks." Hunter tried to make it sound sarcastic, but it came out more genuine than anything.
"Love you," Cam whispered.
"Love you too," Hunter responded automatically.
He stumbled his way to Blake's side. "We're no good out here. Let's get back to Ops."
Blake sent him a look that only an older brother could understand, holding his midsection. "And then we're going to talk long and hard, aren't we Hunter?"
Ah crap.
Hunter held his head in his hands, utterly aware of four pairs of eyes staring at his hair. Blake and Tori were putting off their inevitable relationship talk until later, deciding instead of figuring out their own relationship they'd be better off hearing about Hunter's. Cam, knowing him, was probably seated in his computer swivel chair somewhere at the back, though background noise lacked the usual clacking of his keyboard.
The way Hunter felt, he would have thanked Sensei to interrupt now and order them to take a thirty-mile run, plus three hours heavy meditation. He didn't know whether Sensei's absence to 'connect with his inner ninja' was a good thing or bad thing.
He glanced up, and true to form, Cam was staring at the blank computer screen. Everyone else was also being true to form – staring at him.
Sighing, he raised his hands in defeat. Which was the sign Tori had been waiting for.
"You got married four weeks ago?"
"Yes, I got married four weeks ago."
They gaped, as if they had actually thought Taleteller had somehow gotten a lie from him.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Blake asked. Hunter heard the note of pain in his voice that changed the question to 'why didn't you tell me?'
Hunter shrugged uncertainly, offering, "I was going to tell you as soon as it was official?"
"So you got married four weeks ago, yet it isn't official yet?" Shane questioned in confusion.
Hunter nodded.
"Um – explain," Tori ordered.
Not about to take orders from a girl – even if she was another Power Ranger and maybe-possibly-future-sister-in-law – he scowled at the ground.
"Yes. Explain," Shane added, folding his arms across his chest.
Hunter's scowl intensified. After finally giving in – to a degree – on the leader position, he was bound by his word. If Shane felt the explanation was needed for the good of the team, well, he could presume it probably was.
"It takes ninety days for a normal marriage certificate to get registered-" Hunter started, sharing a glare with the floor of Ninja Ops.
"-so you were going to wait another sixty days to tell us you'd tied the knot?" Blake asked incredulously.
Hunter glanced up quickly at Cam, before looking apologetically at Blake. "Sorry." No one could blame him for telling half the truth when he'd gotten interrupted.[1]
"We're going to have a nice, long, private talk soon, aren't we?" Blake instructed by way of rhetorical question.
Biting his lip, Hunter considered the last talk he and Blake had had over the Gem of Souls. "I'd rather dip my head in hydrochloric acid," he muttered to himself.
"So do we even know this girl?" asked Tori sceptically.
Hunter broke eye contact with Blake to glare back at the ground. "Not exactly," he mumbled.
"The only girls Hunter even knows are Tori and Kelly," Blake pointed out.
"I'm definitely not married," Tori said defensively. "Especially not to Hunter."
The Crimson Ranger mimed an arrow to the chest. "Ouch."
"And somehow I doubt Kelly would get married to Hunter," Blake finished.
"Again with the ouch," Hunter repeated the action to his chest.
"So?" Shane questioned.
"I can't possibly only know two girls, guys," Hunter pointed out in desperation, wanting to prolong the unavoidable for as long as possible.
Blake frowned. "So what other girls does he know?"
While the others debated on various possible wives for Hunter, Dustin was quiet. He had been, actually, since the battle with Taleteller. He had been carefully noting the little things about Hunter's behaviour that betrayed a little more than just nerves about telling a secret. It looked as if Hunter was, like, scared of saying too much. Or something.
Dustin glanced at Hunter's hands, where he was fumbling with a gold ring – presumably what could now be taken as his wedding band. He then followed the Crimson Ranger's gaze back to Cam, who was also staring at his hands, and also twisting something around his fingers.
Strangely enough, it was the self-proclaimed 'slow one' who got it first. Possibly because he hadn't been too concerned in the first place; yeah, Hunter was his friend, but if he hadn't told anyone about getting hitched to someone he must have felt there was a good reason.
"Hunter," he coughed in a low tone, just enough so that it went mostly unnoticed by most of the group. "You wouldn't have happened to have like, needed to go out of town for this marriage?"
Hunter looked up so fast Dustin was surprised he didn't get whiplash.
Even though Dustin wasn't really a betting person he would have bet his bank account – the whole $107.62 – that Cam was looking at him the same way. With shock, surprise, and a touch of fear.
"Yeah…"
Dustin grinned mischievously. "To say, San Francisco?"
That touch of fear became a little less pronounced, and started to tinge with respect. "Yeah…"
"Did you like streak? With say, Cam?"
The top of Hunter's ears turned red, and he looked down. Dustin glanced over his shoulder, and saw Cam with wide eyes staring at him in pure shock. "I'll take that as a yes," he smiled. Dustin looked over to where most of his teammates were now hotly debating whether or not Hunter knew the girl who delivered random stuff to Storm Chargers well enough to have gone off and gotten married to her, before glancing back at Hunter. "You will so owe me for this," he laughed.
Hunter had no time to ask, as suddenly Dustin leapt up out of his seat and started dancing around like a maniac. "I figured it out!" he sang at the top of his lungs. "I figured it out! The dumb one figured it out!"
"Who is it?" Tori and Blake demanded in unison.
Dustin paid no attention to them, nearly dancing up the steps that led from Ninja Ops. Tori, Blake and Shane all followed, demanding to know what Dustin had figured out.
Cam was still staring after them when Hunter reached out and touched his shoulder. "You okay, babe?"
"Don't call me babe."
" 'Kay babe."
Cam let it drop…for now. "How the hell did Dustin of all people figure it out?"
Hunter shrugged. "He sees a lot more than other people think he sees."
"Hell, I didn't figure it out until we were on the roof looking at City Hall, and he gets one sentence and he suddenly knows we're married?"
Hunter slid to the floor, pulling lightly at Cam's hand. Cam followed after a pause, a light scowl on his face.
"Maybe Dustin's smarter than you," Hunter suggested.
Cam gave out a quick snort.
"No, seriously. You know you're a genius, you're a techno dweeb – mastermind," Hunter quickly amended at Cam's annoyed look. "But…no offence babe…but you really suck at reading feelings." The Thunder ninja jerked his head towards the door where their teammates had exited a few minutes before. "Dustin's never gonna be anywhere near your league at computers, or Zords, or anything like that.
"But he knows people; maybe he might trust some people too quickly, but he can tell things about people. He gets to know them, notes things about them…you just identify, label and move on."
"It sounds like there's an insult in there somewhere," Cam frowned.
Hunter shook his head softly, kissing Cam on the forehead. Cam wrinkled his nose, wiping off the kiss mark. "It's just part of who you are, and I love you for it."
Cam smiled back, suddenly moving from sitting to all fours, facing Hunter. "Love you too," he whispered.
Hunter's reply was lost in a crushing kiss from his husband. "Lrhrmpht," he managed instead. He could feel Cam's lips grinning against his own, so he concentrated on making him moan instead.
Cam weakly pushed at Hunter's shoulders, almost as if trying to push off a button-up shirt – a little hard to do when Hunter was wearing his training outfit which couldn't get undone from the shoulders. Hunter growled into Cam's mouth, his need for him growing. He pushed Cam hard to the floor, watching Cam's eyes widen slightly as he straddled him. Cam met him halfway in a long kiss, powerful and loving at the same time.
Strangely enough, Hunter wasn't usually the aggressor in their favourite type of encounter. It was mostly a Cam thing, as strange as that may sound to anyone who knew them. Hunter had the intensity, no doubt, but he never had displayed a need to be in control, the pusher of the situation. It wasn't as if he objected to the position – just that he never fought for it.
Cam decided to stop analysing things once Hunter's hands stole around to his sides, closer to where the clasps on his training uniform were.
Hunter's hands crept around his sides, torturing him with feather-light touches. It would have been hell to bear on naked skin, as Cam was ticklish like no-one's business, but with a layer of cloth separating Hunter's knowing fingers and Cam's skin it was cruel teasing.
"No fair," Cam muttered into Hunter's mouth just as they broke apart, only far enough to speak.
Cam saw Hunter grin at him, and felt the warmth of his breath as he leaned down to give a lick to the delicate skin near his ear. "Since when have I been fair?" Hunter whispered huskily, emphasising the question with a slight rock using his knees.
The young man on the bottom hissed, debating whether or not to strangle Hunter for teasing or to throw him on his back and teaching him exactly what this type of teasing felt like. Instead he was treated to another hard kiss, Hunter drawing Cam's lower lip into his mouth and playfully biting at it.
Cam's hand crept into Hunter's short-but-still-too-long hair, wanting more and wanting to be inside and covered and calm and safe and thrown off a cliff all at once, like how it always was and how it had been from the start with nervous touches and more innocent kisses and questions about how they liked things to work. Hell…he just wanted Hunter.
Hunter inwardly celebrated as his fingers finally slid along the small metal clips that held together Cam's jacket, and smiled at Cam's impatient arches as he clicked them apart, one by one.
He broke their kiss, withdrawing only enough to see Cam fully without his eyes crossing, slowing down the passion of the moment from a forest fire to glowing, spitting embers waiting to reignite. Hunter considered his husband for a moment, brushing a kiss on the tip of his nose. "You're beautiful," he whispered quietly, his fingers still deftly unclipping the samurai's uniform.
Cam smiled, his hand tugging Hunter down for another bruising kiss. "You're mine," Cam rebutted confidently.
"Always."
[1] Marriage licenses from San Francisco are being held in storage until same-sex marriage becomes legal.