Not sure where to put this in the series. Maybe after it ended? IDK. Anyway, this story was begging me to be written. If you're trying to figure out what Buzz's hair looks like check out the drawing "Buzz and Jessie" by~nezcabob on .

Buzz Lightyear slumped down in the cafeteria chair and rubbed the back of his knotted neck. He and his team had just helped in the evacuation of the planet Jo-ad. There were some unforeseen fire storms headed toward it. It shouldn't due to much damage, but as Buzz liked to think, "It was better safe than sorry." He looked down at his plate of something masquerading as food and grimaced. He wasn't even sure what he had. It was brown and held some resemblance to meat. Except for the glowing green spots on it. Bleh.

Buzz looked up from his plate to see the rest of Team Lightyear sit down at the table with him. Booster Munchapper, an extremely large and red reptilian-like ex-janitor, grabbed one of Star Commands extra strength chairs to sit in while XR, their experimental robot ranger, just made himself level with the table. Mira Nova, the blue skinned, red headed, Princess of Tangea, pulled up a chair next to him.

"So captain, what's next for us Super Rangers?" XR asked.

"Yeah Buzz, what now?" Booster questioned.

Mira looked up at him expectantly. Buzz gazed at each one of his cadets, and then leaned back in his chair.

"Absolutely nothing, Rangers. I have already been to Commander Nebula and have been granted a request that all three of you get a week's worth of leave. All of you have worked hard these past couple of months and deserve some R&R." He reached over to take Mira's hand, "I've seen to it that a transport ship to Tangea has been made available. Also, Booster, your parents are waiting for you down at Capital Planet." Buzz didn't mention to them how the Commander had stared slack-jawed at him when he'd also requested leave for himself.

"T-thank you sir. I don't know what to say." Mira was shocked. Everyone at the table probably thought it was because of what Buzz had done for them, but she was more shocked at the fact Buzz was holding her hand. Booster and XR were admittedly happy with the thought of leave and sleeping in.

Buzz smiled and waved them off. "Come on. Get out of here! Enjoy yourselves, and that's an order." He then removed his hand from Mira's and leaned back again.

Mira started to protest, but stopped when she glanced at Buzz's face. So they each got up to go pack. Buzz waited until they were out of sight then also headed off to his quarters to pack and get out of his suit.

Buzz got out of the shower, dried himself, then wrapped the towel around his waist as he headed out of his bathroom. He took a quick look around his room to see if he'd forgotten anything. He went up to the table next to his bed, unlocked the drawer, and grabbed the picture inside. He stared at it a long moment, then hurriedly put it in his bag when he heard someone cough.

Mira watched as Buzz hurriedly hid the picture in his suitcase. She hadn't been able to see what it was a photograph of, but she had seen his look of longing. And a flash of red hair. Seeing this made her even more certain that she was doing the right thing.

"Don't you knock?" He asked her with an embarrassed expression. One hand wrapped around the towel in a death grip, the other pulling at his dark auburn hair. He was sure he had locked that door.

"I did. You just weren't paying attention." Mira said in her defense, and then looked at her feet for a moment, trying to figure out how best to approach the subject she wished to speak with him about. "Uh…so you're going on leave too?" She asked.

"Well… leave was created to benefit everyone. I can't live up to my potential as Captain if I continuously work day in and day out." He forced a smile and hoped that pathetic excuse would work. He didn't really want anyone to know why he was taking leave. It could lead to his ruin.

Mira looked around nervously and decided to just jump right in. She was never very good with subtlety. "Buzz, I know when we first met there was this… tension going on between us. It also seemed to progress as we became a team, but Buzz, you have to know, there's no way this…thing that you think is in between us can happen. I love Romac and I…don't…want…" Mira stopped talking when she noticed Buzz's expression of confusion and shock.

Buzz couldn't believe what he was hearing. Well, sure he remembered the "tension" they'd had at the beginning, but that all disappeared after he'd… And if that wasn't enough, as soon as Romac entered their lives Mira had started to moon all over him. So they had stayed friends. Nothing more, nothing less.

He just couldn't grasp his head around the fact that Mira thought he… liked her like that. Oye. He had never been any good with people. Most thought he was unemotional and by the book. Okay, so he was by the book, but he did feel. He was just good at hiding it. It was necessary in his line of work.

"Mira… I… you're a great friend and partner. And…yes, maybe in the beginning I did have some… emotions for you, but not anymore." Buzz tried to make Mira understand without hurting her feelings. Which was hard for him to do, because of the whole "Buzz and people do not mix" thing. And it was also really awkward talking to her in a towel.

She looked at him for a moment. Her deep blue eyes in thought then started cracking up. Buzz had never seen someone laugh this much in his entire life, let alone the princess. In fact, she had been laughing so much Buzz started to think she was making fun of him. If there was one thing in the universe that got him angry, it was mocking. He hated when people mocked him. That's why he'd learned to hide his emotions in the first place.

She saw the anger start to form in his eyes and she hurriedly hushed up, covering her mouth to mask any escaping giggles. "I'm sorry Buzz; I'm not making fun of you I swear. I'm making fun of myself. All this time you were being a friend and I just had to worry myself to death because I thought it was something else." Her eyes started to water with mirth.

Buzz studied her face to assure himself that he was not the one being made fun of. When he determined that she was telling the truth he turned back to his bag. "Well I'm glad that's cleared up. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get changed." He said in his Captain voice.

Mira looked at him for a moment then turned to the door to leave. She was about to go when something crossed her mind. "Buzz? That picture you were holding…who's it of?" She asked.

Buzz eyes widened at her question. He didn't really want anyone to know, because of the risk involved if the wrong people got their hands on it and because he knew everyone one would make fun of him. He looked at Mira and he realized she would be the last person to mock him because of this. He slowly took out the picture, glanced at it a moment, then reluctantly passed it to her.

Mira studied the picture while Buzz waited anxiously. Just when the silence started to unnerve him, she handed it back. He looked at her questioningly, waiting for some smart remark. But it never came. Mira looked at him and smiled softly. She then exited leaving Buzz to his packing.

Buzz exited the hover-taxi in front of a quaint, yellow cottage. There where flowers everywhere you looked and a white picket fence surrounded the yard. This was one of the last houses from the twenty-first century. It had been passed down from generation to generation. Buzz smiled and shifted the pack on his shoulders. He had thought about stopping by his house to drop off his stuff, but he'd had a better idea.

Buzz strolled down the walkway to the front door; he decided against ringing the doorbell and instead went ahead and entered the pass code he'd memorized a while ago.

He stepped across the thresh hold and the scent of freshly baked cookies hit his nose. Peanut butter-chocolate chip. His favorite. This surprised him since he had alerted no one to his coming. Then the sound of humming reached his ears from the kitchen. Buzz's smile widened as he stealthily made his way there undetected after he set his bag down.

The sight of a tall red head humming to the radio and mixing cookie batter made his heart melt. He slowly worked his way toward her. Precisely timing his movements to the music, to mask any sound he made. He then stood directly behind her and waited for the exact moment.

"Guess who?" Buzz asked as he covered her eyes with his hands. He felt her stiffen.

"Buzz?" She removed his hands, turned around, and gasped. Then she started to jump and down while screaming. "Buzz! I'm so happy to see ya! Why didn't y'all tell me you were comin'? Where you tryin' to surprise me Buzz Lightyear? Well it worked. You dang near gave me a heart attack!"

Buzz tried to understand everything she was saying but it was coming out at the speed of light and in a cute, but impossible to understand southern drawl. Instead of trying to answer her rhetorical questions, he scooped her up in his arms and twirled her around. She leaned back a laughed as her red hair flew around her face. He stopped and stared into her big green eyes as he slowly let her slide down out of his embrace.

"You're all I've thought about these past few months. I can't get any work done, until I look at your picture. I can't go on like this; I'm going to have to take leave more often. Then people are going to question why and they'll find out and I'll never hear the end of it." Buzz said in a rush. He had been waiting so long to see her and now that he finally had her right here in his arms all he could do was blather on about nonsense.

She leaned close to him, wrapped her arms around his neck, and smiled her stunning smile. All thoughts of nonsense and such were removed from his brain. His only thoughts of her. He leaned forward, rested his forehead against hers, and sighed.

"I missed you so much." He whispered.

"I missed ya more." She whispered back. His eyes traveled away from hers down to her mouth. He looked back up at her and gradually moved forward. She slipped one of her hands into his auburn hair and pulled him to her, not being able to wait a second longer.

Buzz's arms wrapped around her tight as he kissed her passionately. He ran his hand through her ginger hair. She whimpered as he pulled back to look at her. His blue eyes glowing as he grinned.

"I love you Jessie."

"I love you too Buzz."

The End