A.N. I'm Baaaaaaaaaack! I know... You're all pissed because I haven't updated my other stories. My apologies... *hides* SO we've got Tup and Specsonder...

Taz stormed into her room, back from a recent meeting. Up wanted them all to choose a lower ranking Ranger and 'mentor them'. She slammed the door as she scanned the list of the names. "Idiotas, all of them," she glared, "None of them have what it takes to be a Ranger…" Then, after looking it over four times, she saw a name that clicked. Perfect.

She walked into her class confident and glaring. All of the students towered over her, but she pushed by and went to the middle of the track. "Run," she ordered. They all dropped everything and started running. They knew how she ran a class and they weren't about to change that.

"KRAYONDER! Stay after class!" she yelled at him. She had half an hour before class was out. Up didn't trust her with them for long, in fear she'd kill them all.

"Yes ma'am," he said, slightly breathless as he continued to run. After working them out to their breaking point in under fifteen minutes, she had them spar. She paid closer attention to every match Krayonder sparred in. He was sloppy, but knew what he wanted to do. That was good, she could fix sloppy.

"Get out of my sight," she ordered and all of them scrambled into the locker rooms. Krayonder stepped forward at attention.

"A gusto," she nodded and he stood with his hand behind her back.

"Mira me," she ordered and he looked up shaking.

"Calm down," she said wryly and he tried to relax.

"Look, Up has this idiota idea that if every higher ranking Ranger 'mentors' a lower ranking one we'll get stronger. It's all toro but it's a requirement. So I am now your mentor," she said seriously.

"Permission to speak freely?" he asked, sounding confused. She nodded.

"Wait… let me get this straight. You, Lieutenant Taz, the glorified war hero, want to mentor me, Private Krayonder, the loser who got half of his ear eaten off?" he asked confused.

"Si," she nodded.

"What's the catch?" he narrowed his eyes.

"You have to listen to me and you have to show up. No matter what you may have instead," she said seriously.

He nodded and smiled tentatively. She smiled back and then shut her face down.

"I need your schedule," she ordered. He ran to go grab his bag and handed it to her. They decided to meet Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for an hour before dinner.

The first two weeks were hard… Taz didn't know what to teach and Krayonder didn't know how to learn. But they managed to figure out how to help him. Taz took one look at his grades and grimaced. So they spent half of every meeting studying and doing homework and the other half mentoring. Mondays were mental training, Wednesdays were physical training and Fridays were sparring days. To their pleasure, Krayonder's grades rose quickly and he was soon the best fighter in his class. He was slowly but surely getting more confident in his abilities, but was never cocky. (Taz beat him down the one time he got there.) He was more confident outside of the classroom too. This new-found confidence landed him a girlfriend (Specs). Taz was truly happy for the two, but it made her even more upset about her non-existent relationship with Up. Krayonder knew about it, but he didn't know what to say, so he settled for being someone to vent to. Taz resented the fact that he had seen her in her vulnerable state (no one had except Up and her… her familia), but his kind and quirky nature was enough to make up for it.

Up eventually called the whole thing off, which gave Taz an "I-told-you-so" moment, but the two kept on with the sessions. Luckily, Specs was totally cool with the mentoring thing, probably based on the fact that she had one too. Not only did she trust Krayonder, but Taz as well. Krayonder eventually had his own student, Read Writing. He was from Farm Planet, and even knew Tootsie, but lacked the country bumpkin nature. Read as smart, but lacked courage. Krayonder managed to coerce her into helping when he used his puppy dog eyes (another weakness, along with Red Vines. Who knew?).


Up pulled Krayonder over to the side at lunch.

"Do you know why Taz is avoiding me?" he asked the boy.

"Yes," he said honestly.

"Why?"

"I can't tell you. She'd have my head!" Krayonder protested.

"I won't tell her you said it," he pleaded.

"Fine, she really likes you and thinks she's in love with you," With that, he ran away to go sit by Specs.

Up rushed off to find Taz right where he thought she'd be. The Gym was closed, so she was in the weaponry, working on her knife skills. Up stood in the doorway and watched.

"I was just talking to Krayonder…"

"Ah,sí?¿Qué es lo que hablar?" Oh yeah? What did you talk about? She asked.

"We were talking about you," Up confessed. At that, she froze.

"What about me?" she narrowed her eyes. Had that boy told him…?

"Why you're avoiding me,"

"Si?" she asked, completely frozen.

"And I don't see why that's a good reason to avoid me," he took a step towards her, "Seeing as I," another step, "Like," step, "You," step, "Too,"

Now he was right in front of her, she had dropped her knife and it clattered on the floor.

"Really?" she asked quietly.

"Si," he whispered, in a rough impression of a Mexican accent. She lifted herself onto her tip toes and pressed her lips to his. She pulled away, and he leaned in for another.

Krayonder smiled at them as they walked into the dinner hall. She glared at him and he laughed. She flipped him off and Up turned around to look at her then. She put on an innocent face and went to sit down.

All was well. G.L.E.E. no longer had a corrupt leader, all of the bugs were amiable, and the robots were gone (all the bad ones anyways). They found love, mentors, and friendship. So all was well… for now anyways.


So... Thoughts? PLEASE REVIEW!

Hugs and Butterfly Kisses

Your Draco