Disclaimer: I'm not fooling myself and neither should you. If I owned them, it would be all Billy, all the time . . .
Author's Note: This is a fic/exercise/challenge that turns up a lot on livejournals in other fandoms. I don't actually know whether they have a name but I call them Five Things that Never Happened fics. Basic idea, chose a theme (death, love, AUs etc.) and write a series of five vignettes on the theme (i.e. Five Ways Tommy Never Died, Five Conversations Zordon and Alpha Never Had, whatever). These vignettes aren't necessarily linear or even occurring in the same universe, it's just a chance to play in a microcosm. So Dagmar has kindly joined me in this exercise. You've probably already seen her brilliant first foray. I thought I'd give you mine. If you'd like to play it's easy, pick a Ranger or pick a theme, and write.
Cotton Candy and Cracker Jack Rings
(Kim)
He thinks she's the prettiest thing he's ever seen, all ribbons and bows and cotton-candy pink dresses that aren't quite long enough to hide her perpetually scraped knees. On his seventh birthday she gives him a book about dragons and damsels in distress and gentle youngest sons who wind up being brave. He reads it late into the night, flashlight under the covers, and his mom catches him because he's so engrossed in the story that he forgets to listen for her footstep on the stairs.
When they're eight, she moves, not far, but since he can't use his flashlight to say good night to her in Morse code, it feels like the other side of the world. But they still walk home together from school, and more often than not he can count on her inviting him over for chocolate chip cookies and milk, and that's how he develops his sweet tooth.
He asks her to marry him at age nine, holding out a ring he found his Cracker Jacks last week. It might be a little early to decide such things, but he didn't miss the fact that Kim got twice as many valentines as the other girls, so he figures he has to act fast. The 'okay' is barely decipherable through her giggles.
They're supposed to kiss now. He's seen it in the movies and read about it in that book she gave him, but she won't hold still so he misses and winds up with his lips on her earlobe, which just causes her to giggle more.
And it's really not going the way he thought it would, so he's about to get up and walk away, but Kim takes his hand and he can see she's put on the ring. "My mom made cookies."
It's the best honeymoon ever.
He never says anything when, at fifteen, he finds the cracker-jack ring nestled in her jewelry box, but he moves it from one side to the other, and when she flashes him a small, embarrassed smile the day after they switch their bodies back he feels like they're nine all over again.
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Thanks for reading.
Comments and Criticisms Appreciated.
If you haven't read Dagmar's Jason centered fic. Go read it now.
Panache