Notes: Originally written for Ryuutchi for Alpha's Magical Fic Exchange. So, when you said you 'kind of ship Shane with everyone', I really, really hope you meant that! ;) Also, I suppose you could slap a warning for infidelity here? I'd label it as casual sex, since Shane nor the people he sleeps with in this story are ever in a relationship with anyone else while the stuff happens, but I'm putting it here just in case.
Shane was never the type to consider himself any kind of Casanova.
He still doesn't even after everything that's happened, but he does wonder if maybe he'd missed a calling somewhere along the line, if someone out there was trying to tell him something.
Shane had a few very specific talents. He was a good leader, and a better friend. He was a terrific skate boarder. And, as the universe had seen fit to show him over the past few years, he had a few other talents that might have, in another life, made him a fantastic gigolo.
It starts, as a lot of things seem to, with a pretty girl he's just met. His first day of Ninja training he bumps into a girl with blonde hair and a somewhat ditzy guy, and later he'll go on to call them his best friends for life.
But right there, in that moment, Tori's easy on the eyes, and Shane knows flirting when he hears it.
The first night they sleep together is three days before the academies are attacked. Tori's house is deserted, and Dustin goes home early, and in the early hours of the morning it sort of just happens. Neither of them are virgins to begin with, but they are good friends, and besides, Tori's especially worried about flunking out of training. She needs the stress relief.
The room is dimly lit, and Tori smiles the whole time he's in her, giggles like crazy when they finally come to a stuttering halt.
They eat ice cream in Tori's bed after, and then they don't have time to talk about it when everything happens.
Then, suddenly, they're rangers, and sitting with Tori after training one day, she turns to him and says, "I don't know if it's appropriate for us to sleep together again, us being rangers and all now."
Shane turns to her with raised eyebrows. He wasn't going to bring it up again. "That's probably for the best," he says, giving her a wink.
Tori grins at him. "It was fun, though," she says bashfully, and Shane laughs.
"Yes, it was," he agrees.
And that's how it starts.
Dustin is his first sexual experience with another guy.
He's thought about whether or not he's attracted to guys before, and never come up with a solid answer. He's always sort of wanted to experiment, but the opportunity has never presented itself.
It wasn't like they planned on it, or anything.
It's after closing at Storm Chargers, and Kelly has gone home. Dustin's scrambling to put everything away, and so Shane lends a hand, because he's a good friend like that.
He's standing on the step ladder to put a box on the top shelf, and Dustin is under him. Dustin turns without meaning to and lets out this little squawk, which makes Shane look down.
"What?" Shane wonders, and Dustin gives him this stupid embarrassed grin.
"Dude I turned and, your junk is like, right there," Dustin says, and yeah, his face is maybe an inch or two away from Dustin's face.
Shane's about to make a witty retort, about to comment about how Dustin wants the D, but then his dick pulses in his pants, and he shuts his mouth.
Dustin freezes, meaning he absolutely noticed. Involuntary as it may have been, Shane has to admit the idea of Dustin below him like this is appealing, but he holds still to see what kind of reaction he's going to get out of his best friend.
Dustin stares at his pants for a moment before looking up at Shane with a quizzical look and asking, "Really?"
Shane shrugs as casually as one can in this situation. "Apparently so."
Dustin makes a small noise, and he leans back against the shelves Shane is over, putting his hands behind his back. He stands there, staring at the bulge in Shane's pants. Shane clears his throat and finishes pushing the boxes he'd been putting up into place and then he steps down off the step ladder.
He catches Dustin's eyes for just a moment, gives him a small half smile and then turns away.
"Shane," Dustin says, reaching out and tapping Shane on the shoulder, and as Shane is turning he says, "I'm just curious," and once Shane has turned around completely he presses their lips together.
He's a good kisser, if a little sloppy, and Shane let's Dustin push him back against the brick wall, responds to the advance like he wants to.
He moans when Dustin drops to his knees, returns the favor while Dustin leans back against the bike repair table, and afterwards, while they're sitting on the floor of Storm Chargers back room, work forgotten, Dustin says, "So apparently I'm into guys."
Shane just laughs, laughs until he has to bury his face in his hands, and Dustin smacks him with a work towel until he stops. "Yeah, apparently me too," he adds.
"But I also don't think I want to be dating anyone right now," Dustin admits, and Shane shrugs.
"Not prime time for relationships, what with the evil ninja's attacking the planet and all," he agrees, and then he makes a phone gesture with his hand, "Call me after we've saved the world, huh?"
Dustin grins, throws the towel at Shane's face.
He starts wondering with some mirth if he should make notches in his morpher strap. But then, he thinks, No, this isn't about notches or conquests. There's a lot more to it than that.
Tori and Dustin were his best friends before he slept with them, and they're his best friend after. Nothing actually changes, save for the fact that he knows what face Tori makes when she comes, or that Dustin likes to swallow. And he keeps it to himself, doesn't tell either of them about the other, doesn't pursue them again. If anything, it makes them closer.
And then Hunter and Blake show up.
Hunter, who is all gigantic waves of anger and angst, trying to fit into some mold he sees for himself and never managing it. And Blake, poor Blake who is just trying to manage his brother and stay alive and never giving anything else much thought.
They're aloof, and un-obliging, and Shane doesn't particularly like either of them, even after they join the team.
But then one day, while watching Hunter spar with Dustin, Tori leans over and whispers to Shane, "Hunter really needs to get laid," and she gives him this little wiggle of her eyebrows.
Shane baulks. "Why are you looking at me?"
Tori shrugs innocently. "You should take it as a compliment," she says, and lets the subject drop, but suddenly Shane wonders what Tori and Dustin have been talking about lately.
He's not even sure Hunter swings that way, to be honest, and he's not sure that a casual hook up is what the Crimson Ranger needs at this moment.
Shane just resolves not to do anything until Hunter comes onto him, if it ever happens, and he forgets about it.
Until three weeks later when Hunter comes onto him.
After the whole deal with the tournament, they start hanging out. They go jogging together in the morning before training, starting their day with some cardio and scathing insults like it's a game.
One morning, after they've run for miles through the forest and are almost back to ops, Shane just collapses on the ground, claiming defeat. He's got a cramp in his side and he quits, he tells Hunter, just quits.
He takes his morpher off his wrist and holds it out to Hunter, who is standing over him laughing, and says, "Tell them I perished valiantly in battle."
Hunter slaps his morpher away, and Shane puts it back on his wrist. "Come on, old man," Hunter teases, reaching down and grabbing at Shane's ankle to drag him a bit.
"You are older than I am," Shane objects to that taunt.
"Which is why you have no excuse!" Hunter yells back, drops Shane's leg, and drops down to his side. "Where does it hurt, you big baby?"
"My side's cramped up," Shane says, indicating his left ribs, "Just give me a minute."
Instead of just letting him breathe, Hunter reaches over and puts his hands over Shane's cramp, and starts to massage it out.
He's surprisingly gentle, using the palms of his hands to smooth the tensed up muscles, and Shane relaxes at the touch.
"Better?" Hunter asks, his voice gone quiet.
Shane clears his throat. "If I say yes, you'll stop," he quips, meaning it to be a joke, but Hunter's hands still on his side as their eyes meet.
Shane feels it coming before it actually even happens. Hunter leans his head down, kisses Shane in the gentlest, most dainty way he's ever been kisses, and then pulls back, like he's asking for permission.
Shane chuckles, says, "Help me up," while holding out his hand, and Hunter does.
Then he pushes Hunter against a tree and grinds against him until they're both sweaty and cramping.
And to his great surprise, Hunter seems a little more at home afterward. He stops trying so hard to fit, and instead just fits. And Shane doesn't take any credit for that.
But he does wonder.
Cam happens just after the fiasco with Cyber Cam.
He mopes, Cam. He doesn't leave Ninja Ops for a week, like he isn't allowed, like he's punishing himself for what happened, and Shane takes it upon himself to seek out the samurai and try to help.
He doesn't intend to help him with sexual favors. But.
Sometimes that's just the way things work out, he supposes.
He finds Cam in the back room, where they keep the equipment, and it looks to Shane like he's organizing the training lathes as busy work.
"You, my friend," Shane says, clasping Cam on the shoulder, "Need a break. And sunlight."
Cam shrugs his hand off. "I have work to do."
"Cam," Shane says, putting his hand again on Cam's shoulder, this time squeezing tightly, "The work will still be here. You've got to stop kicking yourself for your mistakes. It doesn't help."
"Advice on how to cope with failure from a Red Ranger who would have flunked out of the Academy if he hadn't been late for class on the day of a massive alien attack," Cam says dryly, moving away from Shane and ticking something off on his clipboard.
Shane's jaw drops for a moment, and then he whistles. "Wow," he says, taken aback, "Good to know what you really think of me."
Cam sighs, and he drops the clipboard and hangs his head, turning and leaning against a rack of boots. "You're right, I'm sorry," he says, putting the clipboard down, "That was uncalled for."
"No, you know, it's mostly true," Shane nods, "But I'm not the same person I was that day. Neither are you."
Cam looks up, like he's really touched by that. He gives Shane a small half smile, and hangs his head again.
"I mean, you're still a dick," Shane admits, and Cam lets out a startled laugh, which makes Shane smile, "But you know, I like to think we're friends."
"We are," Cam says, and he pushes off the rack he's leaning against and comes over, giving Shane a pat on the shoulder, "We're friends."
"I mean it though," Shane says, "I'm not leaving 'til you do something for fun."
Cam looks at him, gauging his level of seriousness, and finally shrugs. "You want to spar?"
Which is how they find themselves on the training mats, leveling punches and kicks back and forth at each other. It's… it's confusing how they get to the position they end up in, with Cam holding Shane from behind and rutting against his ass, Shane's arm wrapped up behind Cam's neck and fisted in his hair. Shane thinks it had something to do with a triple kick he missed, and Cam taking advantage of an opening to pin him down. He's not sure.
He is sure as he lets Cam take him from behind that he's a little bit gayer than he thought he was, though.
Cam tells him a couple of weeks later, after avoiding Shane at all costs, that he's sorry, and he didn't mean for it to go that far and he can't offer Shane anything.
Shane waves it off, is used to it by now, doesn't mind. He gives Cam a reassuring hug and makes sure he knows they're still friends.
It's sort of funny that later that same day, he ends up alone with Blake at the track, the two of them trying to get Blake's wrecked bike into the back of the Storm Chargers van by themselves, sitting on the tailgate together sipping soda's afterwards.
He's not sure how it comes up, but Blake asks him how many people he's slept with.
"Uh," Shane says, sputtering, "Why do you ask?"
Blake looks torn. "You can't laugh," Blake says, holding up a finger.
Shane holds up his hands to indicate 'Scouts Honor' despite never having been a boy scout.
"I'm a virgin," Blake says as he blows out a breath, like this is one of the most difficult things he's never said.
And maybe it is, but. Hey, everyone was one sometime. "So?" Shane says, and Blake looks at him like he's crazy.
"It's a big deal," Blake says, waving a hand.
Shane shrugs. "Only if you make it one."
Blake pauses, looks away for a moment. "Huh," he says after a minute, "I guess that's true. But how do you know what your into before you've actually experienced it, you know?"
Shane grins to himself. "I'm not sure you know even after you've experienced it," he says wryly, still wondering to himself what his sexuality is, "If you know what I mean."
"Not really," Blake says back, and Shane laughs.
"So boys or girls?" Shane wonders, continuing before Blake can continue, "Or both, which is my case."
Blake looks startled. "You can like both?"
Shane whacks him over the back of the head.
"No, like, I mean," Blake sputters, grinning, "Wow. I guess I never thought about that."
"Huh," Shane says in response, and they stare at each other for a long moment.
Blake opens his mouth, closes it, and then looks away.
"So, you wanna find out?" Shane wonders, not really expecting Blake to take him up on it.
"Actually, yeah," Blake answers.
So he sucks Blake off in the back of the van.
Somehow, Shane winds up at graduation alone.
Tori and Blake wander off together, and Dustin chats up Marah, and Cam and Hunter are busy talking to their sensei's about their new appointments as head teachers.
He's sitting by himself at the fountain, marveling to himself how strange these last few months have been, that he should have had romantic encounters will all his friends and somehow wound up the only one by himself at the end.
Skyla had changed some things for him, of course. Suddenly, sex hadn't seemed so important, and he'd learned a bit about himself in losing Skyla.
It really had been a strange few years.
"Hey, Red," a voice says beside him, and he turns his head to see a woman with reddish brown hair standing next to him, one hand on her hip.
"You must be Leanne," Shane says, and he gestures for her to sit down.
"And you must be awfully deep in thought to be all by yourself on graduation day," Leanne counters, and Shane grins.
"You know," Shane says, shaking his head, "It's a hell of a story."
The thing about Leanne, Shane learns, is that some things are worth waiting for.
She doesn't want to sleep with him, but they do spend a week in her apartment in their pajamas, cooking each other breakfast and teaching each other sparing techniques and talking about traveling the world together.
They become good friends, and they talk about their sexual histories and preferences, and he finds in Leanne a kindred spirit he didn't know he'd been looking for. She's sassy, and quick witted, caring and sympathetic, and can kick his ass on the mats.
Which is probably why when they finally do sleep together, it feels like connecting, and not like hooking up.
"I can't believe you're dating my sister," Hunter whines, but Tori smacks him over the back of the head, and then Leanne gives him a nookie.
"Hey, at least he found someone," Tori says, watching Leanne and Hunter wrestle, "I was worried you'd never be happy."
"Were you?" Shane asks, amused, and then something weird happens.
He gets these looks from every one of his friends, and oh, yeah, Shane realizes, they all absolutely know.
Shane chuckles, slings his arm around Leanne when she finishes roughing up Hunter, and shrugs it off. He wouldn't take back any of it.
And that's how it ends.