Disclaimer: The song this is loosely based on is 'Paint Me A Birmingham By: Tracy Lawrence. I don't own the song or Power Rangers. This is the first story in the Handsome, Beautiful, And Princess Series.
Thomas 'Tommy' Oliver was taking a morning jog down the beach where he was vacationing for a couple weeks since he just finished the red ranger mission and his grad studies. As he continued down the beach he noticed an older gentleman setting up an easel.
Tommy slowed down his jog to a slower walk and approached the gentleman.
"Hello." Said the man when he noticed Tommy.
"Hi." Responded Tommy looking between a started canvas and the ocean in front of him. "So how long have you been painting?"
"All my life. It's relaxing. What's your relaxation?"
"Martial Arts so do you only paint ocean scenes?"
"No for $20 I'll paint you anything."
Tommy stood there for a second and thought back to a conversation he had, had with Kim when they were still together, they had both mentioned what kind of house they wanted. Tommy wanted to be out of town and Kim wanted a house with a porch. So they agreed to try and find something like that, but now he was on his own. Kim left during their senior year for gymnastics, and besides one Christmas home and Muiranthias he hadn't seen or heard from her. Last he heard from Jason, she was somewhere in North Carolina. After his thought of Kim. He thought of the house he had just purchased in Reefside, it was defiantly the kind of place they had talked about. He got it and land surrounding it cheap, the house needed work but he didn't mind at all. When he bought it the first person he called was Jason, just to tell him he had found a place and it wasn't his parent's basement like Jason had been teasing him about.
"Do you know the town Reefside?"
"Yeah."
"Well I just bought a house there so if I told you what it looked like could you paint it for me?"
"Sure."
Tommy took a seat on the beach and looked out at the water and thought about his house.
"It's a small blue house on a large piece of property, it's two stories, a small side porch, it has no railings but I'm working on it. It has a gravel driveway, lots of flowers, there's a large tree in the yard, could you put a swing on there?"
"What season do you want it to be?"
"Early spring. And put her in a cotton pink dress."
"What color hair does she have?"
"Light brown, practically caramel."
"Where are you in this picture?"
"On the porch watching her."
"Is she a past love?"
"The one that got away, and I regret not going after her everyday."
"So go after her now, what's stopping you?"
"Fear, that she's found someone else, my friend tells me I'm crazy but it's just a fear I have."
"Well you'll never know if you don't try, but the picture is done at least."
"That fast?"
"Yeah, here you go, and go after her."
"Thank you."
"Good luck." Said the man and then he quietly added "My young falcon."
Tommy took his picture back to the hotel room where he was staying and carefully put the picture on the second bed in the room. He picked up his cell phone and found the number he was looking for.
"I'm not going on another mission with you Tommy."
"That's not what I'm calling you about Jase."
"Well then to what do I owe the pleasure of this call to?"
"You got the number for Kim?"
"Why?"
"I just want to talk to her that's all."
"You should have done this years ago."
"Yeah, yeah save the lecture, I've already got one going on inside my head and mysteriously it sounds like Zordon."
"Man, that's bad."
"Yeah, and Zordon is yelling telling me what a moron I am and to get my head out of my ass."
"I've been telling you that for years, and it takes a pissed version of Zordon to get you to do something about it."
"That and I ran into a guy on the beach during my run, and he painted me a picture of the house, and it just got me thinking."
"Good, the number is 510-885-7994."
"Thanks Jase, tell Tri I said hi."
"I will when she doesn't want to kill you."
"Well tell her I'm going to call Kim that should get me in her good graces again."
"I will. Later Bro."
"Bye."
After Tommy hung up the phone with Jason, he took a deep breath and started to dial Kim's number."
"Hello?"
"Kim?"
"Yeah, Tommy?"
"Yeah, I hope it's okay I called Jase gave me the number."
"No, no it's fine. I'm glad you called."
"Good, so the jetlag from Muiranthias was a bitch huh?"
"Tommy!" Said Kim jokingly.
"What?"
"So what's up with you, Trini called me a couple days ago yelling about how all reds should die slow and painful deaths especially you and Andros."
"The machine empire found Serpentara, Andros was watching it until it started getting dug up, so he called me, I called Jase, and a few others including the rookie, and we went to the moon and stopped it."
"And you and Jason didn't think to take the rest of us with you, if you think about it it's our fault Serpentara was still mobile."
"I didn't make that call it was all Andros, I would have loved to have you guys with us, then maybe I wouldn't have had to share a room with Jase snoring, how Tri does it I don't know."
"Hey I seem to remember someone else who's not so quiet when they sleep."
"That's cause you were in bed with me that's why I wasn't quiet."
"Haha."
"I miss you Kim."
"I miss you too, I wish I never sent the letter."
"Me too, we never got to talk about it, but why?"
"Because I was scared, I was on my own for the first time ever, and I got scared. I was afraid we'd turn into my parents so I left you before you could leave me."
"I would have never left you Kim."
"I know that now but at 17 I didn't know that."
"I love you Kim."
"And I love you too, but right now we just can't be together, I'm sorry."
"I know, but I hope you know that if you ever need anything you can call me right?"
"I know. I hate to do this but I have to go to work now, I'll talk to you later Tommy, bye."
"Bye Kim."
A couple days after the phone call with Kim, Tommy returned home and took a look around his property, and for the first time since he bought it he smiled. He felt better with how things happened with Kim, it was insecurity nothing that either one of them did to each other, just insecurity that any 17 year old would have felt being away from home the first time.
He hasn't talked to Kim since that day in the hotel room, and it had been 3 years. He wasn't worried he knew Kim could handle herself and if she couldn't she'd call him or Jason for help. They had helped trained her well, and according Trini she kept up her skills. Every day he came home from work at Reefside High and saw the picture over his mantel and saw her in it. And wished her all the best.