Rocky was depressed. He knew he shouldn't be, honestly, but that didn't really matter when it came to this particular situation. They had just finished wiping out their first ever round of cogs – for the record, those things were even more annoying than the putties had been – and with everything safe and sound for the moment, they finally got a chance to retreat back to their normal lives.
Of course, given the new occurrences with the Zeo powers, their everyday lives had undergone a few serious changes, not the least of which happened to be Rocky's wardrobe. Instead of his normal fiery red, he was glad in some jeans and a blue t-shirt that he'd filched from the years of hand-me-downs his mother had accumulated in the attic. He supposed he should be grateful; most of the others were still trying to find clothes to match their new colors. Adam had gone to Tommy's to see if any of his clothes from the Green Ranger days, and he'd already passed off a few trash bags full of red clothes to their leader. Tanya and Katherine got to keep their colors, yet, for some reason, they were the only ones out shopping.
That left him sitting by himself at a table at the juice bar, nursing a milkshake and trying not to draw attention to himself. After all, he wore red every day; he hadn't quite thought up a reason for his sudden color change. He liked to think that sitting in the corner table helped, because everyone just…walked on by him on the way to the juice bar.
Maybe that was why he was so surprised when he heard the chair pull out beside him. Startled for a moment, he raised his eyes to see none other than Adam Park sliding into the seat right next to him at the table. Seeing him just made things weirder, though. He was so used to Adam wearing his traditional black, that seeing him in that green just seemed…off.
"That bad, huh?" Adam asked, looking down at his sweater.
Rocky quickly shook his head no. "Not bad at all," he assured him. "A little big, though, don't you think?" It was, in fact. The neck of the sweater spread halfway out to his shoulders and dipped beneath his collarbones, and even with his arms crossed on the table, the sleeves still came up to his knuckles.
Adam frowned. "I didn't realize how much bigger Tommy was than me until I started trying on his clothes. It took me an hour just to find a couple weeks worth of cloths. Thank God most of my pants still fit." Playing with the frayed sleeves of the well-worn sweater, Adam looked up and suddenly, all the misery in the world couldn't keep Rocky's heart from thudding. He looked so adorable when he did that, cutting his almond eyes up through his hair. "I actually kind of like it," he admitted.
Rocky was all too happy to agree. "It's cute," he told him, the barest hint of a teasing grin on his face. It really was; the sweater made his already small boyfriend look even smaller. And besides, Adam looked good in any color.
Rocky on the other hand….
"I miss my red," he muttered finally, dropping his gaze in a pout. Instead of looking at Adam – he couldn't do that "looking up through the bangs" thing – he opted to glare at his milkshake like it was the cause of all of his problems.
Ah, Adam thought. So that was what had his upbeat boyfriend so down. Leaning in closer, he subtly slid the milkshake out from in front of Rocky before he melted it with his eyes or something. "You did look good in red," he began, taking a sip from Rocky's milkshake.
Rocky glanced up at Adam, as if to say, "You're not helping," before returning his gaze back to the table.
It seemed to Adam that his humor wasn't particularly appreciated right about then, so with a sympathetic smile, he patted Rocky on the back. "You want to know a secret, though?" he asked.
"Sure," Rocky replied unenthusiastically.
Undeterred, Adam leaned in close until his lips were next to Rocky's ear. "You look good in blue, too," he whispered, and with a quick peck on Rocky's cheek, he leaned back. At the uncharacteristically forward gesture from his boyfriend, Rocky finally did smile. Still, Adam wasn't entirely convinced that he was back to his chipper self, and went on. "And besides, it's better that you didn't stay red."
Rocky raised an eyebrow. "And why's that?" he asked.
"'cause I'm green, now. Think about it," Adam told him. "We'd be like Christmas."
It wasn't so much what he said, but the way he said it that had Rocky snorting the gulp of milkshake he'd just taken. "What, don't tell me you don't like Christmas," he said.
Adam shrugged. "Oh, I like it plenty," he said. "But it's like eggnog; I only like it when the season's right. You and I don't do seasons."
In a strange and utterly Adam sort of way, that actually made sense. Smiling, Rocky leaned in a little closer to his boyfriend. "Well, what about you? I thought you liked black. What if you kept your color, and I was the one that changed?" he asked.
Apparently, though, Adam had already thought of that, because he scrunched up his face. "Black and blue?" he asked.
Well, when he said it like that…. "Good point," he said. "We'd be the bruise boys."
That got a chuckle out of Adam. "Or something like that." Rocky got the feeling that Adam was chuckling at him, but it didn't matter; Adam could all-out laugh at him if he wanted, so long as he kept that smile on his face.
"So," he began, "blue and green, huh?"
With a shrug, Adam took another sip of Rocky's milkshake. Between the two of them, it was going pretty fast. Not that Rocky minded. "They're right next to each other on the color wheel," he said lightly, and then his expression got more sincere. "And you know, you can't have green without blue."
Leave it to Adam to make a freshman art lesson into a heart-fluttering compliment. Normally, Rocky responded to things like that with a kiss or hug or some combination of the both that would leave the smaller teen speechless. Since he got the feeling Adam might have a problem with Rocky goosing him in public, though, he finished off the last of his shake and stood. Adam understood the gesture – it helped that Rocky pulled out his chair – and followed Rocky out.
As they walked, Rocky slipped an arm around Adam's shoulders, pulling him close. "You know," Adam said, "blue and green look pretty good together." He blushed when Rocky grinned and pressed a quick kiss to his head, and the no-longer-blue Blue Ranger only grinned wider.
"I couldn't agree more."
