Happiness is a Firefly
Chapter 1 – Telling the Time
Summary - A surprise party is a relatively simple concept. Trust Wes to be able to mess it up before it even begins. Luckily, it's Dustin to the rescue, while Hunter and company stick to decoy duty. The things they did for Eric, really.
Notes – Whew, check it out ladies and gents, this story officially marks the five year anniversary of the first story I ever posted. Time certainly does fly. I may not be posting as much, but I've still been writing. I'll get back on a regular posting schedule soon, I hope, but until then, here's this little tidbit
This story takes place a couple months after the events of 'Filled with Good Works', though you don't need to read that story in order to follow along with this one.
Thanks to everyone who's been with me since the beginning, and to everyone who found any kind of enjoyment from my stories. However little they may have affected your lives, I hope at the very least they managed to bring a smile to your face.
Warnings – References to boy/boy relations, and general grumpiness.
This baby is raw and un-beta'd, so all mistakes are my own.
-:-:-:-:-:-
"This is…" Wes eyed the splatter of egg slowly beginning to drip down the wall, the dust explosions of flour still lingering in the air, framing the mess in a way that was almost artistic. "This is…"
He wanted to say 'a catastrophe', but even that seemed a little too kind.
Across the kitchen, Dustin paused his remarkably calm sweeping and deigned Wes with a look of optimism. "This is salvageable."
Wes very much doubted that.
Blake, who wasn't possessed with the chipper attitude that seemed mandatory for all yellow rangers (save for Taylor, who took to being the exception to the rule with ruthless determination), snorted gracelessly, voicing the thoughts Wes dared not say.
"This is the opposite of salvageable." He punctuated this with an unimpressed look over the warzone that was Wes' kitchen island, the carcasses of eggs generously scattered across the black marble, intermixed with the great sugarspill of eleven thirty, and the milk debacle of eleven thirty-eight.
Dustin, equally unimpressed with Blake and his 'woefully doubting ways' (the Earth ninja had explained that perpetual negativity was a standard for the two Bradley brothers, to which Blake had merely shrugged in agreement), resumed his sweeping. "It's salvageable," he insisted.
Were it not for the fact that Dustin still insisted that Trip's pixie-stick addiction was still 'salvageable, Wes would have found that comforting.
Blake chose this point to ignore his teammate, because the Bradley's had developed a coping mechanism of blocking out the things that only made their lives more difficult, and they had hung around Dustin long enough for the brunette to stop being offended by this action. In that, he usually spoke louder.
The Ninja Storm team was kind of confusing, but Wes wasn't really one to comment on team dynamics when he still couldn't mention the name 'Alex' to his own team without sending them all into an awkward, stilted silence.
"Collins," Blake began in a bored drawl, his way of showing that they were beyond humoring nonsense at this point, and Wes needed to put on his big-boy pants to deal with the issue. "Just buy a cake."
"I wanted to make one." Wes tried to keep the wining tinge out of his voice, but if Blake's perfectly raised eyebrow was any indication, that effort had failed.
It didn't seem like an unreasonable desire. Birthday parties required cake, and cakes made with effort and care easily conveyed more appreciation towards the intindee than going out and buying one. Yes, the red Time Force ranger had enough money to buy Eric ten gourmet birthday cakes easily, but how impressed would the Quantum ranger be if Wes just bought his way out of a problem?
Negatively impressed, that's how much. There would be such a void in the general area of 'impressed' that Wes would owe Eric some awe of his own, and if he could avoid that mild look of disappointment quickly replaced by subdued appreciation, then Wes was willing to roll up his sleeves and get a little dirty.
That had been his baking mantra all morning. That had been his light at the end of the tunnel, the aspiration to his big moment of triumph, his saving grace, his build up before… the inevitable fall into desperation, when Wes had somehow worked his way through all of his ingredients, stained his clothes in ways that weren't even imaginable, and lost all hope for ever surviving beyond the bounds of his takeout menus. He was a failure as a properly functioning adult.
About halfway through cake number four (Wes would like to think he had learned from each iteration of cake attempts, but he's pretty sure he hadn't), Wes had called in reinforcements, pulling a few of the highly culinary-skilled rangers away from their assigned surprise party tasks.
Blake had come unprompted, following as Dustin's shadow, offering some vague explanation of being 'moral support' (though the pictures he kept sneaking with his phone of the cake destruction suggested otherwise).
Wes swore, if this moment somehow became part of another inspirational photo collage, he was taking away the scrapbooking toolkit he had given Dustin last Christmas. He did not care if it invoked the wrath of Cam; there were some things that didn't need to be commemorated with fuzzy cat stickers and glitter.
"And you will."
The declaration pulled Wes from his sullen reminiscence, and there was Dustin, looking poetic and mighty with a broom clutched in one hand, the scattered remains of Wes' failures doing nothing to dampen his aura of determination.
Seeing that he had Wes' attention again, the brunette waved a knowing finger at him. "You will bake a cake and it will be glorious and- Dude, if you do not stop snickering you will be leaving."
This last part was aimed at Blake, who had traded in his attempts at subtlety to record Dustin's emphatic speech, giggling behind the safety of his phone. Dustin scowled in retaliation and chucked a sponge at the navy ranger, the younger Bradley snatching it out of the air with very little effort. Wes wasn't bitter about his reflexes, nope, but he couldn't help but note that possession of similar skills may have allowed him to save cake number 3.
"Clean up or shut up," Dustin chided, uncharacteristically stern. It was a rare showing for Dustin to be strict (in a sincere, non-humorous way), but he tended to get like this when people encountered stumbling blocks on the path of a friendly gesture. Dustin was fiercely overprotective of anyone who put forth effort for a friend, and combatted potential critiques with the same enthusiasm he used for motocross or hosting movie nights, as in, all of it.
It was something about the brunette that Wes simultaneously loved and was saddened by, picturing the circumstances that had led to that disposition by someone he considered so easily lovable. Quirks like this generally generated from personal experience. Wes knew that much from Eric, or hell, he knew that much from Hunter.
"Okay, okay," Blake ascended to the demand with a smile, dissolving any lingering tension with the practiced ease that came from being Dustin's friend for so long. "I'll stop heckling. Quick question though," he turned to Wes, his jovial air replaced for one of curiosity. "Why didn't you call Kai?"
"I did." Wes sighed, gathering eggshells and consciously not thinking about that encounter. "He took one look at the kitchen and said that it was inefficient to waste time on a task that could only produce subpar results. He went to buy a cake."
Blake let out a low whistle. "Harsh, man. True, but harsh."
"What did we say about heckling?" Dustin pointed a threatening finger at the navy ranger without ever pausing his work, more dexterous with one arm than some rangers were (cough TRIP cough) with their whole bodies. "And you," he turned his 'steely' glare on Wes. "Cut it with the negativity. From this point out, all depression is forbidden."
"I don't think you can control that," Blake muttered under his breath. Dustin – calm, loving, positive Dustin – paused his work long enough to snatch an eggshell out of Wes' hand and whip it at Blake's head.
Wes was ninety five percent certain the maneuver was only successful because Blake hadn't been expecting it, and the only thing better than the shorter ranger's flabbergasted expression was the fact that Dustin had already started talking again, not giving his teammate the pleasure of viewing his response.
"Forbidden," Dustin repeated, his eyes squinting wildly. "Now, call Leo."
"What?" Blake dropped the wounded-perturbed act in favor of vocalizing the confusion he and Wes shared. "Isn't he on Eric-duty?"
"Tactful redistribution of assets is sometimes required in extreme circumstances," Dustin replied dismissively, his tone so casual and off-the-cuff that it took a few moments for his words to actually sink in.
For Wes, at least. Blake was already sputtering. "What?"
"I listen to Shane," Dustin replied with a defensive sniff, turning away from the two of them to retrieve the dustpan. Like the conversation was over. Like that made sense.
"What?" Wes echoed.
There was a dramatic sigh, Dustin rolling his head back with exaggerated weariness, as though baffled he had to explain everything to the other two rangers. "Leo's needed more elsewhere," he sighed, eying Wes meaningfully. "Tell him to intercept Kai at the store and get more cake ingredients. We'll clean up in the meantime."
At this point, Wes had decided the less he fully experienced this conversation, the better. He made a tactful retreat, opting to go to his room to tackle two birds with one stone, getting cleaned up and calling Leo in a place of relative safety.
Behind him, the playful banter carried on, Dustin masking his amusement with wide-eyed enthusiasm (he was a troll, they all knew it, but Hunter was the only person allowed to call him out on it) and Blake mixed halves of exasperation and masked enjoyment.
"You couldn't have just said that?"
"I could," the Dustin voice allowed. "Wouldn't have made as good a picture for the scrapbook though."
"Picture-?"
After that, Wes made a more dedicated effort to getting out of earshot. Turnabout was fair play after all, and it wouldn't do for Blake to call for reinforcements.
He just hoped that whatever battled they'd have wouldn't end with a kitchen more ruined than how he left it.
A fruitless hope, perhaps, but a persistent one regardless.
-:-:-:-:-
"I don't understand why he's here." Eric made this declaration with the same mildly-threatening disposition in which he had initially evaluated their little rag-tag roundup, and were it not for the fact that the man was framed with a garish backdrop of the family-friendly Putt-Putt Mini Golf, Hunter may have felt a bit intimidated.
But as it was, Eric did have an ugly eyesore of a purple building jettisoning into the sky like a giant middle finger against all things considered tasteful and refined behind him, so yeah, Hunter wasn't impressed. Hunter wasn't impressed at all.
Based on the quick look he shared with Rocky (Hunter wasn't actually sure how the red Ninjetti ranger had known about this, since he sure as heck hadn't invited him, but he had a feeling the reason rhymed with 'smadam'), Hunter deduced he was not alone in this feeling. It probably didn't help the Quantum ranger's ego much that Taylor was all but snickering from her position beside Carter, but Taylor's charm resonated from her extraordinary ability to not-give-a-darn, so Hunter wasn't going to criticize.
"To be fair," Eric continued, taking in the yellow ranger's disposition with a glare that was obligatory at best. "I don't understand why any of you are here, but I especially don't understand why he's here."
The 'he' in question shifted uneasily from his position behind Lucas' shoulder. "I don't know why I'm here either," he offered, projecting this fact like a tentative peace treaty, as though it would do something to lessen Eric's scowling.
That was how you knew he was a newbie to Eric-handling. Not the mild hints of tentativeness when engaging in conversation, but the unfounded hope that Eric would respond to a situation reasonably.
See example number one, Eric's almighty glare intensified at this response, prompting Lucas-the-surprisingly-overprotective to shift a little bit more in front of his tagalong.
It probably didn't help that the new guy looked pretty much exactly like Wes without actually being Wes. It was Wes with brown hair, essentially, but with none of the smiles and every single nerve dedicated to proper etiquette and mature decorum and stuff all rangers should probably be without any ranger actually being it. At least, not full-time. Not like this.
Apparently Lucas decided he needed to get in on this glaring-action, because his response to Eric's ire was to grace the Quantum ranger with a mighty frown of his own. "He's here because he's part of our team, and we're friends."
Okay, some immediate intervention was going to be needed here, because Eric's shoulders were doing that rising tension thing that felt really similar to the all 'don't sneak out of a hospital with a punctured lung' lecture, which was an emotional place that none of them really needed to revisit. Hunter especially.
He stepped in with a casual amble, trying to diffuse the situation with sarcasm before Carter or Adam could try some out some horrific life slogans like 'you can never have too many friends' and Hunter would be forced to quit this day of distraction, promises to Wes be damned.
"Pretty sure friendship doesn't work that way," he drawled casually, hands shoved in his pockets. "But whatever, the more the merrier. Friendship for everyone. Let's play golf."
"I can go-" Not-Wes began to offer and that - if the super-protective, super-invested attitude of Lucas was any indication - would only be met with more rage from the blue ranger, needed to be stopped.
"Friendship for all!" Hunter declared, cutting off the proposal and making his way towards Eric. Not that glaring at everyone in parking lot wasn't a super-fun time, but time would probably go by faster if plastic multi-colored balls were involved, with coordinating little clubs to hit them with. Also, bumper boats. Boats. Hunter hadn't done that in forever.
"Now," Hunter muttered, grabbing one of Eric's rather impressive biceps and attempting to guide the other man towards the building's entrance. "Stop scowling and start walking, we have family-friendly activities to engage in, lest your birthday not be properly celebrated."
"I thought we weren't going to use the B-word," Rocky mock-whispered, his attempts at conspiring mitigated by the wide grin spread across his face.
"I think at this point it would be more stupid than whimsically catty to ignore why we gathered a bunch of adults in one place to play mini golf," Hunter replied, frowning as the bulk of muscle that was Eric refused to budge under his grip. In response, and not because he was a total child, Hunter leaned against the Quantum Ranger, trying to push his firmly-grounded ass towards the front doors. It was a difficult battle, since he had to keep his ranger strength in-check. And because Eric was being a dick.
"I would think this would be a regular thing for you guys," Taylor noted, her eyes narrowing in devilish concentration, smirk sharp on her features. "Doesn't Dustin drag you to this type of stuff all the time?"
"Why are you using his team as a reference point for normality?" Rocky asked before Hunter could prepare a properly scathing response. "When would that ever seem like a good idea?"
"If you were doing ninja-stuff?" Lucas offered. He had backed down from his anger-front at the opportunity to poke fun at Hunter and Hunter-related things, which was doing wonders to lighten the mood.
Normally, Hunter would put up the pretense of being offended for the sake of entertainment (he didn't really have enough pride or ego for it to be a legitimate response), but Eric seriously wasn't moving, which was going to be a rather sizeable hurdle in their planned 'day of fun'.
In the meantime, Adam took up the mantle of providing a light distraction, keeping them all from uniting their frustrations to get Eric through the front door. "You could always ask us. The Ninjetti's are ninjas too."
"It's in the name," Rocky added with an exaggerated waggle of his eyebrows.
Not-Wes stirred from behind Lucas. "I thought the name derived from-"
"No history lessons," Hunter chided, only feeling the tiniest bit guilty about cutting off Not-Wes's first voluntary vocalization. "This is a day of mindless, dopey fun."
"For my birthday," Eric drawled, folding his arms across his chest. There was probably a hint of smug victory in there because Hunter had yet to actually move the other ranger a single inch, but most of Eric's energy seemed to be reserved for his chosen strategy of disbelieving his circumstances until he was back home.
Where he couldn't really go, as said house was swarmed with rangers decorating the humble abode with red and black, fortifying it for a ranger party to end-or-maybe-kind-of-begin all ranger parties.
It was the first birthday they had hit since the whole Doompot-and-results-of-Doompot conundrum had occurred (that didn't coincide some kind of mega-event for a particular team – there had been other birthdays, but they'd been, you know, understandably busy), and they were trying to take advantage of their newly-instilled sense of communication in the most appropriate way.
"For your birthday," Hunter agreed. At some point, he had stopped trying to shove Eric and settled for leaning against the broader man. Hey, ninjas needed breaks too.
"And uh…everyone's here?"
This one, yeah, that one had actually been a question (as opposed to a stated challenge posed as a question, wrapped in no-I-didn't-actually-want-an-answer-dumbass), and Hunter cursed his little crimson luck that he hadn't been expecting it. Or, he had, but he had hopes, you know. Despite reality consistently slamming those hopes into the ground, he had hopes.
Behind them, Hunter listened to the crowd consciously avert their attention elsewhere, giving the illusion of privacy. Didn't really work, considering that they all had heightened senses, but there were worse things in life than spontaneous conversations about the weather. Or cars.
Enough stalling, it was up to Hunter to do the hard, touchy-feely stuff he had really been hoping to avoid.
Stupid Wes and his stupid emergencies. Hunter had lost like, two people to that.
"Leo's still in-route," Hunter lied conversationally. Leo was going to be 'in-route' for a long time if Wes' need for a Kai-handler persisted, but it was technically true. "And Dustin got called back on some family stuff."
Which, again, was not technically untrue, as Dustin loved Wes with the ferocity someone would reserve for an Uncle, or at the very least, a cool older cousin.
Hunter wasn't sure which of the two instigated Eric's disappointed frown more. The Quantum ranger's relationship with Leo was an unfathomable thing that seemed to cater between the extremes of complete aggravation and awkward sexual tension with little room in between (unless they were like, two minutes from passing out, then they were all sleepy and adorable and no one had the energy for emotional shields, so they had to own up to actually liking each other). Ultimately, their interactions culminated into a solid friendship, probably one of Eric's favorites (not that the Quantum ranger would ever admit this), so Leo's loss, while pretended to not be much of one, would not be pleasant for Eric.
The Quantum ranger's relationship with Dustin had played out the same way for exactly five seconds, and then Eric realized that his façade of pretending to not like Dustin was something the yellow ranger took literally. The rush to alleviate the misconception had been fast and thorough, ending with Dustin's eternal devotion forever, and Eric's overprotective daddy-bear thing kicking into overdrive. Dustin was probably the only person who had Eric wrapped around his finger who would never think of possibly abusing that power. They did brunch without irony, and Eric (despite complains of the long drive) was every single one of Dustin's races, sometimes dragging Wes or Taylor or Leo with him in tow.
If there wasn't an emergency afterwards, sometimes Eric would treat them to burgers and shakes – the thick, homemade goopy kind – and Hunter may-or-may not love those situations as much as Dustin did, if not more.
"It's nothing bad," Hunter assured, cutting off Eric's concern for Dustin (like he said, mad papa-bear skills). "But it'll be a bit."
Eric considered him with a steely gaze, not distrusting of Hunter's assessment, but tentative in its own right. It had taken Hunter a long time not to be offended by that, by Eric's reluctance to believe in the judgements of others, but once Wes had given a breakdown of how the Time Force team had worked together, Hunter realized it made sense. Eric had worked alone for a very long time; even now he was still adjusting to the idea that other people may have his best interests at heart.
Even Hunter still struggled with that concept, so he couldn't begrudge Eric for it. Seemed unreasonable, even for him.
"Okay," Eric said, nodding.
The one subject they didn't even remotely address was the topic of Wes' absence, since that had already been covered about a week ago. Technically, Wes was 'out of town' on business, and had already sent Eric a commemorative candy-graham (Hunter and Dustin had already been there for that, having crashed Eric's pad with a surprise birthday bruncheon, 'fancy hats mandatory') and his best wishes. Eric had been oh-so-subtly perturbed by the blond missing his birthday, but in typical Eric-fashion he had bottled up that frustration with the obnoxious insistence that it didn't exist. Nope. No sir. He didn't miss Wes. He didn't care about his birthday, or Wes missing it, because deep down Eric was just as messed up as Hunter and Blake were. Yep.
At least Hunter had enough awareness to admit it.
"So if that's settled," Hunter began conversationally, wrapping an arm around Eric's broad shoulders. "I believe we have go-karts to race, mini-golf to play, and bumper boats to…bump."
"Don't forget the batting cages!" Taylor cheered, jumping into their conversation with complete defiance to pretending not to be listening this whole time. "There are baseballs to hit."
"No baseballs," Carter, the level-headed rock in this storm, chided. "You remember what happened last time."
"I think we can all agree we would like not to remember what happened last time," Adam noted, a shiver falling over the crowd as they strayed towards the not-so-safe memories.
"Wes paid for the repairs," Lucas grumbled under his breath.
Hunter rolled his eyes. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, buddy."
But seriously, whatever helped. You couldn't critique a good coping mechanism.
-:-:-:-:-
During you career as a ranger, there were situations that required you utmost skill and determination. Situations that mandated every ounce of focus you possessed, situations were a moment's hesitation or distraction could mark not only yours, but your team's, and humanities, ruin. Situations that were, in retrospect, completely and utterly terrifying (okay, in the moment, they were also completely and utterly terrifying, but usually adrenaline could block it out). These were the situations that judged the merit of a person, and in turn, their value as a ranger.
Leo should not be facing a similar situation when it came from talking Kai down from buying a cake, but such was life.
It was a good thing Wes called him in time. The maneuvering Leo had to pull to get out of the way before Eric caught sight of him was probably both ridiculous and impressive. Leo still wasn't entirely sure what he had actually done, the moment of panic quickly overtaken by his ranger directive of following emergency orders, but he was pretty sure there had been some flipping involved. Some guy across the street had clapped, but Leo had firmly decided that was in response to something else majestic happening, but he was digressing.
Kai. Cake. Gameface.
The things Leo did for these people.
Firmly ignoring Hunter's 'Hurry up, Eric's soul is CRYING' text, his phone heavy in his pocket, Leo put on his best Kai-charming face and held his hands up open and easy, displaying empty wrists and the obvious lack of hidden weapons on his person. Not that Kai would suspect Leo of a calculated assault (or, suspect him as much of a calculated assault, some habits never died), the brunette just usually found that when wanting to get/communicate something from/to Kai, it was best to alleviate all possible distractions as quickly as possible.
Yes, it was unspeakably depressing that Kai's 'distractions' were fundamentally based in the area of risk assessment, but Leo realist, he worked with what he had. Maya was the empathetic one, let her get distracted by the sorrows inspired man's potential for cruelty.
Woah, that was a lot of pent up frustration coming out today, Leo really needed to focus. It was birthday, happy-fun times, he could be possed at the people who mistreated Kai later. The anger would still be there.
"I realize you're trying to help out here," Leo began without preamble, choosing to skip over simple things like 'hello' and 'So Wes called' in favor of taking care of the immediate problem of Kai picking out a cake. "But you're going to have to trust me on this one, some things can't be bought."
Kai, one finger marking his place in the cake catalogue (they had fireman cakes – sweet. Literally), did some very minute shifting in his expression which some would not consider as emoting that Leo equivocated to a raised eyebrow.
"A cake can be bought," Kai noted, there could have been a note of humor in his tone, but the main point here was that he was still looking at Leo, which meant he was interested. If he thought Leo's point was irrelevant, he would have already gone back to picking out a cake.
"The effort spent making the cake can't." Leo smiled, ambling along the length of the bakery display case until he was a few feet from the object-of-his-affection-that-he-couldn't-really-call-a-boyfriend-because-it-just-made-Kai-confused.
Kai's head tilted to the side, speculative. "I believe technically, it can."
"The appreciation of the effort, I mean." Despite the nit-picking, Leo was still smiling. This was- this was one of the things he adored about Kai anyway. He had assumed, in the beginning that Kai's banter had been his attempts at friendliness, but eventually he discovered that wasn't the most accurate description. It was Kai reaching out for answers, trying to re-align the world into something manageable, and trusting Leo not to lie.
It was depressing and heartening at the same time, which seemed to be a common theme in Leo's life.
Shaking the thought off, Leo continued, shedding light on an unknown subject once more. "Sure, you can buy someone a cake, but if you make someone a cake, put forth the effort and time to make it for them, well…some people consider that a greater gift. Because cake is great and all, it is, but something tasty to eat can be gone in a day. The memory of someone doing something for you, and the feelings that effort inspires? That will last way longer."
Leo crossed the last few feet between them, leaning against the glass display case and ignoring the very vibrant 'DO NOT TOUCH' sign resting on top of the glass, because he was a freaking rebel.
Kai chuckled quietly. "Not as much of one as you think."
"How do you do that?" The exasperation was betrayed with a smile, Leo too happy at the prospect of Kai and Kai-fondness and this to ever feel annoyed.
"With practice," Kai replied blithely, owning up to the vagueness with a mischievous smile.
Yeah, people called Leo a troll, but if they ever got into Kai's comfort zone they would see who the real trouble maker was.
"Then practice this friend." Leo bopped Kai's nose lightly, the childishness of it outweighed by the blue ranger's momentary confusion. Random, purposeless actions were still something Kai had to work around, but the fact that he allowed Leo to touch him at all – that he trusted him enough for that…
Well, let's just say it wasn't something that Commander Myers could understand the gravity of, even if he had never had to work for it.
No, Leo was not bitter about that. He was happy that Kai was getting/trusting more of their friends.
It was good.
Well, he was in a stupid mood today, wasn't he?
"Why don't we abandon the catalogue here and go pick out some new ingredients for Wes?"
Leo had seen the destruction wrought upon the Silver Guardian's kitchen via Blake's pictures, if there was any hope of saving this, the blond would need constant supervision and at least twice as much stuff as the recipe called for.
Kai would make it work, because Kai thrived in impossible situations, and that was enough to make Leo all warm and fuzzy on the inside again.
"I suppose your points have some merit," Kai allowed with a brief nod of his head. He abandoned the catalogue as Leo suggest and, to Leo's increasing surprise, looped his arm around the brunette's, guiding them towards the baking goods isle as a unit. "You should return to the Commander, after this is finished though."
"You could just call him Eric."
"I could." Kai nodded. "After all, he is one of ours, isn't he?"
There were moments – growing less frequent than when they had initially met, but still present – where Leo wasn't sure what Kai was talking about. He had learned, in time, to simply go with his gut. To fake it until he made it, as it were.
"Hell yes he is," Leo replied without hesitation. "And ours deserve cake!"
"One of your more heartfelt rallying calls," the blue ranger quipped quietly.
Oh. Oh, it was on.
Leo turned, resting his chin against Kai's shoulder conspiratorially. "For cake."
"For cake," Kai agreed.
He didn't wink, but there was that subdued twinkle in this eye that Leo in no way imagined, and in every way adored.
-:-:-:-:-
Endnotes:
Hey, check it out, I'm not dead! Busy, but not dead. There will be more chapters of this badboy, but I honestly can't say when. My brother's getting married in January, so things are very much downtown crazyville at my abode. I won't leave this hanging for months though, so let's alleviate that possible concern right away.
For previous anniversary pieces, see below:
1. Any Moment – Chapter 45: The Rainbow Connection
2. Songs About Rainbows
3. Beyond that Bright World Lies Despair
4. All Things Great and True
Until next time :)