Disclaimer: Power Rangers and their world belong to Disney, not me. I make no money from this. This is just for fun.
Moving On
"Just knock already," Hunter Bradley muttered to himself as he stood outside the door of Tori Hanson's apartment. "It's not like she won't let you in." Of course she would let him in. Hunter was a frequent visitor to Tori's place. They hung out, watched movies, developed lesson plans, worked out together, surfed, rode motocross, all the things they each wished they could be doing with Blake. Blake however was off riding with Factory Blue and had been for eighteen months. The last time they saw him was when the Factory Motocross circuit had a race in Reefside where they encountered the Dino Thunder Rangers.
The door opened and Hunter jumped. Tori stood in the doorway with her head cocked to the side and a half smile on her face. "Were you going to knock any time soon?" she asked amused.
"Uh," Hunter replied running a hand through his hair, "how'd you know I was out here?"
"I heard your bike come into the lot," Tori said as she turned from the door and walked back into her apartment knowing that Hunter would follow her in. "I'm making some pasta, want some?"
Hunter walked in and closed the door behind him before following Tori to her small kitchen and taking a seat at the small table with two chairs, "Sure, I can eat." Anything to get out of the conversation that he knew he had to have with one of his best friends.
"All of you can always eat," Tori said as she poured the boiling water and pasta through a colander in the sink. She took out two plates and served the pasta, drizzling the noodles with olive oil, salt, pepper and some parmesan cheese. She placed the plates on the table with a couple of forks and turned to take a couple of cokes out of the fridge to pour into glasses. "Pay day isn't till tomorrow, so I thought someone might be by."
"We don't always freeload off of you!" Hunter said affronted.
"No," Tori said with a roll of her eyes, "Sometimes you guys freeload off of Cam."
"Hey," Hunter protested.
Tori just smiled and started eating as Hunter glared at her. She continued to ignore him and he gave her one last glare before starting to eat, himself. "So," Tori asked, "besides coming over to bum a meal, what do you need?"
"I don't need anything," Hunter said, "but I have to tell you something."
"What?"
"Have you heard from Blake, recently?"
"Sure, last night. I was on chat with him," Tori said with a smile. Cam had managed to find Tori an inexpensive computer that she set up in her spare bedroom. She and Blake often chatted on Wednesday nights after her classes and his training.
"Did he say anything to you?" Hunter asked carefully avoiding Tori's gaze.
Tori frowned, "About what?"
"Janine," Hunter said miserably.
"Janine? The red-head that rides 125's for Factory Blue?"
"I, uh, picked up the latest moto magazine today. There was an interview with Janine and Blake, Factory Blue's hottest couple."
Tori blinked at Hunter and he finally looked up to see her look at him with a frown as she bit on her lower lip. "I just wanted to be the one to tell you before you saw the article or before Dustin said something stupid and you deserved to know from me."
"Why from you?" Tori asked quietly.
"Because he's my brother and I feel kind of responsible for his actions, I mean, I've always tried to protect him, you know, and I guess I still do, a little. And you're my friend, Tor, my best friend. I didn't want some stranger surprising you with the news. Not that Dustin or Shane or Kelly is a stranger, but you know, to be surprised that the guy that you've liked for forever is suddenly dating someone else. That's harsh." Hunter leaned his elbows on the table and ran his hands through his hair in what Tori recognized as a gesture of frustration. "Tor, you deserve better than this. He's my brother and all, and I love him, but you deserve better than him."
"Hunter, you still think I'm hung up on Blake?" Tori asked.
"You used to talk about him all the time and I know you guys had a thing for each other. You write to him, e-mail, chat with him every week. You are always happy after you get a letter or talk to him," Hunter said pushing back from the table and standing to pace back and forth in Tori's small kitchen.
Tori watched Hunter before sighing and taking their empty plates, silverware and glasses to the sink. Then, she grabbed Hunter by the arm and dragged him into her small living room and pushed him down onto her sofa before taking a seat next to him and laying a hand on his arm. "Hunter, you know I would never lie to you, right?"
"Yeah, Tor, or course, that's why I had to tell you, before anyone else said anything to you," Hunter replied absently.
"Well, then, let me tell you something. When it was all over, and we defeated Lothor, I thought, finally, finally now that the fighting and training and the world saving was over, maybe, maybe we could really look at getting together, go on a date, get walked home and kiss on the doorstep. Then he told me that he was leaving to ride for Factory Blue, and I told him I was excited for him, but all the time I was thinking this was just another way for him to avoid the complication of trying to have a real relationship with me. We never held hands, or kissed or shared any more emotion than I shared with you or Shane or Dustin or Cam. I may have wanted to and maybe he may have wanted to but at the end, when he left, I guess I just thought maybe what he and I had was just friendship and a flirtation. He was the first of my guy friends that I actually thought might be more, but maybe it just wasn't meant to be. When he left, I knew that I wasn't enough to hold him here. I know you weren't the only one Omino Sensei offered a teaching position to. Blake could have stayed, but he wanted to go. So I had to let him go and I had to let go of all the fantasies and dreams and wishes of us being together. That doesn't mean he and I aren't friends, because we all went through so much as rangers that it's unthinkable that we couldn't be friends, but I couldn't ask him to stay and he didn't ask me to go with him."
"But when we met the Dino Rangers, he was so worried about you," Hunter said.
"Blake and I have stayed close. Hunter, if you had been mind controlled, he would have been just as agitated if not more," Tori replied with a smile, "And you can't tell me that you and Cam didn't worry about me more than the other guys. I know I'm the only girl. The reason I learned to hit so hard was so that the guys would stop worrying about me so much."
Hunter snorted, "Let's not mention how much you get away with being the only girl."
"Not true," Tori replied.
Hunter had to admit, she was right. She trained just as hard as them. She never used her sex as an excuse to slack off, in fact, she often had to work harder, train harder to make up for the lack of sheer physical strength that the guys had. She was a compassionate and insightful instructor, able to teach the whole student, heart, mind, spirit and body. She was adored by the guys because while she was one of them, in so many ways, just by being female, she balanced them.
"You're right," Hunter said, "that was not true, I'm sorry."
"Forgiven," Tori said quite used to the way that the guys often spoke first then regretted what they said, or if the statement was feminist, she made them regret what they said. "Anyway," she continued, "Hunter, I totally knew about Blake and Janine." She almost broke into a laugh at the expression on Hunter's face. "Hunter, Blake could barely talk to me when he was interested in me? How do you think he got anywhere near Janine without asking someone for help and advice. He wasn't going to ask you, he wasn't able to ask you about me. He wasn't going to take any ribbing from the guys, not to mention they might go ballistic, overprotective over me. He couldn't talk to any of the guys on the tour and totally lose face about being clueless with girls. So, he chatted with me, IM, letters, phone calls."
Hunter looked at her shocked, "How could he do that to you? How dare he do that to you? That's totally wrong!"
Tori snorted, "There is nothing wrong. Hunter, if it had been right after he left, when I was still feeling betrayed by his decision to leave, that would have been bad and there would have been lots of complaining because I would have been taking all that anger, frustration, sorrow and hurt out on you guys when we trained. But it's been almost a year, he had already extended his contract to three years and I figured he wasn't going to be back any time soon, so I guess I figured to let him go. And when he started asking me for help with Janine, it was just as amusing to be on the side rooting for him and just being as good a friend to him as I could. He's so totally head over heals for her and she's where he is."
"And what about you?" Hunter asked softly.
"What about me?"
"He's fallen in love. He's got you for a friend. He's doing what he wants to do. What about you?"
"I am doing what I want to do. I teach at the school, I surf at the beach, I train with my friends."
"You know what I mean," Hunter said, "That's all you do, what about finding someone for yourself?"
"Why would I do that? I don't need anyone, I have you guys. I'm so busy teaching at the school and taking night classes at the college that I don't have time for a boyfriend."
"This is our fault, isn't it? The guys and me."
"This has nothing to do with you guys."
"Tori, don't even try to give me that crap. First it was just you, Dustin, Shane and Cam. They never looked at you. You were one of the guys. Remember the whole trapped in a camera, Dill thing?" Hunter pressed.
"How do you know about that?"
"Cam kept records of all your battles, remember? When Blake and I showed real interest in fighting as a team, Cam gave us a whole bunch of old fights to watch, to get a handle on your style. We had to get the whole story when we saw you fighting your double," Hunter said. "We had to ask the guys how that whole thing happened. Kelli overheard Blake and I talking about the magazine shoot at work one day and she explained the whole thing, especially when it had to do with the guys ignoring you as a girl and scaring the guys off."
Tori gave him a wry look, "They just didn't get it. I was one of the guys. You and Blake helped me get over that."
"Me?"
"Yeah," Tori smiled, "The first time we met. Shane overheard your conversation. When Blake called me hot and you agreed."
Hunter blinked at Tori, his cheeks turning a ruddy red. "Uh, yeah," he said with an embarrassed smile on his face, "Well, Blake thought you were hot."
Tori just rolled her eyes, "Yeah, well, it helped. I wasn't just another guy to you and Blake. But that doesn't mean that just because Blake has a girlfriend, I need to go out to get a boyfriend to prove something. Hunter, I'm really o.k. about the whole thing."
"Whatever you say, Tori," Hunter acquiesced, although he looked as if he wanted to continue the argument. "What have you got?" he said looking though the packages from Netflix scattered on her coffee table.
Giving Hunter an odd look, Tori riffled through the packages until she found an action flick that she kept on hand for when the guys came over. As she popped it into the player and turned down the lights, Hunter went to the kitchen for drinks and a tub of ice cream. Very companionably, the curled up on her sofa and half way though the movie, Tori had fallen asleep on Hunter's lap, drinks and empty tub of ice cream on the floor. Hunter smiled down at Tori and gently ran his fingers through her hair as he watched the film and wondered if she had lied about the situation with Blake.