Pizza and Junk
AN: Okay, it's been a looooooong time since I wrote Power Rangers fanfic. Mostly I only watch PR for nostalgia's sake, but, I saw the premier of PR:SDT on Staurday and something stuck, 'cause they characters wouldn't leave me alone. So I wrote this. It's set at some point during the premier, before Jack takes the Red Morpher, but after Z joins the team. The team are having dinner in that cafe place we saw them in when Boom turned up with a broken arm. It's mostly just me flexing my muscles inside the fandom again, going with the characters, y'know. But I get the fealing Z isn't going to leave me alone for a while... tell me if you think that's a good thing!
Post Script: Might I also add, I wrote this reeeeeeeeealy quickly, so type-os, spelling errors, etc, are probably to be expected.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Z hadn't eaten real pizza in years.
The closest she'd come in the past ten years had been that time Jack and her had camped out behind a takeaway place and gotten the lukewarm crusts off some guy working there who felt sorry for them. After that it was the occasional non-green bits they could gnaw out of empty boxes in the trash.
Warm cheese and dripping grease, pepperoni meat that melted in the mouth and a doey base still soft from the oven. In that moment, Z knew paradise, and swore that she would never go back to the streets.
Bridge was watching her across his own slice. "You're really enjoying that, aren't you?"
Z swallowed another mouthful and grinned, catching a trickle of grease as it found it's way down her chin. "You try living out of trash cans for ten years."
"No thanks," Bridge raised his eyebrows and reached for his second slice. Z beat him to it and started cramming the entire thing into her mouth. Chewing was for losers, anyway.
"Eew!" Syd shrieked in disgust, "Sky, make her stop!"
The resident glowering blue ranger rolled his eyes, "Z, do us all a favour and try not to choke. The commander wont like it if you die in your first week."
Had she had any room, Z would have stuck her tongue out. As if was she gave an unintelligent sounding grunt and continued chomping her way through the slice.
Bridge looked fascinated. "Can you fit the whole thing in at once?"
"Eeeeew!" Syd looked even more disgusted, "God, don't even think about it!"
Z used her fingers to shove the last of the pizza crust in her mouth and closed her jaws on the slice, her feral grin triumphant. Syd leapt to her feet, "I can't eat around you people! And besides, do you have any idea how many calories one slice of that stuff contains?"
She marched off in disgust to find more suitable dinner company. Sky, conservatively nibbling around his pizza slice, watched her go, apparently wondering whether it was worth the effort of going after her, then deciding against it. He continued glowering at the table instead.
Z chewed up the pizza slice and swallowed it. Bridge was attempting to navigate a long string of mozzarella, slowly winding it into his mouth with his tongue, lifting the slice up and then under the string, craning his neck at an awkward angle in an attempt to keep it intact. As the laws of physics dictated, it snapped, leaving him cross eyed, with a long drizzling of cheese hanging down his chin.
Z spluttered her laughter, showering an unfortunate Sky with bits of half-chewed pizza base.
"Oh, jeez, Z!" Sky leapt to his feet, finally losing patience with the latest addition to his team. "Grow up, for God's sake!"
He stormed off in much the same way as Syd, looking, if it was possible, even more annoyed than usual.
Z, recovering from her hysterical coughing fit, watched him go in bemusement, then rolled her eyes. He'd be cute, if he could ever get that stick out of his ass.
Bridge held out a glass of water to the yellow ranger, in an attempt to be helpful. "Don't worry 'bout Sky. He's just mad 'cause they wouldn't give him his red-ranger morpher. He's always going on about how his dad was the first one, an' all. He's ticked off."
"I got that," Z took the glass of water and swallowed a mouthful, clearing her throat. "More pizza for us."
"Syd never eats much of anything anymore," Bridge shook his head, "she's, like anorexic or something."
"What does she eat?" Z asked, licking her fingers.
Bridge shrugged, "vitamin pills and water, I think. And jelly beans. She likes jelly beans. She eats them when she thinks people aren't watching."
Z laughed, and picked up another slice of pizza.
There was a companionable silence filled with happy munching, until Bridge began, "so… you an' Jack known each other long?"
Z shrugged, "long enough."
"How'd you meat?" Bridge pealed a piece of pepperoni off the top of his pizza.
Z shrugged again, "around."
"Not much for talking about the past, are ya?" Bridge observed.
Z didn't answer. She hadn't any wish to bring the shadows of the streets into this new, cosy, pizza-filled existence. The damp cardboard and mildewy wool of her old bed behind a skip down an alley, huddled in Jack's arms for warmth, was as far away from the springy mattress and fresh-smelling sheets of the new academy as north from south, and she had no intention of bringing them closer together.
"So… you and him… you were never… you know…" Bridge was edging round the subject, nervous and uncertain.
Z looked up, "what? Me and Jack?" She snorted. The idea was actually kinda gross… "you have got to be kidding."
"Oh… oh, right." Bridge lapsed into silence again.
Z shook her head and swallowed the last of her pizza crust.
"Okay, one piece of pizza left," Bridge announced, changing the subject.
"I'll arm wrestle you for the last slice," Z planted her elbow on the table and waggled her fingers, a challenging light in her eyes.
Bridge looked distinctly doubtful, "couldn't we just discuss this rationally and calmly with mutual respect for each other's humanity…?"
"Come on…" Z coaxed, a wicked smile curling up her lips, "you're not scared, are you?"
Bridge gulped, "would it taint your womanly respect for me as a man if I said… yes, yes I am?"
"Mmmm… It might…" Z tipped her head to one side, "but you're not scared, are you, green-boy?"
"Z, you'll crush me," Bridge told her, matter-of-factly. "Now, let's just cut the last piece down the middle and save me my poor broken wrist."
"Well… I guess we could," Z's smile was coldly coy, "but… y'know… the knife's over there… and… we're over here… and… wouldn't it be so much easier if I just…"
"What?"
Before he could quite comprehend what was happening, Z had grabbed Bridge around the scruff of his neck and crushed her lips to his, cutting off all thoughts of pizza and the circulation in his jugular vain in one go.
Z fought off the inward urge to gag. Eugh. Pizza breath. Not pleasant. But, effective, none the less. It was a trick she'd used on Jack a couple of times when they were arguing along similar lines. Nothing like an unexpected lip-lock to knock a guy off guard.
She forced herself to count steadily to ten (despite the pizza breath, ew,) before yanking away from the green ranger, standing up, grabbing the remaining slice of pizza, and heading for the door. Bridge blinked, dumbly, at her departing back.
"See y'around, green-boy."