Author's notes: this takes place immediately after chapter 6 of 'Fight for the Future', following Daring as he runs off.
...
Daring had taken off running into the woods, hoping that a good run would clear his head from everything he'd just heard. Not only had he learned that his sister, Darling, wanted to be a warrior instead of a damsel in distress and had gotten Kamen Rider abilities from Raven to that end but their relationship was far more strained than he could imagine. And this was on top of all the other weirdness in his life recently: agreeing to help Raven as she gathered a defence force against Evan Chanter's forces, volunteering to be part of the Super Sentai team that she and Apple had created.
He ran as hard as he could for over ten minutes then stopped to catch his breath.
"You're faster than I thought," Cerise said, revealing herself to be about twenty feet away from Daring and walking towards him, barely winded from keeping pace with Daring.
"You followed me?" Daring asked between breaths even though it was obvious. "Why?"
"How often do you go running through the woods?" Cerise asked. "It's easy to get lost in here if you're not paying attention to where you're going. I decided to go with you to make sure you didn't get hopelessly lost."
"All right," Daring agreed, quickly looking around no realizing that he wasn't familiar with this patch of woods. "But I could use my Mirrorphone's GPS to figure out where I am." He took his phone out and attempted to do that but had no such luck. "Or I would if I could get a signal this far from the school," he said in a defeatist tone before putting his phone away.
"As Melody would say, follow me," Cerise said as she turned around to led Daring back to the others.
"Before we do that," Daring said, causing Cerise to stop and face him, "there's something I've been wanting to go something over with you."
"What's that?" Cerise asked.
"I borrowed the notebook from Apple," Daring started, "that she and Raven used for the ritual that made us Dremorangers so I could learn more about the various Super Sentai teams that were the inspiration for this. After a little flipping through the notebook, I learned that traditionally, the red one is in charge of the team."
"And since I'm the red one," Cersie continued for him, "while you're yellow, you're unhappy about that. Don't be: I haven no desire to be in charge of anything. Besides, Raven and Apple gave us our powers and brought everyone together so if anyone's in charge, it's them."
"But I would like to be team leader of the Dremorangers," Daring clarified. "Briar and Dexter are technically Royals but they're not as committed to the cause as I would like. If I were to take charge of the Dremorangers, that might impress them into changing their minds about that. Also, you're not qualified to be team leader."
"Because I'm a girl?" Cerise asked angrily, growling reflexively a little.
"No," Daring began to clarify. "Because you're secretive and keep to yourself so much that people don't really know you and are hesitant to completely trust you."
"Oh," Cerise said in shock as she instantly calmed down.
"Do you have something to hide?" Daring asked.
Yes, Cerise thought. Fortunately, she had mentally prepared for something like this and was going to sate Daring's curiosity with some false information.
"I'm gay," Cersie said with false reluctance.
"Nice try, but I saw you checking me out in my swim trunks when we were at that bath house," Daring countered scornfully, making it clear that Cerise's failed attempt to steer him down the wrong path only further peaked his curiosity.
Shit, Cerise thought at how the situation has gone from bad to worse. Daring's on to me and I don't have a backup plan. There was an awkward silence among them as Cerise struggled to think of her next move.
"We're done talking now," Cerise said as she turned around.
"No we're not," Daring declared, grabbing Cerise's wrist as she attempted to run away. The force of Cerise attempting to run against Daring's grip caused her to yank her head back and make her hood fall off.
And now it's just gone from worse to F#*ked, Cerise thought. She looked at Daring and waited for his response. He had a shocked look on his face and stumbled over to a nearby tree that he leaned on.
"Why does this keep happening?" He asked aloud and sounded like he was on the brink of crying.
"Not what I hexpected," Cerise muttered to herself. She waited for about a minute while Daring stayed by the tree before going up to Daring. "Do you want to talk about it?" Daring faced her and had a pained hexpression on his face. He thought about his response for a moment.
"More stuff that's not supposed to happen keeps happening around me," Daring answered. "My sister doesn't want to follow her destiny and might hate my guts, I'm helping to protect Raven due to stuff outside my control and Apple doesn't love me which I'm okay with because I don't love her either. And now I find out about ... this," Daring pointed to her wolf ears, "and it's all just so ... ughhh."
Cerise wasn't sure what to say to all this and simply waited to process a response while Daring dealt with his internal turmoil. Cerise was aware that Daring's current problem stemmed from a strong belief in the future being what he hexpected it to be and problems dealing with so many severe and unforseen developments. A few minutes later, Cerise knew what she wanted to say.
"Daring," Cerise began as she walked up to him, "I'm not going to pretend to know what you're going through because I don't. All I'm going to say is that just because something is unhexpected doesn't make it irrecoverably bad. And when the unhexpected happens, you need to adapt to the situation instead of wallowing in despair over things not going the way you wanted them to."
"You're right," Daring said. "And as for that stuff about things not going the way they're supposed to ... that wasn't about you personally."
"I didn't think it was but I appreciate the apology all the same," Cersie said.
"Would you mind telling me about ... the ears?" Daring asked.
"Here's the short version," Cerise said and then began telling him about how she was the daughter of the Big Bad Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood. "And I would greatly appreciate it if you kept this to yourself."
"Of course," Daring agreed. "And do you think you can do the same about my little breakdown just now."
"Sure," Cerise said with a smile as she gazed into his eyes. Like nearly every girl at E.A. High, Cerise found Daring incredibly handsome. That combined with learning that underneath Daring's perfect hexterioir, he had the same kinds of doubts and insecurites that every teen suffered from made Cerise see that he was more than just the one-dimensional image of the ideal Prince Charming that so many (hexpecailly Apple) thought he was. All this made Cerise's feelings for him grow to levels she struggling to restrain.
"Thanks for your understanding," Daring said gratefully. "I haven't gotten a chance to say this yet, but you've really impressed with fighting skills you've shown while we've been training. And I haven't noticed this before but you are beautiful in your own way."
This pushed Cerise over the edge. She lunged forward while giving out a low growl and began making out with Daring, who quickly began reciprocating as he embraced her.
While Daring had made out with several girls before, this was the most he had ever enjoyed it even though he was struggling to keep up with her voracious appetite. This continued for about five minutes with brief stops to catch breath and then they broke apart.
"Sorry," Cerise said ashamedly. "My bestial side overwhelmed me: it happens sometimes, though rarely that strong."
"Feel free to get overwhelmed like that again," Daring said with a smile. "Though it should probably be when we're by ourselves."
"So you'd like this to happen again?" Cersie asked.
"Oh yeah," Daring said enthusiastically as he held her hand.
"Are we a couple now?" Cerise asked. "I'm sorry for being forward but that seems like something that should be formally declared." Cerise than had a look of a dawning horror on her face. "But I'm a Rebel and you're like, the main Royal. There's no way you'd want to be public about this, hexspecially after what Ashlynn went through."
"Which I now feel really bad about contributing to," Daring said in a rare moment of social awkwardness. He made a mental note that he owed Ashlynn an apology because he now saw that falling for a non-Royal was more complicated than he originally thought.
"Fortunately," Cerise continued, "I'm used to being a secret and have no problem being yours," she said in her best attempt at a seductive tone (which in Daring's opinion, she nailed) while pawing his chest. They made out again for a minute.
"Can we also not tell our allies about us?" Daring asked. "At least not until this thing with Evan is dealt with. It's just that we all have a lot to deal with right now and shouldn't draw attention to ourselves away from that. Plus, I want to get a feel for how we work as a couple before surprising them.
"Sounds good," Cerise agreed and then hugged Daring to press herself against his thick chest. She followed up with a quick peck on his lips. "Do you want to go back to the others?"
"In a bit," Daring answered and returned Cerise's hug. They stayed like that for about a minute and then headed back to resume their training.