Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers Dino Charge. This story is fan-made.
His first time in America, Chase had been excited. He had new places to visit, new foods to try and new people to met. Thanks to his energem and his duty as the black Ranger, he quickly managed to find a job and a place to stay. His apartment wasn't the biggest or fanciest, but it was more than enough for him. His first time away from home had been a real adventure.
This second time in the United States wasn't as much fun as Chase had hoped. Of course, he hadn't come over looking for another adventure. But now that Kendall was looking more like her normal self, there wasn't much for him to do in the States that he couldn't do at home. Unfortunately, he couldn't leave. He knew there was a monster out there, and unlike Prince Phillip, he couldn't get a plane to fly him across the world whenever he pleased. Chase was stuck so far from home, unsure of when he would return.
It wasn't all bad. He had his friends. Koda and Ivan were fun to take out on the town. There was always something new for them to explore and Chase loved to see their reactions to anything they hadn't encountered already. They were so curious and drawn in by modern technology, and Chase had learned to really admire and respect everyday objects he once took advantage. The world had once been so big to Koda and Ivan. It would take them both days to travel from place to place that now, only took hours. Not only that, but in the present day, travel was no longer necessary. People could telecommute or spend time with their loved ones over video chat or text message. Facebook was good for keeping up to date with friends and distant family. Twitter was good for quick updates.
Yet, it wasn't the same. As impressive as the modern world was, nothing could be invented that would replace the warm, comfortable, familiar feeling of home. Now, more than ever, Chase was missing his mother and his sister. While he didn't regret making the trip across the ocean to help Kendall, he regretted that it took him away from his family for so long.
He sighed as he sat at the bar looking down at the shot the bartender had placed in front of him. There was one thing that could replace his missing family, at least temporarily. For a night, Chase was contemplating letting himself get as drunk as possible before he was too intoxicated to make his way home.
"Drinking is not the solution, trust me."
Chase looked up and saw Kendall taking the barstool next to his. He looked around and spotted Ivan a little ways down, seemingly in the middle of telling his own stories to a bunch of girls who were fawning over him.
"He can drink, but I can't?"
"Ivan's from the middle ages," Kendall chuckled. "He can hold his own. Besides, this makes him feel at home."
"The knight and the caveman are really lucky our Ranger mentor is a history expert," Chase said.
"Are you seriously going to drink?" Kendall asked Chase, looking to the shot before him with worry.
"I'm legal."
"I know," Kendall nodded. "It's just... I know that look."
"What look?"
"Drinking the pain away," Kendall said. "The one my mother had every day after dad left, right up until she killed herself. Self-medication."
"I can indulge from time to time. My parents aren't alcoholics."
It was a bit of a low blow. It was nothing Chase couldn't recover from. Surely Kendall understood what he meant. However, it shouldn't have been said. Kendall was only worried about him. Alcohol had never done her or the people she once cared for any favours.
"Sorry," he muttered. "That came out wrong. I meant to say, I miss them."
"Your family?" Kendall asked.
"I just can't get Chloe off my mind," he said. "She was so... hurt that I left."
"Why did you?" Kendall asked him and Chase turned to her, a slight look of confusion on his face. He knew her memory of her kidnapping was still a little fuzzy for her, but she did know what had taken place. She knew someone had messed with her, leaving her broken for weeks following her disappearance. Though she didn't know Chase had seen the monster, she knew there was something out there.
"You think I was going to stay behind?"
"I think you went above and beyond given how many people are so much closer to Amber Beach. Prince Phillip has less travel time than you do. Riley's just a few hour's drive away, and Shelby and Tyler know if they're needed back for emergencies, I'll pay them back for their flight. Even if Shelby will treat herself to first class."
"You expect her to fly in anything less?" Chase teased and Kendall chuckled back.
"I guess there is more room," Kendall answered before looking up at Chase. "So, why cut your visit home so short when I had plenty of options? I wasn't in my right mind but, Chase, I wouldn't have blamed you."
"You did, though," Chase told her. "When it was all still raw, you were mad at me for leaving."
"When I wasn't in my right mind. I'd have been mad at everyone."
"Not Cammy."
"She's... different. You know that."
Chase gave a little nod. That much was true. Kendall didn't need Cammy to prove anything to her. She was the rock in their relationship. She was the one who would support Cammy through the toughest, darkest of times. She would never ask Cammy to be strong in any hardships. Chase gave one look to his drink, feeling a little less inclined to take the shot, before turning back to Kendall.
"So... you really don't know why I came back? Why I'm here."
"I know why you came back," Kendall said. "I'm not an idiot. It's just... you've clearly chosen me over your family and... How could you do that so easily?"
"It wasn't easy."
"Alright, that's fair, but you didn't take long to think about it."
"You really don't know?"
Kendall shook her head. Chase averted his gaze, looking down at the bar, "It was life or death, Kendall. Before I boarded the plane, you were still missing. Koda and Ivan found you by the time I landed, but..."
"So then why stay?" Kendall asked.
"You think I'd leave you..."
"Life or death was over. I'm home," Kendall answered him. "Koda and Ivan could take care of me. They could have phoned for Riley to come, or called the Prince, Shelby or Tyler..."
"They aren't as close to you as I am."
"So you don't trust they would take care of me?" Kendall asked. "Koda's catchphrase is that he won't let anyone hurt me. If toy makers knew our identities, kids would be buying blue Ranger toys that said 'No hurt Kendall'."
"They would have taken good care of you," Chase nodded. "But it's... You really don't remember what I said?"
Kendall shook her head. "I'm sorry. Until whatever it was left my head, most of my memories are fuzzy."
"I brought you soup," Chase said, and noted that Kendall still cringed at the mention of the food. "You panicked, you were so scared but you did ask me when I came back. I think you were trying to make sense of everything, kind of like now. You seemed so certain no one had come looking for you, that no one cared."
"I remember that," Kendall said and looked down. She had worked so hard at the friendships she had now, and she knew her friends had done the same with her. She felt a little bit ashamed she had ever doubted them, even if that had been her captor's intention. Of course they cared. Of course Koda and Ivan would start looking as soon as they noticed something suspicious. Of course the others would check in frequently to see if they were needed for anything, even coming home. Kendall wasn't even surprised Chase had hopped on a place. What shocked her was how much he was willing to sacrifice for her. Here he was, in a bar, contemplating drinking away the pain of missing his family, and he had done it all for her.
What made her so important to him that he would leave his mother and sister behind on such short notice, unsure of when or if he would ever return. What about her made it worth disappointing the little sister he adored?
"Do you remember me telling you that I love you?" Chase asked. "The real kind of love."
"Oh," Kendall face turned red and now it was her turn to look at the shot of alcohol Chase had ordered. "Romantic..."
"I said I didn't expect anything from you," Chase quickly added, not wanting her to freak out on him now that she could completely process what he was telling her. "And I still don't, though I am a little upset you were ready for Heckyl and not me."
Kendall gulped and nodded her head nervously. Heckyl had been a good friend. She felt close to him, just like with the Rangers, only without the weight of having to keep an eye on him constantly and design weapons and chargers that would keep him safe in fights against aliens hell bent on acquiring energems and had no care for whether or not they destroyed the Earth in the process. Heckyl was easier in that sense.
He was also easier in the sense that he didn't matter to her as much as Chase did. Heckyl leaving had upset her. She still wished for him to come back so they could have coffee together, stay up late together at his apartment, or head to bars and clubs and sing karaoke, putting all the other performers to shame. However, his leaving wasn't devastating. Though Kendall was hurt, she had learned to move on. She could live a life without him.
She had no idea what she would do without Chase. She deflected his comment.
"To be fair, I never said the feeling was in any way mutual," she told him. "And I never promised your crush would be requited."
She hated her answer. She sounded like her former self: cold, aloof – bitchy. Though her answer did bear truth, she had never promised to like Chase the way he liked her, it was merely a deflection – a way for her to postpone having to admit anything to the black Ranger until she knew better what her feelings for him were.
"Sorry," she whispered, hoping that would dull the sharpness of her answer a little bit.
"You have a point," Chase said, agreeing with her. "I guess you owe me nothing."
"You flew across the world for me."
"I did."
"Because you love me?" Kendall asked. "Romantically?"
"I don't know when it happened," Chase told her. "I barely know when I started to have a crush on you. I just... I know I like you, a lot. In New Zealand, you were all I could think about. I'm pretty sure Chloe hates you."
"Great..."
"I didn't mean... I just wanted to say she was a little sick of hearing me talk about you all the time," Chase said. "I'm sure, once she meets you, she'll like you."
"Why?"
"Why not? You get along with Cammy. I know you're not great with kids but Chloe is pretty mature for..."
"I meant why do you love me? How could you? What is there to love?"
"Kendall..."
"Seriously, why? I... I'm... broken."
"Not to me," Chase shook his head. "You've never been broken to me. At least, not anymore than anyone else is."
"You really think you could manage to spend the rest of your life with me?"
"Well, we'll start slow," Chase said. "I mean, hypothetically, if you loved me back, or at least had feelings for me, we would start with a date or something and just take it from there."
"But the goal would be to take it from there for the rest of our lives."
"If it works out."
"Which... you would want it to..."
"Kendall, there's no pressure here," Chase said. "You aren't ready, I understand that. These are just my feelings and... well, you asked so, now you know."
Kendall bit her lip and mentally kicked herself. Her curiosity was a real bitch. While it had led to some great discoveries, it had also lead to discoveries of this kind: to things she wasn't ready to know. How could she ever look at Chase again, knowing how he felt? Knowing he wanted so much more from her?
She flicked her thumb over her shoulder, pointing to where Ivan was seated, "I should take him home before I've got a drunk Knight on my hands."
"Kendall..."
"You can drink just... for the right reasons," Kendall told Chase, gesturing to the glass still sitting before him. "Just, don't overdo it and call for a cab to take you home."
Kendall walked across the bar, pulled Ivan away in the middle of one of his stories and walked out with him. Chase watched her go with a sigh. He knew he should have expected a reaction similar to this one. Though, even if he wasn't surprised, he still found it hurt. Rather than have Kendall open up to him a little more when he made his feelings known to her, she seems to shut down and take off. He turned to the glass, ready to drink, but as he reached out, he stopped himself.
"Are you seriously going to drink?" Kendall asked, looking to the shot before him with worry.
He pushed the glass away, paid what he owed the bartender and then left. Kendall's reaction may not have been anywhere near ideal for him, but she had told him something that gave him a little hope they would be okay. She worried about him. She didn't want to lose him the way she had lost her mother. Chase couldn't claim to know much about the relationship Kendall had with her birth mother, but he knew losing her had been a terrible blow for Kendall.
She didn't want him to drink. She didn't want him to turn to alcohol when he was feeling sad or lonely or anxious. She didn't want him to replace the people he missed with drinks. She wanted him clean.
She wanted to make sure she wouldn't lose him. For Kendall, that spoke volumes. Chase still wasn't sure where he stood with her romantically – if she would ever feel that way about him. But now he knew he was someone she didn't want to see disappear from her life.
Leaving home was still the hardest decision he had made in his life. He missed his mother and his sister terribly and hoped whatever threat was keeping him here wouldn't cause trouble for long. However, he knew he had made the right decision coming back to Amber Beach. He hadn't left his mother and sister for nothing. Kendall was the woman he loved.
And in her own way, Kendall loved him back.