A/N: This is my first Power Rangers fic. It's a one-shot, unless there's a large demand for a continuation. I hope you enjoy it!
It wasn't that Mike was trying to snoop. Actually, he was trying to be helpful by sorting through a few of the old boxes upstairs that Ji didn't seem to want to touch. (The reason behind that became clear when he came across pictures of the former ranger team. All of whom were now dead.) But the point was that no, Mike wasn't snooping. He wasn't paranoid or suspicious or a conspiracy theorist. He just happened to open an old box.
And happened to pick up a specific piece of paper and glance at it before sequestering it inside one of the folders that had lain empty in the bottom of the previous box for some reason. Jayden's birth certificate. Which might have passed unnoticed if Mike hadn't noticed the date. Jayden's birthday was tomorrow!? He'd had no idea! So, how old would he be turning? Nineteen? It would make sense, that's how old Mike'd be turning in two months. But the year of birth was all wrong. According to this certificate, Jayden would be turning sixteen. What the heck?
Leaving the piles of papers and empty boxes on the floor, Mike raced downstairs and into the dojo. Kevin was there, as expected, going through a series of stretches. "How old is Jayden?" Kevin opened his eyes and looked at Mike in some kind of resigned confusion, his default expression whenever Mike was in the same room.
"Why?" he asked.
"'Cause I don't know, and I want to."
"Why do you want to know?"
"Because I found this upstairs," Mike said, holding out the birth certificate. Kevin's eyebrows rose as his eyes scanned the paper.
"We've been rangers for most of this year," he said slowly, standing up and handing it back to Mike. "There's no way he's been fifteen all this time."
"But this is Jayden and Ji's place. Why would there be a false birth certificate upstairs?" Mike glanced at the very official-looking paper.
"There wouldn't be," Kevin agreed. "But it makes no sense," he said, shifting his weight from foot to foot in that way he does when he's agitated.
"Should we ask the girls? Maybe Em knows, at least. I mean, if Jayden is that young, then she's closest to him in age. Maybe he confided in her, or, something . . . ."
Kevin gave him a look that told Mike that the logic was flawed, but whatever. Logic doesn't have to make sense to be right. The girls were both outside; Em was practicing with the practice swords while Mia practiced with her symbol powers in the shade by the house. Mike wondered where Jayden and Mentor Ji were. Maybe getting groceries? Or going for a ride on Mentor's motorcycle? (Now it make sense why Jayden didn't have his own, if he wasn't old enough for a license.)
"Done stretching Kev?" Em called, pausing in her strikes against the practice dummy.
"Actually," Kevin said, with a glance in Mike's direction. "We wanted to ask you two if you know how old Jayden is."
"Or how young," Mike muttered, but no one heard him.
"I'd imagine he's eighteen, like you guys," Emily said, looking at Kevin quizzically. "Why?"
Wordlessly, Mike handed her the birth certificate.
"But . . . but this would make Jaden . . ."
"Fifteen," supplied Mia, who had come over to look over Emily's shoulder. "Going on sixteen. His birthday's Friday."
"That's . . . I mean, I know I just turned seventeen last month," Emily faltered, "But that makes him two years younger than me, and three years younger than the rest of you at this moment."
"So if this is true . . ." Mike said, "Does it change anything?"
The others looked at each other, expressions suddenly worried. "Well, it makes him the youngest of all of us." Kevin said, once again showing his 'Mr. Obvious' personality. "So . . . I mean . . . I can't imagine that things won't change."
"Should we tell Jayden we know?" Mia asked.
"Well, I mean, it all seems so bizarre," Kevin said. "I don't want a misprint to change how we see our leader."
"Jayden wouldn't keep something like this from us though, would he?" Mike asked. "I mean, he'd tell us if he was really that young, wouldn't he?"
"Not if he thought it didn't matter to the fight," Kevin said.
"And he probably worried that we'd get overprotective of him. He already hates that we know about the sealing power," Emily pointed out.
"But if we ask him, he'll be honest; that's the way of the samurai," Kevin said with confidence.
"Sure. But I'm not the one who's asking," Mike said, crossing his arms. He could imagine how awkward that conversation would be. 'Hey, Jayden, leader, red ranger, how old are you? 'Cause, you know, it'd be nice to know if you're actually the youngest member of the team . . . .' Yeah, that'd go really well.
"Jayden and Mentor went into town a while ago, they could be back any minute," Mia said, putting down her paintbrush. "Perhaps we should figure out how to broach the topic before they get here."
"Maybe when he mentions that his birthday's soon-" Emily cut herself off with a shake of her head. "He won't mention it. He's Jayden, probably thinks that we wouldn't care."
"That's . . . a little . . . sad," Mia said. "Birthdays are amazing."
"We've been a team for a little less than a year," Mike said, remembering what Kevin had said earlier. "We've celebrated every birthday except Jayden's. We could just ask him when his birthday is, citing that it should be coming up. I mean, he's gotta be used to the rest of us introducing him to what normal- that is, non-samurai- people do."
"And then, we ask him how old he'll be turning. Good idea, Mike," Kevin said, giving him one of his bit-to-firm pats on the shoulder. Ow.
Jayden and Ji get back not soon after Kevin and Mike take up practice swords to join Emily and Mia goes back to practicing her symbol powers. One on one on one fights are so much fun. In fact, they're the only time Mike stands a chance at beating Kevin without being 'clever,' as the blue ranger puts it.
"Jayden!" Em calls, beckoning the red ranger over as the practice fight grinds to a halt. "I, that is to say, we, had a thought earlier," Emily said as Jayden and Mia joined them in the practice area. "When's your birthday?"
Jayden looked confused. "My birthday? Why?"
"Well, we've been rangers for almost a year now, and we've celebrated everyone's birthdays except yours," Em explained. "So, yours is either coming up soon, or we skipped your birthday entirely."
"Which is A-not-okay, dude," Mike put in. A corner of Jayden's mouth lifted in a smile.
"My birthday's Friday," he said, and turned to go into the house.
"And how old will you be turning?" Jayden froze at Mike's question.
"Does it matter?" Red light, red light, red light, Mike's brain screamed at him.
"Kind of," he said, ignoring that. "Gotta put the right number of candles on the cake after all."
Jayden turned to face them. "Go ahead and guess with the number of candles then."
"Not good enough." Mike knew that his attitude was going into the area of confrontational, but he wanted an answer. Curiosity had always been a failure of his when it wasn't being an attribute. And if Jayden really would be turning sixteen . . . .
"You only had one candle on your cakes," Jayden said, and of course he would remember an obscure detail like that. "So that's not it. Come on, what is this really about?"
Reaching into his pocket, Mike took out the folded birth certificate. "I was doing some cleaning," he said as Jayden took the piece of paper from his hand. "Upstairs."
Jayden unfolded the certificate, glanced at it, and sighed.
"Look," he started "my age doesn't matter. It changes nothing. Alright?"
"But-" Em started, but Jayden cut her off.
"It. Doesn't. Matter. I am your leader and I can take care of myself. You all know this. As I said when you found out about the sealing power; It's business as usual." Mia pursed her lips as Jayden turned and walked into the house, closing the door behind him.
"That could have gone . . . better," Emily said.
"Not really," was Kevin's insightful comment.