AN/: I know, I know I should be working on my Forgotten Rangers story but- this was just too enticing not to write. Plus I hardly ever see this pairing so, what the hey!
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the show Power Rangers.
I Guess We're...
Scott doesn't know what it is that makes him uncomfortable with Tenaya is here at the base. Truthfully speaking, he didn't actually think that Dillon and Summer would have just dropped her off at the first reconstructing city out there and be on their merry way but that still doesn't explain his unnerving feelings. It takes a lot to shake this red ranger, so why does he have the sudden urge to puke and punch a wall at the same time when she struts in behind them? Maybe it's the fact that she's the former heir to destruction or maybe it's the fact that he didn't exactly invite her here too. Still, she's reformed and while her first reformation was a disaster this one seems to be permanent. Alls Scott knows is that he's wary of her when he has no reason to be.
Tenaya finds Scott perplexing. Dillon's her brother, Summer's his girlfriend, Flynn's good natured, Ziggy's amusing, and the Boom twins are on another planet all together, but she can't get a read on Scott. Perhaps that's why she enjoys making him squirm. He doesn't openly show it and no one else has suspected but Tenaya's pretty good at reading people who put on a mask, even better at it than Dillon. After all, she's constantly wearing one of her own masks. Honestly, she believes the proper response should be outrage. She is a different person now but she still can't help but smirk about the way she makes him feel uncomfortable.
Being a ranger again means that Scott often has to talk to the others about strategies. They've always done this sort of thing in the garage and it's never really been a problem until today. Scott's in the middle of the briefing when Tenaya walks silently in only to plop herself down, sitting on the table top that's up against the back wall, eating a banana.
Scott only falters a little. "Um...so the next time Flynn comes into contact, Gem, I want you..." He keeps going, occasionally throwing subtle glances at the girl as she listens. They aren't subtle enough obviously because she raises her eyebrow and gives an entertained smile to him after his fifth glance. The others still don't take notice but that's all okay with Scott. He'd rather not have himself only look like an anxious fool in front of all of them, Scott is rather prideful if nothing else.
Tenaya is downstairs eating a bowl of cereal on the counter when Scott walks in sleepily. It's 4 in the morning but he sees her almost instantly and sighs irritatedly.
Finishing her gulp she becomes defensive. "Is something wrong, Scott?"
"Nothing," He tells her arrogantly, opening the fridge looking around for something to eat. "Just tired." Rummaging for a few minutes more, he closes the fridge and walks over to the counter. Outstretching his hand, he asks her only with a look if he can have some cereal. Rolling her eyes, Tenaya grabs the box that's sitting behind her and hands it to him.
Grumbling a word of thanks he pours himself a bowl and sits a little ways down. After a few bites Scott looked up and watched Tenaya. Feeling his eyes, Tenaya met his gaze. "What?"
Pointing at her with his spoon. "Pink?" He questions. "I mean, don't get me wrong, it's...nice, it just seems like a 180 from-"
"From tight leather wearing Tenaya 7, Princess of Death and War?" She cuts him off accusingly.
Looking at her with intent, Scott thinks deeply. "Yeah."
Gathering up another spoonful of the ironic Cheerios, Tenaya refuses to look at him anymore. "I know what I was. I know what I'm suppose to be. Right now, I'm just comfortable in what I am. Maybe pink lets me be just that." She tells him looking him hard in the eyes.
Scott's the first to look away, continuing to eat his cereal. They're like that for a while both eating in silence before he overlooks her sleepwear again. It's a pink gown with a bit of frill that gives him just enough of a view to see some of her cleavage but covers up enough to leave him with a sense of a challenge. The moment that thought pops into his head he chuckles because another thought of what Dillon would do to him if he found out he was ogling his little sister follows right after. He can't help it though, Scott's a hot-blooded male and Tenaya definitely is above a 10, plus that gown isn't exactly a balloon on her.
"What?" She asks again, this time curious about his chuckle.
Scott smirks up at her. "Does your brother know you wear that at night?"
Smirking herself, Tenaya plays coy. "Don't know, he's usually too busy with Summer to take notice of what I sleep in." Scott groans in disgust at the metal images that pop into his head. Summer is like a sister to him and the thought of her and Dillon doing that just gives him a bad taste in his mouth. "I wonder what he would say about you taking notice?" She tantalizes, getting down from the counter slowly so that he can get a better peak of her legs before she rushes out, leaving the always witty Scott Truman for once speechless.
Scott's letting out some frustration because now that he's back in the ranger suit things between his father and himself have become strained again. Punching a bag over and over with fury Scott doesn't hear her come in.
"Rather go a few rounds with me?" Tenaya speaks up startling him. Turning his head to face her he notices that she's in pink again. This time it's a tank top and black workout shorts, both looking tight on her.
Not bothering to answer, he moves to the sparring mats getting into a fight stance. He jabs out and she's pretty good at evading them but then he hits her on her side and she curls inward holding her side and clenching her teeth.
Moving towards her Scott, puts a hand out to try and console her "Oh God, Tenaya I-"
Before he even sets his hand on her shoulder she has him flipped on his back. Hovering above him she tried to explain. "You're distracted. Distraction is what gets you and everyone else killed. Distraction is how I was able to almost convince all of you to let me be the Green Ranger. So do something about it."
Getting up she offers him a hand. Deciding not to take it, Scott storms out without a word. She watches him leave wondering if maybe he would have listened to her if she were still the person that was willing to kill him.
A week later Scott avoids her like the plague. That is, until he realizes she was right. So now he's able to be in the same room as her (with others around of course) but he's still unsure about whether he should talk to her. Scott is prideful. It's not until she has a break of her own that he has to get her out of that he finds a way to talk to her.
Tenaya's distant, that part is true, but unlike her brother, where Dillon chooses to be distant, Tenaya can't help. She's the odd one out. The girl who was brainwashed to do unspeakable things, who has done them, and could still do them, had she not have learned to be put back together. Except sometimes she knows that she wasn't put completely back together and maybe that's why she is letting herself be put into this situation because it makes her feel. One of the men on the base seemed to be taking an interest in her. Well not her but her body most definitely. So tonight she'd thought she'd feel something.
He's got his lips on her neck and is unbuttoning her blouse, his own legs pressing against her underwear, hiking up her pink plated skirt, and making her stockings slip down her legs. She's not exactly moaning at the antics but it does feel better than what she's used to. His fingers are about to graze her bra, when he's suddenly hoisted off her and thrown to the ground.
"Leave." A menacing voice that could only come from a Red Ranger. Tenaya has never been self-conscious but now more than ever she's trying to cover up her disarrayed form. Scott looks at her like she's the one that saved him from doing something stupid, before he stalks away.
The army man is gone the next day and she's sitting in on the one of the ranger meetings, like she usually does, hoping that Scott will give her any indication that he's not disappointed in her. She doesn't understand why all of the sudden she cares about anyone's perception of her, after all with the life that she's led, prejudice is a given for her, but she needs to know from him for some undying reason.
She almost zones out completely until her ears perk up. "And so with much consideration," Scott says finally looking up at her and staring hard into her eyes. "I appoint Tenaya to be our new Operator Series Pink Power Ranger." Tenaya is stunned as the rest of the team gives her a congratulatory praise while Scott silently walks off.
He's a red, so by nature he is charming. When the next ranger reunion has come around Scott brings his team...that means Tenaya as well. Everyone goes off and does their own thing no longer needing the suits to breathe, Dr. K had fixed that problem for purposes such as these. As part of the natural order of things Scott goes and gathers around a table of Reds while they all drink and jibe the "new kids", Jayden and Lauren (well technically some kid named Troy is the Megaforce Red as heard from the whispers on The Morphing Grid, but his battle is taking place as they speak).
"So when did this happen again?" Rocky indicated pointing to Lauren as she smirked and rolled her eyes.
Jason let out a laugh. "Watch it Rocko, if Aisha hears you saying that, the cops won't know where to find your body!"
"Oh no no no no, I'm not saying it because she's female," Rocky shook his head. "I'm just wondering when we decided that we needed more than one red."
Wes clutched his sides in hilarity. "That is Eric's fault." The mentioned ranger glared and took a swig of his drink.
"Well, to be fair," Andros pointed out. "Every one of the SPD Reds are sitting here." He told them indicating to Jack, Sky, and Bridge as they all grinned.
"At least she's hot." Connor said sending her his award winning face.
Lauren stared at him for a beat before smiling almost too innocently and turning her attention to another ranger. "Casey, I'm feeling kind of parched, want to go get something to drink with me?" The ranger that would have chronologically been Scott's predecessor, had they all come from the same dimension, widened his eyes for just a second before smirking himself and slinking an arm around her waist.
"I'd love to go anywhere with you." Casey answered back and they walked off.
Scott laughs especially hard at Connor's shocked expression and hanging open mouth. Then the Dino Thunder Red turns on him of course with the wrong intentions. "So which one of those girls on your team are available?"
"Summer's dating the guy with the tattoos and permanent frown." Scott points to Dillion as he leans up against a table listening to the blue girl on Nick's team babble, without any hesitation, about her new film and how he'd be perfect for the role as the bad boy since Nick will only get on camera if it's something for her. Summer is nowhere to be seen or to rescue Scott's poor friend, apparently she walked off to chat with Ronny and Tori but Dillon doesn't seem to mind, after all Blue girls were different rangers all together.
"Gemma and Flynn I think have something going on but even if they didn't you'd have to share her with Gem and he's very possessive of his twin sister." He informed Connor as the guy groaned in frustration. Scott couldn't find them in the crowd but as long as the twins weren't blowing up stuff and Flynn was chaperoning their constant itch to make things go BOOM! Then Scott didn't have a problem with where they were.
"What about the one in the skirt?" Connor asked pulling Scott out of his thoughts of how low insurance could be in a world that didn't have Gem and Gemma.
"Huh?" Scott asked again not processing.
"You know, brunette, long hair, short skirt, fit legs that go on forever, tight body, rosy cheeks, pouty lips, pink crop top, and I think she had a dove on the back of her jacket?" Scott had to try and remember that Connor was actually a veteran ranger and not just some frat boy, though with the stories that Tommy Oliver was telling him earlier, Scott wouldn't put it out of his mind.
Clenching his jaw and turning his narrowed gaze to the glass that was held even more firmly to his hand, Scott took another well deserved swig before answering. "That's Tenaya."
"Hot name." Connor smirked.
Scott raised an eyebrow. "She used to be the Princess of Death and Destruction,"
Connor pumped his fist in victory. "Alright! We haven't had an ex-villainous that hot since Karone was Astronema!" Scott thought he saw from the corner of his eye Andros tense up but dismissed it.
Scott took another chug, "Yeah well..."
"Scott!" he cringed, speaking of the devil in disguise. Tenaya had walked forward. No longer donning her team jacket she walked towards the table of red men. They all seemed to stare at her quietly and Scott couldn't blame them. With the glow of the fire pit in the background and the moon shining brightly, Tenaya almost looked ethernal. Almost.
"Yeah?" He said with his voice coming out harshly and uncaring but he doesn't care. For a second he thinks he hears both Eric and Nick snort at his tone but it doesn't phase him.
"I want to dance." She tells him like it's the most obvious thing in the world and honestly Scott thinks that she's barking up the wrong tree but the look that graces Connor's face for the second time today is almost too priceless.
"And?" Scott questions back knowing that he's showing her more disregard than he's shown anyone in his entire life but he can't help but think that she likes it: the rudeness, the kindness, the curiosity, and the disdain all rolled into one, it's kind of a reflection of herself.
Tenaya's lips pull into that purse-smirk thing that it does and Scott thinks that he's had maybe one too many drinks if he's finding it a bit sexy. "And, I never truly thanked you for helping me with that issue that I was dealing with. So to show my gratitude I thought this could be your present." She tells him before putting her hands on her hips. "You can't be that bad." Tenaya states raising a eyebrow as if it's a challenge and of course to Scott it is. Scott is prideful.
"I'm not." He says to her almost viciously, setting down his drink, and getting up from his seat around the table. Not bothering to see if he was following Tenaya turned to go where the various couples were dancing. Now Scott is steaming but he doesn't let it show...much. Grabbing her by the arm and turning her around he comes face to face with that smirk-pursed lips thing and he almost laughs at how badly he just wants to wipe it off her but then she puts her arms around his neck and they're dancing. One, two, three of the songs that Tanya, Cassie, Kira, Vida, Mia, and Antonio have put together go by and Scott is getting sick of this her leading the both of them and stuff. Deciding enough is enough her turns her around so that her back is to his chest and encases her as his hands rest firmly but not too crushingly on her as they move sensually up and down between her waist and her hips. Scott's cheek is pressed to hers and they're dancing to the music but he finds that he's enjoying himself and he thinks she might be too, with the tiny sincere smile on her face. For a second, he thinks that they might be doing something inappropriate but then he sees all the other teens dancing around him and realizes that they fit in just nice. In fact, he had forgotten that their were other people dancing until that thought flew into his head. The red ranger also thinks that Dillon might kill him for dancing almost sinlessly with his sister but when he tries to find the black ranger he sees that he is thoroughly distracted by the make out session he's currently having with Summer. More songs go by and now they're battling to see who gets control as they look each other in the eyes with a feral gaze. This goes on for a few more songs until Scott feels a tap on his shoulder. The new pink ranger smirks because she knows he's lost. Sighing, Scott unwraps himself from her to turn and look at his wideyed green.
Scott all but barks."What Ziggy?"
Ziggy holds up his morpher apologetically, while peaking a glance at Tenaya who has her arms crossed and an amused look about her. "Dr. K wants us back in our dimension. She said we can come back tomorrow if we want but she hasn't programed our morphers for the 24 hours to be here which said she could probably do tonight and even throw in the rest of the week if we're not needed."
Pinching the bridge of his nose, everything that just happened comes flooding into his clouded brain. "Yeah," He mumbles. "that'd be nice."
Seemingly bored Tenaya pushes past them with a knowing smile of her own. "Sure would be."
Leaving the two RPM rangers to stare after her, Ziggy in just in fear (she does tend to terrorize him a lot for fun), and Scott to watch the sway of her long her and hips, Ziggy suddenly becomes his paranoid self. "Wait, are you two...?"
Scott wakes up from the trance. "What? No!" he answers to the accusation.
"Yeah..." Ziggy says slowly not fully believing it and just giving him a knowing smile.
Scott doesn't really care that much but it nags him that she probably planned this all to begin with. "Let's go home, Ziggy."
When they get back everyone goes off to where ever they need to go off to. Unfortunately this leaves Tenaya and Scott in the room alone. Not that she minds but she had everything strategized this evening and wasn't really taking into account how to deal with him afterwards. She just loved bringing him down a peg too much.
"I'm going to bed." She tells him, not really wanting to deal with the non-awkward awkwardness that felt so natural to have a challenger that could play well.
Walking behind her she noted that he didn't go down his hall to his room but instead followed her to hers. Turning around when she got the door Tenaya crossed her arms and leaned against the door in annoyance. "Escorting the defenseless pink ranger to her quarters, what would the alumni say?"
He narrows his eyes at her and leans his arm up agains the door right above her head. "You, aren't defenseless and by the way you danced tonight I would say that little devil is still brewing underneath that mask of reformation you have."
She shrugged it off nonchalantly. "Big words, but it takes two to tango." Tenaya informed him as they locked eyes.
Licking his lips he whispered. "Then I'd say we should just end this dance." Not waisting another second they crashed their lips into one another's. Fighting with their tongues, Tenaya opened the door for them to crash onto the bed with passion. Unbeknown to the other their both thinking how royally screwed they are.
Scott wakes up with the sun and sleep in his eyes but he knows exactly where he is. Sure he may have been drinking last night but he's been drinking enough to have built up a tolerance for it so he remember everything and honestly he wasn't that drunk to begin with. Rubbing his eyes he looks over to find silent, naked, covered only by the sheets that surround her body, on her belly staring at a loose string on her pillow. Scott can't help but inwardly chuckle of what Connor said about her body being tight because now Scott has proof that it most definitely is. Moving an arm to graze his knuckles against her spine, Tenaya turned to him with her doe eyes. She had this look about her, one that said she was struggling to keep something inside instead of telling him. Scott didn't say anything but waited.
"That wasn't my first." She tells him with no remorse but he's not really judging her for it. Still the curiosity peeks into his mind on how from the years of being held captured to being brainwashed by Venjix she had time to loose such a thing. She answers it herself. "One of the things that Venjix wanted to show me was how to brake any female. He said the practice wouldn't work so well on men because most find pleasure in it and it couldn't be with two people who were close to each other." Scott wasn't sure he wanted to hear this but let her continue anyway. "He said that in order for me to truly understand how damaged it leaves a girl he'd have someone perform it on me. One of the abductees had been a sex offender in the time before Venjix. He's a computer he has all the info... He had a bot lock me in the cell with him." Scott definitely didn't want to hear this. "That night with that guard... I was just trying to see if I could feel it when it's good. I know it can be put to good use but I was going about it the wrong way."
Scott thought hard before speaking carefully. "Was this something good?"
"Yes." She smiled softly before being pulled into his tight hold that she curled herself into.
Scott sighed. Yep. Royally Screwed.