A/N: Moshi moshi, mina! So, I know this isn't the most original concept ever, but I've yet to see it happen very often in slash/yaoi/shounen-ai, and it's never happened quite the way I've wanted it to in original fiction. Hence, I've decided to write my own :P Now, I do want to warn people that this is slightly AU. None of the Rangers are friends and they are unaware of the others' roles as Power Rangers. Kind of Billy's POV, but told in third person.
Disclaimer: If I owned the rights to Power Rangers, the staple couple wouldn't be the Pink and Green Ranger, it would be the Red and Blue Ranger.
The Jock and the Nerd
Physical Education class. Billy Cranston's least favorite period of the school day. It wasn't that he was terrible at sports- he wasn't very good, but he wasn't exactly terrible either- he just didn't see a whole lot of point in them. Not to mention the fact that he was also in a class filled with jocks. He was the only "nerd" out of all of them, which often made him the subject of ridicule and pranking.
On top of all this, he just so happened to have the unique problem of having his crush in the all boys Physical Education class as well. Yup, not only was he a "nerd," he was a "gay nerd," which certainly didn't help his bullying situation any. He tried not to stare at his crush too much, but sometimes he lost his control, which never failed to go unnoticed by his classmates. Those never failed to be his worst days, the ones where he was shoved into one of the larger lockers and then had dirty, smelly jockstraps dumped on him before being locked up. And when he was finally let out by the coach, he was always yelled at as if it was his fault
Speaking of the coach and yelling...
"Cranston! Get your head in the game!" the coach shouted at Billy, noticing the cloudy look in his eyes.
Billy snapped out of his daze to meet a football in the face and the chortling of his so-called "teammates." It stung, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle, and besides, it had happened numerous times before. He gave a heavy sigh and picked up the football, passing it to one of the other players on his team.
- Scene Change-
At long last, the bell that signaled the end of the horrid class rang. Billy tried his very best to enter the locker room discreetly, quickly change his clothes, and rush out. However, it seemed Lady Luck was not on his side.
"Yo Cranston, what uuuuuup?" Ben, the biggest jock in class, hollered as he walked up behind Billy and gave him a hard slap on the back.
Ben was his number one tormenter, so the normally reserved teen's reply was less than pleasant.
"What do you want, Ben?"
"Aww, can't you be a little nicer to him, Bill? What has he ever done to you?" Mark, Ben's partner in crime, sarcastically asked, trying to sound innocent.
"You know full well what the two of you have done to me."
Ben laughed. "Water under the bridge, man, water under the bridge. We're not gonna harm you this time, we just wanna have a friendly conversation," he said as he extended his hand out for a seemingly normal handshake.
Billy eyed the jock suspiciously. Could he possibly be sincere? After thinking about it for a few moments, he came to the conclusion that no, there was no way Ben was actually being nice. This was all some elaborate trick.
"I'll pass."
The moment he said that, Billy was shoved into the locker behind him.
"Too bad, Cranston. I was actually gonna give you a break this time, but seeing how you wanna be a little prick, we'll just have to teach your faggoty ass a lesson instead. You know, I don't even know why I was nice in the first place. You were doing your queer ass staring at that little crush of yours again, but I figured, 'hey, I'll let it go this time- maybe he needs it for some jack-off fantasies since no guy is ever gonna fuck him.' Then you had to go and be a prick," Ben said while his friend sneered.
Sickened by the fact that the jock would spew such obvious lies, Billy decided to make his retort a good old loogey in the face. Ben stood there in shock for a brief moment, before looking down, closing his eyes, and giving a brief, sadistic sounding chuckle.
He glared up at Billy and said in a meancing tone, "Wrong move Cranston."
Ben moved his fist back, raring to punch the "gay nerd" in the face, but a hand grabbed his wrist and twisted it behind his back. The bully turned around to see Jason Lee Scott giving him a hard look.
"Lay off, Ben," he said sternly.
Watching the scene playout, Billy remembered why he had a crush on Jason in the first place. Not only was he good looking and athletic, he was also the nicest person in the entire school and had zero tolerance for bullies, often sticking up for those in need.
Ben didn't even say anything back, merely walking away as soon as Billy's hero released his arm. However, he didn't forget to send one final glare Billy's way.
"You alright, man?" Jason asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine... Thanks," Billy replied shyly.
"No problem."
With that, his savior gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder and walked away.
- Scene Change-
The rest of the week was surprisingly calm for Billy. There was no teasing, no pranking, no physical violence- nothing. Well, except for a few hateful glares thrown in his direction by Ben and his cohorts, but those didn't really bother the teen at all.
However, while all was well and good on that front, there was something very odd going on- Jason seemed to be following him. Not really in a stalker-ish way, more in a 'big-brother-watching-over-his-younger-sibling' way. At every pass Billy made through the halls to get to his next class, he could see Jason from the corner of his eye, walking behind him no further than an arm's length away. After school, he noticed the protective jock eyeing him from across the bus port, making sure he got on safely before catching his own bus.
All the attention Billy was getting from his crush was only making his feelings grow. Now, in Physical Education class, he couldn't focus on anything or anyone but Jason. The control he had was completely gone. Of course, for fear of Jason's wrath, no one dared to say or do anything about it. Also, to Billy's delight, his hero flashed him a warm smile whenever he caught him looking, causing Billy to blush crimson. For once, he was disappointed that his former most hated class had to come to an end.
- Scene Change -
Over the weekend, Billy's mind was swimming with millions of ideas, all of which revolved around Jason. His actions during the most recent school week had brought a lot of questions to the intellectual teen's mind.
Could he possibly like me like I like him? No, that doesn't seem very plausible... I shouldn't take a few smiles and a suddenly protective nature and contort them to fit my fantasies. Then again, why is he suddenly doing this? The school year is more than halfway over, and up until now he hadn't done a thing about my predicament. Could it be possible that he just didn't notice? After all, he's not the kind of person to just turn a blind eye to a person being picked on. Come to think of it, his general kindness should only take away from the likelyhood that his feeling stretch further than anything platonic. But why such an extreme focus on me? I've never seen him do that for anyone else... Does he think I'm incapable of defending myself? Hm, that could be it... But then again...
Billy's thoughts continued like that until the first bell signaling the start of homeroom rang. Exhausted due to the lack of sleep all the overanalyzing had done, he decided it was probably a better idea to put it out of his mind for the day in order to focus on his schoolwork with what little brain function he had.
- Scene Change -
At lunchtime, Billy stopped at his locker to drop off his books as he always did. Stuck in between the locker door and the frame surrounding it, he found a piece of white paper that looked like a note. Unfolding it, he adjusted his glasses and peered at its contents. All that was there was one simple sentence written in sloppy handwriting that read:
'Meet me in the courtyard after school today.'
He blinked a couple times as the line registered in his brain. Then, his thoughts immediately went to Jason, which caused butterflies in his stomach. He shook his head and mentally chastised himself for jumping to such fantasy world conclusions. No, Jason wouldn't have asked him to meet after school via a note when he could have just easily walked up to him and said it- he wasn't the type to not be upfront with people and say what he had to say to their face, be it good or bad. This note was most definitely of a more sinister nature... that of Ben and his croonies.
- Scene Change -
The rest of the day, Billy was a bundle of nerves. He was dreading the end of the school day, and despite his I.Q., he was unable to think of a way out of his predicament that wouldn't come back to bite him. On top of that, for his last two hallway travels Jason was nowhere to be found, leaving him vulnerable.
Great, now I sound like some sort of damsel in distress... Billy thought.
Groaning a little now that he had added disgust at how dependent he had become on Jason to his repetoire of emotions, Billy sunk his head to his desk and prayed the day would go by quickly so he could get his inevitable torment over with.
- Scene Change -
This was it. The time had come for him to get tormented like he never had before in order to make up for his week of reprieve. Billy slowly walked into the courtyard and as expected he saw Ben and his gang sitting on one of the benches, leering at him. However, what he didn't expect was what happened next.
Instead of coming over to him to start their bullying, Ben gave a quick head nod to someone behind him and out of view from where Billy was standing, then got up and left, with his friends trailing not far behind him. The bookish teen just stared in shock at them as they exited the courtyard, his mouth unbeknownst to him babbling silently like a fish's.
"Hehe, that's really cute," he heard a voice in close proximity to him say.
Blinking himself out of his stupor, Billy looked toward the direction of the voice to find his second surprise of the day- that the statement that was just made came from none other than Jason Lee Scott.
"... What?" was all he could utter.
"You heard me," Jason replied with a warm smile and a wink.
"Why would you call anything I say or do cute?" Billy asked, genuinely perplexed.
"Because I think you in general are cute. That was just extra cute."
"I'm absolutely flabbergasted here, Jason. You of all people actually have think I'm cute."
"Yes, and if I have to say it a million times to get it through that thick skull of yours I will. You. Are. Cute. And I would love to go out with you."
Billy couldn't think of anything else to say but...
"Yes, I would love to go out with you as well, Jason."
"Haha, I thought the feeling was mutual," the jock said with another wink that further reddened Billy's growing blush. "Friday at seven sound good?"
"Sounds great."
Jason smiled and gave him a quick kiss on the lips.
"See you on Friday."
From that day forward, Jason and Billy were officially a couple, and no one ever gave Billy problems again.
A/N: Sorry if it seems like I rushed the ending. I wanted to add that last line in there in order to prevent anyone from thinking this was going to turn into a chapter fic. I might write a chapter fic about this couple someday, but right now I have two other chapter fics to juggle (which I'm doing horribly at I might add), so it's not the best time to add a third :P By the way, for anyone who read my fic entitled 'Protection,' you might notice a few similarities between the two. I just want to point out that that was entirely unintentional and it wasn't til after I finished typing this that I realized that. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed! Don't forget to R&R as I would absolute love your feedback! That's all for now! Ja ne!
