Disclaimer: Characters don't belong to me. They belong to BVE/VRP.
Author's note: This is a bit unusual for me, as I usually write Trent/Kira. But I wanted to try to write a Conner/Kira, so here goes. This first part was part of a writing exercise on Livejournal, but the rest won't be. This is somewhat AU to the series, as it doesn't acknowledge the events of History/Wormhole.
Losing Touch
by Estirose
c 2005-2006
The day should have been festive, but she wasn't there, and it was on these kinds of days that he missed her presence.
None of them were, actually. Not Ethan, not Trent, not Dr. O. Not even Cassidy or Devin.
He missed Kira the most, with her recording career and everything. She was on the other side of the country, and him? He was attending Stanford. Stuck there. Taking classes because of course that's what his parents wanted him to do, when all he wanted to do was have her and the others around.
Conner took a deep breath. His parents had been impressed when he'd gotten in, and he didn't mind that they were, but he wanted to impress somebody else. A specific someone else.
Kira.
His teammate. His friend. If Trent hadn't happened, maybe... something more? At least that's what he'd hoped for, looking back, but he'd never thought to make the first move. After all, Kira was his teammate. Friend. Person who would watch his back in battle, just as she'd watch his.
He knew Trent and Kira had rotated around each other like planets orbiting each other, from the moment that the two of them had met, even before Trent had become a Ranger.
Conner snorted. Now he was getting poetic. Or maybe had too much science homework.
Come to think of it, he hadn't heard how the two of them were doing together, lately. He should check out some of her sites... they'd probably know. They tended to keep track of things like who she was dating.
He shouldn't have to be checking out websites to know how his teammates were doing. It was depressing.
Here he was, sitting in the cafe, so busy studying that he'd lost touch with everything. This was so not Conner McKnight, soccer jock from Reefside, who had never ever even dreamed of going there until Hayley had pep-talked him into applying.
Maybe he wasn't so impressive. He was losing touch with everyone, especially the people who had saved the world with him.
His email had probably fallen down a black hole. He probably didn't even have the right email address for her. For any of them.
Stupid, stupid. Doing all the right things for all the wrong reasons.
Stupid.
He stared at his laptop, browser open, prepared to catch up with the world. Catch up with his friends. At least read the sites, see what was going on.
He wasn't ready to do it. He should really call. Email. Ethan should have had everybody's email addresses, or Hayley.
A chair dragged across the floor. He looked up.
"Hi," Kira said.