This fic is AU in the sense that Rio and Mele survive the final battle with Long. It's not that I don't respect what the writers did; their sacrifice was the perfect ending for those characters (even if it isn't necessarily the end), this was just the only way I could envision this conversation happening.

I like the idea of Rio and Retsu having interacted before his betrayal. I mean, he was Retsu's brother's best friend, I can't imagine they'd never interacted before. Similarly, if Miki was close with Gō and Rio, I guess Natsume would also have known Retsu the longest, before Ran ever showed up.

Gō and Retsu's ages are based on how old their actors were when the first episode aired (February 18th, 2007). Manpei Takagi was born in October of 1985, making him 21 at the time, and Riki Miura in October of '83 (23). Since about a year has passed since the first episode, that now makes them 22 and 24. I've estimated that Retsu was six when Gō 'died', so chronologically that would make for a seventeen-year age difference and fifteen years that Gō spent as a werewolf (the series never gives us any specifics other than that it's been more than ten years).

Tsugunai means 'amends' or 'atonement'

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Gekiranger, that honour goes to Toei.

WORD COUNT: 2305

Thursday, April 17th, 2008

Thick, fat raindrops spattered heavily against the windowpane, coupling with the roaring wind to create a cacophony of noise that, try as he might, Retsu just could not ignore. He glanced at the digital clock on his bedside table. 3:04. He'd been at this for over five hours. Frustrated, he threw the covers off, shivering as the cool air hit his skin.

He stepped out of his room and padded down the hallway to the kitchen. Maybe a glass of water would help. A flash of light filled the hall for a split second, and Retsu started counting in his head. 'One... Two... Three...' A rumbling boom reached his ears. If the old theory Nii-san had taught him years ago held any water, the thunderstorm was three miles away. From all the heavy rainfall, one would guess it was already right on top of them.

He had to remind himself not to turn left to go into the kitchen; the layout of this apartment was different from his old one. He'd bought it after Nii-san had returned from the 'dead', since he'd need a place to stay. Between their parents' estate and the money he'd made as an artist, the four-bedroom flat was easy enough to afford; he'd simply stayed in a smaller apartment because he'd had no need for the extra space. He'd had a separate studio a few blocks away, and only Natsume ever stayed over, when she'd gotten into an argument with her mother and declared that she was running away – of all the Gekirangers, she'd known him the longest by far, since she was a little baby.

Retsu did a double-take when he entered the kitchen. Nii-san often got up with him when the weather was bad. Retsu had to remind himself that for Nii-san, it wasn't that long ago that he was a little six-year-old who was scared of thunder. So Retsu had gotten used to finding him up during storms, like Nii-san was waiting for him to hide in his arms again.

But it wasn't Nii-san who was sitting on the bar stool by the island.

After Long's defeat, Rio and Mele had had nowhere to go. Nii-san had really wanted to reconnect with his former best friend, so he'd convinced Retsu to agree to let them move in with them until other arrangements could be made. Out of respect for their attempted sacrifice, and because he knew how much Nii-san wanted this, he hadn't argued much, but he did his best to be out of the apartment as often as possible. It wasn't that difficult, since he had JyuKen classes to teach, and hanging out with Ran and Ken (as Jan had already left a week ago to do his own teaching outside Japan). He'd also been looking at getting back into painting professionally, though not full-time like he had been before. Anyway, as much as he admitted that Rio and Mele were trying to atone for their sins, there was just too much bad history between him and them. Nii-san and the Director at least had their old friendship with Rio to fall back on. He just had the years he'd spent without his brother.

So Retsu couldn't help it if he stiffened when he recognised Rio sitting in his kitchen. The former RinJyuDen leader started as well, though Retsu noticed there was something else. Rio had eventually stopped looking like he was about to be attacked whenever he or Ran walked into the room, but there was a certain wariness in his eyes Retsu hadn't seen before.

Once he got over the initial shock, Retsu continued over to the cupboard to get a glass. He wouldn't argue; without Nii-san, the Director, or even Jan in the room to ease the tension, he couldn't help but feel uneasy in Rio and Mele's presence. Speaking of Mele, he gave the room a quick glance to see if she was there. She wasn't, at least not visibly, though she had no reason to hide. That in itself was odd, as she was rarely away from his side. She'd even refused the spare bedroom she'd been offered, preferring to share with Rio (both brothers had decided to not even ask). Either way, Retsu still wasn't all that comfortable with even having them in his apartment, let alone carrying a conversation with them. So he was just as surprised when the words came out of his mouth.

"Can't sleep, either?" Retsu busied himself with filling the glass, trying to get it done as fast as possible. He didn't know what had possessed him to even say anything.

Rio's response was almost just as unexpected, though of course he had been making a little effort to talk to the other SCRTC personnel aside from Nii-san and the Director. "I didn't think you were still afraid of thunder."

Retsu whipped around to stare at him, some of the water sloshing out and soaking his hand and the counter. "What?"

Rio arched an eyebrow at him. "You heard what I said. Those times at the old Geki JyuKen school, before this whole SCRTC thing started up, you sometimes slept over in your own room. A couple times there were thunderstorms, and you'd come racing into mine and Gō's room within minutes of it starting up. More than a decade later, I'd expect you to have outgrown it."

Retsu was torn between irritation at the comment and surprise at the fact that Rio even remembered meeting him as a child. Since he couldn't come up with an appropriate reaction for the latter, he settled for focusing on the former. "I am not afraid of the thunder," he grumbled, grabbing a dishcloth and beginning to wipe up the mess he'd made, "The noise is just hard to fall asleep to. I'm meeting an art dealer in the morning, and I have a class to teach afterwards. I need to get to sleep soon."

"An art dealer?" Retsu glanced back, a little curious about the interest colouring Rio's tone. "You're going to paint professionally now, or something?"

"I was doing so for years before taking up JyuKen. I'm just going to continue at a part-time pace, since I'm now teaching JyuKen as well. How do you think I could afford this apartment? Nii-san is dead as far as any official record is concerned; it's just my name on the rent."

They still hadn't figured out how to explain Nii-san's return in any official capacity. The fact that he genuinely couldn't remember the fifteen years he spent as a werewolf was already making it difficult, but the little detail that he hadn't aged a bit in that time was even more difficult to explain.

"Gō never mentioned any of that."

Retsu hesitated, then sat down across from Rio. "What has he been telling you?" He knew Nii-san spent a lot of his time nowadays just talking with Rio and, to a lesser extent, Mele, but he'd never really heard what they were talking about.

Rio avoided his gaze. "Mostly about old times, and how he was having trouble adjusting to how everything's changed. Not so much about the actual stuff we've missed. I hadn't even heard anything about you until you joined the Gekirangers. It's not like I was keeping tabs on you while you were growing up."

It would have been rather creepy if he had, Retsu decided, though he said nothing of the sort. Another flash of lightning lit up the room, and this time it was less than a second before the thunder made itself known. He caught a glimpse of Rio clenching his fist and clearly doing his best to keep from jumping in his seat. Wait…

"You don't like the thunder?" he gasped.

Rio glared and him and growled "I don't know what you're talking about" just a little too quickly.

Retsu was stunned by this revelation, no two ways about it. Rio was afraid of thunder? It was such a… human way to look at him. It was like how crazy Jan and Ken could get over menchikatsu, or how Ran liked to have everything in perfect order, or his own habit of saving his chashu until the end of his meal (and Nii-san's rather infuriating habit of stealing it). Little things that made them who they were. Knowing Rio for most of his life as the evil RinJyuDen ruler, it had never occurred to Retsu that the man was anything other than a power-mad tyrant, or, in recent events, a man seeking redemption. That there was more to him than just that.

Rio was still glaring. "Why would I ever be afraid of something as silly as a little thunder?" But he wasn't fooling Retsu.

"I didn't say you were afraid of it, but it's obviously bothering you." He was aware of the rather harsh edge in his voice, but the guy had put them all through hell for the past year, and had been doing so to him personally for even longer. So of course he felt a little entitled, despite what Nii-san might say.

Rio's glare lowered to a glower. "It just brings up bad memories, alright? It's not the thunder itself."

Retsu decided not to press the issue. He knew Long had murdered Rio's entire family right in front of him – it didn't take a genius to figure out what those bad memories were, and he wasn't so vindictive as to bring that up. So he would just leave that alone. A particularly strong gust of wind rattled a window and forced even more rain to spatter loudly on the glass, breaking what would have otherwise been an uncomfortable silence.

Retsu glanced over his shoulder, seeing a still-empty doorway behind him. "I'm surprised Nii-san isn't up yet."

"I've never known him to be afraid of thunder." He couldn't tell if Rio was being serious or making a joke, but he decided to go with the former, for the sake of his sanity.

"He's not. He's just used to a six-year-old version of me that is. He knows that I often go to the kitchen when I just can't sleep, so he automatically comes here to see if I still need him. And he's always been a light sleeper, so this should've woken him up by now.'

Rio actually snorted. "I shared a dorm with him. I could stub my toe and he'd wake up."

"That might actually be my fault. I stubbed my toe when I was four while he was sleeping, he nearly hit the ceiling jumping out of bed when I screamed."

Rio made an odd little sound that could be interpreted as a short chuckle if you listened carefully. "I can picture that. I think he even mentioned it, once. Of course, it could have been another incident he was referring to, since he talked about you all the time."

Retsu stared. "He did?"

"Constantly. 'My little brother is so talented.' 'My little brother's going to be a famous artist someday.' A couple of the other students learned to either clear the room or just smile and nod when he got on that topic."

He didn't really know what to think about that. When he was in his teens, he would sometimes babysit Natsume for her mother, and while he cared about the little girl, there was no question that she got on his nerves sometimes, and he was pretty sure that Nii-san had been annoyed by him more than a few times when he was a child. He thought that his brother would have enjoyed some time away from the responsibility of caring for him, not go on and on about him when he wasn't there.

Rio must have noticed him thinking about it, because he didn't speak for a while. Finally, he asked, "Did you have anything to do with why he can't eat or drink anything grape flavoured?"

Retsu felt a wicked grin spread across his face. "Maybe. It wasn't actually me who did it, but I was there."

He then launched into the story which involved Nii-san, a kid at the daycare centre, and two whole gallons of grape juice. The condensed version basically amounted to the boy drinking it all on a dare while Nii-san was dropping Retsu off, and then throwing up just as Nii-san walked by, causing him to slip and fall in it. Rio laughed – actually laughed! – and retaliated with a prank Nii-san had attempted to pull on another student, only for it to backfire rather spectacularly.

From there, they continued on back and forth, mostly focusing on the more embarrassing escapades that Nii-san probably never wanted to be repeated, to the point that Retsu almost forgot that it was Rio, of all people, that he was sitting and laughing with.

Eventually, the storm lifted at around a quarter to five, and Retsu, yawning, had to get some sleep before meeting the art dealer at nine.

It's surprising, just how a midnight chat could change things, could turn a pair of tentative allies, former enemies, into friends.

THE END

So, honestly, my biggest worry for this fic is that I've made Rio too OOC. It is SO HARD to write him actually relaxed and bantering with Retsu, it's just so different from how we see him for most of the series! Please, let me know what you think!