Disclaimer: All owned by Disney, alas they are not my own.
Author Notes: My first time writing Xander's POV so I'm hoping I got right! Inspired by the awesome 'Once a Ranger' episodes, this fic was fun to write and I hope you guys like it too. All comments welcome.
COMMON INTERESTS
Tori had made it clear during the celebrations at the Hartford Mansion that any of the Rangers were welcome to visit her at Blue Bay Harbour. So when the summer came round and it was perfect beach weather, Xander decided to take her up on her offer. It had been too long since he'd even seen sand, and the others had all agreed it'd be cool to meet other Rangers, even Nick was interested.
So Madison worked out when they were all likely to have some free time and Xander called the number on Tori's business card. The phone rang for a long time before Tori answered, breathless like she'd run to pick up.
"We've started taking on custom orders," she explained above a hubbub so loud that Xander could only just hear her. "I think word got out a little faster than we were expecting."
Of course, like he remembered, Tori was organised and had her diary right there by the phone. Maybe it was a Blue Ranger thing. Madison was the only one in the group who really knew where everyone was, although Clare had become shockingly good at keeping track of people, especially without using her magic.
Xander didn't question it since it meant he didn't have to organise anything. He could just oversee their plans. That was the way things were meant to be.
Between Madison's notes and Tori's diary, they found an afternoon in the next month that worked for both of them and that Tori's team were actually around for. Xander was so up for meeting new Rangers. And wasn't one of Tori's friends an event-level skateboarder? It was going to be a sweet day.
The transport arrangements worked out being, to no one's shock, Vida, Chip, and Xander going in Vida's truck and Nick taking Madison on his bike. It got the couple some really deserved ribbing from Xander about being literally joined at the hip and a warning from Vida about getting lost.
Pretty rich, Xander smirked at her, since she'd been the one to infamously get them all lost on that camping trip last year. As Vida began reminding him what she thought about his map reading skills, Nick cut in.
"Madison's already memorised the directions, V and we've got a map," he raised his eyebrows challengingly. "How about a race?"
"Anytime, hotshot. Just not when you're on the same bike as my sister."
"Vida, it's ok," Madison put in from where she was sat behind Nick. "You can race if you want, I trust him."
The quick smile that Nick sent over his shoulder to his girlfriend was so blatantly grateful and shockingly uninhibited for Nick that Xander kept silent. Dating Madison made Nick a bit more open and a lot more social, it was like a different guy sometimes. So Xander cut them some slack when it came to shaming them as much as they deserved for their coupliness. Plus they usually fell just on the bearable side of cute which got them points.
Of course, he didn't completely not tease them because come on, Nick, champion of all things brooding, came to more group stuff now when before he'd spent most of his down time with his bike. Hey, it was good, but it was hilarious too and Xander got a lot of mileage out of it.
"Come on, V!" Xander called impatiently from the truck's passenger seat when the competitive banter between Nick and V showed no signs of stopping, despite Madison's continued intervention. "I want to get there before all the food's gone."
"Yeah, come on, guys. Let's go, please?" begged Madison, managing to laugh a little.
Xander grinned as Madison's hand on Nick's arm and whatever she said too quiet for anyone else to hear seemed to stop the argument eventually. She might have been wearing leather and sat astride a motorbike (something Xander never thought he'd see in a million years and both looked really good on her), but she was still the same old Maddie, Xander thought affectionately.
The ride down to Blue Bay Harbour passed quickly. Vida managed to chill out enough to let Xander choose a decent radio station after a while - there was only so much DJ stuff and angry chick rock a guy could take. Plus Chip didn't go on about his latest comic book obsession for too long. He seemed to forget sometimes that they weren't all as interested as Clare.
Nick and Madison kept in sight, usually in front, though Vida sometimes beat them out at traffic lights, which made both her and Xander yell triumphantly out of the windows at their friends. Nick was always claiming a bike beat a car in every way, so it was really satisfying to prove him wrong.
Tori's directions led them to an almost deserted beach, small but clean with sand and sea which was pretty much all Xander wanted in a beach, though the absence of babes in bikinis was a big disappointment. Scenery like that was one of the reasons summer was far and away Xander's favourite time of year and why he missed the beaches of Australia so much.
Then he spotted Tori; her long blonde hair flashing in the sun and her laugh tumbling on the breeze towards him. Hey, his last box was ticked after all. She looked as good in swimwear as Xander had hoped, all in blue of course, although the shorter Asian guy with his arms around her probably meant that door was closed.
Tori was the first one to notice the group, waving and calling Xander's name. Then it seemed like a second later, she was right there in front of him. Like literally a second later, very cool and impossibly fast. But Xander could make plants grow by putting his hands on the earth so he defined what was possible differently now.
"Maybe I've had too much sun already, but did you just…..do something?" Xander asked, gesturing at her with a growing smile. "Did anyone else see that?"
"I did," Chip raised his hand, sounding predictably excited. "Was that a ninja streak?"
"Yeah, how did you know that?" Tori wanted to know, but then she smiled. "Oh, wait, you must be Chip, right? I've heard all about you guys from Xander."
"Don't believe anything he told you," warned Nick quickly.
"Especially if it's good?" laughed Tori. "Come on, we've got a barbeque going."
Tori was quick with her introductions, and Xander learnt that she was definitely off-limits because the Asian guy was her boyfriend, Blake. He turned out to be pretty cool and someone Nick could talk to about bikes. Everyone was a winner with that situation as it stopped Nick doing the anti-social thing he usually did in crowds, even with Madison around. Blake's brother, Hunter, joined them in their bike stories, when he wasn't bugging Cam about cooking the food right.
He was also the only person Xander saw get Cam to actually smile and loosen up. Cam would answer questions and talk when people talked to him, but he wasn't exactly open either. He did a mean barbeque though, so Xander wasn't too bothered when it came to the guy's social skills. The others on Tori's team made up for it in that area anyway.
The skateboarder, Shane, was actually kind of serious (Tori explained that he was now teaching at the ninja academy), but he was happy to talk boards with Xander and tease Tori about one of her employees.
"The only reason he's working for you is because he still thinks he's got a chance," Shane was saying with his arms folded.
"Right, it's got nothing to do with the fact that he likes to surf and be around other people who like it, and I give him flexible hours around his competitions," countered Tori. "He knows I've got a boyfriend, Blake visits the store all the time when he's in town."
It turned out that the guy in question used to have a crush on Tori and they'd been out one time before Blake was in the picture. Shane was convinced the guy was still pining for his boss, which Tori seemed to find ridiculous. Blake looked like he thought the whole thing was hilarious, and Xander guessed that since his girlfriend was a ninja, worrying about guys coming onto her probably wasn't an issue. Kinda hot too.
Their friend Dustin turned out to be as geeky as Chip and as soon they started talking, neither would stop. They even managed to inhale their food around words, covering Power Rangers, comics, ninja powers vs. magic powers, and every other geeky subject they could. Chip was grinning like he was having the best day ever and Xander shared an eye-roll with Tori and Vida.
But he was secretly kinda pleased for Chip; it wasn't often Chip found people who really got all the stuff he loved. It figured it'd be another Ranger.
Xander stayed right in the middle of it all, silently patting himself on the back as the afternoon drew on. This had been one of his best ideas ever. How could anyone doubt his management and planning skills ever again? The girls were wearing swimwear, even Vida who'd been hogging Blake for over half an hour once she'd discovered he used to DJ. Everyone was talking and socialising, the food was great, and the sun was shining. What was there not to like?
When people got bored with eating, Shane and Tori suggested a game involving a bat and a ball. But it took a long time to get going because Dustin argued with them about the rules and then Cam told them that they all had the rules wrong unless they were making up a completely new game. Then Vida remembered playing it somewhere before and tried to get Chip to remember a high school PT class. Xander was comparing it to a game he played as a kid which he was sure was the one Shane and Tori had suggested in the first place when everyone was silenced by a weird crackle of light in the middle of the gathering.
Xander felt more than saw Nick step in front of Madison and Chip, his game face on. Fire was probably already appearing at the guy's fingertips. Xander was aware of Vida stepping up right beside him and couldn't resist a small grin. Oh yeah, this was the part he loved the most.
The weird thing was that the ninja team didn't look too worried and didn't even appear surprised when two chicks appeared out of the light.
"Hey, sorry we're late," one chirped cheerfully, throwing what looked like a carton of ice cream towards Shane who caught it easily with a surprising smile. "There were like monster queues at the store."
"And you thought teleportation was the best way to get here?" Cam sounded halfway between amused and exasperated.
"Duh, we beat the traffic!" the other girl pointed out.
"And there's like no one here anyway, cousin," the first girl added. "Our secret ninja identities are totally covered."
Cam's look said that was the last thing he believed after their entrance, making Xander laugh. The guy knew how to pack a lot of meaning into one glare. Maybe he could teach Xander how to do that, it'd be great for his managerial skills.
So the girls were Cam's cousins, and the brunette turned out to be Dustin's girlfriend, Marah, handing Dustin his favourite ice cream and asking if she could share it with him. The other one, Kapri, was explaining to Shane about something that had happened on the way to the store, Xander lost the story halfway through. But Shane looked like he could actually understand her mile-a-minute babble and was enjoying it. And what guy wouldn't when she looked that good in a bikini?
Both girls were great eye candy, they looked like cartoon characters. Like anime, the only cartoons that Xander would watch with Chip. Kapri even had pink hair. It didn't look like it was a dye job either.
It was really hard to imagine them being even distantly related to the sarcastic and serious Cam. Everyone had weird relatives though; Xander'd met some of Chip's uncles.
"So they're your cousins, huh?" Xander asked Cam over the barbecue's dying embers that Cam was keeping a close eye on.
"A fact I try hard not to advertise," Cam replied, but his lips twitched with a reluctant smile. "It's hard to believe but they actually came close to killing us and taking over the world. Now they're qualified ninjas. I don't know which one is more unbelievable."
"Ah, they worked for the dark side?" guessed Xander, watching the sisters and trying to imagine them being any serious threat to humanity. "Must be a Ranger thing."
Cam snorted with laughter, as Xander told him about LeeLee and Nikki while finishing off the last of the burgers. Cam had cooked the food alone, insisting that the other ninjas had no concept of fire safety and that the other former Rangers were their guests so they couldn't cook either. Hunter had shook his head with a smirk and said something about Cam being a control freak, but Cam had known what he was doing; the food tasted great.
"They don't look very threatening, do they?" Cam nodded towards his cousins. "What they lacked in intelligence they made up for in persistence and alien genetics."
"No way, they're aliens?!"
Xander was surprised, because hey, aliens were something different. He hoped Chip hadn't overheard, he'd refuse to leave.
"So they tell me, it explains a lot."
Cam seemed stuck in the terminally sarcastic, but smiled and even joked a bit when Hunter joined them. From Xander's story of being slowly turned into a tree, a competition of 'who has the weirdest Ranger story?' got started. That got everyone involved and it was probably pretty much a tie at the end.
At that point, the sun was getting low and Vida was making noises about getting back to Briarwood, she had a date with her DJ buddy, Rafe, that she didn't want to miss. Xander wanted to stay; he was hoping one of Tori's team would teach him some of their cool ninja moves. He'd always loved those old kung-fu movies and the guys who had the ninja skills always seemed to get the girl.
Chip looked like he could stay all night talking to Dustin, and Marah too who was talking just as enthusiastically. All they needed was Clare. So he'd be on Xander's side. But Nick was gazing off into the distance across the water and Maddie was leaning against his shoulder, looking really exhausted. She'd done a night shoot last week that had wiped her out.
"You guys should totally come to the X-Games with us!" exclaimed Dustin, as people were finishing off the frosted drinks someone had retrieved from a cooler. "That'd be awesome!"
"Motocross, right?" Nick looked interested again and Tori explained about the extreme sports event coming up in the next few months that Xander remembered seeing on the news.
"Do you think I'd be able to film there?" Madison perked up.
Then Vida heard about the DJ contest the Games ran and was even more interested in going. Xander grinned, high-fiving Blake. He took total credit for it all. He was the man.
He was also very comfortable where he was, watching everyone else start packing up. Shane, Dustin, and Chip were racing back and fourth from the van and Tori and Madison were doing something with water, it looked like they were making shapes maybe. He couldn't really tell, but it did look cool. Cam and Hunter were arguing like his parents did.
"The demonstration proposals are more important," Cam said testily.
"Right, because that's what you teach your students," shot back Hunter, rolling his eyes. "The way of the Wind Ninja is to pass out from exhaustion. Very Zen."
"We're taking bets," that was Shane's voice in his ear. "On how crazy they'll drive each other during the demonstrations week. I'm saying Hunter's gonna end up on the couch by the end of tomorrow."
"No way," Tori replied with a certain shake of her head like she knew something they didn't. "They'll be ok."
"You're forgetting how stubborn Hunter is," commented Blake, with a look that had a million stories attached. "Believe me. I know how annoying that is."
Xander laughed, watching Hunter stride, cooler in hand, towards the truck parked at the beach's edge. Clearly, there was money to be made here. He couldn't see them lasting til the weekend.
Madison's comment about the time and Vida's date led to a lot of goodbyes and cell phone number exchanges. Tori grinned and squeezed Xander lightly.
"It was good to see you again," Xander told her.
"You too, it was good meeting your team too," Tori smiled at Chip and Dustin's increasingly enthusiastic conversation. God, they were still going! "I think we found some common ground."
"Yeah, it's gonna be hard to get Chip out of here," agreed Xander with a grin. "So I'll see you at the X-Games?"
"Sure," Tori smiled big at that. "Keep in touch, ok?"
"Definitely."
After Chip had finally been persuaded to leave, the Ninja Rangers waved them off as Nick and Maddie sped on ahead and Vida peeled away from the pavement just inside the speed limit. She was gonna be cutting it fine for her date.
It'd be good to drop her tardiness into conversation if Rafe turned out to be as big an idiot as Felix had. Vida always had had a mockworthy taste in guys.
"That was so cool!" enthused Chip from the backseat. "Can you believe it? Other Rangers! Do you think they'd let me stay at the academy and maybe learn something?"
"Chip………." warned Vida, teeth gritted as she put her foot down.
"Easy, V, he's just excited that he found someone who speaks geek as well as he does," pointed out Xander.
Vida transferred her warning glance over to him, but Xander could tell she'd had a good day too. It was written all over her face.
"You are welcome," he said, pointing at her. "Just call me a genius. You know it's true."
"Yeah, right," snorted Vida, but her smirk turned into a smile and Xander took that as agreement. She couldn't hide it from him.
And she didn't snark at all when Xander put his feet up on the dashboard and slid his shades on. He leant back into a contented sigh, feeling completely pleased with himself. Oh yeah, best idea ever.
-end