Disclaimer: Saban owns PR.
Spoilers up to Episode 9 "Test of the Leader", set some time after Jayden leaves.
The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and something was wrong in Shiba mansion.
Emily doesn't often get that doomsday feeling upon waking up, but she knows it when she gets it, and she's getting it tenfold the morning she wakes up after being hit with that vicious Double Slash from that equally-vicious nighlock. Outside, she sees Mike and Mia training with each other because their usual partners are, obviously, injured and in –
Well, they're supposed to be in bed.
Hazel eyes cast around the makeshift hospital room for a blue-clad figure before finally landing on one sitting in a desk at the corner of the room, wincing every time he moves his hand to write as he works frantically on something in a sketchpad.
Emily sighs, clambers out of bed and somehow not managing to set off any existing injuries, and pads across the room to her self-proclaimed older brother. "Kevin, what are you doing?"
Kevin jumps and hisses in pain when the movement causes his injured arm to flex in clearly painful ways. "Emily!" he greets, looking relieved that she wasn't somebody else, maybe a nighlock or Mia or something. "You're awake! How do you feel?"
"Better," she answers, deciding not to mention her pounding headache or sprained ankle. "How about you? And why on Earth are you writing something when your arm is broken?"
He grins sheepishly at her exasperation – everyone on the team, from Emily to Mentor, is pretty much used to Kevin working overtime and training hard even when he doesn't need to and when it would hurt him to do so, like right now. "I'm fine, honest! I have to do this, Em; I'm drawing up zord schematics and I think it could really help us in our next battle! We might be able to combine the Battle Wing and the Megazord!"
The mention of the Battle Wing – and the missing third player required to build it – stabs through her heart like a knife, or maybe the nighlock's Double Slash attack. "How are you going to make the Battle Wing or the Megazord without Jayden?"
Kevin looks down, his momentarily-cheerful demeanour fading in an instant at the reminder that their leader was missing. "You heard about that?"
"It's hard not to," she remarks, her gaze darting over to the window where Mia is helping a fallen Mike off the ground. "Everything feels wrong when one of us goes missing. It happened with you and Mia when you went to watch that little boy. It happened with Mike when he ran away. And it's happening again with Jayden gone."
Kevin massages his temple, probably nursing the same nighlock-induced headache as her, his eyes focused on Mike and Mia as well. "I've noticed. It's like the mansion knows when our dynamic has shifted. But there's no need to talk like it's final, Em. I'm sure he'll come back."
Emily sends him a doubtful look. "That's what Mia and Mike and Mentor said, too. Why does everyone try to shelter me? I'm more than old enough to understand that Jayden ran away and if we can't find him he's probably never coming back."
"Don't talk like that," Kevin chides her gently. "Aren't you the one always being optimistic and keeping our spirits up? Jayden will come home. He belongs with us. I know you miss him – a lot – "
His addendum makes her blush profusely at the double meaning hidden in his words. "What's that supposed to mean?" she demands, though she knows and he knows she knows exactly what he means by that – it's not like it isn't obvious.
Kevin raises an eyebrow at her, almost grinning. "It means exactly what you think it means, Em," he tells her, though he thankfully doesn't press the point further like she knows Mike or Mia would have. "Look, I know he was…important to you."
Emily sighs, dropping her head in her hands. "You can say it. I'm not Mia, and denial takes energy that I don't really feel like using."
"You have a cr – uh, wait," Kevin interrupts himself, leveling a confused look at her. "What do you mean you're not Mia? What does she have to do with this?"
She giggles. "You haven't noticed? Really? After your not-date at the little boy's house, she was talking about you and I…asked some questions, and she got all defensive and said you were just friends. And I asked Mike, and he said you said the same thing. Funnily enough, neither of us believed you. So we asked Jayden. He said something about a river in Egypt and wandered off to train."
Kevin stares at her, eyes wide and terribly glad his skin's too dark to show a blush, for a good, long moment. "You – she – I, um – she talks about me?" he coughs, wondering why his sweet honorary little sister's smile seemed so knowing and amused.
"Oh, all the time," Emily tells him cheerfully, bringing her ankle up to her knee to nurse the pain with a self-given massage. "Really, Kev, you can't be that oblivious. Everyone and their pet zord can see the way you two look at each other. Although maybe I was the only one who saw the glares you were giving Jayden during his and Mia's fake wedding," she muses, tilting her head thoughtfully.
Grateful for the opening she's given him, Kevin easily steers the conversation around. "I wasn't the only one annoyed during that wedding," he points out, hoping she doesn't notice that he's just admitted he was annoyed at Jayden for the fake wedding. "You didn't seem too happy about it, either."
Emily blushes, looking down at the carpeted floor. "I – don't be silly. I wasn't annoyed. I was just – um, well – oh, fine. Can we change the subject?"
He chuckles. "If you want," he says warmly, because he's not interested in teasing her like Mike or even Mia would have been. At the moment, all that matters is that she's smiling and not worrying about Jayden, and as her self-proclaimed big brother, that's all he really wants.
She sighs, fixing her disconcertingly bright hazel gaze on him again. "Do you honestly think Jayden will come back to us?" she asks, her voice soft and light, and she sounds much more like a little girl than she usually does.
Kevin swallows and reaches out with his uninjured arm, forgetting about the important schematics and the worry about a nighlock attack and his own concern about Jayden in favor of taking her hand and squeezing it to provide her some measure of comfort. "Yes," he tells her, though his voice breaks. "I'm sure of it."
And maybe that's all they really need – faith.
Author's Notes: Not a lot of shippiness here, but I quite enjoyed writing about this friendship. I'd imagine they'd have a lot to talk about while confined to bed :) If you liked or disliked it, please drop me a review to tell me what you think!
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