notes: i couldn't resist writing another one for them. this takes place maybe two-ish years after samurai? and it's not in continuity with my other hunter/lauren fic, it's a completely new verse, so they haven't met before.

warning for sexual content, though there's nothing too graphic. oh, and everyone is bisexual; i would say i'm sorry, but i'm really not.

battlefield hearts

i never claimed to be more than a one-night stand
and all i've given everyone i know
is a good reason to go
but i came back with the belief
that everyone i love is gonna leave

— fun., all alone

-:-

This isn't exactly how she pictured her very first ranger reunion going, but then again, there are a lot of things she didn't see coming. Hunter Bradley is only the latest.

-:-

"So," he says, downing another gulp of beer, "what's your story?"

Lauren lifts her gaze from the view over the balcony to him, standing tall and silhouetted by starlight. "My story?"

"Yeah," Hunter says, jerking his head towards the door behind them, where she can hear the party raging on well into the night. The sounds of laughter and drinking and dancing are muted from the distance, but not silent. "What's your story? How come you're out here without your team or your friends on a night meant to celebrate our legacy, or whatever?"

She half-laughs and moves around so she's leaning against the balcony instead of looking over it, watching him sidelong as he finishes off his bottle. "I don't really have a team."

Hunter stares at her, incredulous. "That's ridiculous. Everyone has a team." It takes him three tries to pronounce ridiculous right. She wonders how much beer he'd already had before she'd found him out here.

"It's complicated," she says, and he snorts. "I kind of came in late. They're more attached to my brother. Can't have two red rangers, y'know."

He looks at her for long enough to make her shift her weight out of unease, then he snorts. "No kidding. You're the new red who's a girl?"

Lauren looks down at her red blouse, then back up at him. "So," she says without dignifying that with a response, "what's your story?"

Hunter scoffs, dangling his hands over the edge of the balcony and leaning forward. "Don't have one. I'm just an asshole with a loner complex."

She wants to laugh, but she doesn't. "That makes two of us."

-:-

She ends up on a balcony sharing alcohol with a boy she doesn't know at a party filled with people who should understand her better than most, and the truth is, she knows the reason why.

It's because she still doesn't know where she fits. She wears red, but the others, while friendly and quick to accept her, prefer beer pong and sparring to anything that might interest her. She'd drifted over to yellows, who are fun and sensible, but that's not her color. Pink is a shade of red, and they are warm and kind, but it's still not a group where she belongs.

She wants to feel red, but she failed at being a leader. She wants to belong, but her team was never hers. She wants to be a part of something, but she's spent her whole life alone.

She wants to be red, but she's the only one of her kind. Isolation has a funny way of never fading.

-:-

"Crimson," he explains when she asks. "Not really red. Not really anything else." His head drops down over the railing, and in the moonlight, his hair looks almost white as it falls into his eyes. "I guess that's a stupid thing to be bitter about."

"Sensei always says that bitterness heals no wounds," she says musingly. "But then, his parents didn't die and leave him to be the sole hope of an ancient war when he was a child. So."

Hunter's mouth quirks in a half-grin, half-smirk. "You're getting the hang of this brooding thing, aren't you?"

"Maybe it's a not-really-red thing," she suggests, and steals his bottle of beer.

He lets her do it with an amused snort. "But you are red. So what if you're not a boy? You're definitely not pink or yellow or blue. Are there any other girl colors?"

She thinks for a moment. "White. And is that a compliment?"

He looks back at the city skyline, his smile disappearing. "Yeah. Reds are pretty cool."

Lauren tips the bottle into her mouth and wonders what a red did to make him end up on a balcony at a party sharing alcohol with a girl he doesn't know.

-:-

It takes a while to get him drunk enough to tell her the answer. She knows she's a lightweight, on account of never having any alcohol before, so she's been trying to measure her intake enough to actually remember something from this night. She's not sure what, exactly, is worth remembering, but Hunter's rare smile seems like it might be.

By the time he blurts out, "I fell in love with my best friend," she's only slightly less drunk than he is. Turns out, he's better at handling his alcohol than most of the other reds, including her.

"How'd that go?" she asks, and he rolls his eyes. "That bad?"

"He has a girlfriend now, so," Hunter coughs on a laugh, "about as well as you'd expect."

"Have you told him how you feel?"

He looks at her out of the corner of his eye, a dark disaster zone. "No. Should I?"

"Yes." She hands him the bottle back. "Is he here?"

"Of course he is," he says bitterly. "He's my red."

-:-

She only met Shane briefly, but she can understand. He has a warm smile and kind eyes and he'd shook her hand first and told her she was an honorary ninja for having lived in the shadows for so long. He had made her laugh, so she can see why it'd be easy to fall in love with him, especially if he were your red.

After all, it's not like she doesn't notice the way Antonio looks at Jayden. Maybe it's another red thing she missed out on.

-:-

"Ever liked boys?" he asks her off-handedly, after she's taken away his last bottle to stop him from drinking himself into oblivion.

"In theory," she admits. "There was one, last year, but… it didn't really work out."

"Don't," he says sagely. She's drunk enough to start laughing. "Girls are better. Less dumb."

"I agree," she says, watching the way the fairy lights on the railing cast colors over his face. "Have you tried pinks?"

Hunter snorts. "We don't have one. Kinda sucks. You?"

"Not really my type."

He leans closer, looking like he's actually curious. "What is your type?"

Lauren pauses. "I don't know. Haven't really figured it out."

Too busy trying to figure myself out.

"You?" she asks after a moment's pause.

He runs a hand through his hair. The wind feels colder, somehow, the closer he gets and the warmer she is from his proximity. She wraps her arms around herself and thinks she already knows his answer.

"Reds."

-:-

She doesn't remember who kissed who first. All she knows is that he's very close and she's very lonely and they're both very drunk and, as it turns out, he's a very good kisser. It starts slow, uncertain, messy, and while it's not her first kiss or even her first time – it's been a while since she got her freedom from her destiny – it's not like she's super experienced.

He doesn't seem to mind, though. His mouth is warm and soft, guiding her into the kiss, and she doesn't even mind the taste of beer when it's on his lips. He backs her up against the railing, gathering her in his arms, and angles his head to deepen the kiss until she has to pause to take a breath.

"You okay?" he asks softly, his hair brushing her forehead as he leans close over her. "You can leave, if you want."

Lauren swallows, shakes her head. "I don't want to," she whispers, and maybe it's the alcohol or the shine of the night or the way he's looking at her, but she slides her hands up his chest and yanks him back down for another kiss.

He tastes better than bitterness. She thinks she must, too, because he keeps kissing her like she's his salvation. It's breathtaking and dizzying and a million times better than any kiss she's had before.

She hopes she'll remember it when she wakes up the next morning.

-:-

His hands start wandering before hers, but it doesn't take her long to catch up. "We don't have to do this," he breathes against her lips, but his fingers trailing over her skin feels too good to resist, so she lets him continue as she kisses him until she forgets her name.

Nobody comes to find them. She doesn't know if she should be relieved or not.

-:-

By the time he gets her shirt off, it occurs to her that – "Are we really going to do this here?"

Hunter pauses, leaning his forehead against hers. "You want a bed? I can take us to my place."

Lauren blinks at him. "You – you want to drive – ?"

He laughs, the sound warm and amused and deep. Her palms on his bare chest make her vibrate with the motion. "No, I have a better idea. Hold on tight."

It's not like she can hold on any tighter than she already is. He wraps his arms around her and the next thing she knows, the world is a blur of crimson.

-:-

His bed is soft as air beneath her back, a welcome release from the balcony railing. She kind of misses the view, the way the starlight reflects off his skin, but he quickly makes her forget there was ever a party on the other side of town. It's almost frightening, how easy it is to lose herself in his kisses, his touches, the way he makes her feel like none of the pain and loneliness and sadness matter anymore.

He works better than alcohol. She closes her eyes and sinks into the bed and pretends she was never Lauren of the Shiba House, never orphaned, never hidden, never lost. Never failed. Just a girl who likes red and has never been in love and a boy who keeps falling in love with the wrong people.

She's Lauren, and tonight, that's what matters.

-:-

In the morning, she wakes up to the sound of the shower running. She has a splitting headache, which she blames only partly on the alcohol – ninja streaking was probably not a good idea, and she's covered in red sheets, with her clothes scattered all over the floor.

Her first thought is, quite honestly, Fuck.

By the light of day, having sex with a guy she just met at a party she didn't even enjoy doesn't seem like such a great idea anymore. The shower closes just as she's contemplating a dive out the window to escape before realizing that she needs to get dressed first and that the door would be more practical.

Hunter comes out of the bathroom, soaking wet and in a towel. Lauren tries not to stare too much.

"Hey," he says, and when she looks at him, he's smiling, a little uncertainly, but at least he's trying. "Did you sleep well?"

She had, actually. No nightmares for once. "Your bed is very comfortable," she tells him, and he grins. "I, uh… can I take a shower?"

He raises an eyebrow as he heads to a cupboard near the bed. She adjusts her clutch on the sheets, though she doesn't know why – it's not like he hasn't already seen everything. "Do you feel that dirty?" he asks her, almost teasingly.

She blushes. "It's not that. I just – wait, how come you don't have a hangover?"

Hunter looks over his shoulder and winks at her. "Ninja magic."

She stares at him. "You're lying."

"I'm really not," he says, and throws her a red towel he's procured from the cupboard. "I won't look, promise. Want some breakfast?"

Lauren catches the towel and stares at it for a moment. She's forgetting something. "Yeah, I – shit."

"What?" he asks in alarm.

She squeezes her eyes shut, willing the embarrassment to go away. "I left my shirt at the house."

-:-

Since, technically, it was him who left her shirt at Adam and Tanya's house, he loans her one of his. She spends far too long in the shower wondering how she got here. The water gets scorchingly hot by the time she remembers to turn it off and actually get out and face the day.

His shirt is big on her, but the red-and-black plaid at least complements her black skirt. She thinks that's an odd thing to care about, but it helps ground her, at least a little.

When she leaves the bathroom, he's made breakfast for both of them. Scrambled eggs and toast with coffee and orange juice. It's simultaneously the nicest and the worst morning after she's ever had, and she's only had two before him.

"You didn't have to do this," she protests, but she sits down at his kitchen island and accepts the plate he puts in front of her anyway. "I was just going to leave."

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day," he says solemnly and waits for her to break down in giggles before smiling. "Relax. I feel like I owed you."

Her burrow furrows as she takes a sip of her orange juice. "For what?"

He shrugs. "For… putting my issues on you. For taking advantage of you, I guess."

"You didn't take advantage of me," she says immediately. "We were both drunk, and, anyway, it's not like I didn't want to. I'm a big girl, Hunter."

"It's not that," he sighs, running a hand through his still-wet hair. The motion reminds her irresistibly of their first kiss. "I took advantage of you… being there. So that I could forget about my problems and not deal with the world. I should have stopped it."

"Hey," she says, nudging his shoulder with hers. "You're not the only one who wanted to forget your problems. Let's call it even?"

A smile almost appears on his face. "All right. Fine. Do you need a ride home?"

"No, I'll take a cab," she says quickly, mostly because the thought of ninja streaking again with her current headache makes her want to scream. "Besides… I can't go straight home."

-:-

If the walk out of the bathroom hadn't been her walk of shame, this definitely is. She has never felt less like a red as she braves the steps up to the Park-Sloan mansion, feeling like her life is going in slow motion. Her mind is running with thoughts of last night and Hunter and god, what is Jayden going to say when she goes home and –

Adam Park opens the door. "Hello," he says, and she wishes he sounded at least somewhat surprised to see her. "Nice to see you again."

"Hi," she says, feeling like melting into the floor. She doesn't even have time to wonder how she must looks, with her hair a mess of curls and her shirt definitely not even remotely her size. "I – um, I kind of… forget something here. Last night, I mean. Um."

Tanya appears behind her husband and gently pushes him aside. "Adam, don't be rude. Come on in, sweetheart. What'd you need?"

Lauren tries not to turn red, probably unsuccessfully. There are other original rangers milling about; she spots Kat cleaning up the living room and Rocky and Jason working on the kitchen. The whole house is kind of a mess, but she supposes that's the benefit of having a team to help.

"It's just – it's on the balcony," she mutters, and Tanya sends her a knowing smile but points the way. Lauren rushes off and finds her shirt quickly, thankfully, tucking it into her purse and going to leave. In the main room, she finds the boys have left, with only Tanya and Kat there to see her off.

"Find what you need?" Kat asks kindly, and Lauren appreciates that she doesn't ask what it is. From the looks on their faces, they probably know already.

"Don't stress so much," Tanya tells her, slinging an arm around her shoulders. "It's not good for your skin. And you have nothing to be worried about. We won't tell, promise."

Lauren looks up at her hesitantly. Tanya is radiant; it's like looking into the sun. "Does this happen a lot?" she asks meekly.

Kat laughs, making her feel instantly at ease, especially as Tanya joins in. "Please. It happens literally all the time. I think Eric and Taylor actually broke one of the beds once."

Tanya rolls her eyes. "Yeah, that was not fun. And Eric took two weeks to replace it. Asshole."

Lauren smiles, a little. "Sounds like fun."

"Honey, you have no idea," Tanya promises her with a laugh. "I hope he at least treated you well."

"Oh," Lauren says, finding herself blushing. "He did. It – he made me breakfast, this morning."

Kat raises her eyebrows, trading glances with Tanya that she can't decipher but seem amused. "Sounds like a keeper."

Her face turns even more red. "It's not like that. It was a one-time thing."

"That's what Taylor said," Tanya says thoughtfully. "Maybe it's a red thing."

Lauren glances at her. "Taylor is a yellow."

"No," Kat laughs. "She should have been red."

Lauren kind of has to agree. All in all, it's not the worst morning she's ever had.

-:-

When she gets back home, Jayden is already awake somehow. The house is empty otherwise; she figures Ji is in his room and the other rangers went back to their places afterwards. How her brother doesn't seem to have a raging hangover, she will never understand.

"Have fun last night?" he asks her with the annoying kind of smirk that must be a trademark of little brothers everywhere. She shoves him as she passes him by on the couch and he laughs. "Nice shirt."

"Shut up," she mutters, taking off her shoes – she's been wearing high heels since the party started last evening, she's almost forgotten how it feels to have feet that aren't hurting. "How are you not hungover?"

"Ji has a great hangover cure," Jayden explains, offering her a glass of what looks like a vomit smoothie. "It's absolutely disgusting, but it works."

Lauren pushes it away. "I'll cure mine the normal way, thanks."

"What's that?"

"Lying in bed and staring at the ceiling until I die."

He laughs, swinging his arm around the couch as she relaxes next to him. "Did you have fun, though? I know parties aren't really your thing."

Unbidden, memories of kissing Hunter, touching Hunter, waking up in Hunter's apartment flash through her mind. She hopes she's not turning red. "It wasn't the worst I've ever been to, no."

He raises his eyebrows at her. "And… Hunter?"

She's definitely blushing now. "None of your business, Jayden."

"You're my sister, I think it is!" he protests, laughing when she hits him in the shoulder. "Come on, Lauren… a ninja? Really?"

"Does everyone know?" she asks with a sigh.

He shrugs. "I kept track of you. Dunno about the others, though if Mike ever gets wind of it – "

"Don't," Lauren says quickly, pressing her hands to her temples. "I already have a headache."

Jayden nudges her, smiling. "Hey, relax. Everyone's been there."

"When did you get so chill?" she asks him in amazement and he snorts.

"When did you start using words like chill?" he asks in return.

They stare at each other for a moment, then say, simultaneously, "Mike."

Lauren laughs, even though it doesn't help her headache much. "Have you really? Ji always made it seem like you were an angel growing up."

"I was," he says completely seriously and she rolls her eyes. "I mean, I did go to high school, you know."

"I didn't know you had a bad side," she laughs, making him grimace. "Who was it?"

"Just some guy," Jayden says, which makes her think there's a lot more to the story, but she doesn't press.

"Not Antonio?" she asks just to see the look on his face. It sends her into another fit of giggles.

"Shut up," he sighs. "Tell me he wasn't a dick, at least?"

"He was a total gentleman," she promises.

Jayden looks skeptical. "For a ninja?"

Lauren grins. "Especially for a ninja."

-:-

Alone in her room later that day, after her headache is finally starting to fade, her phone vibrates with a new text message. She's almost scared to look, but she makes herself pick it up, anyway.

Took your advice. – H

She has to think about that for a moment. Most of last night is hazy, aside from the end of it.

How'd he take it? – L

The three dots for typing come up and go repeatedly for a moment, then he says: You should have seen his face when I told him.

A smile plays on her lips. Sorry I missed it.

Another pause, then: Are you free tomorrow night?

Her finger hovers over the send button for an eternity until she presses it. Yes. Why?

It feels like he takes even longer to reply. Just wondering if you wanted to have dinner.

Are you asking me out over text?

I felt like it was a better option than waiting until you had a girlfriend.

She muffles a laugh. I can't fault you there. Yes.

Wait… really?

Really.

A pause. She wonders about the look on his face. Cool. I'll pick you up at eight?

It's a date.

-:-

For the first time in a long time, she doesn't feel alone anymore, and maybe that's what the point of the party was in the first place.

i can't stop myself from getting ridiculously fluffy with these two, even when i try to write angst, damn it.

anyway, i didn't want lauren's first time to be a drunken one night stand with hunter bradley, of all people (i love him but... he's hunter) so, yeah, she's gotten out and done some stuff and seen some boys since samurai ended. because she's perfect in every way and who wouldn't want to date her, honestly?

please DON'T favorite without reviewing, i would really appreciate some feedback!