Trini does not own a lot of things, hell, some of her boxes are still unpacked, gathering dust and sagging into themselves in her closet. She does not know, does not remember how to settle. How to make a house feel like home. She collects memories like seashells; tucks little moments away to replay as she drifts to sleep.
Billy eating a smore for the first time; offended by how sticky it makes his fingers until Jason, already predicting his reaction, hands him a wet wipe. The blue ranger eats three more. Gets a sugar rush. Rapidly explains how the laws of thermodynamics connects the five of them through star dust.
Zack scribbling in his notebook during detention, pausing only to reply to a flung note or to glance at one of them, tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth. She does not give much thought to what he is drawing; assumes that it is some joke comic, but watches him instead. Memorizes the wrinkle in his brow, the way he shakes a cramp out of his hand. She asks to see, after, and he blushes. She memorizes that, too; this moment of raw vulnerability. Asks one more time, gently; curious. It is a sketch of the four of them, all of them smiling, their personalities perfectly captured in ink.
Jason laughing so hard that he is doubled over, hands hugging his sides, the only sound escaping him a desperate wheeze. He collapses to his knees, falls onto his side, rolls onto his back. Tears roll down his cheeks as he tries, and fails, to catch his breath. The others are laughing with him, at him, but Trini can only stare. Because Jason smiles easily, and chuckles occasionally, but does not laugh nearly enough. On bad nights; if she has fought with her parents, if the five of them spent the day apart, if training was a little too intense, she replays the sound of his laugh and smiles.
Kim. She tries to remember everything about Kim. Hordes the moments selfishly. (Part of her is always waiting for, always ready to hear her mother announce another transfer, another promotion, another amazing opportunity for their family over dinner)
Kim is always her last thought before she drifts to sleep. Kim and Zack trying to one up each other with sarcastic comments. Kim and Jason fussing over her in the med bay after she takes one too many hits during a battle. Kim and Billy accidentally setting the grill on fire the one time Jason and Trini cave into their request to cook.
Kim pressing into her side as they pull their books out of their now shared locker. Kim holding her hand in between their desks in biology, under the table at lunch. Kim asking to borrow her water bottle and wrapping her fingers around her wrist, pulling her in for their first kiss. Kim reverently tracing her skin, after their first time, after every time, with her fingertips, her lips. Kim dropping whatever she is holding every time she sees Trini wearing her glasses.
The five of them lay curled into each other, sprawled over each other in a nest of blankets and pillows on Billy's living room floor. She is tucked into Zack's side, Kim flush against her back, her arm wrapped protectively around her waist, fingers drawing circles on her skin. Zack's arm thrown over both of their shoulders. Somewhere behind her Jason is snoring. Somewhere behind him Billy is mumbling, apart but still close. She collects memories like seashells; tucks little moments away to replay as she drifts to sleep. But tonight she does not have to. Tonight her heart sings home.