Hello my name is …
This will be a sequel to "For Love or Butter". Z and Bridge come up with a name for her stereo. Why? So that I can write some more pointless fluff and ignore the growing demands of my big story Shifting Hearts. AHHH! Procrastination! Ain't it great!
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Disclaimer- I just really can't promise that any of this will be any good but hey we all try right?…Oh wait that's not the kind of disclaimer they wanted?…no?…but…ok I understand…(eehhem)…I do not own the Power Rangers or any other obviously copy written material I may or may not refer to in this fantastic story your about to read! …is that better?…oh good.
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Sky Tate walked into the room he shared with Bridge Carson and was greeted by a sight that, by now, should have been a familiar one. However it still managed to disconcert him every time he walked in on Bridge in the thinking position.
"One of these days your going to give yourself an embolism or something you know that right?"
The upside down ranger said nothing but continued to hum softly to himself. Sky rolled his eyes at his best friend and walked over to the bathroom to take a shower before changing from his workout clothes to his uniform. 8 minutes later he emerged dressed only in a white towel wrapped around his hips and made his way over to their closet. Among the clutter of green Sky managed to seek out the blue trim that belonged to him and did his best to determine the dirty clothes pile from the clean. Since all of his clothes were neatly pressed and hung he came to the conclusion that the clean pile was the one that only contained green. Tossing his track pants and sweaty blue t-shirt into the other pile, Sky took his underwear back into the bathroom and 20 minutes later re-emerged with perfect hair, fresh breath and flossed teeth. He then conscientiously dressed for the day making sure all of his creases were straight, all of his buckles fastened and most importantly that his shirt was firmly tucked into his pants. It was around this time that Schuyler Tate became suspicious. Bridge is never this quiet. He gave a nervous glance to the still oblivious Green Ranger, his eyes were closed and the humming had stopped, but his lips were moving as though he was in some sort of silent debate.
I wonder what he's thinking….
No!
He mentally slapped his own hand.
Dammit Tate! You should know by now to never wonder what Bridge is thinking! It only leads to him telling you what he's thinking, which only leads to a confusing discussion of why he's thinking it, which only leads to you getting a headache from the why's and the who's and the why not's and possibly the where's, but usually the when's, except on Tuesdays…oh god… it's finally happening!
"Sky?" Bridge waved his hand in front of his roommates face. The Blue Ranger was staring wild-eyed into space mumbling something about "dear god no, it's not Tuesday"… and people called him weird. Clearing his throat and a little louder he tried again
"SKY!"
With a small shudder Sky's mind rejoined his body currently occupying the space between the two beds in his room.
"What?" he asked, slightly more annoyed then he had meant to sound.
"Are you okay?" Bridge's face held concern for his friend.
"Yeah I'm fine," Sky relaxed his body and his eyebrows a bit and in turn Bridge's frown turned into a beaming smile. "Did you need something?"
"What do you think of the name Austin?" he asked excitedly.
Sky eyed the room suspiciously. As far as he knew everything in the room that could be named had a name (when asked why the bed's didn't have names Bridge replied because that would just be weird.) A quick scan did not reveal any new toys or inventions that Bridge may have acquired…
"What for?" he asked cautiously still looking for whatever it was that might need naming.
"Well you see, me and Z…" Bridge looked down sheepishly at the ground and in that moment Sky's legendary ability to jump to conclusions went into overdrive.
"You and Z did WHAT? Bridge you're only seventeen! Hell she's only seventeen! Have you told anyone else? I didn't even know that the two of you…That is SO against regulation! What were you thinking! I thought we had THAT talk! Jack is going to kill you! I could kill you!" Sky stopped his manic pacing and turned to the Green Ranger hands lifted, fingers curled in anticipation of encircling his neck. Sky only just then noticed the dumbfounded look on his friends face.
"Wait you didn't …did you?"
Bridge continued to stare completely lost. Sky knew in that moment what it felt like to be a monumental idiot.
"Ha…haha…" he laughed nervously hiding his hands in his pockets. "I thought…ha…that you and Z…eeheem…"
Bridge's eye's widened in realization of what Sky had been talking about.
"You thought that I …and Z …" He stuttered,"…that we had…" complicated hand gestures,"…and that I had…" more stuttering, " and that I was asking you about the name because…?" Sky nodded his head.
"Oh no! No no no no…it's nothing like that! I mean we haven't even kissed really, that is to say that I haven't even…well you probably don't need to know that."
Sky had never known that it was possible for a human to turn that shade of red so quickly. But sure enough, leave it to Bridge to prove him wrong.
Incalculable moments of uncomfortable silence passed between the two.
"So…uh…Austin huh? Nice name, good name, what's it for?" Sky stared pointedly at the ground.
"It's …uh…for Z's stereo." Bridge traced an invisible line on the ground with the tip of his shoe.
"Z's stereo?"
"Yeah," Bridges face lit up again at the thought of the spunky Yellow Ranger, "She asked me the other day if I would like to help her name her stereo."
"Really…?" Sky raised his eyebrow knowingly at Bridge. It was fairly common knowledge that the Green Ranger had been harboring a huge crush on Z Delgado ever since they had first met, despite the fact that he had been trying to arrest her. He wasn't very good at hiding it either. The way he would watch her read, watch her practice, watch her eat, well really just watch her. If Z was in the room there was no point in trying to get Bridge to pay attention to anything else, unless it was a plate of buttery toast, and even that had been coming in a close second these days.
."Yeah I'm supposed to go and meet her in a little bit so that we can come up with names and what not…" Bridges voice trailed off a little as he lost himself in the thought of getting to spend some time alone with Z. I mean sure they had spent time alone before, on patrol, in training, but never like this.
"Earth to Bridge." It was now Sky's turn to wake his roommate from a trance. When the Green Ranger came to Sky was still giving him that look, the look that said 'are you going to tell her?'
"I don't know!" Bridge threw his hands up in the air." I want to…I'm just not sure…I mean what if she said no? Or laughed at me, or worse?" his face contorted a bit at the thought.
"Bridge," The Blue Ranger laid, what he hoped was, a comforting hand on his shoulder. He knew there were words right now that he should be saying, but not being one that was really any good at expressing his own emotions he racked his brain for the right thing to say,
" You should just be honest with her about how you feel." That was the right thing to say…wasn't it? Bridge looked up at him like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming semi.
"Honest?"
"uhhh…yes. Honest." Sky gave his friend a rare and reassuring smile. That seemed to be enough. Bridge glanced over at the green frog alarm clock on his nightstand.
"Oh man I gotta get going." The Green Ranger ran over to the mirror and ran his hands a few times through his disheveled mop of brown hair causing it to stick up even more. Seemingly satisfied with the look he turned to his best friend.
"How do I look?" Sky eyed the messy hair, wrinkled shirt, and enormous grin.
"You look like you." He stated. Bridge just smiled more.
"Thanks Sky." And with that he ran out of their shared room and on to his pseudo date.
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Z Delgado stood in front of her full-length mirror contemplating a vintage yellow t-shirt that advertised Sugar Daddy's candy and a pair of light blue jeans. She wasn't really sure why she should be so concerned about what she was wearing, it was just Bridge right? She felt the fluttering of butterflies in her stomach at the thought of the Green Ranger. It was becoming a regular occurrence every time she thought about her slightly odd but somehow enduringly cute teammate. She regarded her reflection again. Behind her laid a pile of clothes that had already been tried and discarded as not right for the occasion. Her roommate Sydney Drew watched with increasing interest.
"So tell me again why I have to leave in," she checked her new Rolex, "five minutes?"
"Five minutes!" The Yellow Ranger ran over to the vanity and started to hurriedly fuss with her hair and makeup.
"Yes five minutes, now are you going to tell me or what?" The Pink Ranger stood behind her hands on her hips blue eyes piercing the back of her head. Z ignored her friend focusing on pulling her hair back into a short ponytail.
"What do you think Syd up or down?"
"I'd know what fashion advice to give," she tapped her foot impatiently on the floor," If you would just tell me what's going on."
"Bridge is coming over to help me name my stereo." Z tried not to sound too excited. Syd looked at her roommate with mild shock.
"You mean all of this," she gestured towards the large pile of clothes dumped on the floor, "is for Bridge?"
"yes, I mean NO! Of course not why would I…" The Pink Ranger was not buying it. "Maybe?" Z tried to stop the blush slowly creeping its way up her cheeks. For a moment neither girl spoke.
Suddenly Syd broke the silence with an ear-piercing squeal.
"This is so great! You and Bridgey! You guys will be so cute together!"
"God Syd keep it down to half a lung would you? The door's open and now half the academy knows!" The Yellow Ranger was suddenly mortified by her roommate.
"So?" the Pink Ranger failed to see the problem. The whole academy already knew that the Green Ranger had a thing for the Yellow Ranger in a big way. In fact it seemed as though Z was the only one who didn't know that Bridge was madly in love with her.
"SO? I don't want this spread all over the academy until I've figured out just exactly what there is between me and him." Syd sat down next to her slightly distraught friend and started to absently play with Z's hair.
"Well you like him right?' she pulled out a tray of eye shadows, picked a golden yellow that would compliment Z's skin tone, and began to carefully apply it to her closed lids.
"Of course I like him. He's a friend and a teammate…
"No I mean you like him right?" Z felt the butterflies in her stomach gear up again and the blush won the battle over her cheeks but she could not bring herself to offer up a reply. So Syd answered her own question.
"You must, because no girl changes her outfit more than 3 times for a guy she doesn't like and you must have changed yours at least 10 times." Satisfied with the makeup and hair Syd pulled out a tube of lipstick in a light shade of pink.
"Syd I appreciate the effort but I'm not really much of a lipstick girl."
"Nonsense. Plus this is my lucky shade." Forcing Z to pucker up she carefully applied the soft shimmery pink color. "There if he wasn't already in love with you this would seal the deal!"
"Syd what do you mean he's already in love with me?" Z eyed her friend suspiciously. But before Syd had a chance to answer there was a light knock on the doorframe. Both girls looked up to see the Green Ranger standing in the doorway nervously fiddling with the Velcro on his gloves.
"I'm not interrupting anything am I?" Bridge asked timidly. His eyes locked onto Z sitting there all made up. He could barley hear Syd over the pounding of his own heart.
"Nope nothing at all! In fact I was just about to go find Jack. He said he needed his braids re-done so I'm taking him, well dragging him really, with me to my salon. We should be gone for a couple of hours." She winked mischievously at Z, grabbed her purse and ran out the door.
"Good Luck!" she whispered to Bridge as she passed him. Bridge merely nodded in response.
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It seemed a day for uncomfortable silences.
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Bridge stood there in the doorway waiting to be invited in but Z was too distracted by the wave of new feelings washing over her. Has he always been this cute? Actually handsome really…with that boyish charm. When did his eyes get so blue? And those dimples in his cheeks when he smiles…
"Can I come in?" he finally asked, not that he wanted her to stop looking at him like that. It was making his body warm and mind go fuzzy, but he knew he wanted to be closer to her.
"Uh yeah, come in." Why am I so nervous? It's only Bridge right? He crossed the threshold but went no further. He had seen the girl's room before but never really been in it. The first thing he noticed is that it looked like a department store had sneezed its junior's section all over the floor. After that it was as though half the room had been engulfed in cotton candy pink while the other side was a bright sunshine yellow. Bridge smiled at the realization that him and Z had the same side of the room.
"So…this is your room huh?" His shoe poked at Peanuts, Syd's beloved stuffed elephant now lying atop the wreckage. Z came out of her daze and realized the disaster area her room had become after trying on all those different outfits.
"Yeah…oh man! I'm sorry I…uh forgot to clean up the…laundry…" Z hurriedly threw clothes regardless of cleanliness into her laundry bag then stuffed the whole thing into her closet. Bridge could have cared less what the room looked like he was still too focused on what she looked like. She wore no shoes but her toenails were painted a light shade of pink (must have been Syd) the light colored denim started in a boot cut and traveled up to hug her hips tightly. Every time she bent over Bridge caught a glimpse of a bright yellow thong and it made him blush profusely. The T-shirt she had picked molded to her body like a second skin and was in the same shade of yellow as her thong. Bridge briefly pondered if she had done that on purpose.
"There that's at least a little bit better…" Some of her hair had come free of its restraints and now framed her lovely face perfectly. Bridge wanted to reach out and brush the stray hairs from her eyes but couldn't bring himself to make such a seemingly bold move just yet.
"You can sit down you know." Her voice traveled through the air and hit him like a ton a bricks knocking him from his daydream…he seemed to be doing that a lot lately. He took a seat at the edge of her bed and watched as she sat down on the other side. A few more awkward moments of silence passed.
"So where's this stereo that needs a name?" he asked breaking the silence
"Right here." She pointed to a large black stereo; at least he assumed that underneath all the stickers it was black.
"Okay, have you come up with any names for it yourself?"
"Well I was thinking maybe Gertrude." She joked causing the dimples in his cheeks to deepen.
"Gertrude? What kind of name is that for a stereo?" He laughed.
"Well what kind of name is Maureen for a toaster?" she inched closer to him smiling.
"It's a very good name thank you very much!" he defended.
"Oh yeah?" Z slid even closer.
"Yeah." His voice lost some of the argument when she got close enough that he could smell her perfume, a light almost fruity fragrance that sent his pulse racing.
"So what would be a better name for my stereo?" The question came out a little more husky than she had intended.
"Well…uh first…" Bridge tried to regain some of his quickly slipping composure." When naming anything you have to know if it's a boy or a girl."
"Okay, and how do you do that?"
"Simple. You ask it." That had her stumped.
"You ask it?"
"Yup." Bridge stood up from the bed and walked over to the stereo sitting on her nightstand. Taking off his glove from his right hand, he waved it front of his face and inspected the colors that he saw carefully. After a few minutes of humming and hawing he turned back to face her. Z's face was a mixture of confusion and amusement.
"Definitely a guy." He announced. "I'm sensing a very male aura surrounding it."
"So how about Gary?" she threw out.
"No…" he contemplated. " He doesn't really seem like a Gary. I have this Uncle Gary, well he's not really my uncle but he's been friends with my dad since before I was born so we call him Uncle Gary, but he doesn't really like loud music. There was this one time when we had all went out too eat and the music in the restaurant was kind of loud but not really loud, well at least I didn't think it was really loud but my Uncle Gary he …"
"Bridge!"
"Sorry." He looked down at his hands sheepishly.
"How about…Joe?"
"I used to know this guy named Joe, well actually guy wouldn't be the right term, he was from an alien race that didn't really separate themselves into genders so he was more of an it than a guy, but he had this…"
"Bridge!"
"Sorry." Hs body tensed up. He couldn't help that he was nervous, and when he was nervous he had a way of rambling on and on until he wasn't nervous or whatever was making him nervous stopped making him nervous or maybe it just went away but he definitely didn't' want her to go away, especially considering this was her room and…
"Are we going to have to go through this with every name?"
"No."
"Good." She gave him a warm smile that helped to ease the tension in him. "So do you have any names?"
"Well I had been thinking of a few names…like if it was a girl I was thinking maybe Corrine. But since it's a boy I was thinking maybe Austin."
"Austin huh?" she rolled around the idea in her head for a few minutes. "Yeah I like Austin. Austin's good." Bridge breathed a small sigh of relief. He had spent hours on his head to come up with that.
"From here on out my stereo shall now be known as Austin!" Z declared with a laugh jumping up from her spot in the bed and standing next to Bridge. They stood there admiring the stereo and it's new name.
Why won't he do something? Do I want him to do something? Maybe I just need to give him a little push.
Deciding that the awkward silence quota for the day was more than filled she grabbed one her favorite CD's and turned on Austin wow that's kinda weird. Within moments a techno beat came blaring out of the speakers.
"Come on Bridge dance with me!" she grabbed the Green Ranger by the hand and led him to an empty space on the floor. Rhythmically she began to sway her body, bobbing her head in time with the beat. Bridge stood transfixed by her movements, too shy to actually join in himself. Z noticed that he was just standing there watching her. Still moving to the music she inched closer to him.
"You know you actually have to move for it to be called dancing." She said playfully.
"I…uh…I'm not really all that great of dancer…" If it was possible Bridge turned an entirely new shade of red.
"It's easy. I'll show you." Z came in closer. "First you've got to loosen up a bit." She reached up and slid his uniform jacket off running her hands down his strong arms. He may not have the male model good looks of Sky or the exotic handsomeness of Jack but Bridge was definitely good looking in his own way. Tossing the jacket on her bed, she then tentatively placed a hand on each hip and pulled him into her. They were now so close she could feel the rise and fall of his chest as he took each long and slightly jagged breath. Slowly she guided his body until he was in time with the music. Together they moved each becoming more excited at the heat they were creating. Z used her hands to guide his around her waist and then moved her own around his neck. Bridge could feel her aura glow even through his gloves. It was a beautiful yellow…no gold... that shined through the doubt that was clouding his mind. It was stunning, just like her.
The song ended and they both stopped moving but made no attempt to pull away from each other. Their faces hovered so close she could see the nervous beads of sweat forming on his brow. Her dark brown eyes locked with his and held his gaze questioningly. Apparently I'm going to have to make the first move.
"So, " She asked rather coyly, " Are you going to kiss me or what?"
Slightly taken aback, Bridge licked his lips nervously and nodded. Slowly he leaned in closing the short distance between them, and placed a gentle kiss on her waiting lips. It was even better than he had dreamed (and oh how he had dreamed!). The sensation sent his nerves dancing making his whole body tingle. Z responded by pulling him in closer and tangling her fingers in his unruly hair. Bridge instinctively deepened the kiss when she parted her lips allowing his tongue to dance with hers in a mimic of what there bodies had been doing mere moments before. Together they tasted each other lost in their own moment.
When they pulled away, Bridges eyes remained closed.
"Bridge, " She asked gently, searching his face. "Are you okay?"
He nodded, lids slowly parting to reveal his baby blue eyes, bright and clear.
"Wow." He muttered breathlessly.
"Wow?" Z smiled in relief.
Bridge raised a gloved hand and finally brushed the stray hair from her cheek. The soft leather was cool against her skin.
"I've been wanting to do that ever since I met you." He admitted.
"Then why didn't you?" she asked, idly twirling his hair around her fingers. The Green Ranger looked down at the floor slightly embarrassed.
"I was afraid."
"Afraid of what?" she smiled.
"Afraid that you didn't like me, afraid that maybe you didn't feel the same way, that maybe you'd slap me if I tried, that maybe Jack would punch me if I tried, afraid that you and Jack…"
Bridges ramble was cut short when Z crashed her lips into his, taking all of his words away. He melted into her, all of his fears dissipating with every heated kiss. Except maybe the one about Jack punching him for putting the moves on his "little sister". But that was a punishment he'd be willing to take if it meant that whatever had just started between him and Elizabeth Delgado was allowed to continue.
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Thankyou to everyone who has been reviewing my stories! YOU GUYS ROCK! I only hope that I can rock just as much someday. (p.s. the only reason I don't review as many stories is because I have limited internet access. As it is I have to take my stories over to the library just so that I can upload them. With the time limit on the puters there I barley have time to read the stories much less review them but one of these days I'm going to go over there and just review everyones stories so that you all know that I love you just as much as you love me!)