Disclaimer: I do not own PRiS, Ashley or Andros, unfortunately. It's all Saban's/Disney's.

A/N: Slightly AU

Feels Like Home
by DarkHonda aka Tal

He sighed, the Megaship was just about to disappear from KO-35 skies and he was standing there, gazing up at the sky, at the escaping spaceship. Spaceship, ha! He wished it was just a spaceship but it wasn't, it was his home for the last few years, it was home in a way KO-35 never was and never would be.
KO-35 didn't contain his memory of Ashley Hammond, of their fleeting moments together, of laughter and long talks into the night. He used to wish for this moment, the moment when he would stand with Zhane on one side and Karone, his long lost sister, the long found Astronema, on the other, and watch the Astro Megaship continues its journey to help the universe, continues to someone else's living nightmare, to save another universe.
He knew Deca would do her best to help anyone trustworthy enough. He also knew the people who are heading home, they deserved the peace they finally achieved, without wars, without blind hatred. He was sure they deserved it, every bit of it, because they stood up to everything evil, everything that was cold and distant. They accepted him as a part of them even after he left them stranded on a hostile planet. They were great and he was happy for them.

So why was this feeling so wrong? Was he an awful person? They were his rangers, his team and mostly, his friends. He didn't want the war to be over, not yet, and damn it, it wasn't fair that he felt like this. They deserved their peace as much as KO-35 did, but he never wanted to be away from her. Her. Ashley Hammond. Ashley. Ash.
He couldn't bear the fact her eyes were still boring into him even though she was long gone from view. She made him feel, she made him hurt and laugh and she taught him how to be happy again, she taught him patience and friendship and there was no other loyal student than he was.

Someone put his hand on his shoulder, Andros chose to ignore it and not hear the comforting words that came a second later. He never thought he'd be lonely here, at home, never so alone and numb. How was it that on Earth everything was right and here…so wrong? He frowned at his thought and turned to leave the stadium, he walked slowly between the mob, not caring if he bumped into anyone or hurting anyone. He couldn't feel anything and it was like being rehabbed from a drug, only it wasn't a drug he was rehabbed from, but his own feelings, his own heart...

He found himself on a top of a building, it looked familiar, he could see the large Karovan Park lying beneath him. All the colors that so suddenly reappeared, he never thought he'd be able to see them again. The same park where everything started, for him- everything ended. He didn't even know what he wanted anymore; could he want anything at all? Nothing contained meaning anymore, without them, without her…

"Ashley," he muttered, holding the bracelet she had given him only last week, it was raining outside, they've just lost the Mega Voyager and he was busy staring at the Mega Voyager's wrecks, the rain wasn't enough to comfort him. And being the optimist he was, he was thinking about the people of Earth's reaction to the end of the universe as they know it, to the upcoming slavery.
He almost didn't hear her, but she accidentally tripped on a nearby puddle and yelped and he as the chivalrous prince he was, saved her from taking a really nasty mud bath. She laughed and he remembered that he was puzzled, not sure how could she laugh when an apocalypse was threatening her planet's sake.

"Andros?" she asked him, he didn't even notice he was still holding her close. Usually, he wouldn't dare but it was already the end of reality as he knew it, so he didn't really care and kept holding her. She didn't seem bothered though, she smiled and even though it was still raining, she snuggled even closer to him before taking his hand in hers. He felt himself blushing, his cheeks burning a shade that wouldn't shame his ranger suit, she gently opened his frozen, clutched fist with her long warm fingers and put something on his palm. Then she gently closed him fingers on whatever it was and hugged him.
She never said a word, maybe she knew that words didn't mean anything anymore, she just stayed there with him, her hand on his clutched fist and another hand laying on his shoulder as she clung to him. He let her. He let her because he was finally ready to admit he had feelings for her, undefined feelings, maybe the ones you marry because of.

When she left it was already too dark, he stayed there for another hour and only then dared looking at the item she placed in his fist; a beautiful silver bracelet, their initials craved in the soft metal A&A.

His finger now traced the letters fondly, what did he have on KO-35 anyway? No one could replace her; no one can make him feel like she can. And maybe, maybe it's just a sign that's telling him it's not his place? Not his home?
But where was home if not KO-35? Isn't KO-35 his home? Hasn't he spent enough years trying to return to his beloved world? He sighed, his eyes not leaving the bracelet that was now warm from his touch. He gently put it on and looked at the horizon, the sun was slowly bidding goodbye. It was beautiful, but not beautiful as the sunset on the beach, with Ashley telling him her plans for the future. Ashley…

Has he made the right decision? He frowned slightly before looking down at his bracelet again, and before he could stop himself, before the last ray of sun left KO-35 until the morrow, he was gone.

Home, he now knew, is where your love is.

A/N: Happy Chanukah!