Truth or Dare

Disclaimer: You'll know what's mine and what's not.

A/N: Let's say this story takes place somewhere on season 2 after Zack, Trini and Jason leave for the Peace Conference.

(1/2)

Angel Grove High
2nd floor
Wednesday, March 24, 1994
04.00 pm

"It's Rocky's fault," Kim accused bitterly. "If only he didn't bring up that stupid question everything would have been fine. But no, he just had to say it you would think he would have died of a painful death if he didn't."

The red ranger snorted from his perch against the wall. "Right, so now it's my fau-,"

"It was!"

"Just so you remember, Kim, I'm not the one who claimed to be Zordon's beloved ranger of all time." He reminded, wincing when the brunette throwing daggers his way.

"I didn't say that." She snapped, though her voice getting smaller near the end as her heart was engulfed in guilt she didn't want to admit. Well, she didn't exactly say those words; it was more like something along the line of 'Zordon told me once that he thinks of me as his daughter he never had.'

"Then let me paraphrase, since as far as I can tell, my memory isn't 'totally Swiss cheese with some holes in it'." Rocky retorted back, direct quoting what she had not so wittily said a few hours ago as he began to lose his cool. While he understood where Kim's anger was coming from, it was still no excuse for her to verbally beat him up with harsh words.

In three short strides she was standing in front of Rocky. As petite as she was, at that moment it appeared that she was at least three inches taller than him. "You're running from responsibility!"

"And you're running from the truth!" He yelled back.

"Stop it!" Aisha shouted, having finally had enough of seeing her two friends and teammates chopping each other head off. She grabbed a handful of Rocky's shirt and pulled him behind her. "Seriously, you guys, can you handle this more… maturely? Rocky, just shut up before you shove your foot any deeper into your mouth, all you did was create unnecessary problems," She shushed him when he opened his mouth to protest. Then she turned to the still fuming pink ranger and her eyes softened somewhat. "And Kim, while I know you're upset, you can't just lash out on him like that. He's not really in the place to be blamed."

Rocky's 'told you so' didn't go unheard and Aisha jabbed his ribs hard because she knew that Kim was more than capable to do more than that to him. On the brighter side, the school was almost deserted or they would have gotten lots of audiences.

Kim turned around and plopped back down on the staircase, burying her head in her hands. How could this day tragically turn to this... mess? Everything had been alright all morning (she reckoned Skull dripping his smoothies all over her shoes as something completely coincidental), and afternoon (So Mr. Spencer gave her latest essay a B-, but it was a 5 page paper about human reproduction and survival. Euw. Even a C would have been considered a blessing), but then everything sort of went down the hill.

When their seventy three year old American History teacher was declared sick, they immediately decided to go to the park and do some relaxing. Zedd had been on their asses non-stop lately and it would have been such a crime not to appreciate the 90 minute break properly. Billy was instantly deeply engrossed in his book, Aisha and Adam were talking about their old friends in Stone Canyon, leaving Tommy and her quietly discussing about what movie was worth watching this weekend. Meanwhile, Rocky was bored out of his mind. Surprise, surprise.

"He initiated that we played the game." Kim mumbled, knowing perfectly well that she was being unreasonable and immature, but being in denial actually helped; she felt less like a bitch.

'Hey guys, why don't we play some Truth or Dare?'

Billy, Aisha and she unanimously voted no, while Tommy thought it would be kinda fun –-yeah, how fun it was now, Tommy?--, Adam was pretty excited and Rocky was even more excited. He used the art of persuasion he had apparently been taking from lots of motivational posters down the hall, and somehow managed to talk all of them into playing the game. The stupid game that never should have been invented at the first place.

It had started out innocent enough…

'So, Billy, if you were born again, who did you want to be?'

The answer, shockingly enough, wasn't Aristotle, Confucius, Socrates, or Einstein: Mick Jagger. She guessed Billy just didn't want to have his picture sticking his tongue out taken and published all over the world. Wise choice.

The questions followed were pretty ordinary too.

'What's the weirdest dream you have ever had, Adam?'

The answer was him walking through the endless cornfields like in Children of the Corn, but all the corns were substituted with cotton candies. And he had aliens, just like in the movie Alien, as his slaves. Who would have thought that Adam had such a vivid imagination everybody would be envious of?

The atmosphere was immediately getting warmer and she had started to enjoy the game. Every unexpected answer only set them off laughing even harder and she got to admit that she hadn't enjoyed herself like that in quite a long while. The game was one twisted, crazy and dirty way to get to know your friends better. Knowing Billy from kindergarten surely wasn't a guarantee that she would know that he was able to mention every Ben and Jerry's flavor ever existed.

When her turn came up for the third time, she used her last chance to pick Truth. The last thing she wanted was for Rocky to tell her to perform a lap dance on Tommy. She'd let her boyfriend touch her breast over her clothing once before, but it's still a long long way to go before she'd be willing to do something as bold as lap-dancing. Though now that she thought about it, it's a decent fantasy to be daydreamed about later on when class started to drag. Though technically she didn't exactly have a boyfriend now, did she?

Anyway.

'Awww… you're no fun, Kim! It's not like I'm gonna make you flash Tommy or anything,' Rocky complained and she smirked. Not lap-dancing, but a striptease! 'But okay, then how about…'

He had that evil, wicked gleam in his eyes and she could've almost sworn that his eyes were flashing red. She should've known that whatever he's going to ask wouldn't be good.

'If Zordon made a rule that there was to be no dating in the team since he didn't want your personal feelings to get in the way, what would you do? He thought that it's possible for your relationship to endanger your lives in the battlefield,'

She should've told him to shut up. Or stuffed her hankie into his mouth. Or both.

'Either you ended the relationship or one of you had to get out of the team. Since you and Tommy were sickeningly lovey dovey and all, you decided that one of you would resign so that you could continue being disgusting. Who's that person going to be?'

And that, was the one million dollar question.

Angel Grove High
3rd floor
Wednesday, March 24, 1993
04.05 pm

"It was Rocky's fault." Tommy muttered. He was sitting on the same spot he had sat when he almost lost his green ranger power. Instead of Kimberly and Jason though, Adam and Billy were keeping him company now. They most likely worried he would try to do something stupid; like shouting-to-the-world-that-he-was-a-Power-Ranger stupid.

"I'm sure he didn't mean for any of these to happen," Adam responded, uncomfortably shifting his weight from one foot to another as he felt the need to defend his long time friend. Rocky had a big mouth indeed, that was both a gift and a curse, but he was a good person. His 'creativity' was mildly impressive. "It surely was a tricky question."

"I'm genuinely concerned for Rocky's well being right now," Billy said, his hands wiping his glasses on his shirt in a nervous gesture. He had known Kimberly long enough to know that hell hath no fury like Kimberly Hart scorned. "Though of course, it isn't the important thing here and now." He quickly added once Tommy shot him a disapproving glare, unsure whether it was for implying that Kim was one badass girl or for thinking about Rocky while there's a much bigger issue in hands.

Scowling, Tommy looked away and stared at the floor as his memory traveled back to several hours ago.

'Um… what kind of question is that?' Kim chuckled. Still, it wasn't hard to see her shoulders tense. 'Zordon would never do that!'

Rocky shrugged. 'Hence the word if.'

Kim chewed her lips thoughtfully for a moment, her eyes darting from one person to another. They were all looking at her, obviously intrigued at hearing what's her answer going to be. He gave her an encouraging smile when their eyes locked. Why did she look nervous? It's only a game.

'I don't know, Zordon told me once that he thinks of me as his daughter he never had.' Kim answered with a good-natured grin.

'So you're saying that Tommy should resign.' Rocky confirmed.

'No."

'You're the only one who's going to leave then?'

"I guess I should've kept my mouth shut instead of interfering," Tommy finally broke the awkward silence. "But I dunno, I guess I just couldn't sit there without saying anything."

"Totally understandable," Billy nodded his head, seemingly relieved that Tommy appeared to have regained some sense now. "You acted on reflex; it's a self-defense mechanism. Having been a team leader for almost two years would play a role in your decision making, whether you wanted it or not."

Tommy gave Billy another suffering look before shaking his head. "You're being way too kind. I guess my ego just didn't expect that kind of answer from Kim." His so called ego surely reacted fast enough.

"It's like having your parents divorced and you had to decide if you're going to stay with your dad or mom. Tough choice." Adam said, choosing his words with care like Tommy was a ticking time bomb set to go off any second. "Kim answered the question the way she did because she just wanted to get it over with ASAP. You shouldn't have taken it personally."

That's true, but when he said something oh-so-clever like 'Come on, when you're out there, which matters more, your daughter or someone you can really rely on?', anybody would take that personally. He had to admit, that was a big mistake on his part; one that he still regretted till now. But still.

And from there, all hell broke loose.

'What's that supposed to mean?' ' Kim turned her head so quickly her ponytail whipped her face. 'Are you saying that you're a better ranger than me?'

'I didn't mean it like that, Kim.'

'But you did! Everyone heard you saying exactly that.' She pushed, her eyes narrowing to menacing twin slits.

He sighed, not liking the direction the conversation was heading at the slightest. 'I was just saying that when you're in an elite team dealing with such an important task like saving the world, you have to be objective and professional.'

Kim's eyes widened and she chuckled in disbelief. 'Okay, so not only am I a bad ranger, apparently I'm not professional as well. That's rich, coming from someone whose memory is totally Swiss cheese with some holes in it.'

Tommy almost growled. By now he had turned sideways so they were now sitting face to face. 'I never said you're a bad ranger-,'

'Not bad, just not as good as you, right?' Kim swiftly cut off, crossing her arms over her chest and digging her fingers into her flesh firmly until her knuckles grew white. 'Of course, you've knocked down two colors; though I'm sure you remember that you spent almost all your Green Ranger days doing not so professional things.'

At that point, he really couldn't care less that their friends were watching. 'Don't go there.'

Kim stuck her chin up, her brown eyes challenging him to do more damage. 'You started it.'

As the only person he had trusted with his inner demon and struggle, he'd thought she would have thought twice before bringing up that particular topic, which, by the way, she perfectly knew was still sensitive for him. Once she dove into that subject though, he couldn't just not say anything back.

'Well, apparently Zordon has forgiven me for being not professional because he chose me to be the leader of the power team, didn't he?'

'Don't you dare pull ranks on me! I've been a ranger long before you joined the team.''

'Yeah but you're a girl.'

That was an even bigger mistake. Sometimes he wondered if men were naturally born stupid or he's just special that way.

'Ohhh, you're being sexist now! I cannot believe you would stoop that low, Tommy.'

His jaw clenched tighter. It wouldn't be until later when he was laying on his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling did he realize that Kim was nearly on tears. 'You started it.'

"Tommy, you're okay?" Billy's voice cut through his trails of thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm fine." As much as he appreciated their companionship, he just wanted to be alone right now. He didn't need two of his friends baby-sit him and go Florence Nightingale on him. "Look, guys, I'm fine. I guess I'll just go home, hoping that Zedd wouldn't send anything scaly or rubbery or a mix of those. I'll catch you later."

He shouldered his bag and walked away before his friends could say anything.

The Campbell Residence
125 Lane Streets
Wednesday, March 24, 1994
08.15 pm

"Okay, so it was probably Rocky's fault." Aisha sighed. She was laying on her stomach in her bed, absently turning the pages of a fashion magazine without really paying attention to what she's reading. Both of her parents were out of town or there would be no way they would have let the boys gather in her room.

"Right, I'm getting a sense of déjà vu here," Rocky clutched his chest tightly, pretending to be wounded. "I think I heard that line before. Where could that be…? Oh right, Kim said that before and Adam told me that Tommy said the exact same thing. What would you call that? Triple déjà vu?"

"There's no point in being sarcastic right now, Rocky," Billy chided, lifting his head from the textbook he'd been reading.

"It's so weird to see Tommy and Kim arguing like that," Adam remarked quietly, his brow creasing. While neither was a big fan of public display of affection, it was pretty clear that they were totally in love and devoted to each other. "I didn't even think that Tommy could raise his voice in front of Kim. Are we sure that they're not under a spell or something?"

"Nah, though you can say that it's unfortunate for them to be friends with this ape here." Aisha jerked her thumb towards Rocky's direction. After a second she closed her magazine and threw a pillow at him. "Okay, I made my choice. It's totally your fault! Why couldn't you ask something normal? Heck, I don't know, you could have asked Kim how often she thought about Tommy naked before she went to bed or if they ever boned before, but nope, you asked that fatal question."

"I knew that Kim thought about Tommy naked before she went to bed every night, that's a fact, and we all knew they never had sex," Rocky stubbornly answered. "What made it deadly was how Kim and Tommy handled it. She could have said that nobody would've resigned because they would've kept the relationship a secret."

"And yet you would've still insisted that Kim chose one of the two options." Billy said, fixing him with a piercing stare.

"Totally." Aisha nodded her agreement.

Rocky looked at his teammates exasperatedly, knowing that they got him cornered. "Okay! Okay, I admit, I was curious. I shouldn't have asked that, I'm sorry. Could we please not talk about this anymore?"

"Ever heard a saying 'curiosity killed the cat' before? And no, we have to talk about this, because you know how Tommy could be when he's having problems with Kim. That would lead to a bad coordination and that would be bad when Zedd sent down his monster. Zordon would start interrogating us and then there would be a no dating rule!" Aisha finished in one gulp of air.

"It's not beyond repair though, no," Billy said soberly. "Tommy and Kimberly share a deep connection. They're not just a couple, but best friends long before they started dating. They know each other. Give them some time to think and reflect. Tommy…well, both disrespected each other today. It would take time to heal. I'm sure they're both regretting all the harsh words they exchanged this afternoon as we're speaking right now. Once they're ready, they'll talk."

"Amen."

:) hope you liked it!