Outfitting an Alien
rosabelle
His first impression of Earth was the warmth of the sun on his face.
Andros sucked in his breath reflexively, as much from the shock as anything else. It had been... longer than he liked to remember, since he'd been on a world this warm. To say nothing of the air, which smelled of things familiar yet foreign, faintly smoky yet floral yet other things he couldn't identify.
He looked up, drinking in the sight of the cloudless sky.
"You okay, man?"
It took him a moment to realize that he was being addressed.
Andros exhaled slowly, and then looked at his... teammates, for now. Once they'd entered Earth's orbit, they had all briefly left the Megaship and then returned in different clothing, the ones they'd been wearing before having been beyond repair. They looked just as strange to him as they had before, and for some reason, despite the warmth, they all wore a jacket or an overshirt.
"Yeah," he said. "I'm fine."
Carlos still looked worried, and Andros saw concern reflected on the faces of the others as well. It hadn't been a long flight back to Earth, but long enough that he'd picked up that what one of them said, the rest of them were thinking. What had they been afraid of, that the air would be poisonous to him? Possibly. They knew as much about the world that existed beyond Earth as he did about Earth.
Andros hadn't planned on it, but his initial feelings were... positive, if only for the sensation of the breeze on his skin, something he hadn't felt since KO-35.
He looked around again, taking in his immediate surroundings. They stood in a fenced-in yard maybe twice the size of the Simudeck, the grass bisected by a path that led up to a white-painted house trimmed with gray. On each side of the fence Andros saw other houses, all different colors and sizes. He saw no one in them, but it had been a long time since he'd been this close to this many people, and he tried not to let them see that it made him nervous.
"This is my place," TJ said. "Well, my aunt and uncle's. I moved in with them last year when I transferred to Angel Grove."
"Transferred?" Andros repeated.
"You know, for school," TJ said. "I wanted to play baseball."
He accompanied this statement by stacking one fist atop the other and swinging them to the side. Andros wasn't sure what the gesture was supposed to signify.
"You still go to school?" he asked.
"Unfortunately," Cassie said.
"But you're Rangers," he said.
"Tell that to Principal Kaplan," TJ said with a grin. "I don't think he'd buy that one."
"Did you not go to school?" Ashley asked. "Once you were a Ranger?"
They hadn't received their morphers until they'd graduated, but Andros just shook his head rather than explain that. So far none of them had asked about why he worked alone, and he didn't want to invite questions about where the extra morphers had come from.
"Lucky," Carlos said.
Andros shrugged.
"Come on," TJ said. "I'll give you the grand tour."
The grand tour, as it turned out, consisted of ignoring most of the house in favor of TJ pointing out the kitchen and then shepherding them all up a staircase to his bedroom.
Andros looked around curiously. He didn't know what he should've expected. There was a bed in one corner, unmade, that Carlos and Cassie went to and settled themselves upon. In another corner was a large chair half-buried in clothing that Ashley went to sit on, arranged facing what looked like a small viewing screen. There was a large wooden item of furniture against one wall, also covered with clothes, and scattered across the floor were several balls and what looked like Zhane's old hoverboard with wheels.
It was... more familiar than he wanted it to be.
"Don't mind the mess," TJ said, giving him a sheepish grin. "I'd been kind of busy, the last couple days I was here, and then we didn't have much time, before we went after Zordon..."
"Don't let him fool you, it always looks like this," Cassie informed him, and threw a sock in TJ's direction. "This one's clean."
Ignoring her, he tossed the sock into one of the many piles, and explained to Andros, "We thought we'd bring you by here before we did anything else. See, your uniform—"
"Flight suit," Andros corrected him automatically. "It's a flight suit."
"Right," TJ said easily. "Uh. Your flight suit. It's not going to blend in too well here."
"How do you identify your Rangers?" he asked.
The others exchanged glances.
Andros frowned. "What?"
"We... don't," TJ said.
"What?"
"Yeah," Cassie said. "It's kind of a secret."
This made no sense. "No one knows who you are?"
"Did everyone know who you were?" Ashley asked him. "Back on... um, on KO-35?"
"Of course," he said. "Why wouldn't they?"
"It was one of Dimitria's rules," TJ explained. "And Zordon's before that. One of the conditions of accepting the Power was keeping our identities secret."
Just what kind of place was Earth, that such a stipulation was necessary?
"Anyway." TJ cleared his throat. "That's why we came here first. Before we go anywhere, we need to get you some new clothes. I'm not sure how they'll fit, but I've got a lot of red that I won't be needing anymore."
It was a kind gesture, Andros recognized, but it annoyed him anyway because he didn't want their kindness.
Truth be told, it was unsettling. Their wanting to form an alliance with him before, he could understand that even if it had been unwanted and irritating. Him giving them the morphers, that had been necessity. But that TJ would so willingly step aside and surrender his role as leader, that Carlos didn't seem to mind his new color, that they could all adjust so easily to his presence in their lives... It made him uneasy.
"So..." TJ gestured around his room. "My closet is your closet, I guess. It's all right if it's not exactly your style, but at least take an outfit or two. Something to last you until we can get you more."
Andros disliked the implication that they would be sticking around long enough for him to need more than an outfit or two—what happened to repairing the Megaship and then heading out after Zordon?
They started with something called sneakers, which was an odd name for a shoe, but Andros tried them on and found them comfortable enough. TJ's feet must have been similar enough to his in size.
Then they moved on to pants.
"Now these—" TJ held up a pair of light blue pants, made of a material Andros had never seen before, and spoke in a tone that suggested to Andros that the other boy thought he was imparting the deepest wisdom of the universe, "are jeans."
"Jeans," Andros repeated, eyeing them skeptically.
"Yeah. Everyone wears them," TJ said. "I've had these for awhile, but that's okay. Jeans get better the longer you wear them."
"He's right," Carlos agreed, and the two girls nodded too.
"Everybody does?" he asked warily. It would seem like he might not have a choice here, if declining to wear these... jeans... would cause him to stand out.
"You'll love them," Ashley said brightly. "They're really comfortable."
Andros rather doubted that, on both counts, but when he took them and held them up to his waist, he had to admit that they were softer than he'd expected.
"They're maybe a little long," Ashley said, eyeing him. "But that's kinda in, and you can roll the cuffs up."
"I've got an extra belt in here somewhere," TJ said.
"Everyone wears these?" he asked. "Really?"
As he said it, though, he realized that the others were indeed wearing jeans. Except, interestingly, for TJ himself, who was wearing tan pants and maybe Ashley, whose pants were black but otherwise appeared to be similar to the others.
"I've got a couple of pairs that you can have," TJ said. "And some khakis too."
He gestured to his own pants as he spoke.
"Or... we can stick to jeans," he said, misreading Andros's frown.
"No," he said. "I only... do you think I'll need so many? How long will it take us, to find the supplies that we need?"
They looked at each other again in that irritating way of theirs and then came to some consensus.
"Well... we were thinking, we could take a little bit," Cassie said at last. "You know, show you some sights."
"Go back to school," Ashley said.
"Spend some time with our families," TJ added. "Cassie and I don't live with our parents, but Carlos and Ashley... if they're away for much longer, their parents will start asking questions. The secret identity thing is a big deal. Not even our parents know."
He was starting to feel that he might have underestimated their abilities, though he wasn't quite ready to admit it. Being Rangers while keeping their identities secret and attempting to lead normal civilian lives as a cover... he wasn't sure how they managed to get anything done.
"You want to see your families," he said. "I understand."
KO-35 had waited two years. It could wait a few weeks more. Zordon didn't have unlimited time, but it would take months, maybe even years, for Dark Specter to drain all of his powers, and they needed time to plan a proper rescue mission.
He didn't say so, but he knew what it was to be homesick.
"You'll need some shirts too," TJ said.
There were two basic types, he learned. T-shirts or button downs, which were worn over t-shirts. The buttons themselves were optional. TJ gave him two plain white t-shirts "to start with," insisting that everyone needed some, which everyone else nodded their agreement to. At least they were soft, Andros thought.
Then he brought out an assortment of other shirts, some with long sleeves and some with short, and a button down shirt or two. Andros passed them over for now, thinking it would be simpler to start with one layer. The others all wore long sleeves, so he chose accordingly, selecting a shirt with gray and black stripes down each sleeve. The color made him think of Zhane, and the grief that he'd grown used to surged up within him suddenly.
"Like I said, these are just to get you started," TJ said. "You can probably just take all of the shirts, if you want. I don't think I'll be needing them anymore. We can stop back and pick them up on our way back. Bathroom's down the hall if you want to get changed."
"Right," Andros said, folding his arms with the unfamiliar clothes hugged against his chest. Now more than ever, he wished his friend were here. This would be so much easier, if Zhane were here to navigate this with him. He'd always been better at this sort of thing than Andros.
"We were thinking we could go buy some of the supplies we need, and then take a break," Ashley said. "We'll take you to lunch."
"Yeah, there's a new place we want to try," Carlos said. "It's called The Surf Spot."