Summary: Josee is invited over for a play date at her new partner Jacques' house, and leaves with something very special.

Rating: K

Warnings: Panic Attacks, Vague Mentions of Abuse (?)

AN: Since a lot of the dialogue has French terms, I've added the definitions below the paragraphs they're used in to make it easier to understand.


Josée's mother didn't approve of "play dates". As far as she was concerned, Josée should be spending any of the time she didn't already dedicate to her academics and dancing to perfecting her footwork on the ice—but Jacques' mother had insisted. As much as she herself didn't find it relevant, it wasn't totally impossible that Jacques and Josée becoming "friends" would help them work better together as dancing partners. The woman looked up at her rearview mirror and to the tiny, irritated-looking six-year-old sulking in the car seat behind her. She smiled approvingly at her daughter's unhappy attitude about this giant, but apparently necessary, waste of time.

They arrived at the Durant's home shortly, and were greeted by the sight of two older girls playing with a hose in the front lawn. Josée was already annoyed by the idea of wasting valuable practice time playing, but the sight of what she assumed were Jacques' sisters irritatingly reminded her of what she was in store for the day. Her last play date had been with one of her mother's friend's daughters, and she had been a mirror image of the laughing, romping girls to the side of the car. She groaned as deep as her little lungs would let her.

"Mama, do we have to—" Josée started, but was immediately silenced by her mother.

"Josée, I told you to stop asking that. The Durant's may not be as dignified as we are, but Jacques is the best partner we have for you right now. Do not mess this up." Her mother's voice was as stern as always. Josée nodded with an obedient "Yes, mama", though still begrudged at her situation.

As they exited the car and made their way up the front porch, the girls politely stopped their water fight, as to not catch the well-dressed pair in their crossfire. Their manners did little to impress either of the guests, and Josée sized them up before pouting at the door. She inhaled sharply at one of the girls whispering something about "Jacques' petite amie", but refused to acknowledge such slander, even as her cheeks started to burn. She squeezed her fingers into a fist in hopes of crushing her fiery temper inside of it. After a few more moments the door opened.

(AN: petite amie – little girlfriend)

"Ah—Madame Bonnet, Josée! So glad you could make it." Jacques' mother greeted them warmly. "Please, come inside, Jacques is just in the other room."

She allowed them into the house before calling for her son, who came scampering in with an excited, nervous smile on his face. It only grew larger as he saw Josée, who's previously bitter expression had lifted into her fake, show-ready smile at the sight of Jacques' mother.

"Josée!" He beamed before running to her and hugging her. Josée's picture perfect appearance faltered a moment from the sudden contact—she was still getting used to this whole "touching outside of professionalism" business. His strong grip on her lasted only a few seconds longer before he parted from her, holding her wrists and smiling with stars in his eyes. "I am so happy you came for a.. 'play date'!"

Josée felt her face heating up again. His French accent was so strong—he pronounced every syllable with such care, and still hesitated to think about proper translations. She didn't understand why he had suddenly started speaking in English, she was perfectly capable of speaking and understanding French. Certainly he had more important things to concern himself with, like their first performance, for example.

"Of course, Jacques." She smiled at him, which only made him beam brighter.

"Maman, can we go play in my room?" He looked to his mother excitedly, not noticing Josée's horrified eyes following him. She had never been in a boy's room before. She looked to her own mother for help, but found none.

"Mais oui, mon grand. But keep it down, your papa is working." She hardly finished before Jacques had Josée's hand and was running upstairs. Josée barely managed to bid her mother a quick goodbye before she disappeared from view behind the stairwell.

(AN: maman – mama| mais oui – of course | mon grand – my big boy)

Jacques pushed open the door to his room and let go of his partner's dainty hand, racing inside before turning and posing, arms outstretched, as if to display it to her. He had cleaned up any stray toys or clothes, and was excited to see her reaction to his own little space. He was surprised to see the normally over-confident girl he admired so much peeking in and looking around timidly. She wasn't sure what she expected a boy's room to be like, but it made her feel uneasy.

"Ah.. what do you think, Josée? It is nice, non?" He smiled nervously again, hoping upon hope she'd agree. He wanted to impress her so badly. Josée blinked, looking left and right and up and down. She didn't see anything too out of place, though, she would have picked a different color for the walls.

"..Green is not really your color, Jacques." She looked to him, finally stepping within the threshold of the door. He groaned, rolling his back and shoulders to exaggerate his sigh.

"I know! My papa picked it for me when I was younger. I wish they would let me paint it purple!" He huffed, looking at the walls in resentment. Josée smiled at that.

"Oui, purple suits you much better." She nodded to herself, turning to his dresser to look at some pictures. Jacques' big smile returned at that, and his heart fluttered a bit. Maybe this wasn't a lost venture just yet.

He watched Josée observe each picture he had on his dresser—his most recent school picture, one of his parents and him as a baby, and one of him and his grandmother. She didn't comment on any of them, which made him nervous again, but he couldn't see her pretty brown eyes looking at his infant self in wonder. It was funny, she thought, to see her older, much taller partner as such a little, pudgy baby swaddled in a blanket. Josée turned to look at him again, and blinked in surprise when he flinched as a response. He waited a beat before smiling worriedly again.

"Ah.. do you want one of my school pictures? I know it is.. common to.. 'trade' them?" He offered, swallowing the nervous lump in his throat.

"Mm.. No thank you." She responded after some thought. She didn't notice him deflate again while she made her way to a table that he had against the wall on the opposite side of the room. It only took a second to realize it must be where he sews his costumes, as he had bragged to her last week. She picked up a spool of thread and continued her thought. "We will take plenty pictures together after we win the tournament next month."

Jacques felt his heart soar at that. He skipped up behind her, smiling and nodding.

"Ah! Mais oui, ma cherie! And I will smile the smile you have told me to practice!" He beamed said show-ready smile at her, sparkling in hopes of getting even one little compliment from her. Josée raised her head from looking at his sewing table and smiled a much more genuine smile back at him.

"You better, Jacques!" She laughed a little through her nose. "We have to look our best, mon ami."

(AN: ma cherie – my dear| mon ami – my friend)

Jacques clasped her hands in his, making her flinch this time instead. She'd have to work this touchy personality trait out of him. Her thoughts were interrupted as he yanked her closer to him with excited vigor.

"We always look the best, Josée! Because everyone else looks worse!" He grinned wider. Josée stared up at him, slightly taken aback, before laughing. Jacques could feel his stomach flutter at the sound of that perfect, angelic giggle.

"Jacques you are so silly!" She smiled at him again. "Non, we have to look our best! Even if everyone is ugly and talentless, that is no excuse for us to get careless and sloppy."

"Oh.. I misunderstand." Jacques relaxed his grip on her hands. "But.. isn't that unfair then, Josée? We will not only win, but win by a mudslide!"

"—a landslide." Josée closed her eyes knowingly, pulling her hands away from him gently. "And even better then! We should always win by a landslide."

Jacques watched his petite partner cross her arms as though she knew all, and in that moment Jacques was sure that she did. He smiled wide again, nodding in agreement.

"You're right Josée, we should always do our very best!" He went to hold her hands again, but Josée evaded his grasp by patting the tops of his hands instead.

"And we need to work on your issues with personal space." Her smile wavered between something smug and sweet. Jacques could only blink in response before she spoke again. "Now—what are we going to do on this.. 'playdate'?"


Jacques had excitedly drug her to his toy chest at her question, and had spent a good twenty minutes dumping toys out onto her lap and explaining who or what they were. She tried to only roll her eyes a little at his transparent attempt to hide that he obviously still adored his old plush toy of a Saint Bernard, which looked like it had seen kinder days. After none of the toys in his chest had managed to impress her, Jacques took a small stool from under his table and set it in front of a cabinet. He carefully stood on top of it and opened up the top cabinet doors, gently scooping up a colorful array of action figures before hopping back down and laying them out for her to see her. What he brought her, of course, was his very complete set of Power Ranger action figures, which would surely impress her.

Unfortunately not.


"—and the Red one comes with a sword." He smiled, attaching the sword into the figure's plastic hand. "I like the Pink and Yellow ones best though."

Jacques looked up to Josée and immediately frowned. She was sitting cross-legged with him on the floor, staring in unhappy disinterest at the neatly assorted figures laying before her. Her mother had never saw much value in toys, and only permitted her to have two dolls to practice dressing and hair brushing on, so these plastic toys with their clothes painted on had little worth to her. Jacques scratched the side of his cheek—what could he do to impress her? There had to be something! Suddenly his eyes landed on the rarest figure he had; the Gold Ranger. He smiled again, picking the figure up and offering it to Josée.

"Here! You can be Gold Ranger. He's the best one." He gave the toy a shake, smiling in hopes she'd take it. Josée only blinked, looking at the sparkly gold paint on this figure's uniform. Well, she did like gold—it's all that mattered in life, according to her dear mama. She reached out and took the figure from Jacques, much to his delight.

"He's.. the best one?" She questioned, moving one of Gold Ranger's plastic arms back and forth. Jacques beamed at her.

"Oui! He always comes in very er… theatrically! Perfect timing, with cool phrases and saves the team when the enemy's too strong!" Jacques pointed upwards in a pose, in an attempt to mimic the dynamicness of Gold Ranger's character. Josée smiled down at the sparkly toy, more impressed with it now.

"Okay, so.. what do we do then?" She cocked her head to the side slightly, waiting for Jacques to explain the game to her.


The game 'Pretend' didn't end up being too awfully hard, after some practice. At first she didn't understand the point of enacting scenes with toys, but Jacques explained that it was like acting on a movie set and making your own episode of the show—with no rules! She had suggested that the Rangers dance wherever they go, and Jacques agreed that that would improve everything tenfold. And her character was the best one, so whenever things got too complicated, Gold Ranger just killed everyone and that'd be the end of that. Jacques wanted Gold Ranger and Pink Ranger to kiss, but then got too embarrassed by it and had to go lay face down on his bed.

It was only then Josée noticed that the time was 4 o'clock. She was surprised by that—hadn't it just been noon? She trudged up to Jacques, who was still too embarrassed to raise his head, and shook his shoulder a little.

"Jacques! It's—" Before she could finish, Jacques' mother called up to them to come down and have a snack, which Jacques responded to much quicker than Josée's shaking. He grabbed her hand and bolted downstairs, dragging her down each step as fast as he'd drug her up them when she first got there.

His mother—Leonne, she had insisted Josée call her—had made them some simple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which Jacques ate with enough glutton to earn a disgusted look from his partner. He smiled an apologetic, peanut-butter-and-jelly-smeared grin at her, before wiping his face clean of any remnants of food. Josée had barely gotten halfway through her sandwich when Leonne presented them with some cookies, which Jacques once again devoured with little regard for manners. Josée shrugged in her seat a little, explaining that her mother did not like her to have sweets, but Leonne insisted that one little cookie wouldn't hurt—and that she'd keep it a secret from her mother.

At 4:30PM, Josée's mother arrived to pick her up, and was rather insistent on making a quick exit. No time for "idle chit-chat", because Josée "had homework to finish" was the excuse, but Josée knew that her mama just did not like to be social with such cheery people. Josée got her coat on and turned to say goodbye to Jacques, but was confused to see that he was suddenly absent. She protested that she had to say goodbye to him before they left, but her mother was unfazed.

"You will see him at practice on Monday, Josée." She stared down at her with a cold, questioning look at her daughter's sudden unwillingness to leave.

"But mama I—" Josée tried to argue, but a sudden shout and quick footsteps down the stairs interrupted her.

"Wait!" Jacques yelled, running up to them before they could leave the porch. He smiled, a little red and out of breath from running. "Here."

He presented her with one of his action figures—Gold Ranger! Josée looked down at it in surprise before looking up to him for an explanation. He only smiled wider.

"You can.. you can have him! To keep." He managed between breaths. Josée felt her face go hot, but she took the toy from him anyway, clutching it to her chest.

"But isn't he your.. rarest one?" She looked to him, sure he'd realize his mistake and want it back.

"Oui, but uh.. that's okay. I want you to have him!" He moved to hold her hands again, smiling down at her. "As a gift. He will protect you, chouchou!"

(AN: chouchou – sweetheart/darling)

Josée felt her face burn again—why was he so affectionate and embarrassing? Neither noticed Josée's mother sneer at the display, nor did they notice her unhappy shock at Josée wrapping her arms around him in a quick hug.

"..merci, Jacques." Josée bowed her head a little, curtseying as politely as she could with Gold Ranger in one hand. Jacques bowed back, and watched from the porch with his mother as Josée got into her car with her mother and drove away, already excited for the next time he would get to see her.

(AN: merci – thank you)


Epilogue: A few weeks later...

As much as she tried, she couldn't get her breathing back to normal. She hated that stupid closet more than anything in the world, but when she messed up—like today—mama had to lock her in there for a little while. Otherwise she'd never learn!

But that didn't stop the closet from being dark and cramped and scary.

Josée looked to the door nervously at the sound of her mother downstairs; if she heard her panicking like this, she would surely get angry with her again. Quickly, Josée scrambled to the far side of her big, lacey, pink princess bed and opened the drawer where she kept what her grandmother had called her "Calm Down Time" items. She fished around desperately for something; Bearbear, or her lucky rabbit's foot Bunbun, or even the locket her mama had given her when she graduated to intermediate ice dancing. Instead, her fingers brushed up against something plastic. After a moment she realized what it was. She pulled out the object and was greeted by Gold Ranger's sparkly golden paint. She had completely forgotten she put it in there, but now smiled down at the toy fondly, remembering Jacques' big grin, and the warmth of his hands holding hers so tightly when he promised that this figurine would protect her.

Quietly, she settled onto her side in the center of her bed that was much too big for her, and cuddled Gold Ranger tight against her chest. It was odd how a plastic figurine could feel so warm, she thought, but she opted to not question it, and continued to hold it close to her until she felt safe again.


AN: Ta-daa! Finally an update, and a 3k word one too!

Hope you guys enjoyed it, the "calm down time" items, and Gold Ranger, are some of my favorite headcanons. :') Leave a review if you can!