- Chapter 3 -

The following morning, Tommy awoke, blinking several times to fully open his eyes. He felt uncomfortable in his position, and then noticed that instead of a white pillow underneath his head, there was a pink surface, and he carefully lifted his head to see that he'd fallen asleep on Kat's chest.

He jumped back, and fell off the couch, landing on the floor and hitting his coffee table on the way down. The resounding crash caused Kat to stir to her side, then slowly awoke with something of a pout on her face. She then lifted her head a little, noticing Tommy on the floor, holding his elbow.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Me? Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," he answered quickly.

She then fully sat up, as he climbed to his feet. She let out a yawn, covering her mouth like a lady, then asked, "I didn't realize I'd fallen asleep on your couch. Did you sleep here, too?"

"No, no. I actually, uh, saw you asleep, and wondered if I should wake you up, or if I should take you to your room, but I decided to just leave you here on the couch, and I went to my room. I just came in here a second ago, and uh, tripped, and fell, and hit my elbow on the table. Yeah."

Kat eyed his suspiciously, then slowly nodded with a smile. "Well, okay then. But, is there any particular reason as to why you're wearing the same clothes as yesterday?"

Tommy's eyes widened a bit, but he quickly covered his tracks. "Well, I sleep in what I wear sometimes."

She giggled, and looked down. "Your shoes, too?"

His eyes went down as well, noticing his black shoes on. Their eyes met for a second, both knowing that their conversation wasn't based on truth, but he changed gears as he headed towards the kitchen. "So, how about breakfast?"

She climbed to her feet and walked over to his kitchen as well, where Tommy was inspecting his refridgerator. "The doctor cooks?"

He turned to her with a smile. "Well, after a few months, fast food, pizza, take-out, it stopped cutting it," he replied. He took out a carton of eggs, along with an unopened package of bacon, and set them on the table, before walking to a cabinet and taking out a box of pancake mix.

Once the meal was prepared some fifteen minutes later, the two sat down and enjoyed their breakfast, with friendly chatter. "So, any ideas on what you want to do today?" Tommy asked before taking a bite of pancake.

"Well, there's the matter of unpacking my things, so I'd like to take care of that before anything else," she said with a smile as Tommy nodded, having forgotten about her things.

Once they finished their meal, the two walked into Tommy's seldom-used guest room, which he'd cleaned days prior to Kat's arrival, making sure everything was in order for her, and not a speck of dust was around to bother her. They'd previously laid her three bags on the bed, which he'd covered with a pink sheet with yellow daisies.

"So, which of these should I not be going into?" he asked, not wanting to go through Kat's personal clothing.

"I believe this bag," she replied with a smile, moving it up the bed. The two then began to remove clothes from the other bags and hanging them in the closet, which Tommy had prepared with hangars, unless Kat instructed otherwise. Kat then took out a pair of jeans from the bag, and stopped, having seen what was lying underneath them. She set the pants down, and picked the items up: her Zeonizers.

She held them up, looking at them longingly as Tommy looked at the devices as well. "You know, I haven't morphed since we passed on the power," she said, then turned to Tommy with something of a sad smile. "I bet you were really excited when you got to join the Dino Rangers as the Black Ranger, and get to do it all over again."

"Just partly excited," he said. "I really thought the Red Ranger mission I had on the moon would be the last time I'd suit up, but that was just before I got involved with Anton Mercer. Once our expirements went wrong, I realized I'd have to get back in the ranger game. I tried to keep out of the action for as long as I could, taking the mentor role, but the Black Dino Gem had a different path for me. Hopefully, I'm done for good now."

Kat smiled, and placed her Zeonizers in the drawer next to her bed. She then turned to him with a smile, picked up her jeans, and said, "Well, if there's one thing we should always keep in mind, after years of fighting off monsters and aliens, is that we should never count things out, not as long as they're a small possibility."

Tommy nodded, and was reminded of the kiss he had with Kat the previous night. He'd not tried to think about it during breakfast, or as the two put Kat's clothes away, especially since Kat didn't bring it up either, but her words and her tone of optimism gave him a glimmer of hope. He smiled as he watched her hang the rest of the clothes, then she turned to him with a small smile as well.

"Do you mind stepping out for a moment?" she said, grabbing the bag with contents not intended for Tommy.

He nodded, and exited the room, closing the door behind him. He stood outside, back to the door for a second, then headed to his own room to change from his own clothes.