Hawaiian Translation:
Kaʻoia iʻo Ma Loko=The Truth Within
Call it the bond of a shared secret. Or shared bucking-of-authority-that-led-to-you-and-your-now-friends-to-accidentally-turn-on-a-Jaeger. But either way, after they escape detention Saturday morning, they're texting by Sunday morning and hanging out after school on Monday.
"Hm. Your only preferences seem to be for physical activities…" Billy licks his lips in what Jason can only interpret as a nervous tic,
Jason blinks because phrasing, but says "Alright. Meet halfway, what sports games do you have?"
Jason is swept up in the luminous smile Billy gives him. The list Billy is currently rattling off is lost to him, though. Instead, he's caught up in the thought that apparently no one had ever thought to try and compromise with Billy before. Jason is roused by a controller being dropped unceremoniously into his lap.
"You were zoned out so I just picked one." Billy sits down in the adjacent armchair to the couch Jason's on,
"FIFA? Sure. Not into couches?"
Billy shrugs jerky and uncomfortable, "I don't like… you know… hugging."
"Alright, but that's not really a couch thing. We can just… sit. And not touch. And play games," Jason jiggles the controller for effect, "Um. No pressure, though. I'd rather sit and play games."
Billy scrunches up his face as if Jason just suggested they start drinking from his mother's alcohol stash. Or skip class. Or any of the other things Jason would do with other friends who aren't Billy.
He grits his teeth against the idea that he hasn't been a particularly understanding friend in the past.
By Friday, their parents are asking when their new friends will be coming over for dinner or staying the night(mostly in Kim's case on that last one).
Kim and Billy do homework together because no one else wants to do it with them. Until they corral everyone into one room and force them to get it all done for their own good.
Kim and Trini go to the Krispy Kreme together to drink coffee and fight over pastries because they agree Jason is freak who doesn't like coffee, Zack is insufferable when given caffeine, and Billy is banned from the store for sugar-related crimes.
They learn they have the same taste in pastries and movies.
Zack goes running with Trini in the morning, Kim after school, and Jason every night.
It starts the week after their fateful run-in at the base. Zack wakes up ahead of the sun, ahead of his mother, and runs. The cool mountain air after the sweltering nights they're having in early June is a lifeline. Mornings in the mountains are when he used to see Trini up doing yoga on the overlook, usually after his mom'd had a bad night. Then one day Trini joins him on his jog. And of course Crazy Girl turns it into a race,
"You're up early for the chronically truant," Trini teases as she falls into step with him,
"Oh, so you've been watching me too," Zack crooks an eyebrow at her, smirking,
Trini rolls her eyes but softens the gesture slightly with a sharp grin, "You can watch my dust!" is all she says before she takes off at what Zack considers super-human speeds.
After school, Zack finds Kim. If he stopped to think about it, he'd realize he had no reason to know where Kim would be, but he finds her nonetheless.
She laughs and waves when she sees him and Zack is still a bit awed by the time she disentangles herself from her skeptical-looking cheerleader friends to come hang on the fence to talk to him.
"What are you doing here?" she grins,
Zack brings up one hand to scrub at the prickly hairs on the back of his head, "Um, not really sure? I kinda just… ended up here?"
Kim nods seriously, "Well… if you don't have anything else to do, want to run laps with me? I kinda missed the beginning of practice so..." She shrugs one shoulder,
Zack grins, already working on scaling the fence, "My mom always says I'm way too hyper."
"Just your mom?" Kim quips,
"Wow, aren't you cheerleaders supposed to be nice?" Zack holds his hand over his heart, feigning injury,
Kim shrugs one shoulder, smirking.
The clanging of the chain link turns the rest of the cheer squad to the pair. Most of the girls look positively scandalized, though whether that's about him climbing a fence when the gate is 5 feet away or Kim hanging out with him, he can't tell. Not that she notices as she simply steps out of the way of Zack's landing.
"Should we, uh, worry about them revolting or something? Killing me in my sleep?" he asks after their third or fourth lap around the field,
Kim barely turns her head towards the cheerleaders, "What, you couldn't take a bunch of girls breaking into your room in the middle of the night?" she teases,
"I've seen girl fights. You guys are vicious," Zack grimaces, "I would not want to get mixed up in that."
Kim grins violently. Zack almost trips over his own feet.
You up? Is the text Zack gets at near one in the morning. From Jason. On a school night. To think, the golden boy wasn't the pillar of responsibility Angel Grove made him out to be.
How'd you know? Zack taps out,
Just a feeling. Then a few seconds later: Want to come out?
So Zack is climbing out his window at one in the morning in the pitch black to go meet his new friend. Barely even friend, maybe. Surprisingly, he's never had much occasion to sneak out, especially not to meet friends and he finds his stomach is stuck somewhere in his throat.
When Zack finds Jason around the periphery of the downtown area of Angel Grove, he takes a few moments to process the other boy's slack shirt and athletic shoes,
"You've got to be kidding me." Zack sighs,
"What?" Jason asks, totally unawares,
"You're the third person today…" Zack gestures helplessly at Jason's running shoes as he doubles over in silent laughter,
He's almost shocked out of it by the feeling of Jason's warm, large hand on his shoulder, but in the end it just makes the laughter higher and harder.
"Seriously, what?" Jason asks again, a lilt of laughter in his own voice,
"This morning it was Trini, then Kim after school and you… Is the middle of the night when you usually go running?" Zack asks once he can talk in coherent sentences,
Jason shrugs- at least Zack thinks it's a shrug, it's hard to tell in the dark, "Not really… I'm usually out like a light but tonight I have all this… energy," he bounces up and down on his toes, as if to emphasize his point.
Half a thought bubbles into Zack's consciousness. He's familiar with that unbearable, unstoppable amount of energy that keeps you from doing anything else. It's why he can't sit through class and tends to avoid school like the plague. It also makes running three times in a day possible for him.
"Maybe…" Zack says as another thought takes over his head, "We just need to consolidate our running schedules."
"Eh, I'm not really a morning person." Jason grins as Zack realizes his friends are going to be the death of him.
Trini and Kim have sleepovers where there isn't very much sleeping. Just talking. And sharing blankets.
"I asked Jason once," Kim starts,
Trini looks at the girl sitting across from her, their legs tangled together under a handful of lap blankets scavenged from around the house. Somewhere, Trini feels this should make her wrinkle her nose or gag. Should feel the hot creep of jealousy into her stomach. Instead she feels a buzz there, like the hours before a test.
Trini grunts for Kim to continue,
"If you could run… just run and never come back, where would you go?" Kim smooths at a wrinkle in the blankets,
"Well, I probably wouldn't leave my brothers with my parents," Trini frowns slightly at the thought,
"Okay, if you had to," Kim amends,
A corner of Trini's mouth crooks upwards, "Like if we were fugitives?" she stretches out the word like her brothers when they as if she has a boyfriend,
Kim nods,
"Alright… maybe somewhere cold. Iceland?"
Kim shivers, shaking her head no for effect,
"Giving the sheep the cold shoulder, huh?" Trini smirks, "Okay, less cold. Seattle?"
"You wouldn't want to get away from the Pacific Breach? Like to live dangerously?"
"Geeze, you sure are picky for asking where I would go if I ran away." Trini jostles Kim's legs from under the blankets, and the other teen snickers in response, "Sounds like… London, then."
Kim's silent for a few moments while Trini imagines what she would take from her room. How much she could fit into her backpack before bolting.
"I'd visit you in London." Kim concludes.
Trini snorts a laugh, "Sounds like a plan."
Billy has everyone over for movie nights.
"What's the theme tonight, Billy, my man?" Jason flops onto the couch, immediately taking up the whole thing,
"My dude," Zack adds to Jason's greeting, following close behind Jason and knocking the other boy's feet off of the couch to make room for himself.
Kim snickers at the pout Jason is giving Zack, but smiles at Billy. Trini high fives Billy as she walks in, then shoves Zack onto the floor.
He pouts at her as Billy says, "Old B-movies."
"The Bee Movie?" Trini grins, "Did you guys see the one video where— "
"Yes," Kim rolls her eyes, "You've showed us like a dozen 'Bee Movie but every time they say bee' whatever happens videos. Each."
Trini rolls her eyes back at the other girl,
"Bad old sci-fi movies." Billy clarifies, "You know, Mystery Science Theater stuff. Except we get to make fun of these ourselves."
"Mammoth?" Zack points up at a file on the screen, "We should totally watch that one!"
Jason balks at the suggestion bodily, "On what planet do you pick an elephant movie over a T-rex movie?" he scoffs, crossing his arms over his chest,
"First of all, it's a mammoth. Second of all, it's better when said quote-unquote T-rex movie is Tammy and the T-Rex. Right, Kimberly?" Zack sing-songs her name,
"You're both wrong," Kim sidesteps, "You gotta stick to the real classics like Rodan."
"Wait why is 10,000 B.C. here?" Trini asks,
"Oh! That's actually for next week… That was meant to be One Million Years B.C.," Billy swaps the files to their correct locations, "There's also a few giant robot movie because… duh. So what do we want to watch?"
"Robots!" the rest yell in unison,
Billy smiles as he watches his friends— and it a brings a jolt of warmth to his chest that he's comfortable with that classification now— jostle for position on the couch. Billy waits for his inevitable position on the floor, unwilling to participate in their roughhousing.
"Come on!" Kim knocks him from his thoughts. She pats the space they've made for him on one side of the loveseat. Somehow there's enough space for him to not touch unless he wants to, despite the ungraceful tangle of limbs the rest of them have engaged in. He slots himself into the space, thankful for the extra open space being on the arm allows him.
It also gives him the reach to hit the spacebar on his laptop and start their movie marathon.
Zack has a campfire ready for anyone who needs it. Complete with dubiously procured drinks and endless s'mores.
The fact that it was all so easy was probably more perturbing than the standard teenaged drama- the whirlwind of emotions that made everything so unstable.
It's too quiet. Too small.
He's used to the song being everywhere. Undulating and bright. It's empty without it. It feels like dying all over again.
He feels too much. Thin skin wrapped too tight. His brain throbs, as if he could feel each neuron firing. As if it's trying to escape. As if there's something else in here with him.
The pain coalesces into a point. No. A word?
Awake. Up. Awake.
Long deadened limbs shift. Water presses down. Presses everywhere. His mouth opens and roars.
