Author's Notes - Some folks asked me how long this one will be. It was actually meant to be the shortest one of the series but you can see it didn't work that way. I think it'll be around 12 or 13 chapters give or take.

Also Denny's is a restaurant. I'm sure most people know that but just incase.

Summary – Zedd tries to explain just why Tommy is his, with little luck.

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Spork Me

Zedd

-o-

The couch, he put me on the couch. Who does he think he is that I will listen to his snotty little demands that I reside on the couch tonight? What gal. What arrogance. What- what a piece of crap this couch is.

Tossing onto my side and growling as my six foot one frame does not fit on a five foot nine couch I give the armrest an annoyed kick. "Stupid child can't take a joke." And a funny joke at that!

Fine let him have no sense of humor. Let him be a prudish little brat. I'll get the upper hand again. Just wait until tomorrow. I'll show him just who's in charge of this situation. Well assuming I get any sleep on this damn couch.

Giving it another toss, I in the end call it quiets and kicking off the blanket I'd retrieved from hall closet stand from the infernal piece of crap and head for the hall. I might have been fabricating our 'relationship' by calling him my boyfriend, which I truly only did to annoy the former Red Ranger to the point of needing blood pressure medication, but I will be damned if I sleep on that couch while he curls up snug as can be in a queen sized bed.

Entering the room I know almost as well as my own on Serpentara, I stop on the verge of a rather loud rant to find my target is not sleeping as soundly as I'd anticipated.

Tossing and turning in a similar manner to mine, his rest is obviously just as disturbed, if not more so. "No, dark….no more…stop, please stop. Can't, can't do that." Well that's hardly as encouraging as his former dreams of me.

"Must be his subconscious trying to break through." Hm, thought as much. Apparently Gasket's little device really didn't do the amount of damage the children thought. Figures, after all if it was based on the original Brain Drain he used and that was only temporary why wouldn't he be lazy enough not to fix that little aspect of it. Machines, worthless scrap mental the lot of them.

Still though it will probably take a while, few days at best, for him to recall his former self and life. Time I can either spend sitting around in a nonfunctioning Zord, or here bothering Zordon's little pets and getting some enjoyment from my boy's company under the false pretense of helping.

Not really a very hard decision when one thinks on it.

"Ugh, no not them. Not…don't." Attention returning from my own musings to the current problem at hand, I can tell my idea of sharing bed space with the boy is definitely out for tonight if his thrashing and constant chattering is any indication. Right then, to his uncle's room it is.

But first…

Moving slowly and silently I take a risk I haven't dared to take since I began watching him slumber all those months ago. Hand coming out to rub his back soothingly I cringe as his mutterings become louder and movement more noticeable instead of the reverse. "Shh relax Thomas. Just relax. You're safe now, no more darkness, no more trouble." Hmm no shirt either.

Raising a brow as I've never seen him sleep in anything aside old ratty t-shirts and workout pants, I skim my hand curiously down his slightly scared back, sadly knowing most of which monsters have caused which marks on the tan skin.

"No wonder you sleep fully dressed. You're uncle would have a fit if he saw these." Pity too, he's grown up quite nicely and here he can't even show it off without getting curious looks and questions I'd wager.

Continuing to turn fitfully apparently unsoothed by my soft words both to him and myself, his movement causes the covers to slip even more showing me that his shirt isn't the only thing missing.

"Hm no pants either. Would have been better if you'd taken the boxers off too." Oh well suppose I should take what I can get. For now at least.

Fingers skimming lower down his back as rubbing circles doesn't seem to have help all that much, perhaps just a bit lower and-

"Go any further then my waist and I will have Jason here so fast you won't know what hit you." Fuck.

Stopping in my exploration I check his still closed eyes, but note that his fidgeting has stopped for the most part. "You're supposed to be sleeping."

"And you're supposed to keep your hands to yourself." Touché.

"You were fussing, calling out in distress, I was concerned and thought I'd try and sooth you back into a more peaceful sleep." Smiling as he frowns in uncertainty, I half wish he'd sit up, it's rather hard to gage his reactions when he's on his stomach, face half buried in the pillows around him.

"I had a bad dream." More likely a bad memory.

"I figured." Hand once more rubbing his back, now in an effort to take his mind off what I might have been trying a moment ago, it unfortunately does not seem to work.

"It's over though so you can return to the couch. Thank you for your concern." Tone knowing and sharp, he's quick to cover back up and turn on his other side. Did it just cold in here or is it just me?

"Are you certain you don't want me to lay with you in case it returns?"

"Quite." Humans.

-oooooooo-

(Denny's, next morning…)

I repeat, humans.

Sitting in the booth and feeling it far too early in the morning to be selecting any sort of human food, I glance up from my menu to see my companion in a similar state of weariness despite his insistence that I take him to get something to eat. "Rough night was it?" As if I even need to ask.

Raising tired eyes from his own laminated booklet of breakfast foods, he gives an inaudible shrug. "You mean before or after you had me watching over my shoulder for your return."

"Well if you'd let me lay with you instead of sending me back to the couch you wouldn't have had to worry about such a thing now would you." Truth be told I never did return to that dreadful piece of furniture, instead setting up camp in his uncle's bedroom until early morning. Still though no reason to inform him of that just yet. "Nor would you have had nearly as many bad dreams I'd wager."

"You'd wager too much." Taking a sip of his coffee and making a rather amusing face, he attempts to correct the bitter taste with more cream and sugar. Should I tell him he doesn't drink coffee? "And I don't appreciate you touching me when I'm sleeping, boyfriend or not." Perhaps later.

"My aren't we a ray of pleasantness this morning." Snickering as this earns me a mutter which sounds distinctly like a suggestion on somewhere hot to go, I continue to bait him knowing his foul mood is more or less a result of his lack of rest the previous night. "But then you really never were much of a morning person."

Eyes narrowing and taking the bait far too easily, he lowers his voice accordingly. "I thought you said we never slept together."

"No, I said we had yet to have sex. I never said anything about sharing or not sharing a bed." Alright so be fair it was only once, and he technically was my prisoner at the time, but still.

"Why are we together?" Because I keep breaking the rules I've laid out for us.

"Because we each seem to fulfill some need the other has. Also we both have very bad luck." Recalling how I'd only really become attached to him due to his near death experience and then him to me because of mine, I can't help but wonder if that's how we're just destined to meet. After all this third session of quality time may not be the result of a massive injury, but it definitely is not under normal and easy circumstances.

"Bad luck?" Bad mood dissipating a bit in favor of curiosity, he tilts his head in a rather cute manner. "How so?"

"Well the whole reason we became involved so to speak is because you nearly died."

"I nearly died?"

"Came incredibly close. It really is amazing you haven't suffered any long term effects from it when I really think about it." Or did he? I really do wonder if Zordon ever fully checked him over when they got him back.

Still lost in thought, wondering for the first time in a long time just what using so much of my power to heal him could have done to his physical if not psychological makeup, his next inquiry takes me more then a moment to process. "How did I nearly die?"

What now?

At my lost look, he repeats himself, be it in slight annoyance it would seem. "How did I nearly die?" Oh, yeah that.

"I was working for the Evil Alliance at the time, whose soul purpose is to take over the universe and during that particular time period I was assigned to concur the Earth and enslave the useful humans that would survive my monsters of mass destruction used for said concurring." Taking a sip of my own coffee and ignoring his bewildered expression I continue in a somewhat bored tone. "And of course you being a Ranger, of the chosen whose job it is to stop members of the Evil Alliance such as myself from doing such things you got in my way one day, well actually many days, but very badly this particular day and became gravely injured as a result."

Pausing in my recount as our waitress strolls up to take our orders I give mine not really in the mood for pancakes but not caring to brave anything else, and wait patiently for Thomas to follow. Which he does not seem to be able to do.

Nudging him discretely and jerking my head towards the waiting woman, who is still poised notebook in hand, it would seem I did not pick the best time to share past memories with him as this still only earns me a lost look.

Fine then. Turning to the waitress I give her his order and a bit of amusement for her trouble. "Excuse him he just found out the world doesn't revolve around him. He'll have the pancakes also."

"Um alright then." Smiling half in uncertainty, half in amusement she heads off to complete her job.

"Anyway as I was saying…" Picking up where I'd left off without missing a beat, I ignore any looks he is feeling necessary to grace me with now. "So laying in the bottom of a gorge, your insides now on the outside, I couldn't help but feel just a bit bad for you. After all it wasn't your fault you were being used as some pawn by Zordon to do his dirty work. So making possibly the best or worst decision I'd made in five centuries I retrieved you and used what ability I had to fix you up and save your life."

"So we met because you tried to kill me?" Well it doesn't sound so good when you say it like that.

"Technically the monster I created tried to kill you. I however saved your life."

Remaining silent and now fixing me with an entirely new sort of look, he's really not getting the big picture here is he?

"What?"

"Why am I dating someone who's entire purpose in life is to kill me and enslave humanity? Someone who even admits to being completely evil." Technically I never admitted to being completely evil, well not recently. Could his memory already be returning? No probably not. More then likely that was only selective hearing on his part. Though to answer his question-

"Because I'm sexy evil."

And more silence and looks of a rather unsettling nature. Right then.

Sharing an old warning I'd heard from my father many times in my youth, I barely keep the humor out of my voice. "You keep making expressions of that nature and your face will freeze like that."

"I think I'd like to stab you with my fork." Oh yeah, memories are definitely returning. Oh wait, no I think that was something I said to Zordon once back at the academy. Never mind then.

Slipping easily into the banter- or would it be battle of insults -my response is given in an light tone. "I'm afraid that's not allowed until our four year anniversary."

"How long have we been together?" Playing along are we? Well then that is a step up from the dirty looks and closed off behavior of earlier. Perhaps there's hope for him yet.

"Three years."

"So what I can only use a soon at this point."

"Or a spork."

To be continued……