Chapter 10
Vanilla Ice Cream
I don't own She Loves Me.
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Baths were stupid.
Well, they were.
Not bathing though. Like, getting clean, Dustin was cool with that. And despite what people might say (not his friends but his classmates at school) he actually promoted it, like a lot. He was pro-cleanliness. Smelling good was never a bad thing in his book. But baths, that was a whole nother' story. Everyone's all like, "baths are relaxing", and "soaking will make you less sore", and they go on and on about how wonderful a giant bowl full of water is, but they fail to tell you the stupid, gigantic negative (more like a hazard, really) of taking a bath.
They are boring.
Oh, so boring.
You just sit there and at first it felt good but then you started getting tired (because you're all relaxed) but then you remember that you can't fall asleep because if you fall asleep you'll sink into the water and drown and then it won't matter how relaxed your muscles were because you'll be dead. So really, bathtubs were super villains in disguise.
What were you supposed to do in them, anyway? Dustin had seen people read while bathing in the movies and he had tried giving that a shot with his motocross magazine but all he had managed to do was to completely ruin it within two minutes of getting in the tub, and now he's down a month of current motocross news and every time a customer wanted to talk to him he had to fake it until he got the next issue.
See, they're evil.
Who created bathtubs anyway? They obviously didn't have tall people in mind when they went through the design process. Blake might have been fine, but this guy's knees were getting cold and his knees deserved to be relaxed too. And bath's took forever to fill up and then if you fill it just the teensiest bit over the recommended amount (but they never tell you what that is) it splashed all over the floor, and that's not going to evaporate any time soon so you have to clean it up.
In the end it's a no-win situation, unless you added bubbles, because it's impossible for bubbles to be evil.
Well, except maybe sometimes.
And besides, some people don't have bubbles so-
Let us recap, shall we?
So you have to sit (uncomfortably), and you have to stay awake (or suffer the consequences) and the only thing that could possibly be running through your mind is how stupidly boring baths are.
Dustin gave up after six minutes and took a shower, because showers don't try to kill you. The hot water did help though, pounding against his stiff muscles as he reviewed the whole Toxipod island thing in his mind. He didn't remember much of it. Well, he remembered the beginning, when they chased after the Thunder brothers and Blake threw him into the ocean (he shuddered at the thought) and then when he saved Shane from the steam and attempted to save Hunter and then it all kind of got blurry until what he declared "the end" of the mission right before the zord fights.
The gap in his memory wouldn't have bothered him so much if his muscles weren't so sore. Seriously, what did he do? Did somewhat have a go at him with his Lion hammer? Worst still, the team hadn't even covered what had happened during the debriefing. They spent that entire time trying to convince Blake and Hunter to join their team. Dustin didn't know why the others were making such a big deal about it, they were rangers, of course they would join the team.
It was simply a matter of time.
It was the Spiderman motto going into full effect, "with great power, comes great responsibility." They were too good of people to not help out. And, he had gotten them jobs back at Storm Chargers so they kind of owed him. A little, not a lot. They weren't great jobs, but they would still bring in money, so it was better than nothing. He had done that…when? Earlier this afternoon, that was it. It was…Thursday, still. The whole; alternate island dimension thing had flown over his head, but somehow it worked out to what felt like hours, maybe even a day on Toxipod's island translating into one hour of really bad weather back at Blue Bay Harbor. Their parents hadn't even known they had been gone, which was a good thing, but Dustin couldn't help but be bothered by the fact he was a day older than he should be.
It was like a rock he couldn't dig out of the bottom of his shoe.
And there was another thing that was bothering him too.
The fact that Shane hadn't outright told him what had happened while he was "out" gave Dustin the feeling that whatever it had been hadn't been very good. Not like the "evil" part but the, "how your friends feel part".
So instead of letting Shane stew over, whatever by himself, Dustin had decided to investigate.
He had cornered his friend after the debrief under the front that he needed help feeding Leonard (which should have tipped off the red ranger because really, how hard was it to put crickets into a tank?) and tried to pry what had happened out of him. Dustin did get an answer, but the way his friend told him what happened was what bothered him more than anything else. Dustin had thought that Shane had been avoiding the subject ever since they got back, but he didn't have any solid guesses as to why. He knew Shane would probably be feeling a little guilty because he was the leader and all, but he didn't expect him to…you know, feel that bad about it. It was surprising. Shane told him, reluctantly, about how he went berserk (like that Kelzak) and then how Blake had knocked him out and the team was forced to retreat, and how they eventually found him later following Hunter and ended up fighting Shane.
At first he tried to just…listen to the whole story before thinking about how he felt about things; it was something Cam had said would help out in the long run, and at the end of it, well…he did feel a little hurt for being left behind but he understood why it happened and moved on.
By the looks of it, Shane hadn't. And that just wouldn't do; no sir-ee.
Dustin let him go after that (after assuring that they were cool, even if Shane didn't take it to heart) and decided to sleep on the whole…situation.
He had a feeling Shane hadn't told him everything that had happened.
But who else was left to ask?
Tori, Blake and Hunter. He wished Cam had been able to hook up a secret camera on the island (because the dude had them everywhere, and he was a little afraid to use the bathroom sometimes, not that Cam would watch that, that would be weird, but private stuff was private and yeah you get the point…) but he had glared at him when he had asked.
Blake, Shane had told him, had been unconscious for most of the stuff he missed, and busy with Hunter the rest. That left Tori and Hunter, and if he didn't remember anything, what were the odds that Hunter-
Wait, maybe he did.
He had never asked the crimson ranger if he did, and it wasn't like Hunter was going to volunteer for talking duty. If there was anything the crimson ranger would never do, it was make small talk. Unless he was trying to woo you to find out where your secret ninja base was, but he seemed to leave that stuff to Blake.
That was it, tomorrow after work Dustin would ask Hunter what he remembered, and then work backwards…or like, forwards from there. It wouldn't be hard, just a casual conversation between friends and-
What about Blake?
Dustin hadn't thought of that. He doubted that he would be able to separate the two after what had happened, and Hunter might be trying to put the whole thing behind him Blake probably wouldn't let him talk to him about it so…
Nuts.
What he needed was a decoy. Something to distract Blake long enough for him to talk to Hunter. He thought for a few minutes before his face broke out into a grin.
Or, someone to distract.
He smiled bigger.
He would just have to beg Tori (not like she hated talking to blue-dude anyway) to distract Blake for him for like, five minutes. If she resisted he would simply remind her of how wonderfully she trashed his beautiful, glorious, perfectly-tuned racing bike. And when that didn't work he'd give her the puppy eyes and promise to buy her ice cream. She might not like going into Julie's but that didn't mean she hated the merchandise.
He may or may not have bribed her into doing things with it. Maybe, but he's not telling.
So, it was settled then.
His muscles were still a little sore after the shower, so he decided to retreat into his pillow fort for maximum comfiness. There was very little in this world a pillow fort couldn't fix. If talking didn't work he would try it on Shane.
And if that didn't work he would buy bubbles dagnabit.
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Lothor seemed to be taking a vacation from attacking on Friday so school and work went by very uneventfully. See, that's the good thing about doing equal damage; the bad guy had to regroup too.
That's balance at work for you.
Dustin had raced through his last bike repair just so that he could be finished at the same time as the Bradley's, and while he might (and by might he meant definitely) have scraped up his hands a little in the process the end result was him finished eight minutes before they were off work, which gave him about three minutes of wash up before he had to run outside to lie in wait for Hunter.
He had planned this out well.
…with a little help from Tori.
As he made his way out he spotted the aqua ranger near the front of the store (who had put on a good show of wanting nothing to do with his plan even if he promised ice cream for a few minutes before giving in). He had had to tell her what he needed to speak to Hunter about (because she's nosy like that); but after that she agreed to it easily, offering to do it for free which, on most days, was something he would've taken her up on but he kind of needed an excuse to get ice cream so he was going to "pay" her anyway.
Crossing through the coat section of the store he gave her a wink (or his best try at a wink since he usually couldn't keep the other eye closed so it just looked like he was squinting oddly, but super secret missions called for winks so he did it anyway) to signal that the plan was in action and awaited her signal to show she understood.
What he got was an eye roll which wasn't the return signal they had agreed on beforehand at all.
That wouldn't do.
He slowed down his walk and stared at her, waiting for her to get with the program.
She stared at him back, unwilling to be a team player.
He widened his eyes and stared at her harder.
She shook her head and stared at him back.
He slowed down some more and glared at her.
She was unimpressed and glared at him back.
He was four feet from the door so he slowed down to the point where he was moving in slow motion and continued glaring at her.
For a second she looked like she was going to keep ignoring him before she sighed and flicked her nose with her right index finger.
Bingo.
Signals properly exchanged (like good super spies) he happily sped back up and waved to her as he exited the door, not seeing any of the weird looks he received for his slow motion demonstration. As soon as the door shut behind him he raced to the far side of Storm Chargers (where Hunter and Blake go to streak home, wherever that was) and ducked around the corner, plastering himself to the wall, being as silent as possible.
And then he remembered he was supposed to be casual about this and un-plastered himself from the wall, deciding instead to lean against it casually, folding his arms across his chest. That's right; he's just a dude leaning against a wall so there's nothing to see here.
No super secret mission in the works so you could just move along.
No, no, you could mosey along.
That sounded way cooler.
He was so in tune with his not-doing-anything character that he almost missed Hunter minus Blake (well done Tori) passing him by completely. Dustin did a double take before he realized what was going on and leapt off the wall, yelling and chasing after Hunter.
So he wasn't good at subtle.
"Hunter! Dude, wait up!" he shouted, waving his arms enthusiastically. If he got lucky Hunter would warm up to his enthusiasm and actually talk to after a few minutes of pleading.
Unfortunately, he hadn't expected Hunter to actually listen to him the first time and was unprepared when the taller teen suddenly stopped and turned around. Despite Dustin's ninja reflexes he had too much momentum going to be able to stop himself in time. In the split second before they collided he couldn't help but think about how he survived the bathtub only to be killed by Hunter.
And it had been such a good plan.
The ground (normally his ally when it wasn't covered in cement) met his face rather abruptly, his arms too busy pin-wheeling to brace himself in time. They did manage, however, to scrape themselves up quite nicely and-
He couldn't help but notice he was the only person on the ground.
Dustin turned onto his back to see that while he hadn't had time to react, Hunter had, and had stepped aside in time to not be smashed into and was staring at the mechanic with a questionable look on his face.
Curse him and his super coolness.
Granted, falling on the ground wasn't exactly painless, but it was much better than death.
So the plan could still work.
"Hey," Dustin started cheerfully, waving from his spot on the cement. Maybe if he pretended the fall never happened Hunter would play along with him. This might sound like a joke but it's worked for him before.
Hunter gave him a confused look before asking, "What?"
…huh
For some odd reason Dustin got the feeling they that they had this conversation before.
Weird.
Dustin quickly sat up and leapt to his feet; he was killing time and he didn't have much to begin with. He considered simply talking faster, but he had a tendency to be not-understandable when he did that so he would just have to settle for talking regular pace, but with purpose. That might help.
He was dawdling, secret agents don't dawdle.
It wasn't their m.o.
"Do you remember what happened?" he asked after a few seconds of boosting his confidence. Hunter blinked and stared at him blankly.
Oh…he needed to be more specific.
Right.
He looked both ways to make sure no one was listening in before he leaned forward and whispered, "On the island."
"You mean after we got blasted with that steam?" Hunter asked, not bothering to lower his voice. Dustin rushed forward and covered his mouth, shushing the crimson ranger before darting his eyes back and forth to check for people again. Hunter responded by shoving his hand away and glaring at him.
After a few moments of letting Hunter cool down (because mad Hunter didn't look like a fun Hunter to have around) Dustin stepped into his personal bubble (all the while still looking for eavesdroppers, even though no one had bothered them so far and it was unlikely they were going to but super spies were thorough) and whispered, "Yeah."
Hunter rolled his eyes, "No, I0" he started again at normal volume and Dustin shushed him again and motioned frantically for him to lower his voice. Hunter sighed and whispered, "No, I don't remember what happened."
Well, that was a bummer.
"Why, do you?" Hunter continued, looking at him intensely.
Dustin felt his eyes widen involuntarily when he realized that the other teen probably wouldn't like the answer, "uh…I was hoping you would."
Hunter looked at him disbelievingly, "Are you serious?"
Was it that unbelievable?
Well, Hunter had been hit by that "mind" beam and then the toxic steam, and Dustin had only gotten the steam so maybe he really was supposed to be the one who remember. He suddenly felt very guilty for false advertising.
"…yes?" He answered timidly.
Way to go Dustin, can't even remember what toxic fog made you do.
"Whatever," Hunter growled before pushing past him and continuing on his way.
"Well, are you sure?" Dustin called after him. Hunter was his last option here; having been the only other person he spent time with when he was evil who wasn't Shane.
He needed to have something before he spoke to the red ranger.
Hunter surprised him again by stopping, again, and turning back around, sending him a searching look.
"Is this about your red guy?" He asked bluntly.
Dustin blinked at him, startled. So he hadn't been the only to notice that something bothered Shane. He wondered who else knew.
"Yeah," he answered honestly and Hunter focused on him hard before sighing and motioning him closer. Dustin smiled and eagerly stepped forward, finally getting somewhere with his super-secret plan.
It was about the little victories.
"Look," Hunter started, keeping his voice low, "I don't remember anything, but Blake does."
The yellow ranger nodded, waiting for him to continue.
Hunter sighed again, looking distinctly uncomfortable. "When we were fighting…I said some nasty things, about how he betrayed me and wasn't my brother and was a liar. It didn't bother him because he knew it was a lie, but I'm thinking maybe…maybe you said something that hit home. Something he thought was true."
Dustin's mind reeled. He hadn't thought of that, but it made sense. He said something bad because he was temporarily evil but Shane agreed with him and…what did he say?
"Anyway, it's none of my business," Hunter finished, stepping back before beginning to walk away.
That didn't work for him. Cold shoulder or not, Hunter had helped, voluntarily, and Dustin was going to repay him.
The yellow ranger stepped forward, grabbing the side of his arm.
"Thanks, man. I owe you," he said, before throwing his arms around Hunter in a hug. The other resisted at first, attempting to push him off but Dustin was insistent. Eventually he gave up and hugged him back. It was two birds with one stone, one bird to help Shane, one to make Hunter feel apart of the team.
"Am I interrupting something?" A voice that sounded a lot like Blake's called out from behind Hunter. They broke apart quickly to see Tori and Blake standing at the mouth of the alley, looking incredibly amused.
"No," Hunter growled before turning and stalking off, this time for real. Blake gave a laugh and waved goodbye to Tori, seemingly relaxed and happy, but when he passed Dustin he gave him what could only be described as "the stink eye". The curly-haired teen waved to him apologetically (because how was he supposed to know that hugging was bad?) before bounding over to Tori to share with her his new gained knowledge.
"Were we interrupting something?" She asked before he could get started.
The look on his face should have been enough to tell her the answer but he replied anyway, just to be sure. Girls were weird about these kinds of things.
He had no idea why.
"No, dude. But I did get some interesting information…"
With that he explained what had happened. With Tori's help, he might be able to tackle the whole "Shane" issue.
Go team super spies.
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If they ever changed the title of "Where's Waldo?" (A much hated book of his childhood) to "Where's Shane?" (Much more enjoyable) the difficulty level would go way down to kindergarten level because if Shane wasn't with Dustin, at Storm Chargers, his house, or Ninja Ops (that wouldn't be mentioned in the book of course) there was only one place in the world he would be, and that was the Skate Park. Especially if he was working something out or had a problem. He would just go there and ride for hours. He said that it helped clear is head.
Tori said that he went there to ignore his issues.
Dustin honestly didn't care why he did it, as long as it made him happy. Right now he doubted he would be happy alone.
It was just starting to get dark when he arrived at the park, bag of ice cream goodness in hand. Shane was alone on the ramps, riding back and forth, not doing any tricks. He was either too tired to do them (Dustin couldn't blame him for that) or was too distracted to risk it. Or, it was a fun combination of both. Dustin was betting on that option.
Dustin caught his eye as he descended the ramp again, waving at him dramatically before pointing to a bench that was nearby. Shane (would've nodded in acceptance if he wasn't moving) dismounted on the other side and quickly came to meet him, smiling and high fiving him before he sat down.
"I come bearing gifts dude," Dustin greeted, displaying his goods.
He and Tori had both decided that they needed to "warm" Shane up before they started talking about the heavy stuff. While there may be many ways to do it, this was the tastiest. Also, if the other's hands were occupied he would be less likely to grab his gear and bail.
"What'd you get me?" Shane asked, pulling off his helmet.
He didn't know how the other did it but Shane rarely got helmet hair. It wasn't fair.
Dustin blinked at him innocently, "Vanilla, what did you think?"
"Seriously?"
Dustin managed to keep a poker face for a few seconds before he broke into a grin and dug out Shane's container. "No way man, I got you Rocky Road."
Shane smiled and accepted the offered goodness. "Now that's what I'm talking about." He ripped off the lid and dug in a few bites, humming in approval. Dustin smiled at his enthusiasm and took out his own ice cream, copying the other's actions. Shane eyed him warily.
"What did you get?" He asked between bites.
"Hm? Oh, vanilla."
Shane nodded in understanding, "Ah, of course."
"Hey," Dustin defended, mouth full, "don't rag on the classics."
Them's good eatings.
"Okay," Shane mumbled, holding his spoon up in surrender. "Okay."
They continued eating in silence after that, each enjoying the ice cream. Well, Shane enjoying the ice cream. Dustin was enjoying the ice cream but was still a little nervous about when he should make the serious conversation start.
When they were halfway done, that's when they'd do it.
It was only a few spoonfuls away.
He slowed down a little bit…or a lot a bit; by the way Shane had stopped eating his ice cream just to watch him eat in…slow motion. He looked at him questioningly.
"I'm…savoring it," Dustin finished, trying not to cringe at how dumb that sounded.
Shane shrugged and continued eating, "Okay."
Crisis averted?
No, it was time; he couldn't get cold feet now
He and Tori had decided that the direct approach would be the best, at least, that would be what he and Shane would be the most comfortable with. Dustin slowly lowered his spoon and rested it in the container, taking a deep breath before taking the plunge.
"What did I say?" He asked, focusing solely on Shane. The reaction wasn't immediate; the red clad teen had glanced at him for a second between bites but had to do a double take, seeing the seriousness on the other's face. He put his spoon down too, casually though, and relaxed against the back of the bench.
Dustin guessed there was a short internal struggle going on where Shane was deciding how to answer him. After a few seconds it had passed, and in a relaxed and innocent tone he asked "When?"
You know when.
But if he wanted to play…coy (That was the word Cam used) that was fine with Dustin, as long as they got to the important stuff.
"On the island." And just so there was no room for interpretation he added, "While I was under the effects of that steam."
Shane frowned at him and rubbed a hand through his hair, looking away from him and into the dark.
Reevaluating the situation.
He finally answered. "Don't worry about it Dustin, you didn't have any control," he looked back at him seriously, "None of that was your fault."
It was so like Shane to think he came here about him. Trying to fix everyone's problems but his own. Dustin should have seen it coming.
Luckily, Shane had set him up nicely.
"And it wasn't yours either," he countered and the skater looked at him in surprise.
He continued while he was on a roll, "Tori told me about what you talked about in the cave." The reaction was immediate; Shane put his helmet back on and grabbed his board, preparing to leave. Dustin didn't know why his friend was being so difficult (a little voice in the back of his head that sounded a lot like Tori said it was "because he's dumb"), but the yellow ranger wasn't letting him get away without this being settled.
That's not what friends did.
He sprang off the bench, knocking his ice cream to the ground as he chased after Shane, ducking around him and taking a hold of his arms to make him stop. "Look, I don't know what I said," he started, begging his friend to listen. "I don't even remember anything that happened and it kind of freaks me out that I lost half a day," he was babbling, get on track Dustin. "But you have to know that whatever happened wasn't your fault," he finished, waving his hands drastically for effect.
There was a tense silence were they stared at each other.
After a moment Shane's eyes softened and he slumped in defeat, looking away to the side, and slowly scratching the side of his head.
"…You said," he began slowly, painfully, and Dustin hurt with him even though he didn't know what he was going to say, "we weren't friends." He looked back at him, "because friends don't leave friends behind."
Dustin was stunned.
Stupid toxic steam. Stupid, stupid toxic steam. If it weren't for that Hunter would have been fine, and I'd be fine and none of this would have happened and they'd all be happy, but that couldn't have happened because…because…
Then it came to him.
He grabbed Shane's shoulders and looked him square in the eye. "We're rangers, it happens."
So Cam could've come up with better, and Sensei and Tori and even the Thunder's but they weren't the one's doing the talking now so Shane was just going to have to deal. Because as unfair as it was, they were rangers, and some of these things just couldn't be helped.
That wasn't good enough for the red ranger. "That's it," he began, pushing Dustin's hands away, "just, 'we're rangers it…' "
But Dustin wasn't finished.
"I forgive you," he stated simply.
Shane stopped his ranting immediately and all the guilt he had been pushing away crept onto his face.
Dustin continued, "If that's what you need to hear. I forgive you."
If you can't forgive yourself, I'll just help you.
Ultimately though, this wasn't Shane's fault at all.
It was Dustin's.
Dustin looked away this time, off at whatever it was they kept starting at. "I…I'm sorry I got hit by that steam Shane."
The red ranger looked up at him in surprise, and frowned, moving forward and wrapping an arm around his shoulders.
"Hey, that wasn't your fault, you were just-"
"Being a ranger?" Dustin finished.
They looked at each other; Dustin, hopefully, Shane, obviously fighting himself. In the end Shane sighed and wrapped his other arm around Dustin in a loose hug.
"…Fine," he mumbled, sounding vaguely unhappy. Not guilty-unhappy, more like…"you just outsmarted me" unhappy.
Well, it happened sometimes.
"Fine?" Dustin echoed, making sure he heard right. He couldn't completely hide how pleased he was with himself.
"Yeah," Shane sighed again. "Fine."
"…I win?" Dustin added, sounding innocent, but really just rubbing it in.
Hey, he didn't win often, but he was on a roll today.
"Yes," Shane grumbled, flicking the side of his head.
Dustin contained a giggle.
"Good," he smiled, pulling out of the hug, "now stop feeling bad."
He demanded it, no, he decreed it so. And the world would know if the yellow ranger decreed it so then so it must be done or so help them…so.
So was a fun word.
"You make it sound easy," Shane joked, steadily getting back to himself.
"It really is," Dustin assured him, and then he looked around wildly. Eventually he spotted his discarded ice cream melting on the ground.
You can't always get what you want.
Turning back to Shane who was now looking amused and a little bit apologetic (good, because he had made him spill the food of the gods) he smiled and offered,"…You wanna go bug Tori?"
She really shouldn't be missing out on this fun.
The look he got in return made it worth losing the ice cream, "I thought you'd never ask."
But if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.
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Endnotes:
Much love and thanks to ValkyrieNyght, lemonlovely, and Rogue Ranger, anything you guys offer makes my day. Seriously, your suggestions are inspiring.
Unintended Rolling Stones reference at the end, it just happened and I liked it.
Shane decided he needed closure, so I gave it to him, but I couldn't really figure out how to do it out of Dustin's p.o.v. which is why we got so much of him. But hey, he isn't evil anymore, so there's a plus!
For those of you who don't know (I didn't know until last year) "m.o." stands for method of operation.
Until next time.