Breaking Space-time Chapter 10: Standard Procedure for Valentine's Day, a power rangers fanfic

Chapter 10

Standard Procedure for Valentine's Day

Thanks to the real vampire for her too-legit-to-quit beta-ing skillz. I am forever in awe of your patience and critical eye, vamps. Additional thanks to Kei Luna Shoryu for additional beta-ing prowess and general enthusiasm, both of which are greatly appreciated! If you're on the lookout for some more Ninja Storm fics, check out 'My Brother's Keeper' by the real vampire or 'The Art of Cohesion' by Kei Luna Shoryu.

Warnings: Gay panic kind of? Not really. Not really at all

-:-:-:-:-:-

So…any anger Hunter might have had left for Alex pretty much disappeared after the birthday cake thing.

Yeah, it turned out, when Hunter wasn't actively hating Alex in his entirety, the brunette wasn't that bad a guy.

That didn't make him a social savant or anything; the red ranger was still awkward as hell. He still didn't understand all of their 'past behaviors' and remained all about efficiency and the love of the job and that stuff, but he wasn't terrible. Hunter hadn't been expecting it, but with his figurative claws finally put away, he finally noticed that the brunette had been – in his very special, private way – attempting to make this uniquely unfortunate situation as easy on Hunter as he could.

Which, in turn, made Hunter feel like a gigantic dick when he realized it, because he couldn't even go around boasting to himself about how much of the bigger person he was. How much better. How much…not-Alex.

Like, with the cake thing? That was when Hunter realized how much of an effort Alex was truly putting forth for him, to make this work, and even if they had started off on the wrong foot, Hunter could admit he appreciated someone putting themselves out there on his behalf. Especially someone like Alex, who he could tell didn't dabble in these 'feel good' moments very often.

Hunter wasn't going soft; there was just something kind of heartwarming about Alex's excitement (Hunter ignored the way his chest warmed up in a literal since, because it was nothing but sentimentality). There was something fun (adorable) about the way the brunette had timidly ordered the necessity of cake, the consternated look of intense focus as he studied the back of the box of cake mix, still mildly baffled by the food preparation of yesteryear. There was a difference between theory and execution, Alex had reasoned aloud. Yeah, turns out they actually had past-living theory classes at Time Force, but it was obvious from the way Alex considered Eric's oven with slight trepidation that the brunette had never gotten a chance to act on any of them.

In that way, Hunter took it as his privilege to witness Alex's trials, almost as a payment for his participation on a mission…well, it wasn't as awful as it could be, he guessed.

Also, there was cake, and that was nice.

Look, Hunter wasn't proud of his past behavior, but Alex seemed more than willing to let bygones be bygones with a desperation that should probably be less painful for everyone involved, that very much wasn't. Eric and Hunter had simultaneously decided to apologize by not-apologizing, which seemed to be the way Alex preferred it. Instead of meaningless words, Hunter tried to move forward in the friendliest way he knew how and it turned out…

Alex was an okay guy. He was funny, in his own way, and clearly not used to being around people for very long periods of time. He was overly serious and tackled just about every task they had with too much focus and too much organization even when it wasn't really called for (Eric had vetoed the idea of a chore chart once Alex had accidentally discovered them through Hunter), but he was…he was himself.

And above all that, he wasn't bad. Hunter kept thinking this because it was hard to believe that the former Mr. Stick-up-his-ass could ever possibly be considered something other than bad, but they had shifted into the new status quo with a quiet sort of comfort. Bonding through sarcasm and trying, honestly trying to understand where the other person was coming from.

Since this wasn't a privilege that was even extended by some of his teammates – the people he fought to save the world with – Hunter could appreciate it.

Appreciate it and know, however slightly, that Alex Collins was kind of, sort of, very minutely, his friend.

His acquaintance-friend.

It was a start.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Despite most of the shit Hunter pretended to do (and let's say this was a lot of things, a terrible habit to project stuff so people wouldn't look at the soft and tender underbelly of his feelings), he was actually very perceptive. The others – Adam, Eric, Alex – might argue this because they were ignorant ingrates who could not withstand his glory, but that was their problem. Their misconceptions didn't stop Hunter from being what he was, and what he was on that particularly sunny afternoon (in what he quickly discovered was February), was bamboozled.

Dustin-word, guy had like, a retro-word-of-the-day calendar in the Ops kitchen, but in the privacy of his own mind, Hunter could admit it was appropriate.

Their return to Eric's backyard had been the standard pain-with-location-gain, fading away after a few seconds before Alex – who always recovered faster (or at least pretended to) – was striding forward, towards the back porch. Not unusual. Not noteworthy. Not something that should outweigh Hunter's immediate needs for coffee, shower, and food in that order. Or maybe he would skip all three of those and just pass out on the couch.

The only problem with that last option was that he always magically awoke in the new guestroom bed, which meant someone had carried his unconscious ass up the stairs, and none of them ever felt like sharing who. Hunter had the distinct feeling it was Eric –as the biggest and most macho of them all (though with their morphers, physique affected actual strength jack shit), but part of him – the part that saw Alex willfully avoid his gaze when he woke up from these sleep transportations, knew it was the Time Force ranger.

And as that led to a conflicting basket of things Hunter was better off avoiding, he made like his brother on his best day and shut the hell down when approached with anything that didn't include ignoring what had obviously transpired. Blake should give masterclasses on this stuff; he could make a killing with this crowd.

…sidetracked. Right. There were things to perceive. And these things- these very minute things, happened to be a chain of red and pink hearts hanging in the kitchen window of Alice's house. Nothing special. Nothing out-of-the-ordinary as belonging to a (what was she, eight? Seven?) young child who was hopped up on the spirit of arts and crafts with a will no one else could challenge.

So the hearts, he took them in, but subsequently ignored them.

It was the newspaper Eric had carelessly (and by that, Hunter was pretty sure he had purposely planted it there) tossed onto his back porch that had Hunter pulling Alex away from the door and back down onto the grass.

That, combined with the bouquet of lilies wrapped in rough brown paper he saw through the window that rested on the kitchen table.

Three small things, but they were enough for Hunter to manhandle Alex down off the porch (with minimal squabbling from the brunette, as he had not expected Hunter's latest spaz-attack).

He called it. He called it. Eric totally had the not-communicated hots for Adam.

Adam, who seemed to be in Eric's house just about every time Alex and Hunter were there making a 'pit stop'. Adam, who seemed to fit into Eric's life as though he had always been there, even if Hunter knew from the bountiful-lack of Adam-related pictures that he hadn't, Adam-

"Hunter-" Alex's confused face was not adorable – or, it was, but in a universal way, where anyone would think it was adorable. Like, a fact or something.

Just because Hunter wasn't actively hating the guy anymore didn't mean that he was completely aboard the train to crazy-town. Hunter was excessive in all things he did, but even he had limits.

Therefore, Alex's particular expressions were clearly attractive based on facts.

Clearly.

"Look." Hunter shoved the newspaper (which he had also grabbed) into Alex's chest, ignoring the uncomfortable feelings that led to rationalizing stupid things.

Alex's face got more confused. And subsequently more (universally) adorable. "What-?"'

"The date." Hunter jabbed a finger at the top right corner of the newspaper.

He couldn't even roll his eyes, that one had been on him. It was a well-known fact in the Myers household that Alex's understanding of newspapers and their foreign, papery ways served as a point of perpetual confusion. 'You have the internet though, correct?' the ranger had asked multiple times, confused over the waste of natural resources for what could be obtained electronically.

Hunter had tried to win him over to the concept by showing him how to make the bi-corner pirate hats every second grader worth their crafting skills had learned to make, but all it had really earned him was a peek at Alex's polite-but-confused-toleration face as the brunette tried desperately hard to not look at the paper contraption on his head.

Hunter's mom had taught him and Blake how to make them, and while that still hurt to think about, he knew she would have approved of him using this old skill to bond with a person who previously seemed un-bondable.

He was really on a roll with good feelings today, wasn't he?

"February 14th."

Alex's business-like recitation brought Hunter back to the present with a blink, just in time to see the red ranger turn his gaze towards Hunter. He was doing that thing- the thing where he tried to look like he knew what they were talking about because he felt like he should know, but he honestly had no idea, because sometimes a thousand years worth of displacement did that to you.

Before he would be forced to ask why it mattered, Hunter moved on. For the sake of efficiency. "It's Valentine's Day."

Alex blinked and consciously did not move. It took Hunter a second to realize he was waiting for more of an explanation.

Really?

"You guys don't have this?" Hunter frowned down at the paper, scanning articles boasting the 'Best non-traditional couple activities, see E5', 'The Perfect Flowers for Her, see E7', and 'Last-minute plans? Look no further; E2', splayed across the front with generous amounts of hearts, chocolate, and couple-y pictures.

"The name seems…vaguely familiar," Alex admitted, and Hunter wanted to groan, or at the very east check out page E2 for whatever pitiful last-minute suggestions Eric's paper had for lowlifes who forgot about Valentine's Day.

Seriously, if they couldn't be bothered to remember, they might as well dump their partner. It would be beneficial to both of them in the long run.

Not like Hunter was bitter or anything. As he had no logical reason to be, aside from his general dislike of love and commercialization and-

So he was a (semi-) bitter lonely guy on a mission; there was no crime in this. No crime in being the only single person on his team. It wasn't like he was around them right now to have his face rubbed in it, as it happened so frequently back at home, with Blake and Tori, and then the others and their-

"What is the significance?"

In the time Hunter had taken to peruse his useless grievances, Alex had claimed the newspaper and was frowning down at the explosion of pinks and reds across the paper, eyeing it with the same trepidation he had when trying to coax little neighborhood girls into patience. The same look he had when explaining that while they couldn't play tea party now, there would be plenty of time for 'such activities' later.

Watching Alice pull the red Time Force ranger into a pinky swear about it had probably been one of the greatest moments of Hunter's life. That he had also taken pictures of, because he was a human being with a soul, and that business needed to be preserved for the millennia to come.

The little blonde had gotten her tea party too, and Hunter may have also taken pictures of that. When he wasn't pretending to sip tea with Mr. Flufferwollems, and all that.

While Alex hadn't been especially pleased for the excessive interactions with Eric's tiny neighbor, he seemed to concede on the grounds of trying to bond, and that-

Hey, look at that, Alex was staring at him. Hunter should probably do something about that.

"It's a couples' holiday," Hunter explained. "You know, celebrate your relationship with chocolates and cards and fancy dinner and…couple stuff." Hunter didn't spit out the last two words with derision, because he was a mature human being who didn't entertain such pursuits – but even he could admit it was close.

Luckily, Alex was too busy turning his confused gaze to the back porch to bear him any mind. "And this prevents us from going inside, why?"

Hunter skipped the part of the conversation where he pointed out that this should be obvious – because it clearly wasn't to natives from Year 3001– and pulled Alex back around to face him. As though just looking at Eric's house would violate its sanctity.

Maybe it would. Better play it safe, lest the Commander know.

"Eric? Adam?" Hunter tried giving Alex the benefit of the doubt with some slight(ly incredulous) reminders of the sexual-tension-riddled couple that also took up residence in the house without addressing anything. Like their sexual tension.

Alex blinked at him dumbly. His version of dumbly.

It was actually pretty smart.

Hunter closed his eyes to escape the dumb/smart look that was alluring in the same way any oxymoron was alluring (to literary aficionados, and Cam probably), and exhaled. "Look, just- they need alone time today, alright? We can't go in there."

"We can't stay outside." Hunter could hear the frown in Alex's voice as he said it, which he took as an indication that it was safe to open his eyes. Yep, Alex was indeed, frowning. "Hunter, the only reason these breaks are allowed is because Time Force was assured our utmost discretion."

"And we will continue that," Hunter replied immediately. "We will, we just can't do it here."

Alex's frown deepened.

"They've done a lot for us," Hunter was saying before he realized he had decided to talk. "They've put up with us when they didn't have to. Can't we just, I don't know, take a walk or something?"

Upon Alex's (now blank) expression, Hunter continued, "We don't have to disrupt anything. And hell, your friends were here for like, a year and it didn't cause any real damage to the future, right? We can just do that now, for just one evening."

Sure, that evening was Valentine's Day and sure, it would just be them – two guys, walking around, on Valentine's Day – but Hunter ignored those obviously stupid implications (stupid because the two guys in question were Alex and Hunter, which made that entire mental trek irrelevant) in favor of something that really needed to be done.

And also, if Eric was going to go through the trouble of planting the newspaper on the back porch, right in their way, then maybe they could take a hint for once and stay out of the guy's hair. It would only be for a couple of hours.

Alex was frowning again when Hunter looked back to him, but it was more his discomforted, thinking frown, the one he reserved for situations he didn't know how to handle.

So, basically anytime they weren't fighting. Physically fighting. Monsters.

They didn't fight so much now.

When he looked back at Hunter, the frown was gone. "Just one walk?"

It shouldn't feel like a victory, except the part where it actually was one, so Hunter's victory dance was, if you thought about it, very reasonable. This may or may not have been what prompted Alex into grabbing the younger ranger's wrist and bodily dragging him out of the backyard, onto the sidewalk, but Hunter allowed himself to believe it was because he was feeling extra leader-ly that moment, and just really appreciated the blond's ideas.

-:-:-:-:-:-

The problem with being two non-romantically-involved guys taking a casual stroll on Valentine's Day was that there was no such thing as two non-romantically-involved guys taking a casually platonic stroll on Valentine's Day. They hit the park (newspaper still in hand, as Hunter hadn't had a chance to drop it), figuring it would give them the best odds of blending in, only to be greeted by the perfect camouflage: a sea of dating, self-involved couples.

It was an ocean of romance everywhere, couples riding in horse-drawn carriages (no idea Silver Hills could rank that much fanciness), couples picnicking by the pond, couples strolling candle-lit paths side-by-side, arms wrapped around each other, gazes locked and completely submerged in their own little world. It couldn't get any more freakin' sickening if it tried, but Hunter's moment to contemplate that had passed by the time he acknowledged Alex's uncomfortable fidgeting beside him.

"Well…" Hunter said. Not awkwardly, because this wasn't awkward. Weird maybe, but not awkward.

Alex didn't say anything. He was probably too busy being worried about being outside the safety zone of Eric's house despite the baseball cap and sunglasses that made him look like the creeper keeper. Like, the grand king of all creepers that ever did contemplate creeping.

Hunter himself had settled for the cap and refused to compromise with anything else, and Alex had resigned from that battle with the knowledge that Hunter would raise less hell if his quirk was tolerated for a few measly hours. Look, they might be legitimate stalkers, but Hunter refused to look the part, alright? Especially not on Valentine's Day, people would notice.

That was, if they could manage to take their eyes off their romantic partner for more than two seconds to notice it. Holy hell, people were self-absorbed assholes. The marketing system was working well in this time, judging by all the checkered blankets and red and pink ensembles assaulting Hunter's eyeballs. Hooray capitalism. Maybe he and Alex could celebrate that while everyone else cuddled up to their special someone all sickeningly sweet-

Yeah, no hard feelings there.

"Is this standard procedure for Valentine's Day?" Alex pronounced the holiday tentatively, feeling around the words to recite them correctly. It was because he cared, because he wanted to do it right.

That initiative was enough to pull Hunter out of his self-imposed anger party to answer him.

"Yeah, this is pretty much standard procedure for all couples." Hunter waved a dismissive hand at the picnicking couples around them. Off in the distance, a string quartet was playing. Probably in a gazebo or something else disgustingly cute. "You have a person, you celebrate your togetherness with flowers and chocolates and cards and a fancy dinner, and then you proceed to make strong enough goo-goo eyes at each other until you are thrown from whatever establishment you'd decided to terrorize with your presence."

Hunter couldn't see it, but even with sunglasses and hat, he could tell Alex wore a look of confusion. "And this is to…"

Ah, so he had decided to skip the obvious clarification for 'goo-goo' eyes and move onto the more pressing questions. Smart.

"Celebrate your love." Hunter rolled his eyes, angling his face towards Alex so the brunette could properly see his disdain. "The whole world needs to know how in love you are, so you make these dumb huge gestures the same time everyone else makes these dumb huge gestures to see who can dumb-huge gesture the most out of this stupid holiday."

From the corner of his eye, Hunter caught Alex's frown. "If it is to celebrate your love, wouldn't it be more prudent to…" he trailed off, trying to settle on a word. "…to do something you and your partner find agreeable? Special to you, I mean."

"Yep." Hunter nodded, consciously directing his gaze away from a particularly nauseating couple making out on a bench. "And society has decided you have to do that through chocolate and flowers and-"

"Cards, yes," Alex agreed distractedly. "I remember. That is…" He swallowed, fumbling for words. "Depressing."

"Thank you." And this was just further proof that Hunter should have treated Alex like a human being sooner, because he shared wisdom like this. "That's what I've been saying, but my team won't listen to me."

"I'm glad we don't have this holiday." The confession was delivered casually; with so much ease Hunter almost missed it, celebrating his anti-Valentine's ally.

Hunter was suddenly thrown by the idea of Alex trying to navigate Valentine's Day. He pictured the brunette wandering lost in the grocery store, an expression of absolute befuddlement as he considered the chasm of red and gold heart-shaped chocolate boxes. He thought about Alex working a modern telephone and an actual telephone book to make dinner reservations, or Alex haggling with one of those horse-drawn carriage drivers (because he seemed like one of those guys, all romantic and shit), or maybe he would pack a picnic like this horde of conformists. What the hell would Alex pack in a picnic basket anyway? Probably vegetables. Like, something super well-balanced. All your basic food groups. Maybe he would do heart-shaped sandwiches like Dustin did sometimes, when he went through one of his cookie-cutter phases, or maybe-

Wow, a little too much consideration for hypotheticals- Hunter should return to the real world now.

He came back to earth in time to hear Alex say, "It is a nice idea, conceptually. Though I would like to think if you were romantically-involved with someone, you would celebrate that…connection every day. Not just when it was socially dictated."

Yeah, just like he thought. Real softy on the inside.

"Maybe that's why it didn't last," Hunter offered. "People didn't need it anymore."

"Perhaps," Alex agreed.

His tone said something along the lines of 'I hope so', or maybe Hunter just thought it was so he would have more support, but even through his desperation he was pretty sure Alex was just…hopeful. A romantic at heart.

They fell into an uneasy silence, walking past an ice cream cart with a hot pink umbrella overtop. The vendor was handing off two cones to a teenage couple, the girl giggling and leaning into her boyfriend while the boy smiled, his nose crinkled with laughter as he tucked some napkins into the front pocket of her coat.

Hunter hadn't realized he was still watching them until the vendor spoke up, a middle-aged woman with a warm voice. "Got a Valentine's Day special," the woman explained, her smile big and genuine. "Two double-scoop specialty cones for six dollars. Homemade ice cream," she added, waggling her eyebrows. "Extra sinful. Perfect dessert for you and your boyfriend."

Alex – and Hunter decided that focusing on Alex at this moment would probably be for the best – thankfully did his super-helpful robot-shutdown thing where he exited out of any and all emotions (as far as Hunter could tell), which left the crimson ranger in charge of communicating. Which was- great, Hunter could do that. He spouted off some nonsense about a diet and lactose intolerance and pulled his silent creeper away from the cart with a wave, hoping if he just kept putting one foot in front of the other Alex could do that thing where he took comfort in the predictable.

They hadn't had this talk, exactly; the 'hey, what's your stance on gay people?' talk because it had literally in no instance come up in normal conversation. Hunter didn't think Alex cared all that much, maybe, because detesting someone's sexual preference on a set of archaic principals was a certain flavor of illogical and inefficient in which Alex didn't dabble, but even with Hunter's assumptions, there was no way he could be sure unless he asked the guy and- nope, he sure as hell wasn't going to ask the guy. Not- not today. They did not need that.

Better to play it safe and walk away, and not delve too deeply into his concerns about Alex's view of gay people. This was him being a good and respectful teammate. Go team. Yay him.

It wasn't even anything worth thinking about. In fact, Hunter should be more concerned with taking pictures of Alex's shocked expression in commemoration of this fine moment, but he couldn't.

Instead, he found himself wondering how old that teenage couple had been with the ice cream, and decided that a distraction was definitely in order.

He still had the newspaper.

"Well, that was bound to happen at some point," he babbled, opening up the folded paper and quickly scanning through the pages.

"I suppose it was," Alex agreed, sounding…way too collected in Hunter's opinion.

It occurred to the blond that maybe Alex hadn't shut down at all; maybe he had thought the vendor was just talking to Hunter, but that conclusion couldn't add up in Hunter's brain. Mostly because that meant that the other ranger was being the more mature and reasonable human being in this instance, and that never sat well with Hunter. Because that indicated that he was the one overreacting, which inferred there was something to overreact to, and there wasn't.

It had been a while since his last teenage angst-fest. He was probably due.

Yeah, that had to be it.

"-better for blending anyway," Alex was saying, continuing to lay out his perfect logic.

Hunter nodded as though he had been hanging on every word despite giving a good no damns about it, smiling as he found the article he had been searching for.

"In that case, I believe some celebrating's in order." Hunter smirked, refolding the paper so the article was prominently displayed and shoving it in Alex's face. "To blend."

There was dumb blinking, Hunter could tell even with the sunglasses, and the corners of Alex's lips began to quirk downwards.

"We shouldn't even be out here," Alex protested – and then mitigated that protest by taking the offered newspaper anyway. "While partaking in these activities would help us blend in, it wouldn't be necessary-"

"Isn't this what you do?" Hunter asked. "I thought you enjoyed studying culture? This is your chance to get in the thick of things, experience a real holiday."

"Valentine's Day." Alex said it in a deadpan, but his nose was scrunched, kind of uncertain.

Hunter got it; he wouldn't have been the other ranger's first, second, or even fifteenth choice to celebrate with, but he was here and if they kept wandering around aimlessly, eventually someone was going to talk to them again and Hunter didn't feel like dusting off his gag reflex. Because it was sickening.

Not for other things.

Whatever.

"Come on." Hunter grabbed Alex's wrist before he could over-think it. "We're going."

Easiest way to get someone to make a decision was to make it for them.

How was that for democracy?

-:-:-:-:-:-

How they ended up in the community center, armed with paint brushes and the combined artistic talents of maybe an eight-year-old (if they were being generous) was anyone's guess. Thirty bucks cash had gotten them two coffee mugs and access to about thirty different colors of paint, most of which Alex and Hunter had silently decided to bypass in favor of the comforts of red, black, white, and crimson.

Hunter insisted they each paint a mug for the other under the guise of 'keeping in the spirit' of things, but it was mostly because he wanted to see what Alex would imagine as a Hunter-appropriate coffee cup.

It turned out to be fairly predictable, but interesting. Like everything else he did, Alex approached his painting with great diligence and care, his focus unwavering despite the non-life-threatening action. Part of Hunter – the soft part that was kind-of, sort-of growing to like Alex – thought it was a little sweet. Touching, that he would put forth so much effort. The other part of him thought it was funny.

The end result was a coffee mug with a black base, covered in horizontal stripes of various widths and colors (Hunter counted two different reds, some white, and a little silver), all evenly spaced apart. In the end, Hunter could admit it was a really nice cup.

To this, Hunter appropriately retaliated with disorder and chaos, going all Starry Night on his cup for Alex. He swirled the colors together – keeping with the red, black, and white theme- trying to keep the madness artistic in careful gradients as they made their way around the outside.

Hunter topped it all off with a giant golden heart and twin golden stripes going down the edges of the handle – and even with his protests, the blond caught sight of a fleeting smile before Alex completely smothered it.

They drank cocoa (okay, he drank cocoa; Alex was confused by cocoa) and feasted on complimentary Teddy Grahams (or Hunter did, while Alex monopolized the strawberries with a bashful expression – something about the fruit being rare in the future). They had given the volunteers Eric's address (the cups would be delivered after the pottery fairies had worked their magic) and maybe, just maybe, it was one of Hunter's better Valentine's Days.

Just maybe.

-:-:-:-:-:-

They stumbled home after being pulled into a line-dancing class that had taken place just down the hall, Hunter poking fun at Alex's tendency to overcomplicate the steps and the brunette responding in kind about Hunter's absence of agility where twisting hips and cowboy hats were concerned. They had crossed a park lit up by lanterns, couples swaying in a dance area near the gazebo (knew it), and suffered through the smell of roses and chocolates and half-deflated balloons.

"What the hell happened to you guys?" was the first thing Eric asked when they came in, riding the last wave of very manly chuckles.

The flowers Hunter had seen earlier were in a vase on the table, along with the remainders of a meal of baked ziti and unromantic broccoli.

"We saw the lights go off earlier," Eric continued, grumbling. "But no you. What the hell?"

"You're welcome," Hunter replied brightly before Alex had a chance to give a reasonable explanation. He would do it too, since he was trying to be Eric's pal now.

"For what? The heart attack? Yeah, that I could have done without," Eric groused, rolling his eyes with enough exaggeration that Hunter almost bought that this hadn't been his plan all along. "Do me a favor next time, leave a note."

"Sure…" Hunter trailed off mid-serve of baked ziti, spooning generous portions of the delicious pasta into two bowls for him and Alex. "Got it. Total inconvenience, us not being here."

In the corner of his vision, Hunter could see Alex linger uncertainly. "It is not unreasonable-"

"'Course not." Hunter waved him off. "Could you grab some water bottles?"

Distracting Alex with simple requests may-or-may-not have been one of the certain cures for dealing with his social anxiety. Hunter might abuse this discovery, but it was ultimately for the greater good.

It worked, despite some obvious reluctance; Alex was too pleased by obtaining a task that could be easily accomplished without any kind of conflict to put up a fight.

"Seriously, kid." Eric's eyes were narrowed, judging. "Warn a guy."

"You did." Okay, the act of ignorance was cute, but Hunter was done with it. "Or are we pretending that your paperboy delivers the entertainment section of your newspaper directly onto your back porch?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Eric's frown was a mighty one, but this- Hunter knew this. This was a Commander Myers who had been left out of something and was not pleased with this fact.

This was an Eric that did not know.

Water bottles successfully obtained, Alex's eyes darted between the two arguing rangers. "Is he not aware…?"

The brunette didn't finish the sentence, the confidence bolster of successful task completion only doing so much, so Hunter took pity on the guy and picked up where he had left off.

"Do you know what day it is?"

Seemed obvious, with the decorations and the activities and the massive amount of romance permeating the air, but there was only one conclusion left to draw here, and Hunter doubted it had to do with alternate-dimension Eric's inhabiting their world for a day.

Eric's eyebrows furrowed, sealing the deal. "Thursday?"

Well…okay then.

Before Alex could stumble into the conversation in his tentative, confused bumbling way (which was kind of endearing, now that Hunter knew to look for it), Adam breezed into the room, cakebox in his hand.

Without pausing to look at them, he asked, "You guys have a good time going out?"

"Delightful," Hunter replied.

The puzzle pieces settled into place pretty easily after that. This here, this was a game he knew how to play along with, and far be it from him to ruin Adam's carefully constructed stealth-date plans. From one ninja to another, Hunter could give him this.

"But-" Alex began to say.

"You guys start without us." Hunter nodded to the cake box and shoved one of the bowls of ziti into the Alex's hands. "We'll be back later."

After you've had a creepy moment of romance or whatever else I'm definitely not thinking about.

Alex's frown deepened. "It's-"

"I know you love chocolate man, but balanced meals first," Hunter ordered, despite the fact that he had never actually witnessed Alex eat a dessert of any kind, and nudged the brunette towards the stairs. "Ziti-broccoli fusion, then cake."

"But the flowers," Alex protested, because in all of this, that was what stuck with him.

Eric, who had somehow maintained his position as a completely oblivious dumbass, rolled his eyes. "Adam's idea," he grumbled. "Said they would brighten up the room."

"And they certainly do," Hunter called over his shoulder. At that point, he was more focused on shoving a hesitant Alex up the first few stairs to the second floor, but eventually, Alex gave in and followed his prompting.

It would take Hunter awhile to realize that the brunette had consciously decided to trust Hunter's lead in a situation where he was floundering, and that it probably meant something about their existing relationship and the way they communicated.

But in the moment, Hunter was too busy laughing around mouthfuls of pasta and catching Alex up on what he had missed, because he was a generous guy like that – and it would take him a little longer to figure out that his desire for Alex to be up-to-date meant something too.

But those were things for other days.

For the immediate future, there was cake.

Maybe he could get Alex to actually eat some.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Endnotes:

Eric is the most oblivious bulldog that ever did live, yessir ;P

Awkward Valentine's day chapter! The idea of having one of these really early in their relationship really appealed to me. I liked the thought of them bumbling their way through this while their friendship was still fresh and new, so here we are! Hope you guys liked it :)

Until next time :D