Chapter 11
My Strongest Suit
I don't own Aida. Fact.
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"I'm telling you, JCPenney's is where it's at."
Dustin was very determined to prove this point, so much so that Shane had given up arguing with him about twenty minutes ago.
"I heard you the first time," he reminded, eying his friend with vague amusement.
Dustin waved off his comment and continued talking adamantly.
"And it's named after a girl, how much better can it get?"
If that was a judge on how good a store was, Shane supposed Dustin had a point.
"Not much, I guess," he admitted.
Dustin cheered silently beside him, pumping his fist.
"So we're going there right?"
I didn't think I had a choice
"You seem pretty set on it," he answered noncommittally.
"Of course I do," Dustin assured him, "I have mad shopping skills."
"I thought you just bought the first yellow thing you find in a store."
Actually, Shane didn't think this, he knew this. He had witnessed a Dustin Brooks shopping fest before. Despite the lack of concern from his friend it was the fastest he'd ever been clothes shopping.
Dustin scratched the side of his head bashfully. "Well I do, but there's an art to it."
No, there isn't.
"Doesn't sound like it."
Dustin turned and looked at him seriously. "Dude, I'll prove it to yo." He squinted his eyes, pausing to think before adding, "We'll even take time to 'browse'."
He said that like it was a bad thing.
Eventually, after their talk in the park yesterday Shane had mentioned Tori's (for lack of better word) awesomeness on the island, and how, like they had done for Cam, he wanted to get her something. Dustin was on board immediately, chatting a mile a minute about where they could go, what they could get (he mentioned something about codeword's), he was all for it. While Shane had expected…enthusiasm (that was simply how Dustin was), the red ranger couldn't help but feel there was something he didn't know that Tori had done. Now there was the direct approach to finding this out, and then there was how Shane chose to deal with it.
He only had to stare at Dustin suspiciously for six seconds before the yellow ranger broke down and told him about how Tori had helped him come up with the plan to get Shane out of his funk.
A wave of gratitude rushed through Shane; Tori had really outdone herself, on the island and afterwards.
They had decided to go with Shane's initial idea of a scarf, and were currently traipsing about the mall attempting to pick a store to make the necessary purchase but hadn't been able to settle on one.
Hence Dustin's ramblings.
As it turned out, JCPenney's was not where it was at.
It tried, oh, how it tried so hard; but they looked throughout the entire store and could not find one scarf, not a one. So Shane and Dustin decided to go to their backup store (Dustin having insisted they pick one just in case), Dillard's. Sure, it would probably be more expensive (which to be honest Shane wasn't too happy about), but he wasn't going to complain as long as they had what they were looking for.
It shouldn't be this hard to give people money.
The change seemed to be just what they needed because two feet in the door Dustin spotted an area covered in racks of scarves. He grabbed Shane's arm and dragged him over to the mother load of scarfingdom. Honestly, that was the best way to describe it. One or two racks Shane could understand, you needed a little variety, but this, this was ridiculous. He would never understand women's need for multiple accessories, but if it made them happy, who cared.
He stared blankly at the multicolored ornaments, ruling out anything that wasn't blue, or at least, blue-ish and tried to find something that looked reasonable enough for Tori. He cursed himself for not paying more attention to what she wore.
"He-ey!" Dustin burst suddenly, pulling out…a scarf? It looked more like an afghan to Shane…or a tent, it was huge. His friend held it up excitedly, whirling it around like a matador. Shane tried to fight a wince and prepared himself to cut off all scarf twirling if it got too close to something that could be knocked over.
Dustin tended to be…accident prone.
If there ever was an understatement, that would be it.
Luckily the mechanic got tired of the twirling quickly and settled for a closer examination of the scarf's goings-ons.
"It's like a cape man!" The curly-haired teen declared once he finished his go over, resting the…thing on his shoulders and turning to model it in the mirror. He held the edge up in front of his face like he was Dracula, making dramatic "vampire" (or what he considered to be) faces. He was in the middle of barring his teeth and making hissing noises when a voice interrupted them.
"Excuse me sirs, can I help you?"
Shane turned away from the mirror to see a middle-aged sales woman watching Dustin with a look of professional reserve that didn't quite cover up her amusement.
Well, at least she wasn't mad.
"Actually, we're looking for a gift for a friend of ours," Shane answered, taking advantage of the situation.
Based on the amount of scarves this store had if he and Dustin were left to their own devices (i.e., they would easily distract themselves) they would probably get out some time next Wednesday. And getting another woman to pick out a scarf for Tori would insure that it would be likeable, at least to her.
Ultimately, that was all that mattered.
"She likes blue," Dustin added solemnly, still clutching the edges of his "cape".
"Oh," Dustin added after a moment, "we want a showy one, not a…keep warm one."
The sales woman (her name tag read Shirley) nodded in understanding (impressive for someone who knew virtually no "Dustin speak") and allowed a small smile to spread over her face.
"I think we have just what you're looking for in the back room, I'll go grab them for you."
Before Shane could say anything Dustin replied, "Awesome," and with another nod Shirley was off, zipping away to a place that had even more scarves.
The dark teen gave the scarf section another once over. Maybe these were just the show models or something, and you couldn't actually buy them.
Dustin snapped him from his thoughts, "Back room man; that must be where they keep the good stuff."
Shane rolled his eyes and went back to looking, "I thought all of it was good stuff."
It was Dillard's after all.
Dustin thought about this for a second before replying, "Well maybe it's the shady stuff, like, black market scarves or something."
Shane could only raise an eyebrow in return before motioning to Dustin to continue looking. Sighing, his friend hung the "scarf" back up and starting digging through hangers of sparkling material. There were a few minutes of silence while they dedicated themselves to their task, not effectively, because neither one of them had a solid idea of what Tori would want, but they gave it their best try. So…it was frustrating, but in a way a lot of fun, because if you had to go shopping, you might as well do it with your best friend.
Shane should have known it was the calm before the storm.
"Oh, look at this one!"
Shane looked up from his rack to see Dustin admiring a very shiny, very fringy, and for lack of better word, a very gaudy looking scarf.
In other words, it was ugly.
If a gypsy scarf and a circus scarf had a baby and then if that baby got together with a clown scarf that was the descendent of a disco bandana and Vegas showgirl ascot and was dipped in glitter and covered in sequins but was somehow still fuzzy, that would be this scarf. Bold, clashing, and just plain awful.
"It's so shiny," Dustin whispered, holding it up and staring at all its details. So fascinated was he that he missed the look of growing horror that was on the red ranger's face.
Shane knew damage control was needed before things got out of hand. He quickly glanced at his rack again and pulled out a random scarf, a dark turquoise with silky thing and shoved it out to distract Dustin from his discovered treasure.
Maybe it wasn't too late.
Tori would kill him if he paid money for that, but if Dustin got too attached to it he'd whip out the puppy eyes and then if Shane ignored him he'd feel awful, and then he'd have to buy it, and the Tori would have to wear it and-
Goodness would not follow.
"What about this one?" he asked, speaking a little louder than usual. He ignored the questioning looks of a few startled passerby's.
His effort got Dustin to spare his scarf a brief glance before going back to being mesmerized by the world's ugliest scarf. So that answered the question of Dustin's attachment to it.
It looked soft, so if he did end up buying it he could always console Tori with that right?
He had a feeling she would still be mad.
Dustin slowly began to rub the scarf against the side of his face, humming in happiness.
Okay…if distracting him before he fell in love with it wasn't an option, Shane would simply have to find something he would like better.
And that Tori liked better.
He had almost forgot about that.
What would he like…what kind of…oh-
Shane spotted a thinner scarf with no trim, decked out boldly in floral prints of pink, yellow, green, and blue. Maybe he'd appreciate the colors.
"What about this?" he questioned, unfolding it to see the full thing. It was bold, and not terribly bad looking, and…well if Tori didn't like it he would just tell her what she could have gotten. By the time he looked back at Dustin the hideous scarf was around the yellow ranger's neck and he was playing with the fringe happily.
"Dude, check it out!" He exclaimed, motioning to the scarf and the mirror. "If I, can make this look good, Tori will look awesome," he finished excitedly, bouncing slightly in place.
So this hadn't gone the way Shane had hoped it would.
"It's so fringy!" Dustin added, twirling the excess material around in a circle.
He wondered how much in the hole this scarf was going to put him.
He needed…something. He needed a miracle, a savior, a distraction, a monster attack (where was Lothor when you needed him?). He needed a-
"What are you guys doing?"
That was not what Shane needed at all.
He frantically hoped that the voice had been in his head, and that he was really going insane, but if the wide-eyed look on Dustin's face was any indication the person they wanted to be here the least was standing right behind him.
"What does it look like we're doing?" He asked vaguely, turning and putting his best "We're doing normal stuff" look on.
Tori's face read amusement as she glanced back and forth between them. Shane elbowed Dustin so he would stop staring.
"It looks like you're shopping," she returned, hands on her hips. She only had one shopping bag herself but Shane couldn't see where it was from.
"That's what you generally do in a mall," he responded casually, trying to be as ambiguous as possible.
His smooth talking would be going a lot better if Dustin would stop fidgeting.
What do you do when your friend crashes your buying present party…for them?
In the few precious seconds he had he decided it would be best to end the conversation and get out of here.
"And you got sidetracked?" She offered, gesturing to the scarf around Dustin's neck. They both nodded excitedly, accepting her answer.
"Yeah," Dustin proclaimed, a little too enthusiastically, "we got…uh…"
"Sidetracked," Shane finished, throwing an arm over Dustin's shoulder as if to say "Oh how easily distracted we are, doesn't that make you fond of us".
Laugh if you will, but girls could read that kind of thing.
Tori seemed happy with that answer, and it looked like everything was going to be okay. They could all just leave and he and Dustin would come back another day, but that idea was trashed as out of seemingly nowhere Shirley reappeared with several scarves in each hand, all of which were blue.
Shane had to fight to not do a face palm.
"Here are a few I think your friend will like, they are some of our best sellers," She chirped cheerfully, undisturbed by the added member to their party. Shane had tried desperately to hate her for her untimely arrival but couldn't because in spite of Dustin's choice of neckwear she remained professional. In a way she almost seemed supportive of his choice without saying a word.
Either salespeople's job requirements were much more arduous then he had previously assumed or this Shirley was a magical one.
"Your friend?" Tori echoed, looking at them questionably.
Shane frantically searched his mind for an explanation; they had never said they weren't looking for scarves and-
"Cam!" Dustin shouted out before Shane could say anything.
There was an awkward moment of silence.
Shirley remained cheerful.
"…He said his neck was…cold, and I wanted to… get him a scarf," He finished, almost questionably.
So it didn't really make sense, but Shane decided to roll with it.
"This was the first rack we saw," he added, attempting to make their story sound legit.
He tried to ignore the glaring fact they were in the women's section.
"Do you like this one?" Dustin asked suddenly, gesturing to the ugly scarf around his neck.
Don't answer. Don't answer. Don't answer. He doesn't really want an answer-
"You're joking, right?" Tori responded incredulously, raising an eyebrow. Dustin opened his mouth to ask her what she meant by that (because there was no way she couldn't not like his favorite scarf) when Shirley, blessed lady that she was, picked up on what was going on and interrupted him.
"We have a wide selection of men's scarves, if you'll just follow me," she informed them. Shane was surprised to see that she had mysteriously whisked away any trace of the pieces of blue flighty material that she had been holding earlier.
It was settled, she was magic.
Shirley then ushered them away from the women's accessories (they had to pause for a moment so Dustin could say his goodbye to his beloved scarf) and into menswear to get a "proper" scarf for Cam.
Just like Shane, Tori had taken an instant liking to Shirley and walked beside her to ask various questions about what they had in stock and the sales that were going on and other things that no teenage boy in his right mind would care about so Shane started tuning out as soon as possible. He and Dustin trailed behind, finally relaxing after their close call earlier.
"Hey," Dustin whispered to him out of the side of his mouth, still facing forward. "Does this mean we can't get her a scarf anymore?"
"Yeah," Shane replied. "I think that idea's shot."
Dustin was silent for a moment before he asked, "So now what?"
Shane sighed, knowing there was only one answer.
"Now we get Cam a scarf."
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After running and re-running various diagnostic tests over all of the Wind's equipment Cam decided (after much deliberation) that he was having a good week. He almost dared to say it was phenomenal but had declined to do so in order to ensure his weekend would meet the same positive results. The process of relocating the Ranger's when they were on Toxipod's island had opened up several new doors for him to explore virtually, and his thorough inspection of each of these had advanced a great deal of the research he had been stuck on. That, and the specs he had received on the Thunder Ranger's Zords had left him in surprisingly good spirits. He was hopeful to carry his stroke of good fortune into Saturday, if he used his time productively he might (dare he think it) be able to take a day off.
Honestly he wasn't sure what he would do if he had a break, (training would be the most likely option) but the very aspect of time off was appealing.
Cam was well into writing another program for the wind morphers (to allow him to effectively communicate with them no matter their location) when one of the security sensors started chirping. He didn't bother switching his monitor to the camera feeds because he already knew who it was. He just hoped they wouldn't stay long. He liked them, of that there was no question, but he almost had this finished and a distraction was the last thing he needed.
Coffee, coffee was something he needed. And maybe a new mouse, those were things he needed now.
He could get those tomorrow, granted the Wind Rangers were willing it so.
Familiar footsteps echoed down the hall from the main room of Ninja Ops, the Winds customary chatter half-covering it up. The routine however was broken up with an almost-shout protest from Tori followed by the quick thumping steps of Dustin breaking ahead of the group, bursting into the lab and charging at Cam quickly.
He thankfully stopped before he slammed into Cam and stared at him blankly for half a second, staring frantically at the door and scratching his head wildly, clearly indicating to the lab tech that he was trying to think of a plan. For what, Cam didn't want to know. Eventually (by eventually he meant whenever Tori and Shane entered the room) Dustin had determined his course of action and jumped on top of Cam (who hadn't bothered to stand) and threw his arms around him in a hug.
Just as the tech was about to shove him off (he wasn't exactly light) Dustin whispered urgently, "Go along with it."
Then, as though that entire incident had never happened Dustin jumped back up and waved wildly at Shane and Tori, both of whom were watching him with great amusement.
"We have a surprise for you!" Dustin declared suddenly, gesturing to a bag in Tori's hand with enough enthusiasm for Cam to consider it overdramatic (even factoring in the yellow ranger's normal way of conducting himself). Tori, either unaware of Dustin's suspicious behavior or wasn't particularly bothered by it, gave him a fond look before stepping forward and holding the bag (from Dillard's by the printing) out for Cam to accept.
He received the bag cautiously, fighting his natural urge of suspicion in an attempt to "play along" with whatever Dustin had gotten him into.
A visual examination of Shane confirmed that he was "in" on it too, not that Cam had ever thought he wouldn't be.
It was Tori alone who was high and dry.
This better be a secret worth keeping.
He gingerly opened the bag and reached inside, his hand wrapping around something soft. Instantly he knew it was clothing. If this was their way of telling him they didn't like what he wore he was kicking them out of Ninja Ops and ignoring any other attempts at contact for the rest of the weekend. That included all status reports and Leonard mealtimes. His clothes weren't that bad, at least when compared to Dustin. If they were going to do a shopping intervention they needed to hit him first.
Pulling his prize out revealed that his new article of clothing was a winter scarf. Try as he might he could not fathom a reason he could possibly (or that Shane and Dustin could have thought) he'd need it. Sure, last week when the world was slowly freezing over it would have been a legitimate purchase, but that fiasco had passed and he was highly doubtful of a repeat performance.
So the real question was what did the scarf symbolize?
"Ta-Da!" Dustin cheered again, grabbing the scarf from him and wrapping it around his neck, something Cam would have tried harder to protest if he wasn't occupied with Dustin's reasoning behind whatever was transacting here.
"We got you a scarf! Now your neck will never be cold!" Dustin finished, draping his arm over his shoulder and flicking the ends of the scarf in a circle.
That would be the reason to get a scarf, I suppose.
After a moment of contemplation Cam finally determined a relatively safe reply, "…thank you."
Apparently this was the correct choice, because Shane whooped and Tori smiled wider before coming forward and hugging him.
"These two tried to find it all on their own but they couldn't even find the right section," She supplied cheerfully, resulting in smiles from Shane and Dustin that were a little too wide to not be forced enthusiasm.
Shane patted her back affectionately, trying to play it cool, "In our defense we thought there was only one."
"It was big enough," Dustin added, looking thoughtfully into the distance.
He was picturing it in his mind, Cam just knew it.
Tori rolled her eyes at them, smirking at Cam before informing, "They were in the women's section."
"A scarf's a scarf," Shane submitted casually just as Dustin murmured, "They're so shiny."
Tori, being as wise as she was decided to answer Shane, "No, it really isn't."
Then before he could protest she turned back to Cam, "Luckily I was already at the mall looking for cds. I found them on my way out."
"But you don't have any cd's," Dustin pointed out, looking at her questioningly.
Cam had noticed this as well.
"They didn't have the one's I wanted," she sighed. "It looks like I'll have to order them."
"You'll probably find a better deal anyway," Cam replied tersely. Despite his tone she smiled at him again, knowing full well he didn't mean it.
Enough however, was enough, and Cam wanted to know what exactly was going on. To do this though, he would need to get rid of Tori.
Just as he thought this Dustin, seemingly reading his mind, looked at his watch and burst loudly. "Dude, I gotta go, I have work in like, ten minutes!"
Cue Tori.
"Alright, I'll give you a ride," She comforted him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Goodbye Cam," she finished smiling at him one last time before ushering Dustin to the door.
Cam turned to look hard at Shane, indicating that he had some "s'plaining" to do.
Shane wilted a little under his stare. "You guys go ahead, I'll just…walk home," he finished lamely, and before Tori could question him Dustin pulled her out the door, and by the sound of it, down the hall and out of Ops.
Shane and Cam stared at the door in silence while the tech connected the dots in his head.
"So," he started finally. "You were trying to get a gift for Tori?"
That better be it.
Shane sighed before looking at him sheepishly. "Yes. But she found us halfway through and Dustin panicked."
"And now I have a new scarf."
The sheepish look grew. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."
"I'm sure it did," Cam replied sarcastically. He thought for a moment and then sat back down at his computer, opening up his browser. "Do you know what cd's she wanted?"
Shane came up behind him, leaning on the back of his chair much to his annoyance, "Yeah, something by a band called Eyeshine and another by Northern Dancer," he paused before adding, "I've never heard of either of them."
Fortunately that doesn't matter.
There was a few minutes of typing before the problem was settled. "Got it. They'll arrive at your house in two days," he looked back up at him. "Just give those to her and be done with it."
Shane tried to cover up his amazement at what had just occurred, choosing to shove his hands into his pockets nonchalantly.
"…That was a good idea," he finally answered.
Two thoughts immediately entered his head at that comment; Cam decided to answer with the slightly less obnoxious of the two.
"Better than yours."
The other had been, "Yeah, I know."
Because he did.
If they had come to him in the first place they could've saved themselves a lot of trouble. However, (and he couldn't believe he was defending them) he did get a scarf out of the experience, so from his position this was a gain.
Even if he'd never use it.
Shane smacked the back of his head lightly. "No one likes a smarty pants."
Cam batted his hand away in annoyance, "You did not just use the term smarty pants." He was willing to assume that quip was issued out of stress.
Shane waved his hand at him absently and began to make his way to the door, "Whatever man, I gotta go back to the mall."
"You already got-"
Shane cut him off. "It's not for Tori."
"Oh."
He knew he shouldn't bother asking partly because he (as he always did) already had a hunch as to what the answer was and partly because if the answer was what he thought it was he knew he couldn't help but to get involved.
But he was a sucker for punishment so he asked anyway.
"Dustin?"
Shane gave him a helpless look, "Yeah."
Cam sighed and unwrapped his "present" from around his neck, dropping it beside his keyboard before walking across the room to grab his keys.
"I'll drive you."
This wasn't a question but Shane was going to protest anyway.
"You don't have to-"
Oh, how surprising.
"Just get in the car," he cut off, already breezing past him and walking down the hall.
Shane caught up with him quickly, trailing behind him slightly but no longer objecting.
Cam supposed he could take his time off now.
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Shopping with Cam hadn't been as terrible an experience as Shane had thought it was going to be. He wouldn't say it was better, or even on the same level as shopping with Dustin (despite the distractions, no one made a better shopping partner than him) but he would definitely rank it higher than a shopping trip with his mom.
Shane couldn't help but shudder at the thought.
He was glad that the tech had been branching out of his comfort zone, actually reaching out to interact with them for non-ranger related business. It made the team function better, making them a more cohesive unit.
…Shane may or may not have been reading books on leadership. It seemed ridiculous at first but those things were helpful.
The change had been…nice, and if anything the incident on Toxipod's island had sped up the process. After they had gotten back (and the Thunder's had left) Cam had fussed over each of them individually, doing a thorough examination for injuries. He had insisted on running multiple scans over Dustin to ensure the effects of the steam were only temporary and had completely worn off. Shane couldn't express how glad he was for this at the time, because despite the fact that Dustin had laughed it off, he could still tell the curly-haired teen was relieved when he the results cam back clean.
Ever since then Cam had made a point of checking up on each of them at least once every day, demanding their location and physical status. While he was being more social he had also buried himself in work, making it so that he would never be out of touch with any of them again. For anyone else Shane would have viewed this obsessive need to observe their behavior as obnoxious, but this was Cam, and this was his odd way of showing them that he cared. As the only non-combatant on their team Shane respected that. If he was unable to help in the field he would have lost it by now out of sheer frustration.
Fortunately, Cam wasn't the same way.
Humorously enough Shirley was still on duty when he returned to Dillard's, and she waved at him as he walked back into the scarf section, not at all surprised by this turn of events because she was magic and she probably already knew it was going to happen anyway.
Cam (and just about everyone other person in the world) agreed that the scarf was the most hideous piece of clothing he had ever laid eyes on. "The bulldog of scarves" he said, but it didn't have the fortune to be ugly enough to be likeable.
A bulldog wearing the scarf, now that would be a sight to see.
Despite his comments, he didn't discourage Shane's purchase. He even pitched in for half, waving him off when Shane tried to argue (mostly out of principal because he had already bought the cd's). He would deny it all he wanted, but Shane was getting the feeling that Dustin was becoming Cam's favorite on the team. If he ever brought it up the tech would most likely pick Tori, but Shane knew better.
It was simply one of Dustin's gifts.
Glad as it made him, Shane couldn't help but feel a little odd about the transaction. Cam already had a strong bond with Tori before they had been rangers, and now that he was comfortable around Dustin Shane was beginning to realize he was still an outsider in the tech's book.
That was what was bothering him the most.
He was working to fix that, this trip was a start, but he needed to do more. Cam was a valued ally, but he would be an invaluable friend.
Well, he had to take it one step at a time.
After all, once you bought a scarf with a guy you could never really go back.
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Endnote:
To Rogue Ranger and ValkyrieNyght thank you, not only for you reviews, but for your thoughtful music suggestions. I couldn't pick between you so I just went for both. Much obliged.
As for your questions (and keep them coming when they hit you), yes, it will be a romance, I just want a very solid foundation of bromance before we get to the good stuff.
As for your other questions, they will be answered in time :)
Now, on to the story.
This chapter did not turn out quite how I wanted it to. When I came up with the plot for it I had such high hopes but then Shane (being the jerkface that he is) didn't feel like cooperating even though Cam was totally on board so I ended up with this. I also got kind of sick at looking at it, which is why I gave up and posted it.
This is also the first chapter (I believe) with absolutely no Dustin p.o.v. I don't know how I feel about that.
Until next time.