Breaking Space-time Chapter 13: Love Hopeless Causes, a power rangers fanfic

Chapter 13

Love Hopeless Causes

Love and thanks to the real vampire for lending her beta-ing might for the benefit of this story! You're a real gem, vamps :). Added thanks to Kei Luna Shoryu for additional beta-ing efforts and all around support – there seems to be no end to your enthusiasm and for that, I am grateful.

If you're looking for something else to read, try out the real vampire's 'My Brother's Keeper' or Kei Luna Shoryu's 'The Art of Cohesion'. Go on, you know you want to :D

-:-:-:-:-:-

Alex was not a great supporter of the newest development, but he had swallowed down his feelings on the matter and allotted them the respect they were due. Hunter's actions, while… uncomfortably close - too close to Alex's personal preferences - were actually incredibly helpful in their plight. It added a hint of sincerity and harmlessness to what would otherwise be two questionable individuals. Doing this, as little as Alex wanted to fuel that particular flame, was nothing but helpful.

And if they spiked the flickering warmth of arousal, a distant warning that continued to take Alex off-guard, that had little to do with the merit of Hunter's plan.

Because of this logic, Alex could not reject Hunter's idea. Initially, he had suspected the younger ranger was simply trying to rile him up, trying to poke and prod at whatever annoyances Alex might have left. He thought that Hunter, perhaps, was simply bored and had sought a new way to alleviate his boredom using the only outlet available. It was a reasonable conclusion, and yet-

There never seemed to be anything mocking to the blond's actions, and as they had ascended to better grounds - not exactly friendship, but at least an open-mindedness in regards to each other - Alex realized this could not be the case. Hunter respected him, or at least what they were doing, enough not to jeopardize it meaninglessly. And as the crimson ranger could not honestly be undertaking these pushes for intimacy from a desire to actually be close to Alex, that left only one option.

Unfortunately, the blond's logic only served to make Alex all the more fond of him.

Attracted. Alex was physically attracted to him- as would be reasonably expected, from such acts. But that wasn't why they were instigated, correct? Not for the warmth and comfort, trust that the hold would be returned, not for the feeling of welcome when it was accepted, but for practicality.

Not that – not that Alex wanted the motivation to be actual desire, or –

Alex was fooling no one, though he aimed, pleaded with his mind to try.

That attraction, that initial appreciation for Hunter's physique, was beginning to transcend into something different, something deeper and warm. It was like all the harsh edges of his perception of the blond were being cut away, dulled into something that almost seemed familiar, and in that familiarity, appropriately horrifying.

They were not truly friends, and while that was true, that fact could not fight the one time Alex had felt the beginnings of such emotions before.

It had been with Jen.

-:-:-:-:-:-

"You're pretty good at this. Done it before?"

Hunter, his eyes still fixed to the distance, cocked his head to the side in question, his fingers squeezing Alex's lightly. It was a subconscious effort, the brunette was sure, but it was hard to tell with Hunter.

Alex swallowed. "Once," he said. "With one person before, I mean."

Hunter nodded to indicate he understood the clarification. "You still together?"

"No," Alex said. Swallowed. He didn't have much of an explanation beyond that; not one he wanted to share, or even could share considering the limitations of maintaining a professional appearance. Treading the path of Jen-reminiscence would only end in folly. It was a trap Alex had fallen into far too many times in the past year, and one he could not- would not - spring again.

The idea of contemplating past failures only kindled a slight ache of shame now, and it wasn't something that seemed appropriate in Hunter's company. It didn't feel… right.

For once, the other ranger respected Alex's simple answer for what it was, refraining from demanding more details. The slender fingers tightened around his own, a brief squeeze, causing Alex to feel the rough calluses shift against his own battered skin. From repair work, maybe. Or perhaps it was a result of some kind of ninja training. Alex would have to ask later.

He would want- he wanted to ask later. There was no need for it.

It was a desire, a curious urge devolving from his interest in history.

That was normal. This was normal.

People did this all the time.

"May I ask how?"

It was said quietly, with no real kind of need. It was as casually presented as one would ask after the weather, and that was… kind. Hunter wanted to know, was interested, which was nice, but wanted to allow Alex a chance to retreat, should he require it, which was also courteous; he didn't want Alex to feel obligated-

It was a wealth of kindness.

Hunter would protest the description. He said he was realistic, no-nonsense.

He was these things too, but he was mostly generous and patient.

Odd, that Alex could not see these things before. Then again, he had a nasty habit of not recognizing what was in front of him until it had already past him by, unforgivably real and concrete against his own self-imposed conceptions.

Alex's breath stuttered, catching in his throat, but he didn't tense. He focused on the warmth and the calluses and the field in front of him and did not shake.

"It's-" he swallowed, shaking his head. He kept his eyes away from Hunter because he had to, he was doing his job – observing – but part of him was relieved for that excuse.

"It's complicated," he said at last. "I don't know if I can explain it."

Not here. Not justly.

It wasn't even a question if he should. At this point, Hunter had earned his answers, had earned the right to glean truths from the intimate aspects of Alex's life. It was the least the red Time Force ranger could offer him, really, after essentially kidnapping him. The least he could do.

Alex took a breath, trying to find the words to force this, to explain, when Hunter cut him off.

"Then don't," the blond said lightly.

Alex turned, but the crimson ranger wasn't looking at him – not in a way that was stubborn or annoyed – but simply as he had been before, carrying out his - their - duty.

He must have felt Alex's gaze, as Hunter turned to look at him, shrugging lightly. "Don't explain it."

Of all the things Alex had ever been offered – genuinely and truly offered – the prospect of not speaking was rarely awarded him. To keep to himself without penalty. People thought it encouraged a reclusiveness that his childhood had conditioned into him – Jen had always fought against it, not wanting Alex to shut her out.

Hunter gave him this olive branch with a twist of his lips, and then his gaze was gone, back on their job, back to the distance.

Alex desperately needed to stop drawing comparisons, but it was a rule he would have to enforce another day. For the moment, he accepted the silence, and tried not to tear up about it.

-:-:-:-:-:-

"Her name is Jen."

Alex was supposed to be writing a report – a compromise of clerical duties that had been instigated to grant them their rest periods at the Commander's abode, and while they had the one forgiving note of bringing Hunter some entertainment (the word 'bureaucracy snorted with a roll of his eyes) – Alex still loathed to do them. Mostly due to the conflict of taking him out of his mission-focused mindset even though he understood the need. It was better to give updates while the events were fresh in his mind.

Repetition and familiarity had made the work second-nature, incapable of holding his entire attention, which gave the declarations that had been dancing on the tip of his tongue, twisting in his gut, easier access to freedom.

It wasn't relevant; Hunter didn't need to know it, but part of Alex felt inclined to share regardless. Not as compensation for the blond's patience, but…trust, maybe.

Yes, it was trust. Trust strengthened bonds, and strong teams worked more efficiently.

It was the mantra Alex tried to sell himself on, even if the mild twist of Hunter's lips into a frown wanted to coerce him otherwise.

Perched on the far side of the bed, Hunter was the picture of domestic bliss - instilling a semblance of order in the crumbled pile of clean clothes heaped inside the laundry hamper at his feet. There was a stack of t-shirts folded into conservative rectangles across the foot of the bed – as much of a concession to organization as the ninja was willing to give. In turn for his efforts, he made no attempt to separate Alex's clothes from his own. That duty was left to the brunette – though there was a slight possibility that Alex happened to misplace some of his shirts in the blond's drawers on occasion. If Hunter stubbornly refused to return the offending garment until it had been used – as his own, of course, being in his drawer – then that was simply a quirk for Alex to endure.

Such occurrences may have been more frequent than Alex's usual attention-to-detail should allow, but Hunter seemed to find it more amusing than aggravating. Rather, Hunter seemed to interpret the situation as aggravating for Alex, but took no preventative measures.

It was a blessing, a relief Alex should acknowledge, and yet he found himself continuing to push the boundaries of respectable behavior. The picture of Hunter in oversized shirts, collars hanging crookedly on his narrow frame-

This should tell the brunette something, a kind of foreboding for the future, but he-

It was irrelevant.

"It was- we both agreed," Alex found himself stumbling over the words. His vision began to blur the harder he stared at his mission report, willing some kind of calm, centering focus to return. "It didn't work anymore."

There was so much more to it than that; how Jen had found Wes, how Wes had- he had risen into this person that was so much more than Jen had expected, who met what she deserved and more. They functioned in a tragic way, displaced by time, but even with that thousand year barrier, their affection – their love – had never wavered.

Jen didn't settle just because regulations had forced her to stay in one time period and Wes another, and she didn't disregard what had happened for Alex's sake.

It- how would Hunter put it? It 'was what it was'.

Part of the reason Alex had shut down so much when he had returned, when he had reclaimed his morpher, was because he had known. He'd recognized it on the monitors when Jen herself could not see the fondness she held. Alex had something to prove, he wasn't Wes, Wes wasn't him – and that had been the entire breaking point.

At the end of the day, Wes was who Jen wanted and Alex wasn't.

He had been loved, Alex knew that. Jen hadn't faked it, but it wasn't the same kind of love. It wasn't the kind of relationship Jen needed to thrive.

Jen didn't need someone she had to coax through life; she didn't need to lead on the battlefield and then back at home, guiding someone through the personal hurdles of living that everyone else seemed to naturally adapt to. That was Alex's failing, not hers.

Jen had been patient beyond reason. She had been his first real friend and, despite the course of their relations, she always would be.

How someone could put that into words, Alex didn't know.

It made him wonder why he had even brought it up. Surely, if he could not offer Hunter a satisfactory explanation the blond would be irritable. As though Alex were taunting the ninja-

"It was good though, right?"

Alex blinked, his gaze pulled from the fists clenched in his lap to the other side of the room. He was still angled away from Hunter, the blond safe out of sight behind his back, but he could feel the crimson ranger's attention like a laser beam, hot and deadly accurate against his neck.

"While you had it," Hunter continued, his voice light. "It was good?"

There wasn't anything naturally antagonistic about the question, no hidden meanings. It was, as far as Alex could tell, Hunter's version of consolation. Comfort by being casual, by maintaining the status quo.

Alex swallowed around the lump in his throat, torn between the listless feelings inspired in him by Jen and the other ranger's surprising generosity.

"The best," Alex replied.

That he had known, and that – he must admit – he would ever know.

There wasn't much more to say about it than that.

-:-:-:-:-:-

It changed without really changing, and Alex suspected that was part of the problem.

Routine was a comfort, but complacency was a danger – and while Alex knew that better than any person his age had a right to, the concept still managed to take him by surprise. Later, he would justify it, that as two veteran rangers it was reasonable to expect them to be more aware of their surroundings, but in the moment-

The moment had been terrifying, a fear so raw and overpowering that it had rendered Alex incapable of breathing as the possible ramifications washed over him.

There were many rules- etiquette, to be followed. There was procedure, there were tactics, there was stealth to be enforced and blending to be done and the constant reminder of no touching, no talking, no excessive interacting, that hung over their every action as they traversed through time. Those were inherent, those were clear.

For Hunter and Alex specifically though, there had been one rule that was held above all others, one rule that they had never been required to address, that they never needed to speak of. They didn't have to because it was just simply known.

And in one second – a length in which the world could change – they had both simply forgotten it.

Alex couldn't even remember what they had been doing at the time – waiting, most likely. It seemed like they were always waiting. It was one aspect of the job Time Force didn't advertise, even though it proved to be nearly integral to just about every mission they ran. Time travel wasn't an exact science, it was difficult to determine the correct trajectories just to get you in a safe landing area – ascertaining the most appropriate time for transport required a mastery of entirely different skills altogether, and an agent could often be expected to be teleported to his assigned period some time in advance. Safety came first for such a delicate process, and it was better to wait than to risk missing the periods that needed immediate intervention.

This mission had more than demonstrated an exercise for patience – the waiting game even more particular in the wake of their untraditional method of time transportation. They could have hours to wait after finishing a mission objective, or they could have spare seconds. Despite Hunter's grumbling that seemed to beg to the contrary, it was not something that could be helped, and they had learned to keep themselves primarily entertained in the intermittent areas of downtime.

During that day's session, Hunter was demonstrating some of his fighting forms in a languid, graceful flow. It reminded Alex of this era's fighting style 'Tai Chi', though he had learned not to mention the similarity to Hunter. It would only lead to more lectures, and for once, Alex was eager to listen to Hunter's current tirade.

"Lightning's fast," he was saying, his eyes shuttered with focus. "But you've got to keep your movements smooth to control it. It's kind of the opposite of what you'd be expecting, but to transfer it you have to be sure, not tentative." He turned, dragging his leg around in a slow arc on the ground before him, gradually turning his torso to match that direction, his arms up. "This is one of the first things Thunder students are taught at the Academy. If they have the patience for it, they get to advance to elemental training."

"And if they don't?" Alex prompted from his position at the edge of the clearing, leaning against a tree.

Hunter snorted. "Then we shuck them off to the Wind Academy; they love hopeless causes."

Alex cocked his head to the side. "Weren't your teammates considered…?"

"Yep." Hunter smiled, but it was genuine and friendly. "Good thing they've got me and Blake; they would be tragically lost without us."

"Truly." Alex returned the smile. It was nice, this. Having these moments without worrying about potential offense was pleasant.

Alex may even come to admit that they could be one of his favorite parts of these missions, but as Time Force didn't require opinions on reports that would be a secret he kept to himself.

"Maybe you'll get to meet them one day. From a distance, I mean." Hunter curled his hands until they formed small cups. Alex followed the movements of his slender fingers, illuminated in random splashes of sun that filtered through the trees around them. "As far as teammates go, they're pretty great. Except Cam, but hey, can't have everything right?"

Alex nodded his head, considering, though he didn't actually know. He had never gotten to work with a team beyond the support units that operated under him for capturing time criminals. It didn't seem to count in the same way as Hunter's team did, based on his stories, so Alex could only imagine what their interactions would be like. He supposed distaste between two members could only be an eventuality – it would be difficult to expect perfect cohesion with such a high stress occupation.

"He's kind of like you," Hunter continued, turning away from Alex. "But like, worse in every way. Alright, so he isn't a lot like you, but he likes organization and being an asshole, so he's kind of like first-impression you."

"That was what you took away from our first meeting?" Alex raised both eyebrows, considering this. It wasn't surprising, in retrospect, though the thought did sting a little. Were Alex to indulge in such useless-

As though reading his mind, Hunter waved him off. "Don't sweat it. Now I've come to understand the soft and squishy inside of one Alex Collins."

"I hope you mean in a figurative sense."

Hunter flashed him a smirk. "The literal sense had to wait until you were sleeping."

"I feel better off not knowing what that entails," Alex deadpanned, and Hunter had to pause his exercise to throw his head back and laugh.

"See," the blond said once the laughs petered out into chuckles. "This is what I meant. Now, we're cool – but unlike you and I, Cam never got the memo that maybe not-being-terrible was good for friendship, so here we are."

"Maybe he's just not certain how to proceed?" Alex offered. He had faced similar problems.

In truth, the only reason he succeeded in winning Hunter's approval to this point was because of Mr. Park's intervention. Alone, Alex hadn't stood a chance.

"Or maybe he just sucks," Hunter countered with a flick of his head. "Don't worry about it, we still work together fine. You just won't see us sitting down for any movie nights anytime soon."

"A true tragedy," Alex tried to offer this with sincerity, but based on the shameless grin Hunter flashed his way, he knew he had not succeeded. Were it up to the blond, every one of the Commander's impromptu 'Movie Nights' would feature a Star Wars movie of some kind, and Alex could only take so many impersonations of the green Yoda goblin before resigning himself to the peaceful silence of the guest room.

Apparently in Hunter's opinion, it was hysterical – but thankfully Mr. Park had insisted on taking turns for movie selection, to the relief of Alex and the Commander.

Despite the Commander's many protests, however, Alex noted that a small figurine – modeled after one of those… storm troopers? – showed up on Hunter's designated side table upon their next return trip. Alex may have subtly taken a picture of the thunder ninja's ecstatic reaction upon its discovery, saving it away in one of the personal, hidden files on his datapad, but he would deny it if ever questioned. It was research, clearly. Documentation for his mission records.

"Just for that, we're watching the Phantom Menace again when it's my turn," Hunter taunted, his voice a satisfied song. "Jar Jar Binks for everyone."

"Surely a beast so ineffectual would have succumbed to natural selection," Alex bemoaned. Even now, the very concept of Jar Jar Binks baffled him. "How could he continue to survive?"

Hunter paused again to laugh, this time bent in half, hands resting on his knees in an effort to collect himself. "See, the funny thing is that you're not joking."

"Why would I be joking?"

Hunter swiveled his head towards him, his face flushed with exertion. "Because it's fiction. But you know what, never change Alex. You're perfect just the way you are."

Alex found himself floundering, lost under the casual praise. In an effort to restore normality, he sputtered the first thing he could think of, "First-impression Hunter would disagree with you."

"Yeah, well." Hunter stood up with a gradual pull, bending backwards to stretch out his spine, hands propped on his hips. "First-impression Hunter was kind of a douchebag, so what does he know? Rhetorical question," Hunter added before Alex could throw together a response. "But speaking of real questions, how much time do we have left before we're teleporting out of here? I've got-"

The words phased out as Alex glanced down at his modifier, his heart shuddering to a stop when he made sense of the timer. He looked up, Hunter angled away now, still talking, babbling – and ran.

It was ten feet, only ten feet. That was nothing in the grand scheme of things. With Hunter's agility, the distance may as well be non-existent. Alex was certain Hunter could clear more than ten feet in a single leap, could do that 'ninja dashing' thing he had spoken of before. He could perform a shadow battle and cross the distance in less than a second – flitting from one place to another before you could finish blinking.

Hunter was speed incarnate, but Hunter wasn't looking at Alex.

The brunette didn't have time to weigh calling out to the blond versus running, didn't have time to convey that they were done, he didn't have time-

"-and I'm calling first dibs on the shower now. I don't care how- oof." Hunter's surprise gave way to a series of curses when Alex tackled him, knocking the blond clean off his feet mid-rant.

He was twisting even before they had hit the ground, instinctively curling to lessen the impact. His lips were set in a frown, displeased in almost every way.

The world disappeared around them in a flash of brilliant light. They landed unceremoniously on the green lawn of the Commander's backyard, a clumsy tangle of limbs and groans.

For a moment they paused, riding the after-effects of the transport. Alex's chest was heaving – unreasonably so; it had been a short run, though quickly instigated. He made a mental note to work on his cardio and pledged to be more aware of the modifier's count-down timer. He had barely reached Hunter in time.

Said crimson ranger extracted himself from Alex's uncoordinated sprawl before the brunette had managed to reorient himself – before Hunter was reoriented too, based on the way he stumbled, clutching his head.

Alex had missed it, couldn't remember the feeling of landing on top of Hunter, though he somehow noted the loss between the headache of time transport and berating himself.

"So," Hunter muttered, making his way towards the back porch on unsteady feet. "That-" The blond vaguely gestured towards the patch of dirt they had landed on. "-didn't happen."

Alex stared at his retreating back the entire walk to the door, but Hunter never looked behind him.

It was an uncomfortably familiar gesture.

-:-:-:-:-:-

"Have you ever thought that maybe we're the saboteur?"

Alex paused but consciously did not tense. Their relationship was steady enough nowadays that Alex could tell the question was a legitimately thoughtful one, as opposed to an instigator, as it would have been at the beginning of the mission.

"Think about it," Hunter continued, his voice low and deceptively casual as he leaned against the brick wall, the hood of his sweatshirt pulled over his messy hair, shadowing his eyes. "We haven't seen any suspicious future-like people lurking around in any of these places."

"We're behind them," Alex replied automatically. This he knew by heart. "We're playing catch-up."

"Yeah." Hunter nodded, but there wasn't anything challenging about it. His eyes, from what Alex could see, were staring blankly into the distance, his mind occupied with tackling this newest inquiry. "But all the stuff we've been doing…or, the stuff they've been 'breaking', it seems to me…" He trailed off with a frown. His jaw moved, teeth catching his bottom lip in a poor habit of annoyed consideration. Alex tried to keep his gaze from lingering, tried to-

"It seems to me like all this stuff was fine." Alex's attention snapped back to Hunter's face as the blond continued, and something like guilt and relief flooded him – immediately dismissed on the merits of existing at all when they shouldn't. In the meantime, Hunter kept talking, "Like, who goes out of their way to fix all this stuff? Are they really that good with machines of the past? Your saboteur is some kind of technical prodigy? Or was the stuff never really broken at all?"

"I believe you have to be a minor to be considered a proper prodigy."

When Hunter's gaze flicked over to him, there was a flash of amusement in his gaze – maybe fond – no, before he was back to business. "I'll keep in mind your engrained predilection towards a minor's incapability to perform time-crimes. That's some kind of discrimination, right?"

"Of a sort," Alex nodded, conceding the point with a flush. He didn't really possess the faculties to argue lightly. Not with– it wasn't necessarily that Hunter had a point, it was just difficult not to come around to it, now that Hunter had called attention to it.

It was a great deal more difficult to fix things than it was to break them. Most of the things they had done– now that he thought back on them – seemed more like the options of the original manipulator, instead of the secondary correctors that they were supposed to be acting as.

Hunter allowed the bantering distraction with a wry twist of his lips, then moved on. "Look, I'm not ragging on your employers or anything, but what if this was something different, right? What if it got to the point where they realized a whole bunch of weird stuff was supposed to go down that didn't. Like that guy having all of his travel documents together, or that girl not finding out her coworkers are power rangers, or all this stuff actually working the first time around instead of giving up in a fit of despair because Time Force ordered you to go at it with a screwdriver and unskilled enthusiasm?"

Alex flushed; the screwdriver in question tucked into his back pocket from their latest expedition – sneaking into some garage-hideout to break a wheel-contraption made by this era's blue ranger. Neither of them had been able to determine what exactly it was supposed to do, but a few well-placed blows from a utility tool–

It had been sparking by the end of it, and that was all that mattered, Alex supposed.

"Just, think about all this stuff that history has said happens that for some reason, you know, hasn't – and maybe they go all defcon seven up there, because their current reality depends on what's-his-face missing his space-plane."

"Shuttle," Alex automatically corrected.

Hunter rolled his eyes. "My point is, if that actually happened, their hands would be tied, right? Because they're not supposed to mess with things unless someone else tries to fuck with them first. So maybe in their super-panicked, must-maintain-the-time-integrity state, they come up with a plan. They decide that maybe there's this person/monster/bad guy who is just on the slightest side of fictional running around and making all these 'manipulations' to the time stream, and clearly they have to send out their best and brightest with limited information and a whole bucket list of broken stuff to fix, because that's how they deal with bad guys."

There was a lot of that statement on which Alex should have focused, but for some reason his mind was stuck on- "You think I'm the best?"

"And the brightest," Hunter replied without hesitation. "It just makes more sense, with what we've been doing. With why they don't care that I'm tagging along too. Two for the price of one, right? Two guys doing the work they need for a bad guy they don't have, and history is double-fixed."

"That's not how it works."

The blond tilted his head back, eyes searching the holographic sky displayed on the city's protective dome high above them, a smile tugging at his lips. "I know, they've probably got fancier terminology for it–"

"I meant, that's not how our procedure works." Alex tried not to sound panicked as he said it, tried not to – tried to keep calm and level and casual, as Hunter had; this wasn't a conversation with stakes – but there was a tightness in his chest and throat, a sudden weight in his stomach, that threatened otherwise. "We can't, they can't do that. Make up a mission. There's too much-" Regulations, rules, laws, they couldn't–

And he couldn't take this out on Hunter for posing a question, an intellectual pondering that had, as far as Alex could tell, plenty of merit.

He swallowed around the uncomfortable feeling in his throat, hating the sudden tension that plagued Hunter's shoulders, and tried to gather his thoughts.

"We had an agent once." Hunter's expression of surprise was almost humorous with its sudden appearance; clearly he had been expecting a lecture, as opposed to an anecdote. "He– they had stayed in the field too long," he explained. "Initially, we didn't have limits for how long someone could be out, but this – this changed that. There was an event; I don't know all the details, it was before me, but he – they had tried to save someone or something or–"

Alex swallowed, but his mouth tasted like sandpaper, dry and unyielding. "They altered something without permission," Alex continued quietly. "Something that couldn't be undone. No one will go into details, but he-"

Alex breathed in slowly, eyes closed to block out the intensely inquisitive gaze of Hunter Bradley.

"The damage was unforgivable." His eyes were turned towards his shoes when he opened them; a safe, comforting picture. "Their actions had eradicated at least a dozen different bloodlines. The agent was recalled immediately but-" Alex shook his head. It didn't help; didn't lessen the feeling of Hunter's eyes pinned on him, only him. "The agent was tried and convicted for serial murder. The first – and only – member of Time Force to be locked in our own-"

He cut off with a shake of his head, too loaded down with thoughts of secret missions and betrayal and subterfuge.

"We cannot proactively make alterations," Alex said, nodding, confirming. "We can only correct. It's like being a ranger; we defend, not initiate."

"That makes sense." There was no criticism in Hunter's eyes when the brunette looked over, but the crimson ranger could hold the best of his concerns to his chest with an ease that almost hurt. It didn't really promise much of anything.

A second later, Alex's fear was confirmed with a generous roll of the blond's eyes.

"Can't help thinking they made up a boogeyman though." Hunter leaned back against the wall in a boneless slump, showing a weariness Alex wasn't sure he truly felt. "Like, 'Don't end up like him, don't be a murderer you well-intending time-people'."

"They wouldn't do that."

"You don't know the details though." Hunter had both eyebrows raised and this, Alex knew, was a challenge. "You, Mr. On-top-of-it-all."

"It was classified," Alex argued. "We only knew enough-"

"To be aware of the consequences?" Hunter returned, face blank. "To know not to do that?"

Alex was caught between 'yes' and 'never', because they wouldn't – As much as Time Force did, they wouldn't –

But companies, militaries, and organizational groups throughout all of time had been doing that. Implementing scare tactics on their own to avoid unnecessary grievances. Why would Time Force be different? Sarge had seemed so certain, so deadly serious when he had dispensed these secrets too, and maybe he had believed them– maybe he had–

Mutiny and disobedience. What was he thinking?

"They wouldn't do that," Alex said simply. It was all he had.

Even if Hunter allowed him silence this time – begrudgingly; the way he had read the line of Alex's patience should probably be something worth more attention from the brunette. Still, it didn't stop the churning feeling in Alex's gut.

For once, they had exited an argument in which the blond's points were based merely on logic, and Alex's could only stand on loyalty and dedication to a mission, reason be damned.

Maybe he had been traveling for too long.

Or maybe Hunter was right.

-:-:-:-:-:-

The place Alex had chosen for them to rest wasn't ideal; at least, not in the comfortable sense, but it was off the beaten path in a long abandoned area, so for his given necessities it was pretty much perfect. Of course, when choosing a place to hole up that affected the time stream the least, you were bound to miss out on a few basic luxuries like… heating. It wasn't unbearable; the place was dry, if dusty, and provided a solid roof over their heads. There were even a stockpile of blankets Hunter had discovered in the midst of his scathing critique of Alex's chosen sleeping quarters.

The other ranger complained a lot, sure, but he hadn't tried to convince Alex to shift his target elsewhere, so his grievances were probably out of a desperate need to fill the silence as opposed to actually protesting. If Alex truly considered it, he thought that the thunder ninja was putting on a front to mask the fact that he missed the Commander's abode. Alex did not fault him for this; the guestroom was a preferable resting area to a warehouse any day, but unfortunately it was not a transport that Trip could manage for them at this time.

Hunter had taken the news with more grace than Alex had expected, but he countered this maturity with a running commentary of the warehouse's facilities. It wasn't that bad, but when night had fallen, leaving them in total darkness, the temperature had dropped rather drastically.

It was, in Hunter's words, "Dick-freezing cold".

To this point, Alex has found himself unable to disagree with this assessment.

It was frigid; even with the two of them huddling together (an action they had silently agreed not to draw attention to), and keeping to the less drafty areas, it was cold. Hunter's pile of blankets was doing its very best to maintain a base level of warmth, a commendable effort, but it did little to fight off the dropping temperatures. Sleep, something they both desperately needed, was becoming an elusive prey. It was difficult to lull off into dreamland when your teeth kept chattering and your face had surrendered to being a numb, biting mess.

As a member of Time Force, Alex had been trained with at least a basic understanding for surviving in extreme temperatures, both hot and cold. While a majority of his work tended to occur more in an urban environment, Time Force felt it was important for its agents to be prepared for even the most unlikely situations. On the offhand chance their backs were ever forced against the metaphoric wall, at least they would have the small comfort that the organization employing them had provided a three hour seminar.

There was always the minuscule probability they would have to recall that knowledge, which was what Alex was doing now, trying to review the details for conserving warmth.

Layers were important, Alex remembered that much. They had that much, with their long abandoned blankets. Keeping dry was important too, but that had more to do with situations involving snow, which was not something they had to worry about in the abandoned warehouse with seemingly no insulation. A majority of body heat escaped from the head, the reasoning for their muffled breathing, blankets covering their entire bodies, and from the feet as well, which was why neither of them had opted to remove their shoes. It might have been mildly uncomfortable, but at this point, all discomfort was becoming relative to the relentless pinpricks of cold.

The last thing Alex remembered, only applicable if you had two or more people, was sharing body heat.

In extreme cases, such as hypothermia, direct skin-to-skin contact was required to properly share body heat.

Right now, Alex would just settle for sharing side-of-arm heat.

It was the best they could do, given the size of the blankets. Ideally, being curled up would have been the best position to conserve heat, but the blankets didn't provide enough coverage to allow the both of them, Hunter tall and gangly and Alex…well, Alex, so they settled for laying side by side, squeezed as close as propriety would let them on the only section of the floor that still had carpeting left. Sure, it didn't do much by way of comfort, but it outshone the rest of the hard, concrete flooring by a landslide. An easy choice.

An easy choice among other easy choices they hadn't gotten around to addressing just yet.

Alex knew Hunter wasn't asleep because he had been listening for the teen's breathing, straining to hear if it had evened out into a slow, prolonged lull that depicted unconsciousness. He had been hoping, vainly, that the blond had some other ninja technique that aided him with sleeping or maybe a quiet meditation, Alex didn't care which, that would allow the Time Force Ranger to make his move. Alas, it seemed Hunter's pride did not extend to rest techniques, and the blond was awake beside him, body tense in a stubborn attempt to stop the tremors from running through him.

Phenomenal.

He would just have to wait the blond out then, because there was no way in hell Hunter was going to see reason on his own. They were close, but they would never truly be that close. There was no need for it now, and Hunter didn't have to practice to get Alex accustomed to the intimacy (as he did when the brunette was cooking sometimes), and he-

Alex had been in the middle of convincing his mind to fade away to a place that was – if not happy, at least bearable, when Hunter began shifting beside him. Not, in itself, a surprising occurrence. Movement created friction and heat, it stirred circulation, it gave your mind something to think of that wasn't so-cold-so-cold-so-coldcoldcoldcoooooooooooold-

So Alex could admit, quite easily, that he was surprised when the blond's movements stopped abruptly with a turn instead of an irritated sigh, and then the left side of Alex's body felt a reprieve from the onslaught of cold.

Inside, Alex celebrated. Hurray warmth.

The party ended when he felt the warmth continue spreading and the reasoning behind this being Hunter, finally having enough of this business, taking matters into his own hands. The blond curled into Alex's side and rested an arm across his waist, head shoved underneath Alex's chin and deftly hooking a leg around Alex's left, pulling him flush to the older ranger's body.

For a second, just one, Alex tensed up, unused to having someone so near to him (not when Hunter was awake at least, the other times had been accidents, habits-), a boundary that hadn't been crossed since he and Jen had-

Since… her, and even after her there hadn't been many others, nothing he could stomach the fear of rejection for. That fact alone should have made this experience that much more painful and humiliating.

And then the second passed and the warmth radiated outwards, coaxing life into his abused limbs, and Alex, as easily as Hunter had, went with it.

He wrapped his arms around the teen instead of commenting on the mess of hair jutting below his chin, disregarding any feel of it that didn't have to do with temperature.

"We say nothing of this," Hunter warned, voice low and threatening retribution.

Alex nodded instead of answering, feeling like it was the appropriate response. If it wasn't, Hunter had no complaints.

Sleep came much easier after that.

But it had been a necessity, not a pleasure.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Endnotes:

The referenced wheel sabotaged by Alex's screwdriver is from Power Rangers RPM episode 21, 'Not So Simple'.

Until next time :)