Note:
* Cynthia is the Godmother of this fanfic, I do so proclaim! ;) Yup, it was her
challenge that did inspire this little piece of work and she has also helped me
when certain characters *cough, Maya, cough* chose not to write themselves.
*winks* Also, Suzy beta-read this fic for me in record time. So thank you to
both Cynthia and Suzy. :)
Written By: WhiteZeo
"You're kidding?!" Maya laughed gleefully, leaning back against the trunk of the tree she was sitting in. "Which two?"
The Wolf Galactabeast, to who Maya had been chatting with, growled and grunted a reply with something resembling a grin spread across its mouth.
"No!" Maya gasped in surprise, also grinning now. "Lion and Wildcat?"
Her zord nodded an anxious and happy answer to the Yellow Ranger's question.
Maya jumped down from her perch on a branch high up in the tree and laughed, gazing up at her friend. "Wait 'til Leo and Karone hear about this!"
*****
"...nine, ten! Ready or not, here I come!" Leo Corbett announced loudly, lifting his head up from his arms. Slowly, climbing from the chair he had been sitting in, he glanced around the empty-looking park.
"Where is everyone?" he feigned a bit of confusion, and when he did a few giggles emerged from behind a bush a few feet away from him. Leo grinned to himself in silent triumph. "Now," he crept towards the bushes and peeked behind them to see two children crouching, trying to stifle their giggles, "see! I found you!"
The two children tried running away, but Leo scooped them up into his arms and swung them around once before setting them down on the grass. They scurried away giggling, as the young man went on with his job of finding the rest of the hiding kids.
"Yoohoo!" he cupped his hands around his mouth and hollered. He spotted three more kids behind a park bench and moved towards them, trying not to let on that he knew where they were. "Come out, come out wherever you are!"
Creeping on his tiptoes, Leo stealthy surprise the little children by crying out, "Here you are!"
"Hey!" one little girl climbed up on the bench and stood nose to chest with the Red Galaxy Ranger. "You cheated!"
"What?!" Leo sputtered out in shock, laughing.
Before the girl could answer, an older voice called out, "Molly! Time to go!"
Leo spun around to see a group of parents heading towards them, while most of the kids started jumping out of their hiding places and ran to meet their parents. "Bye!" he waved good-bye to all of his little friends, while some of the parents and children also waved good-bye.
Once they had all gone and the small area of the park where they had been playing was pretty sparce, Leo sighed and plopped onto the ground happily. "Looks I won the game today," he chuckled softly to himself, running a hand through his hair.
For a minute or two, he just sat there musing upon the day's events when a whisper gently caressed his ear. "You haven't found me yet..." the voice trailed off in a teasing manner.
A slow, deliberate grin curved onto his lips. "You know that really drives me crazy," he remarked, his voice soft and smooth. "It's not fair. You have magic and I don't."
"Deal with it," the feminine voice retorted playfully. "If you come and find me...I'll stop."
Leo did as the voice demanded of him and stood up off the ground, brushing some of the grass off of his jeans. "Where are you?"
"Leo, we're playing 'Hide and Seek'. The point is for you to find me without telling you!"
"Oh, alright," he relented with a small laugh, as he started looking around the area for his hiding friend. He wandered around the small area for a few minutes, looking behind each tree, bush and bench and didn't find her. "I give up!" he exclaimed with a sigh, falling onto his back underneath a tree. He gazed upwards, and then let out a whoop of laughter.
Up in the branches of the tree was the elusive Karone.
"You didn't look hard enough," she teased, jumping from the tree and landing directly beside Leo's lying form. She kneeled beside him and gently brushed his bangs away from his forehead with her fingers.
"You always say I don't look hard enough," Leo whispered gently into her ear, pulling Karone down to lay beside him. He took her hand into his own, caressing it softly.
"And you always complain about it," she murmured back, rolling her hand through his hair, gently messing it.
They both were silent for awhile, relishing the loving touches each was giving the other. Then slowly, Leo slid him arm around Karone's waist, pulled her in closely and kissed her passionately. Karone had expected the gesture and quickly retaliated by returning the kiss full-force with her own equal passion.
The two rolled around in the grass like mad lovers for a long time, kissing each other anywhere they could find a piece of bare skin. Soon enough, Karone pulled away and rested against Leo's chest. Her breath ragged, she murmured softly, "Maybe we should go somewhere?"
*****
Karone brushed her lips gently against the base of Leo's neck and his eyes slowly flickered open to stare up at the clear ideal blue sky of the Ocean Dome. Gradually, he could feel her lips glide up the side of his neck and jaw. "Hey, Sleepyhead," she murmured with a sweet smile, her tongue drawing along his lips.
Leo grinned happily, planting a kiss upon her forehead. "Hey to you too," he whispered softly, slipping her arm around her bare back. He sighed in content as blonde wisps of her hair flew upwards, stroking his cheek.
The two laid quietly on the beach for a long time, until Karone finally blinked in confusion and looked down at herself. "What is going on here?!" she shrieked wildly, jumping off of Leo's body and onto the sand.
Startled by the Pink Ranger's scream, Leo also glanced at himself and Karone, a sudden light dawning upon him. He slowly sat up, reaching behind himself to sweep the sand off of his back. "We were playing Hide and Seek, I kissed you and we came here..." he trailed off, blushing a powerfully bright red. "Oh, no...I can't believe it."
Karone, who had instantly run to retrieve her clothes, stood a few feet away from him. "Well, believe it!" she retorted while struggling to squeeze herself back into her leather pants. "It MUST have happened...I mean, both of us were nude, TOGETHER."
Leo shook his head, still somewhat dazed at the entire thought of him and Karone being...intimate with one another. "Look, I don't know what actually compelled me to kiss you, but I'm sorry," Leo apologized in a flustered fashion, running his fingers through his hair over and over again. "I'm sorry about this entire...incident."
"I'm sorry too," she replied, now slipping her leather top back on and tying it. "It wasn't only you back there. I could have pulled away from the kiss, but I simply didn't. It was like I wasn't in control at all," the former villainess mused lightly, thinking back to the moment when Leo had kissed her.
"Same thing here," he piped up with a deep sigh. "I just wish I could go back and stop it all. Everything is going to be all awkward now..."
Now fully dressed, Karone locked her solemn gaze upon Leo as he sat there gazing off into the horizon, completely confused and screwed up. He was cute...in that boyish way, and she did like him. But she wasn't ready for any type of relationship or commitment. Coming off of her broken engagement with Zhane...she hadn't wanted to deal with the complexities of men and sex for awhile, but she ended up having to. What was worse was she KNEW that this had been Leo's first time...
"Leo, you had better get dressed before anybody comes out here and sees you," she finally spoke up softly, tossing Leo's red tank top in his direction. He slowly turned to look at her. "I'm going to get going, alright?"
Leo nodded mutely, returning his eyes to the ocean. Karone frowned to herself sadly, picking up her boots and running up the shore to the paved path that led out of the Ocean Dome. They had teleported to the dome earlier and Karone almost thought about teleporting out of there herself, but decided on walking instead.
She needed time to think.
*****
Leo could hear Karone run up to the path as her feet kicked up the sand and carried her away. Once he could no longer hear her, he grabbed his clothes and put them back on. Slowly, he began to wander down the ocean's shore.
He tried desperately to make sense of the jumbled emotions, thoughts and memories from the last four hours, but it was simply an impossible task for him. The easiest things were escaping the powerful Red Galaxy Ranger's mind...they weren't COMPLEX things, and yet Leo couldn't decipher them at all.
He knew he ached terribly. That was the only thing he probably knew at that very moment. Not his body, but his heart ached. Karone had seemed so cold to him when she had left him alone on the beach...the girl he had a crush on, the girl he had lost his virginity to, didn't give a damn about him.
"Maybe it's better off this way," Leo muttered to himself as the tide slowly nipped at his toes while he continued to walk along. "This whole thing was a mistake after all. If she knew that I liked her as more than a friend..."
His mind flashed back to Karone's initial reaction to the thought of them together. "She'd just be more angry," he told himself, watching the sun gradually begin to descend behind the horizon.
Leo gazed down at the sand and kicked some of it up with his foot. "I wish this would have never happened!" he cried out angrily, tossing his shoes a few feet away from him. In his moment of anger, he collapsed to the sand to lie down on his back once more. "Why does all this bad stuff happen to me?"
*****
"Maya?" Karone stumbled into the darkened quarters she shared with the Yellow Ranger. "Maya, are you here? I've REALLY got to talk to someone," she moaned, her feet terribly sore.
"Computer, lights," she ordered and the lights dawned upon the room allowing the blonde to navigate her way to the sofa and collapse onto it.
She kicked off her boots, which she had put on halfway through her walk when her feet started to blister, and leaned heavily into the cushions of the sofa. "I wish I knew where everyone was," she complained, scanning her eyes around the room. That's when her eyes caught upon a piece of paper hanging off the kitchen counter.
Hesitant to stand, Karone simply waved her hand and pulled the note towards her with the use of her telekinesis. The note fell gently into her lap and she picked it up, reading it out loud:
Dear Karone,
We were waiting for you and Leo to meet us at the Mountain Dome for some training exercises, but neither of you showed up. So we went on without you. We came back here to see if you guys were here, but no one was so I'm leaving this note. All of us are in my quarters.
Kai
"The guys quarters?" Karone groaned unhappily. That meant she'd have to stand up again! "Oh well. I'd rather be there than all alone in here," she muttered, standing up and pulling her boots back on. "I just hope Leo doesn't decide to show up...I really don't want to see him right now."
*****
Leo felt his heart beat faster and faster as Karone's lips roamed body. His hormones were raging and he was moaning like there was no tomorrow. "Karone..." he gasped as she nuzzled into his neck deeply.
"Yes?" she replied playfully, her voice touched with seductive overtones as she laid on top of him. "Did you want something?" she winked, dragging her fingers down his chest.
He nodded eagerly, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. "I want you," he groaned heatedly, kissing her strongly and fervently.
Leo was abruptly knocked out of his remising when the elevator lift came to a stop on Deck Two and the doors swished open, allowing two GSA officers inside the lift.
He grunted, almost unpleasantly, when he was forced to stop drooling over his memory. He watched the woman cautiously as she announced, "Computer, Deck Three."
Ultimately, Leo gave himself a good mental slap that he hoped would last for the rest of the ride up to the quarters he shared with Kai and Damon. He knew he would need it desperately after his last flashback.
After recovering from his initial anger about his encounter - as he had chosen to call it - with Karone, he realized just how much he had enjoyed it. He sort of understood why men were called pigs when it came to sex finally. He thought the term kind of fit actually...and was partially ashamed to admit he was one.
He felt even worse about how his encounter with Karone had taken place. It hadn't happened because of this deep love they both shared, but it had happened because of a little sexual tension and an immense loss of self-control on both of their parts. It gave him this awful gut-wrenching feeling to know he had taken advantage of Karone. She probably felt worse because she was the older of the two of them, he reasoned earlier to himself.
Leo was jarred out of his thoughts once more when the elevator stopped at Deck Three and the two GSA officers exited, leaving him alone once again. When he didn't leave the lift, the doors closed and it resumed its course up to Deck Four.
He tried thinking about everything and anything BUT what had happened only a matter of hours ago between him and Karone. He thought of the last battle he had fought against Trakeena's Stingwingers...and how Karone had been there and how she looked absolutely gorgeous in their form-fitting suits...
"NO!" Leo shouted out loud, his voice echoing through the small room. "I have to stop thinking about her. Maybe I should go talk to Mike or something..."
The elevator stopped for the third time at Deck Four and this time Leo exited it and began walking down the corridor towards his quarters. He hoped desperately for Mike to be there. If anyone, he could talk to his brother about this...
"Karone!" he yelped out for the second time in the last five minutes. He couldn't help it though. There she was, getting ready to ring the doorchime to his quarters.
"Leo?!" Karone snapped her head to ogle at Leo, completely flustered. She quickly covered that expression up with a cold glare. "Why are you here?" she huffed, slightly annoyed.
He quickly made his way to the door and pushed the doorchime for her. "These are MY quarters," he scoffed gently, also covering for the awkwardness he was feeling. "What are you doing here?"
Before Karone had a chance to answer his question, the door slid open and Damon Henderson appeared before the couple. "It's about time you two got here!" he greeted exasperatedly, grabbing them and dragging them inside.
"Yeah, we thought you two got lost or something," Mike Corbett chuckled as leaned back against the sofa, Maya sitting beside him and nodding in agreement.
Both Leo and Karone grinned uneasily as they stood side by side. "So what did keep you guys?" Kai Chen asked incredulously as he stood in front of the stove in the kitchen, stirring something in a pot.
They were quiet for a moment, searching their minds for the perfect excuse. "Uhhh..." Karone stalled for time, racking her brain.
"Ummmm...we were helping Alpha fixing something and..." Leo began to weave the lie, hoping his companion would continue it.
A light went off in the blonde's brain just as she heard Leo trail off. "...and it took a lot longer than we expected. We were going to call you guys..."
"...but we figured you would understand," Leo picked up where she left off, finishing their horrid lie.
Funny enough, Kai shrugged and took the lie at face value, not at all suspecting. "Oh," he replied as Karone zipped off to sit next to Maya on the sofa and Leo sat beside Mike.
"So...did we miss out on anything this afternoon?" Karone asked hurriedly, trying to strike up a conversation to distract everyone's attention.
Damon sat down his bunk and stretched slowly. "Nothing much. Just same old routine," he answered with a slight yawn.
"Well, it was same old routine until you..." Karone slowly tuned out Kai as he started to chew out Damon again. She had gotten the exact distraction she had wanted.
She leaned over discreetly and whispered into Maya's ear, "I need to talk to you. Alone. In private."
Maya was considerably startled by Karone's request. "Why?" she whispered back.
"I had sex with Leo this afternoon."
"What?!" Maya hissed in utter unbelievable shock, at the thought of Leo and Karone intimately together and the fact that the Pink Ranger had been so blunt her in telling.
"I'll tell you when we get back to our quarters," Karone retorted sounding very much annoyed with herself.
*****
Leo studied the two girls as the walked out of their quarters, Karone feigning illness as the reason for leaving so soon. Of course, Leo knew better and he was actually quite thankful towards the blonde for finding a legitimate means of "escape". Now, he could talk to Mike without feeling all tingly and flustered with her around.
For a few moments, Leo sat beside his brother in utter silence, debating himself on how he was going to explain it all. Then, he slowly spoke up. "Mike?"
Mike quickly turned his attention to his little brother. "Yeah, Leo?"
"I need to talk to you about something," Leo declared, experiencing a small bout of embarrassment. "It's about this afternoon...why me and Karone were late."
The older Corbett brother sensed the embarrassment in Leo's voice and almost immediately knew what had taken place between the two. "Come with me," he tugged on his little brother's arm, pulling him off of the sofa and towards the door. Mike glanced at Kai and Damon, who were hovering over the pot of food that was still cooking. "We'll be right back," he told them in a neutral voice.
"Sure," Damon acknowledged as the two walked out into the corridor, the door sliding shut behind them.
The two walked down the corridor in silence until they came upon Mike's quarters. The senior GSA officer pushed the button below the doorchime, allowing the door to the room to slide open easily. He then entered and motioned for Leo to follow him inside.
"Computer, lights," Mike ordered with a soft and rather tired voice. Once lights illuminated their surroundings, Mike sat down upon a stool and stared at his little brother who was standing awkwardly before him. "Care to tell me the entire story, Leo?" he questioned with a tinge of disappointment in his voice.
Leo met his brother's gaze. "It's not what you think," were the first words that he blurted out.
"Try me," Mike remarked, leaning against the counter beside him.
"Alright," the Red Ranger sighed. This wasn't exactly how he planned to talk. The LAST thing he needed was to recount what had happened during his "encounter" with Karone. Every touch and feel...nope! He really did not need to go there at that moment. "Well, Karone and I were playing with some of the kids and the daycare center earlier today. We were playing Hide and Seek when the kids' parents arrived and they all left. Karone and I were still playing Hide and Seek...when things got a little out of hand..." he trailed off uneasily, glancing Mike's way.
"Who kissed who?"
"I kissed her and it kinda just dominoed from there," Leo admitted, without going into deep detail. "Neither of us had meant to though. It was an accident!"
A hush fell over the two and Mike took that quietness to consider his brother's words. Mike knew his little brother damn well and knew Leo wasn't the type to take advantage of a girl. Besides, the way Leo felt so awkward and sheepish about what had taken place...Mike was pretty sure Leo was telling the truth.
Not that he doubted his brother, but ever since Leo had told him he had a crush on Karone, he had felt very uncomfortable about it. Mike liked Karone too, but he felt sort of protective for his brother. She was a woman with a longing for her childhood, while on the other hand Leo was just simply still a kid at times.
"I take it you want my advice on how to deal with her?"
Leo wandered over to the window, gazing out at the mysterious and unfamiliar stars littering the background of space. "I was hoping for a little bit of advice," he mumbled, reaching with his fingers to touch at the glass somewhat longingly. "That, and I just needed to get it off of my chest." He turned around, his face filled with an unusual devastation. "After we "woke" up, Karone she was just...this totally different person. She was so cold and shut off...she wasn't the same person I knew."
Mike leisurely approached his brother's side, letting Leo muse for a little bit. "You've only known Karone for a month," he pointed out as set his hand on Leo's shoulder. "You don't exactly know her every reaction and mood. Besides, she was the QUEEN of Evil at one time in her life; she's bound to have a dark side. And what if she was just so shocked, she didn't know how to react so she shut herself off?"
"Maybe..." Leo took Mike's words to heart. "It felt like something else though."
Mike chuckled softly at his brother. "Leo, with women, EVERYTHING is something else..."
*****
"You're kidding me, right?"
Those were first words out of Maya's mouth as the door to her and Karone's quarters slid shut behind her. "You and Leo? Together?"
Karone moaned out, "Yes" and then quickly kicked off her boots, moving to lie down on the sofa.
Maya literally skipped over to where Karone was and sat down on the floor. "So this isn't a joke?" she queried one more time, simply making sure. The thought was simply mind-blowing!
"Part of me wishes it was," she replied, lying back and propping her feet up with a pillow on the other side of the sofa. "The other part of me savors what happened on that beach and wants more. Least to say, I'm suppressing that part."
"So what happened?" Maya prodded slightly, knowing Karone was eventually going to tell her anyways. She had managed to become semi-serious about the subject now that her mind had stopped running wildly.
Karone sighed, closing her eyes. "You know how me and Leo sometimes hang out at the daycare center, playing with the kids?"
"Yeah."
"Well, we were over there this afternoon playing Hide and Seek with the kids. Then their parents showed up and we kept on playing between the two of us; Leo was looking for me and found me. Then he kissed me, and I kissed him back. The kiss was pretty good, now that I think about it," she let a small smile play upon her lips at that memory. "Next thing I know, we're both nude on one of the abandoned beaches in the Ocean Dome."
Karone turned onto her side and propped her head up with her arm, looking over at Maya. "You know what was the strange thing about the experience, Maya?" she remarked lightly, while just recalling a little fact. "When we first kissed, I felt this blast emotions run through me and NONE of them were mine!"
It took a second for it dawn upon Maya, but when it did, she was gawking. "Oh my..." she muttered, placing a hand to her open mouth. She glanced at Karone, who was confused by her friend's reaction. "I am SO sorry!"
"What?!" Karone was now sitting up on the sofa, still in the dark.
"I meant to tell you and Leo this earlier, but it slipped my mind," she gasped. "The Lion and Wildcat Galactabeasts are in a relationship together."
Even with this new information, the Pink Ranger was still stumped. "And that means...?"
"The Galactabeasts have a kind of mental connection to their "masters", as they call us," Maya tried explaining, so she could get her point across. "They can reflect emotions onto us sometimes. Emotions like love."
Finally taking in all of the facts, Karone gasped and held her head in her hands. "So you mean, this whole thing with Leo probably happened because of our Galactabeats?" her voice shuddered in shock.
Maya nodded solemnly as Karone collapsed backwards onto the sofa.
*****
Karone tossed and turned as she tried to sleep that night, but her thoughts wouldn't relent and quietly go to sleep like she wanted them to. They ran rampant, stimulating every part of her brain and driving her to the point where she thought she was going to go insane.
One common thread that her thoughts had all contained was one person...
Leo.
Leo was always there. She recalled him fighting Stingwingers and helping her out of a tight spot. She remembered him smiling and laughing when he found her hiding in the tree. Sometimes, she even thought of his kisses and how smooth and hot they were.
Basically put, she had FAR too much of Leo on her mind.
"Probably an effect Wildcat is having on me," Karone muttered quietly to herself, turning onto her side on her bunk.
For awhile she remained silent, slowly watching the many Leo-oriented thoughts pop up into her mind. She was like that until she simply decided enough was enough. Karone crawled out of her bunk and headed towards her closet to grab some decent clothes.
Usually she'd wear her leather top and pants, but for once in a very long time, she didn't feel like wearing the material that felt like second skin to her. After all, she had worn for most of her life. So instead, she pulled out another familiar set of clothing and quickly slipped them on.
For a second, Karone turned to glance into the mirror next to the closet and sighed. "Oh, Zhane," she murmured, sliding her hands down her skirt colored in earth tones. "If you only knew about this lovely mess I've gotten into. You'd have a ball with it."
She smiled sadly at her reflection on the shiny object. It was pitiful to know that what had taken place between her and Leo was simply a reflection of love. Maybe, just maybe, when she had been ready for love again, Karone would have thought of Leo in that manner...on her own. Right now, there was no way to tell what was going on in her mind. Was Wildcat in control or was she?
After slipping on her sandals, she crept towards the door quietly trying her best not to possibly jerk Maya out of her peaceful sleep. That and Karone didn't want Maya thinking she was going to Leo or something.
Once she was out of her quarters and standing in the nearly empty corridor, she sighed contentedly. "Just me and the walls," she exuberated, striding down the corridor with a slight spring in her step. "Exactly what I was looking forward to."
Karone quickly wandered over to one of the elevators on the deck and stepped in, the doors whooshing shut after her. She was merely looking for the solitude she could find anywhere. At that moment, she found solitude inside the silent moving elevator.
"This is great," she moaned, closing her eyes and leaning against the railing behind her. "No thoughts about Leo, no thoughts about sex, no thoughts about anything. A blank mind."
Her happiness quickly flew out the door when it opened up to Deck Five and the one person she had thought she had escaped from entered. "Not again..." Leo moaned, stopping directly in the middle of the elevator's doorway.
"I think we have magnets in us," Karone groaned, equally disappointed. "You're south and I'm north."
"I think I'll agree with that," Leo nodded, entering the small room and standing beside her in the elevator as it began its decent.
The two stood quietly and stiffly in the elevator as it slowly rolled downwards back towards Deck Four. For them, the time it took for the elevator to even start moving downwards FROM Deck Five felt like an eternity. From then on, the sexual tension between the couple grew stronger and stronger until finally Karone simply couldn't take it anymore.
"Geez, this is totally insane..." Karone muttered as she grabbed Leo by the shoulders and pushed him up against the wall, kissing him as hard as she could possible with all her strength.
Leo let out a stunned cry that was muffled by their kiss and slowly faded away. He slid his arms around her and sunk to the cold floor, Karone in his lap. They kissed wildly and freely, hands and lips roaming each other's bodies wherever they pleased.
That is until the doors of the elevator swooshed open to reveal Deck Four's corridor to their view once again. They broke away from their intimate touches and stared out at the low-lit and empty deck. "To hell with it," Karone mumbled fiercely, literally overridden by the intoxicating feelings of love and lust. "I want you," she panted to Leo, their foreheads leaning against each other. "Right here, right now."
Leo breathed his response just as the doors shut, gently lying Karone to the floor and kissing her.
Sometime later, the common sense hit Leo to groan out, "Computer, seal elevator doors!"
*****
"I can't believe we did it again!"
"And this time you don't have yourself to blame for initiating it," Karone remarked unhappily, leaning against the wall as she pulled on her skirt. "Why is Wildcat having this much of an effect on me?!"
Tugging his red shirt up and over his head, Leo peeked out at the blonde in confusion. "What do you mean by Wildcat having an effect on you?" his voice was piqued with interest about his companion's words.
Karone smoothed out her skirt now that she was fully dressed and slowly replied him, suddenly shy about the situation they were tangled in. "Well, I kinda told Maya what happened between us yesterday..."
"Maya knows about the beach?!"
"Yes! Calm down, would you? It's not like she's going to spread the news all over Terra Venture or something!"
Leo sighed, slightly reluctant. He should have known that Karone would tell Maya. She was close to the Yellow Ranger and besides, if he had needed to talk to Mike about what happened, what Karone did should have been expected by him. "I guess you're right," he shrugged, feeling stupid in a way because of not considering Karone's needs to express her jumbled emotions. "I told Mike about what happened too."
He looked awkwardly towards her, the flush of embarrassment rising in his cheeks, yet to be surprised with the gentle smile that had graced Karone's face. "I figured you would tell him."
Unfortunately for Leo, he quickly watched the smile flop off of her face. Her light gleeful mood disappeared and the disappointed and frustrated mood returned to Karone. She ripped her gaze away from him and stared towards the cold floor. "I wish Wildcat would stop doing that," she groaned unpleasantly. She then glared up at Leo, not so much angry as she was upset: upset with him, upset with Wildcat, and upset with herself for falling prey once again to the GalactaZord's emotions.
"What are you talking about Karone?" Leo prodded once more. Why did she keep on mentioning her Galactabeast? "What does Wildcat have to do with anything?"
As the elevator continued on its rise up to Deck Four, Karone hesitated on telling Leo about the Galactabeasts' involvement. There was an uneasy pause as she debated over the subject. If she didn't tell him...well, the encounters that had gone on between them could continue. If she did tell him, he could just totally call her crazy and that would be the end of the conversation itself. She couldn't help but think that it sounded crazy too...the Galactabeasts making them have their primal urges of lust?
She was going to tell him anyway. It didn't really matter if he thought she was crazy...Karone already felt like she was going insane! Two different emotions fighting control over her mind and body; sometimes it was just simply too much for her. "Leo," she finally voiced, getting his attention. "Maya told me something last night about Wildcat and Lion."
"Does it have something to do with us?" he asked deliberately, trying not to be forceful in any way.
"Yes," she allowed the answer to escape her mouth gradually. "Lion and Wildcat apparently are in a relationship together. All of our Galactabeasts have a kind of telepathic connection to us and sometimes through this link they can reflect emotions that they are feeling. Even love."
Leo gaped for a moment, until he felt the elevator stop beneath his feet. Quickly, he announced, "Computer, unseal elevator doors."
The doors instantly unlocked themselves and slid open to show to the two a dim view of Deck Four, still empty. Leo took Karone's hand and pulled her out of the elevator, into the corridor. "Come on," he tugged her gently in the direction of her quarters. "I wanna go talk to Maya. We need her to find out if there's a way to stop this from happening from Lion and Wildcat. They've gotta have an answer."
Karone followed him down the corridors silently. She suddenly felt so awkward being with Leo and not feeling anger or love towards him. She felt like...herself again.
As the neared her quarters, Leo also felt the awkwardness that Karone was feeling. He simply suppressed the feeling, something that he always usually did. Leo would much rather look strong than show any weakness. That hadn't been the case since yesterday. He felt defenseless in a way around Karone. He probably knew him better than anyone else did...even Mike. That little piece of information nagged at him now; it bothered him.
Soon enough, the two of them stepped to stand in front of Karone's front door and she pressed the keypad, allowing the door to slide open. "Maya?" Karone called out in the darkness.
"Yeah?" Maya's voice quickly replied her roommate's. "Hold on a second. Computer, lights." The lights instantly flashed on at the brunette's command, shedding light onto the room and revealing Maya. She sat expectantly on the sofa, fully dressed, as if she was awaiting Karone's return.
Karone blinked in part confusion, part surprise. "I thought you were sleeping!"
Maya simply shrugged an answer. "I'm a light sleeper." She gave the couple a soft smile. "Besides, I kinda put two and two together and..." the Yellow Ranger trailed off knowingly, but not with one of those "I told you so" grins. She looked more solemn about the fact that her friends were in such emotional turmoil over the entire mess.
Leo winced slightly at Maya's comment and at the reality of his situation. They really needed to figure out how to stop this madness. Karone and him couldn't go around having sex when they pleased, wherever they pleased! "Maya," his voice was tender, calling for help, "we really need your help. You've got to talk to Lion and Wildcat. We need to know if there's a way to stop them from inadvertently reflecting their emotions upon us."
"Are you guys okay?" Maya's face took on more concern while her gaze flashed between Karone and Leo.
Karone nodded. "We're fine," she sighed, almost sounding as if she wished she wasn't fine. "We just did it in an elevator this time."
Maya hastily swallowed the urge to let out a giant gasp. She suddenly felt as if time was of the essence and that if her friends didn't get help soon there could be an...outcome, from it all. "Why don't I go talk to them right now?" she suggested, standing up from the sofa. "I mean, it's not like they should be sleeping...at least I don't think they are."
Leo, who had been standing next to Karone awkwardly with his hands clasped behind his back, immediately piped up, "Sounds like a plan. I'll go with you," he insisted anxiously, his wandering gaze falling upon Maya.
With a nod of her head, she acknowledged Leo's words and then glanced towards Karone. The Pink Ranger looked rather uneasy more than awkward. "Karone," Maya gently questioned her blonde friend. "Do you feel alright? Maybe you should stay here."
"Maybe that'd be a good idea," she spoke softly with a tired voice. Karone moved achingly towards the sofa and plopped down on it, peeking up at Maya and Leo. "You guys go ahead and find out what we can do about this. I'm just gonna take a nap."
"Alright, if you say so," Leo reluctantly agreed as he and Maya headed towards the front door once more. He wasn't exactly ecstatic about leaving Karone by herself, especially when she looked ill, but he truly had no choice this time.
For all Leo knew, if he stayed, he would probably loose ALL self control.
*****
Karone eagerly kicked off her sandals after her two friends left and padded her way over to her bunk, lying down. Slowly, she navigated her way to slip underneath her blankets and relaxed her head on her pillow.
Closing her eyes, she let her mind wander to important thoughts; thoughts that needed to be thought about. "What am I going to do about Leo?" she moaned out softly, her eyes still delicately closed.
Karone knew if Wildcat and Lion knew a way to kind of "block" their reflections of emotions upon Leo and herself, things would be awkward between them, to say the least. It was already awkward. It was just going to worse and forge a gap in her friendship with Leo.
The last thing she wanted to loose was her friendship with Leo, in spite of all the things that had taken place during the last twenty-four hours. But she was prepared to loose his friendship because she had had first-hand experience that when you have sex, there was no turning back.
Zhane had been her first-hand experience. Before she had decided to on her "crusade" of sorts, Karone had been engaged to Zhane. They were blissfully in love and never wanted to be apart. That was, until Karone felt the need to right all of her wrongs done as Astronema by doing good across the universe.
She had come absolutely close to convincing Zhane to come along with her, telling him it was something she needed to do with him by her side. In the end, Zhane resisted her offer to come along, surprising Karone. She had always thought he loved the fight of being a Power Ranger and traveling through space; what she had planned was nearly just that, but somewhat different.
Her fiancé rejected her offer straight out, claiming that the wild life was no longer for him. That he had experienced it already and that he wanted her to stay on Earth with him.
Karone knew she didn't want to stay on Earth. She had spent her life as Astronema roaming the universe; she wanted a chance to roam the universe as Karone. So, on one fateful night, Karone left with a small bag of her belongings and ended up on Aquitar.
She stayed on Aquitar for a few months before hearing the news about the Pink Quasar Saber being in the wrong hands on Onyx. Without a second thought, she dropped everything and caught the next transport that would pass by Onyx. "And here I am," she sighed softly to herself, opening her eyes and staring up at the bunk above hers. "Maybe if I had stayed on Earth with Zhane, this wouldn't have happened."
As she rolled over onto her side, Karone dismissed the thought quickly. If she had stayed on Earth, she would have never experienced the many wonderful things she had. The good definitely outweighed the bad in her situation.
Karone was silent for sometime, trying to calm her thoughts so that she could go to sleep. But that was hard because of the odd feeling that she felt within her; it was that feeling that was causing her to feel ill. She couldn't pinpoint the exact feeling or what was triggering it, but the magic in her blood was telling her something was going on inside her. Something new, something different.
The magic in her blood just wasn't sure WHAT it was.
