Standard disclaimer; because, if I did own them, kicking evil space alien
asses wouldn't be the first thing on their minds...
Return of Hunter
Tori walked into Storm Chargers looking distressed. She was supposed to meet Dustin an hour ago, but, as usual, he was late and she was wondering what was so important that he had to miss lunch with her only to call, using her morpher, no less, and tell her to meet him at Kelly's so they could talk.
She made her way through the few people who were in the (ha) extreme action store to sit on the counter, mostly out of the way.
"Are you sure you want to sit there?" a voice asked behind her. "Last time anyone got that close to her cash register, Kelly started hovering around them like they were a thief."
"It's fine, Blake," she answered, with a slight grin, as well as a small blush. "Kelly thinks that I—and Shane, I guess—actually live and work here. She's cool like that."
"If you say so. By the way, not to be rude, but, why are you here?" the Navy Ranger asked, looking at his watch. "It's just a little after two. I thought you'd be hitting the waves about now."
Tori frowned. "Yeah, I would be, too, if Dustin just met me for lunch at the Starbucks on the fourth floor of the mall. He said he'd be there, and at first I just thought that he was late as usual, but an hour passed and he never showed up. Then he—"she leaned closer to whisper into his ear. "Then he used my morpher to tell me that he had to tell me something, and that it was urgent. He told me to meet him here, and that he had something he had to do, but he'd meet me here really quickly, and that was, like, twenty minutes ago."
"Urgent, huh?" Blake mumbled, his eyebrows furrowed. "Do you have any idea what it could be? Like, you know," he pointed at his own morpher. "Like, work-related."
Tori sat for a second to ponder that thought, her face scrunching up as she did so. "No. I mean, I don't think so. If it was—heh—'work-related' he would have just told me..." Her eyebrows furrowed, too as she thought about what she said. "I mean, if something was wrong, wouldn't Cam or CyberCam tell us? Why would he send Dustin?"
Blake frowned as he thought this over. "I don't know. But, speaking of 'work-related,' if I don't do mine, I'll run the risk of Kelly being mondo unhappy," Blake paused a while, wincing "Which I really can't afford seeing as how, you know, Hunter and I kind of need jobs to pay for rent." A beat. "Well, that and the fact that we kind of blew her off a lot in the past."
"Yeah, I know," Tori said sighing. "I just wish that you could stay and keep me company." Tori's eyes shot open in shock. "I mean...I...uh...I...um..." she stammered. "So, uh, how's Hunter?"
Blake grinned at Tori's pathetic attempt at a cover up. "He's, uh, he's fine," he answered truthfully...well...half truthfully. Lately, Hunter seemed to be more short-tempered, more agitated, and brooding. Blake knew that Hunter didn't want to particularly stay in Blue Bay Harbor, but that couldn't have been the only problem. Whatever it was, it must have been big, because, Hunter didn't even let him know that something was wrong. Blake knew that something was up, and that he should find out what, but...Tori was here...now...waiting...ready to be teased. Blake smiled.
"What was that about—"he tried before he was cut off by Tori's almost yelp.
"Nothing!" she squealed, nearly falling off the counter. "I was just...uh...I was just..." she stammered, eyes darting, before a thought crossed her mind, and she smiled. "I was just wonder why...why you...why you...don't move into Ninja Ops?!"
Blake eyes widened in shock and the clanking in the back room came to a sudden stop. "Maybe you shouldn't say that so loud?" he whispered softly, eyes scanning the room, looking for people who seemed suspicious.
"Yeah, I know...sorry," Tori replied, biting her curved index finger.
Blake wanted to say more, but thought better otherwise. "Anyway, I thought about that, but, Hunter and I figured that it would be kind of creepy living with Cam," he paused to shake his head ruefully, grimacing. "You know, especially since, the last time we were in town, we kind of kidnapped his guinea pig father."
Tori quickly thought over that and began to say something when she was cut off by a sudden voice call her name.
"Tori!" it yelled. She quickly turned to Blake and smiled sweetly before he said goodbye. She turned back at her friend.
"Dustin! Where have you been?! You didn't show up for lunch and you called like half an hour ago!" she hissed, obviously annoyed by his non- punctuality. "Where were you?"
Dustin could only shake his head in an answer, deeply gasping, obviously coming from a long run. "I...got here...as soon...as I could..." he managed.
"Well? What's wrong?" Tori asked, more out of concern, now more than anger. "Did something happen?"
Dustin nodded his head vigorously, catching the last of his breath. "He found out, Tor," he gasped, holding her shoulders for support. "We were walking over to the skating grounds, just talking about...anything, and out of nowhere, he, like, brings up the whole...subject...thingie...and then I was, like, 'oh, my God, what am I going to do?" and stuff, and—"
"Whoa, wait, Dustin. Hold on. Who found out what?" she asked in agitation.
Dustin leaned forward giving eyes almost bugging out of his head. "You know, he found out about..." Dustin took a look around for anyone listening and leaned even more, "...you know, me...and us...and stuff."
"And stuff? Is that supposed to make sense? Because, I mean—" Tori stopped when she looked at Dustin's face. The yellow ranger was a lot of things, but serious was rarely one of them. Sudden realization dawned on Tori and she could feel her heart break for her oldest friend. Stepping forward to hug him, she said, "Oh, Dustin...I'm so sorry. I should have known this was serious...you wouldn't pass up a triple strawberry-mocha extra large milkshake for anything," she said, holding him as he squirmed.
"No! No, you've got it all wrong!" Dustin insisted, prying out of Tori's embrace. His face wasn't so tired anymore. It seemed to brighten up all of a sudden. His smile was wider than she'd ever seen it, and his eyes danced as if they held some sort of secret only he knew. Those eyes darted around the store again and then rested on Tori's, brimming with excitement. Dustin looked like he could barely contain himself, jumpy, and twitching, but in the good way.
"You see, like, he found out and was, like, totally cool about it, and, like—" Dustin said before Tori cut him off, his hands going behind his head, coming back down in an almost "yes!" motion. He was excited alright. Tori just raised an eyebrow.
"How'd he find out?" she asked.
Dustin's eyes furrowed and, for a second, she was back to the serious version of her Ninja friend before he shook his head and became his usual self again. "Huh? Um, I didn't ask, but that doesn't matter because..." eyes darted around again and more leaning took place, "...he asked me out!"
This time it was Tori's eyes that bugged out of her head. She backed away to look at Dustin, beaming and jumpy and absolutely adorable, her expression melted from confusion to understanding in a heartbeat and she almost squealed, becoming as excited as he was. Almost, because, Tori, as a rule, never squealed.
"Oh, my gosh! Um, that's great! I'm so happy for you," she said, hugging Dustin again, who fully reciprocated, except, this time, it was about excitement and happiness and not comfort.
"Yeah, I know. Me, too!" Dustin yelped. "I mean...well, you know."
Tori could barely keep the excitement in any longer when she asked a question. "Well? When is it? The date?"
Dustin smiled his room-brightening smile. "Tonight! It's tonight. He's coming by my house later. He didn't tell me what we were going to do so..."
Tori just kept smiling. "So, how's it feel to get on the horse again?" as soon as the words had left her mouth, she mentally banged her head into a wall and sighed as Dustin's figure sagged and his eyes lost some of the shine they usually had. Sometimes, Dustin wasn't the only one to have a blonde moment...even though, technically, he was a brunette.
Great question, Tor.
Dustin paused for a while and his eyes darted around before settling at his feet. "Um...I don't know. I'm nervous, I guess. I didn't really...I guess it was...it was just that with Marcus..." he paused again. His eyes lost all their usual brightness now, but somehow, Tori noticed, Dustin's eyes never stopped to showing some sort of light. When they were sad, they just started to glow instead, and still you could feel the warmth in them. "With Marcus...I—"
"It's okay," Tori said, feeling a guilty for making Dustin think about this now. He deserved to be happy after everything he went through. "You don't have to answer that. I'm sorry that I—"
"No, it's okay!" Dustin insisted, some light returning to his eyes. "It's just...I never really thought about being in a...relationship..." Tori noticed how he struggled with the word, "again, after..."
"Oh, Dustin..." she said, wanting to hug him but knew that he needed his space right now, and just settled for rubbing his right arm. A minute or two passed when she thought she'd speak again. "Well, at least, now, you have—"
She was cut off when the door to Storm Chargers suddenly opened, and Shane walked in like he was on top of the world. He easily potted Dustin and Tori and quickly ambled over.
"Hey guys! What's up?" he asked.
Tori just smiled. "Nothing! Um, Dustin was just telling me some good news."
Shane looked over at Dustin and noticed how his feet were shuffling and that his eyes seemed glued to an invisible spot on the floor. Then he saw Dustin's eyes shift towards him and then dart back to the floor as some color crept up his almost alabaster skin.
"You're blushing," stated Shane, causing Dustin to only blush even more. Tori smiled. He leaned closer so that only Dustin, and probably Tori, could hear. "You're cute when you blush."
That seemed to snap Dustin out of the state he was in and he not-so softly socked Shane on the shoulder, although he was still pink. He just didn't know if it was because he was slightly mad for being called cute or if he was just embarrassed.
Shane just rubbed his arm and smiled. "So. I'm guessing Dustin told you the good news."
Tori smiled, too, which just caused Dustin to turn another shade. She nodded. "Yeah. So, uh, where you taking him?" she asked, slipping into a mock parental tone. "I want to know that my baby is being taken care of. I also want him in on time by curfew."
Shane nodded and decided to play along. "Well, the evening's going to be a surprise, but I promise you, I'll take good care of him," replied Shane. Dustin rolled his eyes and softly laughed. "As for curfew...how does ten sound?" Tori shook her head in disapproval. "How does twelve sound?" Tori just gave him a murderous look. "Eleven?" Tori smile.
Dustin, who almost red at this point, groaned and socked Shane in the shoulder again.
"What was that for?" he asked, rubbing his arm. "And, why didn't you hit Tori?"
"Dude, one, she's a girl," Dustin casually stated. "And two, she hits back and hits me harder than you do."
Tori winced when she heard that. She looked at Dustin and saw that he could really just joke like that without it turning something in him. She looked at Shane, his face contorted in thought, and was once again glad that he had never known about...certain people.
"Huh, that's true," said Shane. All three just looked at each other and started laughing. Pretty soon, all three of them were talking about stories and reminiscing about things, not too long ago when a voice interrupted them.
"Oh, oh, oh, remember the time when Tori—" Dustin started before he was cut off by a voice behind him, and all three turned to see who it was.
"Yo, Dustin!" Hunter yelled. "I need you to go and the back and finish fixing the Johansen bike. It needs to be picked up in about an hour." Dustin's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "I thought I finished that yesterday."
Hunter scoffed. "So did I. I went back and decided to do some fine- tuning." Hunter dropped the rag he used to wipe off grease on the counter and started making his way over to the door. "Don't worry, all the hard stuff is done. Besides, Kelly stepped out to the bank, Blake needs to get the store ready for the sale, and I still need to pick up lunch for Blake and me."
"But...it's kind of my day off," Dustin protested slightly.
"Yeah, well, we need you here. I need to help out Blake when we get back, so, just fix the bike," Hunter yelled as he walked out the store, startling a few customers who just walked in.
"Dude, what was that all about?" asked Shane behind him.
"I don't know," Dustin said, shaking his head and shuffling his feet. "I guess I got work to do. I'll see you later, guys," he said, hugging Tori, and grasping hands with Shane, before turning around to go to the back room.
"You know, ever since that friend Dustin had a while back—Marcus was it?," paused Shane, and Tori nodded, "—well, after him, I didn't think that Dustin would be so trusting about people like...well...Hunter...or Marcus."
"You have no idea," Tori mumbled before she could stop herself. Her eyes opened wide in shock.
"What was that?" the red ranger asked.
"Nothing. It was nothing," said Tori a little too quickly. "I still have to stop by Ninja Ops and see Cam. He said that Sensei wanted to talk to me about something."
"Oh, okay," Shane replied. "Um, do you know what about?"
Tori froze. She wasn't expecting to have to answer a question when she started lying. "Um, no. I have no idea. I'll see you later though?"
"Yeah, sure. See you later," said Shane.
"Okay, bye," said Tori as she walked out of the store and towards Ninja Ops—she figured she should bring at least Cam in as an alibi—leaving Shane awkwardly in the middle of the room, before he decided to go to the skate park.
What they didn't know was that a certain person in crimson, now standing at the window outside window, had been watching ever since Tori walked in.
Return of Hunter
Tori walked into Storm Chargers looking distressed. She was supposed to meet Dustin an hour ago, but, as usual, he was late and she was wondering what was so important that he had to miss lunch with her only to call, using her morpher, no less, and tell her to meet him at Kelly's so they could talk.
She made her way through the few people who were in the (ha) extreme action store to sit on the counter, mostly out of the way.
"Are you sure you want to sit there?" a voice asked behind her. "Last time anyone got that close to her cash register, Kelly started hovering around them like they were a thief."
"It's fine, Blake," she answered, with a slight grin, as well as a small blush. "Kelly thinks that I—and Shane, I guess—actually live and work here. She's cool like that."
"If you say so. By the way, not to be rude, but, why are you here?" the Navy Ranger asked, looking at his watch. "It's just a little after two. I thought you'd be hitting the waves about now."
Tori frowned. "Yeah, I would be, too, if Dustin just met me for lunch at the Starbucks on the fourth floor of the mall. He said he'd be there, and at first I just thought that he was late as usual, but an hour passed and he never showed up. Then he—"she leaned closer to whisper into his ear. "Then he used my morpher to tell me that he had to tell me something, and that it was urgent. He told me to meet him here, and that he had something he had to do, but he'd meet me here really quickly, and that was, like, twenty minutes ago."
"Urgent, huh?" Blake mumbled, his eyebrows furrowed. "Do you have any idea what it could be? Like, you know," he pointed at his own morpher. "Like, work-related."
Tori sat for a second to ponder that thought, her face scrunching up as she did so. "No. I mean, I don't think so. If it was—heh—'work-related' he would have just told me..." Her eyebrows furrowed, too as she thought about what she said. "I mean, if something was wrong, wouldn't Cam or CyberCam tell us? Why would he send Dustin?"
Blake frowned as he thought this over. "I don't know. But, speaking of 'work-related,' if I don't do mine, I'll run the risk of Kelly being mondo unhappy," Blake paused a while, wincing "Which I really can't afford seeing as how, you know, Hunter and I kind of need jobs to pay for rent." A beat. "Well, that and the fact that we kind of blew her off a lot in the past."
"Yeah, I know," Tori said sighing. "I just wish that you could stay and keep me company." Tori's eyes shot open in shock. "I mean...I...uh...I...um..." she stammered. "So, uh, how's Hunter?"
Blake grinned at Tori's pathetic attempt at a cover up. "He's, uh, he's fine," he answered truthfully...well...half truthfully. Lately, Hunter seemed to be more short-tempered, more agitated, and brooding. Blake knew that Hunter didn't want to particularly stay in Blue Bay Harbor, but that couldn't have been the only problem. Whatever it was, it must have been big, because, Hunter didn't even let him know that something was wrong. Blake knew that something was up, and that he should find out what, but...Tori was here...now...waiting...ready to be teased. Blake smiled.
"What was that about—"he tried before he was cut off by Tori's almost yelp.
"Nothing!" she squealed, nearly falling off the counter. "I was just...uh...I was just..." she stammered, eyes darting, before a thought crossed her mind, and she smiled. "I was just wonder why...why you...why you...don't move into Ninja Ops?!"
Blake eyes widened in shock and the clanking in the back room came to a sudden stop. "Maybe you shouldn't say that so loud?" he whispered softly, eyes scanning the room, looking for people who seemed suspicious.
"Yeah, I know...sorry," Tori replied, biting her curved index finger.
Blake wanted to say more, but thought better otherwise. "Anyway, I thought about that, but, Hunter and I figured that it would be kind of creepy living with Cam," he paused to shake his head ruefully, grimacing. "You know, especially since, the last time we were in town, we kind of kidnapped his guinea pig father."
Tori quickly thought over that and began to say something when she was cut off by a sudden voice call her name.
"Tori!" it yelled. She quickly turned to Blake and smiled sweetly before he said goodbye. She turned back at her friend.
"Dustin! Where have you been?! You didn't show up for lunch and you called like half an hour ago!" she hissed, obviously annoyed by his non- punctuality. "Where were you?"
Dustin could only shake his head in an answer, deeply gasping, obviously coming from a long run. "I...got here...as soon...as I could..." he managed.
"Well? What's wrong?" Tori asked, more out of concern, now more than anger. "Did something happen?"
Dustin nodded his head vigorously, catching the last of his breath. "He found out, Tor," he gasped, holding her shoulders for support. "We were walking over to the skating grounds, just talking about...anything, and out of nowhere, he, like, brings up the whole...subject...thingie...and then I was, like, 'oh, my God, what am I going to do?" and stuff, and—"
"Whoa, wait, Dustin. Hold on. Who found out what?" she asked in agitation.
Dustin leaned forward giving eyes almost bugging out of his head. "You know, he found out about..." Dustin took a look around for anyone listening and leaned even more, "...you know, me...and us...and stuff."
"And stuff? Is that supposed to make sense? Because, I mean—" Tori stopped when she looked at Dustin's face. The yellow ranger was a lot of things, but serious was rarely one of them. Sudden realization dawned on Tori and she could feel her heart break for her oldest friend. Stepping forward to hug him, she said, "Oh, Dustin...I'm so sorry. I should have known this was serious...you wouldn't pass up a triple strawberry-mocha extra large milkshake for anything," she said, holding him as he squirmed.
"No! No, you've got it all wrong!" Dustin insisted, prying out of Tori's embrace. His face wasn't so tired anymore. It seemed to brighten up all of a sudden. His smile was wider than she'd ever seen it, and his eyes danced as if they held some sort of secret only he knew. Those eyes darted around the store again and then rested on Tori's, brimming with excitement. Dustin looked like he could barely contain himself, jumpy, and twitching, but in the good way.
"You see, like, he found out and was, like, totally cool about it, and, like—" Dustin said before Tori cut him off, his hands going behind his head, coming back down in an almost "yes!" motion. He was excited alright. Tori just raised an eyebrow.
"How'd he find out?" she asked.
Dustin's eyes furrowed and, for a second, she was back to the serious version of her Ninja friend before he shook his head and became his usual self again. "Huh? Um, I didn't ask, but that doesn't matter because..." eyes darted around again and more leaning took place, "...he asked me out!"
This time it was Tori's eyes that bugged out of her head. She backed away to look at Dustin, beaming and jumpy and absolutely adorable, her expression melted from confusion to understanding in a heartbeat and she almost squealed, becoming as excited as he was. Almost, because, Tori, as a rule, never squealed.
"Oh, my gosh! Um, that's great! I'm so happy for you," she said, hugging Dustin again, who fully reciprocated, except, this time, it was about excitement and happiness and not comfort.
"Yeah, I know. Me, too!" Dustin yelped. "I mean...well, you know."
Tori could barely keep the excitement in any longer when she asked a question. "Well? When is it? The date?"
Dustin smiled his room-brightening smile. "Tonight! It's tonight. He's coming by my house later. He didn't tell me what we were going to do so..."
Tori just kept smiling. "So, how's it feel to get on the horse again?" as soon as the words had left her mouth, she mentally banged her head into a wall and sighed as Dustin's figure sagged and his eyes lost some of the shine they usually had. Sometimes, Dustin wasn't the only one to have a blonde moment...even though, technically, he was a brunette.
Great question, Tor.
Dustin paused for a while and his eyes darted around before settling at his feet. "Um...I don't know. I'm nervous, I guess. I didn't really...I guess it was...it was just that with Marcus..." he paused again. His eyes lost all their usual brightness now, but somehow, Tori noticed, Dustin's eyes never stopped to showing some sort of light. When they were sad, they just started to glow instead, and still you could feel the warmth in them. "With Marcus...I—"
"It's okay," Tori said, feeling a guilty for making Dustin think about this now. He deserved to be happy after everything he went through. "You don't have to answer that. I'm sorry that I—"
"No, it's okay!" Dustin insisted, some light returning to his eyes. "It's just...I never really thought about being in a...relationship..." Tori noticed how he struggled with the word, "again, after..."
"Oh, Dustin..." she said, wanting to hug him but knew that he needed his space right now, and just settled for rubbing his right arm. A minute or two passed when she thought she'd speak again. "Well, at least, now, you have—"
She was cut off when the door to Storm Chargers suddenly opened, and Shane walked in like he was on top of the world. He easily potted Dustin and Tori and quickly ambled over.
"Hey guys! What's up?" he asked.
Tori just smiled. "Nothing! Um, Dustin was just telling me some good news."
Shane looked over at Dustin and noticed how his feet were shuffling and that his eyes seemed glued to an invisible spot on the floor. Then he saw Dustin's eyes shift towards him and then dart back to the floor as some color crept up his almost alabaster skin.
"You're blushing," stated Shane, causing Dustin to only blush even more. Tori smiled. He leaned closer so that only Dustin, and probably Tori, could hear. "You're cute when you blush."
That seemed to snap Dustin out of the state he was in and he not-so softly socked Shane on the shoulder, although he was still pink. He just didn't know if it was because he was slightly mad for being called cute or if he was just embarrassed.
Shane just rubbed his arm and smiled. "So. I'm guessing Dustin told you the good news."
Tori smiled, too, which just caused Dustin to turn another shade. She nodded. "Yeah. So, uh, where you taking him?" she asked, slipping into a mock parental tone. "I want to know that my baby is being taken care of. I also want him in on time by curfew."
Shane nodded and decided to play along. "Well, the evening's going to be a surprise, but I promise you, I'll take good care of him," replied Shane. Dustin rolled his eyes and softly laughed. "As for curfew...how does ten sound?" Tori shook her head in disapproval. "How does twelve sound?" Tori just gave him a murderous look. "Eleven?" Tori smile.
Dustin, who almost red at this point, groaned and socked Shane in the shoulder again.
"What was that for?" he asked, rubbing his arm. "And, why didn't you hit Tori?"
"Dude, one, she's a girl," Dustin casually stated. "And two, she hits back and hits me harder than you do."
Tori winced when she heard that. She looked at Dustin and saw that he could really just joke like that without it turning something in him. She looked at Shane, his face contorted in thought, and was once again glad that he had never known about...certain people.
"Huh, that's true," said Shane. All three just looked at each other and started laughing. Pretty soon, all three of them were talking about stories and reminiscing about things, not too long ago when a voice interrupted them.
"Oh, oh, oh, remember the time when Tori—" Dustin started before he was cut off by a voice behind him, and all three turned to see who it was.
"Yo, Dustin!" Hunter yelled. "I need you to go and the back and finish fixing the Johansen bike. It needs to be picked up in about an hour." Dustin's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "I thought I finished that yesterday."
Hunter scoffed. "So did I. I went back and decided to do some fine- tuning." Hunter dropped the rag he used to wipe off grease on the counter and started making his way over to the door. "Don't worry, all the hard stuff is done. Besides, Kelly stepped out to the bank, Blake needs to get the store ready for the sale, and I still need to pick up lunch for Blake and me."
"But...it's kind of my day off," Dustin protested slightly.
"Yeah, well, we need you here. I need to help out Blake when we get back, so, just fix the bike," Hunter yelled as he walked out the store, startling a few customers who just walked in.
"Dude, what was that all about?" asked Shane behind him.
"I don't know," Dustin said, shaking his head and shuffling his feet. "I guess I got work to do. I'll see you later, guys," he said, hugging Tori, and grasping hands with Shane, before turning around to go to the back room.
"You know, ever since that friend Dustin had a while back—Marcus was it?," paused Shane, and Tori nodded, "—well, after him, I didn't think that Dustin would be so trusting about people like...well...Hunter...or Marcus."
"You have no idea," Tori mumbled before she could stop herself. Her eyes opened wide in shock.
"What was that?" the red ranger asked.
"Nothing. It was nothing," said Tori a little too quickly. "I still have to stop by Ninja Ops and see Cam. He said that Sensei wanted to talk to me about something."
"Oh, okay," Shane replied. "Um, do you know what about?"
Tori froze. She wasn't expecting to have to answer a question when she started lying. "Um, no. I have no idea. I'll see you later though?"
"Yeah, sure. See you later," said Shane.
"Okay, bye," said Tori as she walked out of the store and towards Ninja Ops—she figured she should bring at least Cam in as an alibi—leaving Shane awkwardly in the middle of the room, before he decided to go to the skate park.
What they didn't know was that a certain person in crimson, now standing at the window outside window, had been watching ever since Tori walked in.