Disclaimer: no one mentioned belongs to me, I guarantee it.
I've never written anything for Ninja Storm before, and I just thought I'd give this a shot, because I always felt that they had the most believable chemistry. Love it? Hate it? Let me know.
- Karasuma Firestorm
Tori sat on the steps outside of the courthouse, allowing the warm summer breeze to ruffle her blond hair. She had many places she loved to be--surfing on the beach, cruising in her van with Shane and Dustin, training out in the sunny courtyard of the newly restored Wind Academy, hanging out in the Rangers-only accessible Ninja Ops with the crew. But rapidly, she was beginning to enjoy the fat stone staircase leading up to the old but still impressive Harbor County courthouse. Here, she got to see people from all walks of life, bask in the sun without fear of sand creeping into her wetsuit, with a hot dog and ice cream vendor at her fingertips.
Her predilection towards this place was becoming well-known in her circle, because they knew enough to search for her here if she wasn't in her apartment, at the beach, at Ninja Ops, or at Storm Chargers. In fact, Dustin came running up the stairs to her now, gasping slightly from the climb. "Tor! I've been looking everywhere for you."
Puzzled and a little worried, she closed the book in her lap and squinted up at her best friend. "Dustin? Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, yeah," he assured her, waving his hand as if to cast aside her concerns. "Listen, I was just wondering if maybe sometime, if you were interested, I don't know if you would be or not, but maybe sometime you'd be interested in going to, like, maybe a movie or something with me, I don't know if you're interested but I guess you can let me know, okay, huh?" he spat out in one long stream of words, carried on one breath of air.
"Uh...sure?" she asked, still trying to translate the rapid-fire speech in her mind.
"Okay, cool, great, thanks, see you, Tor!" he said, and ran back down the steps again.
"Dustin, wait!" she called after him, but he was running as though on fire, and then he was gone.
"What was that?" muttered Tori to herself, and she shrugged it off, opening her book again.
A shadow fell over her lap. "I figured you'd be here," said a much deeper voice than the previous one she'd heard. Shane sat down next to her. "Have you seen Dustin?"
"Yeah, he was just here a few seconds ago," she said. "Why?"
"Oh, I was supposed to find you and deliver the message that he was looking for you. But I guess you already got it."
"Yeah."
"What did he want?"
"I'm not sure," said Tori honestly. "I think he might have been asking me out."
Shane started to laugh hysterically. "You're kidding, right?"
"I'm not sure. He kept repeating himself a lot, but the basic gist of it was 'go to something with me'. That means date, right?"
"That's my best guess."
"Wow." Tori leaned back on her elbows. "Wow."
"Man, I didn't think Dustin was ever gonna ask you out."
"What, you knew about this?" she asked, and swatted his arm.
"What?" said Shane, the picture of innocence.
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"You weren't over Blake yet," said Shane simply, shrugging. Tori met his stare instead of looking away, a reaction she would have had not too long ago. When Blake had broken up with her in favor of a tour coordinator he'd met while on the road, she'd taken it hard, and it was only through the guys that she'd been able to come to any terms with it, trying to get her life back to normal. She'd had no idea that while he'd comforted her, Dustin was secretly crushing on her. It was mind-boggling.
"So how long?" she asked softly, trying to figure it out.
"Couple months. It's been driving him crazy."
"How could I have been so clueless? I can read Dustin like a book. He's my best friend."
"Which are you more concerned with, the fact that you didn't see this coming, or the fact that it came at all?" said Shane.
"Well, his invitation was so...Dustin that I didn't really have a chance to process it. Wow," she said again. "Dustin asked me out."
"And you said..?" Shane cocked an eyebrow as he finally came around to the question.
"I said, and I quote, 'Uh, sure.' Not exactly the most stellar of answers, but it wasn't exactly the most stellar of questions. And then he just kind of took off. I wish we could talk about it. Haven't we always been able to talk about everything?"
"Would you be able to talk about it, if you were him?"
"Well, no," she conceded.
Shane clapped her heartily on the shoulder. "Just give him some time to calm down. He's Dustin, he bounces back from anything and everything, but this is going to be a little more difficult because it's closer to home."
Tori nodded, and offered Shane a smile. "Thanks."
"Yep. See ya." And then Shane took off, leaving Tori with her still unfinished book, and a flurry of questions. She'd been surprised that Shane hadn't asked her how she was really feeling about this. Her and Dustin? It was crazy.
But was it bad, that was the question. She cared more about Dustin than all of the other ex-Rangers combined, even Blake. That had a lot to do with the fact that she's known him since they were kids, and also having something to do with the fact that Dustin needed a little extra care. He was so cheerful and so happy-go-lucky that he made you laugh no matter what the situation, and in return for this unknown gift, he also fell hard in some situations. He needed someone around to remind him that the things he found devastating were, in fact, not so. Tori was more than happy on most occasions to be that someone. She adored Dustin.
But in a more-than-friends situation? She tried to imagine kissing Dustin, and couldn't bring the image to mind. She couldn't imagine Dustin kissing anyone, for that matter. It was just…Dustin.
On the other hand, though, Dustin had always been there for her, going far beyond the limits of your average friend.
The thought had never entered her mind, life without Dustin. So conceivably, could this union be bad? She tried to think of all the things she wanted in a boyfriend. Blake, said her mind immediately, but she shook that thought out. Blake had been horrible as a boyfriend--never quite able to say what he felt, and while she understood shyness to a degree, they should have been comfortable with each other enough that it was no longer a problem. Or maybe that was a high standard she had set for herself, based on her relationship with Dustin.
Her brain then launched into a list of things that were wrong with Blake: his insistence on, oh, let's say, leaving for a world tour and expecting her to wait. Cheating on her, but since she couldn't prove that, thinking about cheating on her than leaving her for another woman.
Enough bad qualities! she thought angrily. Blake had good qualities, too, like determination, a drive to win, a cute smile, a love of kung fu movies.
And then it hit her--Dustin had all of those qualities, too. Plus a variety of other things that she liked about him, like his boundless enthusiasm, his perpetually messy, moppy hair, and the fact that he understood her without her ever having to explain. How he could make her feel better with a hug, and how it felt weird to go a day without talking to him.
Sure, every time she saw him, her heart didn't flip over with nervous excitement like it had done with Blake, but the fact of the matter was that she had an ease with Dustin that she'd never felt with anyone before, certainly not Blake. She felt warm around him, comfortable, more like herself than she felt when she was alone.
"Wow," said Tori for what felt like the millionth time. She stowed her book in her bag, and took off running.
Dustin had known where to find her, so she should know where to find Dustin. He had been looking for her 'everywhere,' he'd said, and he'd run into Shane along the way, which meant that he'd been to both Ninja Ops and Storm Chargers. Shane had probably returned to whichever of the two locations he'd originally been in, but Dustin wouldn't go there because he wouldn't want to face Shane's question of "how'd it go," which the former Red Ranger would ask, even though he knew the answer from Tori.
Dustin needed thinking time, Shane had said, and there was only place he could possibly be to get that desired clarity. Tori drove to the track.
At first, she thought the track was empty. There were no scheduled races today, and it had rained early in the morning, so the roads were a bit damp and muddy. She stilled the van's engine, and faintly heard the hum of a motor. She peered out over the track, and saw a bike racing up one of the bigger hills. As it got closer, she saw the familiar yellow paint on the sides, and she got out of the van, strolling to the finish line to meet the rider.
Dustin saw the lone figure walking towards the finish line, and he was careful to avoid spraying her with dirt. He pulled off his helmet, shaking his sweat-dampened hair out of his face. He looked surprised. "Tori."
"Who were you expecting?" she asked with a slight grin.
He shrugged. "Dunno. Not you." Probably harboring the idea that she'd want to avoid him at all costs.
"Listen, Dustin, I wanted to talk to you about earlier..."
"Whoa, hey, listen, um, if you were...I mean, if you wanted to, you know, back out or whatever, that's totally cool, I wouldn't be upset or anything, I mean I'd understand totally, I didn't really think that you'd be interested--"
"Dustin, hold it for a sec. I just wanted to get a few things straight. You were asking me out, right?"
Dustin blushed. "Um, yeah."
"So I'm going to take that to mean that you have feelings for me that are stronger than friendship?" she continued carefully.
He nodded, looking like he wanted to put his helmet back on and take off down the track again.
She smiled. "Okay, cool."
Dustin looked puzzled, not an unfamiliar expression for him. "You're not, like, mad?"
"Why would I be mad, Dustin? You're my best friend."
"I mean, it's like, awkward and stuff."
"I thought so too, at first. Then I thought about it, and I realized something that took me by surprise, but it was something I should have realized a long time ago." He still looked confused, and she reached out to touch him, just as much as a comfort for him as it was a reassurance to her that her feelings were in fact what she thought they were. He was heavily armored in his racing gear, so she opted instead to brush an errant curl out of his face, letting the silky mops of hair fall over her fingers, feeling the heat pulsating from his scalp. She wasn't exactly surprised at the jolt she felt, because the simple, oft-repeated gesture was always a bit special to her. But she was astonished at the burst of warmth that it exploded within her own being, and at the overwhelming feeling of rightness.
"I love you, Dustin," said Tori with a gentle and honest smile.
His brow furrowed for a fraction of a second before his whole countenance lit up. "You mean that?"
"I do," she said, laughing for no reason, because Dustin could often make her laugh at nothing at all. "And that's why I want to give this a shot, give us a shot, in a more-than-friends way."
Dustin summed it up as only he could: "Dude, sweet."
Tori laughed still, and hung back to watch as Dustin took a jubilant lap around the track. For once she understood absolutely the motivation for Dustin's joy, and she took a small sense of pride in knowing that she shared it.
This was going to be okay.