Disclaimer: Belongs to a subsidiary of Disney. Man, Disney sure does own everything these days...
RESTLESS WARRIORS
By Etcetera Kit
Chapter Sixteen: Forever Intertwined
Dustin let out a long breath as he guided his car along the familiar roads that led to Tori's apartment. He recalled being kids and riding their bikes over to one another's houses. Him, Tori and Shane, the Three Musketeers, they had done everything together for the longest time. Even when their interests began to diverge and follow different paths, they still supported one another, learned about their new interests, remained friends. He had taught Tori and Shane about Motocross while Shane had taught them skateboarding and Tori had tried to teach them how to surf. The surfing lessons had been laughable. Neither of them got to the point where they could even sit up on the board, let alone stand.
Third grade… they had known each other since they were eight years old. They had known each other for twelve years and been best friends for that same amount of time. He supposed it all went back to the third grade teacher that put the desks into clusters and their cluster just happened to be the three of them. The chemistry had been there from the start and their bond had been unbreakable. Sure, they had their spats, their arguments, but they always came back together, apologized and went on with life. Even when they became students at the Wind Ninja Academy and were sorted into different elements, nothing changed. The elements studied together more often than not then, since there was not a specific teacher for each element. It had brought them even closer to be students at a secret academy that they couldn't even tell their parents about.
Then they became rangers. For a while, it seemed like even that would not change their friendship. The normal routine was to give their parents the royal run-around. Shane would be studying at Tori's house, Tori at Dustin's and Dustin at Shane's. It gave them more time to think of a back-up plan if something came up and the parents compared notes.
More rangers appeared. At first, he had thought that Hunter and Blake would remain evil and they would have to think of a way to destroy them or their powers. Then they admitted that Lothor had lied to them and left town. Seemingly, that was the end of it. That was when the changes started. Tori became more distant and moody, mooning over Blake. Dustin had been truly puzzled. Tori was a tomboy and had never let a guy go to her head like that before. Plus, he thought she and Blake would make a goofy-looking couple. However, she didn't listen to him or Shane and managed to wreck his racing bike in the process. Hunter and Blake joined the team and Tori was split between hanging out with the Thunder brothers and spending time with her long-time best friends.
Cam becoming a ranger didn't have such a great impact on their Three Musketeers dynamic. He had been lurking around the academy since they were students and, over the year they had been students before becoming rangers, had grown used to Cam's incessant sarcasm and demeaning comments. Dustin would have been willing to bet that Blake would have ripped their friendship apart had Sensei not always been there to intervene. And Blake wouldn't have done it on purpose. He would have shown his affection for Tori and she would have gone with him just because he was new and different and offered another kind of comfort from what he and Shane could give without crossing the boundary line that separated friendship and something more.
And now, Tori had kissed him, him, her best friend since third grade. He thought she was pretty and he wouldn't have said no to a further relationship with her, but there were other factors to consider here. First and foremost, she was dating Blake. Second, they were best friends. She just knew things about him that he would not have ever dreamed confiding in Marah. And he cringed to think about the pictures from Tori's ninth birthday back in third grade.
He steered the car into the parking lot of Tori's apartment complex. She was working and doing a liberal arts core this year. Next school year, she would transfer to a larger school and finally choose a major. Her apartment was in a better part of town, since her parents helped her pay rent and utilities. He found a spot close to Tori's apartment and parked. Pulling his backpack out of the back seat, he headed towards her apartment. Taking a deep breath, he rang the doorbell.
"Hey, Dustin!" Tori said as she opened the door.
"Hey," he replied, stepping into the apartment.
Tori shut and locked the door. She wrinkled her nose at him. "Uh… Dustin? Have you not showered since you guys have been camping?"
"The showers aren't the greatest in the world and the others smell the same," he retorted, dropping his backpack next to the couch.
"Go take a shower," Tori ordered. "Use my bath stuff."
"Great. Now I'll smell like a girl."
"I don't think anyone around you will care." She paused and looked at his dirt-streaked yellow t-shirt and jeans with mud up to the shins. "And leave your clothes outside the door," she added. "I'll wash them and what's in your backpack."
"What am I supposed to wear?" he protested. He really did not want to try to talk to Tori while wearing… nothing.
"A towel," she snapped. "Now go!"
"All right!" he conceded and headed for the small hallway that led to Tori's bathroom. The bathroom, like the rest of the apartment, screamed girl. It was blue with fish accessories. He quickly stripped, marveling at the layer of residual dirt he had grown accustomed to and put the dirty clothes outside the bathroom. He then locked the door to the bathroom. No need to complicate things any further.
He had almost forgotten how good a real shower felt. Letting the hot water blast away the dirt and tension of the last two weeks had never felt better. He could feel how tight all his muscles were from sleeping on the ground and then running around all day and doing katas. He smiled to himself about the katas. Kelsey and Kira had wanted to learn the kata he was doing. It was an Earth kata and not suited to either of them. Quickly enough, he realized that Kelsey was Water and Kira was Thunder. Luckily enough for him, he knew a Water kata and several Thunder ones. That was what he taught them.
His fingers were starting to wrinkle. Time to get out and not run up Tori's water bill. He quickly toweled off, shaved as best he could with Tori's girl razors and girl shaving cream and ran a comb through his wet hair. He looked like a shaggy dog. Oh well. Wrapping a towel around his waist, he padded out into the main part of the apartment to see about his clothes.
"Your clothes are in the dryer," Tori said without looking up from the book she was reading. He paused and could smell cooking food. "The Bagel Bites will be done in about ten minutes," she added.
"You're the best," he said with a grin. He took a seat at the kitchen table with Tori, careful to make sure the towel did not expose anything. He studied her. He was dying to ask her what that kiss meant. "Tori…" he started nervously.
Her blue eyes met his and she put down the book. "I think I know what you want to ask," she replied. "I don't know, Dustin… we've been friends for so long…"
"Why?" he asked.
"Because I saw the man you'll become," she answered. "You weren't acting goofy or stupid or anything like you normally do. You were being serious and responsible and… that was something I never thought I'd see from you."
Dustin frowned. He was confused. "I don't get it."
Tori didn't answer. She just stood up and rounded the table to him. "You will," she whispered, right before her lips met his. Without thinking, he pulled her into his lap and continued the kiss, wanting it to be slow and passionate. One hungry kiss turned into another. He was having trouble denying the state this was putting him in. He wanted to strip off her pajamas and…
The buzzer on the oven interrupted the moment.
She pulled away from him and went about the task of taking the Bagel Bites out of the oven and putting them on a plate. "You're dating Blake," Dustin said as she brought the food to the table. Tori sighed.
"I know," she replied.
"You know. Then what is this?"
"Something we should have done a long time ago," was the whispered response.
The food was forgotten on the table.
Hours later, in that drowsy state between waking and sleeping, Dustin smiled to himself and pressed a kiss to Tori's temple. The feel of bare skin on bare skin was intoxicating and amazing. He shivered with delight at the memory of the last few hours. Glancing down at Tori's sleeping form, he would have never imagined this moment.
Then it hit him.
A sick feeling settled into the pit of his stomach. This was not right. Whatever that message from Trini meant it wasn't this. He was not supposed to want this at all. His thoughts were erratic and all over the place. She was dating Blake and had not shown interest in any other guy since Blake first came on the scene. Dustin had always been her best friend and the one that everyone made talk to the angry person. He was not the one Tori had wanted in a romantic sense…
All right, so he thought she and Blake looked goofy together. It wasn't any worse than what would have happened if her early crush on Cam had gone anywhere. (Cam had low tolerance for all of them and would probably be shocked now to find out that Tori had had a crush on him when they first became students.) But he and Tori… well, it had just happened, hadn't it? They would deal with the consequences.
Nothing in life was a fairy tale.
He knew that now, more acutely than he ever had in his life. Struggling to make ends meet from month to month with no hope of gaining more had taught him so much. He knew the true value of how hard his father had worked for all those years. He knew the value of saving a few dollars every month. Life after high school graduation had not been as he had imagined it, but, somehow, he wouldn't have it any other way. Cam always seemed to know when he didn't quite have enough money to buy groceries and things like that.
His gaze went back to Tori. What was happening to him?
If someone had told Kira in her first three years of high school that she would become close friends with Conner McKnight and Ethan James, she would have laughed at them and walked away. No one could have anticipated the friendship between the three of them. They couldn't have anticipated their friendship. It all spiraled back to that bogus detention when Doctor Oliver had decided to take them to a museum instead of staying at school. The Dino-Gems did the rest, throwing them together in a team that had to learn to get along.
And it worked out. They got to know one another. They learned each others' strengths and weaknesses, taught the others new things and incorporated their likes and dislikes until it was one arena where the three of them could meet on common ground. Conner dragged them to the soccer field and they played soccer with him. Ethan did light shows for her gigs and brought up things Conner liked on the internet. She had written numerous songs about them and their adventures. The boys came to her gigs, while she and Ethan went to Conner's soccer games and she and Conner tried out Ethan's demo computer games. They had adapted and developed such a close friendship…
Doctor Oliver becoming a ranger didn't affect them, since he had already given them their morphers and mentored them in their first few days of being rangers. To have him become a ranger as well was natural. He was still their teacher and their mentor and their friend. Trent was what threw a wrench in the works. Being good, then evil, betraying them a couple times before becoming ultimately good… no one quite knew where he stood or whether or not to trust him. She had liked him, dated him… with Conner and Ethan breathing down her neck.
She smiled to herself and steered her car into Conner's apartment complex. He lived outside of LA in a staunchly middle class neighborhood. What had possessed him to move off campus and get an apartment by himself she didn't know. She had the feeling that Conner was hiding more than just his changed major. The only question was—what? Conner had grown up and become more than just a dumb jock. He had a compassionate streak that he hid expertly from prying eyes. He was also more creative than he or anyone else gave himself credit for. Smiling to herself, she recalled how he had ended up in a creative writing class due to a clerical error in the registrar's office the spring of their senior year. He ended up writing a whole series of short stories about Joey Rigatoni, a dysfunctional mafia member. That was Conner, his mind worked in mysterious ways.
No one was moving around the parking lot this late a night. She glanced at the balcony of Conner's apartment. He was sitting out there in a lawn chair, waving at her. Smiling, she waved back and got her backpack out of the car before moving to meet him.
"Hey!" she called as she climbed up the stairs to his second-floor apartment.
"Hey," he called back rising to meet her. He gave her a quick hug and stepped back. "God, you stink."
"It's been kind of rough out there," she retorted.
Conner shrugged as they went into his apartment. "You can use my shower if you want."
"I was planning on it."
He glowered at her. "I love how the step of asking me is omitted."
"It's because I know you love me." She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek.
"Fine," he grumbled. "And be happy. I cleaned."
His apartment was spotless by Conner standards, which meant the counter between the living room and kitchen was still piled with clutter. Stuff cluttered most of the kitchen table along with a stray gym bag in the corner. However, there were no dirty dishes or rotting food in the kitchen. His bedroom door was shut—probably a prudent move on his part and more efficient if faced with the task of shutting the door or cleaning it.
"I'll wash your clothes if you want," he added, nodding towards her dirt-streaked clothes and her jeans that were caked with mud around the ankle.
"That would be great," she replied, kicking off her filthy sneakers inside the door.
"I'll find you something to wear." He disappeared into his bedroom. When he came back out, he left the door open, revealing that his bedroom was not the wreck she would have expected it to be. His bed was made—for him. He handed her a red button-up shirt and a pair of red plaid pajama pants that didn't appear to be something he wore on a regular basis.
Without saying anything she took the clothes and went into his bathroom. It was clean and to her standards surprisingly. She stripped off her clothes and located her cleanest bra and pair of underwear before depositing the rest of her clothes outside the bathroom door. The hot shower felt good, washing away the dirt and tension of the past two weeks. Today they had made more progress than ever before—they had truly accepted that they needed to work together or not at all.
Soon enough, she got out of the shower and put on her semi-clean undergarments and the borrowed clothes. Conner's clothes were too big for her, but she wasn't going to complain. Clean clothes felt as good as the shower had. Leaving her toiletries in the bathroom, she padded out into the living room, noting that her clothes had disappeared. Ordinarily, she would have been mortified to have Conner handling her underwear, but, at this point in time, she really didn't care.
Conner was sitting on the couch, disinterestedly flipping through channels. He grinned when she came out. "Do you own anything that's not red?" she asked as she ungracefully flopped onto the couch next to him.
His grin grew wider. "Sure. I just have to find it." She half-heartedly punched his upper arm. He pretended to be hurt, but then smiled. "So what do you want to do?" he asked.
"I think I owe you a slot-car race."
"You're on!"
He grabbed her hand and led her into his bedroom where his computer and desk where. Her previous assessment that his bedroom was clean on his standards was correct. Most of the clothing had been picked up and his comforter had been pulled over the bed, giving it a look of neatness.
Conner won all the slot-car races, of course.
She yawned as the last race ended. He gave her a worried look. "Have you guys been getting much sleep out there?"
"Yeah. I've just been sleeping on the ground for two weeks." She stifled another yawn. "If I can have a pillow or something I think I'll just crash."
"Where?"
"On the couch."
Conner shook his head. "No. You've been sleeping on the ground. You can sleep in the bed and I'll sleep on the couch."
"Conner-" she started, but he interrupted her.
"No. It's just…" he trailed off and looked thoughtful. "Look, it's a queen-sized bed. I'm sure we can both share it without imposing on one another."
"You want me to share a bed with you?"
"If you don't like the idea, I can always sleep on the couch."
She liked that idea even less. Conner picked the worst times to be chivalrous. "All right," she agreed. "We can share the bed, but you'd better not try anything."
He held up his hands in surrender. "I couldn't try anything," he muttered. "You'd beat me to a bloody pulp."
"Right," she replied.
He turned off the computer and then pulled back the covers on the bed, showing that he had really made the bed and not just done a half-assed job. She crawled under the covers and he followed suite, making sure to keep a respectable distance from her. Conner turned off the bedside lamp, plunging them into darkness. After a moment, her eyes adjusted and she could see his profile in the moonlight.
"Conner?" she whispered.
"What?" he asked, turning towards her.
She was all too aware of his heat and his very presence. "How come you never got another girlfriend after Krista broke up with you?"
"I'm waiting for the right girl this time," he said softly.
"Oh." That was not something Conner normally said. "Hey, Conner?"
"Huh?" he murmured sleepily.
"Remember Joey Rigatoni?"
He laughed. "How could I forget that?"
"You were so proud of those stories."
"I sent them to a publisher."
She remained in a shocked silence for a moment. Conner had sent something he had written to a publisher? This was as improbable as him deciding he wanted to be a social worker. "Really?" she asked.
"I thought you were tired."
"Well, I got in bed and woke up."
She could feel him turning onto his side and could feel him staring at her. He reached out and his fingers gently brushed her cheek. "You're a great musician," he whispered. His searing touch was going straight to her brain. She had wondered for so long what it would be like to have Conner hold her, kiss her and not as a friend. But she had always silenced those thoughts. Conner had his world and she had hers. They were two completely different people. A relationship could never work out… or could it? The more she thought about it, the more she began to believe her grandmother. Her grandmother had always said if you can talk to a person, imagine waking up next to them every day for the rest of your life and imagine growing old with them, then that is the person you're meant to be with.
"Thanks," she said, her voice quavering.
"Do you… want to go out to dinner or a movie sometime?"
"Are you asking me out?"
"Yes."
He moved closer to her and his lips met hers in the lightest, most tentative of kisses. She responded by pulling him closer, deepening the kiss. He stopped her before it could go on and opened his arms to her. She snuggled up against him, for the first time in a long time, feeling content, feeling like this is where she belonged.To Be Continued...
Author's Note: I am so sorry- I still haven't been able to get back to reviewers. Blame the Hamlet paper... But rest assured that I do read all the reviews and take into consideration what each of you have to say. I'll try to start getting back to everyone with the next update or so, either in an extended note at the end of the chapter or via e-mail. But the reviews from the last update knocked my socks off! You guys are awesome-EK
