Power Rangers S.P.D.—Hot Tub
Author's Note: This is going to be a one-shot story, so don't expect any updates. Just something I thought of in my spare time. Cruger/Kat pairing. Enjoy!
P.S.: I don't own a thing in this story! There, I said it.
It was the middle of January in Newtech city. It had snowed for a straight 36 hours, and forecasters were calling for another six inches during the night. The sun was setting over a landscape buried in a foot and a half of snow and ice.
S.P.D. Headquarters was seeing its share of illnesses with the cold temperatures. The flu pandemic was well into effect—approximately 35 to 40 percent of the city was infected.
Of those who had caught the bug, Commander Anubis "Doggie" Cruger, leader of the S.P.D. Earth division, had come down with a moderate case. Despite his symptoms, he still insisted on running the command center throughout the day instead of staying in bed.
"I wish I had stayed in bed now," Anubis thought as he walked through the corridor to his quarters. "I feel like crap." Indeed he did; he was constantly shivering, though the thermostat was set at 73 degrees. Every joint in his body seemed to hurt as stumbled through the hall. When he finally reached his room, Anubis punched in the password on the door console as fast as he could and disappeared inside, shutting the door behind him.
In the privacy of his room, the commander stripped down to his black boxer briefs and dove under the several covers of his bed. He stayed there for about ten minutes, hoping his trapped body heat would eventually warm him up, but the shivering only got worse since it wasn't in motion. He tried bending his legs upward and wrapping his arms around them as if he was curled in a ball, but that didn't work either.
"There's gotta be something in this base that can warm me up." Anubis thought to himself for a few minutes while he shivered. "Wait, I could go down to the basement and get into a hot tub!" As soon as he thought of it, he jumped out of bed and draped his commander robe over his body, not worrying about all of the other layers he was wearing previously, and bolted out the door.
His walk turned into a sprint as he ran for the nearest elevator, realizing that he was freezing from the much fewer clothes he had on. Once he found one, Anubis pressed the down button on the console and waited. "Come on already! Dang it!" he thought, bouncing in place while shivering as he waited on the doors to open. When they did three minutes later, he had to wait on everybody to come out before he could walk in. Inside, he pressed the button for the basement level and the doors closed in front of him, followed by the slight shake of the elevator as it began its descent.
"This sucks. I got my flu shot like a month ago, yet I still come down with the damn thing. It's the year 2025—come on, you would think they'd make better flu shots by now!"
After another minute or so, the elevator shook again and the double doors slid open, revealing the main basement corridor. Anubis ran into the hall and entered the first door on the right into the pool area. He dashed along side the pool to the right of the entrance until he got to a series of doors at the end of the room, the one on the far left marking the entrance to the hot tubs. He went inside the next corridor with five doors on the left and looked at each monitor. "No one's using any of them right now? Sweet!" The commander entered the room closest to the main entrance and closed the door. He took his robe back off and hung it on the clothes rack that was provided. Finally, Anubis set the temperature of the water to 110 degrees and pressed a button to begin the filling process. Tired of waiting, he got inside as it filled and breathed a huge sigh of relief. Within five minutes, the tub was completely filled to his chest. He slumped down in the tub until his head was barely above the water.
"Now this is nice. I'm finally comfortable, there's no one who could bother me; what could possibly go wrong?" He was just finishing that thought when the door was slid open by someone, making both of them scream. It was Kat, dressed in a white robe that reached the floor. Anubis had forgotten to set the room status to "occupied".
"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry Doggie!" she exclaimed in surprise. "I'll just go the next room."
"No, no, it's ok," Anubis replied, rising out of the tub. "I just didn't expect anyone here this late."
There was a slight pause as Kat deciphered the meaning of the commander's response. "Are you saying you want to share a tub with me?"
He stumbled for words at Kat's immediate recognition of his desires. "Well, if you want to, I don't care, but, I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to…wait, I've got the flu, so you probably should use another tub. I don't want to be held responsible for getting you sick."
"No, it's no problem," she replied with a cough as she closed the door behind her. "I have the flu, too."
Anubis was surprised. "Since when did you come down with it?"
"Since this morning when you accidentally forgot to cover your mouth when you sneezed all over me, remember!"
"Oh, sorry about that. Well, um, since were both sick and all……care to join me?"
"I guess there's no harm in that. It's not like were going to be twice as sick." Kat took her robe, revealing a white two piece swimsuit underneath, over a very fit scientist. Anubis' jaw dropped as he stared blankly at her figure in awe. She stepped into the bubbling tub of water and sat across from him.
"You seem surprised about something," Kat said in response to his facial expressions.
"No, it's just that I'm impressed with how good you look in that two-piece," Anubis answered. "It fits you well."
"Thanks. You know, this is actually the first time I've worn this. It's been stuck in my closet for so long since I hardly ever get the time to swim or do this. Being a scientist here is a full-time job."
"You're of a feline species; I didn't think you'd like being in water for an extended period."
"It's different when you're a human-cat hybrid."
"So I noticed."
Kat slowly nudged herself around the tub's edge until she and Anubis were shoulder. She ran her hand over his scaly, muscular underside. "You seem like you workout a lot."
"It's in the genes, I guess. I do workout now and then in the fitness center, but this figure is surprisingly easy to maintain, at least with my genetic code."
"Do you even know what species you are?"
"Well, I know that I am part jackal—where my first name 'Anubis' comes from."
"Like the Egyptian god of death?"
"Yeah, but you put it like you're comparing me to a gothic dog."
His remark got a laugh from Kat. "Ok, I didn't mean it like that. Anyway, would you have any idea of the other fraction of your identity? I mean, I don't know of any other species of dogs that are blue and scaly."
"I've never figured the rest of that out. I really don't want to talk about this anymore for now. There's too many bad memories tangled with the subject."
"Oh…ok." Kat quieted her inquisitive tone, knowing that she was probably close to striking an emotional nerve of the commander. She put an arm around his shoulder as their exposed sides touched underwater.
"You seem kind of…er……attracted to me lately," said Anubis, feeling the wet arm of the scientist across his upper back.
"Well…um," Kat started, not knowing what to say. "We've been friends for years. I've never said this before due to a lack of courage, but now I think I have enough to say this to you."
"What is it, then?"
There was a brief pause. "I believe that I like you more than just a friend."
Anubis laughed. "Good, I'm glad you said that. Because…well…I've recently thought the same way, but I've never had a good opportunity to let you know how I feel about you until now. In fact………I think I love you."
Kat glowed with happiness as the commander put his own arm around her shoulder. They then faced each other in a complete embrace, front sides in full contact. "I think I love you too, Doggie." With that, they leaned inward and locked lips into a passionate kiss, signifying the true relationship that they had been hinting at for so long. The kiss lasted for several minutes—the couple moving about the tub with a sense of escalation throughout its duration. When they finally parted, the expressions on their faces never had looked so happier in their lives. They became side-by-side once again, arms around each other's shoulders, as they slumped down into the tub with exhaustion. Together, they drifted into sleep with newfound love etched in their memories forever.