Disclaimer: I own the guest-starring cadet. That's about it.

Author's Note: Just so ya'll know, this chapter was a major pain in the butt. And that's aside from the fact that I'm up to my ears in studying for midterms right now. Oh, and my usual beta reader is horrifically busy too, also schoolwork. College for Fanfiction, anyone?

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Saturday morning found Sydney critically eyeing two potential outfits for her birthday luncheon at the country club. One was a gauzy, white summer dress with accents of pink, pretty and feminine, almost nymph-like in its design, and which she'd been looking forward to wearing ever since she laid eyes on it. The other was a pastel spring jacket and white Capri pants, a much less fussy outfit that was still cute, but was more for appearances for her father's business exec friends and their families, whom were sure to be at the club.

She would have liked a second opinion, but Z was already gone, out on a picnic in the park with Bridge, if she recalled correctly. The Yellow Ranger couldn't be convinced to step foot inside a country club, and Sydney never did find her opportunity to ask Sky again about his weekend, so it looked like she would be attending the luncheon alone.

It was ten a.m. Her father was sending a limo for her, due to arrive at eleven-thirty, so she had an hour and a half to primp. Normally she would have been up an hour earlier for such things, but when her alarm clock went off that morning, she'd felt unusually listless. Without much thought, she'd hit the snooze button and went back to sleep. Now she needed at least this hour and a half to get ready, and she hoped her ride wouldn't arrive early.

Grabbing her shower things, she headed for the bathroom. It was eerily quiet in the Academy; most cadets were probably taking advantage of the weekend to sleep in. She paused outside her door, listening to that quiet, wondering if perhaps Sky was doing the same thing. Sometimes he did. If he was still around, maybe it wasn't too late to ask him to accompany her to the luncheon still.

Since Movie Night on Wednesday, she hadn't been able to get a moment alone with Sky, or even just a free moment. It felt inappropriate to bring up weekend plans while they were on duty, and in the evenings when she waited for him to join the rest of the Rangers in the rec room after their shifts, he never came. It stung to think that he might be avoiding her, but to be fair, he was avoiding the others just as much. Which meant that he might not be avoiding them at all; he was just extremely occupied.

His refusal of her invitation on Wednesday night had hurt, but how unexpected was it truly? The Blue Ranger never attended Movie Nights, claiming they bored him to the point of IQ loss, so what hope did she have that he would have stayed that particular night, just because she asked him to? Why had he bothered to show up at all?

That was his arm around me, his shoulder I leaned against. He sat next to me and had his hand in my hair. The gesture that had been annoying at the time was blatantly affectionate in retrospect. But why did he act like he didn't care the rest of the time?

Because he's dense and schizophrenic.

Because that's Sky.

Because that's what made him stand out; he didn't fall at your feet and tell you you were good enough. He challenged you to be even better.

She was losing her perspective on a man who'd been one of her best friends for years. The well-established equilibrium between sharp repartee and unspoken protectivenessthat was their friendship was upset.

Is this why you don't fall for your best friend? Or maybe just Sky. She smiled ruefully. But especially if it's both!

The night lock on Sky's door wasn't set. It automatically slid open as she stepped up to it.

There was a girl on his bed. Petite, with short honey-blonde hair and wearing a white tracksuit. She sat in the middle of a swirl of unmade sheets and blankets, surveying what looked like a schematic drawing of the Academy in her hands. Sydney's entrance clearly startled her, but her deer-in-headlights expression easily smoothed into an amiable smile.

"Good morning, ma'am."

It took Sydney a moment to figure out she was a lower ranking cadet.

"Are you supposed to be in here?" the Pink Ranger asked suspiciously.

The girl bobbed her head. "He's in the shower if you…" she paused, seeming to catch herself as she lapsed into an overly-familiar tone. She continued more formally, "I'm assuming you're looking for Cadet Tate?"

Sydney nodded. "Are you the one with the project he's helping out with?"

"I am," she answered, and for whatever reason, smiled. "It's very nice of him to take the time."

You're telling me. "What's the project?"

"It's…" she glanced at her schematic. "I'm attempting to revise the current system of security checkpoints in the Academy."

"Do they need revising?"

"It was a challenge issued by one of my instructors, in light of the latest security breach."

She must have been referring to the incident with Dru. Most of the Academy didn't know the details behind the near-assassination of the Commander, namely Sky's connection to it. Sydney wondered if this girl was somehow privy to that information, if she had sought out Sky's help because she knew he was the person with the most insight into that security breach.

Or if she sought him out for other reasons.

"Sounds very ambitious," said Sydney lamely, more to fill the hollow, awkward pause than for any other reason. "If you see Sky…er, Cadet Tate, tell him I'm looking for him?"

"Will do, ma'am."

Sydney retreated to her shower, uncertain of what to think of the unexpected encounter. The best thing to do was to just not think at all. It wasn't that unusual to have friends in other cadets, especially since they all ran amuck in such close quarters.

But this wasn't about Sky having other friends outside the Rangers. It was about him having friends close enough to be sitting on his bed on Saturday morning in civilian wear.

For once, she envied the Blue Ranger's ability to just accept things at face value. Then she wouldn't care about the what-ifs, the what-could-bes. They wouldn't be driving her nuts like they were doing now.

x-x-x-x-x

She decided to wear the dress. Her hands smoothed the material down over her hips as she examined herself critically in the mirror, turning this way and that. It fit her like it was made for no one else, and the muted white of the fabric gave her a fabulous-looking tan.

It was perfect. Happily she twirled around, making the skirt flare out, feeling elegant and cute.

The chime for the door rang, and she called for the door to open without her eyes leaving the mirror. The automated entrance unlocked obligingly at her voice command, and only when she heard it start to slide open did she glance over.

Sky stood on the threshold, and her guard involuntarily went up a few notches.

"Were you looking for me?" he asked.

"Yes." Her tone was cooler than she'd meant for it to be. She picked up her hairbrush and drew it up towards her hair, a split second before she realized she would be ruining her perfectly spritzed curls if she actually brushed them. It was a gesture of nervousness, one that utterly failed to make her next query seem casual, "Who is she?"

"Who's who?"

"Whoever it was in your room."

Sky looked a little bemused. "She's the C squad cadet I'm helping."

"What was she doing in there?"

"She came to wake me up."

"Are you two that close?" Mental smack.

He rolled his eyes. "Syd, believe me when I say nothing's going on between us," he told her point blank.

She turned a little red. "I didn't say that."

"No, but you were thinking it, weren't you?"

It seemed the Blue Ranger was a lot sharper than she gave him credit for. She didn't answer right away, and Sky looked amused by her discomfiture.

"Is that all you wanted?"

She felt a stab of annoyance, but it helped to mitigate her feelings a little.

"No," she said slowly, wondering his company was such a good idea after all. "What are you doing today?"

He shrugged. "Same thing I've been doing all week."

"Revising security checkpoints?"

He looked at her warily. "What do you want, Sydney?"

His impatience wasn't completely concealed, but she could tell he was at least making an effort. "My parents are having a luncheon for me today to make up for the birthday party I missed, and I wanted you to come."

Her request seemed to mystify him. While he had finally learned to relax a little with his teammates during their down time, doing something leisurely off of Academy grounds was probably still a radical idea to him.

"Now we get invitations?" he said at last, rather wryly.

"Actually…" She paused, feeling suddenly shy. "Just you. But I suppose you aren't interested, being as busy as you've been."

He shook his head. "It's not that." Something in his expression told her that he wasn't as oblivious to the subtext in her words as she thought he would be. "It's just—I don't think I can go."

She frowned, puzzled. "Why not?"

"I…I don't think I have anything that would fit the dress code for wherever you're going," he admitted awkwardly, giving her outfit a meaningful glance.

She looked down at her dress. "It's not exactly black tie or even cocktail."

"No, really,"—now he sounded almost embarrassed—"I don't think gym clothes or my uniform is going to cut it."

She stared at him. "You're kidding me."

"Check my closet."

She made a noise that might have been a laugh, but it was short and humorless, dying almost as soon as it began. She felt like tearing her perfectly coiffed hair out. "You—you are impossible, you know that?"

"We wouldn't have this problem if I'd gotten a bit more head's notice," he replied irately. "You decided to spring this on me now?"

"You told me you had to work!" she exclaimed.

"I did!" He started to get defensive as well. "I got a memo later that afternoon saying my shift had been switched. Why didn't you just tell me what you wanted?"

"Because I didn't think it'd matter! Nothing else ever matters with you when work is involved."

He went silent for a moment, and when he answered, it wasn't to argue her point. "You still should've just told me."

"Too late now," she said tartly, turning away from him in a swirl of white gauze.

"Work is important," she heard him start to say behind her, making her bristle. If he was about to start with one of his lectures about duty and responsibility, she was going to explode at him, reasonable or not.

"—but I thought you knew me better to know that other things are important to me, too."

"You could've fooled me, Tate."

"I mean it, Syd."

She turned to look at him, blue eyes glittering. "Then why don't you ever act like it?"

"Why does that bother you now?" he countered.

To that she had no answer.

"This is the way I am," he continued a little more softly. But it wasn't an apology. It wasn't an excuse. "I'm sorry if that's not enough for you anymore."

For all the harshness of his voice, she could hear the subtle hurt in it. Her door started to cycle closed as soon as he stepped away from it, and suddenly it felt like she was always watching his retreating back these days. She had half a mind to go after him, but she felt frozen in place.

Sky was right, amazingly, annoying, frustratingly enough. She couldn't have genuine feelings for him unless she accepted the uptight, arrogant, workaholic Ranger that he was even if he became more than just a friend. None of it meant that he didn't have a good heart, or that he was incapable of caring about her deep inside. She just couldn't keep looking for a Romeo inside a Robert Lee, because that just wasn't Sky.

Her phone rang suddenly, a message from the front desk saying her ride had arrived. Feeling a bit flustered, she grabbed her shawl and purse, which was probably missing at least two items she was forgetting in her haste and would inevitably be wanting later. There wasn't really any time to seek out Sky again, but she didn't want to leave and be gone for half the day while they were upset with each other. The limo wouldn't leave without her in it, she figured, and the luncheon couldn't start without its guest of honor anyway. She went over to Sky's room once more, uncertain what she wanted to say to him.

It turned out that didn't matter. He and his guest were already gone.

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Author's Comment: This scene was actually kind of sweet until I went to edit it. Then Sky and Syd just started arguing, and I decided to let them be.

Reference FYI: Robert Edward Lee

"Robert Edward Lee was a career army officer and the most successful general of the Confederate forces during the American Civil War. He eventually commanded all Confederate armies as general-in-chief." – Wikipedia

And a tidbit I didn't know at the time I wrote this, but turned out to be quite fitting:

"The son of a Revolutionary War hero, Robert E. Lee was a model cadet. So much so, in fact, that he was dubbed the "Marble Statue" for his nearly perfect record while at the academy. He was always ranked first or second in his class and never earned a single demerit during his four years at West Point." -- americancivilwar. com