A/N: Big twist up ahead. They're both emotional wrecks yes. Sky/Z Moment! ^^


Chapter 6: A Life Long Wait

"Hello roommate" Sky smiled, pleasantly, as Z walked in holding her head in her hands.

"What's got you so chirpy?" she asked, rolling her eyes.

"Welllll I have such a beautiful wife…" he joked, and she shook her head incredulously, "you're making JOKES now? Sky Tate is making JOKES?"

"Listen Z," he came closer to her, "don't freak out, okay, we're not gonna stay married for a long time. I'm taking care of that" Z's eyes lit up, "you're getting an annulment?" she asked, excitedly.

"Yes, yes, Z, I am" he smiled. He could see the relief in her eyes, and she relaxed under his touch.

"That's great, that's just GREAT, Sky!" she leapt up and hugged him, shocking him, and making him lose balance, and stagger backwards with a small smile, and with a little hesitation, he reutnred the hug, softly gripping her back.

Minutes later, when they broke apart, she was still smiling, "I'll get the paperwork to you tomorrow" he said, nodding, and she nodded.

"I gotta go" Z's morpher suddenly beeped, "I'm training the D-Squad today" she turned around and left, still smiling.

XXX

Sky was still sitting in the room, reading one of the novels Bridge had gotten him for his birthday. He wasn't really in any mood to read the SPD Manual, and apart from that, he had a very… limited collection. But really, he was just reading the same page over and over again, he couldn't think of anything except Z. He absolutely couldn't focus. Why was she so… SO freaked out? Getting an annulment was a big thing, yes, but seriously, it wasn't that big, or terrible. Like okay they screwed up, but it wasn't like it was the first time they had!

Was being married to him that terrible?

He was done for his SPD Duties for the day, and everyone else was in the common room, having dinner. Sky didn't really have the appetite to go eat, but he was the red ranger, he had duties to do, and for that his body needed to be properly functioning, so he reluctantly put that novel down, he had started it today itself, two hours ago, and he was on page nine, which he considered an achievement too. And thinking about it, he didn't really remember what exactly he had read in those nine pages either. Something about the second world war? Or was it the first? A soldier was writing a letter, and then crumpling the lines he had written after many attempts of "Hi mother, hope you are doing well" or something like that.

He was still a little dazed when he entered the common room, and looked around, his intense blue eyes searching for that one face that he didn't know he wanted to see or not, but still, involuntarily, he searched. He wasn't really friendly with anyone, except his own squad, and he never had supper with any random cadet. If Z would be here, in the common room, he'd go sit with her, maybe she'll wait up, even if she herself had finished up, maybe they could talk, like they used to— his eyes found her, and he felt a pang of jealousy realising she was sitting with a couple of C-Squad nobodies, and laughing like nothing had happened. She looked so laid back, it was like she had spent the past two years chatting with them, and having fun with them and not him and the B-Squad.

"Red Ranger Tate?" a voice said, from behind him, and he turned around to see a young guy, must've been around his age, if not a couple of years younger, probably twenty three, nad he had seen him many times. He was in the C-Squad. Dr. Manx used to train them, while the Rangers trained D-Squad. Sky was pretty sure he must've trained him too? But he seemed vaguely familiar only, like passing in the halls kind, not the kind that he'd remember.

"Hi" he smiled at the older guy, who still hadn't reacted.

"Do I know you?" Sky asked, point blank.

"Uhmmm, I suppose not, since I joined a couple weeks back" he smirked, but his uniform said C-Squad. What?

"But you're in the C-Squad?"

"Yeah" he grinned, "Cruger put me with the higher ups, technically, he wanted to go directly for the Ranger Squad, but he wanted the rest of you to come back from your leave"

"Oh" Sky felt a pang of irritation, WHY in hell did Cruger like to place random rookies with him and his squad? Or was this guy just fibbing?

"Javi" he extended a hand that Sky didn't take, and Javi raised his eyebrows, and tilted his head. Sky realised the boy wasn't gonna go away till Sky took the shake.

"Sky Tate" he said, no fake smile plastered to his face.

"Man you don't even pretend to like new people" Javi noted, with a little smirk.

"Nobody taught me to fake a smile when I meet someone I don't know" Javi nodded, "Point taken" and with a laugh, strode off to where Z was sitting with the other C-Squad, and Sky felt an even deeper pang of jealousy. Why did this Javi guy feel so much like Z herself? What if they hit it off?

He watched as Javi sat, and Z looked up, greeted him with a smile, and Sky couldn't take anymore, he strode out of the room.

He could handle one fucking day without food.

XXX

"Heyy roomie" Z Delgado's face popped in with a small smirk into the room they now shared, just as Sky was making his bed.

"Weren't you busy hanging out with your new friends?" His tone was taunting, but his face betrayed no human expressions.

Z sighed, Sky was Sky, he was always gonna be, and rolled her eyes, "YOU weren't planning to come to dinner. It's much better than sulking alone"

"Better than sulking alone?" Sky was amused, still not lifting his head from what he was doing, "Says the person who wanted to quit S.P.D because she didn't wanna share a room with me" he scoffed.

"You're right, Sky" she said, calmly, and came closer to her, "you're right, I was overreacting, and now that I've thought about it, it's not really that big a deal" she said, though when he heard her voice, he could feel her choking up again, and he turned around, and taking her by surprise, hugged her tightly.

"What's … that … for … ?" she asked, inhaling sharply.

"Nothing. Just like that" he said, casually, but didn't let go of her. "We're in a kinda hard spot, and someone taught me a little hug can pull you through a lot of crap"

Z smiled, remembering having told him that three years ago, when he was crying over something he never told her about. They were in the gym, weren't they? He was trying to rid his anger by punching that poor punching bag, and had been for hours, so much so that his knuckles bled. Z came to him, and just slowly hugged him. He was taken by surprise, and asked why she was doing that, "I'm your friend," came her chirpy reply, "you're in a kinda hard spot, and believe it or not, a little hug can pull you through a lot of crap."

He didn't let her pull out of the hug after that.

It was so strange, yet heartwarming, that he remembered her words, even after so long.

"You know you're such a sucker for fuzzy things?"

"Fuzzy things?" They parted from the hug.

"Yeah, sugar coated, teeth rotting fluffy fuzzy things" she said, a smile spreading over her face.

Maybe… just maybe, they were gonna be fine.

Sky Tate and Z Delgado had been the best of friends for quite a while now. It had all started when Jack had left SPD. Sky no longer had anyone to challenge him and Z no longer had someone as close to her as Jack had been.

Insomnia struck him one night, and he happened to wander into the common room, where he saw Z already sitting there with a cup of hot cocoa.

"Hey?" he said, mildly amused to find another insomniac at their private little cafe.

They had talked all night, that night, the conversation started with them admitting that they both missed Jack, and they talked more and more, opening up to each other, telling each other everything. These late-night talks became a regular thing for the two, and before they knew it, it was starting to show in their daytime activities too. Z would often challenge Sky in training, and throw fun jabs in his way, and he would too listen to everything she had said. This way, they grow closer and closer, and they feel as if that void, that had been caused by Jack's loss, was being filled with each other.

Best friends. At least that's what he knew she thought of him as. And that hurt. Sky felt lonely, not because he didn't have someone in his life, the way Jack had Ally, or Bridge had Syd, but more in the way that the person he wanted to have, was close, but never, NEVER close enough.

Friend-zoned.

He had always had a bit of a crush of her. There was no denying she was beautiful. She wasn't just pretty, she was beautiful, there was a minute difference, and Sky Tate saw it completely. That morning, when they had woken up together, Sky couldn't push that image out of his head, lying there right by his side, naked as the day she was born, sleeping peacefully in his embrace, she had looked more beautiful than Sky ever remembered. And at the moemnt, in the little frenzy of panic, Sky hadn't taken a moment to appreciate it.

And right now, as she stood in front of him, with her arms crossed that very same playful smile on her face the way it used to be, Sky saw the same girl.

And with it, felt a surge of a certain feeling he didn't know how to deal with.


A/N: Yes, Javi as in Javi Garcia as in Dino Fury Black Ranger! More backstory in the next chapter! ;)