It starts as an accident.
"Whoa, you two joining some pairs competition or something?" Ethan snorts, pointing out Kira's and Trent's identical black tee and white layered sleeves on their way back from the base. The yellow and the white ranger look down on their clothes, then at each other's, and Kira barks out a laugh. "Were you copying me?" She accuses Trent in jest.
He takes the joke with a laugh of his own. "You came to the base last. Technically, I wore this way longer and way before you did."
"Doesn't answer the question," Conner pipes in, grinning like he's so clever. Kira shoves him lightly, and Ethan clutches his stomach, aching from the pain of laughing too much. "Yes it does," he argues, "think you might be getting too many balls to the head, Conner."
The quartet continue to joke and poke fun at one another, forgetting the unintended matching outfits Kira and Trent wore as they jump from one topic to another. He's glad they're all in high spirits and laughing and grinning away, because Trent has been smiling for entirely different reasons, and he'd be in trouble if the other rangers caught on.
The heating at Hayley's Cyberspace is going wonky, but in the middle of September, most people can still tolerate it, not taking off their coats and jackets and ordering more hot cocoa than usual to compensate for it. Hayley refuses to hire a repairman, insisting she could work on it herself, but would have to do so during closing hours. The repairman could do it during store hours, but the woman absolutely shoots down the idea.
"Maybe she's a little tight on budget?" Ethan suggests, looking at Kira and Conner, who only shrug at him. "It's not yet that cold, anyway," the tallest one dismisses the concern, but he doesn't remove his own vest. "Nothing we can't handle."
"Speak for yourself," Kira grunts, tightening her own button-up around her. Cassidy had bumped into her on her and Devin's way out while ranting about her to-go smoothie, and a huge amount had spilled on her jacket, which was now with Devin, who'd promised to have it washed and back to her clean and pristine on Monday before first period. Kira'd insisted otherwise, but Devin felt guilty and the liquid was starting to seep through the jacket, rendering its warming function null. "Neither of you even lent me your jackets."
"You can put your arms down on the table and I'll put my laptop on them," Ethan suggests half-jokingly, and Kira glares. "It's cold, and I need this, okay," the blue ranger ends up whining, hugging his own jacket with one hand, his little furnace of a laptop on the other.
"I know," Kira whines back, easily dissuaded whenever her friend makes puppy eyes at her. "I'm just really not good with the cold, I guess. Even if it is early September."
"Want a hot cocoa?" Trent pops in just in time, in a short-sleeved button-up layered on a gray tee, as well as a thin sheen of sweat from running around taking and serving up orders. All in all, he looks toasty. "First cup's on the house; Hayley's doing it as an apology for the broken heater."
"That'd be great, thanks," Kira mutters, unable to open her mouth wider for fear that they'd hear her chattering teeth.
"I'll take one, too, yeah!" Conner adds in with a smile before taking out a small gaming console Ethan had lent to him so he could play soccer...virtually. The blue ranger passes up on his free cocoa, worrying about its proximity to his gaming laptop, "but I'll take one before I leave," he promises Trent. The waiter nods to the trio before turning his attention to the yellow ranger tapping her pencil on her music sheet, curling and uncurling her numbing fingers. "You okay?" He smiles down at her. She reciprocates in a heartbeat. "Little chilly, is all," she answers him. "Getting a little brain freeze from the atmosphere...or something."
"Or something," Conner smirks, not looking up from his game. Kira would've kicked him on the shin if she wasn't so busy trying to compress herself to spread her dwindling body heat.
"Then I guess I better hurry with the cocoa," Trent says, straightening back up and darting away from the table to the bar to prepare the orders.
The white ranger returns with the two steaming mugs laid in front of Conner and Kira, as well as a folded up gray jacket on his arm like waiters would with fancy towels at a high-class restaurant. None of the trio notice as they're busy with their own things, Conner and Ethan finally working on that IT project due by next week, Kira on her new music.
Trent wordlessly drapes his jacket across Kira's hunched shoulders, then rushes away from the table as soon as he knows it won't fall off. Kira looks up, surprised by the sudden warmth enveloping her, unwittingly pulling it closer to her body as her eyes trail after the back of the white button-down shirt retreating to the bar again.
"Ooh, that's good," Conner sighs as he gulps down the cocoa without concern for his tongue or throat. "So warm."
"Really warm," Kira agrees, her untouched mug still steaming, and the jacket now more properly worn.
By Monday morning, Devin runs up to Kira, holding a paper bag with the fresh and clean jacket, as promised, and the blonde gratefully takes the bag from him with a relieved grin. She still has the gray jacket on, and if the size of it didn't match her petite frame, neither Ethan nor Conner made any attempts to point it out.
Devin is, if a little, distracted by it.
"Gray looks like an interesting color on you," he says nonchalantly, joining the trio on their walk to the classroom. Cassidy had holed up in the girl's room, touching up on her makeup. "You think so?" Kira indulges the cameraman, grinning wider. "I usually wear black and white to match my yellow accents, but-" she raises the paper bag to make a point, and Devin shrugs his shoulders awkwardly. "Well, gray looks nice for a change. It matches well with white, too!"
"Thanks, Devin," Kira nods at him, then shakes the bag again. "For this, too."
"Sure!"
The odd group of four enter the classroom together, and when Kira and Trent's eyes meet across the classroom, there's a wonderfully warm, blooming feeling in his stomach when he sees just how well his jacket hugs her frame.
"You're soaking wet!" Trent comments above the roar of the rain, which is an understatement, given how hard it's pouring outside. He hurries to meet Kira halfway as she rushes to Hayley's Cyberspace, forming a tent out of one of his multitudes of white long-sleeved button-ups that he always wears, covering himself and then mostly the yellow ranger as he helps her inside the cafe. She's too busy checking on her guitar to actually notice the taller man attempt to dry her hair with his shirt while keeping her warm with the semi-soaked article. "I was headed to the music store a few blocks away," she mumbles, a little frustrated at the change in plans, "then it started pouring like crazy, and I didn't even bring an umbrella!"
"What about your coat?" Trent nods to the article in question, wrapped securely around Kira's caseless guitar.
"Actually, what about your guitar case?"
The singer finally meets his eyes, vexation clearly reflected in them. "I was going to buy a new one today," she tells him, deflating when she knows she's been defeated by a weather occurrence. "You guys open? Can I stay a bit?"
"You can stay here as long as you like," Trent answers a little too hastily for his liking, and Kira laughs a little at it, endeared. "Were you feeling lonely?" She jokes, headed to the stage to carefully prop her guitar on. She joins Trent on the couch once she finishes.
"Hey, Kira," Hayley greets as soon as she walks out of the cafe kitchen. There aren't many customers inside, and Ethan isn't around either, much to the yellow ranger's surprise. Maybe everyone else watched the weather report and opted to stay in. "Hot cocoa?" The teenager nods eagerly. Hayley chuckles at the childlike enthusiasm, then pauses when she sees the white sleeves wrapped around her soaked shoulders. The cafe's owner glances pointedly at Trent. "I'll handle this," she tells him knowingly. The white ranger chuckles as he shakes his head. Can't get anything past Hayley.
"What was up with that?" Kira peers at him from under her bangs, inquisitiveness overtaking her earlier irritation. He glances at her and then back at his nervously fiddling fingers interlaced in front of him. It was all he could do to stop himself from touching her. "I wonder," he replies vaguely with a nonchalant grin. He nods to her yellow electric guitar, perched safely and securely on the stage. "What happened to your other case?"
"Don't think I don't notice that you're changing the topic, Mercer," the yellow ranger narrows her eyes at him, but her lips are in a smile. They both lean back against the couch as Kira explains her situation; behind them, the rain rages on, muted by the glass windows and concrete walls, sounding far and placated.
An hour and two mugs of hot cocoa later, the rain finally starts letting up, but Kira doesn't budge from Trent's shoulder. She feels warm all over, inside and out, and Trent's soft but excitable voice as he retells how he and Conner managed to cram a home economics project feels just like how a hearth would if she could describe how toasty it feels. "Sleepy?" The black-haired man peeks over the blonde head of hair. He probably doesn't realize how Kira feels the vibrations whenever he talks; like a low hum, a gentle, coaxing sound.
"No," she lies.
Trent laughs, not expecting the answer, and still not noticing how Kira struggles to stop herself from further curling up against him. She likens him too much to an actual heater with his body temperature and vibrato, it's got to stop.
"Ten minutes," she promises, as if she's being woken up for school. "Ten minutes and I'll get going."
"To...sleep?" The white ranger jokes. "I gotta work too, you know."
"You're working pretty hard as a human heater right now," Kira informs him, exhaling enrapturedly. "I won't keep you, I promise."
Would be nice if you did, Trent thinks, all moony and sappy and to himself. "That's alright, you're alright," he tells her instead, letting out a heavy but pleased sigh.
Ten minutes stretches on, and the clock above Hayley's Cyberspace makes sure they know. Kira does end up sleeping for a few fifteen minutes, and Trent spends the next five trying to wake her up.
"The store closes in an hour," happened to be the magic words, and the yellow ranger bolts up in a hurry, nearly tripping over Trent's outstretched legs in the process. "Whoa, careful!"
"Sorry!" She tells him, grabbing on to his outstretched hand so they stop her from falling over. She walks over to the stage to grab her guitar, still draped with her coat, then puts on the jacket when it starts to slip off her shoulders.
Trent only wordlessly walks her to the entrance, trying not to smile too widely.
"Thanks," she starts, then trails off, unsure of how to conjugate how Trent spent working hours on keeping her company and keeping her warm and dry, and everything else in between. "Thanks." She says again, biting her lip, suddenly at a loss for words when lyrics usually come so easy to her.
"Not a problem," the taller man assures her with understanding. He nods to the door, naturally big brown eyes looking somehow somber. "Go," he tells her, " the store closes in an hour."
"Right," Kira nods once, then makes her exit.
Trent laughs a little to himself, rubbing his barren arms. There goes another piece of clothing he's never going to get back.
Four hours is probably the longest time Ethan's gone without staring at a console screen during wakeful hours, and the timer is still running. Hayley checks on the blue ranger from time to time, but the intervals in between gradually become longer and fewer, knowing that the mastermind behind Ethan's willing abstinence from technology is right at the lounge area with him, making accessories with her.
"Would you wear an anklet?" Ethan asks Kira, who's sat upside down on Doctor O's comfy 3-seater couch; on the other hand, he's squat snugly on the lazy-boy that looks ready to become one with him.
"If you made it, sure," she hums distractedly, attempting to tweak the broken E string into a neat little ball in her own string of a DIY bracelet. Doctor O and Hayley both have a shared arsenal of tools, from complete sets of pliers to precision tweezers sets - everything she could use at her disposal. Ethan's also brought some of his broken consoles and electric tape, as Kira'd instructed him. "You could make one for yourself, too, y'know. Accessorize."
She grins to her bracelet-in-progress, and her companion chuckles at the thought. "If it looks good, I will."
Making accessories for Kira at this point became some sort of downtime for the rangers after training, both as rangers and in after-school activities. Whenever they were bone-tired but mentally restless, accessory-making was what they did. Today, the blue ranger and the yellow ranger were waiting for the red ranger to finish soccer training and facilitating tryouts in school. Trent was finishing up his shift at Hayley's, but he'd said he would join the other two in their little accessory-making session.
"What do you think Trent's going to make?" Ethan wonders aloud, not particularly directed at Kira, but seeing as she's the only one with him at Doctor O's house, he might as well. The blonde shrugs, even though she's still sat upside down. "Never seen him wear any accessories before, so I don't really know his taste in DIY jewelry," she responds, but she still ruminates the question over and over in her head. What would Trent, fellow artist and a visual one at that, too, produce?
"Think Doctor Mercer would appreciate a cute little DIY necklace?" Ethan jokes. His best friend falls into a laughing fit, and in the position she's in, is also suffering from an aching stomach. The image is too much to bear.
"What are you making, then?" Kira redirects attention to him, slipping a small yellow bead after she finishes making the little sphere from the guitar string. Ethan glances at her, himself half-sunken into the cushion-y chair. "I'm making a keychain," he answers impishly, bragging about his work in progress. He explains how he's going to incorporate one of the smaller joysticks and possibly a keyboard tile when Trent walks in on them, carrying a small box.
He makes a pleased sound when he sees a familiar white button-up tied securely around Kira's waist.
"Brought more trinkets," he greets them, jostling the box as he sets it down on the table, beside Kira's wonky guitar picks and strings and Ethan's deconstructed old consoles. He sits on the floor in front of the couch so he's closer to the choice selection of doodads and gauds, and also to Kira, but nobody comments on that. Kira turns her head to him. "What're you making?"
"Your necklace," Trent answers, as if he never gave the wording much thought. Ethan gives him a funny glance, but goes back to his work just as quick. "I'd already started on it, if you don't mind."
The yellow ranger gasps lightly. "Since when?"
"Since you taught us how to make these," the black-haired teen replies. The necklace is made of a lighter string he assures Kira wouldn't cause friction burns against her skin, and in it are a choice selection of faux amber, topaz, and apatite gemstones, complimented by few paler yellow and near-white counterparts, and a single white pseudo-feather. "It's actually almost done, I just need to get the measurements-" he gestures for Kira to sit upright so he can get a better gauge of her neck, but all she does is sit up on her side and lean closer to Trent. His breath catches in his throat, but when she gives him her permission, and very casually at that, he comes closer, hands carefully avoiding grazing the blonde's skin as he measures the final length of the necklace he'd made.
The moment is lost as soon as it's been made. "What are you making after that, Trent?" Ethan pipes in, almost smugly, like he knows what he just did. Judging by Kira's glare, it was totally worth it.
"Double-looped bracelet. Also for Kira." Trent answers less than enthusiastically. Ethan manages to stop himself from cackling for disrupting their little moment. "It's the only thing that might be able to hold an asabikeshiinh nicely."
"An asama-what now?"
"Asabikeshiinh," Trent repeats, the name rolling easily off his tongue. "Commonly mistaken as a dreamcatcher. My parents gave it to me as a child when the Native Americans bid them gifts. It's a form of protection in their culture."
"You're giving it to me?" Kira whispers, deeply touched. For the umpteenth time that day, Trent loses his ability to speak. He resorts to nodding to himself, unable to hold her stare for long.
Along with the asabikeshiinh, the white ranger includes a cross-sectioned charcoal pencil coated in clear polish so it doesn't dirty anything it brushes against. The two key items are accented by several mundane yellow and white beads, and two metal rings from a sketchbook binder.
Eventually, Ethan has completed his Detonation Man-themed keychain, looking through their accessory items to see what he should create next. "Would you wear a ring?"
"No," Kira and Trent chorus. They share a look, one of suspicion from the yellow ranger, and a deer-in-the-headlights expression from the white ranger.
Fortunately, his quick thinking doesn't just apply on the battlefield. "As an artist whose fingers are in close proximity to their art mediums, I think wearing a ring would negatively affect the output," he explains as offhandedly as he can, "you with your guitar strings, me with my pencils and charcoals."
"That makes sense," Ethan interrupts their strange little staring contest as he nods, when Dr. O's voice booms through the back entrance of his house. "Kira? Ethan? Trent? You guys in there?" The three rangers immediately stand in attention, laying their items down on the table as they went to meet up with the black and red rangers. "Were you three making accessories?"
"Nope; today's lesson is on knitting," Kira says with a blank expression. Conner's face morphs into excitement. "Wait, teach me, teach me!" Ethan, Kira, and Trent go on ahead into the base as Doctor Oliver struggles to explain the concept of sarcasm to the tallest in the group.
"You go ahead, I forgot something," Trent stops before entering the staircase, feeling his pockets. Kira stares at him a little longer before watching him climb back up, past Conner and Doctor O, before she joins Ethan and Hayley downstairs. The white ranger grabs the necklace he had finished earlier and gingerly places it in a box with a soft cushion he'd kept in his bag. Sneakily, the raven-haired man hides the box in the deepest part of Kira's bag before he catches up to the rangers downstairs.
Hayley has heard the same argument several times over; she's almost confident she can memorize it by heart. She and Dr. Oliver are usually receiving majority of the brunt of it, but Kira's teammates aren't spared from the verbal onslaught either. "Conner has a powered up suit because of an age-old weapon for red rangers - which I completely understand - so you built Ethan a banger motorcycle that can run on water and I get nothing?"
"You don't not get nothing," Conner tries, but one withering look from the yellow ranger and the tall man is effectively silenced.
"All I have is my ptera scream and my grips and even Doctor O has an ATV!"
Ethan thinks now's a good time to speak up. "Hey, I don't have an ATV either!" He grins, as if that could cancel out the blonde's entire tirade. She turns to him, a dark look in her eyes. "But you have a hovercraft cycle."
The blue ranger will deny it if he was asked, but he whimpers on the spot, gloomily retreating beside Conner. They've been aptly KO'd by Kira's words, but they don't scoot away when she drops on the couch between them, just as defeated as they are. "I just wanted a little upgrade I could call mine."
The rangers' resident engineer hears footsteps from behind the trio, and in bounds Trent with a salted caramel Monster Java can for the yellow ranger, which he balances on her slumped head. He takes one look at the power trio and chuckles. "Guess I should've gotten everyone energy drinks, huh?" He says as Kira gratefully takes the can and takes gulps from it like she had nothing to drink the entire day. Hayley studies the two before opening her mouth. "How come you only got Kira an energy drink?"
Trent's ears are the only part of his face that change color as he schools his face into nonchalance. "She looked a little out of it after her set at Cyberspace, so I hazarded a guess."
"Well your guess was right," the blonde in front of him says, a renewed energy surging through her. That Monster Java really was one strong weapon. "I still don't feel great, but I'm feeling better. Thanks, Trent."
"Wanna talk about it?" The white ranger encourages her, but stops halfway when Ethan and Conner let out sounds of protest.
"Not this again–"
"I can't help it, okay–"
Kira lightly punches the two guys before going on a full scale rant again, momentarily pumped up because of the energy drink. Trent listens without interrupting with half-hearted excuses, only sharing insight and asking questions at the right cues; somehow, it's the only way that's managed to placate Kira all on her own, and once she's finished her rant, she's actually much calmer now. Hayley stares at the exchange and a lightbulb goes on in her head.
"Kira," she says, and all four of the rangers look at her. Hayley laughs inwardly. "I think you do have the best upgrade without realizing it."
"Is it the power of friendship?" She raises and eyebrow and tilts her head, demeaning.
Hayley lets the comment fly over her head. "Close," she answers, then makes eye contact with a curious Trent. "You have the white ranger at your beck and call."
Kira chokes on her drink. Trent blushes up to his neck.
"That's," the blonde starts, "that's not fair, that's making me look like a damsel in distress. And you're making Trent seem like he's just a butler than a ranger!" She stands up from the couch and lets the rest of the Monster Java put her in overdrive. "I don't need a person, much more a man, as an upgrade - or as a means to make me feel stronger! Besides, even Trent has his own upgrades-"
"This is the sixth time-" Conner whines so softly that only Ethan and Trent hear.
"He's got his own zords and an ATV, too." When Kira's DIY necklace falls out from her shirt, she sees the white feather accessory and remembers an all-too-familiar weapon. "His quill is overpowered and my grips can't even come close." Kira slouches over again, knowing she's fighting a losing battle. "I just want to catch up to the guys. I just want to be at their level."
"Kira," Hayley's tone is more motherly, more serious this time, jesting set aside when she realizes just how much being a ranger has affected the teenagers. "Doctor O and I have talked about this several times, about what we can do to give you a boost," when the lone female ranger looks up at the engineer, hope and expectancy shining in her eyes, Hayley softens. "I don't think you realize you're stronger than the other rangers, even when you and Conner and Ethan only had your staff and shield. You made use of the weapons you had and went above and beyond."
Kira still doesn't seem convinced, so the redhead pushes on. "You and Trent are the only ones with flying zords, and while you have managed to control zords with Conner and Ethan, maybe..." she trails off, looking between the yellow and the white rangers to see if they were getting her point.
"You...you want me to try maneuvering-" Kira chokes on a laugh, thoroughly embarrassed. "I can't."
"Well, why not?" Ethan interjects, almost in protest. "You've got natural chemistry with your pterazord–"
"And you clean them really well!" Conner adds with an innocent grin.
"Consider the possibilities," Trent supplies, sincerity in his eyes as he looks at Kira. "If you can handle Ptera, you can manage Drago just fine. It's the same zord, just a different color."
"You can try combining your pterazord with the stegozord, too!" Ethan quips, beaming as he, too, thinks of the possibilities. "You and Trent are the only ones who can fly zords, and since you're looking for a way to upgrade yourself, why not give your Ptera a boost, too, right?"
The guys and Hayley all look to Kira for her response, expecting that she'd be excited at this upgrade without really needing to make something new or look for something ancient and instead making use of what resources were already available. Trent already has an arm out, waiting for her to take it, to take the invitation, to rise up to the challenge like she always has.
"You don't have to take complete responsibility for Drago if that's what you're worried about," Trent promises her. "We can share him, no problem."
"Yeah, like divorced parents sharing joint custody of their adopted giant zord kid," Ethan jokes.
"That's one of the worst ways to put it, but you've all convinced me," Kira finally succumbs, slamming her hands on her knees as she stands. "For now." She amends, smirking when she catches Ethan and Connor in the middle of an all-too celebratory fist bump. When Trent realizes she's approaching him and his hand is still stupidly out towards her, he quickly changes his stance, pretending to shift his weight on the other foot and putting his hands in his pockets.
"You and Drago are compatible," Trent assures her, correctly deducing Kira's unvoiced concern. "You can trust me on this one."
"Because we both handle flying zords?" Kira raises an eyebrow at him, walking in step as they head towards the deeper area of Dr. O's underground base, where the zords are all safely kept.
The white ranger chuckles as he shakes his head. "Kira, I don't know why you haven't realized that you've got a natural bond with all the zords."
The blonde stops in her steps, surprised at the observation. "Doctor O never mentioned it."
"He doesn't have to point it out; you don't feel it? How it feels like a breeze maneuvering those big guys?" The two of them look up at Drago, a perched predatory bird awaiting for his master's call. "How, even though you're driving with two other pairs of hands on the steering wheel, it feels like the zords are all listening to you?"
"Now you're just buttering me up," are Kira's last words before she morphs into her ranger form. She doesn't wear the helmet, though. "Go on, white ranger, suit up."
Trent chuckles nervously. "Me? What for? I'd be happy to watch you and Drago from the ground."
"No, no," she refuses to hear him out, "you take my Ptera. Let's go a few laps. Just around the base. See if you're really telling the truth about me being a zord magnet."
"I am!" He says before he morphs as she requested. Who was he to deny her of anything? "Are you sure about this?" The white ranger, through his helmet, eyes the pterazord with caution. It was the first zord that attached itself to any of the rangers, the one that knew by sheer instinct that Kira would take good care of it - and she does. The yellow ranger had Hayley supervise her when she was learning how to repair the zord after some heavy battles until Kira was confident enough to do it herself. Once or twice, Doctor O had found her asleep in her zord, guitar in an unzipped case, sheet music sprawled all over the control board.
In any case, the pterazord is Kira's baby, and Trent admittedly doesn't know how to handle babies.
"You told me to trust you on my compatibility with your Drago," she tells him, smiling as she puts on her helmet. She releases her nerves with one strong, quick exhale, and heads towards the white zord. "You can trust me on your compatibility with Ptera."
Trent stares at her for a moment longer, amazed at the confidence in her tone, in her stride, in her smile. He shakes his head, patting one of Ptera's legs. "Looks like you're getting a new sibling."
When they're in position, with Connor acting as the flag bearer that stood among the vehicles to signal the start of the race, Trent hears the yellow ranger giggle through their intercom. "Already celebrating, are we?" He humors her.
Ethan's recording the whole competition on tape, whether to rub it in Kira's face or Trent's, depending on the outcome. Beside him, Hayley's giving out the last few sets of instructions, reminding them to have fun but not die please, Doctor O's going to kill me, revive me, and then kill me again by lecturing me about being a fun adult.
"No," Kira responds through the static, Connor raising his red varsity jacket in lieu of a checkered flag, "Drago feels...it feels just like Ptera. We haven't even left the ground yet, but I feel like I'm already flying."
Trent flies Ptera, expecting a huge difference in their speed, still believing he wouldn't share the same compatibility he instinctively knew Kira and Drago have, but the yellow zord takes him by surprise when he could feel the wind pass him, feel the earth leave his feet, feel like he was flying, and not just riding a floating device. Kira's ecstatic laughter floats through his intercom, and he sees her speeding and spinning and looping just ahead of him, like Drago was enjoying the unorthodox flying that Trent would never subject it to.
Connor and Ethan argue about who really won the race, one insisting the naked eye was more superior than the precise camera lens, and the other arguing otherwise. Powering down as they exit each other's zords, Trent and Kira immediately find each other's eyeline.
She has the biggest, most excitable grin on her face, and he feels like flying all over again.
"And?" He prods her, trying to contain his smile. She rolls her eyes at him lightheartedly. "And you were right," she concedes, easy and completely convinced. "But don't think I didn't see you getting Ptera to faster speeds than I'd ever dared to. You looked awesome back there."
"Well, I am right, after all," he jokes, "Right to trust you on that one, too."
Normally, Kira would've rolled her eyes at him again, dissing him for his annoying brag, but she only laughs. She's probably still riding the high that Drago gave her, a feeling just a tad different from flying with Ptera. "Oh, and also," Trent cuts through the comfortable silence as they head back to the upper levels of the base, "you don't ever have to ask if you want to take Drago. He was pretty much yours the moment we heard you giggling in your seat."
Kira flushes, slightly embarrassed, a tad bit flattered by the gesture. "Then it's the same for Ptera, too." She looks at him square in the eyes, meaning every word she says, because Ptera means everything to her.
"What's mine is yours. Even if she's all I've had for the longest time."
He sees Kira before she sees him, but he doesn't say anything; he can't. His nerves eat at him, leaving him no choice but to smile helplessly as the teenager approaches, her navy blue graduation robe swinging with the wind. Resting on her chest is a recognizable necklace with a small white feather slung between several amber rocks and white apatite gems. Her hair looks even brighter framing it, her beaming face shielded from the unsuspecting sun by the top cap.
"Whatcha doing all the way here, brooding like it's your first day at school?" She jokes as soon as she's within earshot. Trent splutters, laughing in embarrassment. "I thought we agreed to never bring that up."
Kira pointedly looks around her, noticing that no one they knew was within earshot. Conner was a ways away, though, speaking to a man and a woman that somehow resembled Krista. "It's just us two around, anyway," she reasons out, but she doesn't push the memory. Behind her, Trent can see his father conversing with Ethan and Doctor O, presumably about the college recommendation he'd mentioned to their friend a few weeks ago.
"Oh," she remembers something, suddenly feeling around her pockets, and then digging around the pockets in her clothes under the robe, before coming up with a small cushion box. Trent knows it's for small trinkets like keychains and jewelry. "A parting gift," she says, watching as he gingerly takes the case from her. "Works as an anklet or a bracelet, I hope," the blonde fidgets, playing on the balls and heels of her feet. "I couldn't find a way to measure discreetly."
"That's fine," he assures her, endearment bubbling over just above his stomach, teetering at the edge of his diaphragm. "I'd wear anything you'd give me."
"Because you know I'd do the same?" Kira tilts her head, but there's a knowing tone in the way she asks, like he's been–
"Busted?" Trent laughs nervously, remembering back to the several articles of clothing he'd subtly passed on to Kira without either of them ever bringing it up. Neither one of them even considers returning or asking back for the clothes, too. She occasionally wears them, gradually incorporating them to her daily wardrobe, and the grays and the whites had looked so natural against her default yellows and blacks that no one had really noticed except for Trent.
(And Hayley. And Doctor O. Maybe his dad, too, if the knowing smirks he gives him whenever his friends come over were to go by.)
"Was this your elaborate, long-term plan throughout the school year so I could have something to remember you by?" The blonde pushes on, the amusement covering up her genuine curiosity and, to only her knowledge, childlike hope. "You couldn't be satisfied with just making accessories?" She continues, raising her pants leg to reveal the red and blue evil eye anklet that Trent suspects was a joint project by Conner and Ethan. There was what seems to be a small gold bird with wings spread out adorned with the eyes, probably a reminder of Ptera, too. He amends the thought; that was a small golden pterodactyl.
If Trent recalls, Conner and Ethan had also been wearing similar anklets, except instead of a pterodactyl, theirs had a single translucent amber bead, to remind them of how their friendship began.
"I did make you one," he argues weakly, because the admission would open a door he knows the inside of. "And it looks good on you, both accessories."
"Thank you," Kira nods, grinning, but expecting something else, something more. "And is that all?" She prods, because these past years it's always been Trent taking initiative and Kira just going along with it. Maybe it's high time she step up to the plate. If it all goes sideways, they won't ever see each other again, hopefully. "It's just...I know I said the anklet was a parting gift–"
"Bracelet," Trent corrects her, almost looking like it was difficult for him to speak.
"B...Bracelet?" She stammers, pleasantly surprised. Did he mean that in the sense that he would wear it in a spot where it's more noticeable, or did he mean that in the sense that she got his measurements right? In any case, the former white ranger doesn't answer her, only nodding as if to let her continue where she was going with her earlier thoughts.
"Um," she resumes eloquently. "Uh...I wanted to thank you, really, for all the...the stuff you've been giving me over the years." Kira stops again, her face burning up with embarrassment and all the unsaid implications of what they'd silently been doing for each other and what that could suggest about the real score between them - something that Conner and Ethan have been endlessly nagging at her for.
"Kira," Trent interjects again, this time more sure of himself. His voice is still a little shaky, but still endearingly determined. He's got one hand in his pocket, and another subconsciously scratching at the back of his head, mussing up his painfully groomed hair. "I've got one last...gift...for you." He looks at her with those godforsaken puppy brown eyes, "and I'm letting you be aware of the gift because this one you can totally reject if you don't want it."
The blonde almost makes a noise of opposition, as if to wonder why she would ever reject anything he would give her, until Trent pulls out his hand to reveal a key with a small asabikeshiinh in the chain attached to it.
"It's a key to my apartment in New York," Trent supplies. "I know you're headed to a recording company up there, and I'm going to Columbia Uni in the fall. If you ever wanna live out that indie rocker lifestyle of couch surfing at friends' places, I'd like to at least be the first friend to have future rockstar Kira Ford gracing my apartment."
His dad actually found the 2-bedroom apartment several weekends ago, when they went to the campus to scout for nearby living spaces. When Trent asked why they were looking for 2-bedroom types, Dr. Mercer only shrugged, saying that the extra room could be used as his art room or as a guest room should he have any friends in the area that needed a place for the night. While Dr. Mercer had the grace not to mention names, there was only one other person in Trent's small circle of friends that was going to be in the same city as he is.
"I...I'm not asking you to–" Trent coughs awkwardly, "–move in with me or anything...just that, if you ever need a place to crash and I'm not around..."
"That's...your apartment key," Kira points to the item still in Trent's clammy hand, voice going quiet.
"Yeah," Trent answers just as quietly.
"You're giving that..." Kira points to herself this time, "to me."
"Yes." Trent answers, never more certain of anything in his life.
He watches as the blonde gingerly picks up the key and its attached chain, looking at it like it's more gorgeous than the feather necklace, or more sentimental than the time she had Drago while they were still rangers, or even more valuable than the high-end brand clothes he's unceremoniously given to her over the years.
He notices after a while that she's wearing his white button up from several rainstorms ago.
"Mine," Kira whispers, smiling at the key, her face colored pink. Maybe from the June afternoon sun, Trent thinks. She looks back up at him, her smile growing wider. "I gotta give you something, too. As thanks."
"That's alright, it's already enough that you took–"
Kira steps closer, laughing as Trent rambles on, his eyes darting here and there, ears gone red, and she gently grabs the side of his face with her free hand. The black-haired graduate immediately stops talking, his eyes finally meeting hers, and Kira laughs again as she cranes her head up to close the gap between them, pleased when Trent does the same as he leans down and closes his eyes.
The kiss is short and sweet, full of so much one-sided yearning that had piled up over the years that they had been too scared to confess, pouring out with such tenderness that Kira can only ever find in Trent's very character. When they part, she holds tight to his nape, wordlessly asking him not to go too far. "That's thanks for the key," she whispers breathlessly, feeling his own short breaths on her skin. Trent chuckles airily, hands wrapping around her waist as she leans in again to kiss him once more. "This is for the gray jacket when Hayley's cafe heater was broken–" she pecks him a third time, "–for the button-up that one time I got caught in the rain–"
"We're going to be here forever if you keep this up," Trent laughs, heart full and body light.
"I'm counting on it," the blonde smiles up at him, feeling like she was flying with Drago again, only even better, like she was soaring.
The moment doesn't last forever like she hopes when she hears Conner and Ethan yelling and cheering a ways away from them, clapping and congratulating them when she and Trent finally separate. "Cut it out, you dorks!" She yells, stepping back, her face flushed from practically making out with Trent on sschool grounds. Her boyfriend - and oh, how she loved the sound of that - isn't faring much better, redder than she is, one arm around her waist as they walk up to their friends.
"What are you, five? Who still sings that K-I-S-S-I-N-G rhyme at this age?" She says snarkily, no real venom in her tone. From a distance, Trent can see his dad with the other faculty, and Dr. Mercer nods at him with a smug grin as they make eye contact.
"We weren't even sitting on a tree," he jokes, and Ethan cackles even louder. He talks about the scholarship that Dr. Mercer had recommended him for, and in the meantime, Conner and Kira argue about whether to hold their celebratory party at Hayley's or at Doctor O's first, one with their families and another just between them friends.
Trent's heart swells up when he sees the feather necklace and the white button-up on her, when he sees how comfortably she stands in his hold, how enamored she is with him like he is with her.
Mine, he thinks to himself, unable to hold back his grin and his giddy heart, mine.
