Disclaimer: Power Rangers belongs to Saban. I own nothing other than Phoenix and the concept of her powers.
Kim sat on her bed, plucking the strings of her guitar absent-mindedly, thinking over the conversation she'd just has on the phone. Tommy had called to tell her he would be coming to visit the following day for the celebration in honor of the Power Rangers. As happy as she was at the thought of seeing Tommy again in a matter of hours, her head was jumbled about what to make of the odd feelings that had developed in her for a certain young man in red. On a long breath out, her fingers stroked down on the strings of her guitar.
"You play beautifully." Said a feminine voice coming from the doorway of Kim's room. She looked up to see Phoenix standing in the door, leaning against the frame, her arms crossed over her stomach.
"Thanks." Kim replied, giving her a small grin in return. The smile quickly faded as her eyes dropped to the floor of her bedroom and a slight frown creased her brow as a thought crossed her mind. She brought her eyes back up to Phoenix. "Nix, can we talk?"
Phoenix blinked at the question, dropping her arms and straightening up. "Of course, Kim." She stepped inside the room as she signaled for her to come in and sit on the bed beside her.
Kim hugged the body of her guitar against her as she shifted her position to face Nix. "Phoenix…I'm really sorry for being so…weird lately."
"I thought something was troubling you, but assumed you would tell in your own time." Nix replied, shifting to fold one of her legs under her on the bed. "Did I do something wrong?"
"No!" Kim quickly replied, placing a hand on Nix's arm. Her shoulders slumped, reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear. "I just have a lot on my mind and I'm not sure what to do about any of it."
"Then, do you mind if I ask what has been troubling you?" Nix asked, an expression of worry crossing her features.
Kim looked off to the side, biting her lip in thought. She looked back to Nix, then with a breath, sat her guitar down beside her on the bed. "There's this…friend who I really like, but before we could figure out if there is something between us, he sort of left."
An understanding smile formed on Nix's face. "And there's been no word from this particular friend since his departure?"
"Not at first, but recently, he's gotten back in contact with me." Kim answered.
"I get the sense there is something else besides this "friend" that is weighing on you." Nix stated as she listened and observed Kim.
"Yeah…" Kim replied, looking down at her hands as she played with her fingers. "Lately, I've been having some…really intense feelings for this other friend that I've known for a really long time."
"And it's left you unsure about how you really feel for both." Nix concluded, finishing Kim's thought.
"Right." Kim replied. "The first, I liked him pretty much the moment I first saw him. The second…I've known him practically my whole life. He's like my brother…or was…I'm not really sure when all that changed."
Nix adjusted her position to sit Indian-style atop of Kim's bed, fully facing her. "The one who recently got back in contact, I take it you two haven't seen each other in a while?"
Kim shook her head in the negative. "Not in over a month." She pulled one of her legs up, holding it against her. "That was actually him on the phone earlier. He said he's coming in for the celebration tomorrow to honor the Power Rangers."
"That's good!" Nix replied enthusiastically. "It'll give you the chance to talk to him and see where things stand between the two of you."
"Yeah, but I still don't know what to do about my other friend." Kim countered taking on a confused expression.
"Well…how do you think of him?" Nix asked in an attempt to get Kim to analyze her feelings.
She looked off to the side, her eyes landing on a spot on the floor as she thought over the question. "I trust him, and I know that he'll always be there for me." Kim answered. "I love him."
"But, it's not an amorous love where you're willing to risk the close friendship between you two?" Nix posed as more of a statement than a question.
"No." Kim answered on an exhale. "Besides, I think he may like someone else, and I'm not entirely sure I see him that way even with what I've been feeling lately."
Kim sat back against her headboard, pulling one of her pillows into her arms to hug. "And the idea of risking our friendship just to find out, and see it all fall apart if it didn't work out has me terrified."
"What about the other?" Nix asked, Kim shrugged in response.
"We haven't really seen if it could work out between us." Kim answered, leaning forward to place her elbows in her lap as she buried her chin into the pillow.
Nix cocked her head to the side, a trait Kim had come to learn as a sign she was thinking something through. "Do you want to?"
Kim nodded into the pillow. "Yeah…I think I do. If it didn't work…I think we can still be friends."
Nix placed a comforting hand on her wrist. "It sounds like you already made your choice."
"Then, what do I do about my feelings for my other friend?" Kim asked as she dropped her pillow in her lap, pouting at Nix.
"You said you trust him?" Phoenix questioned, echoing Kim's earlier words. Kim simply shook her head in the affirmative. "Then trust that he wants you to be happy."
Kim gave Phoenix a genuine smile. "He does…thanks, Nix."
"You're welcome, Kim." Nix replied with a smile as she stood up to leave. "It also helps to not over-think things once and a while." She commented with a crinkle of her nose.
"Yeah, you're right." Kim replied, putting her pillow back down beside her to pick up her guitar and place it on the floor against the wall next to her bed. Kim looked up to see Nix eyeing the guitar. "Do you like it?"
Nix shrugged in reply. "It reminds me of something similar I used to play a long time ago."
A gentle smile formed on Kim's face as she saw nostalgia cross Phoenix's eyes. "You can play it sometime if you'd like."
Nix returned the smile, but shook her head in the negative. "Thank you, but I appreciate the gesture. Goodnight, Kim."
"Night, Nix." Kim replied as Nix turned to leave the room. She bit her lip as something crossed her mind. "Hey, Nix?"
She turned around in the doorway to face Kim. "Yes?"
Kim swung her legs over the side of her bed, sitting up straight. "I'm just curious…what did you and Jason talk about the other night when we all went out to eat?"
"You should ask him that." Nix simply answered.
Kim raised an eyebrow in response. "Why?"
"I think it's something you need to hear from him." Nix replied with a glint in her eyes.
Kim blinked a few times suddenly realizing the reason of Nix's suggestion. A calm, thankful smile formed on her face. "You knew who the "other friend" was the whole time, didn't you?"
Nix gave her a knowing smile. "Night, Kim." She replied, gently pulling the door closed behind her.
Kim pushed open her window, peering outside towards her backyard. She smiled at seeing what she was hoping for. Across the way, on the other side of the fence that separated her yard from his, a light glowed through the curtained windows of Jason's bedroom.
"He's still awake." She ducked back inside her room, crossing over to her bedroom door. Opening it, Kim quickly checked the hallway. The house was dark except for the soft glow of light coming through the bottom of the door that led up to Nix's room.
"She's asleep." Kim quietly closed the door to her room after seeing the door to her mother's room was closed and the light off. She made her way back over to her open window, then placing her hands on the sill as she would a balance beam, hoisted herself up onto the window sill.
Carefully and gracefully, she swung her legs out onto the stretch of room below her window. Once she'd completely exited her room, she dropped a foot onto the branch Jason had used many times before to climb into her room. Finding her footing, Kim descended the tree using the same worn footholds he used, quietly dropping to the ground. Facing the fence that separated their yards, Kim quietly sprinted towards it, and calling in her gymnastic training, vaulted over the partition safely landing in the Scotts' backyard.
Kim looked behind her towards her house, the light still on in Nix's room glowed through the window, but otherwise, all was quiet. Turning back around, she crossed the yard to stand a few feet before the homemade pull-up bar Jason and his dad had made. Kim dashed towards it, launching herself up and grabbing onto the horizontal bar. Once again, using her skills as a gymnast, she propelled herself to swing upwards. Once vertical, she did a toe-on, and launched herself the small distance forward to grab onto the railing of the upper deck of the Scotts' house that was right in front of the door leading to Jason's room.
Kim smiled proudly to herself for, once again, reaching his room without giving herself away using her unique method. Admittedly, she could have just taken the steps up from the lower deck, but being made of wood and years old, they had a tendency to creak under weight. How Jason managed to always avoid making a sound when he took them up after sneaking back to his house from hers, she had no idea, but that just re-enforced her thought that somehow he was part ninja.
Kim tip-toed up to his window, happy to see his light still on despite the late hour. She peaked in where there was a slit in the curtains, a wide smile forming on her face as she saw him sitting up on his bed reading a martial arts biography. He was shirtless, wearing a pair of sweats, with one leg stretched out on his bed while the other was bent at the knee for his book to rest on. Lifting a finger, Kim tapped gently on the pane of glass with her nail. She saw as he turned his attention away from his book to look in the direction of the sound. Furrowing his brow in curiosity, he set down his book on his bedside table and shifted off his bed. Kim stepped back far enough for Jason to see her face as he lifted his curtain to see who his late night visitor was, and at the sight of her, his face lit up into a wide grin.
He unlatched his window and pushed it up to open it. "Hey you." He said in a low, but cheerful voice.
"Hi." Kim replied sharing his smile.
"Come in." Jason said as he held out his hand to help her climb inside through the window. Once she was in, he turned to move back over to his bed and sit down. "Couldn't sleep?"
"No, just felt like coming to see you." Kim answered as she sat down beside him on his bed. "And, I wanted to talk to you."
"What about?" he asked as he shifted to face her. His eyes roamed over her face in the low light of his lamp on the bedside table, the soft glow reflecting off her hair and in her eyes. "She gets more beautiful each time I see her."
Toeing off of shoes, Kim scooted herself further on the bed, shifting herself to face him and cross her legs Indian-style. "Tommy called earlier this evening."
Jason lifted his eyebrows in acknowledgment as he moved to sit back against his headboard. "Yeah, he called me too."
"He told you he was coming to visit for the ceremony tomorrow?" Kim asked watching him sit back. Her eyes moved on their own, looking over the bare skin of his torso and arms. She could see each muscle shift at his movements. Catching herself, Kim forced her eyes back to Jason's. "There is something seriously wrong with me."
Jason thought he caught Kim's eyes roaming over his form, giving his head a light shake, he pushed the thought away. "Yeah, said he'll be at the park tomorrow and that he'll meet up with us at the Youth Center after."
Kim nodded, falling silent. She dropped her head down a bit as a thought came to her. "…Jase?"
"Yeah?" he replied watching her.
"Do you think this means he's finally coming back?" Kim asked, raising her head at a slight angle that made her hair fall over her shoulder.
He let out a deep sigh. "I don't know, Kim." He watched as her eyes dropped back down, hurt crossing her features. "You have no idea how much I wish I could tell you it did." "I hate how much it's hurting you."
Kim uncrossed her legs to crawl over to the other side of his bed and sat down beside him. She linked an arm through his as she rested her head against his shoulder. "I know, Jase."
He rested his cheek against the top of her head as they let silence fall over them. A large part of him wanted nothing more than to find Tommy and tell him that he was ruining a good thing with Kim with this distance deal. At the same time, he knew it wasn't his place to show what Tommy's feelings were to Kim. That was something Tommy had to do himself. All he could do was continue to be the rock she needed him to be right now.
"Jason…can you make a promise to me?" Kim asked, breaking the silence.
Moving his head to rest it against the headboard, he turned it slightly to face her. "What kind of promise?"
Turning her head as well, she rested her chin against his shoulder. "If, for any reason at all, you lost your powers…"
"Kim…" he interrupted.
"If…" Kim continued, raising a finger at him in emphasis. "…you did, please, don't just disappear on me."
Jason remained silent, observing the look in Kim's eyes that silently begged him to never abandon her. He felt a sharp pang in his heart at the expression, the look bringing him back to the day Kim's father left when her parents finally divorced and how devastated she had been when she showed up outside his room that night.
"Jase?" Kim said softly looking at him, still waiting for an answer.
"I promise I will never disappear on you." He finally said, giving her one of the softest and sweetest smiles she'd ever seen from him. She knew Jason was extremely reserved with expressing his feelings and preferred to keep them to himself. Kim felt her heart skip a beat as a content smile spread across her face.
"Good." She said, once again laying her head against his shoulder.
"And, if for whatever reason I do leave, I swear I will keep in touch." He added, causing Kim to look back up at him.
"Why would you leave?" she asked, a look of confusion furrowing her brow.
Jason smiled, lifting a finger at her. "I said "for whatever reason", I'm not saying I will, but you never know what might happen." He gave a slight shrug of the shoulder she rested on. "Think of it as a contingency plan."
Kim rolled her eyes, giving him a slight smile as she rested her head back against him. "Alright, deal."
He shrugged his shoulder again. "Hey, this promise works both ways, you know."
Kim smiled against him. "I won't disappear or lose touch if I ever leave Angel Grove."
"Promise?" Jason asked, a slight tone of humor in his voice.
"Pinky swear." Kim replied, raising her pinky to him. She felt his body shift in a light chuckle. Rolling his eyes, he raised his pinky in return, both of them linking them together.
"Pinky swear." He said in return.
Kim lifted their pinkies to her lips, pressing a light kiss to their linked fingers as if to cement their promise to each other.
"Good." She said as she dropped their hands back down. Jason felt his heart skip when he saw Kim press her lips to their linked fingers before dropping them back down. He felt her give him a small mudge against his arm.
"You do know that if you break this promise, I have full permission to hunt you down and yell at you for doing it?" Kim joked, snuggling into his arm. She felt his body shake as he laughed.
"And if you break it, I have full permission to hunt you down and drag your butt back to Angel Grove." Jason said in return to the mock threat.
"Fair enough." Kim answered, a small smile etched on her face. "Jase?"
"Hmm?" He replied, the sound reverberating in her ear as she lay against him.
"What were you and Phoenix talking about the other night when we all went out to eat?" Kim bit her lip, finally asking the question that had pushed her to come see him. "Why is it such a big deal that I know, anyway?" She agreed with both Nix and Trini that she wanted to see where things with Tommy could go, but that topic continued to pester her mind.
"She didn't tell you?" Jason asked in return, looking at Kim from the corner of his eye.
"No, I didn't ask." She fibbed. "She said I should hear it from you." She felt his shoulders move in a shrug.
"Nothing much, I just asked if she would be interested in training with me." He answered.
"Training?" Kim echoed, turning her head up to look at the angled view of his face. "That's all?"
"Yeah. After watching her fight alongside us for the last few weeks, I think her style is pretty cool. I asked if she would show me some of her techniques so I can work them into mine, and I'm going to do to the same for her." He looked down at Kim, an amused smile forming on his face. "Why do you want to know?"
Kim shrugged, looking down at her hands. "You two have gotten pretty close and I thought you might like her."
"As a friend, sure. She's turning out to be pretty great." Jason responded. "Beyond that, no."
"Why not?" Kim asked, curiosity getting the better of her. "Why am I asking?"
She felt his body shake as he chuckled. "Well, she is pretty, and her curiosity is cute, but we still don't know her all that well. Besides, I've seen the way Billy looks at her. I'm not going to get in his way." One of his half-smiles formed on his face. "I'm pretty sure Nix likes Billy too, they're both just too shy to say anything about it to each other."
Kim smiled in agreement, remembering Nix's clumsy attempt to side-step her question about Billy. "Do you think we should help them?"
"Nah." Jason replied. "I get the feeling they'll figure it out eventually."
"Yeah." Kim agreed. "I think they will too."
"Hey." Jason said glancing over to his clock. "I should get you back, it's almost 1am."
"It's that late already?" she said sitting up to look at the clock sitting on the bedside table on the opposite side of Jason.
"Yeah, come on, let's get you home." He said, sitting up.
"It's only on the other side of the fence, I can go alone." Kim said as she moved to climb off his bed.
"I'll feel better walking you home." Jason replied.
"Jase…" she said looking at him while pulling on her shoes.
"Kim…" he said looking at her as he laced up his sneakers. They smiled at each other, getting into the same loop they usually got into when he wanted to help and she didn't want to trouble him.
"Okay." She yielded.
He stood up and walked over to his dresser, taking out a shirt and pulling it on before closing the drawer.
"Okay, let's go." He said, moving over to the door that led on to the upper deck. Pulling it open carefully as to not make it creak, he let Kim step out first.
"Always the gentleman." She thought as she watched him step out after her, pulling the door closed. Jason took the lead as they walked down the deck to the stairs, well aware that Kim wasn't as familiar as he was with where to step to avoid making them creak under their weight. Kim paused outside the window of the guest room that neighbored Jason's. She peaked inside of the familiar window, thinking about the times she'd spent in it when she used to sleep over. It had become her bedroom for a short time in their childhood when Jason's house had been her refuge.
"Kim." Jason quietly spoke her name. She turned to see him standing at the steps, one foot on the lower step as he smiled at her, knowing where her mind was. "Come on." He said, gesturing with his head down the steps.
"Coming." She answered, following behind him. She fell in-step behind him as they walked down the stairs of the deck, paying attention to where he placed his foot. Once at the bottom, they crossed the yard to the fence. Kim hauled herself up as Jason placed a hand on her back to keep her steady. She gripped his hand as she crossed over the top, then released it as she dropped down. Jason followed after, hauling himself up and over with ease.
Kim noted the dark attic window, signaling that Nix had gone to sleep as they started through the yard to the tree beside her window. She turned to Jason, wrapping her arms around his neck in a hug. "Goodnight, Jason."
His arms wrapped around her, returning the embrace. "Goodnight, Kim."
They let each other go after a moment. "See you in school tomorrow?"she asked.
"You bet." He replied, giving her the half-smile she loved so much.
Kim smiled back, then turned to the tree. Placing his hands on her waist, Jason helped her up to reach the first branch. Once she had a firm grip, she hauled herself into the tree and climbed her way up with a gracefulness he was familiar with. He stepped back a bit to watch her crawl onto the stretch of roof below her window, then slip inside. She stuck her head out once more to look down at him.
"Night, Jase." Kim said in a voice loud enough for him to hear, raising a hand to wave at him.
"Night, Kim." He replied, mimicking the gesture. She watched as he turned away to head back across the yard.
"Hey, Jase?" she called out quietly before he was out of earshot.
He turned around at the sound of her calling to him. "Yeah?"
"I love you." She said.
Jason smiled sweetly at the girl in the window. "I love you too."
He walked backwards a few steps to look at her before turning back around. She watched him make the short trip back across before he disappeared inside the door to his room. She waited until the light in his room went out, then pulled her window shut for the night and head to bed.
