Disclaimer: The Power Rangers are not mine.
Chapter 7
Andros... Ashley blinked bleary eyes open, yawned, and then frowned. Something wasn't right. The corners of her mouth twitched up into a silly smile as she realized that the only thing that felt out of place was that he wasn't there. You've fallen way too hard, she told herself, but she didn't particularly care, and when had that ever stopped her, anyway?
Well, she decided, yawning again as she rolled out of bed, she'd just have to do something about that. Her smile now a grin, she scrambled out of her pajamas and into the shower, dressing as hastily as she could while still putting at least some thought into her outfit. She slid her yellow-banded communicator back onto her wrist and grabbed up her purse before teleporting directly from her room to the Megaship, wondering if Andros was up to breakfast, and not the kind that came from the Synthetron, either.
"Deca, where's Andros?" Her voice was slightly muffled as she covered her mouth with one hand, her body not quite as awake as her mind.
"Andros is still in bed," Deca informed her after a long pause. "I am unable to wake him."
"He slept through your alarm again, didn't he?" Ashley giggled when Deca didn't reply. "You really should turn the sound up, Deca, especially for Andros and Zhane."
Deca ignored her and Ashley grinned to herself, her mood sobering the moment her eyes landed on Andros. His door hadn't been locked, and slid open silently to reveal him sprawled out across his bunk, still in his uniform. The blankets had been kicked off sometime during the night and he was sweating, fingers clenched around the sheets and his face screwed up in an unmistakably pained expression.
"Andros," she muttered, rushing across the room to kneel down beside his bed and give his shoulder a less than gentle shake. "C'mon, Andros, wake up..."
He jerked awake without much encouragement, bolting upright as his eyes snapped open. Tense, he didn't move, only gasping for air with his hands still balled into fists.
Ashley laid a timid hand on his shoulder, saddened to only feel him stiffen further. "Andros?" she asked worriedly.
He drew in a deep breath and let it out evenly, tension flowing out of him almost too quickly. He turned slowly to look at her then, and Ashley smiled faintly. She moved up to sit beside him, carefully sliding her arms around him. He didn't return the hug, but seemed grateful for the comfort, so she held him silently as his breathing slowly leveled out. He was still sweating, his clothes soaked through and his hair plastered to the sides of his face.
"Are you okay?" she murmured when he'd relaxed a little more, hoping that he was calm enough to talk to.
"Yeah," he muttered, trying to hide his embarrassment. "It was just a dream."
"If you're sure," Ashley relented, arms still around him. She paused, drawing away enough to study his haunted, slightly dazed expression. "As long as you're okay."
"I'm fine," he assured her, banishing away the last lingering images of his nightmare. It was just a dream... "What are you doing here?"
Andros noticed that Ashley didn't appear surprised by the abrupt change of topic. "Looking for you, what else?" Her voice was only slightly less cheerful than he was used to, and she continued, "I thought maybe we could go down to Angel Grove, and get some breakfast or something."
He wasn't hungry. "Sounds good," he found himself agreeing, even able to smile at her. "Just let me take a shower first. Wait here if you want, I'll only be a minute."
"Okay, then." Ashley nodded at him as he quickly dug some clean clothes out of his drawers and vanished into his bathroom. True to his word, Andros padded barefoot back into the room again no more than five minutes later, dressed in loose pair of jeans and a red button down shirt worn open over a white tank top, his hair hanging down in damp tangles around his face. It looked all brown when it was wet, she noted, and smiled.
He was just so... cute, she decided, watching him pull on some shoes and socks. "You ready?" she asked while he brushed out his hair.
"Almost," he promised, and gestured towards his hair. "I just need to--"
"Leave it down," she suggested impulsively, struck with the sudden urge to run her fingers through his hair. "It looks cute that way," she told him when he looked at her in surprise, and then tried not to smile when his cheeks tinged faintly pink.
"It does," she insisted, pulling the brush out of his reach and taking him by the hand. "Now come on!"
"Where are we going?" he wanted to know, letting himself be pulled to his feet without protest. Leaving the Megaship even for a few moments didn't seem like such a bad idea. Ashley didn't reply, only tapping at her morpher and catching his hand again as they teleported out together. He wrapped his fingers around hers and glanced around their new location curiously. This part of Angel Grove was still unfamiliar to him.
"Come on," Ashley said cheerfully, giving his arm a quick tug to get him moving. "There's a little café right over here, I think."
She pointed, and he squinted into the early morning sunlight, just barely able to make out the sign designating the coffee shop halfway down the block. He looked at Ashley again, but she was walking towards it, her hand still in his, so he shrugged and followed her.
"Two of you?" a waitress asked, showing them to a small booth when Ashley nodded. "My name's Katie and I'll be your server today. Can I get you anything to start with?"
"Just two glasses of water for now, please," Ashley smiled and took the menu Katie handed her. "Thanks."
"What are you getting?" Andros stared at his menu, slightly overwhelmed as he studied the two pages of breakfast options that he had never heard of before.
"Um... not sure yet," Ashley scanned the menu quickly and then noticed his confusion. "Have you tried pancakes yet?"
"Should I?"
Ashley nodded. "They put blueberries and whipped cream on them here."
Andros opened his mouth and then closed it again, shrugging at her. "All right," he agreed, and she tried not to giggle as she realized that his exposure to Earth cuisine was so far limited to Adelle's cheeseburgers and fries.
"Blueberries are a fruit and whipped cream is... it's sweet," she said finally. "And fluffy."
Andros hesitated, closing his menu and taking a sip of the water Katie had just set down before them. "I'll have whatever you have," he decided, setting his menu down at the end of the table.
"You two ready to order?" she inquired, notepad in one hand and a pen poised to write in the other.
"We'll each have the strawberry waffles with whipped cream," Ashley said, glancing quickly at the beverage menu. "And orange juice to drink, please. And no," she added in an undertone as Katie left with their order, "I'm not going to tell you what that is."
Andros wrinkled his nose at her, but then shrugged. They passed a few minutes in an almost comfortable silence, Andros fiddling unconsciously with the silverware in front of him as his eyes darted around the room. Ashley watched him fidget around, opening her mouth once or twice to say something before thinking better of it. Instead, she reached across the table and laid one hand gently on his, startled when he jumped visibly.
"You can relax, you know," she reminded him. He let out a deep breath and she saw a rueful smile flicker across his face. "It's not like Cosmos and Lyra are sitting right behind us."
Andros paused, contemplating that for a moment. He set his silverware back down on the table, carefully and quickly shooting a glance over his shoulder. Ashley stifled a giggle when he turned back around, catching his hands for no other reason than she felt like doing so. He only shrugged her another time, a bit embarrassed, but not looking like he minded when she twined her fingers through his.
"See?" Ashley smiled. "Perfectly safe."
His lips turned up into a faint smile, tone apologetic as he explained, "I'm not always... comfortable around other people..."
"I've noticed," she assured him dryly. "I understand."
Andros relaxed at her words, settling back a little more into his seat and generally looking much more comfortable than he had been since they had left the Megaship. She tried not to sigh when he fell silent again; Andros certainly wasn't the most talkative of people and she would never expect him to be, but it didn't escape her notice that he was quieter than normal, even for him. He was staring out of the window, eyes slightly glazed, and Ashley had a sudden hunch that she knew what he was thinking about.
"Andros?" She gave his fingers a light squeeze. "You okay?"
Her voice snapped him out of his daze and gave his head a quick shake before avoiding her gaze. "Sorry," he murmured quietly, staring down at their still-clasped hands. "I was just... thinking."
"You feel like talking?" she asked tentatively, unsurprised when he shook his head another time.
"I don't even want to think about it," he muttered. "Not now."
Ashley sighed quietly, offering him what she hoped was a comforting smile. Her mind flashed back to how he had been when she'd walked into his room that morning and while she thought that she had a good idea of what he'd seen in his dreams, if he didn't want to talk, then she wasn't going to ask.
Deciding that he was in dire need of a distraction before the sadness on his face had the chance to deepen, Ashley dropped his hands and picked up one of two straws lying unused next to their water glasses. Picking up the one closest to her, she tore the end off and dropped the scrap onto the table, before putting the straw to her lips and blowing hard.
As she'd hoped, the wrapper caught Andros squarely in the forehead. He jumped and she giggled, when he looked away wondering if she'd annoyed him. Her mouth was open to apologize when he caught her eye and grinned, laying one hand flat on the table and giving his first two fingers a slight twitch. If she hadn't seen the same from Zhane, Ashley would have yelped in surprise when the second straw suddenly zoomed up off of the table and bounced off of her nose.
"You know," she said quietly, crossing her arms across her chest as the straw slid behind her ear, having thwarted her every attempt to grab it out of the air, "you're not really supposed to do that where people can see you. It's not normal here."
"No one can see me," he informed her, still grinning. "I just checked."
"Maybe no one was looking a minute ago," she relented, "but someone's walking over here now."
Andros paused and she snatched the straw out of the air, reaching across the table to tap him lightly on the nose with it when he looked back to her. "Gotcha." She grinned and he wrinkled his nose at her, actually laughing when she settled back into her own side of the booth.
"Only this time," he warned her with a wicked smile. "I'm not falling for that again."
Ashley laughed as well, keeping both straws close to her, just in case. "Do you think you could teach me?" she asked, a little shyly. "Zhane tried, but... I don't think I learned much."
"I could try," he agreed, faint surprise written across his face. "But--I've never tried to teach anyone before, and I can't promise how much you'll learn..."
"I don't care," she assured him. "I just want to try."
"We can start later, if you want," he offered, and she nodded eagerly.
"I'd like that." Ashley would have said more, but their food arrived, and her train of thought was lost as she watched Andros study his breakfast.
He gave her a look that clearly said "You actually eat this?" Ashley bit her lip to hide her laughter and reached for her knife and fork, out of the corner of her eye seeing him do the same.
"It's good," she promised. "You'll like it."
He took a careful bite, pondering her words as he chewed slowly. "I do," he admitted, pointedly ignoring her triumphant smile.
"You need to know more about Earth," Ashley informed him. "Next time, we're getting Chinese food. There's this great restaurant that my family and I went to last night."
"How was that?" he wanted to know, trying not to talk with his mouth full. "Did you have fun?"
Ashley nodded, her smile more bemused now than anything else as she told him the highlights of the party her family had thrown her. "Oh," she added sheepishly as she finished, "and my parents want to meet you sometime."
Andros choked on a strawberry. "They do?" he sputtered, gulping orange juice. "Why?"
"I didn't mean now," Ashley hastened to add. "I mean, we've only been together a day and a half, after all, but they wanted to know where my necklace was from, and well... they want to meet you."
She was still wearing the necklace, he was pleased to see. Her tank top hid the pendant, but he could clearly see the chain laying around her neck.
"You don't have to," Ashley shrugged. "I don't even know why I said anything..."
"No, I don't mind." Andros contemplated that for a few moments and decided that he almost wasn't lying. He sighed, explaining, "I just... don't always make such a good first impression on people."
"Oh, I know that," she assured him wryly, eyes twinkling mischievously. "You do remember the first thing you ever said to me?"
"I--" Andros stopped midsentence and blushed beet red as he thought back to them in the med bay just after Zhane and Karone had rescued them from Cosmos and Lyra at Dark Spectre's celebratory banquet.
"I'll take that as a yes," Ashley giggled and his face slowly turned even redder. "What, you don't think it's funny?" she asked innocently, and grinned at him evilly. "I think it's hilarious. Now," she amended.
"No, I don't think it's funny," he grumbled, still blushing. He'd been hoping that she'd forgotten all about that, actually. "I--" He hesitated, trying to remember if he had ever apologized for the way he had treated her those first few days. He wasn't too surprised to realize that he hadn't. "I'm sorry," he muttered, not looking at her. "For everything I said then. And the day after. And then for everything else I shouldn't have said."
"Apology accepted." Ashley smiled at him devilishly. "But I still think it's funny."
"Are you sure?"
"Very sure. But," she made a show of sighing reluctantly, "if you're that embarrassed about it, it can be our little secret."
Andros nodded his head firmly, before glancing down at his mostly empty plate and informing it, "I like waffles."
"That's good." Ashley's voice was choked with laughter as she swallowed the last of her orange juice. "Done?"
Andros scraped the last few crumbs off of his plate and nodded. "This was... fun," he said sincerely, more relaxed than she had ever seen him. "Thanks, Ash."
Ashley beamed at him, reaching for her purse. "You about ready to get out of here?"
She dug open her purse and rummaged around for a tip to leave Katie. "Let's get back to the ship," she suggested more quietly, wrinkling her nose as she added, "I don't suppose Cosmos and Lyra feel like taking today off--but if I end up on the Dark Fortress for a third time in as many days..."
Andros laughed softly, sliding one arm around her waist and placing a quick kiss on her lips before they headed for the register at the front of the restaurant. "If you do, it won't be because of me this time," he promised. She bit her lip to keep from laughing and he couldn't help but kiss her again, for once grateful that they were surrounded by other people. If she didn't stop smiling at him like that, he wasn't sure he'd trust himself alone with her.
He paused, his expression darkening suddenly as he realized that he hadn't yet told Ashley that he'd kissed Lyra while she'd been impersonating the yellow ranger. He thought--he hoped--that she'd understand, but still... he should tell her.
"Ash..." Andros stopped, glancing around their surroundings and deciding that it could at least wait until they were outside. "Never mind," he shrugged when she looked at him curiously. "I'll tell you later."
Ashley raised an eyebrow skeptically, but shrugged at him. "Sure," she agreed, and he caught her hand, her skin warm against his own. "C'mon, let's go."
She turned around to face the front of the restaurant and almost crashed into someone directly behind her. Andros frowned, the other person only vaguely familiar, but recognizing him instantly when the guy looked his girlfriend up and down. Where'd that come from? He frowned and tightened his arm around Ashley's waist, unused to the sudden surge of--jealousy? Protectiveness?
"Ashley? What are you doing here?"