Disclaimer: Buena Vista Entertainment owns the rights to Power Rangers Lost Galaxy. This story involves characters and concepts from PRLG.
Overload
by Starhawk
Kerone left a week after she'd arrived. She'd mentioned souvenirs for her kids several times, so they thanked her for her help by taking her shopping the night before. The whole team. Including Mike, who seemed to have bonded with Kerone when no one was looking, and Kai, who seemed faintly impatient with the whole activity.
Or maybe he was just exasperated by the way the rest of the team got into it. Leo and Damon needed more color-coded clothing anyway, and Kendrix and Maya were happy to inspect, suggest, and compare every kid-appropriate gift they could find. Mike had relaxed enough that he didn't frown every time someone said his name, and his tolerance for the general public had increased significantly.
So it was just Kai who acted like the shopping sendoff was embarrassingly juvenile, which pushed Leo's buttons without him even having to open his mouth. In retrospect, Leo thought their annoyance had probably fed off of each other as the evening progressed. He teased and joked in an effort to get Kai to engage--and the more he reached out, the more Kai withdrew. The more aloof Kai seemed, the more Leo tried to get to him.
"We're a really terrible combination," he said abruptly, sitting down on Kai's couch the next night. "You know that?"
From somewhere on the other side of the room, he heard Kai snort. "Which one of the many possible reasons are you talking about now?"
Leo smiled, reaching for the deck of cards he'd been playing with two days ago. He had forbidden Kai to help with the dishes, so Kai had started neatening the rest of his room while he waited. Now Leo was done, and Kai showed no signs of stopping any time soon. Every surface had to be free of clutter.
Except that the cards were still on the table. Stacked neatly, to be sure, but... the only thing left out on the otherwise bare tabletop.
"I was thinking of last night," he said aloud. They hadn't talked about it then or since, partly because that wasn't what Kai did and partly because Leo knew it was trying to fight what Kai did that had gotten him into trouble in the first place. "I just can't not push, you know?"
"You don't push." There was a warning note in Kai's voice that let him know he was doing it right now, and if he kept it up the results would be exactly the same.
"Well, I don't mean to," Leo agreed, shuffling the cards idly. "Just so you know."
"Uh-huh."
That was good, then. He might learn to work with Kai's more avoidance-oriented personality yet. Assuming Kai ever stopped cleaning long enough for them to do something fun. He started laying out a solitaire pattern, just to make a point.
"Hey," Kai's voice interrupted, coming from just over his shoulder. He smirked to himself. When he looked up, though, Kai was looking back at him. Not at the game. "You're not allergic to chocolate, are you?"
Leo blinked. That wasn't quite what he'd expected. "Who's allergic to chocolate?"
"Nuts?" Kai wanted to know.
He tried not to smile. "Nuts are allergic to chocolate?"
Kai put a hand on the back of his head, a gentle approximation of a cuff that turned into a caress when it slid down to his neck. "Are you allergic to nuts," he clarified, with an amused and long-suffering look.
"No," Leo said, grinning up at him. "But I like the way this is going."
Kai smiled back and produced brownies, of all things. Leo demanded, not very seriously, to know how he had pulled this off. And Kai informed him that it wasn't finding chocolate that was the problem, but finding people who were willing to share it once they had it.
"You need to stop impressing me," Leo teased. "And you definitely need to stop cooking. Otherwise you'll never get rid of me."
"Well," Kai said with a shrug. He dropped down on the couch too, casually taking a bite of his dessert. Leo thought that might be all he was going to say right up until he added, "Just so you know."
Mouth full, Leo raised his eyebrows in question.
"I don't do one-night stands," Kai told the table matter-of-factly.
Leo chewed slowly, considering this. Or rather, considering why this would come up now. He thought he was pretty obviously going to a lot of trouble for someone who just wanted a night of sex.
"Well," he echoed, a moment later. "I try not to make promises if I don't know I can keep them." He looked over at Kai, wondering how that would go over.
Kai didn't look up. "Not asking for promises," he said.
Leo frowned, because he couldn't tell if that was just the truth, or if it meant there was something else Kai was asking, and he hadn't gotten it. "Not looking for a one-night stand," he said, for lack of anything less obvious.
It made Kai nod, anyway, so maybe he passed. Leo decided to risk a smile. "Guess we'll just have to meet somewhere in the middle," he offered.
Kai made a sort of affirmative noise, and Leo figured that was as much as he could ask. Until Kai caught his wrist before he could take another bite of his brownie and leaned in to kiss him. Okay, he thought. Happy to participate. He hadn't seen that coming, but maybe he should have.
When Kai pulled away, he couldn't help licking his lips. Because, come on, chocolate. That was a good way to kiss. Kai's reaction was one of tolerant amusement--but the Power prickled, just slightly, and Leo frowned. He was started to recognize that feeling, especially coming from Kai.
"What is that?" he asked anyway. Just in case. When Kai gave him an odd look, he shook his head. "Can you feel that? When you're... I don't get it from the others as much."
"The others?" Kai repeated, frowning back at him. "Feel what?"
"Can I--" He tried for another kiss, as a sort of experiment, but Kai drew back.
"What's going on?" he asked, eyes narrowed.
Leo shook his head, because he'd tried to explain this to Kendrix several times, and once even to Damon. It never came out quite right. "It's something about the Power," he said, trying again anyway. "I can tell when you're--" He gestured helplessly. "Restless."
Kai raised his eyebrows at him. "'Restless' being a euphemism for what, exactly?"
"Nothing," Leo said hastily. "I mean, really. Restless. Like, I don't know... too much energy? It happens to you more than anyone else. You're just--you get--"
"What do you mean," Kai demanded, "too much energy?"
"Like when you started running," Leo told him. "The Power kept... poking me, warning me, you know? That there was something wrong. That you were--" He couldn't find the right word, but Kai was looking at him like no words at all would be worse than the wrong one.
"Overloading," he finished at last.
"Overloading," Kai repeated. No expression.
"I think maybe it's because you're stronger than us," Leo said quickly, trying to gauge his non-expression somehow. "And because you have to stay in Command so much of the day. You don't get to, you know... be very active. It's always better after training. Well, fencing and self-defense, anyway. Not target practice so much."
He sounded like he was babbling.
Kai was studying him, his face unchanged even when Leo managed to stop talking. "And you can tell," Kai said finally. "You can sense that somehow."
Leo just looked at him, surprised, because that wasn't what he'd expected Kai to say. He'd figured on denial, or a request to drop the subject entirely. At the very least, he'd thought Kai might protest his characterization of Command as not very active.
"I guess that makes sense," Kai muttered. "That the leader--that the Red Ranger would know things about the team. In principle, anyway. It's kind of disturbing in practice."
Leo finally found his voice. "So you know what I'm talking about?"
"Yeah," Kai said with a sigh. "I thought it might just be me."
"I think it's more you than anyone else," Leo said carefully. "Is it... weird? Or, I don't know, hard to deal with?"
Kai gave him a wry smile. "Yeah," he said, so calm that at first Leo thought he was being mocked. "It's pretty damn hard to deal with."
He couldn't remember ever hearing Kai swear, but that thought was overshadowed by the way Kai got up. Abruptly. Not easily, not the way he'd sat down. And he didn't go anywhere, didn't try to do anything. He just stood there.
"Hey," Leo began. This, he decided, might be a good moment to finish his brownie. Because if Kai wasn't serious, then he was pissed, and if he was serious... then maybe he'd been cleaning, not compulsively, but just for something to do. And now he wasn't doing anything. "You okay?"
He could hear the answering sigh, and when Kai turned to look at him it was with a pleading expression that Leo had never seen on his face before. He didn't seem aware of it as he said evenly, "Let's just say I don't really feel like taking the subway tonight."
That was cool with him. Leo swallowed the rest of his brownie and stood up, brushing his hands off in a gesture of finality. "So let's do something else."
Kai was staring at him, and he grinned. Stepping closer, he teased, "You planning to eat the rest of that brownie?"
Kai set it down without looking and walked right into him, startling him so badly that he almost stumbled before he caught Kai's arms for balance. Then Kai's mouth was on his, open and hot and demanding, and he made a really embarrassing sound when he felt a thigh pressed between his legs but it was overwhelming and out of the blue and he was very interested in these new plans that Kai suddenly had. Because, hey, who cared about basketball, really?
It was a slight height advantage that he had, and he didn't realize how little it mattered until he tried to use it. Kai pushed back so hard that he was knocked onto the couch, his unexpectedly enthusiastic boyfriend on top of him, and he burst out laughing. Well, laughing, gasping, whatever. Because of course he couldn't out-muscle the Blue Ranger. Who could?
Kai froze, which was exactly the wrong reaction as far as he was concerned. "Sorry," Kai muttered, trying to scramble back. "Sorry--"
Leo yanked, hard, because nothing else would stop him. Kai's hand went to his chest, bracing himself automatically, and Leo went down under the pressure. Flat on his back on the cushions, Kai caught between pulling away and unintentionally holding him down, and he couldn't stop laughing.
Kai looked stricken, so Leo knocked his arm aside at the elbow, forcing him to collapse. "'m not," he mumbled, hands on the hips that were pinning him down and his whole body really, really enjoying the situation. "Not sorry at all."
He heard Kai whimper, and he won, because they were totally going to make out now. He turned his face into Kai's neck and kissed, licked the skin, sucked hard when he heard Kai moan. Sweet. Then there were hands on his skin, rucking up his shirt, making him twist under a heated assault that was like every fantasy of how training should end.
And Kai must have read his mind, because he whispered, "If I thought it was hard to spar with you before--"
He braced one foot against the couch and arched up, hard and slow against Kai's body, the dirtiest stretch or most innocent invitation and he knew full well the edge that he was skirting. If he hadn't, the way Kai's voice broke when he did it would have told him. That was the sound of a man who knew what was being offered.
Kai groaned, melting against him like he could get closer without actually admitting anything. "It's going to be impossible now," he mumbled.
He was willing to roll up against the back of the couch when Leo pushed, panting and mussed as his fingers clenched in the red t-shirt and they kissed through the breathlessness. "I think," Leo gasped, and then he was distracted by tongues and damp skin and whatever it was Kai was doing with his leg.
He didn't think it was his imagination when he heard Kai mutter, "Why?"
It made him want to laugh again, but he didn't have any breath to spare. "I think we've been doing it wrong," he panted, the words catching as Kai pressed into him again. He wasn't used to being pinned, but Kai couldn't seem to help it.
"Sparring," he added, just to clarify. "This is--"
He groaned as their legs finally tangled together, a result of maneuvering he hadn't paid enough attention to, and Kai's tongue in his mouth stifled the rest of the words. This time when he tried to lift himself up off the couch it wasn't entirely a conscious gesture. It was dangerously close to something that wasn't anything like a stretch, so he willed his eyes shut and held on, thrusting with his tongue instead and feeling a shiver run the length of his body when Kai whimpered again.
"Much more fun," he gasped, the moment his mouth was free. "Much more--"
Kai pushed hard against his chest, legs sliding free as he sat up, braced over him but not so much with the touching, and Leo squirmed insistently. "Not as fun," he protested, reaching for Kai.
Kai didn't pull away, but he didn't reciprocate either. "I can't," he choked, trying to catch his breath, maybe trying to explain, but that was enough to make Leo pause. "This isn't... I need--"
Leo made sure he slid away a little before he sat up, hot and aching all over, with his heart pounding in his ears. That was great, awesome, totally something he wanted to do again right now. He wanted nothing more than to plaster himself against Kai's body and to moan into a mouth that was seriously good with its tongue.
Well, almost nothing.
Nothing except Kai's trust. Kai's respect. And pretty much anything Kai wanted.
"I need to do something else," Kai managed, closing his eyes.
"Why?" he blurted out, before he remembered that pretending to agree usually got better results than direct challenges. In his defense, his brain wasn't exactly functioning at its highest capacity right now.
"Because I'm out of control," Kai said tightly, surprising him with the answer. "Like the running, like the outer mall, like... once I start, I can't--" He swallowed hard. "If I do this, maybe it's the same way. Maybe I can't..."
"Stop?" Leo offered, when he couldn't seem to say it.
His eyes opened, and Kai stared at him with that same pleading look he'd had before. He didn't say anything, though. Maybe he didn't have to.
"Maybe that's, uh--" Leo cleared his throat. "I'm... okay with that, you know."
Kai's expression didn't change, but again, he didn't even seem to know that his eyes were telling their own story. "I'm not," he said evenly.
"Oh." Well, that was kind of embarrassing.
"I mean, sorry," Leo added quickly. Awkwardly. "That's cool. Obviously."
Kai looked away. "Let's do something else," he said, his voice tight.
Stifling his automatic protest, Leo nodded. "Okay." His eye fell on the half-eaten brownie on the table, and he bit down on yet another question. The same one he'd asked a few minutes ago, actually.
"Not basketball?" Leo continued, since Kai wasn't offering any suggestions. They could walk instead of taking the subway, but it would take the better part of an hour. "Too far away?"
"Basketball's not even a real sport," Kai muttered.
Leo raised his eyebrows, because that wasn't quite the answer he'd expected. "Oh?" he said, letting his amusement show. Kai was nothing if not unpredictable. "And what do you consider a real sport?"
It made Kai look at him, so that was worth something right there. An appraising look, one that felt a little too familiar considering how close they were sitting, but a look nonetheless. "Lacrosse," Kai told him.
He felt a smile spreading across his face. "Are you kidding me?"
"High school varsity," Kai replied, apparently very serious. "I still have the letter."
"You're kidding me," Leo repeated.
This time Kai got up, walking away. Leo eyed the brownie on the table again, but he decided not to push it. He looked up when movement caught his eye, and sure enough, Kai was holding up a warmup jacket with the letters "AG" on it.
He grinned. "Well, model it," he prompted, waving his hand. "Let's see Varsity Kai."
Kai rolled his eyes at that, but he did put the jacket on. Angel Grove's colors were garish and very high school, which was all to the good as far as Leo was concerned. Kai still looked plenty appealing, even wearing his old varsity jacket on the other side of the room, but he looked much less... serious.
"Very nineties," Leo informed him. "I was in junior high."
Kai shook his head, shrugging out of the jacket. "When are you going to be twenty-one?" he asked, turning to hang it back up.
"October," Leo said. "October ninth.
"Why?" he added, with his best lazy look. "Can't wait to see me drink?"
"You're going to make me drink," Kai countered, folding his arms as he leaned up against the closet door. "I just wanted to know how long until you can stop feeling left out."
Leo smirked. "Is that the new plan for the evening?" he teased. "Instead of making out, we'll just drink?"
"Result would be the same," Kai muttered, and even from where he was, Leo didn't have any trouble hearing him.
"I'm in," Leo said cheerfully, since apparently it was okay to joke about this now.
"You're underage," Kai retorted. "I could be arrested for letting you drink in here."
"They usually just fine the host," Leo told him. "A few thousand dollars, give or take. Depending on whether you supply the alcohol yourself or not."
Kai eyed him, and Leo smiled innocently.
"Do you play?" Kai asked at last.
With you, Leo thought? Oh yeah.
"Lacrosse?" he said aloud. "I picked up a stick in gym class, same as everyone else. But it wasn't big in my neighborhood." Sitting forward on the couch, he added, "Think you can teach me?"
"Four years of varsity and JV?" Kai countered. "I can teach anyone."
He had a couple of sticks in the closet, apparently. He took the time to detour past the couch, passing one to Leo and scooping up his half-eaten brownie along the way. "Come on," he said, breaking the brownie into two pieces and giving Leo one without a word. "There's plenty of room in the park upstairs."
"Sweet," Leo said, popping the brownie into his mouth with a grin.
Their rooms were almost directly below the east side open space arena, which made the walk significantly shorter than the one to the community center where they'd been playing basketball. It wasn't exactly deserted, but no one had been expecting Power Rangers to show up either, so it was less crowded than the courts. They were going to have to start varying their schedules more.
What he'd learned about lacrosse in gym wasn't anything close to good enough, of course. Kai mocked his cradling technique, taught him to throw all over again, and they played catch for the better part of an hour. If Leo pretended his aim was slightly worse than the Power actually made it, well, it was for a good cause. Kai got in a lot of running while he was chasing the ball.
He learned to kick, too. He honestly didn't remember any kicking from gym class, but Kai was the varsity lacrosse player. They had to stay closer together to kick back and forth, and when it degenerated into a game of keep away Leo was perfectly happy to chase Kai until he gave up.
Which he didn't. But hey, checking was legal in lacrosse, right? Kai was obviously the better player, but Leo was faster--especially when he wasn't the one trying to keep the ball away from his teammate.
Kai shouted when Leo slammed into him, and okay, maybe tackling wasn't technically allowed. Kai went down and Leo stumbled, about to regain his balance when Kai maliciously tripped him and he put his shoulder down and rolled. The grass was forgiving and friendly and a little damp in the deepening twilight.
Leo sprawled on his back, staring up at the stars and grinning when Kai declared, "That's what's known as a personal foul. In case you were curious."
"Yeah," he said, rolling his eyes, "and I'm sure tripping is totally legal."
"Checking is above the knees and from the front only," Kai informed him.
"We tried that already tonight," Leo drawled, lifting one hand to block out the lights coming from the event staging. "I must have been having a football moment. Sorry."
"You're okay," Kai said, ignoring the first remark. "Really. Not bad."
Leo smiled up at the sky. "You're just saying that."
He could hear the grin in Kai's voice when he said, "Yeah."
Leo laughed, rolling over on his side and propping his head up on his hand to look at Kai. "So, why lacrosse?" he wanted to know. "You must have played before high school if you went out for JV."
Kai's shoulders twitched. "There was a club at my elementary school. It seemed like fun, I guess."
"You guess?" Leo repeated.
"I don't really remember," Kai admitted. "It was just something I always did."
"You like it?" Leo prompted.
"Obviously." He could see Kai roll his eyes, even in the shadows. "Or I wouldn't have offered to teach you."
"Maybe you just like me," Leo said with a grin.
"That too," Kai muttered, so quietly it was hard to hear.
Leo studied him for a moment, then rolled onto his back again. "So," he said, wondering if that was the hint of a cloud over there making the stars seem so fuzzy. It didn't rain as much as he'd thought it would here. "Tell me if this is a crazy idea."
Kai didn't wait. "Now," he wanted to know, "or later?"
Leo tried not to smile. "You have to wait until I tell you what it is," he reminded Kai.
Who wasn't convinced. "Why? If I'm just going to tell you it's crazy, why put it off?"
"You only get to tell me it's crazy if it actually is crazy," he said patiently.
"Ah." He was pretty sure he could hear Kai smiling. "Well, go ahead, then."
"Command," Leo said. Then he paused. "I don't... well, I don't really know what you do there. And I don't really know what Mike does--did," he corrected.
"Sometimes we don't know either," Kai said seriously.
So seriously that it took Leo a moment to get it. "Yeah, that's very reassuring," he teased. "Thanks for filling me with confidence in the GSA military division."
"I thought Kerone said Red Rangers don't have a problem with confidence," Kai remarked.
"I think she said most Red Rangers are more confident than I am," Leo told him.
Kai's murmured reply sounded amused. "That's hard to imagine."
"Anyway," Leo insisted firmly. "Is there any way you could split whatever, I don't know, duties you have? You do some, he does some? Like a, what are those called... what's the word for when two people are doing one job?"
There was a moment of silence. "Job sharing?" Kai asked at last.
"Yeah." Leo frowned up at the sky. Right? "Like, if you went in for the morning, and he went in for the afternoon or something?"
Again, the hesitation. "We have training in the afternoon," Kai said. His tone was neutral.
"Well, the first part of the afternoon. Say twelve to three, or whatever. You're the first three hours, he's the second. Is that a totally ridiculous idea?"
Kai didn't answer directly. "What am I supposed to do from twelve to three?"
"Eat lunch, for one," Leo said, rolling his eyes. "Then come help me teach classes. Because come on, what do I know about self-defense? 'Don't let the other guy hit you.' That's pretty much it."
"You knew how to fight before you became a Ranger." Kai's voice drifted to him in the dimness. "It's obvious from the way you react to things."
"Well, yeah," Leo muttered. A fact of life, maybe, but it wasn't exactly the thing he was most proud of. "Fight, yes. Train normal people to defend themselves? I don't even know where to start."
He thought he heard Kai scoff, and it made him frown.
"Look, Kai, the people in this colony--they're not all from places like the ones where I lived, okay? I can say 'it's you or them' and they nod like they get it but they don't. Not if they haven't been in the middle of it, where one second you're fine and the next you're the most helpless person in the world and your fists are the only thing that keep you from getting set on fire."
There was silence, long enough for him to think about how that had sounded and wince inwardly but not long enough for him to take it back. Then Kai said, "Kendrix is a better teacher than I am."
"Kendrix isn't overloading because she's spending too much time sitting in a chair," Leo retorted. "And Mike can't do her job."
"It's entirely possible that Mike can't do my job," Kai countered. But he sounded more amused than irritated, and Leo relaxed a little.
"Well, that's why I thought maybe you could sort of... supervise. If he needed it."
"Have you talked to him about this?" Kai wanted to know.
"No," Leo admitted. "I wanted to see if it was crazy first."
"It's not... completely crazy," Kai said slowly. "I mean, if your ultimate goal is to get Mike back into Command, it isn't--this wouldn't be a terrible way to do it."
"Even if he can't do your job?" Leo asked, trying not to smile.
"I'm sure he'll learn," Kai grumbled. "Thanks for the extra headaches in the meantime."
He couldn't help smiling now, turning his head so he could look at Kai in the grass beside him. "Yeah?" he said hopefully. "You think it would work?"
"You get to tell Mike," Kai warned. "And Stanton. He likes you, for some strange reason."
"Done," Leo declared, choosing to ignore the "strange reason" part of that. He figured he would have to talk to Medlab, too, see if they could clear Mike for whatever stuff went on in Command. But second shift was more than half over by now, and he could do it in the morning.
Kai's voice came to him in the cooling night air. "Getting set on fire?"
Leo grimaced at his shadow, seeing Kai's head turn toward him when he hesitated. "Kind of a long story."
Kai didn't ask again.
The next day, Leo managed to get Mike and Medlab on board with his plan before first shift even started. Mike protested a lot more than Medlab did, but that was no big surprise. Leo explained, very earnestly, that he was just trying to get Kai out of Command for a few hours and Mike was really the only person who could fill in for him without creating extra work for someone else.
Mike either bought it or had gotten bored enough not to keep arguing. It wasn't like there was nothing for him to do, but he had so far refused to teach classes or to help out in the science division. And if Command was what he wanted, then Command was what he would get. It could be, as far as Leo was concerned, the solution to several problems at once.
Commander Stanton agreed with him. He hadn't expected that, but he took it in stride. Stanton clearly knew his officers better than Leo had realized, and it helped that he caught the man alone and so could explain his real reasons for the request. Stanton signed off on it in a matter of minutes.
His last class of the morning was full of people with a twelve o'clock lunch hour, which meant that they had no reason not to stand around talking with him, asking questions, flirting, and just generally keeping him from being anywhere else. Like the control tower. He'd kind of wanted to check in, to make sure that Mike had really shown up and that Kai had actually left.
It was quarter to one by the time he pulled a sweatshirt on over his workout clothes and headed out of the north end community center. He told the center director he was going to lunch and made his way to the administration building. By electric car, which he'd finally learned to drive--even if the idea did make him a little nervous with the light rain that was falling.
He rode up in the elevator with two people from the science division. To his vast amusement, the woman ignored him while the guy with her flirted outrageously. With Leo. He thought he'd heard Kendrix mention Natan, but never in this context. Leo knew how to be charming and evasive at the same time, and the elevator didn't take that long, but he had to tell Natan he was seeing someone before they were even halfway there.
Which meant that Natan had plenty of time to ask who it was.
"I guess if I try to keep it a secret," Leo said ruefully, "that'll just make you more curious?"
"Absolutely," Natan agreed, flashing him a smile. "But if there's a reason, I could be privately curious."
"No reason," Leo said, glancing at Jenessa. "Just personal preference."
Jenessa raised her eyebrows at him, the first hint of a thaw he'd gotten from her since they'd met outside the elevator. "Head of socioculture," she reminded him. "Don't care about your personal life."
"You can't shock the scientists," Natan said blithely.
"Let's just say, the person I'm seeing might not be seeing me if I was the kind of guy to spread it around," he told them.
He was the kind of guy to spread it around, unfortunately. But he wasn't stupid, and even if he thought he could get away with plenty as the Red Ranger, he wasn't so sure about Kai. Leo Corbett didn't have a lot to lose, after all. Senior officer Kai Chen did.
Natan made it clear that Leo was welcome to pick him up anyway, and the only thing that really surprised Leo about the offer was that it was so publicly made. He wasn't used to being around people that didn't care. Didn't make a fuss over it, yeah--he could look out for himself and he made sure everyone knew it. But people who honestly didn't care?
He gave a little in return, just because the casual openness of the encounter seemed to call for it. Because he could. And because, hey, Natan was kind of cute.
Kendrix wasn't in SMART when they arrived, but he passed Stanton on his way over to the military side of the control tower. "Commander," he said, nodding once. Kai insisted that the proper address was "sir," but he wasn't military and he wasn't going to pretend.
Stanton's gaze focused over his shoulder for a moment, where Natan was probably waving at him from a lab bench or something, but he just nodded in return. "Mr. Corbett."
Yeah, he hoped that wasn't going to be a problem. He'd gotten a lot of cooperation from the military division so far, and it would be great if that kept up. But who knew where Stanton stood on the official code of conduct, or how it related to his personal views when it came to civilians.
Kai and Mike were both at Kai's station when he wandered into Command. Leo didn't get quite the same reaction he once had just by being present, so there was nothing to draw their attention until he was close enough to screw with their line of sight. "Don't you have somewhere else to be?" he drawled, just as Kai looked up.
Kai's gaze flicked over him, and it wasn't quite the look of brotherly disapproval that Mike was giving him. So he'd worn his sweats to Command. And the t-shirt he'd gotten the night of Kerone's going-away party. His sweatshirt covered up most of the roaring lion, and he was wearing sneakers. It wasn't like he'd come in barefoot or anything.
"You have a radio," Mike said, very pointedly.
"I find that coming in person gets better results," Leo said easily. "You all set here?"
"Yeah," Kai muttered, frowning down at his duty station. "Just, uh..."
He trailed off and Leo grinned, ignoring the look Mike gave him. Speechless. Not bad. He totally won. And he was going to be wearing this t-shirt a lot.
"Lunch break," Mike said firmly, putting his hands on Kai's shoulders and turning him away from the station. "You can check my work after training. Or Crystal will when she comes in for second shift. Go."
Leo raised his eyebrows, because that was the first time he'd seen Mike voluntarily touch someone in days. And also because Kai didn't protest the treatment. So Leo nodded at his brother, mouthing "thank you" when Mike caught his eye.
Mike just plucked at his uniform top and then pointed at Leo.
"Work uniform," Leo said aloud, grinning at the way his brother rolled his eyes. Barely resisting the urge to put his hands on Kai's shoulders himself, he added, "See you later!"
The elevator he'd arrived in was still up top when he and Kai went to leave Command, which was probably a good thing considering the glare Kai turned on him as soon as the doors closed. "Work uniform?" he repeated dangerously.
Leo was all for danger. "Like it?" he asked, holding his hands out to the sides. "It's a good thing Kerone made us all get these t-shirts at the same time, because I think they might be sold out by tomorrow."
"Great," Kai said, rolling his eyes. "The entire colony will be walking around with your name on their chest."
Leo unzipped his sweatshirt and tugged at the bottom of his t-shirt, pretending to study it. Kendrix had put forth the argument that, "leo" being Latin for "lion," it wasn't his name on the shirt so much as it was a label. Or maybe a depiction of the constellation. No one had believed her, especially when the shop owner nodded along with both explanations. Inexplicably, Kerone had insisted that they all get color-coded "team" shirts.
"There are worse things," Leo decided, glancing up at Kai from under his eyelashes.
Kai folded his arms. "I fail to comprehend how you can be sexy in sweats and sneakers," he complained. "That t-shirt looks completely stupid on me."
Leo brightened. "You tried it on?"
"Are you trying to get me fired?" Kai wanted to know.
"Believe it or not," Leo said, studying him carefully. "No. Did I screw up?"
Kai eyed him in return. After a moment he took a step back, leaning against the side of the elevator and shaking his head. Leo recognized the shift immediately: Kai was off-duty now. Just like that, still wearing the uniform or not... Kai didn't lean when he was working.
"Objectively speaking," Kai was saying. "It's not such a bad idea to remind people that you're outside the chain of command every once in a while. And showing up in Command wearing sweats does that pretty effectively."
"But?" Leo prompted, waiting. He knew that tone.
"Subjectively?" Kai's gaze dropped, taking in his whole appearance as he admitted, "My self-control is at an all-time low, and that's not helping."
He felt a grin spreading across his face. "Sorry," he offered.
Kai's mouth quirked upward at the corners. "No," he countered. "You're not."
"Nope!" Leo agreed cheerfully. "Your expression when you first looked up in there was priceless. I wish I'd had a camera. Hey, can I get images from the security system?"
"Is there something more frivolous you could consider breaking the law for?" Kai wanted to know. "I'd hate to think that my irresistibility motivated your life of crime."
"I'd love to think that," Leo told him. "Unfortunately, I come with a record."
"Wiped clean your first day here," Kai said, and if he was still smiling then at least his eyes were serious. "A lot of us got a fresh start on Terra Venture."
"Oh, that's why you got me asylum," Leo teased. "So that you could have my history of crime all to yourself."
"You are the Red Ranger," Kai pointed out. "There's probably not a lot of you that anyone's going to get all to themselves."
Leo considered that for a moment, but the elevator ride wouldn't last forever and that might be how long it took to figure out some of the things Kai said. "What do you mean by that?" he asked.
"I mean," Kai said, not moving from his place against the wall, "that you're good-looking, and charming, and if it ever comes to a test, you might outrank Commander Stanton, putting you directly below the Council in terms of colonial authority.
"Whatever their reason," Kai added, "everyone's going to want a piece of that."
Leo frowned, not sure what to do with that. "Well, the good news is that I don't divide myself up into pieces. I'm more of an all or nothing kind of guy."
It made Kai smile, at least. "I've noticed," he agreed.
"So," Leo continued, "I think it's safe to say that whatever of me you want, you've got."
There was a moment of silence, during which the sudden chime of passing levels indicated that they'd entered the administration building. "I thought you didn't make promises," Kai said at last.
"Not true," Leo came back. "I don't make promises I don't know I can keep. I can't promise the future. But I can give you all of the present you want."
Kai shifted, sliding his hands against the wall behind him and leaning back on them. "We need to talk about this all or nothing thing," he said. His tone was neutral to the point of flatness.
Really, Leo thought? He was going to have to ask Kendrix how much of Kai's apparent avoidance of things was a defense mechanism that faded as he got more comfortable. Because he had never expected to hear Kai say, "we need to talk," especially in the control tower elevator. As it passed through the administration building, no less.
"I think we need to talk about the you getting fired thing," Leo said at last. That was what he knew least about, at this point: he couldn't ask Mike without creeping him out, and he'd thought he couldn't ask Kai without getting evasion. Maybe he'd been wrong.
Maybe he'd underestimated Kai, because that made him smile again and he looked like he relaxed as he said, "Yeah. That's kind of related."
The display by the door was counting down. He turned to face Kai directly. "Did I screw up?" he asked, straight out. "I'm not kidding, Kai. I want to know."
"No." Kai answered without hesitation, but the rest of his reply was about as uncertain as Leo had expected. "I just--I can't... flaunt this."
"I know," Leo agreed, studying him. "Do I flaunt it?"
It wasn't exactly a smile, but there was no mistaking the amusement in Kai's eyes. "A little," he said wryly. "Yeah."
Really? See, unless he'd missed something, they'd just gone from Kai implying that he didn't get enough of Leo to Kai implying that Leo was too obvious. And no matter how open Kai was being right now, Leo wasn't sure that he could just ask what he was supposed to do. Not and get an answer, anyway.
"It's fine," Kai was saying, and it surprised him some that Kai was still talking but he wasn't about to interrupt. "You can do that. I just--can't. Not while the colony's still under charter."
"Charter," Leo repeated. Something to do with the government of Terra Venture. He hadn't paid much attention when Mike was explaining it to him, months ago. "That's..."
He caught Kai's gaze as the elevator leveled off on the surface. Kai raised his eyebrows, and Leo shrugged helplessly. "The charter?"
"What were you doing on Earth," Kai demanded, "before Terra Venture?"
"Working," Leo told him. The doors opened, and he waved Kai out in front of him. "Like everyone else. What were you doing?"
Kai glanced around, but there wasn't anyone close enough to the elevator bank to overhear when he muttered, "You know what we were just talking about? That's it. That's a perfect example."
Leo stared at him with a total lack of comprehension. "What?"
Kai rolled his eyes. "Never mind. Couldn't you have mentioned that it's raining?" he added, folding his arms as he looked around again. "Where are we going, anyway?"
There was the evasiveness he'd come to know so well. "We were going to get lunch," Leo informed him. "Now we're going somewhere we can talk."
"I thought I was supposed to be teaching classes," Kai said, eyeing him skeptically.
"No," Leo countered, putting a hand on his elbow and steering him toward the nearest subway entrance. "I'm supposed to be teaching classes, and this is my lunch break. It's also, as of right now, your lunch break."
"It's raining," Kai said, as though this was relevant.
Leo shook his head. "It's not raining," he corrected. "It's barely misting out."
"You hold the elevator door for me but you don't bother to warn me that it's raining," Kai grumbled. "I take back what I said about flaunting it."
"Kai, a spray bottle would get you more wet than this," Leo said, exasperated. Then he paused when he realized what they were talking about. "Hey, did you just accuse me of chivalry?" In public, he wanted to add?
"Did I just accuse you of a lack of chivalry?" Kai countered. "Yes. I think I did."
Leo considered this. Kai was pushing what Leo had thought were the boundaries, but he was pretty sure that didn't mean he was allowed to push back. Not after the warning about "flaunting it." So instead he said, "Tell me about the charter."
"Ah." Kai pulled away from him, turning around to walk backwards as he lifted one finger in a lecturing pose. "The interim charter governs colony protocol until such time as the New World constitution goes into effect."
Leo raised his eyebrows, grinning at Kai's playful attitude. He wasn't used to seeing Kai like this while he was wearing his uniform. They were just walking down the street, in full view of everyone, and here was Kai acting cute and friendly and not at all like a guy who had clammed up at "all or nothing."
"Now, the constitution," Kai continued, "interestingly--and equably--guarantees equal rights for all of its citizens under New World law. The charter, however, allows all scientific, corporate, and military entities to continue operating according to existing procedure until New World law replaces the mess of national and international regulations currently in place."
"Which means," Leo prompted, when he paused.
"Which means," Kai said, pointing at him. "There are officially no gay officers in the GSA military division until the constitution takes effect."
Still walking backwards, Kai almost walked right into a freestanding video terminal before Leo realized he wasn't going to avoid it. "Whoa, careful," he said, lengthening his stride to grab Kai's arm. Kai stumbled and their eyes met, too close, too serious, before he pulled away.
"Thought you had eyes in the back of your head there for a while," Leo said lightly.
"I need to not be around people right now." Kai's voice was flat again, like he'd just realized what he was doing--what he was saying. "The subway isn't a good idea."
"Okay." Leo redirected them toward a car, because he got it. Kai's Power was fluctuating wildly, and maybe Mike should have done the morning shift but it was too late now.
"No." Kai balked when he realized where they were going. "I can't sit, Leo. I'm sorry."
It took him longer than it should have to figure that out. "You going to run?"
"I'll meet you in the dorms," Kai said simply.
Leo shook his head. "I'm coming with you."
Kai should have changed first. Luckily, enough people recognized them that hopefully the sight of a uniformed officer running through the streets wouldn't inspire too much alarm. Or maybe the fact that everyone could see it was Rangers running actually made it worse?
Leo tried not to think about it. No one tried to stop them, at least. They made quite an entrance at the dorm sub stop, damp with sweat and accumulated mist, and Leo couldn't help collapsing against the wall when they finally made it into the elevator. "They're going to think we're crazy," he gasped, trying to laugh and barely finding the breath for it.
"You are," Kai said, falling against the side of the elevator with him. He was just as out of breath, but Leo was very aware that the Power wasn't satisfied. It had evened out a little, humming along at a more consistent but much higher pitch than before.
"Can you tell?" Kai asked, voice muffled as he braced his hands on his knees and bent over them. Leo took the opportunity to study the line of his back through the sweat-soaked uniform shirt, noting the way tension looked on him even when he was nominally relaxing. "Does the Red Ranger always know?"
"When you're coming apart?" Leo guessed, watching him shake almost imperceptibly as the elevator fell. "I don't know. But if you're about to explode, then yeah, I can tell."
Kai groaned, straightening up and stretching his arms over his head. He leaned backwards as easily as he'd bent forwards, pressing his hands against the wall behind him, and Leo couldn't help smiling in appreciation. Kendrix was the only one of them more flexible than Kai, and he seemed to take it completely for granted.
"I should be back in Command," he said abruptly, pushing away from the wall and standing up again. "I need to do more, not less."
Leo took a deep breath, partly because he could and partly because it kept him from talking until he'd reminded himself that this wasn't Kai complaining. "And if you thought you could be around people right now," he said, "I'd turn you loose on self-defense classes, no questions asked.
"But you don't," he added, "and you're probably right. So come on back to my room and we'll eat something, and spar if you want, or whatever. Until you can get in on--I don't know, probably the military hand-to-hand groups?--without breaking anyone's bones."
Kai lifted his hands to his face, covering his eyes in a weirdly familiar gesture. Leo's eyes narrowed, trying to place it, but he was distracted by the sound Kai made. "Tell me I didn't really start talking about gay officers on the streets of the city dome," he groaned.
Leo did his level best not to smile. "What's your policy on lying?"
Kai lowered his hands and glared at him. "Don't."
"Then yeah," Leo said. "You did."
Kai shook his head, but the doors opened on their level before he could react any more strongly than that. He didn't say anything as they made their way through the corridors. Leo figured there wasn't much he could say that wouldn't fall into the category of either "insensitive" or "small talk," so he let the silence linger until they reached his room.
12515. He hadn't changed the code, but if Kai had noticed, he hadn't said anything. The second the door closed behind them Kai asked, "Seriously, did I say anything really stupid?"
Leo pretended to think about it. "Um, chivalry, equal rights... gay officers..."
Kai sighed. "Never mind. Ridiculous question."
"You didn't say anything anyone could hold against you," Leo promised.
"I need to start getting up earlier," Kai muttered. "Hit the gym or something."
"You hate getting up early," Leo pointed out.
Kai rolled his eyes. "Yeah, thanks for reminding me. But if the choices are getting up early or acting drunk around my coworkers? I think I'll take getting up early."
"Acting drunk?" Leo repeated, studying him. "Is that what it felt like?"
"That's what it feels like," Kai corrected, bending over to pull his shoes off. "Do you have a spare shirt?"
Leo raised his eyebrows. He couldn't tell if that was the pseudo-buzz talking or if Kai really planned to walk around the colony wearing one of Leo's shirts. "Yeah," he said, just to see what would happen. "Sure."
Kai tugged off his socks and dropped them on top of his shoes beside the door. Then he stood up, yanked his uniform shirt off without a moment's hesitation, and stared at it in distaste. Leo couldn't help grinning. Yeah. He was serious.
"You can put it in the wash," he offered. "I've got some sweats, too, if you want to do the whole thing."
That was how Kai ended up in his clothes. It was also the reason Leo ditched his own sweatshirt, because watching Kai change--even out of the corner of his eye while he was supposedly getting out sandwich stuff in the kitchen--brought on a flush that made extra layers unnecessary. It was easier to ignore in the locker room with everyone else around.
Maybe that had something to do with why he found himself backed up against the counter a few minutes later, but that was the part he was most confused about. He knew why they were together and why they weren't wearing as much as usual, but he wasn't totally clear on how that had led to making out. He wasn't complaining. But he wasn't sure he was supposed to go along with it, either.
"Kai," he gasped, freeing his mouth by the simple expedient of tipping his head back, closing his eyes as Kai just moved lower. "Clear something up for me."
"Mmm?" Kai hummed, vibration ticklish and sweet against his neck. Kai was licking at the pulse point where his heartbeat raced beneath his skin. He desperately wanted a hickey there, but he knew there wouldn't be one when he looked. He couldn't tell if it was because the Power healed them too fast to find, or if Kai was just that careful.
"If you're buzzed right now," he began, then trailed off into an inarticulate whimper when Kai pulled away. Why did he even have to ask?
When he lowered his head, though, he found Kai only inches away, hand frozen between them... glowing. Leo squinted, not sure what he was seeing, but no, Kai was staring at it too and his fingers were--blue. Shining faintly even in the steady light, and Leo said impulsively, "Computer. Lights off."
The room was plunged into darkness. He always forgot that about voice activation, how specific the commands had to be to mimic manual control. They'd turned on lights in both the kitchen and the living area, but one voice override took out all of them at once. The only illumination now was the dim cast of starlight and running lights outside the window.
And the shimmer of blue that enveloped Kai's hand--hands, Leo realized, when he lifted the other to compare--stronger in the dark, bright and weird and oddly compelling. He reached out before he knew what he was doing, fingers ghosting over Kai's, and he sucked in a sharp breath.
"Crap," Leo whispered, feeling the room light up around them. He could see, he didn't need to see, he couldn't tell what it was that made the dark room seem like daylight but it was tinted blue and that could only mean one thing. "Can you see--?"
"Yeah." Kai's voice was soft, almost reverent. "It's like..."
He didn't finish, but his hand drifted toward Leo's face. This time the touch lit up every sound in the quiet room, from the hiss of circulating air to the tiny shift of clothing and Kai's bare feet on the floor. Kai's breathless moan seemed to come from everywhere.
"Okay?" Leo whispered, squeezing his eyes shut and somehow not surprised when it didn't help. He knew this. He recognized this. He'd never seen it before and he knew exactly what was happening.
Kai made a sound like choking, a sob that couldn't be suppressed, and Leo braced himself just as Kai's other hand brushed against his neck. The warm smell of sweat and rain and fresh clothes buried the scent of the bread behind him and the still vaguely present wash of clean and sterile emanating from the floor, the counter, the room itself. The combination was dizzying.
"That feels--" Kai swallowed hard, his breath coming just as fast, harsh and loud in Leo's ears. He was probably whispering, barely audible, and he sounded as close to shouting as anything could get. "That feels really good."
Yeah. Leo caught his shoulders and held on, the muted tingle in his hands evidence that the transfer didn't work as well through clothes. Kai's fingers on his skin had to be helping, but if it was this hard for him then it was no wonder Kai was falling apart. He couldn't turn it off, couldn't shut down senses overwhelmed by the flood of extra awareness, couldn't make any of it stop.
Kai had pushed his body past its limits. Not too hard. Just not hard enough. He'd held it back, trying to keep to their slower pace... even to the slower crawl of Terra Venture's ordinary citizens. He'd forced it into a normal routine for too long.
Now the Power had nowhere else to go, nothing it could ask him to do that would be enough to drain the dangerous backlog of energy meant to be used for day-to-day survival. So it was draining, raw and barely controlled, into the nearest suitable conduit: another Power Ranger. It was probably the best thing Kai had felt in days.
Leo shuddered, braced between the counter and Kai's mostly still form, head bowed. Trying not to breathe too deeply as fingers traced slow, glowing patterns of blue against his neck. He kept his eyes closed, so he was completely unprepared when Kai pressed a grateful kiss against his mouth.
His cry was swallowed by contact as the whole world tilted. The floor was where the counter had been, the blue tint vanished, and the roaring in his head slowly began to subside as he realized Kai's hands were gone. "Kai," he said thickly, fumbling in the darkness while he tried to figure out which way was up.
"Don't touch me." Kai's broken whisper oriented him, and the Power flared into usefulness again. No longer a nebulous awareness of everything, it was suddenly focused on the sharp sense of Kai and the "everything" that he needed. Only him.
"Why not?" Leo murmured, sliding easily to his knees and slithering across the floor toward him. He was sensitive to volume in a way he hadn't been before, but it was weird how quickly things had gone back to normal. The room was dark. He couldn't smell Kai anymore.
That was too bad, actually.
"Don't touch me!" Kai cringed away from him, the diffuse blue glow outlining his entire body now, pulsing gently with the proximity of someone who could share the fire. But Leo hesitated, his fingers a breath away from Kai's skin, unwilling to force him.
"Does it hurt?" Leo whispered. It was just this side of pain for him, but knowing it was only a fraction of Kai's Power made him ache for what the Blue Ranger must be trying to hold back.
"Touching you," Kai said, his voice strangled, "is the only thing that doesn't."
Yeah. Screw this, then. Leo yanked his t-shirt off and straddled Kai's legs, grabbing his hands and pressing them against his chest, holding them there. The room lit up spectacularly, bright and loud and full of everything in the world. He closed his eyes involuntarily but he could hear the hitch in Kai's breathing like it was his own, the sounds he was trying not to make.
Kai didn't draw back. Didn't even try. Afraid he would pull Kai's hands away himself under the crushing sensory assault Leo let go, reaching for his face, resting his forehead against Kai's to brace himself. To hold himself up. He wouldn't collapse again, not when Kai's hands were trailing lightning across his skin and he was so obviously stifling moans of pleasure as the Power finally started to bleed off.
Like a battery, Leo thought dazedly, maybe a little hysterically, and that was as far as he got. He couldn't keep a coherent sentence in his head, could barely mark the passage of time--seconds, minutes, he had no idea--until he realized that the heat on his face was Kai's breath on his skin, that Kai was whispering something too loud to be understood. He needed that noise to stop like he needed the pounding in his head to ease.
He covered Kai's mouth with his own, not thinking, just reacting, no longer aware of how Kai felt underneath him. Every nerve burned, harsh and raw, until there was nothing soft left in the world. Everything was rough and hard and the taste of Kai's tongue flooded the entire world with red.
Red. His eyes snapped open. The dim red haze was barely perceptible against the darkened room. The thunder was receding, rumbles that shook with warning but no longer crashed in his ears, and he could feel Kai trembling, groaning in the wake of a storm that still threatened. No longer so imminent, not so demanding, less bright... less blue.
That was Leo's Power trying to escape now. Roiling dangerously just below the threshold, but it was close enough to equilibrium with Kai's that it didn't have anywhere to go. He heard Kai cry out, arching solid and stiff against him, and he yanked his hands away when he saw the faint red glow pressed into Kai's skin by his own fingers.
Kai slumped, boneless, panting, and Leo had never felt so helpless. If he couldn't touch, what else was there? "Okay?" he whispered, wishing he dared the comfort he longed to give.
Kai's head fell back, his hands dropping away, and his sigh was halfway between a groan and a gasp. "Embarrassed," he muttered. He twitched uncomfortably, but he didn't make any effort to shove Leo off.
Leo lifted his hands to his own head instead, pressing them against his eyes--
And he froze. Covering his eyes. Just like Kai... just like Mike. He was trying to turn it off. He was trying to damp down the massive sensory input that flooded into them when the Power was too strong.
"How long?" he asked, trying to talk through the pounding in his head. He had no idea how either of them could function normally like this. "How long has it been this bad?"
"Couple days." Kai shifted again, but he sounded more coherent now. More focused. His swallow was loud, even through the static rush in Leo's mind. "Like the--like the... Scorpius' attack kicked it up. Fine when I was fighting. Now it's--"
He broke off, and Leo finished, "Out of control."
"Sorry," Kai murmured.
Leo let out his breath in a rush, as close as he could come to laughing right now. "Not your fault. I should've paid more attention."
"You're not--" Kai braced his fists against the floor and tried to sit more normally, and distantly, Leo knew he was still pinning Kai in place and it probably wasn't very comfortable. "This is really embarrassing."
Leo shook his head, because only Kai would think he was responsible for something totally out of his control. "You want to talk embarrassing," he said, "I'm the one who almost passed out from you kissing me." Which actually was pretty embarrassing, when he put it like that, but it was all for a good cause.
"Yeah," Kai retorted. "And I'm the one who got off from you sitting on top of me."
It took him a moment to process that, which he blamed on the sudden influx of Power and the overwhelming awareness of every distracting thing in existence. Then he realized that, oh. Kai hadn't been reacting to his Power at all. Kai had been--
"Huh," Leo said aloud. "I didn't actually get that."
Kai groaned, his head falling back against the cupboard again. And Leo had to grin, because hey, here they were on the kitchen floor in the dark. He was sitting across Kai's lap. And Kai definitely wasn't complaining.
"It was the Power," Leo said, trying to be at least a little bit sympathetic. "It's been winding you up for days. That kind of... you know. Whatever. Anyone would be turned on."
"It wasn't just that," Kai muttered.
Then Leo could feel his glare through the darkness between them. "How do you know what it was, anyway?" Kai demanded. "Why did you let me--did it... it hurt you, didn't it."
Not as much as it would have hurt you not to do it, Leo thought, but he didn't say so because he wasn't stupid. "Didn't hurt," he said instead. "Just kind of... unexpected. Distracting, I guess."
"You collapsed," Kai growled. "It had to be more than distracting."
He hadn't even noticed that Kai was getting off on it, so yeah, maybe it had been a little more than distracting. "Look," he began. "You know your Power was draining into me, right?"
Kai had obviously felt it, but whether he'd recognized the feeling or not was open to question. Leo was the leader. Apparently that meant he sometimes had extra information.
"No," Kai said after a moment. "I thought... I mean, I feel better, but--" He cleared his throat. "It's not like I wouldn't anyway."
Leo grinned, and he couldn't keep it out of his voice despite his best efforts. "I'm flattered," he said. "Really. But the point is that if your Power did that involuntarily, it did it because it had no other choice."
He paused, but Kai didn't say anything.
"I think it did it to keep from killing you," Leo said carefully. "So yeah, it wasn't totally a good feeling for me. But it didn't hurt."
There was a long moment where he wondered what Kai could possibly be thinking. Finally, though, Kai said, "Does that mean you're stuck with whatever... weird Power surge I had?"
"Nah," Leo said, relaxing a little. "I think we're even now. Like... it split your extra Power between us. So whatever you feel like now? That's what I feel like too."
He felt Kai's hands settle gently on his hips, and nothing weird happened: no extra sight, no overpowering noise or envelopment of scent. His touch was just his touch, soft and hot where his fingers brushed against bare skin over the waistband of his sweats. "Not exactly how I feel," Kai's voice said quietly.
Maybe not. Too bad. But he wasn't sure his body could handle that after what it had just been through anyway.
"Careful," he gasped, when Kai shifted and suddenly he wasn't sitting so much as he could be riding with very little effort. "A guy could take that as an invitation."
Who was he kidding? He could totally handle that.
"You should," Kai whispered. "It's your turn."
Leo pulled away, sliding off, letting him go in every way. "No." The word was harsher than he'd meant it to be. "I don't take turns, Kai. You give what you're comfortable with. No more."
This was met with silence.
"Okay?" he asked at last, for what felt like the hundredth time.
"There are some things I don't compromise on." Kai's voice drifted to him in the darkness. "Sex is one of them. I don't offer it if I don't mean it."
Leo considered that. "Yeah?"
"What did I say about lying?" Kai countered.
"Leo, Kendrix." His morpher appeared the moment it was signaled, and it was so out of context that for a moment he could only stare in the direction of the sound.
Then he heard Kai sigh. "I knew I should have found a way to split you two up," he complained. "You're practically codependent."
Leo gave him a dirty look that was completely wasted in the darkened kitchen. "Kendrix," he said, lifting his morpher. "Leo."
"Where are you?" her voice demanded. "Shana at the community center says you left for lunch at twelve-thirty. It's almost two o'clock!"
"What do you need?" he asked, a little worried by her harried tone. Kendrix was easily excited, but she could handle stress fine. Something was wrong.
"I need a child manual," she said. "That's what I need."
He heard Kai snort, but he hadn't moved. He was still sitting next to Leo on the floor, his back against the cupboard, one leg pressed against Leo's. Leo was pretty sure he wouldn't be getting sex this afternoon, but on the other hand, this morning he'd figured he wouldn't be getting sex any time this month. So. Things were looking up.
"Jewel won't stay at the school," she was saying. "We've been trying to work out some kind of half-day for her all week, but it's the other half of the day that's the problem--she can't be with me, she can't always be with Maya, and her other share parents are working too.
"Plus there's the whole transdagger thing," Kendrix continued. "Ever since she found ours the day they appeared in our rooms, she's been pretending to knife-fight with the other kids. Maya explained to her about knives--or she says she did, but what do I know about Mirinoans and knives? Maybe she told her great job, keep it up!"
"Kendrix," Leo interrupted. He asked the first thing he could think of that might derail her indignation. "Are you at the community center now?"
"Yes!" she exclaimed. "I thought maybe she could join one of the school groups here for an hour, you know, get rid of some of her energy. But of course we had to walk in on one of the military practice sessions with their fake switchblades!"
Kai stifled a laugh. Leo didn't have that luxury, because Kendrix would hear him and know that he was trying not to laugh at her himself. "Where's Jewel now?" he asked, keeping his face as straight as he could.
"Where do you think she is?" Kendrix demanded. "She's in with the soldiers learning how to chop someone up with a dagger!"
Of course Kai couldn't let that go unchallenged. "I'm sure they're not teaching a little kid how to chop people up, Kendrix. They're probably teaching her how to hold it without hurting herself."
"Which is probably a lesson she needs," Leo added. "Maya carries a knife, doesn't she? It's only a matter of time before Jewel wants one of her own."
"You are not here," Kendrix informed them. "I am, and I can see perfectly well what they're teaching her!"
"So take her out of the class," Leo said, rolling his eyes only because he knew no one could see him. "There were school groups scheduled from one-thirty on. Shana can hook you up."
"She doesn't want to be with the other kids!" Kendrix protested. "She wants to be with the soldiers!"
"Do the soldiers want her there?" Leo asked.
"Are you kidding?" Kendrix said. "They love her. It's disgusting."
This time he didn't bother to hide his grin. "Go back to work, Kendrix. Lock her ID into the community center so she can't leave and ask Shana to check on her every once in a while. She can practice with fake knives as long as she wants."
Kendrix's sigh was unmistakable over his morpher, but maybe she just wanted someone to tell her to do what she'd already decided. "Sir," she grumbled, "yes, sir."
Leo looked over at where he knew Kai was in the darkness. "And you think we've been spending too much time together," he told him.
"What?" Kendrix sounded surprised.
"I was talking to Kai," he told her.
"Well, stop talking and get back to work yourself," she shot back. "There's a colony to be run, Leo. Kittens that need to be rescued from trees. No slacking off."
"Bye, Mom," he told his morpher. "See you at training."
"If you're done with lunch by then," she replied.
Leo smirked, lowering his wrist, and the transmorpher disappeared on its own. He and Kai were left in the dark and quiet, still touching, not moving. His smile faded slowly, and he wondered what one said in this situation.
"Hi," he remarked after a moment. "This is awkward."
"Are we missing classes we're supposed to be teaching?" Kai asked, an odd note in his voice.
Leo let out his breath in a quiet huff. "You think they put Power Rangers on the schedule? There'd be a waiting list half a block long. The center directors handle the coordination. I wait until the last minute and join whichever class looks the most needy."
"That must keep people guessing," Kai said.
Leo shrugged. "It keeps people showing up," he pointed out. "Never know if a Ranger's going to be teaching your class."
"So," Kai remarked, "you're saying the center directors are the only ones who would... miss us?"
Leo blinked. This question had potential. "I think I mentioned how dedicated you are," he said casually. "Shana knew it might take a while to drag you away from your station. She's the only one who'll be expecting us, and Kendrix is probably talking to her right now--"
"Making lots of disparaging comments about long lunches," Kai continued. "And if it's really almost two... training starts in an hour."
"Being at the community center for less than an hour might be kind of disruptive," Leo agreed. "Plus, I have a lot of extra Power right now. I don't know how safe it is for me to be working out with civilians."
"Might be safer to stick with Rangers," Kai said, heavy on the implication but still carefully noncommittal.
He shifted, tapping his foot gently against Kai's leg. "One in particular?" he teased.
The answer was a long time coming, but when it did, Kai's voice was matter-of-fact. "I really couldn't care less about lunch right now."
He reached out, tracing idle designs through Kai's sweatpants, and Kai's bare foot twitched against his thigh. "I need to do something," Leo told him, in exactly the same tone. "It doesn't have to be this. But it does have to be now."
Kai pulled his legs away, gathering them under him as he pushed himself to his feet. "I have a suggestion," he said, his voice coming from somewhere above Leo.
Leo closed his eyes, because Kai wouldn't see. He hadn't realized how perfect he'd expected this to be until he realized it wasn't going to happen. "Yeah?" he said, trying to sound careless.
A brush against his shoulder made him open his eyes, and he could just make out the shadow of Kai's hand in the darkness. Held out, open, offered to him like a promise. He reached up to take it and Kai pulled him to his feet easily.
The suggestion followed: "How about not on the floor this time?"