Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own them.

Author's note: Thanks a bunch for the reviews, they make my day! This will be my last update in two weeks because I'm going to Spain for two weeks, I leave on Wednesday. Also, Whispering ranger made a kickass banner for my story, check out my profile for the link. This site won't let me post it in this chapter.

Love is in the air
Intimidation

Dustin was still asleep the next morning when a ringing penetrated his subconscious mind, interrupting a very happy dream about the rangers actually defeating Lothor once and for all. Dustin groaned into his pillow and just buried himself under the covers again. There was that ringing again. He sighed and turned on his back. He glanced at his alarm clock which said 7:30 a.m. Who dared to wake him now? His alarm wouldn't go off for another forty-five minutes. He sighed and kicked off the blankets.

The events of the night before hit him. Another groan escaped him and he seriously felt like crawling back in bed and pulling the covers over his head. He didn't really feel like facing Hunter today. Hunter had said he hadn't done anything wrong but he still felt like he had and he hated feeling like that. He shook his head and got out of his bed.

He had identified the ringing as his doorbell. He padded down the stair is nothing but his yellow boxers and a too big white shirt. He threw a glance at himself a glass surface and saw the mess that was his hair. He ran his hand through it a couple of times but that never helped a lot and he had already reached the front door. He pretty much pitied the person on the other side of the door, he looked like absolute crap.

He opened the door to find a man on his steps. He was wearing a baseball cap but some hair was peeking out on the sides. His hands were stuffed in the pockets of faded blue jeans. He was wearing a brown leather jacked and Dustin noticed a purple sweater under it.

"I'm so sorry to bother you," the man said, smiling apologetically, "I'm Jake, the nephew of David, your neighbor. I'm staying with them but I kind of locked myself out and they don't respond to the ringing of the doorbell. Would it be okay if I stayed here for like half an hour until they wake up?"

"Oh, yeah, sure, dude. Come in." Dustin said, letting the stranger enter. He didn't know the neighbors had a nephew called Jake. Then again, he didn't know much about them so it wasn't a big surprise.

"How did you manage to lock yourself out?" Dustin asked, leading the way to the living room.

"Only got back home just now. Forgot my key." Jake said with a smile. Dustin noticed he had quite a nice smile. He was probably a couple of years older than him but definitely not more than five.

Dustin smiled. "Can I get you anything?"

"A glass of water would be nice."

"Sure, coming right up." Dustin went into his kitchen and returned with a bottle of water.

"Thanks."

"No problem. Anyway, let me quickly go put something on."

At Jake's nod, Dustin went back to his room, taking the steps two at the time. He pulled of his white shirt and instead pulled on a yellow one. He grabbed a pair of jeans from his chair. In his hurry to put them on, he lost his balance and fell down on the floor on his ass with a loud bang. He winced and crawled back to his feet. Just another bruise on his ass.

He returned downstairs.

"You okay? I heard a bang."

"I fell," Dustin admitted, grinning sheepishly.

"Clumsy too, huh? Yeah, I know that. I get more bruises in one week than the average person in a month." Jake said.

"Wow, me too, dude." Dustin said with a grin. Jake smiled again and took a sip from his bottle of water. There was something familiar about the other boy as if he had seen him before but he wasn't sure where. There was a chance he had seen him at Storm Chargers or just on the streets. That must be it.

"So, nice house. Do you live here alone?"

"No, no, not at all. My parents are out of town for a couple of days."

"Ah, that would explain it." Jake said with a nod.

"I'm hungry," Dustin exclaimed. He invited Jake to have breakfast with him and Jake accepted, insisting to make pancakes for him. Dustin said he didn't have to go through the trouble but Jake insisted. Half an hour later, they were eating the most delicious pancakes Dustin had ever eaten.

"Secret recipe," Jake said with a grin.

"These are brilliant, dude!" Dustin said, stuffing another half of a pancake in his mouth.

"I'm glad you like them," Jake said laughing. After breakfast, Jake helped him clean up before saying it was probably best to get back home. His aunt and uncle would be awake by now anyway.

By 8:45 a.m., Dustin was ready to go to Storm Chargers. He grabbed his cell phone and his wallet and made sure to lock the front door. He saw Mrs. Hendrikson, his neighbor working in the garden. He walked over to her.

"Good morning, Mrs H." Dustin greeted.

She sent him a warm smile. "Good morning, Dustin."

"I met Mr. H's nephew this morning, cool guy."

"Nephew?"

"Yeah, Jake."

"My husband doesn't have a nephew called Jake."

"Then who was at my –" Dustin cut himself off, paling considerably. The guy had looked familiar, almost as if he had run into him before … or maybe he'd just heard his description. His eyes widened and he swallowed nervously. A shiver ran up his spine.

"Dustin, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I-I've just gotta g-go," Dustin quickly wished her a good day and ran to the closest place from where he could streak. He reached Storm Chargers just as Hunter and Blake arrived.

"Dustin, dude, what's wrong?" Blake asked.

"I … He … I didn't know … I let him in." Dustin stammered, looking wide-eyed between the brothers.

"Whoa, Dustin, you're not making any sense," Hunter said, placing hand on his shoulder. He could feel the tremors run through Dustin's body. His worry spiked. "What's going on?"

"I think Ben was at my house." Dustin said.

Hunter paled and his hand fell from Dustin's shoulder. Blake's eyes widened.

"What do you mean? What happened?" Blake asked urgently.

Dustin quickly told them what happened and made sure to properly describe the guy.

"It was him," Hunter said with a nod, "He sometimes made me pancakes, said he had a secret recipe."

"I can't believe I let him in, I can't believe I didn't recognize him." Dustin said, rubbing a hand over his face. He noticed it was shaking. Ben had been right there and he hadn't even known, hadn't even sensed that something was wrong. Ben could've easily done something to him but he hadn't.

"It's not your fault. I should've shown you guys a picture."

"We don't have any anymore, Hunter, you know that!"

Their conversation was interrupted by Kelly's arrival. She looked between the three of them and raised an eyebrow in question.

"It's nothing, Kel." Blake said with a reassuring smile that most likely didn't look very reassuring.

Ben pulled of his baseball cap and watched the four of them go inside, a smile appearing on his face. Well, that had almost been too easy. Now he most likely wouldn't be able to get to the other rangers but it didn't matter. He'd easily gotten inside Dustin's house. He could've hurt him, probably killed him but that wasn't what his visit had been about. It had been a message, saying he knew where they lived, saying they should be worried. He wanted them freaked out because he had learned that freaked out often meant unfocused which would make any attack way easier. He was in no way done with the rangers, not by a long shot.

Dustin was doing inventory in the stock when Hunter joined him.

"How are you?" Hunter asked carefully.

"I'm fine. Still can't believe I let him in though." Dustin shook his head.

"I shouldn't have left you alone."

"What are you talking about?"

"I should've known he'd pull this sooner or later. Should've been prepared." Hunter said, looking anywhere but at him. Even though Hunter's eyes weren't on him, Dustin could just sense the feeling of guilt. It was running off Hunter in waves.

"Hunter, it isn't your fault," Dustin spoke quietly, closing the distance between them and wrapping his arms around Hunter's neck. Hunter pulled away.

"That's the thing, it is. I brought this upon all of us. It's my fault that he's here." Hunter's eyes met his this time and Dustin could see in his eyes he actually thought it was. He could see Hunter's insecurities. Could see all the emotion in his eyes. Could see how Ben had broken Hunter all those years ago and it just made him angry. If only he could turn back time, then he would kick Ben's ass.

"No, it's not, Hunter. None of it is. Ben is a twisted son of a bitch."

"I know but if it wasn't for me, he wouldn't be here."

Dustin started to realize that the chances of talking to a wall and it actually replying were bigger than the chances of getting through to Hunter. He heaved a sigh.

"We've gone over this. Whatever happens, we're all facing it together. Let him give it his best shot. We'll be ready." Dustin said, sounded a lot more brave than he felt.

"Really? Because you obviously weren't this morning," Hunter pointed out.

Dustin had been afraid Hunter would say that because it was true.

"Look, this is what he wants. He wants us to be scared of him, he wants us to wonder if he's watching us or not. We can't let him get to us. You should not let him get to you like this."

"You're right. I should get back to work."

Dustin blinked but before he could react, Hunter had walked out. Well, that was easy … too easy. He shrugged and went back to work. Ben's latest visit had freaked him out but freaking out in front of Hunter would only make his boyfriend feel more guilty and he didn't want that. Boyfriend … there was something about that term that didn't fit them. Their relationship, if it could be called that, was a mess. With the new development, it seemed highly unlikely they would talk about what had happened the night before. Hunter wasn't going to open to him now. He was quite clueless as to what to do.

Hunter knew he had do something. Ben was getting too close to his friends. Heck, he'd walked right into Dustin's house, had shown them he could do that. Ben wasn't going to back off. His stunt had also shown that Ben hadn't changed, despite what he had said earlier. He was determined to get him back, no matter the cost. It was that fact that worried Hunter. He didn't even want to think what his next move would be. Didn't even want to consider the possibility he might go after his friends and his brother. Hunter didn't doubt for a second that he would. Now only if only he could do something to get Ben away from his friends. He would do whatever it took to keep his friends safe, he had to.

After work, the rangers met up at Ninja Ops to fill in Shane, Tori and Cam. They had been insanely busy during the day so they hadn't had the chance to tell them.

"So, be careful. If you think someone is following you, it's a good possibility you're right," Blake concluded, taking in the shocked faces of the other three rangers. Shane's shock however changed to fury within seconds.

"I am going to kill him. I swear, if I see him, I'm going to kick the crap out of him!"

Hunter opened his mouth to say something but Shane interrupted. "Yeah, yeah, I know. He's dangerous. But seriously, more stunts like that and I'll be pretty dangerous too. This guy seriously needs to learn he can't mess with us like this. We can't let him get to us."

"That's what I said!" Dustin exclaimed.

"Dustin, you were freaked out this morning," Hunter pointed out unhelpfully.

"Of course I was, dude. I was in shock but I'm good now." Dustin said with what he hoped was a genuine smile. In reality, he wasn't good. Ben knew where he lived, could probably get in without him even noticing. It wasn't exactly a comforting thought.

"I don't think it's safe if anyone stays at their house by themselves." Cam said, "If he knows where Dustin lives, it's safe to assume he knows where the rest of you live too."

This made them all go silent again. Cam was right. In the next five minutes, they talked about who would stay with who and Cam had never thought it would be so difficult for them to decide. In the end, Hunter decided to stay over at Dustin's as the Yellow Ranger had refused to stay with Shane and leave his house unguarded. That in turn had led to Blake inviting Tori over. She had easily agreed so Shane decided to stay at Ninja Ops which Cam had at first been quite against but Shane had insisted, saying that if Ben had followed them home, then there would be a good chance that he also knew where Ninja Ops was which basically meant they were screwed.

When they'd arranged that, the rangers went their separate ways to pick up the needed stuff. Hunter however insisted that Dustin come with him first. No chance in hell was he letting Dustin out of his sight.

Ben saw the rangers come out of the portal, all looking as if they were in a hurry. He hovered outside of the portal and saw the red one return not more than fifteen minutes later, carrying a backpack that he was sure would explode if there were more things put into it. Now he just needed to get into Ninja Ops for another step of his plan, he needed to get in touch with the rangers' enemy, he needed to get in touch with Lothor.

To be continued.

Author's note: Hope you liked it! Let me know!