Laughter was normally a good thing, something to be enjoyed, something to be a part of. Unfortunately, Kevin wasn't part of it.
Mentor Ji had sent the team to the beach as a break, something for them to enjoy because of how hard they had been working. Kevin watched as the others had fun. They had started by playing Frisbee, but that quickly broke down. Right now, Mike was teaching Emily how to boogeyboard, (and, he suspected, loving every minute of seeing her in a bikini), while Mia was building a sandcastle. He had offered to help, but he just said he could go and spend time with Mike and Emily, rebuffing him yet again.
Jayden had played with them for a while, before he started to meditate. Mia was currently building a large, elaborate sandcastle around him, hoping to surprise him by the time he finally opened his eyes. The gleeful look in her eyes as she built up the walls around him, giggling was like a slap in his face. Every giggle was a knife to his heart. He hated feeling this way. He knew he had no rights to Mia's attention or her feelings, but his heart was just not listening to logic. He felt betrayed and angry whenever he saw her around Jayden. She was so clearly into him that it wasn't funny. He had to suppress his instinct to scream whenever he saw them together.
She was easily the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Seeing her in her pink and white striped swimming costume was doing nothing for his sanity as he watched her running around Jayden, building the walls up around him, laughing as she did so. He could see the way she looked at him in his speedo, and he knew that his "mysterious" persona played on her. She was an empathetic person, and just needed to know about and care for people, but Jayden wasn't just a closed book, he was a closed book in a padlocked box buried several feet underground! Only Mentor Ji knew anything about him before they came to the academy. Kevin never thought anything of it, it wasn't his place to question his Shogun, but gven the effect it had on Mia, he was starting to wonder if he didn't love it.
He was an open book. He offered the others the opportunity to talk to him so many times, it was almost a running joke. He knew about Emily missing her family, her sister especially, but she semed to get her comfort from Mia, and especially from Mike. Mike just didn't seem to have any baggage. Although he offered, Mike never talked to him about anything, other than video games, most of which he had never heard of. Mia again rarely talked about her home life. He knew she had a family, and the way she talked about them suggested that she thought fondly of them, but other than that, she tried to play big sister to everyone.
Jayden though just had this thing that no one knew anything about him. They had lived with him for ages, and so far not only could no one say what his favourite TV programme was, they didn't even know if he watched TV! He didn't play games, and unless he was in a planned outing like their last trip to the amusement park, he didn't even seem to leave the grounds. Mia loved mysteries, and Jayden was the biggest one of all.
He felt his muscles tighten, and his fists clenched as he saw her finishing off the fort she was building around Jayden. It should be him in that fort. He couldn't help feeling that way. As much as she seemed fine after their "you're a crap chef" talk, he knew that somewhere inside she had to resent him for it. No one liked the bearer of bad news, and he had been the one to shatter a delusion that had apparently been built up over years of self-denial. Jayden knew that as his Shogun Kevin would never defy any order given to him, regardless of the cost. It was the duty he had been trained for his entire life. As much as he hated to feel that way, he was beginning to think Jayden had played on that from the beginning.
He had insisted that Kevin talk to Mia about her cooking. While she would never say anything, he was sure she had to resent him for that, he was the messenger, and so he was the one that had shattered her illusions. He had told Kevin to hang back and took what should have been his place at Mia's side when she volunteered to offer herself as bait to Dayu. He had done everything to undermine him in her eyes, and the worst part was, he got away with it, and knew he would because Kevin would never confront him given his training.
As much as he wanted things to be different, all he felt all the time was anger. Whenever they were eating together, he choked on almost every bite as he watched her staring at him. Whenever he saw one of Jayden's arrogant little smirks, he wanted to smash his face in.
He looked to where Mike and Emily had resumed a game of Frisbee and he held up a hand, indicating he wanted it. Mike took measure and threw it.
Kevin ran after it, backwards so he could claim ignorance, and jumped, knowing just fine where he would end up. He smashed through Mia's sandcastle and into Jayden, sending him tumbling to the sand. As he peeled himself off the Red Ranger, he just smirked.
"Sorry, I didn't see you." He told him, before picking up the Frisbee and running off to rejoin Emily and Mike. Mia helped Jayden up, and dusted off as much of the sand as she could.
"Sorry, I couldn't help myself." She told him as she dusted him off, gesturing to what was left of her sandcastle.
"I guess I zoned out for a while." Jayden replied with a smirk. She just giggled.
"You think?" She said sarcastically gesturing to a near three-foot high wall that was left. "I was beginning to wonder if I'd get a moat built in time for you rejoining us for the picnic."
"What makes you think I'd miss that?" Jayden asked. Mia just ran off to the car to get the picnic basket.
As he heard her laughing, he couldn't help but feel like she was laughing at him. Jayden saw him and smiled, that same little smirk that Kevin had known for so long, and was quickly growing to hate. The same smirk that if he wasn't restrained by his upbringing, his passion sincerely wanted him to punch straight through his skull.
"It feels a little strange not doing any training at all in the day doesn't it?" Jayden asked him. Kevin only nodded in response, scared that if he opened his mouth, he'd say something he regretted long before he could think about it. Jayden reached into a bag, pulling out two shinai. "I guess I find it a little hard to switch off."
Kevin again just nodded. One of the things that galled him when he thought about it was that both he and Jayden were very similar in a lot of ways. Both of them had spent most of their lives wrapped up in their training. They were both serious and disciplined, and both of them were bloody-minded and stubborn when they were set on doing something. After he had told Jayden what he went through getting the Swordfish Zord, Jayden had told him that when trying to master the Beetle Disk, he got dumped on his ass more times than he cared to count.
"There's no one around." Jayden told him. "Well, no one but that bald, fat guy and the weird kid he hangs around with, but they seem to be beating the shit out of each other with shinai too, so no one will care. Fancy a little sparring?"
Kevin thought about it for a while. He was being given an open window, an opportunity to take out every one of his frustrations on the guy that was slowly but surely taking everything that mattered to him. He wanted nothing more than to take the wooden training sword and beat Jayden with it. He always felt good in a fight. It wasn't that he was naturally aggressive, or even enjoyed violence; it was more because when he was fighting, things were simple. Someone got in his way, he would cut them down. If someone opposed him, he would put them on their ass. He'd drop them, and stop them. Put them down and make sure they weren't getting back up and move on. Unfortunately life outside of a fight wasn't that simple.
Mercifully, Mia ran over with the picnic basket, her bright smile bewitching his mind yet again. All thoughts of anger melted away as he looked at her. Mike and Emily rushed over too as they saw her lay out the blanket. Kevin just shook his head.
"Maybe after we've eaten." He suggested. Jayden just smiled and nodded before going to help Mia set out the picnic. Kevin saw him putting out Tupperware containers filled with salads and sandwiches, nothing that required any real level of cooking since Mia had learned her lesson about her cooking, and he felt his anger building again. Mia took a plastic bottle of water and squirted Jayden with it, at which he just laughed and threw potato salad into her face. As they ran around playfully, he just made his way over to the blanket and knelt down with Mike and Emily.
"Where's the turkey?" He asked as he surveyed the dishes. Emily looked around, finding a dish and handed it to him.
"Shinai?" Mike asked sarcastically. "Do you two ever switch off?"
"Jayden figured we might take in a little sparring." Kevin replied curtly, determined not to say any more lest he give away what he was really feeling. He knew that anger and jealousy were destructive emotions that could shape reality and perspective, and hated what they did to him, but it just made sense. He and Jayden were so much alike, the only thing separating them was Jayden's mystique, and the fact it wasn't him that had shattered her self-delusion about her cooking. That was just one of the few things that separated them. Jayden had never done anything to hurt Mia. Kevin, on the other hand, had been the one to tell her that her cooking, the thing she loved doing the most and prided herself on, was practically dangerous.
"I guess maybe later." Mike replied with a shrug. "I know I like seeing you move in that swimsuit. Of course I might prefer to see you..."
"Mike!" Emily shrieked, blushing a little as he complimented her. He held her and laughed, kissing her cheek in a somewhat sickening display. Kevin knew he shouldn't resent them for having found each other, but it was getting old. They were together, he got it, did they really need to rub it in his face?
He was quickly finding everyone that was happy a source of anger. He wanted to dump a bottle of water over Mike and Emily as they made eyes at each other, only he wasn't sure if that would just make them even more sickening. When Mia and Jayden returned from their dummy fight, they were covered in sand with wet hair and clothes, laughing and joking. He could only see them laughing at him.
"Turkey!" Jayden said with a smile. "Do you mind Kevin?"
Kevin just shook his head and offered him the container as Jayden took a sandwich. It wasn't as if this was the only thing he had taken from him.