"How did I not know this was going to end up with you lying on the mat?" Trini pressed her finger to her chin and tilted her head to the side. Jason rolled his eyes before reaching out his hand to allow himself to be pulled up. "I guess I'm just psychic."

"Ha. Ha. Ha." Jason brushed his hands off on the sides of his sweatpants. "My hands slipped."

"Or I'm just too fast for you." Trini poked him in the shoulder before backing away so that she had more space on the practice mats. Enough so that she could do the same thing she always did when sparring and fighting in battle. She watched him, to find the little tell-tale signs of what he was going to do next. Everyone always gave it away through tiny things they did, whether they noticed it or not.

She was ready, waiting.

"That's not possible," Jason replied.

Trini's eyebrows rose. "Oh really?"

"Really." Jason puffed up his chest and said, "Because the Tyrannosaurus Rex is fast."

Trini gave him a look. "You do know their top speed only made it to about 25 miles per hour, right?" She giggled when Jason visibly let out the air he was holding. "And even then, I'd still beat you because Saber-Tooth Tigers can get to their top speed of 30 miles per hour."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Jason waved his hand. "But the Tyrannosaurus Rex is stronger."

"You sure about that?" Trini brought her hands up by her face.

"Oh yeah." Jason did the same.

The sounds of the Youth Center swirled around them, but Jason and Trini only had eyes for each other. They waited to see if the other would move first, but when neither did, they moved at the same time. Jason shuffled forward and sent a punch out to Trini, who quickly deflected it with a push of her hand. Jason's eyes narrowed in concentration and he moved to do the same with the other fist but Trini did the same. They started to move in what looked like a choreographed dance. One would take the initiative to go on the offensive, and then it would switch. They moved together across the floor in very quickly movements that it looked like they were taking anger and frustration all out on each other.

However, that wasn't the point of sparring. It was something Trini took to heart when she first learned martial arts from her family. Sparring wasn't just to learn how to fight; it was to train the body completely. To get the mind and body connected in the movements that would eventually be subconscious and a reflex of what was coming. It was becoming trained to any type of attack that'd come their way.

Finally, Trini saw an opening and attacked. Jason brought up his hands to block Trini's upraised right hand. She moved quickly to bring up her right to punch him in the stomach—not hard, her knuckles barely grazed him, one of the biggest rules in sparring was that they weren't to attack. Jason doubled over, and Trini used that momentum to grab Jason's arm and flip him over her and onto his back on the ground. Trini smiled and placed her hands on her hips as she looked down at Jason.

He groaned, blinking towards the ceiling.

"Give up, yet?" She asked.

"Yes, yes, I give up." Jason held up his hands and pressed his palms together. There was a moment of silence and Trini looked at him funny. "I'm praying that you don't continue to beat me up."

"I didn't know you were religious," Trini remarked. She had never heard of him speaking to or about a God, whichever one he decided to believe in. Then again, Trini was certainly more open with her spirituality than others, though even she wouldn't particularly consider herself religious.

Jason rolled forward and grabbed onto Trini's legs, knocking her to the ground. A grunt escaped her lips when her back hit the ground. Jason pinned her shoulders down to the mat, holding himself up above her. "I'm not," he said. "I'm just making sure that you were paying attention. You always have to be prepared, right?"

Trini grinned back…and made no move to push Jason away from her. It wasn't because she was enjoying him laying over her like that—though that was a big part—but it was because of how comfortable she felt with him compared to Khoa. When Khoa was around she tensed up, unsure of what he or their parents were going to do or say. But with Jason and the rest of her friends, she was with family and it was all she wanted.

"Ahem." Jason and Trini both looked up before scrambling into a less compromising position. Khoa continued to look down at them with a blank expression on his face. But smiled pleasantly when Trini was as far away as—comfortably—possible. "I was looking for you, your mother and father said that you might be down here."

"Yeah, I was just doing some sparring," Trini explained. She tilted her head towards Jason, whose eyebrows rose and he smiled a little, but didn't say anything. "He practices martial arts, too." She tried to be nice to him, despite how much tension was already being held in her shoulders. "You practice, too, right?"

"Yes, I'm a Hong Dai, or a master in Vovinam," Khoa explained. He tried to appear modest but a slightly smug smile came to his face. "We practice it with and without weapons, based on the principal of 'between hard and soft'."

"We don't practice with weapons," Jason said.

"Weapons aren't typically used in the practices I participate in. I focus more on the training of the body and mind."

Jason's eyes narrowed for a moment before it went away. He smiled and nodded, "That's a lot of what I believe in as well." Trini noticed something flash in Jason's eye. She reached out to grasp his arm but a look from Khoa made her hand drop back to her side. "Do you want to sparr? I'm always looking for someone else to fight against. All of the guys I know aren't really up to my speed." With a teasing smile, Jason reached out and shoved Trini on the shoulder.

Trini laughed and shoved him back.

Khoa, instead, frowned. "I don't think it's very nice to disrespect her like that," he said.

Then Jason stopped laughing. He finally got to his feet and looked directly in Khoa's eyes. "It was just a joke. Trini and I have a close friendship and we joke around with each other like that. No disrespect meant. But if that's what you think, then Trini, I apologize." He took a step back and continued to look Khoa in the eye. "Now, do you want to sparr?"

Khoa nodded. He backed a few steps away as well, moving into a fighting stance as well. The two looked at each other for a long moment, the same way Jason and Trini had done before. Trini backed away from the practice mat and crossed her arms over her chest.

She wasn't sure what to think, honestly. Or what to say. Jason hadn't disrespected her at all, Khoa, once again, was being a little too pushy. Part of her wanted to immediately rebuke him for it, but she then remembered the way he had squeezed her hand a few nights before. Besides, she could understand how upset he was. As far as anyone knew, she was in her room sleeping off a sickness, and when he went to check on her she wasn't there. She couldn't talk about being a ranger, so there was nothing more than a flimsy excuse that he probably knew was an excuse.

If he told her parents…that was the worst things that could ever happen.

And she was never one that was to disappoint anyone around her. If she could comprise something, then she'd figure out how to do it. She was selfless enough to understand that. But then there was the part of her that was curious to know what it was that Khoa could do as martial artist. It was a bit of a stereotype that all Asians knew martial arts, but there were some that found it be a very respectable practice. If Khoa practiced it as well, then there was a chance his exterior was just that, an exterior.

Khoa and Jason arranged themselves on the mat and then they were starting to fight. Trini's eyebrows rose in surprise. There were a lot of moves that Khoa was dealing against Jason that she had never seen before. Not except for her elders that she'd only recently met when her family took a trip to Vietnam. But Jason continued to put up a formidable fight against his opponent. Trini, having known him for so long, could see that he was putting out some of his fanciest of moves, and growing slightly frustrated that Khoa was able to deflect them so easily.

Finally, Jason was knocked to the floor once more and Khoa moved, quick as lighting, so that his foot snapped towards Jason's head. But he stopped at the last minute, his foot only a few inches over Jason's neck. Then Khoa took a large step back, giving Jason berth so that he could come to his feet once more, and the two bowed at each other. Then Jason grinned and held out his hand for Khoa to shake.

Khoa did so and Jason patted him on the shoulder and said, "I'm impressed, man, you've really got some talent there."

"Thanks," Khoa replied. "I studied really hard. I can tell you've studied, too. What sort of martial arts have you practice in?"

And Trini continued to watch the two, trying not to make a sound of surprise. Khoa didn't seem to be the kind of person who would take losing very well, but he was speaking to the red ranger with a friendly demeanor about the different kinds of martial arts that they both knew. It wasn't until Khoa was about to go to the juice bar that Trini felt her heart slowly start to sink.

"Well, I mean, it's something I do for fun. Otherwise, I'm so busy with my studies," Khoa explained. "I plan on getting as good of an education as I can within the business realm before taking over my parents' business. But as you can imagine, it doesn't leave too much time for me to truly have time to go and hang out. So, I already have many things I'm juggling but I always make time for Vovinam. But I'll have to take off this weekend as it is."

Jason didn't realize the tension that was slowly starting to rise between them. But Khoa's next words immediately managed to make Trini's heart topedo to her feet as well as make her feel like passing out, in response to Jason's question of why he was missing the weekend practice, "Because Trini and I are going out on our first date."

And with that, Khoa walked over to the counter to get something to drink. Jason seemed to have frozen on the spot, his expression almost mimicking that of Trini's. She would've laughed hysterically if it had been any other conversation they were having. As it was, Trini managed a small giggle, running her fingers through her hair as she said, "I don't think I've ever seen you so speechless."

"Yeah, I just…I guess I just don't get it," Jason said slowly. "It didn't sound like you were so interested in him a few days ago."

"I-I'm not," Trini said. She looked at him funny. Why did he seem so upset about it? Jason was never one to show many emotions as he preferred to be more reserved. When he was happy and when he was pissed—usually having something to do with being a ranger—was most of what he showed. Even when Tommy had left being a ranger Jason didn't seem so withdrawn. But now looking into his brown eyes, Trini could see he was struggling to keep eye contact with her. "It's just…you know because of this whole arranged marriage thing—"

"—You don't have to explain anything to me, Trini," Jason said.

No. She did have to explain things to him. She needed him to know for sure that there was nothing going on between her and Khoa. Nothing other than a stupid little arrangement that she really didn't want to go through with anyway. There were too many things to talk about and people to convince and ranger duties and…ugh. She wanted nothing more than to go to bed and curl up under her blankets and put life on pause for one freaking second just so she could sort out her thoughts.

Was that too much to ask?

"Our parents just want us to go and see how things would work out between us," Trini explained. Jason nodded. "And if I can get through the night without wanting to strangle myself I think it would be pretty successful. Things are already worked out and it's just one night, and I don't want to disappoint anyone."

"It's okay, I promise." Jason picked up his towel form by his bag and ran it over his hands. "I have to get going or I'll be late for work. I'll see you later, Trini. Thanks for working out with me today."

Well, it was mostly because Zack was doing some yardwork with his dad all day and Tommy was hanging out with Kimberly—again, so he called her. She gave him grief about that for a while, too, even going so far as to tickling him until he promised he'd call her first the next time. (And then forcing her to promise that she would never reveal he was ticklish).

"Yeah, you're welcome," Trini replied. "I'll see you later."

And she watched him leave, folding her arms over her chest.

Why did it seem like that was happening a lot lately?

"And he looked so, I don't know…" Trini sat down on her bed, hugging her pillow to her chest, looking at Kimberly and Avalon up through her bangs. "He looked really sad."

"I bet he was," Avalon said calmly. She pulled her long hair back from her face and rested her chin in her hands. "Jason's the kind of guy that when he wants to—"

"Well, duh!" Kimberly interrupted. She leaned forward and slapped Trini on the knee. Her eyes flashed with excitement as she said, "Because he's into you. Totally into you!" She then stuck her finger in front of Trini's face, making her jerk her head back, blinking rapidly. "Jason wants to ask you out but he couldn't because you're going out with Khoa!"

"I'm not going out with Khoa," Trini said firmly. She looked over at Avalon, who had stuck her finger in her ear and wiggled it around at Kimberly's outburst, hoping to appeal to her. "Will you please get through her head that I'm not going out with him?"

"Kim, why would she go out with Khoa if she doesn't want to marry him?" Avalon asked her. Then she turned back to Trini and said, "But I was going to say the same thing as Kim but without all of the extra perkiness attached. I reckon Jason likes you, and he wanted to ask you out, yeah?"

"Yeah!" Kimberly agreed.

Avalon ignored her. "But then hearing that you're going on a date with Khoa is making him confused because why would you go on a date with someone you don't like?" She then paused, thinking for a moment, her face scrunching up. "Scratch that, I know that feeling exactly. Anyway, Jason doesn't seem like the type of guy that would get aggro over something like this so as long as you just explain it to him."

"But how do I do that?"

As soon as the words escaped Trini's lips, Trini leaned back against her other pillows and held the one she was clutching up over her face. She was pretty sure she was blushing. Why was she blushing? She didn't like him that much, did she? Oh my God, I do, she realized. Then it all made sense. Whenever she thought of Jason romantically, or at least tried to talk to him with the conversation turning that way she became flustered—much like she did when going out with Richie. But when talking or thinking about him platonically she felt completely at ease.

Her nerves were really starting to show.

But it didn't look like the Pink or Orange rangers noticed for Avalon returned Trini's comment with, "Uh…you talk to him?"

"Clearly that's not working if Jason won't really let her talk," Kimberly pointed out. She rested her chin in her hand. "But that's just like Jason. He can be sweet and really nice, and likes to make sure others are happy. But sometimes that closes him off from explanations and new experiences. I mean, have you noticed that he hasn't really ever been on a date?"

"I believe it," Avalon remarked.

"That's just because you guys get on each other's nerves."

"He makes it easy, mate, it's not my bloody fault."

Then Kimberly zeroed in on what Trini said and she practically screamed before getting to her feet and jumping up and down, jostling Trini and Avalon around the bed. Trini was suddenly glad that her parents weren't home. They were nice to Kimberly, but they always had something to say about her when she left. Mostly about her over-excitement and how she was never reserved. But that's what Trini loved about Kimberly, she never held anything back and was always willing to do anything once. Avalon was very much the same way, a lot more rebellious and risk-taking than the two girls, willing to try anything daring, though her sarcastic streak was something Trini quickly had to get used to.

Kimberly and Avalon bickered every now and then but the three girls got along in a great group of friends within their group of friends. And it was always great to have another girlfriend around when they had their fill of the guys so that they could branch off when the time as needed.

But Trini definitely was feeling for her hearing as Kimberly continued to scream.

"You just admitted it," she cried. "I knew it! You like Jason!" She pointed at Trini as she bounced, making Avalon burst out laughing. She rolled onto her back, holding her arms to her stomach.

"Okay, okay. Fine." Trini grabbed Kimberly's arm and dragged her back down to the bed as all three girls collapsed into laugher. Trini rested her head on Kimberly's shoulder as Avalon stretched out, resting her head on Trini's stomach and her legs across Kimberly's lap. "I admit it. I kind of…sort of like him." She felt her face enflame, finally admitting the words out loud.

"I knew it," Kimberly sang.

"You think anyone standing next to each other likes each other, Pinkerbell," Avalon pointed out. She picked at her nails.

Kimberly shook her head. "She doesn't know how glorious the world is when you're in love."

"Wait." Trini's eyebrows came together. "You're in love with Tommy? Like, actually in love with him?"

"We're not talking about me, right now, Tree, we're talking about you," Kimberly pointed out. She reached out her finger and poked Trini in the cheek, making her giggle and turned her head away. "You and the love you have for Jasoooon." Kimberly then moved her hands down, resting them on Avalon's legs. "But seriously, though, what are you going to do?"

"I guess I'll just tell him," Trini said, sounding more confident than she felt. "Tell him how I feel and how he feels the same way."

"He feels the same way, Trini, we can tell," Avalon said. "And even if he didn't, he's not so much of a boofhead to stop being friends with you if that's what you're worried about."

It's what she was worried about, but not the most important thing she was worried about. The elephant in the room was Khoa, of course and…and how she didn't know him, how he didn't seem to understand her, how different they were…That could be handled. The part of him turning her down or things not working out scared her more than anything else. Why would she want to lose one of the greatest friendships she ever had for a relationship that may or may not work out?

But…the way he smiled at her made her knees weak and made her forget everything she was talking about. It was a wonder she was able to stay so composed around him. She must've been a better faker than she thought if he hadn't said anything about it. Or maybe he's just as shy, she realized.

"If I ever went out with Jason, Khoa would be really mad," Trini said instead.

Avalon snorted. "He can fucking get over it."

"Yeah, that's not something you even want. Soon your parents and his parents will understand and you can keep dating as much as you want," Kimberly added.

Trini sighed and sat up. She looked over Kimberly's and Avalon's faces, waiting for their reactions. "When I came back from the ranger fight last time, he was really mad that I lied to sneak out. And even madder when I lied about what we were doing. He kind of…well, he didn't hurt me or anything but he grabbed me pretty hard."

Kimberly snickered. "I'd love to see what happens when he does actually try to bully you. You'd kill him faster than he could blink." Avalon laughed again. Then Kimberly sat up and put her arm around Trini's shoulders. "Don't worry about Khoa, Trini. You're one of the strongest, most independent people I know. And if Khoa doesn't get that now, then he will. You make your own decisions and no one can take that from you." She leaned in and gave her friend a kiss on the cheek.

Trini smiled.

"Besides, if he ever did do something to you, I think we all know Tommy, Billy, Jason, and Zack will all let him know how bloody bad of an idea it was," Avalon said. She thought for a moment, tapping her chin. "I wonder if it would count for Zordon's don't escalate a fight rule."

"I think even Zordon would be able to let that one go," Kimberly giggled.

Trini laughed, too. "Can you imagine Alpha getting in on the fight?"

"I think I'd prefer to see what he'd do if Kim ever go ta hold of him," Avalon said.

The image alone made the three girls burst out into even more laughter. Then the conversation switched to the latest movies they'd seen and Trini sat up straight, dropping her pillow into her lap. She rested her elbows on the pillow and her chin in her hands.

There was nothing she needed more than a good laugh.

Not to take her mind off Khoa, but because it made her feel a little bit better about talking everything through with Jason.

How funny that she was more afraid of his rejection than her impending marriage.

A/N: Don't worry, the rest of the rangers are going to be important to Trini's story, too. But Trini, Jason, and Khoa are the main-main characters. And awww, some girl hanging out time. I haven't written that in a long time. Hope you all enjoyed it.

~Av