Trini carefully stepped over a puddle that stretched out in front of her. She lifted her chin and looked around the darkened parking lot of the movie theater. She hadn't realized it'd rained. But unlike a lot of people, she enjoyed it when it did. The air hung with the humidity to envelope everything around them and the droplets of water resting on everything caught the light surrounding them, making everything glow.

Much like when it snowed—which admittedly didn't happen much in Angel Grove—rainfall made everything look shiny and new. Like it was a way to give everyone time to refresh and start over. Or maybe, Trini thought. It's because you're happy. Happier than she'd been in the last couple of weeks. All because she'd finally, finally told Jason how she felt. And, even better, he felt the same way. After constant worrying about rejection and laughter at her expense, she finally knew he felt the same way.

And…yeah, he was a really good kisser. Kimberly and Avalon demanded to know everything that'd happened to between them for hours once Trini got back from the park. Every little detail. Trini couldn't help but blush as she recounted the story, embarrassed that she paid so much attention to it as well. Growing up there were many other things she had to put her attention to; school work, house work, her family, her countless activities…everything that didn't give her much time to think for herself. And now that she had it, it was all she could think about.

Maybe Khoa realized it, too. He'd been quiet the entire time they'd been at the movies. Not that there was a good chance to talk during a movie, but she'd thought they could at least talk about the movie they were going to see, school, or something else before it started, while they waited in line. Or maybe even talked about it afterwards, what their favorite and least favorite parts were. But, nothing. He continued to hold that sullen and sour expression on his face that had been there since they left the house.

Khoa had been all smiles and pleasantries for her parents when he arrived. Giving her mother a box of chocolates and her father a bottle of wine. She wasn't surprised. It was customary within their culture for the man to make sure he was formally introduced to the family before officially asking out the daughter. Khoa hadn't needed to do that step because of the familial arrangement. But it was important that he had a respectful and appropriate bond with her family before they left. He was good at that.

Trini didn't remember her mother smiling so broadly.

Then Khoa'd said they were going to the movies. Trini was surprise for a second, but then remembered it was part of the male etiquette when dating. He was to bring her gifts and flowers—and he'd brought her sunflowers, to match her smile—her mother almost squealed at that—and some candy. Then he'd explained what they would be doing that night, down to the exact time and place of their movie. He'd skipped another date, they weren't supposed to go on private dates for a while, but it was at least in a public enough space that her parents approved.

It was nice but…she didn't like her life being so structured. Being a ranger made her embrace the change that everyday could bring them and knowing that someone else, Jason, understood it made it easier to date someone like him. How hard would it be to constantly keep things quiet and a secret from Khoa the whole time? Much harder than she'd hoped it'd be.

Thankfully Rita seems to want to have a quiet night this time, Trini thought, glancing down at her communicator as it glinted in the night. She'd expected it to go off at the worst time but it was silent the entire time. She could actually enjoy the movie, even if she didn't enjoy the company of the boy beside her. At least she tried, Khoa wasn't giving much back to her.

"What'd you think of the movie?" Trini finally asked as they walked back to his car. The parking lot slowly emptied out with those from the last showing movie heading home. Their footsteps crunched over the ground as they went.

"I thought it was okay," Khoa replied. His voice was quiet, the same stern expression of concentration on his face from before.

"Same here," Trini said. "Romantic comedies are never really my thing, but this one was pretty good. Kim usually takes me along to some of the ones she wants to see when her boyfriend won't, so I've seen a lot. This one was better than the others."

"Really? I thought you weren't enjoying yourself." Now Khoa's voice was flat, subdued. Trini's eyes widened in surprise. She turned to face him, waiting for his explanation. "You were looking at your watch the entire time."

Oh! Her watch, her morpher. She'd hoped she'd been a little more discreet about it. Trini blushed under the street lights, she hoped he couldn't see it. He didn't need to feel any more embarrassed than he already did. "It's…it's not that I wasn't enjoying myself. It was that I was looking to see the time, to make sure I was home for my curfew. My parents take it very seriously."

"And you think I'd disrespect your parents like that?" Khoa asked. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans, hunched his shoulders up. "You may not like me, but I'd never do that. I'm not a bad person, Trini and I don't like it when you insinuate that I am."

Trini's jaw dropped in surprise. "I never…I never said you were disrespecting my parents." She placed a hand to her chest, curled her fingers in to clasp against the necklace that sat around her neck. She had to look a little presentable for the date. "Just that I didn't want to disrespect them. You're misunderstanding me."

Khoa whirled around to face her and it was then that Trini saw the fire flashing in his eyes. The same snarl that was slow to come to his face when he caught her after coming back from a ranger fight was back. He looked like he truly was angry. "I'm not misunderstanding anything," he hissed. "I've been the most understanding and patient person I could be in this circumstance. I get that you're not so keen on the idea of getting married but I thought you understood it was something we have to do. I thought you got the picture after I caught you lying to your parents!"

Trini opened her mouth to respond but Khoa's hand whipped up. Her words of protest died on her lips as a sound of surprise replaced it. Her cheek stung, her eyes watered. He'd hit her. He'd actually hit her. Slapped her across the face with an open palm.

She'd never been hit before. Not even her parents had done it and she knew it was rampant in their lives when they grew up. They'd promised they'd never raise a hand to her. And Khoa had just slapped her without a second thought. Trini lowered her hand from her cheek and glared at Khoa.

"Take me home," she said.

She started to round to the passenger side of the car, but Khoa grabbed her arm and wrenched it behind her. Using his body weight, he spun the two around and slammed them into the car. Trini glared even fiercer and started to use her body weight back against him. It was simple. All she had to do was get leverage on her feet and she could take him down. She'd one it with enough putties, monsters, and her friends when they were sparring. It shouldn't be hard. But she couldn't find her footing.

Trini fruitlessly kicked her legs back and forth. She couldn't even get her feet against the side of the car. Then she looked into Khoa's eyes and saw something flash in them, saw his lips curl up into a smug smile. He'd known what she was going to do and used his own martial arts skills against her. How had he known? She racked her brain, trying to figure it out. It was easy, she, Jason, and anyone else who'd practiced knew that as long as your feet were able to ground you, to give you leverage, you had the advantage.

He had to know it, too.

Pain erupted in Trini's shoulder as her arm continued to be painfully turned around at an odd angle. "Khoa, let me go!"

"You don't make the decisions," he hissed into her face. "And you don't get to embarrass me time and time again. I won't allow it!"

Trini sucked in a deep breath, tried to steady her voice. "We can talk about it, but please…"

"No!" Khoa tightened his grip on Trini's arm, painfully digging his fingers into her. "You don't get to make the decisions, I do." He looked at her with disgust. "Do you know how hard it is to pretend to be happy and doting with your parents when you embarrass me so much?"

"Wh…what'd I do?" Trini squeezed her eyes shut. But they popped open again when Khoa snarled, "I saw you kiss him!" Her blood ran cold. He'd seen her kiss Jason. "You're supposed to be my wife and you're kissing another man. And you say I'm disrespecting your family!" He shoved Trini hard to the ground. "When you're the one that's the slut."

Trini rolled over, tried to push herself up. She tried to glare again, but the power behind it was failing. "I'll tell," she said. "I'm going to tell my mom and dad what you're doing to me."

Khoa looked back at her with a raised eyebrow. "And why would they believe you? They'd just think you're not ready to get married." His voice took on an air of innocence and Trini knew he was practicing. "I haven't seen Trini in years, I really wanted to see our friendship progress. Why would I hurt her like that? Why would she lie about me like that?" Then the innocent voice dropped as fast a water rushing down a drain. "You've protested against this marriage so much already…"

Trini's eyes shifted back and forth. Was he telling the truth? Would her parents not believe her? They were very strong on their beliefs of the arranged marriage. She pressed her hand against the ground, rocks digging into her palm as she tried to get up. Her shoulder and arm throbbed with her increased heartbeat.

"Do you seriously want to be the one to singlehandedly ruin your entire family?" Trini pressed his lips together. She didn't know what to think. Her head swam, trying to make sense of everything. "For God's sake, get off the ground." He stepped over to Trini and moved to grab her, making Trini shy away. Then he grasped her arm and carefully pulled her up. Trini pulled her arm from his grasp, cradling it against her chest with her free hand and inched to the passenger side of the car.

She got inside, buckled and turned away from Khoa, mind completely blank. She didn't even notice when Khoa got back into the car and drove to her house until he pulled the car to a stop. Then he turned off the engine and stuck the keys in his pocket and turned to face her.

"I'm really sorry for what happened, Trini," he apologized. "I never meant to hurt you like that." He reached out to touch her shoulder then stopped, moving his hand to her hair instead. "I just wanted you to understand how upset I was. But I went too far. I'm really sorry." His voice was low, almost sounding sincere. Trini didn't quite believe him. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, his face was twisted into an expression of shame.

He was waiting for her response.

What'll he do if I don't say anything? The thought crossed her mind seconds before she said, "I…I just want to go home."

"We are home, Trini."

"Thank you."

Trini climbed out of the passenger seat and walked up the front walk to her house. Khoa walked along beside her, even as she entered the house. Mr. Kwan was sitting on the couch, reading the never ending newspaper when they went inside. He set it aside and pulled off his glasses to ask with a smile, "How was your night? How was the movie?"

Trini's tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth, suddenly dry. But Khoa had no problems saying, "It was a really good movie. Definitely appropriate for what we wanted to see. I had a great time."

Mr. Kwan looked at Trini expectedly. "Me too," she agreed. Then he noticed her holding her arm. "What happened?"

"Oh…some kid in the seat behind me kept kicking me," she explained. "He hurt my shoulder."

"But don't worry, Mr. Kwan, I told him off," Khoa said. His chest nearly puffed up with pride.

"I hope he got the message then."

Khoa's eyes flashed over to Trini. "Loud and clear."

Trini slowly raised her arm to pull her jean jacket over her shoulders. Then she abandoned it halfway through, tossing the jacket to her bed. It was no use. She wasn't going to get her arm above her head higher than half way. It hurt too much. Khoa had really done a number to her.

When she woke up that morning, she'd hoped it all had been a dream. But the moment she moved to get out of bed, alarm bells went firing off as her arm blazed with fire radiating from her shoulder. Hard to believe it was from a regular human this time rather than a monster. Monsters thrashed her back and forth day after day but humans were the ones who were supposed to be nice to each other.

There was nothing nice about the way Khoa treated you last night, Trini reminded herself. She could still feel the bad energy from it, it hadn't shaken her from the night before. Letting out a long breath, Trini sat in the middle of the floor, folded her legs and meditated.

She breathed in and out as many times as it took before everything around her relaxed and she was at peace, pushing the thought of Khoa away. The weekend was over, she was going to school, she could forget about him. With renewed vigor, Trini finished mediating and went through a few practices moves that she did every morning to get her energy going, greeted good morning to her passed relatives, and finished getting ready for school.

She had just decided to not wear her jacket when she heard Jason's car horn from outside. For a moment, she wondered if it really was Jason coming to get her, and not Khoa. But she peered out the window and saw his familiar red sports car and relaxed even further. It was just Jason. Things were going to be okay.

Trini ran almost as fast as a saber-tooth tiger as she hurried down the house, grabbed her lunch, and went out the front door. Jason's smile almost matched hers as she climbed into the passenger seat. They smiled at each other and looked away.

They'd kissed. Okay. So what were they supposed to do now?

Jason broke the silence by turning on the radio and Trini sank back in her seat. Perfect, they didn't need to talk about it. "So did you finish Ms. Appleby's take home quiz?"

"Yeah," Trini said. Her smile widened. School work, she could talk about that. Jason always knew what to do in any given situation and at the moment she loved him for it.

"How do you think you did?"

"I think I got an A," Trini said.

"Plus," Jason corrected her. "An A plus. You never do badly on any of your tests and quizzes. You're almost as bad as Billy, but the difference is that when Billy gets good grades he's actually modest about them."

Trini laughed. "Hey, I'm modest!"

"I don't think waving your test in Zack's and my faces is modest, Tree," Jason pointed out.

"That's only because I had to show you boys what happened when you studied and didn't' scope out babes all weekend," Trini teased back. She poked him on the arm, the tip of her finger jabbing into his bicep. "Is that what you did this weekend, too?"

"No." Jason shook his head. "I was busy thinking."

"About what?"

"About this amazing girl that I kissed." Jason slowly started to smile. A blush came to Trini's cheeks and she lifted her shoulder—her good one—to hide it. "And how much I really enjoyed the kiss." Then her nose wrinkled. "Well, other than her bad breath. I could've gone without that." He laughed, deflecting her hand when Trini tried to punch him for the comment.

Jason pulled up into the parking lot and cut off the car, but didn't immediately get out. He lowered his gaze and took in a deep breath before saying, "I don't know if you're interested, but there's a cultural festival going on at the park this weekend and I was wondering if you'd like to go."

Trini tapped her finger against her chin, pretending to think about it. "Well, I might have the time. I don't know."

"I mean, go with me," Jason said with a smirk. "Like a date."

"In that case…" Trini leaned in and surprised him with a kiss. It was fun to do that, she realized, noting the surprised expression on his face seconds before she closed her eyes. "I'd love to," she said, pulling back. Just in case he wasn't sure.

Jason beamed and climbed out of the car. Trini did the same and it wasn't until she passed the side mirror that she realized she was smiling as big as he was. Closing the door, she looked up as Zack just joined their friends on the front steps of the school. She hadn't realized they'd already arrived.

Even as Jason and Trini walked up to their friends, careful not to hold hands or show anything out of the ordinary, Zack cupped his hands around his mouth and let out a mocking taunt, making their fiends laugh. Okay, so they knew.

"Yeah, yeah," Jason said. He dropped his backpack and punched Zack on the shoulder. "Get your jokes out now."

"Hey, just as long as you didn't dance around it as long as those two," Zack motioned to Tommy and Kimberly—making Kimberly lean into Tommy, wrap her arms around his waist, and stick her tongue out at Zack. "We're good."

"I don't know," Avalon rested her chin in her hands. "Are we going to listen to you lot make nauseating pet names for each other?"

"Like Rudolph isn't nauseating enough?" Jason shot back.

Avalon smiled and shot him the finger. "I'm kidding, mate, we're all happy for you two. I reckon we would've had a bet going soon if you didn't say anything, yeah?" She lifted a hand. "I would've thought you'd hold out at least until Christmas."

"Why Christmas?" Tommy asked.

"It'd be romantic," Avalon said.

Kimberly untangled herself from Tommy and wrapped her arms around Avalon's shoulders. "Aww, you do have a heart."

"For her sister, animals, and things that are smaller than her, yes," Billy said. "Anything else and I think you'd be out of luck." He laughed when Avalon glared at him then turned to Trini. His brows came together and his blue eyes shifted up and down her arm. "What happened?" Billy asked. He pointed to her. Trini looked down and frowned noticing that where Khoa had grabbed her the night before had turned an ugly brown color. She should've noticed that morning, but the pain from her shoulder had been more prevalent. "That looks like you've had a nasty fall."

"Oh," Trini said, as if just noticing it for the first time. She smiled up at Billy. "I must have."

And all she had to do was make sure Khoa didn't find out about her date with Jason so it didn't happen again.

A/N: Thank you all for the continued support and I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter. Surprise! I got the next one up pretty quick!

~Av