"Ms. Appleby, may I talk to you about something?"

"Of course, Trini, what can I do for you?"

"Well, I wanted to talk to you about something. I don't…I don't think it's something I can tell my parents about because they're so…they're really stuck in their ways. You know how they can be sometimes when they have their parent-teacher conferences. They can be a little confused with things sometimes. But, as you know, I love them very much and I'm also very proud of being Vietnamese. But there are some things that I don't…there are some things I don't necessarily agree with."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, well, I guess your reading of Maya Angelou really resonated with me. About being home. The feeling of it. I guess actually being at home hasn't been so good for me lately. There are some things my parents want that I don't and I don't know how to tell them."

"What kinds of things?"

"They want me to get married."

"Well, I'm sure many parents want their children to get married and have families of their own."

"They want to do an arranged marriage. They've decided on a husband for me and there are certain rules that we have to follow because of our culture, and…"

"You don't like him?"

"No. I just…I don't like him that way. I like someone else, but I can't tell my parents that because it'll be seen as disrespectful and I don't want to disappoint them. And I've known this guy for a long time, but…"

Trini shook her head as they thought about the conversation she had with Ms. Appleby a couple of days ago. So many days ago, where things should've gotten better and yet she couldn't get it out of her head. It was good to be able to talk to someone about her problems, someone older who would understand rather than her friends. Not that she didn't love her friends, but that they weren't in the same situation, they wouldn't be able to give a good opinion rather than 'this is crazy'.

But what was to be expected. She'd never really explained what it was like in her house, either, taking in the jokes that her friends sent their way about what would happen if she didn't get an A. It didn't bother her per se but having to have the conversation about how serious it was would be harder than anything else. As strong as Trini was, she didn't really like to be vulnerable in some area of her life. Thankfully, there were at least some things that were coming to take her mind off things, even for a little bit.

She'd mentioned to Kimberly the date she and Jason were going on, and Kimberly's eyes had widened in surprise. Then she'd said how she and Tommy had planned to go. Then Zack bounced over saying he was going to be taking Angela, and the next thing Trini knew, they were going as a whole group. She could tell Jason was a little bummed about it as they worked things out over lunch, and honestly, she was too.

Being able to spend some time by themselves was a good thing. Their group of friends went to school together, fought monsters together, hung out together all the time. Every now and then they split into their little groups to hang out, reinforcing their relationships and friendships with each other, but having complete one-on-one time was hard. Even as the week passed and Trini wanted nothing more than to have some time to even just study with Jason in the library Billy had found them and they wound up in a conversation about…well, Trini couldn't really remember.

She had shifted her foot to stretch out her leg and accidentally bumped into Jason's, who sat across from her. And as Billy continued to talk about whatever it was to her right, Trini lifted her gaze to silently blink her apology to Jason. Jason just smiled back. She should've noticed that flash in his eyes, that mischievous one that was typically only seen when he was hanging out with Zack or hanging out 'with the boys' that made her, Kimberly, and Avalon continue to roll their eyes about it every now and then. There was second of nothing then she felt Jason's foot bump against hers.

Trini quickly moved her foot back, thinking she was in his way, then she felt it bump again. Jason shifted his foot against the side of hers before turning it so that the bottom of his ran over the top of hers. There were too many people around for Trini to be able to let out the giggle that was rising to her lips. Instead, she flashed a look back at him and shifted her foot as well, moving it against his. Jason grinned and lowered his head, turning his attention to the notebook while he pretended to focus on what was being said.

Little things like that had helped her get through the week. Between class conversations at their lockers brought stares and whispered comments from their schoolmates. It amused Trini a little, to know that some of the envious glares from cheerleaders and other girls was because of Jason. Not that it was so strange, he'd pretended to be hers and Kimberly's boyfriend many times so that some of the stranger guys—Bulk and Skull specifically—would back off a little bit. But now that it was real, and she could tell from the way she felt around him…floaty and warm, and giddy, that it was evident on their faces.

But screw the jealous looks and the whispers, at the moment, it was one of the few things that made her happy at the moment and she would take as much time with it as she could.

"What're you smiling about?"

Trini turned away from the booth she stood in front of, one that represented Germany with their bratwurst and sauerkraut, as well as numerous gorgeous photos of the landscape and tourist attractions, to face the orange ranger, who stood beside her, hands curled up in the sleeves of her long-sleeved shirt. She hadn't realized she was smiling, but that seemed to be her default expression as of late.

Trini was about to respond, but stopped when she took in Avalon's attire. Long-sleeved shirt and long skinny jeans on what was one of the hottest days of the year. Sweat dripped down the back of Trini's light, gauzy shirt and temperature differences never really bothered her.

How was Avalon standing there with no problems in the world?

"What?" Avalon asked, finally noticing Trini's look. "I know you've got a plate of food, but you look like you want to eat me or something, yeah?"

Trini laughed at the joke. But she wasn't backing down from the subject change like Avalon tried. She was very good at deflecting questions and conversation topics when she didn't want to talk about them and must've sensed the way Trini was looking at her in that moment. "Aren't you a little hot?" She asked, motioning to her clothes.

Avalon scratched her stomach, which was visible from the bottom of her crop-topped long-sleeve shirt and shook her head. Her long brown hair bounced around her shoulders which Trini quickly realized was tied up in a different style, rather than the thick loose waves that sat around her shoulders. Part of her fringe laid over to cover her eye and she was using a little bit more makeup than usual.

It didn't take much for Trini to figure out what it was. She sucked in a deep breath and looked away for a moment before looking Avalon the eye and asking, "Have you seen Chase lately?"

Avalon's expression immediately turned hard, slightly suspicious. She took a step back and looked Trini in the face, having to tilt her chin up considering the few inches of height Trini had over her. She stared at the yellow ranger, figuring out how to answer before shrugging and saying, "It's not anything I can't handle."

And Trini sighed, turning her head away. She could always sense it, sense the change that surrounded Avalon when she saw Chase, the leader of the gang that plagued Angel Grove, of which Avalon was a part of. Since finding out, Trini and the rest of their friends tried to talk her out of being with them, giving her support so she could leave but she continued to say the same thing over again, "I can handle it."

Handle the cuts and bruises, the scrapes, and having weapons shoved into her face time and time again? And those were things coming from regular humans, much different and of an obviously different species than fighting monsters and keeping Rita from taking over the city. And every time they offered their help, Avalon turned them down.

They were just trying to help; how could she continue to try and do everything alone?

Hypocrite.

The word flung through Trini's head before she could stop it. How much of a hypocrite did she have to be before she listened to that voice? She wasn't saying a word of what Khoa had done to her to her friends. What was the point? She tried to justify to herself. They weren't going to be able to do anything about it. And Khoa hadn't talked to or been around Trini since then. If anything, Trini was never going to let it happen again. It was the shock that'd stopped her the last time, shock and surprise that he had even dared to touch her like that. Had dared to slap her and shove her to the ground before lying right to her father's face about how nice of a guy he was.

He was never going to do it again. The next time he lost his temper, Trini would be sure to tell him how unacceptable it was and how it wasn't fair. She had her own reasons to keep it quiet. Just like Avalon does, she reminded herself before smiling and shaking her head, changing the subject back to what they'd been talking about before.

"This is all just so exciting," Trini explained. "I'd always been in tune to traveling and other cultures. It's fun to learn."

"Really? I'm just here for the food," Avalon teased and the girls laughed again, the tension around them immediately disappearing. She reached out and swiped a bratwurst off Trini's plate and took a large bite of it. Then her eyes shifted to the side and her eyebrows lowered in concern.

"What?" Trini asked. She looked over her shoulder, trying to find what it as that Avalon had seen, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Twisting back around she repeated her question, "What?"

"Nothing, I just thought I saw someone."

"Chase?"

At that, Avalon snorted. "Can you really imagine Chase coming to one of these things? Unless there's some sort of a gun show around here, I reckon he'd rather shoot himself in the neck, yeah?" She shook her head. "No, I thought I saw Khoa."

Trini's head whipped around as soon as his name was called, a chill rolling down her spine. Where was he? Was he coming to find her? Did he know she was on a date with Jason? The idea alone filled her with more fear than she'd ever faced with the monsters that constantly come up to attack.

How strange, a boy made her more nervous in a monster and not in a good way.

"I don't like him," Avalon's voice grabbed Trini's attention, though she continued to scan the crowd around her.

They 'd been hanging out at the cultural festival all day and it had been amazing. From art pieces to activities, the cultural information, the food, and everything in between, the rangers had some of the most fun they'd had in a long time.

So far Kimberly had even gone through five rolls of film from her disposable camera and that was since getting there that morning. There was plenty of time in the rest of the day to take some more. And Trini had smiled more than she'd done in the last couple of days. So much so that before stopping for some food—she wanted to go to Germany while Kimberly dragged the others to France—Trini's face stared to hurt.

"Who?"

"Khoa. I don't like him."

That makes two of us. Trini though to say it out loud but decided not to, knowing the karma would come back to bite her. And she fully believed in karma, if you did good things, good things happened to you. If you did bad things with the worst intentions, it'd come back to get you. She didn't like Khoa at all, her opinion of him slowly dwindling as the days went by. If she said anything about it out loud she knew it'd get back to him in some way. If she told her parents, if his parents found out, if he found out…she'd be ostracized, pushed aside, maybe even beaten again.

"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."

"Were you looking for me?" Jason asked, coming into Trini's field of vision. He gave a surprised laugh when Trini wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug, feeling her insecurities immediately fall away. "I'll take that as a 'yes'."

"What a coincidence Rudolph, we were just talking about you," Avalon said. She placed her hands on her hips and smirked. "We were just saying how we were in need of one of Santa's reindeer."

"Yeah, well, at least I'm wanted," Jason shot back. Trini laughed when Avalon rolled her eyes, letting out a low 'ow' beneath her breath. "Anyway, Billy was looking for you." Trini's smile widened when she saw the annoyed expression on Avalon's face immediately switch to a much calmer, more relaxed one. She wasn't quite sure what it was about the blue ranger that the orange ranger gravitated to, but they did tend to pair off that way.

Jason and Zack were a pair, Kimberly and Trini were a pair, and Billy had, in a way, been by himself until Avalon and her sister moved to Angel Grove. They both were loners and as far as Trini could see, Billy did tend to treat her a little differently than he treated Kimberly and Trini. Not to mention Billy was the one that Avalon rarely teased and picked on, at least not to the extent the others got.

"Then I won't protrude on your outing any further," Avalon said. She did a mock bow and took a couple of steps back, much like a court jester leaving the king's quarters before walking away, breaking into a jog when she spotted the rest of their friends.

Trini moved to follow her but Jason brought his hand down from her lower back, where he had placed his arms when she hugged him, and grabbed her hand. She felt their palms press together and warmth immediately radiated up her arm, filling her body. Everything about Khoa went away, completely slipped form her mind and she relaxed.

"So, let's check this place out before the peanut gallery gets back here," Jason said, with lighthearted teasing to his friends. "I really wanted to spend the day with you, anyway." As soon as the words came from his mouth, Jason's skin color deepened and he cleared his throat, turning his head away as if suddenly unable to look her in the eye.

"I did, too," Trini agreed. She squeezed his hand. "Let's go."

And for the next two hours, Jason and Trini walked around the cultural fair, taking in each and everything that was presented to them, hand in hand. Trini'd always thought Tommy's and Kimberly's insistence of being around each other was very sweet, and knew everyone was somewhat jealous they didn't have what they did. And now she got it. She understood how amazing it was to know the person she'd crushed on for so long enjoyed her the same way. That he wanted to be around her and to hold her hand.

It was like a dream come true.

What made it better was when Jason had leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. Just because, he'd said when Trini asked him about it. SO much that when she leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek much later, as a way to thank him for paying for some more of the things that they'd gotten over the course of the afternoon. But nothing was better than when he saw her looking at an amber choker.

It was beautiful; a black satin sash that went around her neck complete with a teardrop shaped gem hanging off that would fall to the hollow of her throat. Trini couldn't keep her eyes off it, even skipping over the earrings, which were her favorite pieces of jewelry. Jason watched her face as she studied the choker and decided right then and there to buy it.

Trini tried to talk him out of it, it was too expensive, he'd already paid for their food, let her at least get it. But he'd thought nothing of it and handed over the money before she could protest any further. And she was so excited, so grateful, so thankful, that she couldn't help but throw her arms around Jason's shoulders and kiss him.

They'd kissed twice so far. Both of those times had been soft, almost shy. This time, it was filled with more passion. Jason recovered from his surprise quick, bringing his hands up to cup Trini's face, kissing her back. Trini's insides warmed as if she had just drank a cup of hot chocolate, starting from her feet and filled her up to the tips of her ears. Felt like she was standing on a cloud, that the ground had given away and she was just free falling.

And it was perfect.

Nothing else compared to that moment that day.

The best part was Khoa never showed up.

And for once Trini could relax and just live in the moment.

She took as much advantage of it as she could.

A/N: Awww, a nice chapter for Jason and Trini. It was sweet, wasn't it? Plenty more coming up. I think this story may end with 20 chapters or so. But I've been updating a bit more than usual so keep an eye out for when new chapters come in.

~Av