Matchmaking Mishaps
What do you do when two people are so blindly in love that neither are fully aware of it so refuse to take action? Take action into your own hands, just like Ryan knows all about… Or in which Carter conforms and Ryan just can't be asked anymore.
CarterXDana/SOAverse/Lightspeed Rescue/ Fluffy, awkwardness and amusement.
Disclaimer: We wish we owned it but all rights belong to Saban, we only own the plot.
[A/N] Ryan is OOC for entertainment purposes. If you don't like the changes, please don't flame. If you don't like it that much than you can not read, we won't take offense with that. :)
CHAPTER EIGHT.
PLAN F- Flowers.
Ryan peered suspiciously at the different flora decorating the store before a voice from behind the counter asked in a friendly tone, "Morning, how can I help you Sir?"
Ryan regarded the teenage girl with creamy skin and long, silky-straight pale blonde hair up in a ponytail, long bangs obscuring her right eye and most of that side of her face, with all the importance, it seemed, of life and death. After a minute of deliberation, he turned to the girl. "What kind of flowers would I get if I was in love with a girl who was obviously in love with me back but I'm a stubborn giant and she's clueless so her brother has to step in and set 'em up 'cause they're both idiots?"
The girl blinked her baby blue eyes before she looked at him sympathetically. "Ah, one of those. Well, I have just the bouquet for you," she walked out from behind the counter and started gathering flowers.
Ryan organised to have the flowers delivered to the Aqua Base with Carter's name squiggled at the bottom and made his way back to the base for his tuition. His handwriting had been legible enough he hoped- after all, there were only three 'Mitchell's on the base and surely, it would be obvious, that only one of them would be receiving flowers from men.
The bouquet had been big, a little more expensive than he had expected, with mixtures of white, pink and red roses with white and pink lilies mixed in (Carter had mentioned lilies and roses being Dana's favourites once right? Or was she allergic to them?! No. No. Dana was allergic to Orchids, he was sure of that.)
What girl didn't love flowers?!
Dana loved them! She always had some in a vase somewhere in the rec-room and her room, and being sent flowers had to be a clear sign that someone liked her!
It was a fool proof plan!
He only had to sit through an hour of boredom in his dad's office whilst his tutor read some book leaving Ryan to scrutinise over his times tables before he could go into the rec-room and see the results of his handiwork first hand! A perfect solution! He had done himself proud with this one.
In fact, in the ten minutes he'd been waiting for his tutor, he had been relishing in that fact. His thoughts were only disturbed when Dana, arms laiden with books, came in and placed the books down in front of Ryan.
His gaze moved from the pile to meet his little sister's eyes, "Is he not in?"
"He's not your tutor anymore." She stated firmly, taking the wheeled chair from its usual place in the corner and placed it beside Ryan, "I've spoken to Dad and he agrees that we shouldn't be paying a guy who isn't willing to assist you when the money could be put to better use- like for drivers ed for you and- well anyway, I said I'd teach you and we'll put the money what would've been wasted on that idiot to one side for you to use... I've had a college fund going since I was eight so its only fair you get some money for you to live on. Clothes, food, driver's ed, an apartment maybe."
Ryan furrowed his brow, watching Dana as her petite hands pulled at a large book, opening it to a specific page, "What's in it for you?" He asked brazenly.
She shrugged, "The pride of knowing I helped my big brother? Survivors guilt. It could have so easily been me taken Ry, so it isn't fair you aren't getting a chance to be-" she stopped, ducking her head shamefully, "Normal." He could hear the regret of the choice of words lacing in her tone.
"Forget it Sis, I'm not normal. I'm only doing this because- wait, did Carter tell you-?"
"He might've mentioned it." Her cheeks reddened and she held his gaze with sincerity in her eyes, "You might have given up on yourself Ryan... But I haven't." She turned back to the book, pushing it in his direction, "We're going to go as slow as you need to, and if you don't understand something then just ask me, okay? I'll help you. We'll do English today and maths tomorrow, a different subject each day. Okay? Do you have a notepad and pen- you know, for vocabulary?" He didn't on him, so she gave him one that had been muddled into the pile, "Tomorrow bring another one, its easier to keep maths and English separate. Do you remember when Dad use to read us stories? You loved Peter Pan and I liked Aladdin?"
Of course he remembered, those memories had kept him going when he was in the tomb. The first time Carter had caught him in Dana's room he had been leafing through Aladdin before throwing it to one side. Ryan nodded in response to Dana's query.
"I must have lost my copy of Peter Pan but I'll check the thrift stores and find another. I thought we'd start easy and work our way up. So... Aladdin." Ryan looked over the colourful illustrations before his attention moved to the words on the opposite page. "How about you read this page out loud for me and we'll go over words you can't comprehe- understand? I'll read the page after and we'll see how much we can get done in the hour."
That sounded easy enough... For a normal person.
It was Ryan's turn to duck his head, shaking it also.
"Ryan?" She rested her hand gently on his forearm, voice velvety smooth, "What's wrong?"
"Its embarrassing."
"Ry..."
"You read."
"I'm your sister Ryan, you can talk to me..."
"Its embarrassing."
"I bet its not... How about you tell me and then I'll tell you something embarrassing about me?"
"You go first."
"Fine..." She pressed her pink lips into a straight line as she thought, after a few seconds a smile crossed her lips, "Kelsey has been trying to teach me to surf for the past seven months and I still can't do it. I fall either face first or flat onto my butt. And it hurts each time. Last time Chad, Joel and Carter were there and I almost lost my bikini bottoms." Ryan smirked, imagining Carter's reaction to that scene, "You should come next time! Kelsey could teach you, you couldn't be as bad as me."
"I can't read..." He almost whispered the three words, and Dana had to double take the statement to be sure what she heard was correct; from Ryan's shamed reaction, she knew it was true.
Her heart broke as she saw his anger at himself, the self loathing behind his silver flecked eyes. She understood that, she hated when she couldn't do things- it had to be a million times worse when it seems like such a basic thing, yet no matter how hard you try you still cannot do it. Dana grew frustrated- frustrated at the tutor who hadn't bothered helping him, frustrated at her father for hiring such an asshole, frustrated at the demons for not even granting him that one simple thing of learning to read, frustrated that Ryan hadn't told anyone sooner, frustrated at Carter for being the one to see Ryan's pain but mostly, she was frustrated at herself. She wrapped an arm around his shoulder, nuzzling into his neck, "That isn't embarrassing Ry... Alot of people cant read."
"Says you Miss Future Doctor." That stung, but she ignored the comment, "You're never too old to learn... I'll teach you and before you know it, you'll be reading at a higher level than me." He shot her a disbelieving look but she just smiled softly, giving his cheek a quick peck, "Besides, I firmly believe everyone should read Dr Seuss. I'll get my ones and we'll read them together."
"You won't tell dad will you? He's already disappointed in me enough."
She bit her lip, meeting his gaze again, "Not if you don't want me to."
He gave her a half smile, half relieved and half sad. Now would be the time to hug him comfortingly, but she doubted Ryan was at that stage yet- anyway, she probably needed it more than him.
She turned back to the book, "Okay so change of plan. I'll read out loud, and you follow along with the words. If you see the word and hear it enough times, it might become familiar. And if there's a word you don't know, just tell me and I'll explain it to you."
Ryan nodded, now becoming an eager pupil. He wanted to get better, he didn't want to be a burden or a failure to his family. Dana began to read, slowly and clearly purely for Ryan's benefit. He hoped the flowers wouldnt arrive soon; not when he finally had his sister's attention all to himself.
It made him feel good.
It made him feel important...
It made him feel...
Included.
An hour later, their lesson had concluded and Ryan was leisurely walking out of the office, attention centred on the copy of Aladdin in his hands when he came to an abrupt stop. He looked up and quickly apologised to the delivery boy.
Wait...
Ryan sped over to the rec room to see if Dana had gotten the flowers. Sure enough, on the counter was the big bouquet of flowers he had lovingly picked for her earlier- and across the room, nose buried in a newspaper was Carter, pretending not to notice the huge bouquet.
"Hey, you forgot your- Who are they for?" Dana's voice came from behind Ryan, and as she sidestepped around him, passing him his vocab book before she moved to the flowers. Her eyes became soft, gently touching a delicate rose, "They're beautiful."
"Some guy dropped them off." Carter answered, finally placing his newspaper down, "He didn't actually say."
"There should be a card then." Dana started to root around until she found a tiny pink card, "The writing is too messy; it kinda looks like-" she squinted to read the clumsily written name, "W. Mitchell." "
What? Ryan moved to her side, ripping the card from her grasp.
"No way.""That's what it looks like." Dana wistfully sighed and perched herself on the sofa next to the Red, "Don't open the card Ry- if its for Dad, he should be the first to know who its from."
Carter noted that Dana now appeared glum, elbowing her softly in the side, "What's up?"
"Someone sent my dad flowers... And it doesn't look like the town's normal bouquets... It looks more- selective, thoughtful..."
The man nodded, "Maybe your dad is seeing someone?"
"I would've thought he'd have told me... We never use to have secrets-" She stopped, realising that may have been true once but her father had hidden Ryan from her. She leant her head against his arm, "I'm just jealous I guess."
"It can't be for Dad!" Ryan exclaimed, slamming the note down on the counter. The label wasn't in his handwriting! The daft girl in the store must have re-wrote the card! She'd gotten the name wrong! "Can't we just-"
"You two might be getting an evil step mother, like in Cinderella." Carter teased. Dana shot him an amused grin, playfully hitting him.
"He never dated since-" Dana paused for a moment, forcing the word out over the lump in her throat, "Mom. I didn't think he would."
"Its better than him being alone right?"
"I guess." She brought her morpher up to her mouth, pressing a few buttons to be patched through to the Captain's head set, "Sir, something has been delivered to the Ranger quarters for you. I think you should see it."
"I'm on my way. Thank you Dana."
She pulled her hand away and pushed herself off Carter, shooting a glance over to the bouquet enviously, "I guess we'll find out who they're from now."
It took a few minutes for the Captain to arrive, but when he did, his gaze was immediately drawn to the bouquet, picking it out as a new feature. His gaze flitted to Dana in slight question. "Are those-?"
"For you? Yes, I believe so," she handed the flowers to her father who took them cautiously, regarding them with suspicion, as if they were not in fact flowers, but a bomb set to detonate. He examined them before taking the card to read.
His eyes scanned over the writing, his brows furrowed, and then he proceeded to regard the words again much more carefully. His ears burned pink and he cleared his throat, uncomfortable. He held out the card wordlessy for Dana to read, noticing his daughters curiosity and believing she wouldn't understand the implications behind of the message.
He didn't notice the way her face flushed a light red, her brows rose and she quickly ducked her head and covered her mouth with her fist.
Carter sent the blonde a questioning glance which only encouraged her to laugh more.
Captain Mitchell however gave Carter a straight look before asking, "Do you know about this?"
"No. I-" the card was held out for his benefit and after a minute of silent reading, his face faded of colour, "I didn't! I didn't send that- I didn't write that!"
"Would you care to explain Carter?"
His face began to burn violent red, stuttering to the point of hilarity that Dana grabbed the pillow from behind her and attempted to bury her face in it. "Sir, I didn't send those."
"They were meant for Dana." Ryan finally voiced which lead to everyone in the room staring at him with mouths open.
"You wrote that about me?!" Dana now flushed with embarrassment, "Carter!"
"And they say chivalry is dead." Captain Mitchell slammed his hand on the desk, "You write that filth-"
"I swear, I never sent them! I wouldn't say anything like that to anyone- especially not Dana!"
"Gee thanks."
"I didn't mean it like that! I just mean that- you're beaut- Dana's not my type!"
Ryan groaned inwardly at the giant's point. Bad move dude, bad move. Dana masked her disappointment well but not well enough for Ryan not to notice (and Carter from the way he turned away guiltily) Ryan felt guilty for putting her in that position.
"It was me." He admitted, "I sent the flowers. They were for Dana and I signed Carter's name. He had no idea about it."
Everyone fell into silence as they processed that point.
It dawned on Ryan that maybe what the girl on the shop had written on the card wasn't exactly the thing you send to someone...
Maybe.
"You sent them and signed my name? Why?!"
"I appreciate you sending them Ryan-" Dana picked up the vase, looking almost heartbroken at them, "But I'm not pathetic. I don't need you sending me flowers and pretending they were from another guy! If this is your idea of a joke then you're- you're- a- a- a- you're a jerk!" She dropped them into the metal bin and walked out of the room, disappearing down towards her quarters.
Captain Mitchell, concerned about his daughter's reaction, sent a death glare to both men before he quickly followed the direction she had gone in.
"What the hell?!" Carter rounded on Ryan, eyes narrowed. "I thought I told you I didn't want to be in a relationship with Dana, and then you send flowers to her, signing my name with th-that note!"
"Wait what went wrong with the note?" Carter flushed and quickly held the note up to him. "I don't get it." He said after squinting at the words.
"N-Never mind! The point is that you shouldn't have done that and now she's mad at you." Carter ran a hand through his hair, took one last glance at Ryan and left the room.
Ryan was left alone to think. 'Was it really that bad? I thought sending flowers was nice. UGH humans are so complicated!'
[A/N]
SAM: Hey guys, new chapter!
GREG: Miracle right? Or hell depending on how you view us :'D.
SAM: Yes there is a very good chance that we're hell sent.
GREG: Either way, we're not as evil as Ryan! So what did you think of this chapter? Flowers! And the dirty note...
SAM: Oh, the sheer amount of misunderstandings.
GREG: Yeah... I don't think you can blame Dana or Captain Mitchell for being mortified about the note- or Carter as the accused.
SAM: And Ryan... Well, he tried and failed terribly, he doesn't even understand the note, poor sod.
GREG: And what did the note say? Well... It was too innuendo-ridden for us to reveal to you poor, innocent people without subjecting your minds to filth... leave it up to you to decide.
SAM: Yah, we're gonna have to let you use your imaginations.
GREG: Anyway, we hope you enjoy it! And see you soon!
SAM: Bye guys!
GREG: OH! And thank you for the reviews of the last chapter :) as always, we love hearing you feedback, positive and constructive so please do keep it up! Alternatively, if you would prefer to send your constructive criticism privately, feel free to PM it to us- that way we can ask you questions about what you mean so all three of us can understand better. :)
BYE GUYS! SEE YOU IN A WEEK OR TWO!
