Chapter Seventeen

Birds of a Feather

Jason grinned as Tommy and Kimberly's fight continued. He wasn't sure how much time had passed since the fight began, but he did know that the others had all lost interest. Trini, Billy and Ethan had said something about video games and disappeared. Trent had fallen asleep sitting up. (Trent hadn't slept well in the past few months, especially given the trouble with his father and the fact that, after leaving Mesogog's team, he'd started sleeping in Hayley's Cyberspace for protection. So he had recently taken to falling asleep whenever the opportunity presented itself.) Shortly after Trent had nodded off, Kira had suggested that she and Zack go check out Jason and Trini's music collection, and Conner had fallen asleep shortly thereafter, leaving only Jason both in the basement and conscious.

Jason was smiling from ear to ear. Although he'd never talked to anyone about the Tommy/Kimberly breakup, it had deeply affected him, perhaps more so than any of the others. Kimberly had been one of his closest friends—in fact, she'd been the second friend he'd ever made. There were times when he forgot that she wasn't his little sister. And Tommy had quickly become his best friend, back in the early days of being Power Rangers. Tommy and Kim had seemed so perfect together that Jason had always figured they were the thing to aspire to. The beginnings of his relationship with Trini had, in fact, found him comparing himself and Trini to Tommy and Kimberly (with only slight color differences), and it had freaked him out beyond belief when it had ended, so suddenly and without warning and out of the freaking blue. What was a guy to do when the standard for relationships just disappeared? It didn't help that he and Trini had decided to cool it at the time. Jason had suddenly found himself thinking that if there was no hope for Tommy and Kimberly, there was certainly no hope for Jason and Trini… ever. He still couldn't believe that he was now married to Trini when Tommy and Kimberly were still single and hadn't spoken in years, and Jason still had a nagging suspicion in the back of his head that no relationship, no matter how perfect it seemed, was forever.

It bugged him, to say the least, especially since it had seemed so… anti-climatic. Kimberly sent the letter, they all tried to cheer up Tommy, and no one ever mentioned it again. Whatever guy Kimberly had dumped Tommy for had been gone a few months later; she'd been single when she came to visit right after Jason had lost the Gold Ranger powers… and Tommy had started dating Kat.

Jason had liked Kat, he really had; he counted her as a friend before long, though she wasn't quite as dear to him as Tommy, Billy, Zack, Kimberly and Trini. Yet something about her and Tommy had always seemed… off to him. She just seemed like… Kimberly's replacement, in more ways than one. Jason could have sworn he even caught Tommy stumbling over her name once or twice. Jason couldn't help but think that if it wasn't for her, Tommy would have gone after Kimberly. He wouldn't have just accepted it and not at least called or written for an explanation. Jason knew that Tommy had been rather shaken by Kimberly's leaving, and it seemed to Jason that Tommy had been trying to avoid thinking about it. He'd let Kat be the new Pink Ranger, Kat be his new friend… and somehow she'd become Tommy's new Kimberly.

Now, however, to see Tommy and Kimberly together again… it was really uplifting. They had fallen right back into the teasing, and the sparring match seemed so much like something they would have done as teenagers. Jason couldn't count how many times he, or one of the others, had been forced to break up similar matches before they went a little too far.

"I've got you! I've got you!" Tommy shouted, completely flattening Kimberly against the floor.

"No you haven't!" Kimberly shrieked, struggling for all she was worth.

"You're pinned! PINNED PINNED PINNED!"

"You suck!"

"What's going on?" A sleepy Conner, awakened by the sudden yelling, sat up and looked around wildly. Trent, who had slumped against him, slid down to the floor and woke with a yelp as he hit the ground painfully.

"Nothing," Jason told them. "Tommy and Kim were just spending a couple of hours rolling around on the floor."

Tommy looked up, startled. "Where is everyone?"

"Trini's having a video game war with the Blues and Kira and Zack are pawing through my CD collection," Jason explained. He smirked at Tommy, who was still lying on Kimberly. "Having fun?" Tommy's eyes widened in horror and he scrambled off of Kimberly as though only just realizing what he was doing.

"I would be if I were him," Conner muttered, wiping the sleep from his eyes.

"Shut up, Conner!" Tommy barked.

"What? I meant because you actually won!"

"Good match," Kimberly called over her shoulder, practically running up the stairs before anyone could blink.

"That is one perky person," Trent said, amazed that she still had energy to move. He and Conner tiredly followed her, Tommy glaring at them the whole way. Soon, Tommy and Jason were alone in the basement.

"Don't say it," Tommy said warningly.

"What? I'm not saying a word."

"You're thinking it."

"Well, I'm sorry, but I can't help but think it."

"Stop it!"

"Okay, I stopped."

"…You did not."

"I did too!" Jason gave Tommy his most innocent expression. Tommy responded with a glare and stomped up the stairs.

The first floor of the house was full of noise. Kira and Zack had turned the family room into their own private nightclub; Kira was dancing on one couch and Zack on the other, both of them singing along to an old CD of Jason's. In the living room, miscellaneous monkey noises were issuing from the TV; Trini, Ethan and Billy were taking turns beating levels on Donkey Kong Country. Billy was far more comfortable with old-school Nintendo, Super NES and Sega games, and Trini and Ethan were more than happy to level the playing field. Kimberly sat huddled on the loveseat next to Trini, the two of them talking in low voices, the dog's head in Trini's lap and one paw up on Kimberly's leg as though trying to console her. Billy and Ethan were on the couch, complaining about Snow Barrel Blast and Oil Drum Alley, whatever that meant. Conner had stumbled off to the bathroom and a groggy Trent was sitting on an armchair, watching his girlfriend dance.

"Hey, Jason, Tommy!" Zack called, waving and hopping down. He shut off the CD player. "It's about frickin time, man! We got bored!"

"Thanks," Tommy said dryly. Tommy stood in the dining room, looking expectantly from one group to the other. "What are we up to, guys?"

"I don't know," Trini said, patting Kimberly on the knee and standing up, to the disappointment of the dog. "We should probably get some dinner or something."

"I'm starving!" Conner complained, coming out of the bathroom.

"You just had a whole bag of chips," Ethan pointed out.

"So?" Conner said blankly.

"Red thing," Kimberly muttered to Kira, who giggled.

"Pizza again?" Jason asked, glaring at Kimberly.

"That's pretty much all we've eaten for the past two days," Kira complained. "I'm going to be fat by the time this vacation is over."

"You could never be fat," Trent assured her. She grinned at him.

"Wow, he learned the basics young," Jason muttered to Tommy.

"Well… why don't we go to a nice sit-down restaurant?" Trini asked. "Then we can get whatever we want."

"I look like hell, Trini!" Kimberly complained. "I'd have to go back to the hotel and take a shower. Come to think of it, yeah, can we do that? I feel grimy."

"Any objections?" Jason asked the group at large. A few people shrugged. "All right."

"I'll come back with you," Trini said to Kimberly.

"No!" Jason half-shouted. "No more going back to the hotel! Ever! You won't come back! I know you!" As if to support his claim, the dog sat down on Trini's foot.

"Whipped," Tommy muttered with a grin. Zack suppressed a laugh.

Trini gave Kimberly a mischievous smile. "Okay, I'll stay here."

"Aw, come on," Kimberly whined. "I never get to see you." Trini gave her a significant look and mouthed "I'll see you tonight." Kimberly frowned for a moment, puzzling over what this meant, then wrinkled her nose and let out a small "Ew!"

Catching on, Tommy turned to Billy. "Why don't you come back with me and Zack?"

"Yeah, you should really stop wearing Jason's clothes," Zack added, though he'd yet to catch on to what Kimberly, Tommy and Billy had. "You look like Santa after the Atkins Diet on a casual Friday."

Billy looked down at his outfit—jeans and an old red T-shirt of Jason's, both of which were rather baggy on him and made him look incredibly skinny. The sleeves of the shirt were almost hanging at his wrists. "Smaller clothes would be preferable," Billy admitted. "Do you have anything blue?"

"Tommy should," Zack said cheerfully. "He has every other color known to man."

"Ha, ha," Tommy said, rolling his eyes.

"Actually, Blue's the one color he hasn't been, right?" Billy said, looking a little nervous.

"And I'm never gonna be Blue!" Tommy insisted. "I'm through. I'm done. Four was enough."

"First ever Orange," Jason said in a stage-whisper.

"I've got clothes you can borrow," Ethan offered Billy. "I have plenty of blue."

"So Jason and I will come meet you in an hour or two?" Trini suggested. The others nodded.

"That was an awesome match against Dr. O," Kira said as she and Trent climbed into Kimberly's car; the others were riding with Zack.

"Thanks," Kimberly said. "I kind of lost count of who pinned who more, though." She sighed and stretched her neck from side to side. "He's a heavy guy, you know."

"I'd imagine so," Trent said. "Anyway, thanks for humiliating Conner for us."

Kimberly laughed. "My pleasure. He seemed like he was holding back, though, at least at the beginning. Did you notice?"

"That's Conner for you," Kira grumbled. "He's kind of… chauvinistic."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. It took me a while to get him to stop calling me 'babe,' in fact." Kira rolled her eyes. "But you totally kicked Dr. O's butt, too—it was so cool!"

She smiled. "I don't know about that. He's really the strongest fighter in our group, except for maybe Jason. Trini and Zack are both pretty strong, too. Billy and I were always sort of the weaklings."

"Billy? He looked pretty tough to me," Trent said, surprised.

"Yeah, well—he's been working on it over the years. I think it really bummed him out when he lost his powers and the others got new ones; I know he was working a lot harder during that year, according to Jason. I guess he never fell out of the habit. Me, well… Tommy was probably holding back, too." She giggled. "I used to pull that girly trick on him all the time. He'd fall for it every single time we fought. Trini always said I should stop using it so often, because I was losing the element of surprise, but he fell for it anyway. Jason did too, almost as regularly. The big softies."

"Dr. O, a softie?" Trent said incredulously.

"He may not act like it," Kimberly said with a smile, "but he's just a big sweetheart deep down."

"Yeah?" Kira said casually, itching to pull out her notepad.

"Yeah." Kimberly shrugged, feeling rather nostalgic. She slipped back into her memories as she drove them back to the hotel, letting the good times of the past override her bad blood with Tommy, at least for the moment.

Author's Notes: My tale of how I met Sky and Syd and Z is up on my livejournal, the link to which can be found in my profile.