Author's Note: These one shots are in no particular order.

Summary: Dustin is convinced that Kali has favourites, she denies it, of course. Can he guess who her favourites are one each of her three teams?

Despite the light breeze blowing through the trees, the air was quite warm. The sun shone over the Wind Ninja academy training grounds, which were surprisingly empty for the time of day. The three Sensei's and headteacher had given the students the day off, and come hell or high water, none of them could fathom has to why.

That being said, the academy wasn't entirely empty. The old Ninja Ops, where the Ninja Storm rangers used to hang out - when they weren't in town, anyway - was occupied again, despite the threat of Lothor having passed.

Nothing exciting was happening down there. The old team had just decided to get together, "for old time sakes" they had said. They were recounting past stories of their times as a Ranger, laughing at idiot schemes they had come up with, and wondering how things had turned out if they had done things differently.

"Personally, I think things would have been different if Kali had told us the truth from the beginning," said Shane, sipping his drink.

Sensei Watanabe had banned the drinking of alcohol on academy grounds years ago, and with good reason, but the group, now adults, had snuck it down anyway. Only a few were enjoying the liquor like Shane, Dustin, and Hunter. Others, like Blake, Tori, and Cam had waved it away when offered, and Kali had abstinence on the grounds that she was heavily pregnant.

Kali rolled her eyes at Shane's remark. "I wanted to tell you," she said. "But I couldn't. You would have done things differently, if you had."

"That was the point of the conversation."

"I know. But if we had done this one thing different then this conversation may not be happening," said Kali. "Tricking Lothor into locking himself away was crucial. You all being in the dark to my 'true nature' is what got Lothor to take the path he took."

Shane shrugged. "Guess we'll never know," he sniffed.

"Would you have fought him differently if I had told you the truth?" Kali asked. "Would your decisions on fighting his soldiers have changed? How would you have faced Zurgane, knowing that I had to lock Lothor away?"

"Maybe he wouldn't have stolen our megazord powers," Shane suggested. "That day was a let-down."

"You know how many days off I had when I was a mystic?" Kali asked. "Zero. Not even the long weekend was spent chilling. I was working, constantly."

"I thought Toby gave you the long weekend off?" Cam asked.

"Yeah, from the Rock Porium," said Kali. "But we still had to find Fireheart. I was at Rootcore the entirety of my weekend off, researching."

"Ouch."

Kali nodded and turned to Shane. "Be thankful you had a little bit of time camping," she said.

"Which we spent sleeping!"

Kali waved him off. "Bah. That's what camping is for," she said. She turned away, rubbing a hand over her stomach, which was protruding out from beneath her shirt.

Tori smiled and reached across the table. "Can I?" she asked, arm outstretched.

"Sure," Kali nodded. She smiled as her twins kicked at Tori's touch. "There's something I wanted to ask you, too," she added, before slapping Dustin's hand away.

Dustin winced and shook his hand. "You let her touch you," he whined, while pointing at Tori.

"She asked," Kali said.

"Favouritism."

Kali rolled her eyes. "I told you, I don't have favourites," she said.

"I call bullshit -"

"Ah!" Kali cried, covering her stomach with her arms. "Little ears."

Dustin rolled his eyes. "They can't hear me," he protested.

"Actually, they can," said Cam. "You're, what, three months into your six month pregnancy?"

Kali nodded.

"Then your twins can hear quite a lot outside of the womb."

Kali turned to Dustin with a grin. "Little ears are listening," she repeated.

Dustin stuck his tongue out. "Anyway," he stressed. "You can't say you don't have favourites. Tori gets away with murder with you, but you always call me out."

"Tori doesn't lack common sense," Kali said.

"Rude," the others gasped.

Kali furrowed her brow at them.

"Plus, you also said, back when we were rangers, that Tori was a favourite," said Shane. "You also said you had two favourites. I don't know if that goes for every Ranger team, but you did say it went for ours."

Dustin nodded. "You said, if I could guess your second favourite then you would admit it," he said.

"I don't remember that."

"You have baby brain," said Shane.

Kali cocked her head.

"You know, where you're forgetful because of the pregnancy," said Shane. He looked around at the others, all of whom were staring at him in confusion. He shook his head and muttered, "never mind."

Dustin turned back to Kali. "I propose a guessing game," he said. "Where we," he motioned to himself and the others, "except Tori," he added, "have to guess who your favourites were on each of your teams."

"As long as you don't drink after every one you get wrong," said Kali. She didn't like the idea of the others getting obscenely drunk on her behalf.

Dustin looked thoughtful. The idea of creating a drinking game was fun, but he knew Kali would kick his arse if he even tried. "Fine," he said. "No drinking if we're wrong. Who wants to go first?"

"Maybe we should decide which team you're going to start with?" Tori asked. "Narrow down the pool and all that?"

"Well, we only have to guess one extra for Ninja Storm," said Hunter, "Maybe start with the Jungle Fury or Mystic Force?"

"Mystic Force will be the hardest, I think," said Blake. "Kali's pretty close with all the Mystics."

Dustin looked thoughtful. "Personally, I think we can leave Nick out of the Mystics, he was her best friend, so she was bias when it came to him."

Hunter and Blake nodded.

"Also, I think guessing the last of our team will be the hardest," added Shane. "It's been almost four years, and Kali has yet to admit who her second favourite was."

"Kali's surprised you needed four years to figure it out," Kali muttered.

Tori snorted as the others gasped.

"So it's true…" Dustin said.

"Just start guessing!" said Kali, shaking her head. She cradled a glass of water, sipping it slowly as she listened to the boys whisper amongst themselves. She would deny having any favourites until the cows come, but it was a lie. She had favourites, and yes, Tori was one of them. The young woman reminded her so much of her sisters, even now four years on, and they got away with absolutely everything.

"Okay, okay, okay," said Dustin, waving his hands excitedly through the air. "Okay. We're gonna do Jungle Fury first. Ready, Kali?"

"Fire away," said Kali.

Dustin looked thoughtful. "My guess is Lily," he said. "I mean, she's Tori's sister. It makes sense that they would both be a favourite."

Shane leaned forward, took a long draught of his drink, and said, "I guess Casey," he hiccupped. "I mean, you locked a Pai Zhuq master in the afterlife for the cub. If he's not a favourite for that, I don't know who would be."

"Master Mao kept escaping for no good reason other than to interfere," said Kali. "He would've been locked away regardless of Casey's plot to save Jarrod."

"Is that a no?" Shane asked.

Kali shrugged. "I'll wait to see the other options before I decide," she said, turning her attention to Hunter.

"I guessed Dom," Hunter said.

"Dom was a pain in my ass from the moment he arrived in Ocean Bluff," said Kali. "Sure, he learned his lesson and he was a valuable member to the team, but it doesn't change the fact that his lacks-a-daisy attitude put people in danger."

Dustin whistled under his breath. That was a definite no.

Kali turned to Blake. "What do you guess?" she asked.

"I know Theo got on your nerves a whole lot," said Blake. "And while you would've protected him when it came down to it, he was definitely not a favourite. So I'll pass on this one."

Kali turned to Cam.

"RJ was a definite favourite," said Cam. "You two were close from the minute you arrived in Ocean Bluff, and, if I remember correctly, didn't his father say something about giving his blessing to you both if you were single?"

Kali groaned as a blush spread across her face. "Shut up," she said, her voice muffled.

Cam laughed.

"Did we miss anyone?" Dustin asked, counting the Jungle Fury rangers off on his fingers. "Casey, Theo, Lily, Dom, RJ…"

"We could include the spirit rangers."

"They weren't real rangers," said Tori, "and Tori didn't have much to do with them like she did the others."

"Plus, most of them are old Defenders," said Kali. "It would hardly be fair to include them. I also say we exclude Udonna, Leanbow, Daggeron, and my mum from Mystic Force, too."

Dustin nodded in agreement. "Okay. Time for the big reveal," he said, eagerly.

Kali smiled and run a hand over her face. She then looked up at the others and pointed at each of them in turn.

Hunter - Dom - "No," said Kali. There was no gasp, no surprise. Dom had done a lot in a short amount of time, and while Kali wouldn't allow anything terrible to happen to him, he hadn't done a good job at gaining her favour.

Blake - Theo - "You did the right thing by opting out. Yes, I wouldn't allow any harm to come to any of my team mates, but Theo's nature irritated me. No, he was not a favourite."

Dustin - Lily - "Correct. Not because she was Tori's sister, but because she reminded me of my sister's," Kali explained.

Cam - RJ - "Again, correct," Kali agreed. "RJ was just impossible to dislike. Plus, he opened his home up to me, and even toward the end allowed Nick and Aidan to move in, too. He didn't have to do that, and most people wouldn't."

Shane - Casey - "Yes. Casey reminded me a lot of myself when I first became a Mystic," she answered. "He was so scared of his newfound responsibility, but at the same time, wanted to do everything within his power to help. He needed guidance, and he did a superb job, especially after being handed the responsibility of the whole world at the start of his Pai Zhuq training."

Dustin punched the air.

Kali smiled at his excitement.

"Don't get over confident," said Tori, grinning, "You have to guess Mystic Force and her last ninja, too. You also said it yourself, they're gonna be the hardest."

"Spoil sport," Dustin muttered.

Kali and Tori sniggered.

~X~

A little while later, Kali cradled a mug of cocoa between her hands. She and the other Ninja's had paused Dustin's guessing game to sort a few things out - the Sensei's returned to their students, Hunter taking a call from Leanne at the Thunder academy to check on things, Blake took a call with his manager at Factory Blue, leaving Kali alone in Ninja Ops with Cam.

"Are you okay?" Cam asked. He was sat on the table beside her looking nervous. After the others had left, Kali had felt a sharp stab of pain in her right side, his immediate thought was labour pains, but she had waived him away as the pain subsided and her breathing returned to normal.

Kali nodded.

"What happened?"

Kali shrugged. "I dunno," she answered.

"Do you want me to call Eithne?"

Kali shook her head. "Cam, I'm fine," she stressed. "One of the twins probably took a swing at my kidney or something. It happens. They often use my bladder has a trampoline, so why not use my kidneys as punching bags?"

"It's not funny," said Cam. Kali trying to make a joke out of a serious situation was unnerving to him, something serious could've been happening and she wasn't taking it seriously enough.

Kali sighed. "Don't you think I have read every book at Rootcore about elven pregnancies?" she asked. "A normal human pregnancy as things like kidney shots, where the baby punches the kidneys. I'm half human, it's normal. The only elven part of this pregnancy is the timeline."

"You'd think, given both you and Nick are half human the twins would be fully human," said Cam.

"Mhm. They aren't that lucky, unfortunately," said Kali. She sipped at her cocoa. "This is good, by the way, especially for someone who couldn't cook when we first met."

Cam blushed. "Would you call making hot cocoa, cooking?" he asked.

"Depends on how you make it," said Kali. "I make it on the hob with a saucepan, so yeah, I consider it cooking."

"I made it in the microwave."

Kali pursed her lips. "Microwaves warm things," she said. "It doesn't cook them."

"Despite the name, Hot Chocolate isn't supposed to be hot, anyway."

"Excuse me?"

"Hot to the point of undrinkable," said Cam, quickly. "If it's too hot that you have to wait for it to cool down, then it's pointless."

Kali stared at him, unblinking.

Cam fidget under her gaze.

"I have eternal fire coursing through my veins," said Kali. "You think hot chocolate is undrinkable."

"If that's your way of saying you're weird, we already knew that."

Kali gasped and looked down at her stomach. "He's mean," she told the twins.

"Oh, that reminds me," said Cam. "What did you want to ask Tori earlier? Something to do with the twins?"

Kali smiled. "I'm glad you asked," she said. "It's the same thing that I wanted to ask you, actually. Will you be godfather to my girls'? I've already discussed it with Nick, and he wholeheartedly agrees that you'd be perfect."

Cam stared at Kali and then beamed. "It would be my honour," he said, accepting.

"Perfect. My two favourite Ninja's as godparents," Kali winked.

"You haven't asked Tori yet, she may say no."

"Pfft. Please, like she'd ever say no to me," said Kali, chuckling.

Cam laughed.

"What's so funny?" Dustin asked, wandering back with. The others following.

Kali shook her head. "Nothing. Are you continuing this ridiculous game or are we giving up?" she asked.

Dustin shook his head. "I will know all your favourites before the day is through," he declared. "Also, where did you get the hot chocolate?"

"Cam made it for me," said Kali, sipping from her mug.

Dustin turned to Cam. "FAVOURITISM!" he yelled.

Tori sat beside Kali. The last time the older woman had had Cocoa was when something bad had happened, it's always a nice pick me up when things are rough, is what she used to say.

"I'm fine," Kali said, catching the look in Tori's eyes. "Baby movement is a bitch."

"Little ears," Tori reminded, smiling.

Kali lovingly rubbed her belly. "Sorry, babies," she apologised.

Dustin reclaimed his seat opposite Kali and rested his elbows on the table. "Right. Guessing Mystic Force favourites," he said, thinking hard. "I'm gonna go with Madison. Hunter?"

Hunter shrugged. "She almost ended up with Xander," he said. "That's my pick."

"I say Vida," said Cam.

"Guess that means I got Chip," said Blake.

Again, Kali pointed at each one in turn.

Dustin - Maddie - "I love Maddie, she's the best little sister a girl could ask for, but unfortunately, no," she said.

"Aw," Dustin pouted.

Hunter - Xander - "Yes, I nearly chose Xander over Nick, shocker," said Kali. "But, the answer you're looking for is yes. Yes, Xander is a favourite."

Blake - Chip - "Again, I love Chip. He reminds me so much of Molly, if Molly were a dude. But no, he's not a favourite."

Cam - Vida - "Vida is basically me in pink. Yes. She is my favourite."

Hunter and Cam high-fived.

"Now, onto he hardest one of all," said Tori. "Who's her second favourite on our team?"

Dustin grumbled under his breath about it not being him. He had already realised that while Kali loved him like a brother, he wasn't a favourite. She doted on him, sure, but she was strict with him, too. She was never strict with Tori, and… for the life of him, he couldn't remember who else she laid back with.

"Well, it's not me," said Hunter. "We may share that weird Hellhound bond thing, but I know I'm not your favourite."

"You nearly killed me," said Kali. "Twice."

"To bring back my parents," said Hunter. "Not even you can blame me of that."

"Trying to bring them back by killing another doesn't make you a good person," said Kali.

Hunter rolled his eyes.

"Also, keeping a fragment of the Gem of Souls knowing that it was a danger to me?" Kali asked.

"I said I was sorry," said Hunter.

Kali shook her head. "No, you are not a favourite," she said.

"Wouldn't I fall under the same category as Hunter?" Blake asked. "Since, I wanted you dead, too?"

"Wanting me dead and actually trying to kill me are two different things," said Kali. "If I thought there was a way to bring back Joe, I would one hundred percent consider it. But I wouldn't actually kill a person to do it."

Blake nodded in understanding.

"That being said," Kali added. "You're my favourite Thunder Ninja, but not my favourite Ninja."

"Me?" Shane asked.

"You're a great leader, but no," said Kali, shaking her head.

"Is this because I didn't fully accept your disloyalty?" Shane asked.

Kali rolled her eyes. "Yeah, Shane, I dislike everyone who mistrusts me after I double cross them," she said, sarcastically.

Shane frowned.

"No, you had every right to mistrust me after the stunt I pulled," said Kali. "From your perspective, I had switched sides and you didn't know why. But that doesn't demote you to least favourite in my book."

Dustin run a hand through his hair. "Well, that's it," he said. "There are no other Ninja's on our team."

"Then my second favourite can't be a Ninja, can it?" said Kali.

"Well who else is there?"

Kali rolled her eyes and looked to Cam. "I see why you had such a hard time accepting them," she said. She turned back to Dustin and reiterated the same words she always did when Dustin was being an idiot. "You're lucky you're cute."

"I don't get it," said Dustin.

"It's Cam," said Shane.

"Cam, what?" Dustin asked, looking over at the boy genius. "Cam's the second favourite. He's not a Ninja, though."

Kali pinched the bridge of her nose. "Exactly. My favourite Ninja is Tori, my second favourite isn't a Ninja at all."

"So, he is your favourite Samurai?" Dustin asked.

"No that title applies to someone else."

Dustin groaned in frustration. "But, he has to be!" he protested. "How can he be your favourite Ninja when he isn't a Ninja, but not your favourite Samurai when he is one?"

"Cam is my favourite non-Ninja," said Kali.

"So who is your favourite Samurai?"

"Rune, obviously."

Dustin pondered the answers that his game had provided. "Wait, so I'm not your favourite anything?" he asked.

Kali sighed. "I guess, you can be my favourite cutie… just don't tell Nick," she said.