The Early Birds

Tommy and Jason stood awkwardly next to each other at the foot of their bed, both waiting it would seem for the other to make the first move. While Tommy truly didn’t think too much of the matter, Jason however seemed more than a bit uneasy with it, which in turn made the Green Ranger hold off on jumping into the situation. Of course it wasn’t so much unease on Jason’s part as it was that this, in his opinion, was beyond a joke. First Trini and Kim tell him he has feelings for Tommy, and then he has to end up sharing a bed with him. A double bed at that! Lord knows it was barely big enough for both of the females of the group, but considering they were two young men and neither that skinny, come on.

Someone somewhere was playing a cruel joke on him and he didn’t find it funny in the least. He’d never admit it to the others, but the truth of the mater was that, in fact he had been struggling with his brotherly love towards Tommy ever since Kim and Trini suggested it could be something more. Sure Tommy was good-looking; the messy hair gave him an almost cute appearance, while the darkness behind his eyes told people he was definitely no cuddly puppy. He understood what it was like to be a Ranger, so there was never any of that, ‘why do you keep mysteriously disappearing’ saga he often went through around non-Rangers.

Musing over it again, Jason mentally shook himself, before gazing over at his friend. ‘Damn female intuition.’ Mentally he scolded himself for even allowing himself to think like that, Jason turned back to his tried and true, logical and reasonable approach on the matter, which was as followed; Kim liked Tommy and no doubt Tommy would like Kim. They’d be high school sweethearts, get married at twenty-one, and live happily ever after. If he hadn’t been such a die-hard romantic, unlikely as it seems, but true nonetheless, he would’ve been sick at the sweetness of such a thought.

Glancing at the clock on the wall, Jason groaned inwardly as he realized they had been standing there for a good twenty minutes as neither one of them had moved since Kim’s departure. Deciding it was time to bite the bullet; Jason moved to the right side of the bed and facing away from Tommy, pulled his tight, red t-shirt off over his head. Tommy seemed to follow suit on the opposite side and after the initial awkwardness of the situation had passed to a bearable degree both had stripped down to their boxers.

“I’ll just go and…” Jason nodded to the door, allowing himself to trail off as he saw Tommy give him a slightly surprised look. “Unless you want to go and um, first.”

“Huh?” Lost as to why Jason was suddenly leaving, perhaps in favor of the couch, Tommy shook his head. Was the other boy that uneasy about sleeping next to him?

“To the bathroom, I’m just gonna go brush my teeth and stuff unless you want to get in there first.” Noticing the slight spark of realization dawn in the other’s eyes, Jason frowned for a moment trying to read what Tommy had initially thought he meant.

“No, no go ahead.” Sitting down on the bed as Jason left the room to head for the bathroom, Tommy shook his head, mentally chiding himself for thinking Jason to be so uptight, well uptight enough to sneak off to crash on the couch rather then share a bed with him.

A few minutes later Jason emerged from the bathroom, mouth now minty fresh, only to be confronted by the whole group, minus Tommy, waiting for him outside the door.

“Erm, how long was I in there?” He asked, obviously bemused as to why he had an awaiting crowd. Surely all didn’t have food poisoning or something of the sort.

“We need to talk about the bed situation,” Trini stated seriously, as she and Kim seemed to be the leaders of this ambush.

As the two girls stood in the forefront, worried and serious looks plastered across their faces, Zack and Billy seemed to be remaining in the background. Both looked unbothered and rather exhausted despite their napping during the journey. At Jason’s look, Billy held up his hands and shrugged in innocence. He and Zack trusted their friend’s judgment and believed that he knew what he was doing, despite the girls’ insistence that no man knew what they were doing when tempted.

“Why?” Jason droned his question knowing what the answer would be.

“Well you and Tommy sharing a bed for one!” Kim had to use every ounce of inner strength not to yell at the Red Ranger.

“Just because you want to crawl into his pants doesn’t mean I do Kim.” Jason felt awful as soon as the words left his lips, and instantly wished he hadn’t gone that route, but damn it this was becoming too much. If he could handle a team of Rangers, save the world, and still make it to school on time then what right did the girl in pink have to tell him who was and what he would and would not be capable of doing.

“Hey, I never said-”

Cutting the petite and now slightly angry girl off, Jason gave her an honestly apologetic look. “Look, Kim, I didn’t mean that at all. I’m sorry. I’m just sick of all you guys thinking I like Tommy and further more can’t control myself around him. I do like him, but as a friend, I don’t have any other kind of feelings for him, okay?”

“Um, sorry to interrupt the meeting, but since when did you guys call group meetings at midnight, while everyone is getting ready for bed and in the bathroom no less?” Tommy asked, feeling rather suspicious. Here he had just been going to get a glass of water, wondering what was keeping Jason and suddenly it would seem he was once again the outsider of their group. Not to mention from how they had stopped talking when he had come up, he couldn’t help but feel he was also the center of their group discussion.

Pushing the slight pang of hurt aside, reminding himself not to make assumptions, he simply settled for giving them a strange look as he padded into the now vacant bathroom. However he couldn’t quite get past the last snippet of conversation he had overheard. ‘I don’t have any other kind of feelings for him, okay? What the hell did Jason mean by that?’

The house settling down after their meeting had been broken up, Jason returned to his room as did the others. All had felt a tad guilty after they had caught the flash of hurt in the new Ranger’s eyes at apparently being left out of the meeting. Tommy, much to his credit though, returned to his shared room after a few moments to himself, not even bothering to question what the matter had been on. Jason was a bit unsure if he should be relived about this or not as the other boy slid into bed, giving no more than a simple ‘good night’.

Still with everything settled for the moment the two slipped off to sleep somewhere around one in the morning, both purposely facing their respected edge of the bed away from each other. While this was an alright way for the two to sleep, Tommy, however was not one to stay still for long.

The boy hated being still while he was awake and often grew restless and fidgety in class and even during meetings with Zordon. The case was apparently no different while he slept. Within half an hour he was wriggling around subconsciously, pulling on the covers, and even occasionally kicking Jason’s legs. Finally turning over completely he rolled straight into Jason, his head landing on his torso. Instinctively Jason moved his arm and draped it round Tommy’s shoulders, registering the new presence somewhere in his mind, but still out for the count.

Amazingly enough the simple, subconscious gesture seemed to sooth Tommy from whatever was troubling his sleep as within a matter of moments he lay still. No longer could the rustling of bed sheets or unconscious muttering be heard– only the sound of their soft synchronized breathing remained.

Taking the Polaroid camera from her hysterical friend’s hands, Trini focused it on the image before her. She was shaking with suppressed laughter as well, but her determination to capture that moment forever won through in the end.

The slight click and whirl of the camera, as well as the high pitched, muffled laughter were the sounds which finally woke both Jason and Tommy from their deep sleeps that morning.

Rubbing his eyes wearily Jason heard giggling and Tommy muttering as he woke, feeling very reluctant to move from his current spot. The muttering of his bed mate however seemed a little too close for comfort. Turning his head down to spot his bed companion wrapped over him, Jason let out a yell before he could stop himself. This in turn caused the now awake Green Ranger to do close to the same, sending both spilling off of the bed and onto the cold, and rather hard, floor below.

“Ow.” Rubbing his side as Jason had taken the blunt of the fall; he gazed up to see Tommy still on top of him, tangled in the bed sheets as he tried to pry himself free. Helping the other escape, Jason had to hold in a smile of amusement as Tommy jumped back on the bed looking like a frightened rabbit at the rude and loud awakening.

“You guys are priceless!” Kim exclaimed as the boys tried to get their barings.

Allowing what had just happened to sink in and realize just who had caused the blunt of the trouble, Tommy gave his female friends one of his best Evil Green Ranger stares. “You did not just do what I think you did, did you? No, you wouldn’t dare.”

Trini just smiled mischievously and flapped the photograph around in the air waiting for it to dry.

Deflating a bit at this, Tommy looked to the still on the floor Jason. “They would dare.”

As this new bit of information reached him Jason jumped over the bed and lurched out towards Trini in a flash. Anticipating this kind of reaction though, much to her credit, the young girl bolted from the room, heading to the kitchen and living room area, as Jason remained right on her tail.

If the yelling hadn’t woken Billy and Zack from the deep sleep, surely Trini’s giggling and Tommy’s hollers of ‘kill her’ would have. Entering the main room after the first two, Kim and Tommy stood to one side chuckling and watching their friends’ game, while both rooted for their roommate to win the battle.

Zack and Billy padded in just in time to see Jason grab Trini around the waist and pin her to the sofa, much to Tommy’s delight. The girl laughed hysterically, kicking and screaming as Jason tickled her madly before prying the photo out of her hands.

“Thank god.” Moving to get it from Jason, Tommy was however beaten to the punch.

Zack, deciding to be curious this morning, tore it from his friend’s hand and burst out laughing at the sight before him. He passed it to Billy who looked as if he would burst if he even attempted to control his hysterics.

Tommy and Jason scowled. It wasn’t that funny.

“It’s not that funny.” Jason protested as Tommy huffed in agreement.

“Regretfully, my dear Jason, I must inform you that you are extremely incorrect in your analysis of the situation.” Billy replied, gaining bemused stares from everyone except his interpreter in yellow pajamas.

“He said you’re wrong, Jase.” Trini said simply, allowing a wave of “ahh’s” to pass over her as she interpreted the techno-babble.

Jason sighed, knowing there was no way he’d ever get the picture back now. However, he did not seem too bothered by that. After all he knew his friends wouldn’t do anything with it, just laugh at them once in a while or bring it up at some far distant Ranger party or reunion. It wasn’t worth another game of chase that early on in the morning.

“Fine, you all have your little immature fun. I’m going to go get dressed because it’s freezing in just here and then I’ll make breakfast for everyone who drops the subject of that picture for the rest of the morning. How do pancakes sound?”

The gang smiled happily and bounded off to their respective rooms in agreement. Jason was famous for his pancakes and by offering to make them he was showing the group he had no hard feelings over the photo, despite still being somewhat peeved with the whole situation. The only person who seemed a little taken aback by this was Tommy, though he hid any signs of it quickly.

Slowly padding back to his and Jason’s shared room, the boy in green shook his head in stunned wonder over the entire thing. ‘I can’t believe he just let them have the picture. Not to mention I never knew Jason could cook either. He definitely looks like he’d consider himself too much of a jock for something like that. Hm, he is a surprising person I guess.’

Stopping in the doorway and watching as the other threw on his jeans and shirt, Tommy shock his head, pushing his musings aside for the moment. Still though he allowed himself one more passing though as he moved into the space, exchanging a small smile with his friend. ‘I wonder what other interesting things he’s hiding.’

To be continued……….