Can You Say…?

Jason left the room after sharing a brief, if not slightly forced smile with his roommate. Deep down he knew he couldn’t keep going on like this. His struggle over his feelings for Tommy was escalating to an all time high and this mornings events had certainly not helped matters. He had to tell him; that was just all there was to it. He had to tell him and get it over with, the sooner the better. Besides, even though it was important to him to get this crazy desire for the boy out of his head for good, the more practical side also knew it wasn’t fair to Tommy. He deserved to know who he was friends with.

Entering the kitchen and moving to the window, Jason heaved a weary sigh. He highly doubted he knew everything, if anything, about Tommy, but to him this was a big deal. Whether he was going to lose Tommy as a friend or not, he had to tell him and that was just that. Besides, as much as he hated to admit it, he really did need to come clean more for his own piece of mind rather than anything else. If Tommy hated him for who he was than he could at least rid himself completely of all these little notions Kim and Trini had placed in his mind.

‘That’s exactly who’s to blame, those girls, those girls and their pushing and teasing. I never would have let myself get this involved in the notion if it wasn’t for them.’ Mentally grumbling at this thought, he shook his head wishing that for once they hadn’t been so understanding and concerned for his happiness. He knew they’d just been teasing, maybe even encouraging him to try and test the theory out, but in the end really all it had done was make him all the more frustrated over it.

Sighing slightly to himself, Jason forced a smile upon his face, one which was tuned genuine upon casting an eye out of the landscape he could view from the kitchen window. Basking in the early morning sun streaming through the glass, he took a few moments to get a grip on his emotions and pull it together, reminding himself that really his friends just wanted him to be happy, and as for the new boy, well who was to say he’d turn his back on him.

Deciding that jumping to conclusions was going to get him nowhere, he opened a few cupboards and went to the fridge, quickly finding all of the ingredients he would need for his pancakes. Jason knew his pancakes were infamous throughout his circle of friends, but he could never really understand why. Though he supposed his tastes were a bit tainted as, after all, he had been brought up on them.

He chuckled lightly to himself remembering how his mom had cornered him in the kitchen one day after football practice. She had been determined to pass on the family recipe, despite not being the greatest of cooks herself. Still it was family tradition; one she apparently took to heart as she had forced him to swear never to reveal the recipe to anyone. Laughing, he couldn’t help but note the irony of that; his mom was worried he wouldn’t be able to keep a simple recipe a secret when everyday he struggled with one of the worlds’ best kept secrets.

Mixing up the batter he listened to the sheer silence of the woods surrounding the small house. It was almost the picture of serenity, the silence and stillness of the morning being only occasionally broken by the padding of feet to and from the bathroom or the mesmerising sound of falling water as someone entered the shower.

From the small kitchen he could see up the narrow corridor from which four doors led off. One halfway up on the right hand side showed the entrance to Trini and Kim’s room, with Jason and Tommy’s door directly opposite it. Slightly further up on the left was the door leading into Billy and Zack’s ‘suite’, opposing it, a door leading out on to the veranda. Finally, at the dead end of the passageway was the door leading to the cramped, yet luxurious, bathroom. It had to be luxurious of course; this cabin was owned by Kim’s family after all.

Still though he had to admit the amazing bathroom seemed a tad out of place. After all, the kitchen was a bit rustic at best, and joint on to the kitchen, was the very open, but slightly plain living room. It could be called cosy, the small space was filled mainly by two large, comfy sofas and a traditional open fireplace, but not much else in way of décor, which if one knew Kim’s mom as well as he did, this was a very odd thing.

He wasn’t sure if it was simply good timing or the smell of food which caused everyone to drift into the kitchen and shake him from his peaceful musings, but he had to admit they certainly had good timing. All looking at him expectantly, he shook his head with a grin as the first batch of pancakes was quickly piled onto a plate and placed in the centre of the hard wood table.

“Bro, can you get some plates for everyone before Zack just claims the entire stack as his own?” Jason smiled at Tommy as Zack scowled playfully and Tommy obediently carried out the request at once.

Finding the plates quickly and returning to his friends, the green Ranger quickly began laying them out only faltering for a moment when he received a slight flutter of the eyes from Kim. Placing hers in front of her quickly, he hastily looked away, unsure of what else to do. He’d been used to getting un-wanted attention of girls and guys in LA, he knew flirting when he saw it, but this was something a bit different. The ones in LA had always been brassy, up front, and sure of themselves. Definitely not shy, sweet people, like Kim, who preferred to play coy and bat their eyelashes about. Recalling how they did act, he shook his head as he figured they were more the type of people to pin you down, place a hand on your crotch and say ‘I want you’. And though tactless and obnoxious, he at least knew how to react to that sort of behaviour.

This however….Sparing another glance at the pretty young girl, he mentally sighed. He wasn’t used to this at all; it was totally different to his life back in L.A. Now that he thought about it actually, his entire life was different now compared to how it was before he came to Angel Grove. He was still yet unsure if it was a good different or not, but he had a feeling it would end up in the positive area. He’d just have to get used to more quiet and soft spoken friends he supposed.

After adding another few pancakes to the piled high plate on the table, Jason slumped down into the open chair between Tommy and Billy, grabbing two pancakes quickly before he missed his chance. Unable to control his body he heard his stomach growl causing a sheepish grin to spread across his face as the others looked at him laughing slightly.

“See, there’s a reason I don’t cook often,” Jason stated with a slight flush of embarrassment as he took the half empty syrup bottle from Zack.

“Yeah, bu me wism ou ook more.” Zack responded, his mouth full to bursting with pancake.

“Come again?”

“We wish you cooked more.” Zack translated with a grin after swallowing his mouthful. “These are even better than the ones at the Pancake House on route fifty.”

Jason smiled, unsure how to take that, but deciding it was meant as praise he nodded. “I’ll take that as a compliment…I think.”

“You know these are amazing, Jase, come on admit it.” Kim said around a happy smile as she took another two from the plate.

Taking a few drinks of his orange juice, Tommy was just about to get up and retrieve more when he suddenly noticed that all his happily eating friends were not staring intently at him. Looking bemusedly at the group, he absently ran a hand through his hair. Why were they watching him? His hair was that messy in the morning.

“So are you going to take a bite or can we start stealing stuff off your plate?” Zack questioned already eyeing his plate.

Oh, they wanted to see his reaction to Jason’s cooking. How obsessed with his pancakes were these people? Looking round, he took big bite into his food before they possibly strung him up and tortured him with the syrup bottle.

Pausing for a moment after he’d managed to get the large mouthful down, he had to admit it was definitely better then anything he or his mom had ever concocted. Taking another bite and unsure if he should get up to get more juice now, risking his breakfast to ravenous others, he decided against it in the end.

“Jason’s breakfasts are the best, but I think I should still stick to making the dinners,” Trini announced, remember the disaster that had occurred when the gang had assumed that Jason would be able to cook a range of things if his pancakes were this good. Of course that theory was quickly shot to hell when he’d nearly set the kitchen on fire. They still had yet to figure out how the pots of water had caught flame along with the lettuce, but none of them really wanted to retest the events of that evening.

As if reading her mind, Jason quickly cleared his throat as the smile playing across Trini’s lips increased. He knew exactly what was going on her head and prayed she’d have the good sense to not mention it in front of their new friend. After all it wasn’t his fault, he told them he didn’t know how to use a stove for crying out loud. “Trini, I know what you’re thinking and don’t go there unless you want me to chase you up to the roof this time.”

Tommy was somewhat perplexed by Jason’s sudden mood change, he seemed rather ruffled, as if there was something he’d rather not have mentioned – it was almost as if he were embarrassed. Curiosity soon got the better of Tommy the more he wondered about what could embarrass the tough boy and quickly left his food in favour of the story he was sure they had. “What’s going on? Have I missed something?”

“Only Jason setting fire to nearly the whole kitchen the first time he tried to cook anything but breakfast for us.” As Jason gave the girl in pink a shocked and outraged look, she was quick to jump to her own defence. “You said Trini couldn’t go there, but you didn’t say I couldn’t. Plus he asked. Plus it’s your own fault for mentioning it.”

Even more curious now, Tommy wasn’t sure if it honestly was as bad as Kim made it to be or if this was just them poking at Jason a bit. “Was it really that bad?”

“I don’t know, do you consider setting water and vegetables on fire bad?” Zack threw in, having to add his two cents to the matter.

Jason quickly turned a deep shade of red as the others began laughing, Tommy in particular, though it was clear the Green Ranger was at least trying to keep himself under control. “I tried to convince you all I couldn’t cook, but no, you were determined to make me into some gourmet chef! I’m planning on becoming an architect not a chef; I’ll design restaurants, not cook in them.”

Seeming to feel Jason was only saying this for his benefit, not to mention looking directly at him, Tommy cleared his throat quickly. “Sorry bro, but the mental images I pictured are just making me crack up.”

Sighing and trying to ease the conversation away from himself, Jason went for a sudden person change. “Bill, you okay, you’ve been really quiet this morning.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, yeah I’m fine. Mind’s just somewhere else.” Billy answered snapping out of his daze to see the others watching him now. Determined to not be asked what he was thinking about Billy quickly added a question into the conversation in hopes of getting the talkative bunch off the topic of him. “So what are we all doing today?”

“Well Trini and I are gong to get some supplies and things from the stores in town, you know me, any chance to go shopping. I guessed you guys wouldn’t really feel like it, even if it is for food, so I borrowed some stuff from my dad so…” Kim turned to Jason for him to finish the sentence.

“We’re going fishing.” No sooner had the words left his mouth than he noted the slight apprehension on both Zack and Tommy’s faces. Neither of them had any clue when it came to things like that. Fishing was very far from being their type of thing. Jason still felt it was worth a shot however as hopefully he and Billy – both of whom had gone fishing together nearly every weekend as kids – could convert them to the peaceful sport.

“Don’t look so terrified Tom, Zack; Billy and I will keep you from tying yourself up in the line…well hopefully at least.”

The group laughed slightly as Zack and Tommy blushed a slightly duller version of Jason’s signature colour.

“I know it’s not exactly as exciting as hand to hand combat with a giant golden ape, being controlled by some mad witch who is trying to destroy the earth, or taking a chemistry test, but I think we could all do with a bit of a break. Let the adrenaline stop flowing for a change, of course if you guys really think it is too complicated...” Jason knew he had them convinced. More so because they wanted to prove to Jason and Billy they could manage something “simple” like fishing, than Jason actually being persuasive.

“No, we’ll do it, won’t we Zack? After all it can’t be that hard.” Tommy stated acting a lot more sure of himself than he felt. Still though, his confidence seemed to be rubbing off on Zack who shot back an exuberant ‘yeah’.

“The stuff is out in the shed Jase, so do you want to go get it while the rest of us clear up from breakfast?” Trini half told, half asked him since she had helped Kim look for it earlier before they came in for breakfast.

“Sure.” Jason nodded slightly and got up from the table, no questions asked as he really didn’t want to clean up after them.

It wasn’t more than a second after they heard the front door open and close that Kim jumped into action, talking in rushed whispers to everyone. “Alright, Trini and I will get party stuff and ingredients for the cake and things today so we can bake it for Friday. I’ll head out tomorrow again to try and find him a present. We have to make this a party to remember.”

Tommy looked blankly at his friends and Kim in particular as it seemed he was once more left out of the loop. What on earth was she on about?

“Guy’s…” Not hearing him, the other four continued to go over present ideas, making him sigh and decided that if he apparently wanted to be heard in this talkative group polite and quiet wasn’t the way to go. “Guys!”

All turning to look at him, Kim was the first to recover. “Um, yes?”

“What on earth are you talking about?”

“Kim didn’t tell you?” Trini asked, looking rather stunned.

“Tell me what?”

Pointing to the blue Ranger, Kim shook her head. “Billy was supposed to!”

“Was supposed to tell me what?” Tommy pressed becoming rather annoyed by this game.

Looking at the girl and holding up his hands, Billy was apparently not taking the fall either. “Me? I thought Zack was!”

“Hold on, I thought Trini was organising all of this…”

“Guys!” When they once more fell silent, he tried again. “Stop. Just stop. I don’t care who was supposed to tell me whatever it is you have to tell me, I would just like someone to actually get round to telling me.” Effectively bringing the argument and blaming game to a halt, he waited patiently for one of them to inform him of what was going on.

“It’s Jason’s birthday on Friday. We were planning on throwing him a party while we were up here. Also, we couldn’t find a present we thought he would like back in Angel Grove so we thought we would try and buy one while we were up here, too. He has no clue. I think he thinks we’ve forgotten. So don’t say a word, okay Tommy? Also, you owe someone thirty bucks, since someone paid your share.”

“I did.” Shrugging as Tommy gave her a questioning look, Kim seemed less than phased as she certainly didn’t mind loaning money to her friends. “Just pay me back whenever.”

“Um, okay, thanks. So Jas-” Cut off as the front door once more opened, they all moved quickly. Tommy, Billy and Zack hastily stood and went to help Jason with the bags he’d brought in.

Unaware of what had transpired in his absence, Jason couldn’t help but muse how it seemed a bit odd how they all rushed to help him the second he’d walked in. Still though, it was only the three other boys so he guessed they were just keen to show off in front of the girls. All it would have taken really was Tommy, who would have fuelled the other two; not wanting to be outdone by the new competition. After all that seemed the most logical reason; he highly doubted it was a ‘let’s be nice to him because it’s his birthday soon’ kick. Especially since he hadn’t mentioned it to any of them, and Tommy wouldn’t even know, no it was more likely they’d forgotten in all the stress from the past few weeks and this was a competition to get the biggest ‘aw’ from the two females.

Leaning against the table and watching the three dig through the bags, Jason smiled slightly. So they’d forgotten his birthday, it was alright, besides he never really made a big fuss about birthdays anymore anyway. Ever since becoming a Ranger it always felt as if there were more important things to be celebrating instead of growing another year older. Surviving another battle, defeating another monster… thankful to be living to see another birthday seemed to be the closest he came to actually celebrating it.

“Jase, car keys?” Trini asked holding out a hand to catch them neatly as he tossed them over to her.

Pulling on her shoes, Kim grinned in amusement as she followed Trini towards the door. “Now be careful boys, you don’t know what sorts of ferocious things you could find if you get lost on in those woods, and I doubt they’d be willing to forgo eating you in favour of your bait.”

“Kim, you know it is highly improbable that…” The rest of Billy’s sentence was muffled as Tommy placed a hand over his mouth.

“We won’t get lost.” Tommy stated calmly as Jason and Zack doubled over in laughter, knowing the boy had gotten tired of the technical speak if he was willing to keep his hand over the Blue Ranger’s mouth like that.

“Sure you won’t. Don’t worry we’ll send a search party for you when we get back.”

--------------------

(30 minutes and four bruised male egos later…)

After much stumbling, falling, and yelling at Zack to shut the hell up, the now rather stressed males finally arrived at their destination. As the crystal blue water came into view they all seemed to relax instantly as a collective sigh of relief was given up. It wasn’t so much that they weren’t having fun messing around on the way, it was just the whole thing of male pride, and a sense of achievement, and inner peace at knowing they had achieved their objective, reached their goal… made it to the lake in one piece in other words.

After a few minutes setting up, if one could call dropping their gear onto the ground setting up, the guys laid out on the grassy bank arranging the four fishing poles as correctly as they could under Billy’s guidance and slightly amused looks.

Seeming a bit out of place, Tommy absently set to picking through Jason’s tackle box as Billy had taken Zack under his wing. He knew they were friends, and truth be told he hadn’t gotten much of a chance to talk to Billy one on one and find out if they had anything in common, but yet he couldn’t help but feel a bit…rejected.

Untangling Zack’s line for the second time in two minutes, Billy spared a glance at the other two. He hated to admit it but he was still a bit unconfident around the tough, LA street kid, he may have a good heart - just like one of those typical bad boys comes good characters you see on cheesy T.V. shows – but Billy had naturally been shy around people he didn’t know for, well, all of his life. He supposed it was mainly because people seemed so intimidated by his intelligence and found him hard to get to know, but of course that had been partially accentuated by his mother’s untimely death and the scars that left upon his emotional state.

After growing bored of the tackle box, Tommy took up a relaxed position next to Jason who was lying out on his back, a fishing pole just dangling in the water next to him. No one seemed too bothered about technique, or even actually catching any fish for that matter; just lounging around by the waterside watching Zack’s crazy antics was enough for the others. The whole male ego thing they had been experiencing in front of the girls earlier just dissolved into relaxed comfort at the prospect of no monster attacks and high pumping adrenaline coursing through their veins.

Glancing over and noticing their new friend who was currently watching Billy attempt to instruct Zack how not to get the line stuck in a tree, again, Jase couldn’t help but notice his slightly distant mood shift. “Hey city boy, you want to learn how to fish?”

The slight banter brought Tommy’s attention back to his roommate for the weekend. Still caught in his own musings he couldn’t help but notice the red t-shirt hanging loosely over the others muscular body, his eyes glinting in the sun, the water reflecting lightly off them. Maybe it way the way he was positioned; every inch of him seemed to be showing off to its best form or, maybe, it was the relaxed and happy atmosphere and almost romantic setting which made Tommy desperate to see him without that shirt.

“Tom?”

Shaking himself from his daze as Jason offered him a slightly concerned look, Tommy looked away quickly, trying to get the heat from his face at being caught staring. ‘That’s great, just great, bad enough I nearly suffocated him last night now I’m staring at him. Can it get any better? What the hell am I doing anyway, even if I have been out with guys before this is Jason we’re talking about…Jason who I wouldn’t mind seeing without his shirt on right now. Okay stop it.’

Forcing himself to get it together, he reminded himself that once more this was not LA where everyone was open and blatant about such matters. Not to mention Jason would most likely end up married to Kim and have the picture perfect family in the end.

Determined to recover from that little mess up as Jason was still watching him, Tommy flopped down on the grass fully putting his best dry wit forward. “Can you be bothered to move long enough to teach me?”

“Nope,” Jason replied with a slight smile. “I don’t think Billy can be either, hence the reason Zack is jumping around and dancing all over the place…and chasing that squirrel… okay then.”

Tommy shook his head in amusement. “You’d think all those monster attacks would get rid of some of that energy. The rest of us are all crashing out here to relax, but Zack, well, Zack is just…”

“Zack?” Jason added helpfully, a smile playing across his lips once more. “Hyper is just how Zack runs the majority of the time. He can be pretty serious though, well, when he wants to be.”

“Hey, I heard that!” Zack said defensively before tripping himself up, causing a laugh from his red and green friends.

Billy however didn’t seem quite as amused as he just rolled his eyes and laid back in the grass, staring up at the sky. He didn’t want to, but he soon found himself thinking about his mom. Actually he had been thinking about her a lot lately, like when he had zoned out at breakfast. Of course he always thought about her more when it was coming up to her birthday. Each year he would usually go down to the cemetery and place a bunch of her favourite flowers upon her gave as he’d sit and talk to her for a while, inform her of how matters were going with his life and plans. Unfortunately though, he wouldn’t be in Angel Grove to do that this year; he’d be here, coming down from the climax of celebrating Jason’s birthday. He’d never told his friends but his best friend’s birthday had managed to fall upon the day before his mom’s.

Sighing to himself as he remembered all the happy times, all the smiles, all the laughter, he would have plenty of those over these next few days and he knew his mom would want him to enjoy himself. A look of determination spread across his face, only for an instant, but in that instant he decided to be happy and make the most of this much needed time away from the responsibilities he shouldered back home in Angel Grove.

Out the corner of his eye Billy noticed his friend had once again began to dance around and act the fool. He loved that about Zack, he could always lighten up any situation with a quick one-liner or funny move. He mused over his friends for a few minutes, and what many would think to be their conflicting personalities. Okay, so they were all different, completely different, but even before being Rangers tied them all together something else had bonded them closer than they could ever have anticipated. Maybe it was fate, maybe it was just friendship, or maybe it was anticipation of the future. Billy would never know for sure, but yet he wasn’t positive if he’d even want to. Usually he revelled in his knowledge of complex things, but this was one thing he was firmly glad to not know about or understand.

-----------------

(Across town and miles from the woods…)

Trini pulled out of the parking lot and set off down the dusty road back to the cabin. Something still irritating her, well not irritating, that was the wrong word, plaguing her, yes, plaguing her about the situation she found three of her closest friends in. Here was Kim, the sweet, caring, and petite brunette sitting beside her, the girl who she had known for years. The girl apparently dead certain that Jason, one of her oldest, dearest friends, was in love with their new friend, Tommy. And yet her she was her own heart set upon the Green Ranger as well. Even with as much as she tried to deny it, everyone knew, hell, Trini suspected that even Tommy himself knew after breakfast this morning. After a few moments debating on whether to breach the matter or not Trini finally caved and flicked off the radio.

“Kim, can I ask you something?” Trini’s eyes never left the road, but Kim could tell something was troubling her friend.

“Shoot.”

“If you are so sure Jase is crushing on Tommy why are you still dead set on getting him? Isn’t there some kind of unwritten rule about that sort of stuff, like never crush on your friend’s crush?” Trini spoke her relatively long question all in one breath, afraid that if she paused, even for a second, that Kim would butt in and not allow her to voice all her queries.

A heavy silence hung around the two friends for a few moments as Kim chose her words carefully. It was hard to put into words her thought on the matter, but for the sake of her friendships she had to. “Well, it’s just, I guess it’s because I don’t know for certain that Tommy is gay too. If I knew for a fact he was than of course I would never dream of liking him, but I don’t. So he could be straight and he could feel the same way about me. I just don’t know Trini. It’s complicated. It’s just, I guess I hope that Tommy likes me in return, but I don’t want to see Jason hurt.”

Deciding it was best to leave the conversation as it was Trini simply took one hand from the steering wheel and squeezed Kim’s hand slightly before flicking the radio back on, allowing the soothing music of Counting Crows to wash over them.

---------------

(Meanwhile back at the lake…)

“We haven’t caught a thing all day,” Billy commented idly from his spot in the grass.

“Have we been trying?” Countered Jason as he held up his hand in a sign of truce to Tommy, showing him he wanted to end their sparing match as neither could really get into it.

“Let’s just hope the girls weren’t planning on us bringing home the dinner.” Tommy added lightly as he popped his neck and stretched.

Unable to control himself, Zack gave the boy in green a wide grin. “So many sexist jokes and so little time.”

The others shared a slight laugh knowing that a remark like that would have earned them serious words from Trini if not serious wounds from Kim.

“Well there is one thing we still have time for, which we forgot to do earlier.” Jason announced as he turned to face Tommy with a rather sly smirk.

Giving him a puzzled look, Tommy let his inquisitive streak get the better of him even though he knew that that sort of smile meant trouble. “And that would be..?”

“Well Tommy,” Jason said trying his best not to laugh. “I think it’s time we taught you a few lessons about California. Being a city kid from L.A. I’ve no doubt you are very out of place in such an area where the air is clean and the ground is actually green. You see the reason the ground is green is because of a thing called grass, which grows on the ground unlike the concrete you lived on. Then that big brown thing with lots of green things on is called a tree and now you say tree, I know you can.”

Continuing as the other two boys were in peels of laughter, Jase turned Tommy around to point to a large yellow bird currently chirping away on a low hanging branch. “And that over there is called a bird, she they naturally live in the wild, not in cages in the pet stores on Fifth Street. You may also have seen an over-sized version on Sesame Street, don’t pretend you don’t still get up early to tune in, but this is the real thing, not some ugly guy dressed up in twenty feather boas. Now can you say bird Tommy? Come on give it a try like a good boy.”

Jason’s teasing, and slightly patronising tone, were quickly irritating Tommy beyond belief. He knew they were only having a joke at his expense, like good friends did, but a small part of him couldn’t help but become pissed off at it. After all, half the reason he had gotten into karate in the first place was to learn how to fight off the kids that had pushed him around the playground and had jokes at his expense for the first few years of his life. And even though he knew Jason didn’t really mean it to annoy or offend him, he couldn’t help but want to give back a dose of what he was getting.

“Jase…”

“And this is a grasshopper-”

Growling as the boy seemed to not want to hear his warning; Tommy was suddenly struck with just how to get through to his ‘funny’ friend. Waiting for the right moment in the boy’s banter, he knew he had to get the timing right on this if it was to work.

“And this thing behind me is called a lake, it’s filled with water. Not water from a bottle that cost five bucks, but normal water.”

“Jase, can I ask you a question?” Tommy asked, playing dumb and going along with the flow.

Jason rose an eyebrow suspiciously, but was having too much fun teasing Tommy to question his friend. “Ask away.”

Looking at the other boy intently and placing his hands onto the red shirt covered chest, Tommy leaned in almost uncomfortably close. Knowing he shouldn’t be getting this close to the other, the Green Ranger decided that this was worth any embarrassment he may feel on it later.

“Um, what are you…I thought you had a question.” Swallowing hard as Tommy’s face was only inches from his and his hands were pressed firmly upon his chest, Jason couldn’t help but entertain the thought that perhaps he was going to be kissed. He could feel Tommy’s hot breath against his skin causing his heart to race, he had never dreamed of being in such close proximity with the green Ranger.

“I do.” Licking his lips and too set on his revenge to really notice how intently he was looking at the other, or Jason’s obvious nervous flush, he took a step forward, in turn forcing the other to take a step back, right to the edge of the water.

As Jason suddenly felt the two hands push at his chest, the sudden movement catching him off guard, and the pressure sending him to backwards another step, he only realised too late what was about to happen, and how there was no way he could stop it. There was no ground behind him to place the foot he had just stepped back with on. Landing in the freezing water with a loud splash, he took more than a minute to realize just exactly what had occurred.

“Is the water cold?” Tommy grinned cheekily as his friend landed in the lake with an enormous splash, feeling a bit bad, but justified it in giving the witty one a good cooling off. Upon seeing his flustered face quickly emerging from under the surface, Tommy couldn’t help but laugh out loud as Zack and Billy were already roaring hysterically in the grass. Arms crossed across his chest, his eyebrow cocked, Tommy walked across to the edge of the lake and stood towering over his soaked, and clearly mad, friend.

“Well?”

“You tell me,” Quickly reaching up and wrapping his hand around the other’s ankle Jase pulled sharply, barely getting out of the way in time to avoid Tommy landing on top of him.

Gulping for air Tommy re-surfaced and looked at the now grinning Red Ranger in outrage. “You…you…that’s it!” Splashing around and doing his best to re-submerge Jason, the matter soon escalated into a full scale water fight between the two young men.

Grabbing at each others clothes, arms, legs, and anything else they could reach in their blind scramble the two continued to pull each other under the surface. Their hands continued to roam freely over each others bodies, neither caring what they touched or where they were touched in return as all they could think about was getting one over on the other.

It wasn’t until Tommy had succeeded in getting hold of Jason’s pant leg that the brawl was brought to an end as he pulled a bit too hard, effectively yanking Jason’s jeans down to reveal parts no one besides the Red Ranger himself had seen since he was nine. As Zack and Billy flew into new hysterics, Tommy quickly released the denim material, blushing hotly as he had never intended for that to happen.

Turning as red as Tommy, if not more so, Jason hastily pulled the soaked jeans back up to his waist, wondering just how much of a look the other had gotten. The task was harder than it appeared since he was still waist deep in water and wet denim was hard enough to move in when on dry land let alone up to the waist in icy water. Unsure of what to say or do, he quickly cleared his throat calling a truss to their wrestling match, to which Tommy eagerly agreed.

After a few more embarrassed looks and apologies were weakly tossed about, the boys emerged from the water still more than a little flushed and panting for breath. Looking to Billy and Zack, who had now added pointing to their laughter, the two soaked boys exchanged glares at them, before turning sheepish grins towards each other as they realized it had been a bit funny.

Glancing at Tommy, Jason couldn’t help but feel he’d gotten probably a fair amount of what he deserved. After all he had seen the irritation, if not slight hurt, in the other boy’s eyes when he had teased him and yet he hadn’t stopped. He didn’t know why he hadn’t, that definitely went against his nature, but once he started rambling and joking it just seemed he couldn’t tear himself away from Tommy. “Hey, um, sorry I teased you.”

“Sorry I pushed you in.” Tommy said quietly as he pulled off his shirt and attempted to wring it out.

“Sorry I grabbed you and pulled you in too.” Mimicking Tommy’s move and removing his own red T-shirt, Jason snickered to himself as he knew it was going to be a long, wet walk back.

“Sorry I pulled your pants down.” Not sure if he was really sorry or not knew it’d take a while for that little event to pass from their minds.

Giving him a look, Jason responded easily if not a bit amused. “I’m sorry you did too.”

“Us too, no offence Jason but we definitely didn’t need to know that much about you!” Falling to the ground in hysterical joy once more, Zack was quickly followed by his friend in blue who failed miserably at getting his own mirth under control.

“Shame we didn’t bring Kim’s camera with us… I’m sure the girls would’ve loved the picture even more than the other one!” Jason shot Zack a red-hot glare as he blushed deeply at his comments. He was right though, the blackmail opportunities of a picture like that would have been too much for the girls. Not to mention the fact they would never believe them that it actually happened when they told them, not without photographic evidence or a deeply crimson Jason at any rate.

Watching as Jason gave them a rather well known gesture, Tommy was more than a tad unsure if he should be pleased, amused, or angry with himself over the accident. It had honestly been an accident, but still, he had to admit he’d be lying to himself if he said he hadn’t been rather interested in what he’d seen. “I think we better head back.”

“Yeah, especially before I throw those two in the lake.”

Smiling at Jason’s joke and the other two still laughing on the bank, Tommy allowed himself one more glance at his new best friend. It was amazing what the most innocent of games could result in. Here he had just wanted to see Jason without his shirt, and instead he got a look at that and than some. Moving to grab his stuff and wondering what he was going to do, the boy slowly shook his head. “Man I’ve got to talk to someone.”