#krisallenpinkranger
Mar. 3rd, 2011 10:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eirana_reganTitle: #krisallenpinkranger
Summary: He's like the Daphne of the Power Rangers.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~9800
Disclaimer: It's fiction
Notes: This is allladymichaelis 's fault. She tagged me in a FB picture of the MMPR cast and while I let the childhood memories flow over me, I randomly thought 'hmm, power rangers!kradam?' The first thing I decided was that Kris=Pink Ranger. The rest kind of flowed from there. Thank you farahlily and, of course, ladymichaelis . The latter for inspiring this fic in the first place, and the former for cheerleading and being so very enthusiastic in her appreciation for this silly little story of mine. ILU bbs sooo much.
Warnings: This is in no way, shape, or form meant to be serious. If it comes off that way at any point, it was definitely an accident.
And thanks to the lovely paraka it is now available in podfic form - which is unbelievably awesome (it comes with the theme song!!).
Originally posted 4/6/10
~*~
Being a Power Ranger is totally overrated.
Saving the world is cool and all, but Kris has been getting the short end of the stick ever since he joined the team. To start with, most of the villains have a tendency to go after him. All he seems to be good for is being captured.
Allison’s the leader, Matt’s the second-in-command, Anoop’s the smart one, Megan’s the best fighter, and Kris gets held hostage - alot.
He’s like the Daphne of the Power Rangers.
It’s lame, and it’s not doing his ego any favors. Not that his ego’s ever been huge, but Kris has always been very secure for a short guy with a girlish figure. This is starting to get him down though, because what purpose does he serve the team other than playing damsel in distress?
He blames the color of his uniform. People see it and they go, “oh, let’s get that one, they have the girly color.”
Kris kind of hates being the Pink Ranger.
It’s all Simon’s fault; he’s their mentor. He’d told his companion - an android named Ryan - to recruit a team of teenagers with attitude, and the “lucky” teens had been them. Simon is a giant floating head in a giant glowing tube. He says he’s from a distant planet somewhere in the galaxy that’s long lost to time. He also has a British accent for some reason.
Kris doesn’t really think about it too hard because between the Morphers, and the random monsters, and the getting kidnapped all the time, the giant floating head who sounds British doesn’t really affect him.
What does affect him is being the freaking Pink Ranger. Why is he pink? He’d begged and pleaded more than a little to switch with someone, anyone. He and Allison had spent a while going back and forth on that matter, but she’d refused to budge, intent on taking on the Team Leader thing by the horns.
Simon didn’t help things by smugly telling them both that the Morphers chose their owners for a reason; they’re stuck with them. Kris might’ve made an indignant high-pitched sound and yelled a little. Ryan had calmed him down with a few words. He’s been with Simon for several millennia now, and there’s very little he hasn’t seen in terms of temper.
Ryan regularly tells him to stop moping about being the Pink Ranger and to be more positive about the situation. Easy for him to say; he’s not the one who has to live through it.
He doesn’t have anything against pink - it’s a perfectly alright color - but he couldn’t have been any other one? Being the Pink Ranger seems to include having a big target on your forehead. Plus, an unfortunate side effect of being a Power Ranger is the urge to wear your Ranger color while de-morphed. Which means Kris has moments where he has the urge to wear pink. Pink!
Kris has issues with his Ranger color, okay? The rest of the team has learned to accept it and just let his rants on the subject run their course.
Then, the Silver Ranger comes into their lives.
The first time Kris encounters the Silver Ranger, he has nothing to remember it by but a few hazy memories of something bright and shiny defeating the Putties. They’ve been getting a lot stronger lately, and it’s taking more and more power to defeat them. Whatever had gotten rid of them, it hadn’t been one of them. He asks the rest of the Rangers if they saw anything, but everyone else says they didn’t. No one takes him seriously except for Matt, who puts an arm around him and doesn’t look away from him at all when he talks. It’s a bit unsettling, having someone stare that intensely without blinking once.
He wears Allison down eventually because she’s a sucker for his pout and sad puppy eyes. They have a meeting about it, but they’d all been a little out of it at the time, so no one has anything of value to add. As a team, they eventually conclude that Kris imagined the bright and shiny something due to the pain - he’d taken a rock to the head or something. Kris thinks differently - he knows there was someone else there - but at the look on Allison’s face when he opens his mouth to protest, he leaves it alone.
The second time, he and Megan are nearby when they hear someone screaming for help. They morph and run off in that direction, only to see all the civilians safe and the Putties defeated. He barely catches a glimpse of a figure in the distance, gleaming brightly in the afternoon sun before disappearing swiftly behind a building. He turns to Megan and she nods before he says anything. They contact Ryan at the base and tell him to teleport them all there.
“Wait, so you saw something?” Allison asks them when they’re all back at the base.
“Someone, Alli,” Kris corrects. “Megan saw them too.”
“What’d you see, Megan?”
Oh, sure, ask the one whose uniform isn’t pink.
“It looked like a person. I couldn’t really see that well. Whatever they were wearing, it was shiny; ridiculously shiny.”
“You do realize that that would be highly impractical,” Anoop says, eyebrow raised skeptically.
Megan rolls her eyes. “I’m just telling you what I saw, brainiac.”
They’re about to get into a little verbal battle when Matt steps between them, nodding at Allison to continue. She has her Team Leader face on; Kris really hates that face. She’s the youngest out of all of them, and she has this constant need to prove her worth as leader when none of them question it.
“Argue later. We keep getting our asses handed to us, and whoever this ridiculously shiny person is, they’re beating monsters by themselves easily when the five of us keep getting the crap kicked out of us. We need to find out who they are and what they want, or we’re all screwed.”
“Language, Red Ranger,” Ryan says while scanning them for injuries.
“Sorry, Ryan,” she adds, inching away from him when he aims an unnaturally white smile at her. He looks like a slender blond man who may or may not be taller than Kris, and half the time, they forget that he isn’t human. Then he smiles at them and they remember; his teeth are kind of unnerving.
“Stop correcting them. You’re a robot, not their mother,” an ornery British voice says from somewhere.
They all turn to look at Simon. He rarely says anything to them, other than a few snappy comments and some sage advice when he feels like it.
“Do you know who this person could be, Simon?” Allison asks, moving closer to him.
“Possibly. Ridiculously shiny, you say?”
Kris and Megan nod in unison. Simon raises an eyebrow at them and nods in return, a smirk on his lips.
“I think I may know who it is.” He takes a dramatic pause. “There is another Ranger in our midst.”
Simon refuses to say anything more than that, and Allison orders them to clear out, frustration and determination on her face. They hear the two of them arguing loudly as they leave, Ryan trying to placate them. Their voices get louder, talking over Ryan and drowning him out completely.
The four of them share a look and scurry out of the base.
They end up at the Youth Center and order smoothies from the juice bar, sitting down at an isolated table in the corner to discuss the possibility of a new Ranger.
“Do you think Simon’s telling the truth?”
“Why would he lie?” Anoop says, ever the sensible one.
Matt shrugs. “I don’t know. He’s not exactly an open book. I think he knows exactly who this shiny figure is and he’s holding out on us.”
“Or he doesn’t know who it is, and he’s acting like he does so he can continue to appear all-knowing,” Megan adds, taking a sip of her strawberry-banana smoothie and finding it empty. She rolls her eyes, turning to the boy next to her. “Kris!”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t notice I finished it all.” He blinks at her with big brown eyes and the annoyance on her face melts away instantly.
“It’s fine, sweetie,” she says, giving him a peck on the cheek before getting up to get another smoothie.
Matt is staring at him in awe while Anoop shakes his head.
“Dude. You’re good.”
Kris tilts his head, oblivious. “At what?”
“Did you not notice what just happened? If me or Anoop had done that, she would’ve killed us on the spot! You blink innocently at her and she forgets to be mad. Can you teach me your ways?”
Matt has moved so close to him that he’s almost on his lap. Kris’ personal boundaries are sketchy at best, but this is a bit much, even for him. He scoots his chair back and stands up, mumbling an excuse as he walk-runs to the counter where Megan is.
“You can’t run to me every time Matt gets a little too far into your personal space.”
He doesn’t need to look to know she’s biting her lip to hold in the grin that wants to escape.
“I’ll stop if you tell me to.”
Megan says nothing.
“That’s what I thought.”
She pinches his side and he doubles over, laughing. That’s dirty pool; he’s ticklish and she knows all of his spots. Ernie’s walking over to them, smoothie in hand, and Kris plans his revenge. He grabs it before Megan can, taking a long, slow sip.
“Why are you stealing my smoothie?”
Crap.
Megan’s eyes are twinkling like crazy, scrunched up in laughter as Kris swallows and turns around, fighting the urge to shut his eyes and pretend this isn’t happening. He almost drops the smoothie on the ground when he gets a good look at its rightful owner.
He’s taller than Kris - which is nothing unusual - and broader. He has dark hair and bright blue eyes that are sparkling with humor. Good. Tall, dark and handsome doesn’t want to beat Kris up for accidentally drinking his smoothie. His life sucks enough as is with the whole Daphne of the Power Rangers thing.
“I-”
Megan jumps in before he can continue. “He thought it was mine. He was getting back at me for exploiting his weakness.”
He raises a brow in question. Kris silently prays that Megan will keep her mouth shut.
“He’s ticklish,” she says, grinning wickedly.
He gives up and puts his face in his hands, wondering what he did to deserve all this. He hears a warm chuckle from in front of him and peeks up to see the stranger smiling at him. He has a really pretty smile.
“Interesting,” he says, and Kris can’t place his tone. Partly because he’s distracted by the man’s pretty, but that’s besides the point. He looks at Kris with curiosity in his gaze and he has the urge to tell him “take me, I’m yours!” He may not take too well to that, but he’s already stolen the guy’s smoothie, so the only direction their relationship can go is up.
“Good interesting or bad interesting?” Megan asks before he can even think to. Why is she taking charge of this conversation, anyway?
“Meg, shut up. Please.”
Kris does remember how to talk. Why hadn’t he discovered this when Megan first decided to be his mouth piece? She pouts at him, but complies, keeping silent. The guy’s still standing there, a little bemused by the scene in front of him, but he hasn’t left. That’s good.
“So your girlfriend doesn’t do all your talking for you?”
“She’s-”
“Definitely not his girlfriend. Although he is a cutie, isn’t he?” she says as she pinches his cheek.
Isn’t it enough that he’s the unofficial damsel of the group? It has to spill over into his real life too?
“Megan,” he whines pathetically, and Kris ignores how embarrassing his whining is, because getting her out of this conversation is way more important; she’s his friend, not his babysitter.
Thankfully, she relents, taking her real smoothie from Ernie and walking back over to their table. He pleads to whatever higher power is listening that she’ll keep her mouth shut, but nope, she’s chattering excitedly at Matt and Anoop, pointing at them in a very obvious way. Anoop’s grinning at him, trying to get Megan to lower her voice and failing; Matt’s sipping on his drink morosely as he glares in their general direction. He catches Megan’s eye and she waves excitedly at him.
“Your not-girlfriend’s great at subtlety.”
“It’s one of her many charms,” he mutters, eyes scrunched up in a weak glare at Megan’s gleeful face.
“Oh, sweetie... You can’t make a mean face to save your life.”
Kris directs his attention back to him, belatedly realizing he’s still holding onto the smoothie. He mutely holds it out to him, and the stranger’s lips quirk up at the corners. He takes it, and Kris gets distracted by the glint of the lights on his nails; they’re painted a bright, shining silver.
“Sorry about the smoothie.”
“No worries. I’m fine with cute boys taking my drink - provided they tell me their name to make up for it.”
Kris gives him what Anoop has dubbed the “koala in the headlights” stare. Why a koala, he doesn’t really know, and the one time he’d asked for an explanation, he’d gotten confused by the end of the second sentence. That’s not his fault though, because Anoop likes to use big words that only other freakishly smart people would know.
He doesn’t know how long he stands there gaping like an idiot, but it must be a while, because the guy’s eyes dim, and he looks sad now. It makes Kris want to hug him.
“Hey, it’s okay if you don’t want to,” he says, biting his bottom lip - which has freckles, and Kris never knew that freckles could be this interesting. “I know I’m a bit much for some people.”
And that’s - no; that’s not what Kris was thinking at all.
“Oh, no, no, you’re just enough!” This guy must think Kris is a total moron. “I mean, it’s totally fine; I don’t mind.” Megan’s mouthing something at him over the guy’s shoulder. Name? Oh. Right. “I’m Kris,” he says, and he thinks he manages to sound convincingly calm. And hopefully, less like an idiot.
It earns him a small smile. He thinks he can live with seeming like he has extensive brain damage if he can make a full-fledged one appear.
“Adam,” the guy replies, holding a hand out to him.
He shakes it weakly, too focused on the warmth and the feel of his hand to remember to have a proper grip. Adam beams at him, and, wow.
“Hi,” he says stupidly, grinning back at him.
They stand there for a while, staring and smiling. He hopes he doesn’t let go anytime soon, but eventually, Adam pulls his hand away from Kris’. He barely stops the pout from forming.
“I’m sorry, Kris, but I’ve got to go,” he says apologetically, mouth pursed into a frown.
Kris leans in and brushes a finger across his lips, tries to smooth it away. He blushes bright red when he realizes what he’s doing and jerks his hand away, stuttering out apologies. His friends know he’s touchy-feely, but he just met Adam, and the smoothie stealing made a less than stellar first impression. Touching him randomly probably isn’t helping his case here.
“You’re kind of cute,” he tells him fondly, hushing Kris’ rambling. “How about we meet up here tomorrow? Same time?”
He just nods, because who knows what’ll come out of his mouth if he opens it.
“Great!” Adam’s smile is bright, but not in the unnatural way Ryan’s is. It’s warm and brilliant and breathtaking; Kris wouldn’t mind seeing it again. Repeatedly.
He stumbles back to the table his friends are waiting at in a daze, trying not to look at Adam’s retreating form, but doing it anyway, smiling sappily when he sees Adam looking back. He gives Kris a little wave before walking out of sight.
“What took you so long?”
He turns to Matt, who’s scowling at him. What’d he do to deserve that?
“You all saw from here. And Megan probably told you everything that happened while she was within earshot.”
“It was adorable! He’s hot, Kris. Are you going to see him again?”
Kris flushes, squirming in his seat under their intense stares. “Yeah. He asked if we could meet here tomorrow, same time.”
Megan squeals, and as embarrassing as that is, it’s cute too. Even if she is getting ahead of herself. Adam’s nice and didn’t kill him for commandeering his smoothie, but that doesn’t mean he wants to go out with Kris. Even if he had called him cute and asked to see him again.
Anoop glances at the crushed plastic cup in Matt’s hand and then at the eager expression on Megan’s face as Kris keeps up a steady stream of enthusiastic chatter about the guy he just met - whose name is Adam, apparently. “As sweet as Kris’ burgeoning love life is, we haven’t gotten any closer to figuring out if Simon’s telling the truth. We need to find out what’s going on.”
The possibility of there being another Ranger sobers them all. Whoever they are, they’re more powerful than the five of them combined. They could use them on the team.
“I think we should wait until Allison’s here to discuss this further,” Kris says, glancing at the clock. It’s been almost an hour since they left her at the base, and it’d sounded like it was getting ugly. Hopefully, nothing’s wrong.
When Allison comes in a few minutes later, scowling, they wisely decide to not bring it up.
~*~
He doesn’t know why people think being a Power Ranger is so awesome; it sucks.
They’re fighting off more Putties, and when the fight finally starts to turn in their favor, a monster shows up out of nowhere. It looks like an overgrown sentient weed. It probably has a name like “the Wicked Weed” or “Treevil.”
“I am-”
The weed gets hit by a blast and is incinerated immediately. Kris is kind of disappointed; he’ll never know what ridiculous pun-filled name it possessed.
They all turn to the burnt black spot where the monster stood, perplexed.
“Did one of you do that?”
Everyone answers Allison’s inquiry in the negative.
Hidden in the shadows of the trees, the Silver Ranger smirks to himself, wondering. Reveal himself to them, or keep baffling them by being elusive? Decisions, decisions. But then the Pink Ranger points in his direction, and he knows he’s caught.
He steps out into the light, and Kris’ breath catches. Oh. There’s a new Ranger alright, and he’s shiny. Silver is way better than pink. Definitely.
“I did. I guess you five don’t have any fancy gadgets?” he asks them, twirling something that looks like a gun before sheathing it in a holster.
“Who are you?”
“The Silver Ranger,” he says breezily. “And before you ask: yes, I’m on your side, no, I don’t want to join your team, and, no, I don’t want to be your friend; I work alone.”
He starts walking away from them, and Matt moves into action, blocking his path.
“Hold on a second! You can’t just come in here and act like you own the place. We want real answers, and you’re going to give them to us.”
“Look,” the Silver Ranger says, sounding unimpressed, “I’ve told you what you need to know. I’m not one of the bad guys. You guys have been slacking lately; I’m just picking up the pace.”
He steps around Matt but then Megan comes up to him. The Silver Ranger shakes his head angrily. Kris is guessing that he’s frustrated by the Ranger roadblocks.
“You don’t have to be rude about it. We just want to get to know you. We don’t know who you are or how you got your powers. Just talk to us.” Her tone is soothing, but when she reaches a hand out to him, he steps back.
“Move out of my way,” he says calmly, but Kris can hear the barely restrained fury in it. He pulls Megan away and gets a nod of gratitude for it.
Kris watches him leave until he’s nothing more than a bright dot in the distance.
~*~
“He’s an asshole,” Matt says the second they’re back at the base. “Could he have been any more condescending?”
Megan snorts. “You’re just mad that he made you look like an idiot after your macho man act didn’t work.”
“Because your approach worked so much better.”
“Both of you shut up!”
Did Kris just say that? They’re all looking at him now, so he must have.
“Umm…” Of course he doesn’t have anything to say when he finally has their attention; that’s just how the Pink Ranger luck works.
Allison gives him a small smile. “Thank you. Fighting over whether or not the new guy’s an asshole isn’t going to solve anything. At least we know he’s on our side.”
“What we don’t know is how he’s stronger than we are. Besides the tech advantage,” Anoop says.
“I’m telling you to leave it alone for now.” There’s that Team Leader face again. “You’re all dismissed. The city’s not being plagued by monsters, so go do something normal and teenager-y.”
The tense set of her shoulders keeps them all from protesting. Megan grabs Anoop’s hand on the way out, leaning in to whisper in his ear. Matt gives Kris a questioning look when he doesn’t make any move to leave. His eyes flit over to Allison and Matt nods, mouthing good luck at him before leaving the two of them alone.
Cautiously, Kris walks over to the table Allison’s sitting at, taking the seat next to hers. Her arms are crossed on the tabletop, face hidden by bright red hair. He smoothes it away, giving Allison a crooked smile when he meets her eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“You just kicked everyone out and you’re pouting.”
“I’m not pouting,” she says grumpily, but he sees a smile flicker.
“Did Simon tell you anything?”
She shakes her head, mouth tense and angry. “He said it’s none of my business.” For a moment, her mouth quivers, and Kris instinctively sweeps her into a hug. Allison relaxes into his arms instantly, because the Pink Ranger duties also include offering comforting hugs when they are needed, and Kris has always been good at hugging.
“He said that our Morphers chose us for a reason,” she starts, voice quiet and husky. “He said that I’m meant to be the Team Leader. If that’s true, why won’t he help me lead? The Silver Ranger may seem like he’s on our side, but we have no way of knowing if he’s being honest. Simon needs to tell me what he knows.”
“That’s just his way.”
They both look up in surprise to see Ryan smiling serenely at them.
“How long have you been standing there?”
He shakes his head. “It’s irrelevant. Allison, you can’t doubt your ability as leader. I’ve seen many generations of Power Rangers come and go, and believe me, you know what you’re doing. Simon being his usual crotchety old self doesn’t change that fact. I know he seems harsh, but there’s a reason he’s keeping things from you.”
Allison glares at him suspiciously. “Do you know who he is?”
Ryan laughs. “Not at all. Simon knows I’d tell you, and where would the fun be in his game if I spoiled the surprise? Just trust that Simon knows what he’s doing; in time, you’ll know everything.”
With that, he leaves as silently as he arrived.
“He’s nice, but sometimes, he really freaks me out.”
~*~
Kris decides the Silver Ranger isn’t that bad. Then again, that opinion may be slightly biased since he reaches this conclusion while in his arms.
They’d been fighting against some frog monster with a really long tongue - which makes Kris’ skin crawl if he thinks about it too much - and the Pink Ranger luck had kicked in. The tongue had darted out and they’d all been able to jump out of its way. Everyone except Kris, of course. To top it off, the thing refused to unwind its tongue from around his waist.
Well, until something had sliced through it.
One second, he’s cursing his status as the Daphne of the Power Rangers; the next, the frog monster thing is screaming in pain and Kris is being carried away - bridal style.
His rescuer puts him down gently, and when he asks if he’s alright, Kris can only nod mutely. It may be the lack of oxygen making him delusional, but he swears that there’s a hint of concern in his voice. He doesn’t have time to dwell on it though, because as soon as he sees Kris’ nod, he blasts the monster to pieces and disappears from view before the other Rangers can get to them.
Matt reaches him first, and his grip on Kris’ shoulders is hard enough to hurt, but he barely notices. He’s still reeling from that too-brief encounter.
The Silver Ranger had saved him.
~*~
He gets saved by him a lot after that. It’s ridiculous how often he finds himself in the Silver Ranger’s arms. Not that Kris really minds because they’re very nice arms. It helps that he doesn’t seem to have a problem with Kris holding on for dear life even after they’re out of harm’s way.
Plus, he’s sparkly.
So he might have a crush on the Silver Ranger. He can’t help it, okay? The guy keeps swooping in to save the day, and it makes Kris do stupid things like intentionally putting himself in danger just so he’ll show up - not that he has to try too hard. He never thought there’d be an upside to being the Daphne of the Power Rangers.
It’s not the smartest thing to do, but Kris can take care of himself in the event that he doesn’t show one of these days.
As stupid as it sounds, he’s attracted to the brave, shiny Ranger who always comes to his rescue. He’s a bit rough around the edges, but Kris thinks that anyone who’s a Power Ranger is a decent person when it comes down to it. Judging by the never-failing rescues and his increasingly gentle manner towards Kris, he’s pretty sure that the Silver Ranger is a nice guy; even if he refuses to work with them.
Eventually, the rest of the team notices his odd attachment to the Silver Ranger. None of them call him out on it though. Their only reactions are a few stifled laughs as a tongue-tied Kris stares after the Silver Ranger after yet another rescue. One of these days, he’ll remember how to talk instead of just nodding at whatever question he’s asked.
It’d be so much easier if they interacted outside of Kris’ damsel in distress moments. It’d be so much easier if he’d agree to at least talk to them. He could know who’s inside that suit and get to know the Silver Ranger as Kris, not just the Pink Ranger who always needs to be saved.
The problem with that is that as much as Kris likes the Silver Ranger, he likes Adam too. He likes him a lot - Kris doesn’t let just anyone pull him into empty rooms to make out - and while they aren’t officially an anything, he’s met Adam’s family and most of his friends, and vice versa. They have a good thing going, and he isn’t sure if breaking off his not-relationship with Adam - sweet, friendly, funny, enchanting Adam - for his knight in shiny spandex-like material who he hasn’t even said a single word to, is worth it.
When put like that, it sounds insane.
But there’s more to it than just being smitten with the hero who always saves him from danger. As much as he likes Adam, and the obscene amount of making out they indulge in, he’s unaware of a major part of Kris’ life. He’s not really sure if he can bring himself to tell Adam the truth about the whole Power Ranger thing, anyway. It’s kind of a big deal, and he doesn’t even want to think about what would happen if Adam freaked out on him.
On the flip side, it’d be nice to not have to make up some lame excuse whenever the communicator goes off. He’s running out of ideas, and he’d hit lame ones like having to wash his hair about a week ago. Thankfully, Adam’s been very understanding no matter how bad his excuses are, but his patience can only go so far. That, and Kris feels really, really bad about lying to him.
He brings up the topic of telling Adam to the rest of the team only once, and that’s enough to convince him that they’ll be no help at all.
Why does this have to be so difficult?
He's brought out of his musings when Ryan comes in on the communicator and tells them that there’s an attack happening. He rattles off some information and asks who’s closest to the area. The only one nearby is Kris, because of course everyone else is a half hour away from here, and of course the monster’s harder to defeat than it looks. He may get captured a lot, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how to fight. He’s about to win, too - when a blast narrowly misses the monster’s head.
Kris is pretty sure he didn’t do that.
“You alright?”
He knows that voice. Something sparkles in his peripheral, and, yeah, that’s what he thought. Kris turns his head and the Silver Ranger is standing there, outlined by the sun and shining so brightly it almost hurts his eyes to look. He barely notices the flash that means the monster’s gone, back to wherever it is it came from.
“What did you do that for?”
Is Kris really yelling at him? And poking him in the chest repeatedly? When did he walk over to him, anyway?
His annoyance goes way up when the Silver Ranger stares at him silently for a few minutes and says in a monotone, “You’re a guy?”
He splutters a little and throws his hands up in the air, shaking his head. Kris paces for a while before walking back over to him and shoving at his shoulders. “What kind of question is that?!”
The Silver Ranger shrugs. “A pretty valid one. You’re the Pink Ranger. Every other one has been female. Your figure is very misleading, by the way,” he says teasingly, holding Kris’ waist and letting his hands move downwards, cradling his hips.
Kris has no idea what to say to that - or what to do about the Silver Ranger touching him - and he refuses to let him know he’s actually a little flattered by that comment, so he shoves him again. It makes him stagger backwards, and his stance becomes more aggressive. He moves back into Kris’ space, and he walks backwards to evade him, but Kris feels his back hit a tree and he knows he’s stuck.
Fucking Pink Ranger luck.
“Don’t blame me for making that mistake. If you’d done something like, I don’t know, talk when we first met, I would’ve known this a while ago,” he spits out, tone sharp and jagged.
“You never stick around long enough for me to say something, anyway. ‘Oh, look at me, I’m the Silver Ranger! I’m bright and shiny and come in to save the incompetent Power Ranger’s asses with a flick of my blaster thingy before disappearing into the shadows like the badass I am!’”
Okay, that might have been overdoing it. Kris should know better than to provoke someone who has weapons and could probably break him in half.
“Stop acting like this is my fault, Pink Ranger.”
“Oh, fuck you, you condescending bastard.”
He pushes the Silver Ranger away, determined to leave, but he feels a hand clamp around his wrist and turn him back around.
“We aren’t done here.”
“I think we are,” Kris retorts, pulling his hand away, and it feels a little like a scene from some teen drama, but he’s not sticking around to get thrown around some more.
“Look, I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
His voice is softer now, gentle. Kris feels his anger drain away instantly; he is so gone.
“I’m fine,” he mumbles. “I can take care of myself. I may have a bright pink target on me, but I’m a big boy; I don’t always need you to swoop in and save me like the big damn hero you are.”
The Silver Ranger laughs. “You’re all kinds of cute, aren’t you?”
There’s something familiar about the fond way he says that, and the answer’s just beyond Kris’ reach.
“Pink Ranger, what happened with the monster?”
Stupid Ryan and his bad timing.
“I’m fine. It teleported away when I got distracted.”
“By what?”
“I’ll tell you later. Pink Ranger out.”
He cuts off whatever Ryan’s about to say next by switching his communicator off. He’s going to regret this later.
“How sweet,” he says mockingly.
“I know you don’t dig the team dynamic, but it’s how we work, so deal with it, Shiny Lone Ranger.”
His hands are in the air, trying to placate Kris. “Relax, Damsel-in-distress Ranger. I don’t mean anything by it. But if any of you make one more overture of friendship to me, I will not be held responsible for what I do. Tell your little friends to back off.”
“I have nothing to do with it. I got the message loud and clear the first time. You work alone, blah blah blah.”
“I don’t know. I think working with you would be pretty nice, actually.”
The Silver Ranger’s incredibly charming when he wants to be. And Kris isn't just saying that because his hands are wandering a little.
“Don’t even. I’m part of a team. If you want to work with me, you have to work with them, too.”
“You sure I can’t persuade you to join me? I think we’d have lots of fun together.”
The Silver Ranger’s a lot touchier than Kris would have guessed based on their previous encounters. Sure, he’s nice, but he didn’t expect all the…touching.
“Quit acting like Darth Vader trying to seduce me to the Dark Side. It’s creepy.”
Except it’s really not and that’s why it is.
“You like it,” he says smugly, and if it weren’t true, Kris would throw a fit and act indignant. Instead, he acts like the Silver Ranger’s just any other guy he’s interested in and not some mysterious Ranger who refuses to tell them anything about himself.
“Damsel in distress syndrome or something. You save me, I fall in love with you, ditch my friends and forget about everything else.”
“Is that a joke or are you just pretending it is?”
Great. Even through pink spandex-like material, he still has no poker face.
“I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”
It almost sounds flirty, but in their business, death threats aren’t exactly farfetched.
“Don’t test me, Pink Ranger,” he says gravely, voice soft and deadly.
“You don’t have to be so guarded around me. I’d like to think we’re friends.”
“Well we’re not.”
“Oh,” Kris says, and hopes it isn’t obvious how hurt he is.
Again, the Pink Ranger luck is at work because the Silver Ranger can tell he’s upset, judging by his response, which is to pull him into a hug. It’s a pretty good hug, and there’s that tug of something familiar again, like he’s been in these arms before. He tries to place it, but the Silver Ranger sighs loudly, disrupting his thoughts.
“Don’t ever breathe a word of this to anyone,” he mutters, even as his arms tighten around Kris.
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees a flash of yellow. Megan’s here. Shit.
He wriggles in the Silver Ranger’s arms, and when that doesn’t make him let go, he pokes him in the back.
“One of my teammates just got here, so unless you want another offer to join our friendship circle, I suggest you get out of here.”
That makes him let go, and he’s disappearing into the shadows before Kris even realizes he’s gone.
“You alright? Ryan said you got distracted by something and the monster got away.”
He barely hears Megan’s words. He’s too busy watching the trees for a glimmer of silver.
~*~
The crazy thing is, he and the Silver Ranger end up becoming friends. Okay, so they’re not the kind of friends who talk about their daily lives, or acknowledge each other outside of a few stolen moments, but they’re the kind of friends that click instantly and never seem to run out of things to talk about, despite the large number of taboo subjects.
But as things with the Silver Ranger get better, things with Adam get weird. They still hang out and not-officially-date and make out constantly, but he seems more withdrawn around Kris now; he doesn’t like it. Whenever he asks Adam what’s going on, he just smiles and kisses him silly until Kris can’t even remember what he was asking.
It’s driving him crazy! He knows that they haven’t talked about what their relationship is exactly. Maybe that’s what’s bothering Adam. He hasn’t really been fair to him. He may not be a Power Ranger or aware that Kris is one, but he’s a great guy, and Kris really, really likes him. But lately, he’s been scorning him in favor of the mysterious Silver Ranger who’s become less hostile towards the rest of the team and outright friendly to Kris, but refuses to touch the subject of their real lives.
Kris likes to think he isn’t an asshole, and only an asshole would string Adam along when he isn’t sure what he wants and is thinking of someone else to boot. He can’t keep doing this.
He’s been a little blinded by the mystique of his shiny rescuer and he’s completely forgotten about the real boy that’s right in front of him.
Kris decides to take a chance and tell Adam.
~*~
“Kris, what’s going on?”
Adam’s confused, naturally. As soon as their last class was over, Kris had dragged him to some secluded place in the park. They’re surrounded by trees and Adam can’t see past them at all. Hmm. Maybe that’s the point. If Kris is going to all this trouble just so they can fool around, well, he’s not going to complain.
“I…I need to tell you something. It’s kind of a big deal,” he says, cheeks flushing and matching the pink plaid shirt he’s wearing.
Most guys he knows don’t wear pink, but Kris pulls it off, and looks adorable doing it. It’s usually limited to accessories - and on rare occasions like this, to a shirt - but Adam has convinced him to buy a pair of pink jeans. They have yet to leave the confines of Kris’ closet, but he can be very persuasive when he wants to be.
Actually, now that he thinks about it, Kris and his friends tend to color coordinate their wardrobe. Allison’s always wearing something red, Megan in sunny yellow, Anoop in blue, and Matt - fittingly enough - in green; Adam’s seen the way he looks at Kris.
It’s kind of cute; they’re like a human rainbow. Although he has to wonder, what on earth had possessed Kris to decide on pink as his signature color?
He thinks the human rainbow thing has spread to him, too. He’s always liked a touch of glitter; accessories are fun. But lately, he’s been going after silver ones almost exclusively. He feels weird about painting his nails any other color than the metallic polish, and his eye makeup is always black and silver nowadays. Adam likes the color, but this is starting to feel like overkill.
“Adam?”
He looks into Kris’ worried eyes and wonders how long he’s been in his own head. That’s been happening to him a lot lately, too. He’ll wake up at night when the last thing he remembers is something that happened that afternoon; he’ll feel sore and be bruised from what looks like a fight of some sort, but have no memory of fighting anyone. There are days worth of gaps in his memory, and he has no idea what’s causing it. The doctors had said that there was nothing wrong, but the memory loss is still there and he doesn’t know what to-
“Adam?”
Kris voice breaks through his thoughts, soft and concerned.
“I’m fine, baby,” he murmurs, pulling Kris into his arms and tilting his face up for a kiss. He loves how easily they fit together; it makes that memory loss thing seem less important. “What was it you wanted to tell me?”
Kris is biting his bottom lip, and Adam’s a little worried. Lip biting could mean he’s nervous or excited or thinking or all of the above. The darker than usual pink of his lip tells him that he’s nervous; whether it’s a good or bad kind of nervous, he can’t tell.
“What do you think about the Power Rangers?”
The mention of Power Rangers makes his temples throb, but he ignores the sudden flare of pain.
“I don’t know. They keep the city safe, they do good deeds, they wear spandex? I don’t think about it too much. Why?”
“Well, I, uh, I’mkindofone,” he says hurriedly, words blurring together.
Adam blinks at him. “What?”
“I’m kind of a Power Ranger. The pink one?” he says nervously, grinning hesitantly at Adam.
He’s not sure if Kris is telling the truth, but it’d explain the human rainbow thing he and his friends have going on.
“Adam? Please say something?”
Whether or not he believes Kris, he knows he doesn’t like seeing him so anxious, especially if he’s the cause.
“Come here,” he says, pulling him back from his frantic pacing. He holds Kris still, waits until he can hear his breathing calm. “Is this why you keep making up excuses at random times of the day?” Kris nods. “And why you like the color pink so much?” Kris nods again, although it takes him a while. “Are you done being a nervous wreck now that you’ve seen I’m not freaking out?” Another nod. He presses a kiss to Kris’ head.
He squirms in Adam’s arms, and looks up at him, still a little shy. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before, I just…I was scared. I didn’t want you to hate me or something.”
“Silly boy. You know me better than that.”
“I know.” He smiles brilliantly at him, but it dims quickly. “But there’s more. The reason I finally decided to tell you is that there’s another Ranger besides the ones on my team. There’s one working by himself. He says he doesn’t need to be part of the team. The others don’t like him much, but he and I have kind of become friends, and…”
Adam doesn’t like where this sounds like it’s going.
“Have you and this renegade Ranger been flirting?”
Kris blushes, eyes looking anywhere but Adam. “A little. It didn’t start out that way. I mean, I was a little fascinated because he was mysterious and shiny - you know I like things that sparkle,” he says with a small smile, finding Adam’s hand and brushing his fingers across the smooth silver polish. “I seem to have really bad luck. I think it’s a Pink Ranger thing. I kept getting into trouble, getting captured by monsters. And then he saved me. He swooped in to save the day. He was always hostile towards the others, but he was different with me. I wanted to get to know him.”
“Oh.”
Adam feels like a bucket of ice water has been dumped on him. The throbbing in his temples reminds him of its presence, a continuous drumbeat that won’t cease.
“But he’s not you! He’s a Ranger, and he’s got a good heart underneath all that loner crap, but he’s not you. I can’t tell him about my day because he doesn’t know me as anything but the Pink Ranger. I can’t even tell him my name because he’s not interested in knowing mine or giving me his own. But I know you. I know you.”
Kris is gripping him tight, but he can’t feel it because his head hurts and it won’t stop. It just keeps getting worse. It must show on his face because Kris is kneeling - when did he get so close to the ground? - beside him and calling his name frantically.
Everything grows brighter, blinding silver all around him.
The last thing he sees is Kris speaking into his wristwatch thing, which isn’t a wristwatch at all, but a communicator, but how does Adam even know-
~*~
“What do you mean you can’t tell us? He just fucking collapsed in Kris’ arms! You owe us an explanation, Simon, and fast.”
That voice sounds so angry. It’s making his headache worse. He tries to say stop but it comes out a groan. Adam feels a cool hand on his forehead, a soothing voice in his ear.
“It’ll be okay, babe. Just rest.”
He can’t remember whose voice that is, but it’s comforting and safe; he trusts that voice.
He lets himself drift back to sleep.
~*~
Kris sighs in relief when Adam relaxes, seemingly falling back into slumber. He has no idea what’s going on, but it can’t be good.
“Is he alright?”
Anoop’s looking back and forth between them, tone casual, gaze anything but.
“I think so. I just wish I knew what’d happened. We were talking and then he just fell onto his knees, screaming in pain. Something about his head.”
His hands brush Adam’s temple, mouth pursed in worry.
“Hey, he’ll be okay. Ryan said he doesn’t have any physical damage.”
“Physical being the key word there.”
He stares at Kris helplessly as he continues to watch over a sleeping Adam. They’re both reminded of the argument going on in the main room of the base when Ryan appears by them, looking tense.
“Any luck?”
Ryan shakes his head. “Simon refuses to say anything until Adam wakes up. Allison’s not pleased, and Megan and Matt are barely keeping her calm.”
Kris frowns, his jaw tense. “I’ll talk to him.”
“Kris-” Anoop starts, but Ryan cuts him off.
“You go ahead. Anoop and I will keep an eye on him for you.”
He nods gratefully at them, kissing Adam’s forehead one more time before he leaves the clinic. He walks down the hallway towards the shouting, intent on getting some answers.
Megan is talking quietly to Allison in a corner, but Matt and Simon appear to be in a heated discussion. He doesn’t get to know what it’s about though, because as soon as Matt catches sight of him, he stops talking.
“Do you know what happened to Adam?”
Simon scoffs. “You teenagers are so persistent. Yes, but I won’t say anything until the Silver Ranger has awakened.”
Stupid, smug, British-sounding floating head.
“Look, just because you’re the almighty alien trapped in a tube, it doesn’t give you the right to act like a complete jerk. Tell me what’s wrong with my boyfriend!”
“If you insist,” he says dryly, but there’s a hint of approval in his voice.
Kris should lose his temper more often if it gets him this kind of reaction.
“The Silver Morpher is more volatile than the others. It’s only supposed to be used under extreme circumstances. Because of its immense power, it usually has a few…unpleasant side effects for their wielder.”
“Such as?”
“Headaches, fatigue, memory loss, death-”
“He could die?!”
“Don’t be so panicky. Death only occurs in the event that the wielder gets it in their head to use their power for a less noble purpose. It’s only happened a handful of times; it’s very rare for a Silver Ranger to go down that path.”
Simon sounds like he’s reading off the warning label on a cold medicine instead of talking about the fate of Kris’ boyfriend. He ignores the nagging voice that tells him Adam isn’t officially his boyfriend, because, hello, he’s unconscious, and this is far from the right time to be nitpicky about the details.
“What about the other effects?”
“Most Silver Rangers will experience memory loss. They won’t remember what they did while morphed after they’ve de-morphed. That’s to stop you from feeling betrayed that he kept this secret from you.”
Kris rubs a hand over his eyes. He definitely had not been getting teary-eyed or feeling betrayed. Not even a little. Okay, maybe a little. “So it’s like a split personality thing? The Silver Ranger isn’t really Adam?”
“Oh no, the Silver Ranger is definitely your boyfriend. He just can’t remember it when he isn’t morphed.”
Wonderful.
“So you’re saying that he remembers being Adam and the Silver Ranger when he’s morphed?”
“Yes.”
“But that he doesn’t remember anything Ranger-related when he isn’t?”
Simon rolls his eyes. “Yes.”
“Oh.”
Kris tries to think of something else to say, but the Silver Ranger and Adam being the same person hasn’t really processed yet. He’s spared having to think up an actual reply when Ryan walks into the room, unnaturally bright smile brighter than usual.
“He’s awake.”
~*~
Kris tries not to bowl Adam over the second he sees him conscious. He compromises by clinging to his side and refusing to leave it. Neither of them have said anything since Adam woke up, but that’s okay, because he did wake up. Kris is too relieved to care about all the other stuff.
He just wants to hold Adam and reassure himself that he’s alright, in one piece, and not pushing Kris away.
Yet.
“Kris?”
“Yeah?”
“We need to talk.”
Kris really hates it when people say that.
“Okay.”
He attempts nonchalance, but he’s never been good at things like that. Thankfully, Adam can’t see his face.
“Just because I can’t see your face doesn’t mean I can’t tell that you’re upset.”
Stupid Adam and his stupid observant nature and his stupid Silver Ranger-ness.
“You said we needed to talk, so talk,” he grumbles, moving from his comfortable place on Adam’s chest to a less intimate position, about to move off the bed when Adam’s arms pull at him, keeping him in place.
“Hey. Don’t do that. Kris, please; help me.”
And, yeah, Kris is a sucker for a vulnerable Adam.
“You collapsed. Said you were in pain.” He can’t stop the frown from forming, or the hand that reaches out to brush Adam’s temple. Adam just smiles at him, like nothing’s changed.
Because finding out that the Silver Ranger and Adam are the same person isn’t a big deal at all.
“I’m fine. No damage done.”
Sure. Right. No damage.
“What do you remember?”
Kris is trying to be careful with his words, even though he wants nothing more than to just blurt out all the questions he wants to ask. Adam bites his lip, deep in thought, and Kris aches at the possibility of losing him.
“You’re the Pink Ranger. And, apparently, I’m the Silver Ranger.” He blinks at that, but then a wide grin spreads across his face. “That explains so much!”
Kris gives him a questioning look, and Adam blushes, smiling sheepishly.
“A couple weeks ago, I started having a few problems. I’d forget huge chunks of my day, bruises would show up out of nowhere. I went to a few doctors to see if they could give me any answers, but they all said I was perfectly healthy.”
“Is that why you’ve been acting sketchy and avoiding my questions?”
“Maybe. I didn’t want you to worry.”
“Stupid,” Kris mumbles.
“I know,” he says with a rueful smile. “I’m sorry. This is all a little crazy, isn’t it? I just realized I’m a Power Ranger. Have been for a few months. And, umm, if it makes a difference, I might have been having the same problem that you were having.”
“Which one? The leading a double life problem, the monsters like to kidnap me problem, the possibly failing math problem…” Which isn’t as disastrous as the Power Ranger-related problems, but it’s still an issue; his parents won’t be thrilled if he has to retake the class.
“The being interested in a Power Ranger problem,” Adam says, putting a finger to his lips and cutting him off. “Power Ranger me had a thing for Power Ranger you.”
Kris blinks, once, twice, tries to think of something to say to that.
“What?”
“I liked you. I liked saving you. I liked the idea that you were mine to take care of. Which I thought was chauvinistic of me at first, since I was under the impression that you were a girl.”
“Hey!” Wearing pink does not make you a girl.
“I’m basing it off the precedent, Kris. All previous Pink Rangers have been female,” Adam says gently, trying to mollify him.
“Still. I can’t believe you thought I was a girl all that time.”
“It was the hips! All that tight spandex and your figure…it painted a very misleading picture,” he says defensively.
“Excuses, excuses,” Kris grumbles, shifting further away from Adam.
Adam frowns, tugging him back, settling an arm around his shoulders. “Stop being mad at me for that. That isn’t what I want to talk to you about.”
“So what do you want to talk about?”
“Us. This. I don’t remember how I became a Ranger. I remember some of it, but not all of it. I don’t know how I got my Morpher and I don’t have an all-knowing mentor fill in the gaps.”
“If it makes you feel any better, Simon’s not that helpful.”
“That’s not the point, Kris. At least you have him there. And the others. You aren’t alone in all this, you have the team.”
“You could be part of that team,” Kris says softly, daring to hope.
“I don’t know.”
Adam looks so nervous and unsure. Kris gives in and snuggles into his side, wrapping his arms around him.
“I know you weren’t willing to join us before, but the offer’s still open if you’ve changed your mind.”
“What about us?” Adam asks quietly.
The million dollar question. What about them?
“Does this change everything? We’re Power Rangers. I’m a freak Power Ranger with more power than I know what to do with that has memory problems,” he says, on the verge of hysterical. When Adam gets panicked, he really gets panicked.
All of that is true, but Adam is still Adam, and Kris is still Kris. Them being Power Rangers doesn’t negate everything that came before that revelation. He can’t speak for Adam, but he still feels the same. Maybe it all hasn’t really sunk in yet, but Kris doesn’t want to wait around for a freak out that may never come before he makes a decision.
“So our relationship will be a bit more challenging than other people’s. I chose you, you idiot. I may have been attracted to the Silver Ranger, but I love you.”
Kris freezes. He hadn’t meant to say that, but it’d slipped out. In his defense, emotional strain makes it hard to remain lucid.
“You mean that?”
“I…”
He does. But it’s too soon to be spouting declarations of love, heartfelt or not. Even though he means it, he can’t admit it or take it back. He flounders for words, but there are none to be found. But of course, Adam knows what’s running through his head. He smiles and kisses Kris, soft and tender and soothing. It makes his thoughts stop racing.
“Never mind. I think I know the answer to that.”
They lay there in silence, and Kris’ eyes dart to their intertwined hands, the silver of Adam’s nails glinting in the light.
“Yes.”
His head jerks back up to Adam’s eyes. “What?”
“I want to join the team. If you’ll have me?”
Kris doesn’t even try to find words this time. Judging by how brilliant Adam’s smile is after they break the kiss for air, he doesn’t mind.
~*~
“Get out of the way!” Allison yells as magma heads towards them.
The monster has a volcano for a head. Kris thinks his name is probably “Lavator” or “Magmadon”. He shoots lava, but not slow moving lava, the fast kind that can do damage. Like, ‘burn Kris and kill him in a horrifically painful way’ damage.
None of their weapons appear to be having an effect on him, and because Kris is the amazingly lucky Pink Ranger, he’s been trapped in a crater with the lava coming towards him. He can’t even climb out because the rock’s too slippery.
He feels a hand on his shoulder and looks up, only to be nearly blinded by the silver of Adam’s suit.
“Give me your hand!”
Kris reaches up and Adam pulls him out of there just in time. He shakes a little in Adam’s arms, moving more into his embrace.
“Always getting into trouble, aren’t you?”
“It’s okay; I’ve got my Ranger in Shining Spandex to pull me out of harm’s way.”
“Damn right,” Adam says fondly, the hands on Kris’ waist starting to slip lower.
“Hey, lovebirds! We still have a monster to deal with! Coo over the Silver Ranger’s chivalry later,” Matt says, narrowly avoiding more blasts of lava, sprinting away from them.
Adam gives his waist an affectionate squeeze before rejoining the fray.
Kris is the Pink Power Ranger. He sometimes gets the urge to wear pink when de-morphed, and he almost always gets mistaken for a girl while morphed because most people associate pink with being female. He barely tolerates his color, but he’s stuck with it since they’re not allowed to switch. He gets held hostage by monsters a lot and is always in need of a rescue.
But looking at Adam, he has to admit that maybe being the Pink Ranger isn’t so bad after all.
End.
Summary: He's like the Daphne of the Power Rangers.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~9800
Disclaimer: It's fiction
Notes: This is all
ladymichaelis 's fault. She tagged me in a FB picture of the MMPR cast and while I let the childhood memories flow over me, I randomly thought 'hmm, power rangers!kradam?' The first thing I decided was that Kris=Pink Ranger. The rest kind of flowed from there. Thank you farahlily and, of course, ladymichaelis . The latter for inspiring this fic in the first place, and the former for cheerleading and being so very enthusiastic in her appreciation for this silly little story of mine. ILU bbs sooo much.Warnings: This is in no way, shape, or form meant to be serious. If it comes off that way at any point, it was definitely an accident.
And thanks to the lovely paraka it is now available in podfic form - which is unbelievably awesome (it comes with the theme song!!).
Originally posted 4/6/10
~*~
Being a Power Ranger is totally overrated.
Saving the world is cool and all, but Kris has been getting the short end of the stick ever since he joined the team. To start with, most of the villains have a tendency to go after him. All he seems to be good for is being captured.
Allison’s the leader, Matt’s the second-in-command, Anoop’s the smart one, Megan’s the best fighter, and Kris gets held hostage - alot.
He’s like the Daphne of the Power Rangers.
It’s lame, and it’s not doing his ego any favors. Not that his ego’s ever been huge, but Kris has always been very secure for a short guy with a girlish figure. This is starting to get him down though, because what purpose does he serve the team other than playing damsel in distress?
He blames the color of his uniform. People see it and they go, “oh, let’s get that one, they have the girly color.”
Kris kind of hates being the Pink Ranger.
It’s all Simon’s fault; he’s their mentor. He’d told his companion - an android named Ryan - to recruit a team of teenagers with attitude, and the “lucky” teens had been them. Simon is a giant floating head in a giant glowing tube. He says he’s from a distant planet somewhere in the galaxy that’s long lost to time. He also has a British accent for some reason.
Kris doesn’t really think about it too hard because between the Morphers, and the random monsters, and the getting kidnapped all the time, the giant floating head who sounds British doesn’t really affect him.
What does affect him is being the freaking Pink Ranger. Why is he pink? He’d begged and pleaded more than a little to switch with someone, anyone. He and Allison had spent a while going back and forth on that matter, but she’d refused to budge, intent on taking on the Team Leader thing by the horns.
Simon didn’t help things by smugly telling them both that the Morphers chose their owners for a reason; they’re stuck with them. Kris might’ve made an indignant high-pitched sound and yelled a little. Ryan had calmed him down with a few words. He’s been with Simon for several millennia now, and there’s very little he hasn’t seen in terms of temper.
Ryan regularly tells him to stop moping about being the Pink Ranger and to be more positive about the situation. Easy for him to say; he’s not the one who has to live through it.
He doesn’t have anything against pink - it’s a perfectly alright color - but he couldn’t have been any other one? Being the Pink Ranger seems to include having a big target on your forehead. Plus, an unfortunate side effect of being a Power Ranger is the urge to wear your Ranger color while de-morphed. Which means Kris has moments where he has the urge to wear pink. Pink!
Kris has issues with his Ranger color, okay? The rest of the team has learned to accept it and just let his rants on the subject run their course.
Then, the Silver Ranger comes into their lives.
The first time Kris encounters the Silver Ranger, he has nothing to remember it by but a few hazy memories of something bright and shiny defeating the Putties. They’ve been getting a lot stronger lately, and it’s taking more and more power to defeat them. Whatever had gotten rid of them, it hadn’t been one of them. He asks the rest of the Rangers if they saw anything, but everyone else says they didn’t. No one takes him seriously except for Matt, who puts an arm around him and doesn’t look away from him at all when he talks. It’s a bit unsettling, having someone stare that intensely without blinking once.
He wears Allison down eventually because she’s a sucker for his pout and sad puppy eyes. They have a meeting about it, but they’d all been a little out of it at the time, so no one has anything of value to add. As a team, they eventually conclude that Kris imagined the bright and shiny something due to the pain - he’d taken a rock to the head or something. Kris thinks differently - he knows there was someone else there - but at the look on Allison’s face when he opens his mouth to protest, he leaves it alone.
The second time, he and Megan are nearby when they hear someone screaming for help. They morph and run off in that direction, only to see all the civilians safe and the Putties defeated. He barely catches a glimpse of a figure in the distance, gleaming brightly in the afternoon sun before disappearing swiftly behind a building. He turns to Megan and she nods before he says anything. They contact Ryan at the base and tell him to teleport them all there.
“Wait, so you saw something?” Allison asks them when they’re all back at the base.
“Someone, Alli,” Kris corrects. “Megan saw them too.”
“What’d you see, Megan?”
Oh, sure, ask the one whose uniform isn’t pink.
“It looked like a person. I couldn’t really see that well. Whatever they were wearing, it was shiny; ridiculously shiny.”
“You do realize that that would be highly impractical,” Anoop says, eyebrow raised skeptically.
Megan rolls her eyes. “I’m just telling you what I saw, brainiac.”
They’re about to get into a little verbal battle when Matt steps between them, nodding at Allison to continue. She has her Team Leader face on; Kris really hates that face. She’s the youngest out of all of them, and she has this constant need to prove her worth as leader when none of them question it.
“Argue later. We keep getting our asses handed to us, and whoever this ridiculously shiny person is, they’re beating monsters by themselves easily when the five of us keep getting the crap kicked out of us. We need to find out who they are and what they want, or we’re all screwed.”
“Language, Red Ranger,” Ryan says while scanning them for injuries.
“Sorry, Ryan,” she adds, inching away from him when he aims an unnaturally white smile at her. He looks like a slender blond man who may or may not be taller than Kris, and half the time, they forget that he isn’t human. Then he smiles at them and they remember; his teeth are kind of unnerving.
“Stop correcting them. You’re a robot, not their mother,” an ornery British voice says from somewhere.
They all turn to look at Simon. He rarely says anything to them, other than a few snappy comments and some sage advice when he feels like it.
“Do you know who this person could be, Simon?” Allison asks, moving closer to him.
“Possibly. Ridiculously shiny, you say?”
Kris and Megan nod in unison. Simon raises an eyebrow at them and nods in return, a smirk on his lips.
“I think I may know who it is.” He takes a dramatic pause. “There is another Ranger in our midst.”
Simon refuses to say anything more than that, and Allison orders them to clear out, frustration and determination on her face. They hear the two of them arguing loudly as they leave, Ryan trying to placate them. Their voices get louder, talking over Ryan and drowning him out completely.
The four of them share a look and scurry out of the base.
They end up at the Youth Center and order smoothies from the juice bar, sitting down at an isolated table in the corner to discuss the possibility of a new Ranger.
“Do you think Simon’s telling the truth?”
“Why would he lie?” Anoop says, ever the sensible one.
Matt shrugs. “I don’t know. He’s not exactly an open book. I think he knows exactly who this shiny figure is and he’s holding out on us.”
“Or he doesn’t know who it is, and he’s acting like he does so he can continue to appear all-knowing,” Megan adds, taking a sip of her strawberry-banana smoothie and finding it empty. She rolls her eyes, turning to the boy next to her. “Kris!”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t notice I finished it all.” He blinks at her with big brown eyes and the annoyance on her face melts away instantly.
“It’s fine, sweetie,” she says, giving him a peck on the cheek before getting up to get another smoothie.
Matt is staring at him in awe while Anoop shakes his head.
“Dude. You’re good.”
Kris tilts his head, oblivious. “At what?”
“Did you not notice what just happened? If me or Anoop had done that, she would’ve killed us on the spot! You blink innocently at her and she forgets to be mad. Can you teach me your ways?”
Matt has moved so close to him that he’s almost on his lap. Kris’ personal boundaries are sketchy at best, but this is a bit much, even for him. He scoots his chair back and stands up, mumbling an excuse as he walk-runs to the counter where Megan is.
“You can’t run to me every time Matt gets a little too far into your personal space.”
He doesn’t need to look to know she’s biting her lip to hold in the grin that wants to escape.
“I’ll stop if you tell me to.”
Megan says nothing.
“That’s what I thought.”
She pinches his side and he doubles over, laughing. That’s dirty pool; he’s ticklish and she knows all of his spots. Ernie’s walking over to them, smoothie in hand, and Kris plans his revenge. He grabs it before Megan can, taking a long, slow sip.
“Why are you stealing my smoothie?”
Crap.
Megan’s eyes are twinkling like crazy, scrunched up in laughter as Kris swallows and turns around, fighting the urge to shut his eyes and pretend this isn’t happening. He almost drops the smoothie on the ground when he gets a good look at its rightful owner.
He’s taller than Kris - which is nothing unusual - and broader. He has dark hair and bright blue eyes that are sparkling with humor. Good. Tall, dark and handsome doesn’t want to beat Kris up for accidentally drinking his smoothie. His life sucks enough as is with the whole Daphne of the Power Rangers thing.
“I-”
Megan jumps in before he can continue. “He thought it was mine. He was getting back at me for exploiting his weakness.”
He raises a brow in question. Kris silently prays that Megan will keep her mouth shut.
“He’s ticklish,” she says, grinning wickedly.
He gives up and puts his face in his hands, wondering what he did to deserve all this. He hears a warm chuckle from in front of him and peeks up to see the stranger smiling at him. He has a really pretty smile.
“Interesting,” he says, and Kris can’t place his tone. Partly because he’s distracted by the man’s pretty, but that’s besides the point. He looks at Kris with curiosity in his gaze and he has the urge to tell him “take me, I’m yours!” He may not take too well to that, but he’s already stolen the guy’s smoothie, so the only direction their relationship can go is up.
“Good interesting or bad interesting?” Megan asks before he can even think to. Why is she taking charge of this conversation, anyway?
“Meg, shut up. Please.”
Kris does remember how to talk. Why hadn’t he discovered this when Megan first decided to be his mouth piece? She pouts at him, but complies, keeping silent. The guy’s still standing there, a little bemused by the scene in front of him, but he hasn’t left. That’s good.
“So your girlfriend doesn’t do all your talking for you?”
“She’s-”
“Definitely not his girlfriend. Although he is a cutie, isn’t he?” she says as she pinches his cheek.
Isn’t it enough that he’s the unofficial damsel of the group? It has to spill over into his real life too?
“Megan,” he whines pathetically, and Kris ignores how embarrassing his whining is, because getting her out of this conversation is way more important; she’s his friend, not his babysitter.
Thankfully, she relents, taking her real smoothie from Ernie and walking back over to their table. He pleads to whatever higher power is listening that she’ll keep her mouth shut, but nope, she’s chattering excitedly at Matt and Anoop, pointing at them in a very obvious way. Anoop’s grinning at him, trying to get Megan to lower her voice and failing; Matt’s sipping on his drink morosely as he glares in their general direction. He catches Megan’s eye and she waves excitedly at him.
“Your not-girlfriend’s great at subtlety.”
“It’s one of her many charms,” he mutters, eyes scrunched up in a weak glare at Megan’s gleeful face.
“Oh, sweetie... You can’t make a mean face to save your life.”
Kris directs his attention back to him, belatedly realizing he’s still holding onto the smoothie. He mutely holds it out to him, and the stranger’s lips quirk up at the corners. He takes it, and Kris gets distracted by the glint of the lights on his nails; they’re painted a bright, shining silver.
“Sorry about the smoothie.”
“No worries. I’m fine with cute boys taking my drink - provided they tell me their name to make up for it.”
Kris gives him what Anoop has dubbed the “koala in the headlights” stare. Why a koala, he doesn’t really know, and the one time he’d asked for an explanation, he’d gotten confused by the end of the second sentence. That’s not his fault though, because Anoop likes to use big words that only other freakishly smart people would know.
He doesn’t know how long he stands there gaping like an idiot, but it must be a while, because the guy’s eyes dim, and he looks sad now. It makes Kris want to hug him.
“Hey, it’s okay if you don’t want to,” he says, biting his bottom lip - which has freckles, and Kris never knew that freckles could be this interesting. “I know I’m a bit much for some people.”
And that’s - no; that’s not what Kris was thinking at all.
“Oh, no, no, you’re just enough!” This guy must think Kris is a total moron. “I mean, it’s totally fine; I don’t mind.” Megan’s mouthing something at him over the guy’s shoulder. Name? Oh. Right. “I’m Kris,” he says, and he thinks he manages to sound convincingly calm. And hopefully, less like an idiot.
It earns him a small smile. He thinks he can live with seeming like he has extensive brain damage if he can make a full-fledged one appear.
“Adam,” the guy replies, holding a hand out to him.
He shakes it weakly, too focused on the warmth and the feel of his hand to remember to have a proper grip. Adam beams at him, and, wow.
“Hi,” he says stupidly, grinning back at him.
They stand there for a while, staring and smiling. He hopes he doesn’t let go anytime soon, but eventually, Adam pulls his hand away from Kris’. He barely stops the pout from forming.
“I’m sorry, Kris, but I’ve got to go,” he says apologetically, mouth pursed into a frown.
Kris leans in and brushes a finger across his lips, tries to smooth it away. He blushes bright red when he realizes what he’s doing and jerks his hand away, stuttering out apologies. His friends know he’s touchy-feely, but he just met Adam, and the smoothie stealing made a less than stellar first impression. Touching him randomly probably isn’t helping his case here.
“You’re kind of cute,” he tells him fondly, hushing Kris’ rambling. “How about we meet up here tomorrow? Same time?”
He just nods, because who knows what’ll come out of his mouth if he opens it.
“Great!” Adam’s smile is bright, but not in the unnatural way Ryan’s is. It’s warm and brilliant and breathtaking; Kris wouldn’t mind seeing it again. Repeatedly.
He stumbles back to the table his friends are waiting at in a daze, trying not to look at Adam’s retreating form, but doing it anyway, smiling sappily when he sees Adam looking back. He gives Kris a little wave before walking out of sight.
“What took you so long?”
He turns to Matt, who’s scowling at him. What’d he do to deserve that?
“You all saw from here. And Megan probably told you everything that happened while she was within earshot.”
“It was adorable! He’s hot, Kris. Are you going to see him again?”
Kris flushes, squirming in his seat under their intense stares. “Yeah. He asked if we could meet here tomorrow, same time.”
Megan squeals, and as embarrassing as that is, it’s cute too. Even if she is getting ahead of herself. Adam’s nice and didn’t kill him for commandeering his smoothie, but that doesn’t mean he wants to go out with Kris. Even if he had called him cute and asked to see him again.
Anoop glances at the crushed plastic cup in Matt’s hand and then at the eager expression on Megan’s face as Kris keeps up a steady stream of enthusiastic chatter about the guy he just met - whose name is Adam, apparently. “As sweet as Kris’ burgeoning love life is, we haven’t gotten any closer to figuring out if Simon’s telling the truth. We need to find out what’s going on.”
The possibility of there being another Ranger sobers them all. Whoever they are, they’re more powerful than the five of them combined. They could use them on the team.
“I think we should wait until Allison’s here to discuss this further,” Kris says, glancing at the clock. It’s been almost an hour since they left her at the base, and it’d sounded like it was getting ugly. Hopefully, nothing’s wrong.
When Allison comes in a few minutes later, scowling, they wisely decide to not bring it up.
~*~
He doesn’t know why people think being a Power Ranger is so awesome; it sucks.
They’re fighting off more Putties, and when the fight finally starts to turn in their favor, a monster shows up out of nowhere. It looks like an overgrown sentient weed. It probably has a name like “the Wicked Weed” or “Treevil.”
“I am-”
The weed gets hit by a blast and is incinerated immediately. Kris is kind of disappointed; he’ll never know what ridiculous pun-filled name it possessed.
They all turn to the burnt black spot where the monster stood, perplexed.
“Did one of you do that?”
Everyone answers Allison’s inquiry in the negative.
Hidden in the shadows of the trees, the Silver Ranger smirks to himself, wondering. Reveal himself to them, or keep baffling them by being elusive? Decisions, decisions. But then the Pink Ranger points in his direction, and he knows he’s caught.
He steps out into the light, and Kris’ breath catches. Oh. There’s a new Ranger alright, and he’s shiny. Silver is way better than pink. Definitely.
“I did. I guess you five don’t have any fancy gadgets?” he asks them, twirling something that looks like a gun before sheathing it in a holster.
“Who are you?”
“The Silver Ranger,” he says breezily. “And before you ask: yes, I’m on your side, no, I don’t want to join your team, and, no, I don’t want to be your friend; I work alone.”
He starts walking away from them, and Matt moves into action, blocking his path.
“Hold on a second! You can’t just come in here and act like you own the place. We want real answers, and you’re going to give them to us.”
“Look,” the Silver Ranger says, sounding unimpressed, “I’ve told you what you need to know. I’m not one of the bad guys. You guys have been slacking lately; I’m just picking up the pace.”
He steps around Matt but then Megan comes up to him. The Silver Ranger shakes his head angrily. Kris is guessing that he’s frustrated by the Ranger roadblocks.
“You don’t have to be rude about it. We just want to get to know you. We don’t know who you are or how you got your powers. Just talk to us.” Her tone is soothing, but when she reaches a hand out to him, he steps back.
“Move out of my way,” he says calmly, but Kris can hear the barely restrained fury in it. He pulls Megan away and gets a nod of gratitude for it.
Kris watches him leave until he’s nothing more than a bright dot in the distance.
~*~
“He’s an asshole,” Matt says the second they’re back at the base. “Could he have been any more condescending?”
Megan snorts. “You’re just mad that he made you look like an idiot after your macho man act didn’t work.”
“Because your approach worked so much better.”
“Both of you shut up!”
Did Kris just say that? They’re all looking at him now, so he must have.
“Umm…” Of course he doesn’t have anything to say when he finally has their attention; that’s just how the Pink Ranger luck works.
Allison gives him a small smile. “Thank you. Fighting over whether or not the new guy’s an asshole isn’t going to solve anything. At least we know he’s on our side.”
“What we don’t know is how he’s stronger than we are. Besides the tech advantage,” Anoop says.
“I’m telling you to leave it alone for now.” There’s that Team Leader face again. “You’re all dismissed. The city’s not being plagued by monsters, so go do something normal and teenager-y.”
The tense set of her shoulders keeps them all from protesting. Megan grabs Anoop’s hand on the way out, leaning in to whisper in his ear. Matt gives Kris a questioning look when he doesn’t make any move to leave. His eyes flit over to Allison and Matt nods, mouthing good luck at him before leaving the two of them alone.
Cautiously, Kris walks over to the table Allison’s sitting at, taking the seat next to hers. Her arms are crossed on the tabletop, face hidden by bright red hair. He smoothes it away, giving Allison a crooked smile when he meets her eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“You just kicked everyone out and you’re pouting.”
“I’m not pouting,” she says grumpily, but he sees a smile flicker.
“Did Simon tell you anything?”
She shakes her head, mouth tense and angry. “He said it’s none of my business.” For a moment, her mouth quivers, and Kris instinctively sweeps her into a hug. Allison relaxes into his arms instantly, because the Pink Ranger duties also include offering comforting hugs when they are needed, and Kris has always been good at hugging.
“He said that our Morphers chose us for a reason,” she starts, voice quiet and husky. “He said that I’m meant to be the Team Leader. If that’s true, why won’t he help me lead? The Silver Ranger may seem like he’s on our side, but we have no way of knowing if he’s being honest. Simon needs to tell me what he knows.”
“That’s just his way.”
They both look up in surprise to see Ryan smiling serenely at them.
“How long have you been standing there?”
He shakes his head. “It’s irrelevant. Allison, you can’t doubt your ability as leader. I’ve seen many generations of Power Rangers come and go, and believe me, you know what you’re doing. Simon being his usual crotchety old self doesn’t change that fact. I know he seems harsh, but there’s a reason he’s keeping things from you.”
Allison glares at him suspiciously. “Do you know who he is?”
Ryan laughs. “Not at all. Simon knows I’d tell you, and where would the fun be in his game if I spoiled the surprise? Just trust that Simon knows what he’s doing; in time, you’ll know everything.”
With that, he leaves as silently as he arrived.
“He’s nice, but sometimes, he really freaks me out.”
~*~
Kris decides the Silver Ranger isn’t that bad. Then again, that opinion may be slightly biased since he reaches this conclusion while in his arms.
They’d been fighting against some frog monster with a really long tongue - which makes Kris’ skin crawl if he thinks about it too much - and the Pink Ranger luck had kicked in. The tongue had darted out and they’d all been able to jump out of its way. Everyone except Kris, of course. To top it off, the thing refused to unwind its tongue from around his waist.
Well, until something had sliced through it.
One second, he’s cursing his status as the Daphne of the Power Rangers; the next, the frog monster thing is screaming in pain and Kris is being carried away - bridal style.
His rescuer puts him down gently, and when he asks if he’s alright, Kris can only nod mutely. It may be the lack of oxygen making him delusional, but he swears that there’s a hint of concern in his voice. He doesn’t have time to dwell on it though, because as soon as he sees Kris’ nod, he blasts the monster to pieces and disappears from view before the other Rangers can get to them.
Matt reaches him first, and his grip on Kris’ shoulders is hard enough to hurt, but he barely notices. He’s still reeling from that too-brief encounter.
The Silver Ranger had saved him.
~*~
He gets saved by him a lot after that. It’s ridiculous how often he finds himself in the Silver Ranger’s arms. Not that Kris really minds because they’re very nice arms. It helps that he doesn’t seem to have a problem with Kris holding on for dear life even after they’re out of harm’s way.
Plus, he’s sparkly.
So he might have a crush on the Silver Ranger. He can’t help it, okay? The guy keeps swooping in to save the day, and it makes Kris do stupid things like intentionally putting himself in danger just so he’ll show up - not that he has to try too hard. He never thought there’d be an upside to being the Daphne of the Power Rangers.
It’s not the smartest thing to do, but Kris can take care of himself in the event that he doesn’t show one of these days.
As stupid as it sounds, he’s attracted to the brave, shiny Ranger who always comes to his rescue. He’s a bit rough around the edges, but Kris thinks that anyone who’s a Power Ranger is a decent person when it comes down to it. Judging by the never-failing rescues and his increasingly gentle manner towards Kris, he’s pretty sure that the Silver Ranger is a nice guy; even if he refuses to work with them.
Eventually, the rest of the team notices his odd attachment to the Silver Ranger. None of them call him out on it though. Their only reactions are a few stifled laughs as a tongue-tied Kris stares after the Silver Ranger after yet another rescue. One of these days, he’ll remember how to talk instead of just nodding at whatever question he’s asked.
It’d be so much easier if they interacted outside of Kris’ damsel in distress moments. It’d be so much easier if he’d agree to at least talk to them. He could know who’s inside that suit and get to know the Silver Ranger as Kris, not just the Pink Ranger who always needs to be saved.
The problem with that is that as much as Kris likes the Silver Ranger, he likes Adam too. He likes him a lot - Kris doesn’t let just anyone pull him into empty rooms to make out - and while they aren’t officially an anything, he’s met Adam’s family and most of his friends, and vice versa. They have a good thing going, and he isn’t sure if breaking off his not-relationship with Adam - sweet, friendly, funny, enchanting Adam - for his knight in shiny spandex-like material who he hasn’t even said a single word to, is worth it.
When put like that, it sounds insane.
But there’s more to it than just being smitten with the hero who always saves him from danger. As much as he likes Adam, and the obscene amount of making out they indulge in, he’s unaware of a major part of Kris’ life. He’s not really sure if he can bring himself to tell Adam the truth about the whole Power Ranger thing, anyway. It’s kind of a big deal, and he doesn’t even want to think about what would happen if Adam freaked out on him.
On the flip side, it’d be nice to not have to make up some lame excuse whenever the communicator goes off. He’s running out of ideas, and he’d hit lame ones like having to wash his hair about a week ago. Thankfully, Adam’s been very understanding no matter how bad his excuses are, but his patience can only go so far. That, and Kris feels really, really bad about lying to him.
He brings up the topic of telling Adam to the rest of the team only once, and that’s enough to convince him that they’ll be no help at all.
Why does this have to be so difficult?
He's brought out of his musings when Ryan comes in on the communicator and tells them that there’s an attack happening. He rattles off some information and asks who’s closest to the area. The only one nearby is Kris, because of course everyone else is a half hour away from here, and of course the monster’s harder to defeat than it looks. He may get captured a lot, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how to fight. He’s about to win, too - when a blast narrowly misses the monster’s head.
Kris is pretty sure he didn’t do that.
“You alright?”
He knows that voice. Something sparkles in his peripheral, and, yeah, that’s what he thought. Kris turns his head and the Silver Ranger is standing there, outlined by the sun and shining so brightly it almost hurts his eyes to look. He barely notices the flash that means the monster’s gone, back to wherever it is it came from.
“What did you do that for?”
Is Kris really yelling at him? And poking him in the chest repeatedly? When did he walk over to him, anyway?
His annoyance goes way up when the Silver Ranger stares at him silently for a few minutes and says in a monotone, “You’re a guy?”
He splutters a little and throws his hands up in the air, shaking his head. Kris paces for a while before walking back over to him and shoving at his shoulders. “What kind of question is that?!”
The Silver Ranger shrugs. “A pretty valid one. You’re the Pink Ranger. Every other one has been female. Your figure is very misleading, by the way,” he says teasingly, holding Kris’ waist and letting his hands move downwards, cradling his hips.
Kris has no idea what to say to that - or what to do about the Silver Ranger touching him - and he refuses to let him know he’s actually a little flattered by that comment, so he shoves him again. It makes him stagger backwards, and his stance becomes more aggressive. He moves back into Kris’ space, and he walks backwards to evade him, but Kris feels his back hit a tree and he knows he’s stuck.
Fucking Pink Ranger luck.
“Don’t blame me for making that mistake. If you’d done something like, I don’t know, talk when we first met, I would’ve known this a while ago,” he spits out, tone sharp and jagged.
“You never stick around long enough for me to say something, anyway. ‘Oh, look at me, I’m the Silver Ranger! I’m bright and shiny and come in to save the incompetent Power Ranger’s asses with a flick of my blaster thingy before disappearing into the shadows like the badass I am!’”
Okay, that might have been overdoing it. Kris should know better than to provoke someone who has weapons and could probably break him in half.
“Stop acting like this is my fault, Pink Ranger.”
“Oh, fuck you, you condescending bastard.”
He pushes the Silver Ranger away, determined to leave, but he feels a hand clamp around his wrist and turn him back around.
“We aren’t done here.”
“I think we are,” Kris retorts, pulling his hand away, and it feels a little like a scene from some teen drama, but he’s not sticking around to get thrown around some more.
“Look, I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
His voice is softer now, gentle. Kris feels his anger drain away instantly; he is so gone.
“I’m fine,” he mumbles. “I can take care of myself. I may have a bright pink target on me, but I’m a big boy; I don’t always need you to swoop in and save me like the big damn hero you are.”
The Silver Ranger laughs. “You’re all kinds of cute, aren’t you?”
There’s something familiar about the fond way he says that, and the answer’s just beyond Kris’ reach.
“Pink Ranger, what happened with the monster?”
Stupid Ryan and his bad timing.
“I’m fine. It teleported away when I got distracted.”
“By what?”
“I’ll tell you later. Pink Ranger out.”
He cuts off whatever Ryan’s about to say next by switching his communicator off. He’s going to regret this later.
“How sweet,” he says mockingly.
“I know you don’t dig the team dynamic, but it’s how we work, so deal with it, Shiny Lone Ranger.”
His hands are in the air, trying to placate Kris. “Relax, Damsel-in-distress Ranger. I don’t mean anything by it. But if any of you make one more overture of friendship to me, I will not be held responsible for what I do. Tell your little friends to back off.”
“I have nothing to do with it. I got the message loud and clear the first time. You work alone, blah blah blah.”
“I don’t know. I think working with you would be pretty nice, actually.”
The Silver Ranger’s incredibly charming when he wants to be. And Kris isn't just saying that because his hands are wandering a little.
“Don’t even. I’m part of a team. If you want to work with me, you have to work with them, too.”
“You sure I can’t persuade you to join me? I think we’d have lots of fun together.”
The Silver Ranger’s a lot touchier than Kris would have guessed based on their previous encounters. Sure, he’s nice, but he didn’t expect all the…touching.
“Quit acting like Darth Vader trying to seduce me to the Dark Side. It’s creepy.”
Except it’s really not and that’s why it is.
“You like it,” he says smugly, and if it weren’t true, Kris would throw a fit and act indignant. Instead, he acts like the Silver Ranger’s just any other guy he’s interested in and not some mysterious Ranger who refuses to tell them anything about himself.
“Damsel in distress syndrome or something. You save me, I fall in love with you, ditch my friends and forget about everything else.”
“Is that a joke or are you just pretending it is?”
Great. Even through pink spandex-like material, he still has no poker face.
“I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”
It almost sounds flirty, but in their business, death threats aren’t exactly farfetched.
“Don’t test me, Pink Ranger,” he says gravely, voice soft and deadly.
“You don’t have to be so guarded around me. I’d like to think we’re friends.”
“Well we’re not.”
“Oh,” Kris says, and hopes it isn’t obvious how hurt he is.
Again, the Pink Ranger luck is at work because the Silver Ranger can tell he’s upset, judging by his response, which is to pull him into a hug. It’s a pretty good hug, and there’s that tug of something familiar again, like he’s been in these arms before. He tries to place it, but the Silver Ranger sighs loudly, disrupting his thoughts.
“Don’t ever breathe a word of this to anyone,” he mutters, even as his arms tighten around Kris.
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees a flash of yellow. Megan’s here. Shit.
He wriggles in the Silver Ranger’s arms, and when that doesn’t make him let go, he pokes him in the back.
“One of my teammates just got here, so unless you want another offer to join our friendship circle, I suggest you get out of here.”
That makes him let go, and he’s disappearing into the shadows before Kris even realizes he’s gone.
“You alright? Ryan said you got distracted by something and the monster got away.”
He barely hears Megan’s words. He’s too busy watching the trees for a glimmer of silver.
~*~
The crazy thing is, he and the Silver Ranger end up becoming friends. Okay, so they’re not the kind of friends who talk about their daily lives, or acknowledge each other outside of a few stolen moments, but they’re the kind of friends that click instantly and never seem to run out of things to talk about, despite the large number of taboo subjects.
But as things with the Silver Ranger get better, things with Adam get weird. They still hang out and not-officially-date and make out constantly, but he seems more withdrawn around Kris now; he doesn’t like it. Whenever he asks Adam what’s going on, he just smiles and kisses him silly until Kris can’t even remember what he was asking.
It’s driving him crazy! He knows that they haven’t talked about what their relationship is exactly. Maybe that’s what’s bothering Adam. He hasn’t really been fair to him. He may not be a Power Ranger or aware that Kris is one, but he’s a great guy, and Kris really, really likes him. But lately, he’s been scorning him in favor of the mysterious Silver Ranger who’s become less hostile towards the rest of the team and outright friendly to Kris, but refuses to touch the subject of their real lives.
Kris likes to think he isn’t an asshole, and only an asshole would string Adam along when he isn’t sure what he wants and is thinking of someone else to boot. He can’t keep doing this.
He’s been a little blinded by the mystique of his shiny rescuer and he’s completely forgotten about the real boy that’s right in front of him.
Kris decides to take a chance and tell Adam.
~*~
“Kris, what’s going on?”
Adam’s confused, naturally. As soon as their last class was over, Kris had dragged him to some secluded place in the park. They’re surrounded by trees and Adam can’t see past them at all. Hmm. Maybe that’s the point. If Kris is going to all this trouble just so they can fool around, well, he’s not going to complain.
“I…I need to tell you something. It’s kind of a big deal,” he says, cheeks flushing and matching the pink plaid shirt he’s wearing.
Most guys he knows don’t wear pink, but Kris pulls it off, and looks adorable doing it. It’s usually limited to accessories - and on rare occasions like this, to a shirt - but Adam has convinced him to buy a pair of pink jeans. They have yet to leave the confines of Kris’ closet, but he can be very persuasive when he wants to be.
Actually, now that he thinks about it, Kris and his friends tend to color coordinate their wardrobe. Allison’s always wearing something red, Megan in sunny yellow, Anoop in blue, and Matt - fittingly enough - in green; Adam’s seen the way he looks at Kris.
It’s kind of cute; they’re like a human rainbow. Although he has to wonder, what on earth had possessed Kris to decide on pink as his signature color?
He thinks the human rainbow thing has spread to him, too. He’s always liked a touch of glitter; accessories are fun. But lately, he’s been going after silver ones almost exclusively. He feels weird about painting his nails any other color than the metallic polish, and his eye makeup is always black and silver nowadays. Adam likes the color, but this is starting to feel like overkill.
“Adam?”
He looks into Kris’ worried eyes and wonders how long he’s been in his own head. That’s been happening to him a lot lately, too. He’ll wake up at night when the last thing he remembers is something that happened that afternoon; he’ll feel sore and be bruised from what looks like a fight of some sort, but have no memory of fighting anyone. There are days worth of gaps in his memory, and he has no idea what’s causing it. The doctors had said that there was nothing wrong, but the memory loss is still there and he doesn’t know what to-
“Adam?”
Kris voice breaks through his thoughts, soft and concerned.
“I’m fine, baby,” he murmurs, pulling Kris into his arms and tilting his face up for a kiss. He loves how easily they fit together; it makes that memory loss thing seem less important. “What was it you wanted to tell me?”
Kris is biting his bottom lip, and Adam’s a little worried. Lip biting could mean he’s nervous or excited or thinking or all of the above. The darker than usual pink of his lip tells him that he’s nervous; whether it’s a good or bad kind of nervous, he can’t tell.
“What do you think about the Power Rangers?”
The mention of Power Rangers makes his temples throb, but he ignores the sudden flare of pain.
“I don’t know. They keep the city safe, they do good deeds, they wear spandex? I don’t think about it too much. Why?”
“Well, I, uh, I’mkindofone,” he says hurriedly, words blurring together.
Adam blinks at him. “What?”
“I’m kind of a Power Ranger. The pink one?” he says nervously, grinning hesitantly at Adam.
He’s not sure if Kris is telling the truth, but it’d explain the human rainbow thing he and his friends have going on.
“Adam? Please say something?”
Whether or not he believes Kris, he knows he doesn’t like seeing him so anxious, especially if he’s the cause.
“Come here,” he says, pulling him back from his frantic pacing. He holds Kris still, waits until he can hear his breathing calm. “Is this why you keep making up excuses at random times of the day?” Kris nods. “And why you like the color pink so much?” Kris nods again, although it takes him a while. “Are you done being a nervous wreck now that you’ve seen I’m not freaking out?” Another nod. He presses a kiss to Kris’ head.
He squirms in Adam’s arms, and looks up at him, still a little shy. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before, I just…I was scared. I didn’t want you to hate me or something.”
“Silly boy. You know me better than that.”
“I know.” He smiles brilliantly at him, but it dims quickly. “But there’s more. The reason I finally decided to tell you is that there’s another Ranger besides the ones on my team. There’s one working by himself. He says he doesn’t need to be part of the team. The others don’t like him much, but he and I have kind of become friends, and…”
Adam doesn’t like where this sounds like it’s going.
“Have you and this renegade Ranger been flirting?”
Kris blushes, eyes looking anywhere but Adam. “A little. It didn’t start out that way. I mean, I was a little fascinated because he was mysterious and shiny - you know I like things that sparkle,” he says with a small smile, finding Adam’s hand and brushing his fingers across the smooth silver polish. “I seem to have really bad luck. I think it’s a Pink Ranger thing. I kept getting into trouble, getting captured by monsters. And then he saved me. He swooped in to save the day. He was always hostile towards the others, but he was different with me. I wanted to get to know him.”
“Oh.”
Adam feels like a bucket of ice water has been dumped on him. The throbbing in his temples reminds him of its presence, a continuous drumbeat that won’t cease.
“But he’s not you! He’s a Ranger, and he’s got a good heart underneath all that loner crap, but he’s not you. I can’t tell him about my day because he doesn’t know me as anything but the Pink Ranger. I can’t even tell him my name because he’s not interested in knowing mine or giving me his own. But I know you. I know you.”
Kris is gripping him tight, but he can’t feel it because his head hurts and it won’t stop. It just keeps getting worse. It must show on his face because Kris is kneeling - when did he get so close to the ground? - beside him and calling his name frantically.
Everything grows brighter, blinding silver all around him.
The last thing he sees is Kris speaking into his wristwatch thing, which isn’t a wristwatch at all, but a communicator, but how does Adam even know-
~*~
“What do you mean you can’t tell us? He just fucking collapsed in Kris’ arms! You owe us an explanation, Simon, and fast.”
That voice sounds so angry. It’s making his headache worse. He tries to say stop but it comes out a groan. Adam feels a cool hand on his forehead, a soothing voice in his ear.
“It’ll be okay, babe. Just rest.”
He can’t remember whose voice that is, but it’s comforting and safe; he trusts that voice.
He lets himself drift back to sleep.
~*~
Kris sighs in relief when Adam relaxes, seemingly falling back into slumber. He has no idea what’s going on, but it can’t be good.
“Is he alright?”
Anoop’s looking back and forth between them, tone casual, gaze anything but.
“I think so. I just wish I knew what’d happened. We were talking and then he just fell onto his knees, screaming in pain. Something about his head.”
His hands brush Adam’s temple, mouth pursed in worry.
“Hey, he’ll be okay. Ryan said he doesn’t have any physical damage.”
“Physical being the key word there.”
He stares at Kris helplessly as he continues to watch over a sleeping Adam. They’re both reminded of the argument going on in the main room of the base when Ryan appears by them, looking tense.
“Any luck?”
Ryan shakes his head. “Simon refuses to say anything until Adam wakes up. Allison’s not pleased, and Megan and Matt are barely keeping her calm.”
Kris frowns, his jaw tense. “I’ll talk to him.”
“Kris-” Anoop starts, but Ryan cuts him off.
“You go ahead. Anoop and I will keep an eye on him for you.”
He nods gratefully at them, kissing Adam’s forehead one more time before he leaves the clinic. He walks down the hallway towards the shouting, intent on getting some answers.
Megan is talking quietly to Allison in a corner, but Matt and Simon appear to be in a heated discussion. He doesn’t get to know what it’s about though, because as soon as Matt catches sight of him, he stops talking.
“Do you know what happened to Adam?”
Simon scoffs. “You teenagers are so persistent. Yes, but I won’t say anything until the Silver Ranger has awakened.”
Stupid, smug, British-sounding floating head.
“Look, just because you’re the almighty alien trapped in a tube, it doesn’t give you the right to act like a complete jerk. Tell me what’s wrong with my boyfriend!”
“If you insist,” he says dryly, but there’s a hint of approval in his voice.
Kris should lose his temper more often if it gets him this kind of reaction.
“The Silver Morpher is more volatile than the others. It’s only supposed to be used under extreme circumstances. Because of its immense power, it usually has a few…unpleasant side effects for their wielder.”
“Such as?”
“Headaches, fatigue, memory loss, death-”
“He could die?!”
“Don’t be so panicky. Death only occurs in the event that the wielder gets it in their head to use their power for a less noble purpose. It’s only happened a handful of times; it’s very rare for a Silver Ranger to go down that path.”
Simon sounds like he’s reading off the warning label on a cold medicine instead of talking about the fate of Kris’ boyfriend. He ignores the nagging voice that tells him Adam isn’t officially his boyfriend, because, hello, he’s unconscious, and this is far from the right time to be nitpicky about the details.
“What about the other effects?”
“Most Silver Rangers will experience memory loss. They won’t remember what they did while morphed after they’ve de-morphed. That’s to stop you from feeling betrayed that he kept this secret from you.”
Kris rubs a hand over his eyes. He definitely had not been getting teary-eyed or feeling betrayed. Not even a little. Okay, maybe a little. “So it’s like a split personality thing? The Silver Ranger isn’t really Adam?”
“Oh no, the Silver Ranger is definitely your boyfriend. He just can’t remember it when he isn’t morphed.”
Wonderful.
“So you’re saying that he remembers being Adam and the Silver Ranger when he’s morphed?”
“Yes.”
“But that he doesn’t remember anything Ranger-related when he isn’t?”
Simon rolls his eyes. “Yes.”
“Oh.”
Kris tries to think of something else to say, but the Silver Ranger and Adam being the same person hasn’t really processed yet. He’s spared having to think up an actual reply when Ryan walks into the room, unnaturally bright smile brighter than usual.
“He’s awake.”
~*~
Kris tries not to bowl Adam over the second he sees him conscious. He compromises by clinging to his side and refusing to leave it. Neither of them have said anything since Adam woke up, but that’s okay, because he did wake up. Kris is too relieved to care about all the other stuff.
He just wants to hold Adam and reassure himself that he’s alright, in one piece, and not pushing Kris away.
Yet.
“Kris?”
“Yeah?”
“We need to talk.”
Kris really hates it when people say that.
“Okay.”
He attempts nonchalance, but he’s never been good at things like that. Thankfully, Adam can’t see his face.
“Just because I can’t see your face doesn’t mean I can’t tell that you’re upset.”
Stupid Adam and his stupid observant nature and his stupid Silver Ranger-ness.
“You said we needed to talk, so talk,” he grumbles, moving from his comfortable place on Adam’s chest to a less intimate position, about to move off the bed when Adam’s arms pull at him, keeping him in place.
“Hey. Don’t do that. Kris, please; help me.”
And, yeah, Kris is a sucker for a vulnerable Adam.
“You collapsed. Said you were in pain.” He can’t stop the frown from forming, or the hand that reaches out to brush Adam’s temple. Adam just smiles at him, like nothing’s changed.
Because finding out that the Silver Ranger and Adam are the same person isn’t a big deal at all.
“I’m fine. No damage done.”
Sure. Right. No damage.
“What do you remember?”
Kris is trying to be careful with his words, even though he wants nothing more than to just blurt out all the questions he wants to ask. Adam bites his lip, deep in thought, and Kris aches at the possibility of losing him.
“You’re the Pink Ranger. And, apparently, I’m the Silver Ranger.” He blinks at that, but then a wide grin spreads across his face. “That explains so much!”
Kris gives him a questioning look, and Adam blushes, smiling sheepishly.
“A couple weeks ago, I started having a few problems. I’d forget huge chunks of my day, bruises would show up out of nowhere. I went to a few doctors to see if they could give me any answers, but they all said I was perfectly healthy.”
“Is that why you’ve been acting sketchy and avoiding my questions?”
“Maybe. I didn’t want you to worry.”
“Stupid,” Kris mumbles.
“I know,” he says with a rueful smile. “I’m sorry. This is all a little crazy, isn’t it? I just realized I’m a Power Ranger. Have been for a few months. And, umm, if it makes a difference, I might have been having the same problem that you were having.”
“Which one? The leading a double life problem, the monsters like to kidnap me problem, the possibly failing math problem…” Which isn’t as disastrous as the Power Ranger-related problems, but it’s still an issue; his parents won’t be thrilled if he has to retake the class.
“The being interested in a Power Ranger problem,” Adam says, putting a finger to his lips and cutting him off. “Power Ranger me had a thing for Power Ranger you.”
Kris blinks, once, twice, tries to think of something to say to that.
“What?”
“I liked you. I liked saving you. I liked the idea that you were mine to take care of. Which I thought was chauvinistic of me at first, since I was under the impression that you were a girl.”
“Hey!” Wearing pink does not make you a girl.
“I’m basing it off the precedent, Kris. All previous Pink Rangers have been female,” Adam says gently, trying to mollify him.
“Still. I can’t believe you thought I was a girl all that time.”
“It was the hips! All that tight spandex and your figure…it painted a very misleading picture,” he says defensively.
“Excuses, excuses,” Kris grumbles, shifting further away from Adam.
Adam frowns, tugging him back, settling an arm around his shoulders. “Stop being mad at me for that. That isn’t what I want to talk to you about.”
“So what do you want to talk about?”
“Us. This. I don’t remember how I became a Ranger. I remember some of it, but not all of it. I don’t know how I got my Morpher and I don’t have an all-knowing mentor fill in the gaps.”
“If it makes you feel any better, Simon’s not that helpful.”
“That’s not the point, Kris. At least you have him there. And the others. You aren’t alone in all this, you have the team.”
“You could be part of that team,” Kris says softly, daring to hope.
“I don’t know.”
Adam looks so nervous and unsure. Kris gives in and snuggles into his side, wrapping his arms around him.
“I know you weren’t willing to join us before, but the offer’s still open if you’ve changed your mind.”
“What about us?” Adam asks quietly.
The million dollar question. What about them?
“Does this change everything? We’re Power Rangers. I’m a freak Power Ranger with more power than I know what to do with that has memory problems,” he says, on the verge of hysterical. When Adam gets panicked, he really gets panicked.
All of that is true, but Adam is still Adam, and Kris is still Kris. Them being Power Rangers doesn’t negate everything that came before that revelation. He can’t speak for Adam, but he still feels the same. Maybe it all hasn’t really sunk in yet, but Kris doesn’t want to wait around for a freak out that may never come before he makes a decision.
“So our relationship will be a bit more challenging than other people’s. I chose you, you idiot. I may have been attracted to the Silver Ranger, but I love you.”
Kris freezes. He hadn’t meant to say that, but it’d slipped out. In his defense, emotional strain makes it hard to remain lucid.
“You mean that?”
“I…”
He does. But it’s too soon to be spouting declarations of love, heartfelt or not. Even though he means it, he can’t admit it or take it back. He flounders for words, but there are none to be found. But of course, Adam knows what’s running through his head. He smiles and kisses Kris, soft and tender and soothing. It makes his thoughts stop racing.
“Never mind. I think I know the answer to that.”
They lay there in silence, and Kris’ eyes dart to their intertwined hands, the silver of Adam’s nails glinting in the light.
“Yes.”
His head jerks back up to Adam’s eyes. “What?”
“I want to join the team. If you’ll have me?”
Kris doesn’t even try to find words this time. Judging by how brilliant Adam’s smile is after they break the kiss for air, he doesn’t mind.
~*~
“Get out of the way!” Allison yells as magma heads towards them.
The monster has a volcano for a head. Kris thinks his name is probably “Lavator” or “Magmadon”. He shoots lava, but not slow moving lava, the fast kind that can do damage. Like, ‘burn Kris and kill him in a horrifically painful way’ damage.
None of their weapons appear to be having an effect on him, and because Kris is the amazingly lucky Pink Ranger, he’s been trapped in a crater with the lava coming towards him. He can’t even climb out because the rock’s too slippery.
He feels a hand on his shoulder and looks up, only to be nearly blinded by the silver of Adam’s suit.
“Give me your hand!”
Kris reaches up and Adam pulls him out of there just in time. He shakes a little in Adam’s arms, moving more into his embrace.
“Always getting into trouble, aren’t you?”
“It’s okay; I’ve got my Ranger in Shining Spandex to pull me out of harm’s way.”
“Damn right,” Adam says fondly, the hands on Kris’ waist starting to slip lower.
“Hey, lovebirds! We still have a monster to deal with! Coo over the Silver Ranger’s chivalry later,” Matt says, narrowly avoiding more blasts of lava, sprinting away from them.
Adam gives his waist an affectionate squeeze before rejoining the fray.
Kris is the Pink Power Ranger. He sometimes gets the urge to wear pink when de-morphed, and he almost always gets mistaken for a girl while morphed because most people associate pink with being female. He barely tolerates his color, but he’s stuck with it since they’re not allowed to switch. He gets held hostage by monsters a lot and is always in need of a rescue.
But looking at Adam, he has to admit that maybe being the Pink Ranger isn’t so bad after all.
End.
