Power Rangers Jungle Fury, Lily, Theo
Title: Not a Guy's Girl
Rating: PG
Characters: Lily, Theo, OC for narration purposes
Summary: Lily is an attractive girl. Every guy at the Pai Zhuq academy knows this, except for one. Lily and Theo, pre-series. I wrote this for an excuse to use my new icon. No, I really did.
Explanation of ages: I have decided that the usual age for beginning at the Pai Zhuq Academy is ten. Jarrod says he has been training for ten years, and doesn't object to Theo or Lily becoming guardians, so they must have trained a comparable amount of time. So for reasons based entirely on my own Jarrod backstory that I have not yet written, he started a year early and is now 19, and Theo and Lily started at ten and are now 17 and 18 respectively. This takes place two years pre-series, when Theo and Lily are about 15.
Brian entered the vestibule to the steam room confidently, though he made sure to keep his eyes aimed at the floor. He had no desire to see one of the masters he had just met in anything less than their floor-length robes. To the left of the door, just as Master Mao had described, stood racks of clean white towels, each hanging neatly folded and absorbing the warm, damp steam of the room beyond. He put down the wooden chest he carried and began filling it neatly, counting silently as he went. It was his first day at the Pai Zhuq academy, and he wanted to make sure to do everything right.
When he was certain he had counted the towels correctly, he shut the chest, mindful to keep in the warmth, and headed back out into the courtyard. As a first-year cub, it was his duty to provide towels for the advanced training sessions, even if he was five years older than most of the other beginners. Still, as much as he had complained, Master Mao had firmly placed him in the first-year class, only unbending enough to tell him he could be reevaluated after the first three months. The wait chafed at him, but he was confident he would be moved up soon. He had trained in martial arts for years, and it was only stubborn homage to tradition that insisted that all new entrants to the academy serve as cubs for a period of time before beginning their advanced training.
Before he reached the training area where he was supposed to serve that day, he heard the unmistakable yells and impacts of sparring. Alarmed, he sped up. He had thought that he had plenty of time before the next class. He couldn't be late on his first day!
His breath sighed out in a whoosh as soon as he reached the next courtyard. It wasn't class, just two students, a boy and a girl, sparring in the open space. As he looked around, he noticed another boy standing to the side, watching them.
Noting the three diamonds of an advanced student on his uniform, Brian hesitated for a moment. Then he thought better of it. The kid looked no older than he was himself, and he might be in Brian's classes before too much longer. No way would he bow and scrape in front of someone who just might be his equal in a few months! Mind made up, he approached the other boy with as much confidence as he could project.
"Know where I put these?" The other boy jumped, turning around in surprise. Brian held up his towel chest in explanation, and the boy relaxed.
"New here?" he asked, clearly not expecting an answer. "The towels go over there, next to those benches." He pointed. "Class should start in about fifteen minutes, so you have some time to kill."
"Good to know." He shifted his grip on the towel chest. "You in the class?"
"Yeah," the other boy responded, looking slightly surprised that Brian was still talking to him. Brian suppressed a scowl. Just because he was a cub didn't mean he was invisible. "Yeah, it's a fifth-level class. I'm just waiting for it to start."
"What about them?" Brian asked, determined to continue the conversation. If this boy was fifth-level, then he was part of the class Brian hoped to join when his three months were up. No harm in getting to know someone now. "I'm Brian, by the way."
"Keaton." The boy looked friendlier now. "And yes, they're in my level too."
Brian watched the sparring pair. They looked good. As the girl flipped backwards, recovered, and then rushed at the shorter boy, he noted to himself that one looked very good indeed.
"What's her name?" he found himself asking.
"Lily," Keaton answered him automatically, then looked at him with raised eyebrows. "But I hope you don't mean what I think you mean."
"And what is that?" Long blonde hair, crisp, powerful movements, a strong, toned body - oh yes, Brian was definitely going to aim for the fifth-level class.
Keaton was shaking his head. "Don't even try it, man. I don't want to be the one to pick you up in pieces afterwards."
"Not a guy's girl, is she?" he murmured, not taking his eyes from her. "Well, she hasn't met me yet."
"Who she has or hasn't met has nothing to do with it." Keaton nodded at the sparring pair. "Watch that guy for a bit."
Reluctantly, Brian stopped watching Lily in favor of observing her sparring partner. After a few minutes, he concluded that the boy was every bit as good as the girl. In fact, he realized with a frown, the other boy might even be better than he was. Still frowning, he replied, "What about him?"
"Well, if you think you can take him on, then feel free to go ask her whatever you want. I'll stand back here to keep from having to clean bloodstains out of my training uniform."
"Him?" Brian asked in disbelief. The guy was skilled, yeah, but he was easily a head shorter than the girl, and there was nothing fantastic about his looks. "She's not with him, is she?"
He saw Keaton shrug. "No one really knows, no matter who claims to. But they've been best friends practically since the beginning of time. Everyone knows if you mess with Lily, you mess with Theo, and no one is stupid enough to try that."
Brian looked out at them again, just as the boy - Theo, apparently - managed to throw Lily hard onto the courtyard floor. Despite himself, he flinched. "There's no way they're dating," he muttered, not sure who he was trying to convince.
"Does it matter?" Keaton asked. "Even if they're not, trying to get with her is going to get your butt kicked. As far as I know, Lily's only dated one guy the entire six years she's been here, and after they broke up he could hardly move to train for a week. He's avoided Theo like the plague ever since."
About to respond, Brian saw from the corner of his eye that Theo's last throw had ended the match, and the shorter boy was now glaring in their direction. "Oh, crap." Keaton looked up as well and blanched.
"Here, take those over there," he instructed, gesturing hurriedly at the towels and the nearby benches. "I'll come with you." Brian quickly obeyed, trying his best to convince himself that he couldn't really feel that angry dark stare upon his back.
***
"What's with them?" Lily, still recovering her breath from where she lay flat after falling spectacularly prey to one of Theo's most vicious throws, didn't answer him right away. She did, however, manage to glance in the direction of Theo's derisive nod. Two students, one from their own class and one cub that she didn't recognize, were folding towels with suspicious concentration and speed near the benches at the other end of the courtyard, especially given that the first should not have been folding towels at all.
"Don't know," she answered when she was confident her breath would hold. "They were watching us?"
"Yeah, and now they're trying very hard not to watch us," Theo responded dryly. Lily glanced up again, trying to place the second boy. People were always watching her and Theo practice, and it never failed to irritate Theo - "it's as if they think they can absorb technique through their eyeballs instead of using the time to actually train," he complained, and although Lily tried very hard to think the best of everyone, after five years of this she was beginning to agree with Theo.
"Well, let's go over and say hello," she said determinedly, working herself up to her elbows. At Theo's groan, she continued, "You know that the best way to get them to stop is to prove that we've noticed, Theo! And besides, I think the cub is new. He's a late starter; he could probably use a hello from someone his own age."
"Fine, Lil," Theo sighed, in his famed I-think-you're-crazy-but-I'll-humor-you-just-this-once tone. Lily was intimately familiar with that tone, probably because Theo had invented it just for her, and it always meant she had won. Theo held out a hand and pulled Lily to her feet with the ease of long practice. She grinned at him unselfconsciously. "Thanks, Theo." He dismissed her thanks with a slight shake of his head, as always, and the pair walked over to the benches to confront their audience, which was beginning to show signs of panicking.
***
"You could be a little nicer to the new students, Theo," Lily reprimanded gently as they walked away, but her tone was more amused than accusatory.
"Hey, I was nice!" Theo protested. "That was nice!"
The sad thing was, Theo was telling the truth. He hadn't been mean to the new student so much as utterly disinterested in his existence, but Lily was by no means going to accept that as the best Theo could do. "Of course it was," she responded, rolling her eyes in her patented I'm-agreeing-with-you-but-don't-you-think-I-mean-it way. She had invented that one for Theo. "All I'm saying is he might be in our classes someday, and it wouldn't hurt to have more friends in our class instead of more people scared of you!"
Easily ignoring the second part of Lily's statement, Theo responded, "What do I need to make new friends for when I've got you?"
"Theo!" She swatted at him, and he laughed, dodging so she just brushed his shoulder. "What am I going to do with you?" she sighed, only half joking.
Theo raised an eyebrow at her in his most irritating fashion, an anticipatory smirk already lurking around the corners of his mouth. "Well, since you certainly can't seem to hit me..."
"What!" Lily raised her hand again, forming a real fist this time to remind Theo just how formidable she could be, but Theo was already running, laughing at her as he turned backwards to taunt her to her face.
"That all you got, Lily?" he teased, and that was all Lily needed to turn Theo's flight into a chase.
"Speed of a cheetah!" she retorted, and was rewarded by a sudden widening of his eyes as he turned to run in earnest. She lunged after him, closing the distance with every second.
***
Brian stared as Theo took off running, closely followed by Lily, both completely forgetting their audience as they shouted good-natured insults at each other. He shook his head, remembering Theo's sharp, abrasive personality. "I...don't believe it. What does she see in him?"
Keaton, still flushed with embarrassment at being caught staring earlier, answered quickly and a little nastily, "You don't have to believe it. Doesn't make it any less true."
Brian glared, but his heart wasn't in it. He watched Theo and Lily disappear around the corner, and wondered for a second if they would be back in time for their class. It wouldn't make a difference to him, though. He'd seen enough.
Keaton was right. Getting between those two would be the act of an idiot - and no matter how pretty Lily was, Brian was not that stupid.
Rating: PG
Characters: Lily, Theo, OC for narration purposes
Summary: Lily is an attractive girl. Every guy at the Pai Zhuq academy knows this, except for one. Lily and Theo, pre-series. I wrote this for an excuse to use my new icon. No, I really did.
Explanation of ages: I have decided that the usual age for beginning at the Pai Zhuq Academy is ten. Jarrod says he has been training for ten years, and doesn't object to Theo or Lily becoming guardians, so they must have trained a comparable amount of time. So for reasons based entirely on my own Jarrod backstory that I have not yet written, he started a year early and is now 19, and Theo and Lily started at ten and are now 17 and 18 respectively. This takes place two years pre-series, when Theo and Lily are about 15.
Brian entered the vestibule to the steam room confidently, though he made sure to keep his eyes aimed at the floor. He had no desire to see one of the masters he had just met in anything less than their floor-length robes. To the left of the door, just as Master Mao had described, stood racks of clean white towels, each hanging neatly folded and absorbing the warm, damp steam of the room beyond. He put down the wooden chest he carried and began filling it neatly, counting silently as he went. It was his first day at the Pai Zhuq academy, and he wanted to make sure to do everything right.
When he was certain he had counted the towels correctly, he shut the chest, mindful to keep in the warmth, and headed back out into the courtyard. As a first-year cub, it was his duty to provide towels for the advanced training sessions, even if he was five years older than most of the other beginners. Still, as much as he had complained, Master Mao had firmly placed him in the first-year class, only unbending enough to tell him he could be reevaluated after the first three months. The wait chafed at him, but he was confident he would be moved up soon. He had trained in martial arts for years, and it was only stubborn homage to tradition that insisted that all new entrants to the academy serve as cubs for a period of time before beginning their advanced training.
Before he reached the training area where he was supposed to serve that day, he heard the unmistakable yells and impacts of sparring. Alarmed, he sped up. He had thought that he had plenty of time before the next class. He couldn't be late on his first day!
His breath sighed out in a whoosh as soon as he reached the next courtyard. It wasn't class, just two students, a boy and a girl, sparring in the open space. As he looked around, he noticed another boy standing to the side, watching them.
Noting the three diamonds of an advanced student on his uniform, Brian hesitated for a moment. Then he thought better of it. The kid looked no older than he was himself, and he might be in Brian's classes before too much longer. No way would he bow and scrape in front of someone who just might be his equal in a few months! Mind made up, he approached the other boy with as much confidence as he could project.
"Know where I put these?" The other boy jumped, turning around in surprise. Brian held up his towel chest in explanation, and the boy relaxed.
"New here?" he asked, clearly not expecting an answer. "The towels go over there, next to those benches." He pointed. "Class should start in about fifteen minutes, so you have some time to kill."
"Good to know." He shifted his grip on the towel chest. "You in the class?"
"Yeah," the other boy responded, looking slightly surprised that Brian was still talking to him. Brian suppressed a scowl. Just because he was a cub didn't mean he was invisible. "Yeah, it's a fifth-level class. I'm just waiting for it to start."
"What about them?" Brian asked, determined to continue the conversation. If this boy was fifth-level, then he was part of the class Brian hoped to join when his three months were up. No harm in getting to know someone now. "I'm Brian, by the way."
"Keaton." The boy looked friendlier now. "And yes, they're in my level too."
Brian watched the sparring pair. They looked good. As the girl flipped backwards, recovered, and then rushed at the shorter boy, he noted to himself that one looked very good indeed.
"What's her name?" he found himself asking.
"Lily," Keaton answered him automatically, then looked at him with raised eyebrows. "But I hope you don't mean what I think you mean."
"And what is that?" Long blonde hair, crisp, powerful movements, a strong, toned body - oh yes, Brian was definitely going to aim for the fifth-level class.
Keaton was shaking his head. "Don't even try it, man. I don't want to be the one to pick you up in pieces afterwards."
"Not a guy's girl, is she?" he murmured, not taking his eyes from her. "Well, she hasn't met me yet."
"Who she has or hasn't met has nothing to do with it." Keaton nodded at the sparring pair. "Watch that guy for a bit."
Reluctantly, Brian stopped watching Lily in favor of observing her sparring partner. After a few minutes, he concluded that the boy was every bit as good as the girl. In fact, he realized with a frown, the other boy might even be better than he was. Still frowning, he replied, "What about him?"
"Well, if you think you can take him on, then feel free to go ask her whatever you want. I'll stand back here to keep from having to clean bloodstains out of my training uniform."
"Him?" Brian asked in disbelief. The guy was skilled, yeah, but he was easily a head shorter than the girl, and there was nothing fantastic about his looks. "She's not with him, is she?"
He saw Keaton shrug. "No one really knows, no matter who claims to. But they've been best friends practically since the beginning of time. Everyone knows if you mess with Lily, you mess with Theo, and no one is stupid enough to try that."
Brian looked out at them again, just as the boy - Theo, apparently - managed to throw Lily hard onto the courtyard floor. Despite himself, he flinched. "There's no way they're dating," he muttered, not sure who he was trying to convince.
"Does it matter?" Keaton asked. "Even if they're not, trying to get with her is going to get your butt kicked. As far as I know, Lily's only dated one guy the entire six years she's been here, and after they broke up he could hardly move to train for a week. He's avoided Theo like the plague ever since."
About to respond, Brian saw from the corner of his eye that Theo's last throw had ended the match, and the shorter boy was now glaring in their direction. "Oh, crap." Keaton looked up as well and blanched.
"Here, take those over there," he instructed, gesturing hurriedly at the towels and the nearby benches. "I'll come with you." Brian quickly obeyed, trying his best to convince himself that he couldn't really feel that angry dark stare upon his back.
***
"What's with them?" Lily, still recovering her breath from where she lay flat after falling spectacularly prey to one of Theo's most vicious throws, didn't answer him right away. She did, however, manage to glance in the direction of Theo's derisive nod. Two students, one from their own class and one cub that she didn't recognize, were folding towels with suspicious concentration and speed near the benches at the other end of the courtyard, especially given that the first should not have been folding towels at all.
"Don't know," she answered when she was confident her breath would hold. "They were watching us?"
"Yeah, and now they're trying very hard not to watch us," Theo responded dryly. Lily glanced up again, trying to place the second boy. People were always watching her and Theo practice, and it never failed to irritate Theo - "it's as if they think they can absorb technique through their eyeballs instead of using the time to actually train," he complained, and although Lily tried very hard to think the best of everyone, after five years of this she was beginning to agree with Theo.
"Well, let's go over and say hello," she said determinedly, working herself up to her elbows. At Theo's groan, she continued, "You know that the best way to get them to stop is to prove that we've noticed, Theo! And besides, I think the cub is new. He's a late starter; he could probably use a hello from someone his own age."
"Fine, Lil," Theo sighed, in his famed I-think-you're-crazy-but-I'll-humor-you-just-this-once tone. Lily was intimately familiar with that tone, probably because Theo had invented it just for her, and it always meant she had won. Theo held out a hand and pulled Lily to her feet with the ease of long practice. She grinned at him unselfconsciously. "Thanks, Theo." He dismissed her thanks with a slight shake of his head, as always, and the pair walked over to the benches to confront their audience, which was beginning to show signs of panicking.
***
"You could be a little nicer to the new students, Theo," Lily reprimanded gently as they walked away, but her tone was more amused than accusatory.
"Hey, I was nice!" Theo protested. "That was nice!"
The sad thing was, Theo was telling the truth. He hadn't been mean to the new student so much as utterly disinterested in his existence, but Lily was by no means going to accept that as the best Theo could do. "Of course it was," she responded, rolling her eyes in her patented I'm-agreeing-with-you-but-don't-you-think-I-mean-it way. She had invented that one for Theo. "All I'm saying is he might be in our classes someday, and it wouldn't hurt to have more friends in our class instead of more people scared of you!"
Easily ignoring the second part of Lily's statement, Theo responded, "What do I need to make new friends for when I've got you?"
"Theo!" She swatted at him, and he laughed, dodging so she just brushed his shoulder. "What am I going to do with you?" she sighed, only half joking.
Theo raised an eyebrow at her in his most irritating fashion, an anticipatory smirk already lurking around the corners of his mouth. "Well, since you certainly can't seem to hit me..."
"What!" Lily raised her hand again, forming a real fist this time to remind Theo just how formidable she could be, but Theo was already running, laughing at her as he turned backwards to taunt her to her face.
"That all you got, Lily?" he teased, and that was all Lily needed to turn Theo's flight into a chase.
"Speed of a cheetah!" she retorted, and was rewarded by a sudden widening of his eyes as he turned to run in earnest. She lunged after him, closing the distance with every second.
***
Brian stared as Theo took off running, closely followed by Lily, both completely forgetting their audience as they shouted good-natured insults at each other. He shook his head, remembering Theo's sharp, abrasive personality. "I...don't believe it. What does she see in him?"
Keaton, still flushed with embarrassment at being caught staring earlier, answered quickly and a little nastily, "You don't have to believe it. Doesn't make it any less true."
Brian glared, but his heart wasn't in it. He watched Theo and Lily disappear around the corner, and wondered for a second if they would be back in time for their class. It wouldn't make a difference to him, though. He'd seen enough.
Keaton was right. Getting between those two would be the act of an idiot - and no matter how pretty Lily was, Brian was not that stupid.