Adam/Rocky challenge fic
Title: Before you Break
Pairing: Rocky/Adam
Rating: PG-13
AN: I wasn't actually planning on writing this, but after posting Beneath the Surface this just hit me. So here you go. :)
“Hey, you guys,” Kimberly said quietly to her two companions, fingers tapping against her glass as she stared thoughtfully at Rocky and Adam as they made their way over to their usual table in the Juice Bar, Aisha chatting away between them, hands waving to illustrate her point. “Any of you think it’s kinda weird the way Rocky took this whole thing with Adam so personally?”
It had only been a couple of days since Adam had been taken over and they were still coming to terms with it. Rocky was hovering over his best friend while Adam protested that he was fine, despite the still healing gash in his side, despite the fact that he couldn’t keep anything down except water; and they all knew that in spite of Adam acting like it was nothing, it was incredibly difficult for him to move around school like nothing was wrong, like he hadn’t had a sword run through his side less than two days ago, like he hadn’t had some evil alien artefact shoved into his stomach and left to hatch or whatever. He shouldn’t even be in school but they had no way of explaining why he shouldn’t be there, not to the school, not even to Adam’s parents, so Adam came into school even though it had to be hell.
“Not really,” Billy replied. “They’ve been friends for years, I’m not surprised Rocky was upset.”
“Me either,” Tommy agreed. “I know if it’d been me, I’d be angry.”
But Rocky wasn’t angry, that was the thing, Kim thought. He was watching Adam as if he was afraid he’d break if he took his eyes off him for a second. That said though, if Zedd attacked any time soon she figured all bets would be off. Rocky might not be angry at the moment, but given a target that could easily change.
Right on cue, just as she thought that and just as the other three arrived at the table their communicators went off. Exchanging glances they made their way to a secluded corner and Tommy opened the channel. “What is it?”
“Rangers, you’re needed at the Command Centre,” Alpha said, voice concerned.
“We’re on our way,” Tommy replied and, after a quick glance around to make sure no-one was watching, they teleported out.
***
“Zordon, what’s going on?” Tommy asked when they arrived, teleporting energy fading away and Rocky looked up at their mentor expectantly.
“Goldar has appeared in the park,” Zordon replied and on hearing those words something flipped inside him, cold rage pulsing behind his thoughts. Goldar was the one who’d put that thing inside Adam, the egg or whatever that had contained that other personality, the egg that had fooled all their sensors until they knew what they were looking for, the egg that was still breaking down. It was no wonder Adam wasn’t eating. Caught up in his thoughts, Rocky missed most of the following words until Zordon was telling Adam to remain behind.
“But--!” Adam began.
“No, Adam,” Zordon said gravely. “You are not yet fully healed. Unless the situation deteriorates, your teammates will be able to deal with Goldar.”
“Hey, it’s okay,” Rocky jumped in, bumping Adam’s shoulder carefully. “I’ll give him a few kicks for you, alright?” Adam didn’t look any happier but he didn’t protest anymore either, a sure sign that he agreed with the assessment of his abilities, no matter how much he disliked said assessment.
“Sure,” he said unenthusiastically. Rocky frowned but Adam simply gave him a faint smile, his ‘I’m hurting but I don’t want anyone to know that’ smile. Well fine. He was going to kick Goldar’s butt and then he was going to get a real smile out of his boyfriend.
***
Arriving in the park they were greeted with the familiar sight of Goldar and the putty patrollers wrecking everything in sight. Readying herself for the battle even as Tommy launched into the war of words that usually came before his battles with Goldar, Kimberly was caught completely off guard as Rocky threw himself forward, Power Sword in hand, slicing at Goldar with a ferocity she hadn’t expected. She’d thought all bets would be off, but this was a little more extreme than she’d anticipated. Judging by the surprise on his face, neither had Goldar. Of course, it was always possible that he had something to do with what had happened to Adam and if Rocky knew that…
Before she’d really had time to process everything properly, still caught on ‘what on Earth’s going on?’ a blur of yellow caught her eye and there was Aisha in the middle of the putties, a golden whirl of fury tossing them this way and that, seemingly not caring that they just kept coming.
“Anyone else think we’re not needed?” Tommy said dryly and Billy snorted.
“I wouldn’t want to get in Rocky’s way right now,” he agreed, “but Aisha could probably use the help.”
Kimberly was moving before he’d finished talking, flipping into the battle and intercepting the putty about to land a punch on Aisha’s back. Occupied as she was with the battle, she was no less aware of the other battle taking place away from them and she didn’t need to understand Spanish to recognise the tone of Rocky’s voice as he slashed and hammered at Goldar, Power Sword shining brightly in the sun. She’d never heard him use Spanish before, he must be really angry if he was using it now.
Putties finally dispatched, she and others fell into a half circle and waited either for the fight to finish or for the opportunity to jump in. Neither happened. Knocked to the floor, Goldar rolled away and back to his feet, keeping his distance from Rocky. “This isn’t over, red ranger,” he growled, vanishing in a blur of flame.
“Get back here!” Rocky yelled. “You’re damn right this isn’t over!”
Kimberly felt her eyebrows shoot up. Since when did Rocky swear like that? She relaxed a little as Rocky powered down, but only a little. The fury still on his face was unnerving and he was all but shaking with anger.
“Command Centre,” Tommy said finally. “Now.”
Rocky scowled defiantly, but moved to teleport with them anyway. When the familiar sight of the Command Centre came into focus Kimberly powered down, Aisha to her right, Billy at her left.
“Alright, Rocky,” Tommy began, “what was… where’d he go?”
She started in surprise. He hadn’t come with them? But he’d been right there.
“What is wrong with him?” Tommy muttered, to no-one in particular. Despite the question not being aimed at her, she shrugged. Understanding what went on inside Rocky’s head wasn’t something she was good at. She did however, happen to catch a quick glimpse of Adam’s expression and she dropped her gaze before he could catch her staring. Adam knew what was going on. Actually… he was probably the reason for it. It seemed so obvious and she couldn’t believe Tommy couldn’t see it. That battle just now had been retribution. But… retribution for what? A best friend? Rocky’s reaction seemed a little too extreme for that and she added it to her mental list of things that didn’t add up about Rocky and Adam at the moment.
“Look, we can’t do anything right now,” Aisha said firmly. “Rocky’ll calm down eventually and you can sort this out then.”
‘You’ can sort this out, Kim thought. Not ‘we.’ Well, that just made it official. Whatever was going on with Adam and Rocky, Aisha knew about it as well. Maybe it was time to start asking a few questions of her best friend.
***
Sitting on the rocks at the beach, arms wrapped around his knees, chin resting on the top bicep, Rocky stared out over the waves. The red haze that had taken over from the moment he’d seen Goldar at the park had faded and he could look back over the fight a little more objectively. The violence of his reaction shocked him, leaving him feeling more than a little nauseous. He’d never lost it like that before, ever. As long as he’d been training in martial arts he’d had it hammered into him to keep your focus, not to let your emotions cloud your judgement, that anger in a battle was more of an enemy than your opponent. But seeing Goldar… all of that had just gone flying out the window. He couldn’t remember ever being that angry.
“You okay?”
He turned his head to find Adam standing behind him, hands shoved in his pockets. He hadn’t heard him arrive. “Sure,” he responded. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Adam didn’t reply, just came over to lean against the rock he was sitting on. “I know why you lost it back there, when you were fighting Goldar,” he said finally.
“Your point being?” he snapped.
“No point. I’m just saying that I know.” The waves crashed onto the beach as if in counterpoint, then washed back out into the sea.
“Remember when we were ten?” Rocky said suddenly. “We used to come here everyday over the holidays.”
Adam smiled. “I remember. And I remember you falling on top of Aisha’s sandcastle.”
“I’m never going to live that down, am I?” Rocky growled in mock-annoyance.
“Nope,” Adam replied easily. “She’d spent hours working on that castle and then you went and fell on it.”
“Well I wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for a certain person who shall remain nameless, Adam.”
Adam shrugged. “If you say so.”
“I do say so.”
Adam gave him a look of resigned amusement, then shook his head. “We should get back to Angel Grove,” he said finally. “The others will be wondering where we are.”
“Where I am,” Rocky corrected, sliding off the rock and standing up. “That’s what they’re worried about, isn’t it?”
Adam shrugged again. “Aisha probably knows you’re here, but the others have no idea. I’m pretty sure that Tommy wants answers, though.”
Rocky sighed and slumped back against the rock. “Great. How do I explain that one?”
“You don’t,” Adam said seriously. “Me and Aisha’ll run interference until this blows over.”
“You don’t need to do that.”
“I know.”
***
It was interesting, Kimberly noted, watching Adam and Aisha neatly cutting off Tommy’s attempts at getting answers out of Rocky. The tactics ranged from subtle to blatant but they were always effective and eventually Tommy gave up. It wasn’t often that Adam, Rocky and Aisha made an issue of the fact that they’d been friends a lot longer than they’d known the others but times like this when they rallied around each other, it was pretty obvious. It reminded her of how she and the other originals had run interference for each other over the years. But it still didn’t answer her questions about what secret the three were hiding about Rocky and Adam and her curiosity was driving her crazy. It was time for a little more research.
Over the next few days she kept a careful eye on them, not difficult to do really, considering everyone wanted to make sure Adam healed up alright, and the tiny things she noticed were both intriguing and yet blatantly obvious. She couldn’t see how the others missed it. At first it had just been little touches here and there, but it was getting increasingly noticeable, as if Rocky was constantly reassuring himself that Adam was still there, not satisfied with the evidence of his eyes, and when the inevitable battles against putties and whatever monster Zedd had sent down this time came, Rocky kept as close to Adam as was possible. She also noticed that Adam seemed to be getting annoyed by the attention.
“…need to stop.”
She froze outside the school building, head automatically turning to the window of the nearest classroom. The six of them were supposed to be meeting at the Juice Bar soon, but it seemed like Adam and Rocky were busy.
“Stop what?” Rocky demanded, voice angry despite the low tone.
“Stop babying me,” Adam retorted and she edged closer to window, glancing around to make sure no-one else was watching. And yep, there they were, standing against the far wall, away from the door and casual observers. “I’m fine, Rocky, I’m not that fragile. I’m not going to break if someone bumps into me in the corridor by mistake and I don’t need you to protect me.”
Kimberly’s eyebrows shot up. That was uncharacteristically harsh for Adam and Rocky looked equally taken aback. “You almost died, Adam, do you get that?” he hissed back. “Do you have any idea how much blood you lost? You’re just lucky the Command Centre has the medical equipment it does, otherwise you would have died and--” Rocky trailed off, voice cracking and he slumped against the wall, staring at the floor. “I don’t know what I’d do if that happened.”
Adam relaxed slightly. “I didn’t die, Rocky,” he said softly. “I’m right here.”
“I know. It’s just… sometimes all I can think about is ‘what if?’ and it’s driving me crazy.”
Her eyebrows shot up again as Adam reached out and ran his thumb down the side of Rocky’s face. “I know,” Adam repeated. “I keep replaying it, over and over, wondering if I could have done anything differently. Then I realise that it’s in the past and I can’t change it.”
“Adam…”
“I know you just want to be there and that’s fine. But there’s a difference between watching my back and trying to do everything for me. Just don’t go overboard, okay? I don’t need you to protect me from life, Rocky.”
Rocky nodded. “I know that, Adam, okay? I do. I guess I just can’t think straight lately. He just kept throwing it my face; that he knew about us, that you were gone… And I was so mad at myself about everything. Because I knew, you know? I knew something was wrong I just didn’t know what I knew, if that makes sense.”
Adam cocked his head quizzically. “You knew?” He sounded surprised, not angry or anything like Kim would have expected.
Rocky shrugged. “Kinda. It was little things that didn’t add up, that’s all. I didn’t put it together soon enough.”
“What kind of little things?” Adam asked curiously and Rocky shrugged again.
“Running jokes that he didn’t get. Details he should have known but didn’t. And he kissed way differently.”
There it was, Kim thought triumphantly. Not just friends after all.
Adam gave Rocky a dubious look. “There was kissing?”
“I thought he was you!” Rocky protested. “But then he got kinda weird and I stopped.”
“Weird?”
“Yeah,” Rocky said slowly. “He was too… I don’t know, too slick maybe. It was like he was trying to push it somewhere we haven’t gone yet. It was a little freaky so I pushed him away. I think that was when he realised he’d pushed too hard.”
Kimberly grinned slightly at the frown on Adam’s face. “He kissed you?” the black ranger demanded, arms folded.
“It really wasn’t anything,” Rocky protested again.
“Not the point.”
Kimberly spun round away from the window as Adam closed the distance between himself and Rocky, catching him off guard with a solid kiss on the mouth. Her cheeks slightly flushed, Kim turned back, unable to resist sneaking another look. Rocky had a hand tangled tightly in Adam’s hair and when Adam let out a soft sound that was half whimper, half sigh Rocky visibly melted.
“Is that all it takes, Rocky? A few needy noises and you’re willing to believe anything?”
The impostor’s voice echoed in her mind for a moment, but she shrugged it off. Apparently Rocky liked the noises Adam made. Suddenly restless, Kim decided she should leave them to it, she did have to be at the Juice Bar after all.
***
Happily losing himself in the sensations of having Adam pressed against him, Rocky was content to simply enjoy the moment, and he protested quietly when Adam moved away.
“We have to be at the Juice Bar, remember?” Adam said, amusement warring with reluctance.
Rocky wrinkled his nose. “Do we have to?” he sighed.
“We said we would,” Adam reminded him. “And besides, a classroom isn’t the best place for this anyway.”
Right on cue the door opened and Ms. Applebee walked into the room, heading straight for the desk at the front of the class. She stopped in surprise at seeing them and Rocky tried very hard not to look guilty about anything.
“School’s over, boys,” the teacher reminded them. “I suggest you leave unless you want to spend the night here.”
“We were just leaving,” Adam said hurriedly. “See you tomorrow, Ms. Applebee.”
“Bye Adam, Rocky.”
Making their way quickly out of the school they were silent until they reached the park. “That was close,” Rocky said eventually.
“Too close,” Adam agreed. “Let’s not do that again anytime soon.”
“Do what?” Rocky grinned. “Make out or make out in a classroom?”
Adam slapped his shoulder reprovingly. “In a classroom, idiot.”
“Well, there goes that plan,” Rocky sighed in mock-disappointment and Adam shook his head, smile on his face nonetheless.
“Come on,” Adam said finally. “We should go. The others will be wondering where we are.”
“Adam, I--” Rocky began, suddenly serious, but Adam beat him to it, stopping the words with a couple of fingers placed against Rocky’s mouth and a wistful smile.
“I know.”
Link to table
Pairing: Rocky/Adam
Rating: PG-13
AN: I wasn't actually planning on writing this, but after posting Beneath the Surface this just hit me. So here you go. :)
“Hey, you guys,” Kimberly said quietly to her two companions, fingers tapping against her glass as she stared thoughtfully at Rocky and Adam as they made their way over to their usual table in the Juice Bar, Aisha chatting away between them, hands waving to illustrate her point. “Any of you think it’s kinda weird the way Rocky took this whole thing with Adam so personally?”
It had only been a couple of days since Adam had been taken over and they were still coming to terms with it. Rocky was hovering over his best friend while Adam protested that he was fine, despite the still healing gash in his side, despite the fact that he couldn’t keep anything down except water; and they all knew that in spite of Adam acting like it was nothing, it was incredibly difficult for him to move around school like nothing was wrong, like he hadn’t had a sword run through his side less than two days ago, like he hadn’t had some evil alien artefact shoved into his stomach and left to hatch or whatever. He shouldn’t even be in school but they had no way of explaining why he shouldn’t be there, not to the school, not even to Adam’s parents, so Adam came into school even though it had to be hell.
“Not really,” Billy replied. “They’ve been friends for years, I’m not surprised Rocky was upset.”
“Me either,” Tommy agreed. “I know if it’d been me, I’d be angry.”
But Rocky wasn’t angry, that was the thing, Kim thought. He was watching Adam as if he was afraid he’d break if he took his eyes off him for a second. That said though, if Zedd attacked any time soon she figured all bets would be off. Rocky might not be angry at the moment, but given a target that could easily change.
Right on cue, just as she thought that and just as the other three arrived at the table their communicators went off. Exchanging glances they made their way to a secluded corner and Tommy opened the channel. “What is it?”
“Rangers, you’re needed at the Command Centre,” Alpha said, voice concerned.
“We’re on our way,” Tommy replied and, after a quick glance around to make sure no-one was watching, they teleported out.
***
“Zordon, what’s going on?” Tommy asked when they arrived, teleporting energy fading away and Rocky looked up at their mentor expectantly.
“Goldar has appeared in the park,” Zordon replied and on hearing those words something flipped inside him, cold rage pulsing behind his thoughts. Goldar was the one who’d put that thing inside Adam, the egg or whatever that had contained that other personality, the egg that had fooled all their sensors until they knew what they were looking for, the egg that was still breaking down. It was no wonder Adam wasn’t eating. Caught up in his thoughts, Rocky missed most of the following words until Zordon was telling Adam to remain behind.
“But--!” Adam began.
“No, Adam,” Zordon said gravely. “You are not yet fully healed. Unless the situation deteriorates, your teammates will be able to deal with Goldar.”
“Hey, it’s okay,” Rocky jumped in, bumping Adam’s shoulder carefully. “I’ll give him a few kicks for you, alright?” Adam didn’t look any happier but he didn’t protest anymore either, a sure sign that he agreed with the assessment of his abilities, no matter how much he disliked said assessment.
“Sure,” he said unenthusiastically. Rocky frowned but Adam simply gave him a faint smile, his ‘I’m hurting but I don’t want anyone to know that’ smile. Well fine. He was going to kick Goldar’s butt and then he was going to get a real smile out of his boyfriend.
***
Arriving in the park they were greeted with the familiar sight of Goldar and the putty patrollers wrecking everything in sight. Readying herself for the battle even as Tommy launched into the war of words that usually came before his battles with Goldar, Kimberly was caught completely off guard as Rocky threw himself forward, Power Sword in hand, slicing at Goldar with a ferocity she hadn’t expected. She’d thought all bets would be off, but this was a little more extreme than she’d anticipated. Judging by the surprise on his face, neither had Goldar. Of course, it was always possible that he had something to do with what had happened to Adam and if Rocky knew that…
Before she’d really had time to process everything properly, still caught on ‘what on Earth’s going on?’ a blur of yellow caught her eye and there was Aisha in the middle of the putties, a golden whirl of fury tossing them this way and that, seemingly not caring that they just kept coming.
“Anyone else think we’re not needed?” Tommy said dryly and Billy snorted.
“I wouldn’t want to get in Rocky’s way right now,” he agreed, “but Aisha could probably use the help.”
Kimberly was moving before he’d finished talking, flipping into the battle and intercepting the putty about to land a punch on Aisha’s back. Occupied as she was with the battle, she was no less aware of the other battle taking place away from them and she didn’t need to understand Spanish to recognise the tone of Rocky’s voice as he slashed and hammered at Goldar, Power Sword shining brightly in the sun. She’d never heard him use Spanish before, he must be really angry if he was using it now.
Putties finally dispatched, she and others fell into a half circle and waited either for the fight to finish or for the opportunity to jump in. Neither happened. Knocked to the floor, Goldar rolled away and back to his feet, keeping his distance from Rocky. “This isn’t over, red ranger,” he growled, vanishing in a blur of flame.
“Get back here!” Rocky yelled. “You’re damn right this isn’t over!”
Kimberly felt her eyebrows shoot up. Since when did Rocky swear like that? She relaxed a little as Rocky powered down, but only a little. The fury still on his face was unnerving and he was all but shaking with anger.
“Command Centre,” Tommy said finally. “Now.”
Rocky scowled defiantly, but moved to teleport with them anyway. When the familiar sight of the Command Centre came into focus Kimberly powered down, Aisha to her right, Billy at her left.
“Alright, Rocky,” Tommy began, “what was… where’d he go?”
She started in surprise. He hadn’t come with them? But he’d been right there.
“What is wrong with him?” Tommy muttered, to no-one in particular. Despite the question not being aimed at her, she shrugged. Understanding what went on inside Rocky’s head wasn’t something she was good at. She did however, happen to catch a quick glimpse of Adam’s expression and she dropped her gaze before he could catch her staring. Adam knew what was going on. Actually… he was probably the reason for it. It seemed so obvious and she couldn’t believe Tommy couldn’t see it. That battle just now had been retribution. But… retribution for what? A best friend? Rocky’s reaction seemed a little too extreme for that and she added it to her mental list of things that didn’t add up about Rocky and Adam at the moment.
“Look, we can’t do anything right now,” Aisha said firmly. “Rocky’ll calm down eventually and you can sort this out then.”
‘You’ can sort this out, Kim thought. Not ‘we.’ Well, that just made it official. Whatever was going on with Adam and Rocky, Aisha knew about it as well. Maybe it was time to start asking a few questions of her best friend.
***
Sitting on the rocks at the beach, arms wrapped around his knees, chin resting on the top bicep, Rocky stared out over the waves. The red haze that had taken over from the moment he’d seen Goldar at the park had faded and he could look back over the fight a little more objectively. The violence of his reaction shocked him, leaving him feeling more than a little nauseous. He’d never lost it like that before, ever. As long as he’d been training in martial arts he’d had it hammered into him to keep your focus, not to let your emotions cloud your judgement, that anger in a battle was more of an enemy than your opponent. But seeing Goldar… all of that had just gone flying out the window. He couldn’t remember ever being that angry.
“You okay?”
He turned his head to find Adam standing behind him, hands shoved in his pockets. He hadn’t heard him arrive. “Sure,” he responded. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Adam didn’t reply, just came over to lean against the rock he was sitting on. “I know why you lost it back there, when you were fighting Goldar,” he said finally.
“Your point being?” he snapped.
“No point. I’m just saying that I know.” The waves crashed onto the beach as if in counterpoint, then washed back out into the sea.
“Remember when we were ten?” Rocky said suddenly. “We used to come here everyday over the holidays.”
Adam smiled. “I remember. And I remember you falling on top of Aisha’s sandcastle.”
“I’m never going to live that down, am I?” Rocky growled in mock-annoyance.
“Nope,” Adam replied easily. “She’d spent hours working on that castle and then you went and fell on it.”
“Well I wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for a certain person who shall remain nameless, Adam.”
Adam shrugged. “If you say so.”
“I do say so.”
Adam gave him a look of resigned amusement, then shook his head. “We should get back to Angel Grove,” he said finally. “The others will be wondering where we are.”
“Where I am,” Rocky corrected, sliding off the rock and standing up. “That’s what they’re worried about, isn’t it?”
Adam shrugged again. “Aisha probably knows you’re here, but the others have no idea. I’m pretty sure that Tommy wants answers, though.”
Rocky sighed and slumped back against the rock. “Great. How do I explain that one?”
“You don’t,” Adam said seriously. “Me and Aisha’ll run interference until this blows over.”
“You don’t need to do that.”
“I know.”
***
It was interesting, Kimberly noted, watching Adam and Aisha neatly cutting off Tommy’s attempts at getting answers out of Rocky. The tactics ranged from subtle to blatant but they were always effective and eventually Tommy gave up. It wasn’t often that Adam, Rocky and Aisha made an issue of the fact that they’d been friends a lot longer than they’d known the others but times like this when they rallied around each other, it was pretty obvious. It reminded her of how she and the other originals had run interference for each other over the years. But it still didn’t answer her questions about what secret the three were hiding about Rocky and Adam and her curiosity was driving her crazy. It was time for a little more research.
Over the next few days she kept a careful eye on them, not difficult to do really, considering everyone wanted to make sure Adam healed up alright, and the tiny things she noticed were both intriguing and yet blatantly obvious. She couldn’t see how the others missed it. At first it had just been little touches here and there, but it was getting increasingly noticeable, as if Rocky was constantly reassuring himself that Adam was still there, not satisfied with the evidence of his eyes, and when the inevitable battles against putties and whatever monster Zedd had sent down this time came, Rocky kept as close to Adam as was possible. She also noticed that Adam seemed to be getting annoyed by the attention.
“…need to stop.”
She froze outside the school building, head automatically turning to the window of the nearest classroom. The six of them were supposed to be meeting at the Juice Bar soon, but it seemed like Adam and Rocky were busy.
“Stop what?” Rocky demanded, voice angry despite the low tone.
“Stop babying me,” Adam retorted and she edged closer to window, glancing around to make sure no-one else was watching. And yep, there they were, standing against the far wall, away from the door and casual observers. “I’m fine, Rocky, I’m not that fragile. I’m not going to break if someone bumps into me in the corridor by mistake and I don’t need you to protect me.”
Kimberly’s eyebrows shot up. That was uncharacteristically harsh for Adam and Rocky looked equally taken aback. “You almost died, Adam, do you get that?” he hissed back. “Do you have any idea how much blood you lost? You’re just lucky the Command Centre has the medical equipment it does, otherwise you would have died and--” Rocky trailed off, voice cracking and he slumped against the wall, staring at the floor. “I don’t know what I’d do if that happened.”
Adam relaxed slightly. “I didn’t die, Rocky,” he said softly. “I’m right here.”
“I know. It’s just… sometimes all I can think about is ‘what if?’ and it’s driving me crazy.”
Her eyebrows shot up again as Adam reached out and ran his thumb down the side of Rocky’s face. “I know,” Adam repeated. “I keep replaying it, over and over, wondering if I could have done anything differently. Then I realise that it’s in the past and I can’t change it.”
“Adam…”
“I know you just want to be there and that’s fine. But there’s a difference between watching my back and trying to do everything for me. Just don’t go overboard, okay? I don’t need you to protect me from life, Rocky.”
Rocky nodded. “I know that, Adam, okay? I do. I guess I just can’t think straight lately. He just kept throwing it my face; that he knew about us, that you were gone… And I was so mad at myself about everything. Because I knew, you know? I knew something was wrong I just didn’t know what I knew, if that makes sense.”
Adam cocked his head quizzically. “You knew?” He sounded surprised, not angry or anything like Kim would have expected.
Rocky shrugged. “Kinda. It was little things that didn’t add up, that’s all. I didn’t put it together soon enough.”
“What kind of little things?” Adam asked curiously and Rocky shrugged again.
“Running jokes that he didn’t get. Details he should have known but didn’t. And he kissed way differently.”
There it was, Kim thought triumphantly. Not just friends after all.
Adam gave Rocky a dubious look. “There was kissing?”
“I thought he was you!” Rocky protested. “But then he got kinda weird and I stopped.”
“Weird?”
“Yeah,” Rocky said slowly. “He was too… I don’t know, too slick maybe. It was like he was trying to push it somewhere we haven’t gone yet. It was a little freaky so I pushed him away. I think that was when he realised he’d pushed too hard.”
Kimberly grinned slightly at the frown on Adam’s face. “He kissed you?” the black ranger demanded, arms folded.
“It really wasn’t anything,” Rocky protested again.
“Not the point.”
Kimberly spun round away from the window as Adam closed the distance between himself and Rocky, catching him off guard with a solid kiss on the mouth. Her cheeks slightly flushed, Kim turned back, unable to resist sneaking another look. Rocky had a hand tangled tightly in Adam’s hair and when Adam let out a soft sound that was half whimper, half sigh Rocky visibly melted.
“Is that all it takes, Rocky? A few needy noises and you’re willing to believe anything?”
The impostor’s voice echoed in her mind for a moment, but she shrugged it off. Apparently Rocky liked the noises Adam made. Suddenly restless, Kim decided she should leave them to it, she did have to be at the Juice Bar after all.
***
Happily losing himself in the sensations of having Adam pressed against him, Rocky was content to simply enjoy the moment, and he protested quietly when Adam moved away.
“We have to be at the Juice Bar, remember?” Adam said, amusement warring with reluctance.
Rocky wrinkled his nose. “Do we have to?” he sighed.
“We said we would,” Adam reminded him. “And besides, a classroom isn’t the best place for this anyway.”
Right on cue the door opened and Ms. Applebee walked into the room, heading straight for the desk at the front of the class. She stopped in surprise at seeing them and Rocky tried very hard not to look guilty about anything.
“School’s over, boys,” the teacher reminded them. “I suggest you leave unless you want to spend the night here.”
“We were just leaving,” Adam said hurriedly. “See you tomorrow, Ms. Applebee.”
“Bye Adam, Rocky.”
Making their way quickly out of the school they were silent until they reached the park. “That was close,” Rocky said eventually.
“Too close,” Adam agreed. “Let’s not do that again anytime soon.”
“Do what?” Rocky grinned. “Make out or make out in a classroom?”
Adam slapped his shoulder reprovingly. “In a classroom, idiot.”
“Well, there goes that plan,” Rocky sighed in mock-disappointment and Adam shook his head, smile on his face nonetheless.
“Come on,” Adam said finally. “We should go. The others will be wondering where we are.”
“Adam, I--” Rocky began, suddenly serious, but Adam beat him to it, stopping the words with a couple of fingers placed against Rocky’s mouth and a wistful smile.
“I know.”
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