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“Hear me out” Trini’s pen stilled mid-word over her English homework. Whenever Kimberly used that sentence, trouble was usually not far behind. She had expected a generally low-key study date at her friend’s house since her own was not ideal.
“Okay, I’m hearing” She carefully lowered her pen to give the pink Ranger her full attention.
“We can’t really date people right now, can we? I mean, since one of our only rules is that we can’t tell people about what we do, we couldn’t tell any significant others, and there won’t be many people who are cool with you racing out of date night for the third time that week, especially when you can’t give a good explanation”
“Who goes on three dates a week?”
“Trini”
“I’m just saying”
“Are you listening?” Kim rolled her eyes.
“Yes and I’m confused why this conversation is happening with me” A beat of heavy silence.
“Look,” Kim sighed as she slapped her textbook closed and leaned against her headboard, “before all of...this,” she gestured almost wildly and Trini had to assume she meant before everything changed, before even the Rangers, “I was having sex on the reg and the fact that I can’t now means that of course I’m hornier than ever. I can’t go to any of the guys for this, which just leaves you” Trini finally set down her pen.
“Ignoring the fact that I’m your last choice, am I correct in understanding that you are propositioning me?” she clarified. Again, Kim rolled her eyes.
“Friends with benefits, but yes. There’s no pressure. If one of us decides we don’t work or everything dies down and you find someone-” she shrugged nonchalantly “-then we can break it off. No questions asked. And we’re friends, we should be able to talk about whatever” For a long time after she finished speaking, there was silence. Never in her life did Trini think that the girl she’d definitely fantasized about (on numerous occasions) would ask her to be friends with benefits. Strange world. To be fair, she and said girl were superheroes, so maybe this was the most normal conversation she’d had in the past three months. Keeping her face as neutral and unreadable as possible, she answered slowly.
“Okay” Kim’s eyebrows rose into her hairline.
“‘Okay’?”
“Yeah,” Trini forced herself to shrug as casually as Kim had, “no pressure, right?”
“None” The smile mixed with blatant disbelief on the other girl’s face was luminescent. Frankly, Trini thought she could stare all day. “Can I kiss you?” Kim asked, that stupidly beautiful look still on her face. Trini’s heart stopped in her chest. How was this real? She decided to stall.
“When I finish my homework” She exaggerated putting her pen to the paper, but only managed a few words before she glanced at Kim from the corner of her eye. The magical look was gone, replaced by exasperation and a different kind of disbelief.
“Really?”
“No, come here” She watched Kimberly hesitate before leaning across the space between them. Her hand found purchase against Trini’s jaw and sat there to soak in the feel of her skin. The callouses on her fingers threw the moment into stark relief. Everything had a sharpness to it that wasn’t there before; the noise from house across the street as construction resumed on the front walk, the plushness of the blankets beneath her, Kim’s scent as it filled her lungs, forcing those day dreams to resurface and immediately find themselves lacking. This was better.
And then they were kissing.
Trini had missed the moment Kim had closed the distance, but she figured it was fine since she was completely present for what came after. Of the few kisses she’d had in in her life, Trini could easily declare the current one as the slowest and yet most sensual. It was focused on exploring, on testing the waters, and seeing what the other liked. Kim seemed to like when Trini scraped her teeth against her lip and Trini definitely liked the feel of Kim’s tongue meeting hers.
She slowly became aware of the hand on her thigh, exerting a gentle pressure, but never once moving from its spot. She could appreciate that. One of her own hands had found itself buried in Kim’s hair. Billy had mentioned that the day they’d all met and become more, Kimberly had shown up to detention with her long hair (Trini remembered staring at it in English last year, wondering if it was as smooth as it looked), only to take a bathroom break and return with it six inches shorter. She could imagine the stir it must have caused. She became aware of the thigh-hand again and carefully slowed the kiss to a halt. Kim was breathless and so was she.
“Am I still your last choice?”
The next three weeks were a mixture of the best and the most torturous times of her life. She and Kim took every available opportunity to make out, on every available wall, in every available nook, or cranny. While Kim’s room saw most of the action, the pit, the quarry, and the ship were no strangers to the two girls crowding one anothers’ space.
With each kiss, Trini found her hands wandering more. She would touch Kimberly’s waist, her hips, her thighs. On one particularly heated day, they even found a home on her bottom. Kim’s dark eyes didn’t stray far from her for the rest of the day.
It was good. It was really good. But they both felt the need for more. Even the boys were beginning to notice. After a session in the pit where Kimberly was definitely too close for too long, Zack grabbed Trini’s elbow on their way back to the ship.
“Yo, crazy girl, what was that? That was almost more than Billy could handle” he teased, nudging her ribs with a teasing elbow. Trini scoffed and gave him a shove back.
“It was not, you’re being dumb” She forced herself to keep her eyes from the swaying of Kim’s hips just ahead of them.
“Mhmm” Zack’s grin was too smug and she frowned.
“What?”
“Nothing”
“Just say it”
“Say what?”
“Whatever it is you’re so smug about” He let them walk in silence for a few yards and Trini almost thought he was going to drop it.
“You and Kim are into each other”
“And what makes you think that? she asked, trying to downplay her body’s reaction to knock her friend unconscious and run.
“You’re always looking at each other or touching when there’s legit no reason to be. The two of you spend way more time alone together than the rest of us do, and she laughs at your dumb jokes which is like, sign numero uno” He mimicked a sign with his hands. They were fast approaching the mouth of the cave and Trini did not want Kim to hear him. “I’ve been coming up with some couple names. I personally think ‘Pink Lemonade’ is the best but-”
“If you value your life, you will shut up now, chismoso” she warned. Zack’s eyes lit up.
“Ooh, breaking out the Spanish”
“I’ll break out a lot more than that if you don’t shut up. There’s nothing going on, you’re seeing things, move on”
“Trini, Zack, you okay?” The two whipped around at the sound of Jason’s voice to find the other three Rangers watching them with concern.
“Great!” Zack grinned.
“Just fine” Trini marched away from him, not wanting to deal with him any longer. Everyone seemed to drop it in favor of getting into the water and back up the cliff for home. Trini thought it was a better idea not to say anything until she and Kim were back in the pink Ranger’s room. Kimberly crowded her against the door and took her face in her hands, kissing her gently.
“What were you and Zack talking about? You looked upset” she asked between kisses.
“He was asking if there’s something between us. Apparently we’re not subtle and he wants to call us ‘Pink Lemonade’“ Trini’s hands slipped under Kim’s shirt to take in the warm, soft skin, still slightly damp from their swim. The girl in her grip laughed.
“’Pink Lemonade’, huh? I’ll bring some for everyone at school tomorrow”
“Kimberly”
“It’ll be funny” Trini didn’t want to think about it, so she pushed until they crossed the room and fell over the bed. She silenced her with a longer, deeper kiss and a faint tug on the hem of Kim’s shirt.
“You’re sure?”
“Have been”
It was so easy. Every part of it. Trini fell into Kimberly emotionally and physically and Kim did the same with her. Kissing, touching, and sex were casual and relaxed, even fun most of the time. Trini realized one night while lying in bed with the other girl that she’d laughed more with Kim than she had any other girl she’d been with. The thought made her purse her lips and stare. Kimberly wasn’t perfect, not by anyone’s standards, but that didn’t stop Trini from feeling like her heart grew ten times from the sight of her smiling alone.
Her fingers ghosted up Kim’s bare back, admiring the way the moonlight darkened the bruises from training. They were getting better, but that didn’t mean the putties didn’t get a few good shots in and Trini made sure to kiss each one earlier. She could never forget the way Kim sighed with satisfaction.
“You woke me up” Kimberly mumbled with a sleep-thick voice. Trini adjusted to rest her head in her hand.
“Whoops. My bad. How rude of me” she deadpanned. It earned a laugh that she could feel through her hand.
“So rude. Are you having trouble sleeping?” More than once, Trini had violently woken them both up with dreams of Rita in her room. She’d felt violated. And even though they had all collectively decided to take the blame for what happened to Billy, she was the one that led them there, they one Rita had guaranteed to live. It was one thing to know she wasn’t at fault, it was another to really believe it.
“Yeah, but not for any real reason. I just feel kind of hyped up” she explained, stroking her thumb over skin.
“You’d tell me, right? If you weren’t completely okay?” Kim asked. The concern in her eyes spread to the rest of her face and Trini felt her heart again.
“Yeah, definitely” The concern melted into relief and she leaned down to kiss her, because really, what else could she do?
“Oh, cool, Trini’s here, you saved us a trip” The two jolted apart, their hands instinctively snapping to pull sheets over themselves. Zack straddled the window and continued on like two of his best friends weren’t currently in bed together. “There’s some putties in town we gotta take care of. Jason’s got his shit-mobile, so if we want to be sure we’ll get there in time you need to hurry up”
“Zack, get out now” Kim ordered.
“Do any of you use doors anymore?!” Trini grasped around under the sheets for her underwear. She hadn’t thrown it, had she?
“I use doors in my trailer all the time. Billy! You were right!” Zack slipped out of her room and the two scrambled out of bed and around the room for clothes.
“If the monsters don’t kill him, I’ll do it myself” Throwing on her shirt, Trini quickly tossed Kim a pink hoodie lying on a chair and followed Zack out of the room. Jason’s near-totaled truck was parked on the curb, he and Billy sitting inside while Zack preferred the bed. Billy grinned as they ripped the doors open to slide in.
“Trini, thank you for saving us time! Now we can get there faster and do less damage”
“Yeah,” Jason sniggered, “’saving us time’” Kim punched him in the shoulder.
“Drive”
“So. How long has this been going on?” Jason asked conversationally two hours later. Up to that moment, the truck had been silent with the Rangers’ exhaustion. It’d been late to begin with, but fighting a whole bunch of monsters on top of that had completely wiped them out. It was legitimately that last thing either Kimberly of Trini wanted to talk about.
“Do we have to talk about it?” Kim grumbled as she lay her head on Trini’s shoulder. How did Jason have the energy for this at three in the morning?
“No, but I figure you might want to at least be straight with us - or, you know, not straight. Zack literally caught you in the act, he’s not going to let it go” Trini rolled her eyes. Unfortunately he was right and since Kim had definitely managed to fall asleep in the time Jason talked, it was up to her.
“We’re friends and we’re benefiting from it. That’s it. Move on” Jason’s eyes met hers in the rear view mirror.
“Is it?” he challenged.
“What are you talking about?” She didn’t want to get into this. Not now.
“He means that you and Kimberly are very affectionate with one another. More than with any of us and he thinks it means ‘there are feelings involved’” Billy sleepily raised his hands to air-quote and then let them flop back into his lap. Honestly, she loved Billy with a slightly larger 1/5th of her heart than everyone else on the team, but she could have done without him speaking at that moment. Jason grinned at the boy.
“Thanks Billy”
“You're welcome Jason” His head slumped against the window.
“Are there feelings? It’s cool if there are, really. You guys are two of my best friends, I couldn’t be happier if you got together, I just want everyone to be upfront and on the same page. If you like each other, there’s no reason to play around” he pulled to a stop outside of Zack’s and they watched as he rolled out of the bed of the truck and offered a tired wave.
“We’re friends” Trini defended stubbornly. Jason shrugged and began driving.
“Okay”
Naturally, the conversation stayed with Trini. She thought about it at training. She thought about it at school. She thought about it every time Kimberly so much as looked at her from the corner of her eye. She thought about it at lunch sitting with the guys when she spotted her striding across the cafeteria to sit with them, a grin on her face and her eyes on Trini.
“Oh fuck. I’m in love with her” She only dimly caught the sound of Zack’s cackling laughter.
“You think? That’s been the danger since day one, crazy girl”
“I’m in so much trouble” Trini mumbled into her lunch.
For the first time in maybe a month, Trini didn’t go back to Kim’s house after training. She’d been acting weird since lunch and she was quiet as they sparred together. She might have even been avoiding Kim. It made her nervous. She tried to put it out of her mind and start her homework. Her parents were finally home anyway for the night, so maybe it was good that Trini wasn’t there. Calculus was hard enough without trying to keep it in her pants.
Around 7, the sound of the doorbell startled her out of focus. She listened intently as her mother answered the door. The visitor’s voice was quiet and indistinct, preventing her from getting any information on who it was. They were probably Mormons, but she still wanted to know.
“Kimberly? You’ve got a visitor” her mother called up the steps. She froze. Who was it? Literally no one she knew would ring the doorbell, much less use the front door. Slowly and cautiously, she descended the steps. There, in the doorway, looking more awkward than Kim had ever seen, was Trini. The girl was dressed in nice pants and a really nice yellow blouse. Her hair, still braided on one side, looked like it actually had product in it to stay looking nice. And of course there were flowers in her hands.
“Hi” she greeted. If not for her mother, Kim would have kissed her, no question.
“Hey. What’s all this?” Something told her not to make any sudden movements. She needed to be slow and let Trini do what she was going to. A door closing just sharply enough for her to hear announced that her mother had made herself scarce. Trini took a steadying breath before setting her shoulders and taking on the most determined look Kim had ever seen outside of Ranger work.
“Hear me out. I don’t want to be your last choice anymore. I kind of really like you and I think we should at least go on a date that I’m almost positive will go really well,” the determination slipped for a moment, “is that...okay?” Kimberly didn’t stop herself. She launched herself forward - probably, no definitely - crushing the flowers and kissed Trini.
“I know I said this was all as friends but I’ve been so into you for months”
“Well shit. Here I thought I was being romantic and taking a chance”
“C’mon Yellow, romance me”
“After you, Pink”