Chapter Text
Trini didn’t even know there was a club in Angel Grove. And there wasn’t, really, so much as there was a seedy shack with dim lights and a bar. She had said as much after tapping ‘Images’ on her phone, to which Zack had responded, “That’s what a club is, Trini,” with a patronizing emphasis on her name, and she had punched him in the arm.
But Jason and Kim and Zack had all been to Winged (halo over the ‘i’) and, while she didn’t trust Zack, Jason and Kim said it was decent enough. Said there was good music and that they didn’t card, and on Saturday’s there was actually a line. A line. In Angel Grove. Billy had laughed.
Trini had never been to a club but she didn’t think it would be too different from what she’d seen on TV. It seemed, at least, that if you played your cards right, things could go very well for you. Hands were more likely to wander in a place where the darkness prevented you from staring your mistake in the face. Add in alcohol and you could have the time of your life, and Trini was looking to have the time of her life.
Trini’s stomach had started twisting when she was around Kim to the point that even she, in all her bullheadedness, was having a hard time playing it off.
She had seen this coming. Had seen it right about the time two forks had sparred over the last bit of a doughnut. Being tasked with saving the world had helped push that to the back of her mind. But then Rita was gone and summer was here and there were Ranger bonfires and Ranger swims and Ranger cookouts and THEN there were girl-only Ranger bonfires and girl-only Ranger swims and, well… Trini had seen this coming.
And Trini did not do straight girl crushes. She also didn’t do straight-girl-but-she-may-be-bi-if-I’m-her-type-maybe crushes. But try as she might, Trini couldn’t think her crush away. And sometimes, like after they had taken down a rampaging monster that they all agreed looked like a giant ant, and Kim’s visor had flickered back and she’d smiled in battle-crazed delight and run and jumped and slammed into Trini, wrapping her legs around Trini’s back and her arms around her neck, yelling their victory, Trini would let herself acknowledge that maybe she didn’t want to.
But they were the Power Rangers and Trini was only eighteen and honestly couldn’t a girl have a crush that didn’t risk fracturing a team of world guardians? Why couldn’t she just like the cute, red-headed barista that always drew a heart beside her name on the coffee cup? Or used to draw a heart on her coffee cup. Now that she thought of it, the red-headed barista had stopped doing that. Damn. She had an impossible crush and no game. Which brings her back to Winged (halo over the ‘i’).
Zack had said if you had a body like hers (he’d held up both hands to fend off her punch), then you didn’t need much game at a club.
She sighed and pushed herself off of the couch. She’d better get ready.
///
The majority of her wardrobe was on her bed. It had gotten there after she had picked it up off of the floor, pulled it on, critiqued it in the mirror, and then thrown it on her comforter. Jesus. It’s not like anyone cared what she wore. And if they did, it’s not like she cared that they cared!
She groaned. This night of I’m-not-into-Kim was rapidly losing its credibility.
She knew what shoes she was wearing, at least. Black suede peep toe booties. Her mom’s favorite show was Project Runway, sue her, and a boot with a height bonus was something she could get behind. Plus, and she had only admitted this to Zack, she liked the way heels highlighted one’s muscle definition. So at least her legs looked good as she stood in the middle of her room in her underwear. (Black lace and matching, because a girl could dress up for herself.)
Her doorbell rang. She paused, listening as the door scraped opened and slicked closed. Her parents were out of town, were with the twins at a science fair in Phoenix, and she wasn’t supposed to be at Jason’s for another hour.
“Trini?” A voice floated up the stairs.
Kim. Of course. She scrambled around for some clothes as footsteps started up the stairs.
“Sorry, I texted you I was coming. I was already ready and bored so I thought–“
“Yeah, no problem, give me a sec–“ She didn’t have time to do the zipper dance needed for these shorts. Skort? Whatever.
“–or your hair or something–“
Trini gave up on the zipper and instead clutched the leather together with her hand, turning towards her door just as Kim nudged it the rest of the way open.
Kim’s eyebrows rose as she looked Trini up and down. “I like the open flannel.”
Trini refused to blush. “Yeah well. I didn’t have much notice.”
“I texted you five times.”
Trini glanced to where her phone was charging on her dresser. “And I texted you zero.”
Kim rolled her eyes and leaned against the doorjamb. Trini refused to check out what she was wearing. (A tight red number that made Trini desperate for…something. She didn’t know what. Her fingers tingled.)
Kim’s eyes dropped again, inspecting Trini’s exposed torso. “So is that what you’re wearing?”
“No. Well, maybe. Why, is something wrong with it?” Trini moved to cross her arms, remembered that one hand was holding her shorts up, and ended up just linking one arm awkwardly across her chest. She cocked an eyebrow.
Kim’s lips pulled up at the side, “No. Just curious.”
Trini narrowed her eyes. “Well you can go be curious in the hallway. I have to find a shirt.”
Kim’s eyes flicked back down and her mouth opened like she was going to say something, but then she just tugged her bottom lip in with her teeth and turned.
Oh. The dress was backless.
“I’ll be downstairs,” Kim called.
Yeah she would.
She yanked off the flannel and kicked off her booties and hopped twice, tugging at the short’s zipper, until all of the teeth snicked shut. She walked over to the closet.
A practically transparent, dark blue (“I would say…cobalt,” Zack had decided when they saw it in the store) mesh shirt was one of the lone survivors of her outfit search. She tugged it off of the hanger and over her head.
///
“I like your smoky eye.”
“Thank you, Kim.”
“You’re welcome, Trini.”
Trini took her eyes off of the road to glare over at the passenger seat, where Kim was grinning sweetly back at her. Her stomach twisted.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
Trini looked back at the road as Kim turned up the radio and began to hum along.
///
The car crackled and popped in that weird ‘just parked’ way that cars have as Trini clicked it locked. Kim was leaning against the hood, waiting for her, one hand wrapped around the neck of a bottle in a brown bag.
“Ready to get smashed?” Kim asked.
Trini grinned and ushered Kim forward with a mock bow. “After you.”
They crunched up the gravel to Jason’s house. When Kim skipped up the porch stairs faster than Trini thought heels would allow to bang on the door and shout, “Open up, boys! The party’s here!” her swagger reminded Trini of how different their social circles had once been. It was…strange. She didn’t like it, so she tried not to think about it.
Trini shifted her weight from foot to foot until, without looking, Kim reached behind her and grabbed hold of her hand, tugging Trini to her side. She glanced at Kim out of the corner of her eye, but Kim just squeezed her fingers, gaze still patiently trained on the door.
Trini sort of hated Kim’s ability to read her. The Ranger Force, as Zack had dubbed it, was strong with them all, but it had only taken a few weeks post-Rita for Trini to notice how in tune Kim seemed to be with her especially. Trini had suspected her feelings were somehow amplifying the…signal, or whatever it was, and so when she’d first realized she’d tried to clamp it shut. There had been a strained three days where she’d only spoken in monosyllables to Kim at training. But then Jason had decided if she wasn’t going to play with one teammate, she wasn’t going to play with any, and had tossed her solo against twenty putties with stern orders to the others to not interfere.
Trini had crunched twelve into dust before one smacked her so hard upside the head that she was out for three minutes.
Kim had then spent the next week speaking only in monosyllables to Trini, until Trini had tackled her in the middle of the Pit and they’d rolled around for a few minutes. Kim had pinned her and things had gone back to normal.
Zack flung open the door. “Well, well, well! Ladies!” Zack wolf whistled. “Bringing your A game!”
Kim unceremoniously shoved him against the wall and stalked down the hallway, pulling Trini along. Trini smirked.
“Damn straight, Taylor,” she called over her shoulder. Two heavy footsteps later and she felt his arms wrap around her stomach and her feet lift off the floor, her fingers wrenched from Kim’s grasp. If Zack weren’t her friend she’d hate him.
“Zack–” She tried to kick his shins with her heels. “Zack I’m gonna kick your ass–“ She reached back, palm open to smack, but before she made contact he let her go with an, “Oof.”
She landed in a crouch and looked up to see him rubbing at his inner thigh while he eyed Kim warily. “Dude, a little close to the goods.”
Trini’s eyes darted between Kim’s unrepentant smirk and Zack’s wounded expression. Rangers, man. Like children. She stood up and punched Zack on the shoulder. “I bet I can shotgun a can of beer faster than you.” She turned and pointed at Kim. “Judge it, Kimmy.”
///
Jason out-shotgunned them both, which led to conciliation shots, which led to a band of tipsy Rangers gathered around the table playing Fuck You.
“…five, six, seven!”
They cheered as Billy wrenched the cup away and gasped for air. “This game is crazy, man.”
Trini laughed as he stepped backwards and collapsed into a kitchen chair, resting his head on the table. She leaned to her side, feeling warm and happy and blurred, just a bit, until she collided with Kim’s arm. Mmm, she loved Kim’s arms. She let her head loll onto Kim’s shoulder.
“Whoa whoa, head up, Billy. We haven’t even gotten to the club yet.” Zack swept the cards into his hands and clacked them on the table, straightening the deck. “No tired vibes here.”
Billy lifted his head only to cross his arms on the table and rest his chin on his forearms, his head now bobbing up and down with every word he spoke. “Why did we have to pre-game the game? We could’ve just bought drinks there.”
“Well, Billykins, then we’d all be broke and barely tipsy.”
Billy sighed. Jason was wiping down the table, smearing away the condensation rings. Kim’s phone dinged.
“The Uber will be here in five,” she said.
Trini wrapped her arm around Kim’s waist. She loved when Kim took charge.
Jason, who was now stacking their red cups, pointed them towards the door. “Let’s go.”
They filed out.
“And everybody make sure you have your wallet for the cover and drinks!”
Billy stopped abruptly in the middle of the hallway, hands patting his pockets. Kim stopped a moment later and Trini a moment after that, and suddenly she was in dangerous proximity to a lot of tan and toned skin. Shit.
She breathed out in a rush and saw goosebumps spark up Kim’s back, right up the knobs of her spine that stood out when she bent her neck like that, and Trini thought she might kiss them away if–danger! Danger! Bad. Bad thoughts.
She stepped back hurriedly–right onto Zack’s foot.
“Ouch!”
She grabbed him by the arm. “Is my breath cold?” she whispered to him, and then blew into his face.
He slapped his hand over his nose. “Jesus, how much ‘Crat did you have?”
She tightened her grip. “Is it?”
“No,” he said. Well that was…something. He stared at her. “You want a glass of water?”
She rolled her eyes and turned back around. Kim was leaning against the wall, patiently watching Billy pat himself down.
Goosebumps meant attraction, right? Or maybe it just meant someone was breathing down your neck, Trini. She rolled her eyes. Should she–should she flirt with Kim? No. She was here to do the exact opposite. Well, sort of opposite. Everything but that, basically. Shit Kim looked good in that dress.
She stared at the tan skin flashing through the thigh slit. That line of Kim’s quad was something she wouldn’t mind tracing with her tong–whoa, no drunken lusting.
Trini hastily tore her gaze upwards, only to find Kim already watching at her, smug smirk in place.
She swallowed and looked away. Nice first move, player.
When Billy triumphantly held his wallet up in one hand and continued towards the door, she let Zack skip in front of her.
///
The Uber was a car and they were one seat short.
(“You should’ve preffed an SUV, Kim.”
“We’re in Angel Grove, Zack.”)
And that’s how Trini ended up sitting on Kim’s lap.
She scowled as she looked out the window.
“Awww, is TrinTrin giving us the cold shoulder?” Zack pinched her arm.
Trini whirled around and grabbed his hand, pressing his fingers back towards his wrist. He yelped.
“Damn, Crazy Girl.” He stared at his hand as he shook it out, but then smiled up at her. “I forgive you for your drunken aggression. You’re still my bro.”
Trini rolled her eyes, leaned back, and had sunk almost flush against Kim before she shot back upright, remembering through the alcohol that she was sitting on the lap of the girl she liked. Or–used to like. She was over it.
Her face burned as Zack snickered beside her.
Kim wrapped her arms around Trini’s waist and pulled her backwards. “Better?”
Trini, spine now ramrod straight to keep from touching Kim, neck tilted awkwardly so that her head didn’t hit the ceiling, nodded.
Billy turned around in the passenger’s seat to survey the back row. “Jason, I’ll pay for your cover since you hosted.”
Jason gave him a thumbs up and then leaned around Zack so that he could see everybody’s face. “So what’s the plan for when we get here?”
“Umm, we dance, we kiss pretty girls, we go home.” Zack put out his palm to high five Trini.
She rolled her eyes as she slapped it.
Jason grinned. “Solid.”
///
If she didn’t have Ranger durability, her feet would probably be hurting by now. And they weren’t even through the doors yet.
“When you said line, I thought you meant about ten people.” Trini stood on her tiptoes and tried to count how many more there were waiting before them. “I didn’t realize all of Angel Grove would show up.”
“I didn’t even know Angel Grove had this many teenagers,” Zack said.
“Well technically, they’re young adults,” Billy corrected. “As are we.” And then he reached into his pocket and pulled out five fakes, spreading the I.D.s between his thumb and pointer finger like a Yu-Gi-Oh player.
Jason pushed off of the wall and stepped closer. “Nice magic trick reveal thing there, Billy.”
“Thanks. I practiced.”
Billy passed out the cards.
Zack squinted down at his. “Zack Thompson. And I’m 22. Nice.”
“I thought it would be better to keep the same first name. That way we won’t mess up if we order drinks as a group or something.”
Jason nodded. “Good thinking.”
Trini was inspecting her card, wondering if she could get Billy to put this headshot onto her actual license, when Kim put her chin on her shoulder. It was a testament to the alcohol that she didn’t freeze up.
“Trinidad Rodriguez,” Kim read, and her breath tickled over the shell of Trini’s ear. “That’s a good one. And it looks like you’re…” and now Trini did tense, because she could feel Kim’s hand snaking around her hip, arm bracketing her waist so that she could tap the birth date on the I.D., “21.”
“Yep. Yep that’s…21.” Trini echoed, her eyes now watching Kim’s pointer finger slowly trace the edge of the card, back and forth. Something about the glide and twist was making her flush. She could smell the faint spicy tang of Kim’s shampoo, felt her hair tickling her shoulder and felt the hum of Kim’s body, centimeters away, and–surely this wasn’t platonic. Surely Kim didn’t think this was platonic. Not when she had Trini’s every nerve buzzing and that heat creeping up her neck and–
“Kim, what are you doing to Trini?”
Billy’s voice flickered through the haze, like a man speaking through three feet of water. Kim stepped back and suddenly she was cold. She looked up.
Just in time to see Zack leaning away from a wide-eyed, nodding Billy.
Her eyebrow twitched.
“Something to share with the class, Taylor?”
“That’s Thompson to you, Trini,” Zack said, and half of his mouth slid up in a smirk.
She stared at him. Her fingers twitched. Kim had her pulsing and a good punch went a long way in letting off steam.
Zack seemed to know what she was thinking because his smirk pulled into a full out grin.
Jason stepped in between them, seemingly oblivious, as he said, “Come on, guys, the line’s moving.”
Kim’s hand on her lower back, more than Jason’s urging, convinced her to drop it. She stepped forward.