On Fire (Power Rangers Samurai)

88 - Rare / Despairing

Antonio slammed the front door behind him as he entered the house.

He was lost somewhere between intense anger and a state of distraught, making him less aware of his actions.

If anyone else told him it was hopeless, it would be easier to not believe them.

But hearing it come from Jayden hit hard, putting into perspective how impossible the situation must have been.

Naturally, the urge to see Lauren fell over Antonio, prompting his feet to run him up to the room she was in.

He thoughtlessly drove the room's door open, causing a sudden thumping sound.

Lauren had been trying to sleep, but the abrupt commotion made her flinch and activated her instinct to fight.

Once she processed it was just Antonio bursting into the room, she settled down.

"I'm sorry." Antonio woke up, realizing his rashness disturbed her. "I should have knocked. I wasn't thinking."

Antonio turned awkwardly and prepared to walk away until he heard her weary voice say, "Come in."

He met her expectant eyes from over his shoulder, inviting him in.

He took a breath of relief and entered the room, slumping onto the side of her bed.

Still he sat rather far from her. And rather than facing Lauren, he looked straight ahead, out the window. Though all he saw was the tips of leafless trees and distant clouds in the sky.

"You can go back to sleep. Sorry if I'm bothering you." Antonio spoke to the window.

Lauren noticed that his eyes were a bit red and glassy as if he was close to crying.

It seemed that Antonio was shaken up by something, but she decided not to inquire about it.

"It's okay. I can't sleep anyway." Prior, Lauren had stayed up nearly all night.

On top of feeling sick and uncomfortable, she couldn't stop thinking heavy thoughts that kept her awake.

She wanted to sleep so bad that it drove her a bit crazy.

"How is your shoulder?" Antonio meant to ask for a while now.

"Okay." Lauren answered before considering how she really felt.

"I can't help but doubt that." Antonio chuckled to himself a bit. "I was stabbed around the shoulder area too."

"You were healed when we used that symbol on Mia." Lauren recalled the day she joined the rangers in battle, when Mia was rescued from the other world.

"When we first met..." Antonio smiled as he realized how much Lauren changed since then.

It was difficult for her to read or respond to the emotions of others after being sheltered and conditioned.

She seemed cold and unfeeling. But being with the rangers brought out more of what was lying underneath her stony exterior.

"Before the healing symbol, my shoulder hurt so badly." Antonio thought back to when he was in the hospital. "It must be much more difficult for you after putting all of your energy into that sealing symbol."

Antonio knew that Lauren gave her all to the sealing symbol, everything down to her very spirit.

Her failure was devastating, bringing her to the peak of physical and mental exhaustion.

"For me, someone else helped me feel better when it hurt the most... Closeness from someone I loved made the pain disappear..." Antonio spoke more about himself without thinking it through.

Even if he was emotional and Lauren was a great listener, it felt like a random and selfish thing to go on about.

Antonio's mind jumbled up as he tried to think of some way to change the subject. But his heart went still from an unexpected but sweet sensation of warmth.

Lauren had crawled up to him from behind, resting her weight on his back. Her arms gently slipped under his, wrapping around his chest.

As Lauren laid her head on Antonio's shoulder, she immediately remembered the scent of his eucalyptus shampoo. Though only now she realized that she missed it.

Antonio froze. A part of him kept denying that Lauren was hugging him.

An act of affection from her was just too rare.

A minute passed as the two of them remained comfortably still, under a calm curtain of silence. Lauren finally spoke up.

"I heard you when you told Kevin that you liked me." Lauren's confession buzzed in Antonio's ear, coming as a second surprise. "I wish I was stupid enough to not know what that means."

A tear fell by Antonio's collarbone and ran down his skin, but it wasn't his.

"Anyway, you're right." Lauren's voice wavered for the first time as she tightened her hold on him. "The pain disappeared."

Antonio perfectly understood what she was insinuating. Her message brought out the rain of tears he had been holding in.

Lauren was terrified by how emotionally overwhelmed she felt. She became more and more lost as Antonio cried harder.

But she was distracted from her worries when Antonio reached for her hands, where they met around his chest. His hand was warm as he steadily placed it above hers.

Neither of them dared to face each other. Both were too afraid to meet the despairing look on the other's face.

We love each other, don't we?