Disclaimer: insert your standard disclaimer here

Teaser: definitely a keeper

Spoilers: heavy on the innuendo; doesn't follow the series; several years into the future

K E E P E R

Sometimes life was perfect. Sometimes life wasn't.

It was like the universe's big, bad trick on them. Giving them a perfect moment, a gallant reprieve, only to have it lined with doubts and fears. No matter how perfect it seems, looking closer at it always reveals a marring scar.

Sydney Drew lays on the bed, a white sheet curls around her naked body. Glorious sweat that once was a sheen on her body has dried now and she watches him put on his slacks with half-confused eyes.

There had been a moment in her life when the universe stopped spinning on its downward slide and upward tilt. The entire earth had sighed, held its breath, and waited for her say the magick word to make it go again.

But the universe doesn't wait too long and when Sydney tried to keep her perfect moment perfect—forever—it started moving again and left her unprepared for the sudden motion. Now she can't regain her balance in the vortex of mashing bodies and twisting energy fluxes.

He doesn't look at her as he does the last button of his blue S.P.D. uniform. It doesn't hurt her like it had before.

Before it had and now it doesn't .Two years of it and sometimes people get used to the pain, even if it stills hurts, deep down. She's learned how to ignore it because she doesn't want to lose him.

Absently, she lifts her blonde, curly locks from her fresh, lovely face. Sunlight pours from the small window just above the headboard. She can't remember what the sunlight looks like coming in from her room. She hasn't slept in her bed for a long time now…

She remembers that night as if it was the only real moment of her life. The only time her lungs took in oxygen or her blue eyes were open to everything or when her actual heart beat with fervor against her chest.

It was late and she remembers being cold and young and alone. Alone and in love. Z's a sound sleeper and a kind roommate, but the silence was too much for Sydney that night. She escaped the small bedroom and wandered the halls, not sure what she was looking for, not sure if she would find it.

And then there he was, standing on the other side of the hallway she had stumbled down. They stood at opposite sides of the corridor like two gunslingers about to have a final showdown.

There was no way to tell who moved first. Maybe they moved at the same time. Maybe they didn't move at all and it was the universe that pushed them together, unable to take the silence of their eyes any longer.

All her life Sydney always knew she was in love with one man. When she had first came to the academy, young, fresh, and spoiled, no one had wanted to be friends with her. And she hadn't been allowed to eat with them or play with them or share their snacks. So she sat down by a tree, twelve and alone, and cried.

Then he was sitting beside her, handing her his snack, telling her to knock it off and smiling—oh, what a smile! He told her he was called Sky and his father had been a Red Ranger before him and that one-day he was going to be the best ranger there ever was. Sydney beamed up at him and agreed because she had a friend now and his name was Sky Tate.

She knew the minute she had first smiled at him that Sydney would love Sky more than anyone else. Her heart—her soul's heart—recognized him and accepted him and at twelve Sydney knew she would never want anyone else.

For six years she longed for him, for six long years she wanted him, secretly. It was a wonderful secret she had.

It seemed her entire life had led up to the moment where Sky took her in his arms and kissed her. The universe—for one glorious moment—stopped spinning and Sydney clung to Sky with the sudden cease in motion.

Just as the quickly as the universe had stopped, it started to spin again. Sydney and Sky were caught up in the movement, pushing their bodies together for balance, their lips seared together with heat and passion and love.

They ended up in bed, Sky's bed. Bridge and Jack had decided to bunk together and Z was sound asleep in Sydney's room. In a perfect moment, Sydney patched together a cocoon and warmth just for them. A perfect union that only they were privy to. Oh, she had felt so wonderful.

Sydney watches as Sky sits down on the bed they had shared not even an hour ago. He sits at the end of it, lacing up his boots. Sydney wants to reach over and say something, but she doesn't. In the morning she never has anything to say.

"You should get dressed," he tells her like he does every morning, without looking.

The first morning after Sky looked down at her from her position in the crock of his arms and explained to her how they couldn't tell anyone. Sydney accepted it because she knew how much trouble they would be in if anyone ever found out.

Fraternizing with the coworker is strictly frowned upon at the academy. They could be expelled, demoted. It would destroy Sky. All he had ever wanted to be was a ranger and Sydney kept silent to save him, and herself. Being a ranger had become everything to her, too.

No one knows about them, Sydney consoles herself. Or everyone pretends not to know. Z must have some idea. How could she not wonder where her roommate goes every night? How could Z not suspect when Sydney was absent from her bed early in the morning, as if she had never been there?

But Z never says anything. No one else ever does either. Sydney wonders if they all feel sorry for her. Sky pretends that she doesn't even exist during the day. They're just partners when the sun is up.

After that first night Sydney swore she would never go back to Sky. She would pretend it never happened, she told herself. But she didn't go many nights before she was in the dark with Sky again, kissing him as if her life depended on it. Maybe it did.

Sky looked ashamed for the first few months, as if he had violated her somehow. He had even apologized. Sydney had been near tears and begged him never to say it again. He had promised.

They accepted that they needed each other, needed the sex and the passion and the love. The love they never whispered to each other. Sydney because she didn't want to bear her heart so easily and Sky because he knew there were so many things wrong with it.

Now Sydney wonders if it's all a mistake. She wonders if Sky is just using her. If maybe he could never love her. If she can keep him. Can she keep him when she begins to think she never had him?

But she loves him. Even when she tells herself not to, she does. She loves Sky because it's her destiny. In the meshing bodies of the universe, their atoms are destined to meet and clash and fuse together.

Does he, she wonders, feel that way, though?

When Sky turns to face her, there's something different on his face. Normally in the morning if Sky did look at her, it was in a neutral way. As if he had closed himself off to the emotion he would normally feel.

Then he kisses her.

Sydney gasps underneath him, surprised. They never kiss in the morning. They never touch. It's almost a ritual. By not touching in the morning, they can pretend in never happened in the day.

But Sky is touching her and it's so wonderful. Sydney gasps beneath him as his fingers travel up her stomach, splaying across her abdomen. He breaks away and she whimpers. He trails hot kisses over her face, grips her right hand.

Then he lifts his head and smiles into her face. Sydney's heart is exploding in wonderful shards of iridescence lights. She wants to scream, she wants to dance, she wants to hold him to her and beg him not to leave her.

"Oh, I love you," she says out loud without thinking about it. Panic threatens to enter but she pushes it away because it's the truth. Oh, she loves Sky.

"I love you," he tells her and then stands. She watches him go, watches him leave the room with a smile on his face. She stays and relaxes on the bed, happy and giddy and half-crazy all at once.

Only then, only when he is gone, does she feel the tiny object in her palm. Sky had pressed it there when he had kissed her. She unfolds her fingers and brings the tiny object in front of her face, allowing the light to catch it.

And she smiles as if she had never smiled before.

Sighing in pure ecstasy she lowers it back down, cradling it against her bosom. The tiny jewel cuts into her skin lightly, but it only intensifies her joy. Her ring finger closes over the gold band.

A ring. Sydney sighs again and curls into the bed, inhaling Sky's wondrous Sky smell. And she laughs, deeply and joyfully, not caring who hears. And then she lifts her head from her pillow and goes to get dressed like Sky suggested she did. Then she looks at the spot where the love of her life had once stood and slips the ring onto her fingers.

"Sky," Sydney whispers in awe. He surprises her again. She grins and looked down at her ring, the ring Sky gave her. She laughs.

Definitely a keeper.

Word Count: 1965

Time: twenty minutes

Beta: none

Couples: Syd/Sky

Genre: romance/angst

Status: one-shot (complete)

Author: Lizzy Rebel

Characters/Style: Sky/Syd, fluffy, semi-angst

Notes: Yet again, with the seven-year-old. I really should stop, non? Anyway, like I said, this doesn't follow the series since I haven't seen the newest episodes. And I don't know their real ages so I mostly made generalization. Oh, and I don't know how the Academy works so I pretended it was like a boarding school.