Series presented by: Pink-Green-White-4ever
Challenge: Friends
Last Revised: October 16, 2005
Summary: They've always been more than friends.
Disclaimer: I don't own 'em, wish I did.
Genre: General
Rating: T, for now.
Ship: Tommy/Kimberly
AN: Done in response to the Ars Amatoria's Ranger Romance Themes Challenge. Yeah, I know, everyone was wondering when Tommy and Kim would pop up. - - grins - -So I'm taking a stab at it. - - crosses fingers - - let's hope it turns out ok. These won't be in any particular order, just random moments between them, or from each of their perspectives.Note: May 2006 - Much thanks must go to Etcetera Kit who came up with the new name, Trusting Starlight, to replace the old name, which was Theme Challenge: Tommy and Kimberly. THANKS EK!
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Friends. It was a simple enough term. She had lots of friends – Trini, Zack, Jason, Billy, Rocky, Adam, Aisha, Katherine, the other cheerleaders and gymnasts at school, other classmates, heck, some days she even considered Bulk and Skull sorta like friends, but she'd never really admit to that one. Chalk it up to being a teenage girl, a popular teenage girl. But when it came to Tommy Oliver, she wasn't sure how to quite spin the whole 'friends' thing with him.
Her friendship with Tommy hadn't exactly started out normal, or at least it had until Rita had gotten involved and turned it into a royal mess. However, a week later, and the gorgeous new student to Angel Grove High had joined her circle of friends, as well as the ranks of her fairly new team.
Now, most people would have been pretty shaken up by what had transpired between the newest edition to the Ranger team and the other members of said team, but she hadn't thought twice about welcoming him with open arms. She had recognized, just as the team had, and even Rita had, that there was something special about Tommy. Granted, he was a great fighter, he handled himself expertly in battle with the putties, not to mention he'd taken to his Dragon Zord like a duck does to water, but under it all, there had been something else there that had captivated her from the moment she saw him – and it wasn't just cause he was cute.
No, there was just something about Tommy that pulled at her, and she wasn't quite sure how, or what it was. Of course, she hadn't really started recognizing that fact until that afternoon by the lake, when after the loss of his powers the first time they'd finally spilled months of long kept feelings to one another. Their confessions had culminated in a sweet kiss and Tommy asking her to the Spring Dance.
As clichéd as it sounded, she had realized she was falling in love with him that day. She hadn't told him, and they'd continued to be friends for months afterward, but something had changed that afternoon. Something had changed her, for the better, and even for the worse.
Even as their love grew, their friendship remained constant and unwavering. And then came her accident, and her chance to leave Angel Grove to follow her dreams, the ones she'd made before his friendship had become so vital to her very existence.
Everyone knows about the letter she wrote, each of her friends, including Kat, having called or written to find out what had happened, but the only ones she'd ever told the truth to were Jason, Trini and Aisha. As much as she loved him, as much as she had wanted to spend the rest of her life with Tommy, something had changed in her when she'd left Angel Grove.
She'd always believed in the old saying – if you love something, let it go, and if it comes back to you, it was yours all along, if not, it was never yours to begin with. So she'd written the most painful letter of her life and had broken all ties to him. She hadn't lied, completely, about her feelings for him, but she was scared. When was it too much?
When did a friendship become too one sided? That's how she felt. She felt their love hadn't been balanced by their friendship – she had become so totally and completely dependant on his friendship, and ultimately his love, to forge ahead in her new home. So she had let both go.
When she'd seen him during the Murianthias incident, she'd been so confused by so many emotions that she'd simply closed herself off from him and had stayed close to Jason, Rocky and Adam. Her friendship with him was gone, she could see that plain as day. The hope that even that small part of them had survived her letter had been taken the moment she'd looked into those deep brown eyes of his. She had bitterly understood in that singular moment one certainty – they'd always been more than just friends – and now they were nothing, hardly even acquaintances.
She hadn't realized it, but the day she'd let him go, a piece of herself had died. She dated, she physically loved, but she never had the courage to forge friendships like the one she had with him with the men she chose to be with, not the type of friendship that could blossom into what she'd given up. She didn't pine for him like a lovesick teenager; she simply accepted the fact that what was was what had been meant to be. She'd given up a part of herself, and there was no getting it back.
They'd always been more than friends, and while she missed his love, she missed his friendship more. She missed having the one person who knew her so intimately, so completely, by her side, day after day. She'd taken that for granted, and now she mourned its loss. Deep in her heart, though she knew they'd never again be friends outright, she would always be his friend, and he hers, if only deep in her heart.