Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers. If I did…..things would have changed a long time ago.

Authors Note: Thanks to all of you who reviewed the last chapter! I really appreciate the feedback. More notes at the end…..for now…on with the story!!!!!

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(At the lake; Nick and Maddie)

5:00 a.m.

Sunshine can be a beautiful thing. Its warm inviting nature is always a welcomed distraction from the everyday business that the world goes through. But that was in the daytime when everyone was awake; it wasn't at 5 in the morning when the sun was just beginning to rise. Now normally sunrise wouldn't bother Nick or Maddie seeing as they normally slept in their own rooms with curtains to block the bright rays of light but today, this was not the case this morning for the red and blue mystic rangers who had fallen asleep by the lake the previous night. As the two lay on the ground completely content in the others arms that blasted sunlight began to creep onto where they were situated. The two were by a log close to the lake; Maddie was curled up against Nick's right side and her head was currently using his chest as its pillow. Nick's arms were securely wrapped around Maddie's waist as the 2 slept on as the sun came to rest near them.

As the first rays hit his eyelids Nick had to groan at the feeling of being woken up so abruptly. He'd never been a heavy sleeper and it had taken just a few moments with the sunlight to arose him from a perfectly wonderful dream about Maddie. He'd dreamt that she was in his arms all of last night and everything had been perfect but now..the sun was waking him up from that perfect picture. Slowly he opened his eyes to the weak rays of light and looked around in complete confusion. This wasn't his room in fact this was as far from his home as he could get. He was lying on the forest floor by the lake and when he moved he felt something against his side. As he looked towards his right he smiled, Maddie was lying there completely asleep against him. Last night hadn't been a dream at all and for that Nick was grateful. He'd gladly take the loss of sleep and tiredness he would surely feel later on for this moment of peace with Maddie. He shifted a little bit and felt Maddie move beside him, the sun had apparently gotten to her as well and when he looked down at her again he saw her eyes open and looking at him.

Maddie was a little surprised to find that she was not in her own room when her eyes opened just a few moments ago. She was even more surprised to find that she had stayed in the forest last night with Nick. Yes she was surprised but not unhappy about this discovery. After all she'd gotten to spend last night in the arms of the man she loved nothing could really beat that. It also helped that she knew that all that had happened last night was sleep for both Nick and herself. When he looked down at her she gave him a soft smile and that smile widened when he leaned down a bit to give her a soft kiss. He pulled back and returned her smile with one of his own.

"Good morning Ms. Rocca." Nick smirked as he said that and watched Maddie's smile become even wider as she moved a little to get closer to him.

"And good morning to you Mr. Russell." Nick smiled at that and gave her another soft kiss, short and sweet. When they pulled back Maddie let her head rest on Nick's chest again while Nick's arms encircled her waist and brought her closer. It was still early and neither wanted this moment to end.

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(At the lake; Nick and Maddie)

7:00 a.m.

The two stayed like that for what seemed like hours watching the sunrise in silence; both enjoying the moment they were sharing. But sadly…..the moment had to end after only a short time. The sun was fully above the two when Maddie chose to look up at Nick and speak. "It's almost 7….we should probably…head back. I wish we didn't have to but….I want to change and shower before we have to be back at Rootcore..and I know you want to do those things to." Maddie gave him a smile when she was finished and looked at Nick waiting for a reply that he gave after a little bit of thought.

"You know me too well. As much as I want to stay here you're right we have to get ready and everything. I'll drop you off at your house and then go to my sisters so we can do what we need to. How about we give ourselves an hour and then I'll come get you and we can come back out here before everyone comes back…ok?" Nick took a deep breath after all of those words. Maddie just chuckled and untangled herself from his arms to stand up. She heard him groan and smirked down at him when she'd offered her hand down to him.

"That sounds like a perfect plan to me. But could we add something to it? Would you mind taking me by Xander's when you come to get me? I have a feeling that V didn't stay at home last night and I'm pretty sure she'll need some clothes to wear." Maddie smiled when Nick stood up next to her and just smiled. She wasn't exactly thrilled to be going over to Xander's but her sister would need clothes and they could talk….or at least Maddie could say she was sorry. Nick gave her that smile again and began to talk, "Of course we can do that. Let's head out." Gently Nick took her hand and together they walked out of the forest slowly and then into the real world.

It took them all of 15 minutes to get on the bike and back to Maddie's place where Nick let her off with a gentle kiss before leaving to get ready for the day himself.

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(Maddie's house; Nick and Maddie..again!)

8:00 a.m.

The second she'd stepped in the door Maddie had practically raced to her room in order to shower and get ready for the day. Normally she didn't need an hour to get ready but now she had to go through V's closet and find something her sister would actually wear. That was had been an adventure in itself and one that Maddie had not taken forever on. She herself had gotten ready within the span of about a half an hour and then picking out something for V had taken all of 15 minutes. Now here she was in her living room anxiously awaiting Nick's arrival; the one that was supposed to take place in around 15 minutes. At the thought of those 15 minutes Maddie grimaced for she knew they would most likely drag on for the longest time, but she could wait to see him; 15 minutes was better than 15 hours and for that she was grateful. So she sat on her couch and relaxed while glancing at the clock every 2 or so minutes. She sighed when she saw that Nick wouldn't be there for another 10 minutes but then she paused when she heard a knock at the door. She honestly didn't know who it could be because Nick would probably get here right on time if not later.

Slowly she got up from the couch and went to the door. When she took a look outside she felt herself smiling there was Nick standing at the doorway in jeans and a red t-shirt waiting for her. Instantly she rushed to the door and opened it to see his smiling face. Maddie instantly wrapped her arms around his neck and his arms went around her waist as the two shared a kiss instead of a hello. When they pulled back the smiles they'd had before were even wider. "So are you ready to go?" Nick's smile widened as she nodded and just went inside to grab the backpack and head out of the door to meet him once again. Smiling Nick took her hand and led her back out to his motorcycle and then helped her put the backpack on her shoulders. They met in one last kiss before they each put on helmets and got on the bike and headed straight towards Xander's apartment.

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(Xander's apartment; Xander and V)

8:30 a.m.

Xander groaned as he felt something stir him from the very nice dream he'd been having. He honestly didn't know why he was up because he knew his alarm hadn't been set the night before because one; he hadn't had the chance to given all that had been…happening between V and himself and two; today was his day off. Now normally Xander didn't mind getting up early; that came with working at a store that opened at 8 a.m. everyday but it on days off he liked to let himself sleep in. Today was a day that he especially wanted to sleep in because he was frankly exhausted after last night..and this morning. In fact both he and V hadn't actually fallen asleep until around 4 in the morning, which in Xander's mind entitled him to a little sleep this morning.

Unfortunately for Xander that was not the case this morning. His eyes were still closed but now he was wide-awake and wanting sleep to come back and claim him. Yet somehow he got the feeling he wasn't going to get anymore sleep today and he reluctantly opened his eyes. As he looked at the clock he groaned inwardly at seeing the time; yes this was going to be the start of a very long day indeed.

Normally Xander would have gotten out of bed seeing as he wasn't going to get back to sleep but today something stopped him; or rather someone stopped him. Xander had to smile as he looked at the person currently lying beside him. She'd fallen asleep in his arms but at some point in the night they both must have shifted and ended up apart from each other. Thinking only briefly about what he was doing Xander shifted a bit and wrapped his arms around her waist and brought V's body closer to his own. He felt his smile widen when he felt her head drift down to use his chest as a pillow as the rest of her body fit against his. He would be tired as hell later but at the moment he was alright. In fact Xander was perfectly set on staying right here for a very long time with V in his arms. This was a perfect moment and he wasn't about to ruin it, but just as he was getting truly comfortable again he heard something coming from the outer hallway or rather..the door.

"Who in the hell would be here at 8:30 in the damn morning?" Xander was rather annoyed at hearing the rather persistent knocking coming from his door. At the moment he was planning on ignoring the sound and hopefully upon this ignorance whoever it was would go away. But sadly the knocking persisted in fact it was even getting louder and Xander was getting even more annoyed. He felt V shift against him and when he looked at her he saw that her eyes were open and looking straight into his. This gave Xander yet another reason to hate whoever had come knocking on his door at this hour; they'd woken V up. Xander had honestly hoped that out of the two of them at least she would be able to sleep in considering it was her day off as well. But no that damned racket had to keep on going and keep them both up. However he refused to take that annoyance out on V not that he could have because as tired as she looked she was smiling at him.

Xander couldn't help but smile back down at her and he quickly gave her a kiss that she eagerly returned. The two pulled away after only a few moments and Xander was sure that the kiss would have continued if that incessant knocking hadn't been making noise throughout his apartment. For the second time that morning he was seriously considering ignoring the person and going back to what he and V had been doing. In fact it was almost a set plan on his mind until he felt V's body leave his side. Xander groaned when he looked at her and saw that she was actually sitting up in his bed with the sheet tucked firmly around her body. True to his word, Xander had made sure she hadn't needed his shirt at all after that tickle fight they'd had at some point last night. Xander looked up at her to see V looking down at him; in an instant he'd propped his head up onto his arm and began to speak.

"You know…I can just ignore it. Then you could lye down again and we could both try and sleep. And don't tell me that you don't need it because I know you do." Xander gave V a grin after that and she just had to smile back down at him. But still she didn't lye back down with Xander. V knew if she did that they would never ever get out of this bed and as much as she hated to admit it..he had to get that door. V was actually very annoyed with whoever was at the door right now and she wanted to let them know about it. That knocking had been a contributing factor to her state of drowsy consciousness at the moment. If someone went and answered the door then the knocking would stop and then both she and Xander could go back to sleep or something else along those lines.

"Xander as much as I like the sound of that idea I don't think that person is going to go away anytime soon. The sooner one of us goes and answers the door the sooner the knocking stops and the sooner we can try and sleep again..or…the sooner we can do..other things…" V let the last sentence trail off as she looked at Xander with a smirk.

She almost burst out laughing when he immediately sat up and started looking for his clothes and was out of bed and dressed in a matter of minutes. Well…he was almost dressed the one piece of clothing that was missing was the shirt he'd had on last night. The shirt that was currently laying beside the side of the bed that V had claimed as her own. She had to smirk at the site before her, yes V could definitely get used to seeing Xander with no shirt on when they were alone. As if Xander had read her mind he turned around and gave her that grin again before walking over towards her and leaning down to kiss her. In an instant her arms wrapped around his neck and Xander went from standing beside the bed to sitting in it with V practically sitting in his lap. His arms had wrapped around her waist to pull her closer as their tongues began to intertwine with the others. The two only pulled away because the need for air was too great and for a brief few moments all that could be heard within the room was the heavy breathing that the two were currently doing. After a few more minutes Xander reluctantly let his arms leave V's waist and stood up again. V groaned a bit but then shifted to look up at Xander who was smirking down at her.

"That was a taste of what's to come. I'll be back in no time that's a promise." V chuckled as Xander made to leave the room. When she realized he was actually going to walk out with no shirt on she had to call out and stop him. Xander instantly stopped and turned around to look at her, he had a very confused expression upon his face. V just rolled her eyes before reaching down onto the floor beside her and pulling up the aforementioned shirt. She gave him a smile and held the shirt out towards him.

"Xander..don't you want this first? As much as I like seeing you with no shirt on I'm not sure that I want anyone else seeing you like that." Xander just chuckled and walked back over to V and snatched the shirt out of her hands and threw it over his head. He smiled again and headed out of the room and towards that infernal knocking. V just sighed and rested her back against the headboard of Xander's bed. She adjusted the sheet around her body yet again before letting the cool wood of the headboard settle against her bare skin. Her eyes closed and she had to smile as she thought of last night, and this morning and just waking up here at Xander's. Everything had been absolutely perfect and she was actually not afraid to admit that she was really happy at this moment. She moved a little against the headboard before opening her eyes once again.

She glanced at the clock and noted that Xander had been gone for at least 10 minutes. It seemed to her that Xander had been gone too long; after all how long did it take for a guy to tell someone to leave? V thought that maybe he might need reinforcements out there so she decided to go and help Xander in some way. Silently groaning she got out of her very comfortable position and then with a little effort out of Xander's bed. She wrapped the sheets tightly around her body before deciding if she was going to go out into that living room with someone else there…she needed to be somewhat covered up. As if she was acting on instinct she went over to Xander's closet and grabbed the first t-shirt she saw and threw it over her head. V tossed the sheet back onto the bed, adjusted the shirt and then walked out of the room and towards the living room.

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(Xander's apartment; Xander, V, Nick, and Maddie)

8:45 a.m.

When Xander had gone to open the door he'd been expecting to find a neighbor of some sort standing there. What he had not been expecting to find was thoroughly annoyed looking Nick and Maddie standing at his door at 8:45 in the morning. Nick was casually leaning against the doorway with his arms wrapped around Maddie's waist. Xander glanced at Maddie and noticed that apart from being in Nick's arms she had a backpack in her hands. At this point Xander was now thoroughly confused because one; he hadn't been expecting Nick and Maddie to show up at his door today and two; he was exhausted so his mind was having some issues in putting two and two together. In fact he was so busy trying to figure out why the two were here that he barely even heard Nick speaking to him.

"Good morning sleepyhead. I hope we didn't wake you or anything." Nick said in a slightly sarcastic tone that he would normally never use. It was this exact tone of voice that caused Xander to snap out of his thoughts and focus his attentions on the two people in front of him. Now he really did think of them as his closest friends but at this moment he wanted nothing more than to make them go away. Mainly because when they went away he could go back to V and going back to V would be a very good thing indeed. Xander had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to go back to V that easily, mainly because they had stood outside of his door knocking incessantly for a good fifteen minutes. He thought about his options for a second more and then decided that in the end he would only have one; he would have to let them inside so they could talk to him. Xander only hoped that they wouldn't want to talk to V as well and that was because of how he'd just left her. Xander shook his head a bit to get his thoughts back in action before responding to Nick's rather cheeky comment.

"Well mate as a matter of fact you did. That's why it took me so long to get to the door, couldn't bring myself to get out of bed. Didn't get much sleep last night." Xander said with a smirk as he moved aside and waved them in. He almost laughed at the expression on Maddie's face as she walked into his living room; it held one of complete and utter shock. Xander honestly didn't know why though it wasn't as if he and V had left any doubt as to what they were going to be doing when Nick had taken Maddie away from them. However as he thought about it a little more he realized that his comment did seem a little brazen but he honestly didn't care that much at the moment. After all he was only surviving on 4 hours of sleep if not less at the moment.

Xander's gaze left Maddie's face and went to Nick as his best friend stepped inside right after his girlfriend. Nick just gave Xander an amused look that said he wanted details later. After all they were two guys and of course Xander would give as much information as he wanted to which at this moment wouldn't be that much. After all it was delicate subject matter and V would most likely murder him if she ever found out. Though Xander knew he would have to give Nick something when they were alone later; after all they were best friends.

He closed the door when the two of them were standing in his living room and looking right at him. Xander leaned back against the door and crossed his hands over his chest and for a good 5 minutes it seemed as if all three of them were waiting for someone else to start speaking yet no one did. Finally Xander just got tired of waiting and decided to talk in an attempt to make this meeting move along quickly.

"So might I ask what you two are doing here at such an early hour?" Xander said with a yawn. He glanced at Nick thinking that he would be the first one to speak but instead he got a surprise when Maddie was the one to answer his question.

"Well I came here to see V. I need to talk to her about the 'fight' we kind of had last night and I brought her some clothes. I thought she may need them." Maddie said with a slight smile on her face. She really was happy about Xander and V and she just needed to tell her sister that face to face. This way everything was out in the open for the both of them and hopefully it would go back to some kind of normalcy.

"In fact Xander where is my sister? I really do want to talk to her now." Maddie said while looking straight at Xander. She watched him pause for a moment before he began to speak himself.

"Well she's actually back in my……"Xander let this last statement trail off as his gaze left Nick and Maddie and went straight to the entranceway of the hallway that led to his room. Standing there in nothing but one of his t-shirts was V and that picture was enough to make Xander forget that he had two other people in the room with him. She looked absolutely gorgeous in that t-shirt and Xander made a mental note to let her wear it more often around here. She was just standing there looking at him and then at her sister and Nick in some shock. Yet that shock didn't stop her from speaking to him.

"I see my sister is the one who decided to wake us up at this ungodly hour." V said with a slight smirk on her face. Maddie instantly turned towards her sister's voice and Nick followed soon after. Maddie just looked at V and smiled brightly at her sister.

"Good morning to you to sis."

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Authors notes: Well there you are another chapter down!!! Yay! I must say that this fic has grown into so much more than what I'd planned. For that I couldn't be happier because it's been a joy to write so far. But if you couldn't tell already this fic is coming to close. Now its not ending for another 3 or 4 chapters but its getting there. This is just a heads up to all of you lovely readers out there.

Thanks again for the reviews I always appreciate the feedback.

And as always please review! They make me smile and inspire me!!!

Next Chapter: Discussions among 2 sisters and 2 best friends. Also will Xander and V tell everyone about their newfound relationship?? Stay tuned!!