Disclaimer: Saban own PR.
Spoilers for Episode 4: 'Sticks and Stones'
He's not jealous.
He's not.
He's the Red Ranger, for crying out loud, and he has the weight of the world on his shoulders, so why would he care about the fact that his teammate is flirting with his other (female) (pretty) teammate? Why would he care that Mike and Emily are always smiling at each other? Why would he care that Mike got to – er, he means, had to give her a piggy-back ride when she fainted?
Mia folds her arms and sends him a look. She's good at that sort of stuff. "You do realize that saying you're not jealous only makes you seem more jealous, right?"
Jayden glances away from her too-perceptive gaze, feeling his cheeks warm. "I'm not jealous," he insists, close to storming away like a petulant child out of sheer frustration.
Kevin snorts, turning away from the refrigerator. "Sure. That's why you haven't spoken to Mike or Emily in days."
"I've spoken to them!" Jayden says defensively.
"Outside of battle," Mia clarifies, sharing a smile with Kevin so quickly, Jayden almost misses it. "You used to spend pretty much every monster-free afternoon we had flirting with Emily."
"Shut up," Jayden grumbles. "It wasn't flirting. It was talking."
"Whatever you say, man," Kevin chuckles, clapping him on the shoulder on his way out of the kitchen. "If it helps you sleep at night."
Jayden turns back to Mia, who's clearly struggling with her laughter. "I talk to them," he tells her defensively. "Look, Emily's outside. I'll go talk to her right now."
"Have fun," Mia says teasingly, walking over to Kevin. "See you late."
Jayden takes a moment to will his blush away before steeling himself and walking over to where Emily is sitting on a porch swing, practicing her flute-playing like she always does when she has some free time.
"Pretty song," he remarks when she takes a break. Emily glances up, startled at the intrusion, but her eyes light up when she sees that it's him, and his heart rate picks up when she flashes him a smile.
"Thank you," she beams, setting her flute down. "What are you doing out here?"
Jayden grins. "Well, it's a beautiful day, so I thought I would spend it with…you."
The correct ending to his statement is 'a beautiful girl', and from the way her hazel eyes are dancing, he thinks she knows that. To his relief, she doesn't mention it and only gestures for him to join her on the porch swing.
"You haven't talked to me in forever, it seems like," she says, twirling her flute around in her hands, gaze trained on the instrument. "What changed?"
Jayden coughs. "Nothing. I just – um, yeah. Nothing."
Emily tilts her head, sending him a sidelong glance. "Have you been avoiding me?"
"No," he says quickly and, if he's being honest, rather unconvincingly. "Why would you think that?"
"Well, no matter how much you deny it, Jayden, you haven't talked to me since that last nighlock – Negatron," she explains, though she's not looking at him; her eyes are trained on the vast expanse of bright blue sky up above. "Any particular reason?"
He shakes his head, already feeling himself blush. "No, no. Honestly, Emily, I haven't been…avoiding you or anything. I've just been busy with training."
"We all have," she points out lightly, finally turning to look at him. "Does it have to do with the secret the monster mentioned?"
Jayden's eyes widen. "Wh—what? No. Nothing to do with that."
"I'm not mad," she tells him, reaching over to squeeze his hand. "I was just curious. It seemed like he struck a nerve."
He glances away. "He didn't. He was just a stupid monster. I – I'm not hiding anything, Emily."
She smiles, letting go of his hand. "I didn't think you were. You're not that kind of guy."
Jayden kind of wants to crawl into a hole and die. She's so trusting and innocent, and here he is, outright lying to her face. But there's no way he can tell her the truth, so he says, "Thanks. Um, so, how have you been since defeating Negatron?"
It might just be the worst non sequitur in the history of ever, but she accepts it with only a knowing look in response. "Not bad. Mike's been really sweet about the whole thing and I – Jayden, what's the matter?"
He glances down and sees that his hands have clenched into fists involuntarily. "Nothing," he says quickly, unclenching them and trying not to think about what had triggered the motion (Mike, Emily, Mike and Emily, flirting, laughing, double-teaming the monster, him giving her a piggy-back ride – never mind). "Don't worry about it."
Emily still seems concerned. "Are you sure? You've been acting weird ever since Negatron. I mean, Jayden, if you have a secret, you can tell us. We're your teammates – your friends."
Jayden swallows. "It's nothing. I just – so, uh, what's with you and Mike?"
"That's the second subject change you've done in as many minutes," she points out, smiling. "And there's nothing going on, if that's what you're thinking – we're just friends."
"I've heard that before," he teases, attempting to disregard the burning-hot feeling in his stomach that he knows Mia and Kevin would label jealousy. "You've been spending a lot of time together, haven't you? Between the monster double-team, the piggy-back ride, the talking – "
Emily shakes her head, blond curls bouncing, a smile on her face. "We're friends. Friends do that sort of stuff all the time."
His insides feel like lead. "So, you'd let me – or, uh, Kevin – give you a piggy-back ride?"
"Why?" she giggles, her tone teasing. "Do you want to?"
"Um," Jayden gulps, "I just – it's not that – I was just wondering about you and Mike, is all."
"You're not jealous, are you?" Emily asks him, tilting her head.
"No!" he insists, knowing already that his cheeks were turning red. "No, no, don't be silly. I'm not – why would I be – that's ridiculous."
"Just checking," she laughs, looking amused. "So, you want to give me a piggy-back ride?"
Jayden takes a moment to cool his blush, then flashes her a grin. "Only if pretend to be unconscious first."
"Hey!" Emily giggles. "I wasn't pretending – at first. And why does that matter here?"
"Well," he says slowly, glancing sidelong at her, "if I just randomly gave you a piggy-back ride, the others might suspect something's up."
She blinks. "Oh, yes, we wouldn't Mike to get jealous, would we?"
"Are you implying something?"
"Not at all."
Her smile sort of lights up his whole world (only, don't let the others know he's being so cheesy and poetic), and Jayden thinks that at least something good came out of this whole ordeal.
Especially considering he got to give her a piggy-back ride while she was fully conscious.
A/N: All right, as a Jayden/Emily fan, I can admit that Mike/Emily is pretty darn cute. But they also seem a lot like siblings, so, yeah, I'm still firmly on the J/E side here :D If you guys are, too, I hope you liked this enough to review!
Don't favorite without reviewing, please and thank you :)