Author's Note: This is apparently what happens when I try to write Trini/Billy. Five drabbles, 150 words each.
-x-
I. Farewell
It's a hard pill to swallow, but there's no way around it. It's not something she ever foresaw, but there it is. She pretends it makes sense, it doesn't hurt, she understands.
They've been apart for ages, going about their lives on opposite sides of the planet, working in their own way for the greater good. But it was always only opposite sides of the same planet.
Aquitar, they called it, this place where he's going. A phone call, a foot-note, and she didn't even hear it from him; it was Jason that called to give her the news.
It's not like he's dead, she tells herself, but it seems every bit as heart-breakingly final.
Tears slip down her cheeks. It's starting to sink in: Billy is gone, and it's entirely possible that she will never see him again.
-x-
II. Stars
She once came into possession of a small telescope; astronomy has become something of a pastime over the years. It's one of the few things she's never pursued in earnest, but on balmy summer nights when the skies are clear and the stars are bright, she'll turn the old thing up to the heavens and peer about and wonder.
And eventually her mind always wanders its weary way back to the same question.
Which way to Aquitar?
She never bothered to ask; she figures wondering is better than knowing. It gives her something to do on nights when she's alone and what-ifs are gnawing holes in her heart.
She holds possibilities and maybes deep inside and knows that she's being foolish. She really should have let go a long time ago, and yet she still holds out hope.
Maybe one day he'll come back.
-x-
III. Memories
When she was young, she thought that they would be together forever. That was just what friends did. And these were more than friends; they were Power Rangers.
But in the real world it isn't quite so simple. The Power that brought them so close together, that made them into superheroes instead of just teenagers, drove them apart in the end. Each of them had his or her own path to follow, and these days those paths don't seem to cross so much as they used to. One day they may stop meeting altogether.
Or maybe, she thinks with a self-deprecating laugh, it will bring them all back together in the end. Maybe their adventures never really ended, maybe this separation is just an interlude. Maybe, maybe, maybe...
After all, she has no way of knowing what the future will bring.
And maybe it's better that way.
-x-
IV. Complicated
It's late, but she can't seem to stop staring at the sky. The moon's face is hidden and the stars spin in their slow dance; Kimberly sits beside her and doesn't understand.
"You're getting married tomorrow. Why the sad face?"
She can't explain, so they sit together in quiet contemplation of the heavens. Rangers lead charmed lives; disappointment is an unwelcome intruder. She supposes she is happy, in her own way, but this... it's complicated.
She doesn't regret the choices she's made, and it's not that she ever really thought he would be the one waiting for her at the altar, but she always assumed he would at least be there to see her get married. But he's not.
She thought that somehow he'd know, that he'd come.
Trini sighs. "I wish he could be here."
"Who?"
-x-
V. Forget-Me-Not
As time slips by, she thinks less and less about the past. She turns her face toward the future and she does her best not to look back; one thing she's learned is that you can't change the past, no matter how hard you try. It shapes who you are, how you think and all the things you regret... and in spite of that, it's beautiful.
She wouldn't trade her memories for anything, wouldn't want to forget a single one of the people she misses each and every day. They've moved on, they have their own lives - a very important one of them isn't even on planet Earth anymore - but they all still live in the same universe.
She looks up at the night sky, that dark abyss, and knows: she's never going to see him again... and somehow, that's okay.