Here it the first new chapter of this story for 2009! This promises to be a good one!

Disclaimer: Power Rangers, Disney, I own NEITHER! DAMN! LOL

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Chapter 33: Confessions and Tears

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Vida was currently in her room sitting on her bed with her cd player on and her back against the headboard. She, Maddie and Syd were having a blast with their slumber party but decided a while ago that they needed sleep. They were tired and sore from the battles they had each faced with two different monsters that day. The threesome had stayed in Maddie’s room for a bit but then Nick called. Giggling, Vida and Syd had opted to leave the room so the mermaid ranger could have some privacy. The two pink rangers had only stayed long enough to hear the plan Nick had for tomorrow and then the two rushed out of the room as soon as Nick and Maddie started to talk about ‘other’ things. After showing Syd to the guest room and making sure she was alright, V quickly retreated to her room and her music. She barely even noticed the storm brewing outside and had literally almost fallen out of her bed when she heard something tapping at her window. She quickly ripped her headphones off and turned her head towards the balcony window where she saw poor Xander standing with a backpack over his head as a makeshift umbrella.

“What in the Hell is Xander doing out here in the middle of the night? Tonight of all nights!?” She thought to herself.

She rushed over to open the door and let him in. As confused as she was and as mad as she was at him for interrupting her nightly music ritual, she wasn’t going to let the poor guy freeze to death. The moment she opened the door, Xander, who was wringing wet from head to toe, ran inside and dripped all over her carpet.

“Thanks, V. I was afraid you didn’t hear me knocking.” Xander shivered as he wrung out his green shirt.

V groaned as he made an even bigger puddle in the middle of her carpet, but figured that it wasn’t important. She knew something happened at his place; something bad. So bad that he braved getting hit by lightning to come to her window.

“Xander, your soaked to the skin. What happened?” Vida asked as she took his backpack.

“It started raining when I was walking over here. I guess, I just didn’t get here fast enough.” He smiled over at her and she couldn’t help but smile back.

Xander was clearly one of her closest friends, despite the fact that he got on her nerves constantly. She sighed as she looked him over; the poor guy was completely drenched and looked quite cold. She shook her head as she made her way to the bathroom that she and Maddie shared. She went to the linen closet and grabbed a couple of large towels and a couple of blankets for her waterlogged friend. On her way back the her room, she passed by her sister’s and heard her giggle at something Nick said to her over the phone. V smiled proudly knowing that she and the rest of the girls had done the right thing in pushing those two together. Once she entered her room, she threw Xander the towels and placed the blankets on the end of her bed.

she’d grabbed and put the blankets at the end of her bed.

“Here; dry yourself off before you catch your death of cold.” V ordered gently.

Xander caught the towel and immediately began to dry his hair.

“Thanks so much, V. You have no idea how much I appreciate this.” He replied under the pink towel.

V chuckled. As annoying as he is at times, when push comes to shove, there was nothing she wouldn’t do for him.

“It’s not a problem. After you’re done, go in the bathroom and take those wet clothes off. I’m going to see if I can find something of my dad’s for you to wear, alright?” V offered.

“V, you don’t have to do that. I’ll just dry myself off; that’ll be fine.” Xander replied. He didn’t want to her to go to so much trouble, but V wouldn’t hear of it.

“Forget it! If you stay in those wet clothes, you’re just gonna get sick. Now, no more arguments...march!” V ordered a bit more firmly.

Xander didn’t want to temp fate any more by disobeying.

“Yes, ma’am.” The green ranger chuckled.

Without another word of argument, Xander headed for the bathroom while V made a beeline for her parents’ bedroom. As she entered the spacious master bedroom, she thanked God that her parents had decided to go out of town this week.

“Glad Mom and Dad decided to go on that second honeymoon. Otherwise, I’d have a lot of explaining to do.” She thought grimly.

She went into her father’s chest of drawers and pulled out a pair of sweat pants that she thought Xander could fit in, unfortunately all of her dad’s shirts were either with him on the trip or in dirty clothes hamper. She headed back to her bedroom and knocked on the bathroom door she ordered the Aussie to change in.

“Xander, I’ve got a pair of sweat pants here, but no shirt. Will that be alright?” V asked from the other side of the bathroom door.

“Yeah, that’s cool, V. I’m not picky. Right now, I’m just happy to be getting some dry clothes.” Xander answered as he dried off.

V opened the door just enough to hand Xander the pair of sweat pants. The green mystic wuickly put them on and hung his wet clothes on the shower rod. When he was finished, he walked back into V’s room and sat in her desk chair. V knew Xander and knew that he wouldn’t do anything this stupid unless there was a good reason behind it. Letting her curiosity get the better of her, she asked.

“Okay, Xander; spill. Why in the Hell are you at my house...in the middle of the night...in the middle of a thunderstorm?!” She asked with folded arms.

Xander watched as the pink DJ sat down on her bed. He flashed his winning smile at her before answering.

“Well, you see...I...kinda left my house.” He immediately closed his eyes as he waited for his friend’s voice to reach an octave.

“You did what!? Why did you do a boneheaded thing like that?” V inquired.

Xander knew his explanation would sound far fetched, but at this point, he didn’t care. It was the truth and if V didn’t believe him, that was her problem. He was prepared to go sleep in the bus station if need be.

“It’s Bridge! V, I seriously think he wants to kill me and those glares...that was the last straw!”

V just shook her head in disbelief.

“I knew he’d make a mountain out of a mole hill.” She thought before speaking. “Well, if you wanna get technical about it, you did bring that upon yourself.”

“I know, okay. I get it. But still, it was driving my up the damn wall! I had to get out with what little sanity I had left.” Xander explained as he put his head in his hands and let out a sigh.

“So, why did you decide to come here of all places?” V wondered aloud.

“Because, I knew you wouldn’t kick me out. You won’t, right?” He asked pitifully. The look he had in his eyes tugged at Vida’s heartstrings.

“No, I’m not going to kick you out of my house when it’s pouring outside. But, in hindsight, you really shouldn’t have left like that.” V lectured.

“I know. But, you weren’t there so you wouldn’t understand. All that aside, can I crash here tonight?” He begged.

V scrunched her lips in thought. Yes, he was a pest and yes, he acted like a complete and total chicken, but he still needed her help.

“I guess he can face the music in the morning. No sense in speeding up his murder.” V thought.

“Okay, I guess you can stay in my room...but you’re sleeping on the floor. Got it?” V ordered.

Xander’s face lit up as his streaky haired friend became his angel.

“Oh, thank you, V! You’re the greatest! Have I ever told you how much I love you? The floor is just fine. Oh, I could just kiss you right now!” Xander rambled excitedly making V scoot back a few steps.

“If you really loved me, you won’t.” She smirked. “I’m going to go throw your clothes in the dryer and before you say you’ll do it, think about the last time you tried to use the dryer.” V reminisced.

Xander thought for a moment and cringed. He remembered when they were kids and he offered to put the clothes in the dryer to get on V’s mom’s good side. He remembered hearing the matriarch say that she had forgotten to add the fabric softener and decided to earn some brownie points by doing that little favor. He grabbed the wet clothes and put them in the large front loading dryer. Remembering the forgotten softener, he grabbed the bottle of Downy and measured one capful. When he was certain it was enough, he threw the blue liquid into the dryer with the wet clothes, shut the door and turned the dryer on high. An hour later, he heard V’s mom screaming at the top of her lungs about her clothes being ruined. The kids ran into the laundry room and saw that all of the clothes that she pulled out were covered with a thick, bubbling, blue gel. Needless to say that Xander was never allowed to do laundry...at anyone’s house again.

“Hey how was I supposed to know you can’t use liquid fabric softener in the dryer?” He asked shrugging his shoulders.

“Just shut up, Xander. If you were around all those years ago, they Maytag Repairman would still be working!” V huffed.

Shaking her head, she gathered his clothes and went downstairs to quickly throw them into the dryer. As she ran back upstairs, she went to her room and found Xander back in her desk chair.

“Thanks again, V. I really appreciate this.”

“No problem. Hey, do you want to come downstairs and have a cup of hot chocolate with me? I could use something warm on a night like tonight.” V offered.

Xander might be male, but he never turned down free hot chocolate.

“Lead the way, my beautiful friend.” Xander accepted.

And if memory serves, do you still take five marshmallows and 2 squirts of whipped cream?” V asked smiling.

“You know me too well, Princess.” Xander smiled.

Xander was nothing, if not charming. He ran to the bedroom door and opened it for Vida like a true gentleman, bowing as she walked past him. She had to chuckle. She already agreed to let him stay the night and he was still sucking up to her. Xander just continued to smile as the pair went downstairs to the kitchen.

The two lifelong friends stayed down there for about an hour, just talking and laughing and reminiscing. They got to catch up on a lot of things they missed out on over the last few months and, in all honesty, neither one of them could remember the last time they’d laughed so much. V honestly couldn’t believe the last time she’d felt so comfortable and then it came to her. Earlier that night in Xander’s arms, she felt completely relaxed and she liked that feeling.

Xander was having a great time as well; in fact, it was almost as nice as earlier that evening when the two were dancing. She felt right in his arms and that was a completely new experience for him. They both broke off the conversation they were having and got lost in their own thoughts until a loud clap of thunder snapped the two rangers back into reality.

“Wow! Look at the time! We really should be getting some sleep.” V stammered.

Xander was struggling to get his train of thought back on track and hearing V’s statement helped a little.

“Y-yeah. Don’t want to be late for work in the morning.” Xander stuttered.

“Oh, yeah. That reminds me. Who’s picking up Bridge tomorrow?” V asked.

Xander cringed visibly. He was having a fine time and she just had to ruin it by bringing up his roommate’s name.

“Well...uhhh...I was kinda hoping you would swing by my house and get him. Please? I’d ask Alli, but if I call her again...and at this hour, I really will die tomorrow.” Xander said timidly.

V started laughing as she and Xander headed back upstairs.

“Yeah, I’ll swing by. Just remember to call and tell him we’re coming, alright?” V reminded. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he conveniently forgot. But then again, Nick has that covered so...” V thought with a small grin.

“No worries, V. I’ll call first thing in the morning.” Xander agreed. “After I wake up, eat breakfast, shower, comb my hair...” Deep down, he wanted to find any excuse not to call.

V rolled her eyes and grinned as the two rangers entered the room.

“Good. Because I will not be late because of wrath you incurred from some over protective green ranger from the future!” V emphasized.

Xander chuckled at that as he closed her door and sat down in the middle of her bed. V sat down next to him and looked at him with a watered down glare.

“Alright, tree boy; move or I make you move. I’d like to sleep and I can’t do that with you on my bed. Yours is on the floor, remember?” She reminded as she pointed to the made up air mattress she had laid out for her friend.

Xander just gave a sincere smile and was about to say ‘thank you’ before moving to his mattress on the floor but he decided to thank her another way. As he moved his head towards hers to kiss her cheek, a booming clap of thunder made V jump and move her head. Before either of them could stop it, Xander’s lips were on hers. The kiss didn’t last long; it was short and sweet and when the two pulled apart, they looked at each other in shock.

“V...I-I didn’t mean to do that...” The green mystic stammered.

V just sat there, her dark brown eyes slowly blinking before she found her voice.

“Xander...why did we just kiss?” V whispered in confusion.

Xander didn’t know why it happened. He was going in for a peck on the cheek. He didn’t like Vida in that way...did he?

“It was obviously an accident...it was thr thunder’s fault.” He said moreso to convince himself rather than his flabbergasted host. “Ummmm...I think I’m going to go sleep on the couch now.”

Faster than Chip’s lightning, he bolted from the room and flew down the stairs towards the living room leaving a stunned V behind him. The pink ranger was confused mainly because the kiss had been so quick...and because she actually liked it. She liked Xander, but she couldn’t like him; he was her friend. Her very playful, girl-crazy friend; the one that didn’t give a second thought to anything when it came to dating. No; she couldn’t like him, she didn’t want to; but she did. The dance they shared at Root Core stirred the feelings in her heart and that kiss just cemented them. She, Vida Rocca, self-proclaimed ‘punk ranger’, liked Xander Bly and there was absolutely nothing that could be done about it. She sighed as she looked at the bedroom door that was sitting wide open and got up to find Xander. Like it or not, they had to talk about the kiss, maybe even figure out what the Hell it meant...if it meant anything at all.

Xander was sitting on the living room couch in total disbelief over what happened. He actually kissed V...his best friend and rescuer for tonight. He could easily write it off as a simple accident, but he couldn’t because he actually liked kissing her. Hell, he liked looking at her. Yes, my friends, Xander Bly liked one, Vida Rocca, the punk rock girl who hates pink. He always had feelings for her, but was just unwilling to act on them because he thought that she didn’t feel the same way about him. That’s why he was constantly dating other girls; he was trying to get her out of his mind and his heart. Trying and failing. Holding her in his arms when they were dancing was pure heaven and that kiss was, for lack of a better term, magical. He was so lost in his own thoughts that he failed to notice V come up and sit down beside him until she began to speak.

“Hey.” She quietly greeted.

“Hey.” Xander replied shyly. “Sorry about running out on you back there.”

“I understand; what happened was just...a fluke.” V said as she shifted in her spot on the couch.

“You could say that again.” The green ranger agreed as he twiddled his thumbs.

V was having a difficult time looking her friend in the eye. But then again, kissing your best friend would do that to a person. Even one as confident as V.

“Look, Xander; let’s not make a federal case out of this. It was just an accident’ it didn’t mean anything, right?” It broke her heart to say those words, but she knew that in his mind, that kiss had meant nothing to him. She was going to make this easy on them both before she fell for Xander any harder than she already had.

“That’s not exactly true, V.” Xander stopped breathing at that moment; he couldn’t believe that he actually said those words. Vida also looked like she was struggling to breathe.

“Wh-What did you just say?”

Xander inhaled deeply and let out a long exhale.

“In the immortal words of Elvis Presley...it’s now or never.” He thought.

He needed to tell V how he felt now that he just said those things to her. He took another deep breath before he began speaking again.

“I said that the kiss we just shared wasn’t meaningless to me. It meant something, V.” Xander admitted. V looked at him with wide eyes as he spoke; he couldn’t be saying what she thought he was saying, could he?

“Xander, what exactly do you mean by that?” She asked desperate to know the answer.

Xander looked down at the floor before raising his face to look deeply into Vida’s dark chocolate pools.

“I mean I liked kissing you. I like being with you. Vida...I like you!” Xander exclaimed.

The pink ranger’s eyes widened at his confession. She didn’t know what to say...what to think.

“Xander, you don’t know what your saying. You can’t like me, alright?” V replied frantically.

“And why can’t I? To be honest, I’ve liked you for the longest time, V, and that kiss just confirmed all of my feelings. When we were dancing tonight, it was heaven for me.” He looked at her expression and was heartbroken that it held shock and disbelief instead of the mutual attraction he was hoping for. “I’m sorry if you don’t feel the same way, but now I’ve said it and I’m not taking it back.” He looked at V again and saw that she had tears rolling down her cheeks. V was actually crying; something he had never seen his friend do.

“Xander, please don’t say those things to me. You can’t like me because if you do, then it means that I have to admit I like you, too.” V started in between sobs. “But, I can’t like you, Xander. You date so many girls and I can’t deal with that. I can’t like you...I’m not supposed to like you...but I do.”

V was crying freely and Xander did the only thing that he could think of. He grabbed her and just held her tightly, allowing her to cry on his shoulder. Xander couldn’t believe it; tough tomboy, V didn’t cry and to see her doing it now broke his heart. He couldn’t take it, he had to do something. He slowly lifted her head up towards his and looked her in the eyes. He was about to air another confession.

“V, those other girls were nothing to me. I never wanted them; they were just replacements for you.” He felt V turn her head away, but he gently held it in his hand to keep it from happening. He wanted her to see that he meant every word he was telling her. “You’re the only girl I want; Hell, you’re the only girl I’ve ever wanted. Hurting you is the last thing in the world I want to do. I don’t really know how I can be more clear, but...I want to be with you. Got it?” Xander asked as he smiled sweetly.

A few minutes later, V stopped crying and smiled at her friend. Xander could only smile back at her, happy in the fact that she felt the same way about him. The two rangers locked eyes, frozen in a moment of time. No longer able to help himself, Xander leaned in and captured Vida’s lips in another kiss. Unlike the one before, this one lasted much longer. Both rangers put everything they felt for each other, every ounce of passion into that one slow, deep kiss. When they broke apart. they were both smiling.

“Look at me. Crying like a little girl.” V said wiping her eyes with her hands. “If you tell anyone else about this, I swear you’ll wake up bald.” She threatened playfully.

Xander feigned panic...well not really. His hair was his pride and joy.

“Your secret’s safe with me.” Xander promised by crossing his heart with his eight index finger. “Oh, just for the record...that kiss does mean you like me as well, right?”

V let out a sweet laugh. No matter what the situation was, the green ranger could always coax a laugh out of her.

“Yes, Xander, I like you. And since we’re confessing, I have to admit that I’ve liked you for a while now. Dancing with you and being in your arms made me feel so safe and warm and I don’t want to feel that way with anyone else but you.” She grinned as she spoke.

“Glad to know we’re both on the same page here.” Xander replied.

Xander leaned in and gave V one more kiss. This one was short and sweet and both were smiling when they pulled apart.

“Well, as fun as that was, we really need to get to bed now.” V regretted. She wanted to kiss him again, but she knew if she did that, they really would be late for work in the morning.

“Yeah, you’re right. I think I’m just going to crash down here on the couch.” Xander said as he grabbed the blanket from the back of the sofa and tried to cover himself with it.

He tried again and when he looked up to see why he couldn’t he saw V, smiling down at him, with the corner of the fleece blanket clutched in her left hand.

“Move over green bean. I don’t feel like walking upstairs again.”

Xander just smiled and gladly made room for V as she lay down with her back to him. As the couple spooned, Xander leaned down to give Vida a soft good night kiss before whispering in her ear.

“Night, V.”

“Good night, Xander.” She whispered back as she nestled against his body.

Fitting their bodies perfectly against each other, the twosome quickly fell asleep, both perfectly content with their sleeping arrangement.

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End of Chapter 33

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Awwww. Now we have Vida and Xander as a couple. So let me see...Jack and his girlfriend in the future, Ally. MF Alli and Sky (maybe), Bridge and Z, Clare and Chip, Maddie and Nick, Syd and whoever. ;) Now, there’s just one potential pairing left...any guesses who? Come on, you can do it. :) I know you want to see it happen, it’s been what, 30 chapters? Well, read and review and I MIGHT do that fateful chapter. If you want to see them hook up, SHOW ME SOME LOVE and review! :D