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"Hey, Sky."
"Yeah?"
"Jack wants to see you in the rec room."
Sky stared at her from his bed. Z didn't fidget under the weight of it.
"What does he want?"
"How would I know?"
"Why didn't he just call me?"
"Sky, why would I know what goes on in Jack's head? Why would I want to know what goes on in Jack's head? Are you coming or not?"
Sky hesitated for a moment before closing his laptop and swinging his legs off the bed. "Fine." Z rolled her eyes behind his back as he exited. "So how did you get roped into being the messenger?"
"I was with Kat, and he called her first."
"So he called Kat looking for me?"
They turned a corner towards the elevator to the next floor, and Sky very nearly ran into one blond headed Pink Ranger. "Syd," Z nodded, a faint smile on her face.
"Z," Syd nodded back. "Sky."
Then she raised both hands to the sides of Sky's face and drew him down into a kiss.
Sky froze in shock for a moment. The plume of blond curls nearly engulfed his senses with some heavily flowered perfume, and good God had no one had ever taught Syd kissing manners?
He finally managed to react, gripping Syd by the biceps and pushing her away as if his life depending on it. "Syd!?" he spluttered. "What in the world?"
"Mistletoe," she said innocently, pointing up. He glanced up and saw an innocent bundle of greenery taped to the roof. She brushed past them, giving Z a saucy grin before looking back to Sky. "You heading my way?" she asked, one finger playing with her hair.
"No. I've Jack a go…I'm going to see Jack," Sky managed.
Syd pouted prettily before turning and strutting back the way they'd come.
Sky stared after her for a moment before visibly shaking his head as if to rid himself of that experience. When he turned around Z was watching him stare after Syd. "You can see what that’s all about, if you want," Z prompted. "I’ll tell Jack you’ll see him later."
"No," he said after a moment. "I'm going to see Jack."
"You keep telling yourself that, boy," she said, patting his arm and moving him towards the elevator.
Bridge was just stepping in as they approached. "Hold the elevator?" Z called to him.
"Hiya, Z! Hey Sky, I thought you were off shift? Don't you normally spend time off like, locked in our room? Especially since I don't have the day off. Hey, if you're not using the room can I use it?"
"No. I'm going back there later."
Sky hit the level for the rec room, and noted that Bridge must have already hit the button for the level below where they were heading. The doors closed with a slight hiss and the vague feeling of moving up.
"Oh, alright." And then one of Bridge’s gloves with one of Bridge’s hands inside cupped the back of his head and pulled him into a kiss.
Admittedly this one was nicer than Syd's – Bridge apparently understood that both parties in a kiss needed to breathe. And the scrape of stubble against his bottom lip was a nice counterpoint to the softness of his tongue. But even so, this was the second unrequested kiss in less than five minutes from teammates and there was a bell in his head frantically jangling with a big red sign saying DANGER SCHUYLER TATE, DANGER.
The door made another hiss and Bridge broke the kiss to smile at him. "I'm going to see Boom, you want to come?"
Sky blinked at him a few times as he heard Z snicker by the door. "N-no, I'm going to see Jack."
"Alright. Hey, mistletoe!" he grinned, pointing above where he had been standing. Sky rolled his eyes heavenward, and spotted green leaves.
Bridge stepped out and turned left down the hall. The door was slowly closing when Sky saw him about-face and trot back to go right.
"Is this a tradition between you people, or what?"
"Shut up, Z."
"Seriously. Should Jack and I have been inducted into this little love fest you’ve got going on?"
"Shut up, Z."
The doors hissed open at their floor, and they headed towards the rec room. Kat was standing a few feet away, tapping occasionally at the data pad in her hands.
"Hi Kat," Z grinned conspiratorially.
"Hello Z. Sky," she smiled, stepping forward and forward and oh so Kat was part of this madness too?
Kissing was much more dangerous when one parties' teeth were sharper than anything else he'd ever put into his mouth. He'd also never been in a position to realise that her tongue was longer than a human's and wow, was she showing that off at the moment.
He blew out a sigh as she stepped back. That mental red sign now read WHAT THE HELL SCHUYLER TATE, WHAT THE HELL?
"Kat," he nodded back at her, trying not to notice that the spots over her cheekbones had darkened noticeably over the course of their kiss, before noticing that he’d already noticed. Darn noticeability.
Her smile widened even further as she lifted her chin to indicate upwards. "I am fond of several Earth holiday traditions."
"Mistletoe being among them?" he asked, not even bothering to look up.
"And Christmas trifle." She patted him on the shoulder as she passed. He dared to look at Z and felt his cheeks flush at the amused expression on her face.
"You can go follow that up, if you want," she managed to say without laughing. "I’ll tell Jack."
"I'm not going to follow anything up. That," he said emphatically, pointing over his shoulder to where Kat had disappeared, "was an anomaly."
"Anomaly means a one time thing, doesn’t it?" Z asked, a snicker managing to escape this time.
"Shut up, Z."
"Because that’s four, now," she added needlessly.
"...four?"
"Hey, Sky," said Boom.
"No, Boom," said Sky.
The sprig of mistletoe above Boom waved in a slight breeze as they walked right on by.
"So I can't help but notice you didn't seem too enthused about any of those," Z started.
"Can you not start? I've been accosted by three members of my own team!"
"And you didn't follow any of those up."
"Well no, thank you for noticing. Syd's a brat, Bridge is too loopy for me, Kat and I would never connect, and Boom...just no, Z." Z nodded as if this all made sense.
Sky shot a suspicious look at Z. "Theoretically…"
"Theoretically?"
"…if I had followed one of those guys?"
"I would report to Jack that you were more interested in someone else."
"Wait, why would-"
They rounded the last corner to the rec room and Sky took in the figure standing just outside it.
"-no, no way."
Z frowned in stereo – the one next to him and the one a few yards away. "You had to know this was coming," the Z who'd been walking with him stated.
"It was obvious," the Z standing under mistletoe pointed out.
Sky pointed at one - "No," - and then the other - "No."
"C'mon Sky," Z needled.
"Last one." Z^2 prompted.
The next argument died in Sky's mouth. After a pause he raised an eyebrow. "Last one...before what?"
The Z's exchanged a look before one sighed and absorbed the other. "Before the end of the plan?"
"What plan?" Sky asked, a small bubble of sudden knowing popping in his stomach.
"Jack's plan?" Z tried.
"Jack had a stupid plan that involved me kissing everyone under mistletoe?" Sky heard his voice rising with each successive word, and tried to keep it below a dull roar. From the look on Z's face he didn't appear to have succeeded.
"Yes, he did," said Jack from the rec room doorway.
"And just what was the point of Jack's stupid plan?" Sky bit out.
Jack looked at Z for help. She blinked at him a few times before huffing out a "Boys!" and turning back down the hallway.
Sky looked back at Jack and watched his face fall as Z rounded the corner and disappear out of sight. He waited until Jack waved a hand uselessly towards the disappeared Yellow Ranger. "She was supposed to...not do that," he ended lamely.
Sky crossed his arms over his chest. "Jack's stupid plan?" he prompted.
"Jack's..." Jack faltered for a moment before scrubbing a hand over his dreads and coming to stand next to Sky, where Z's duplicate had been standing. "Jack's stupid plan was to see if you liked anyone else here at SPD."
"And you couldn't have just asked me this?"
Jack shrugged. "Would you have told me if I had?"
"Yes!" Sky exclaimed.
"Oh." Jack blinked as if he'd never thought of this as an option. "Well...do you like anyone at SPD?"
"Yes!"
Jack frowned as if that hadn't truly been an option. "Oh. Who?"
"You!"
Jack looked like someone had just thrown a lightball at the back of his head. "Me?"
"Yes you, you annoying-"
"Holy shit Sky, my plan worked!"
"Wait, what?"
And then Jack was wrapping both arms around the back of Sky's neck and was kissing him like their lives depended on it and yep. Jack's plan was a success.
When they finally broke away from each other Jack glanced up and asked, "Are you tired of mistletoe?" Sky wryly looked up at the bright green leaves of yet another fracking plant.
"Yes. Unless you managed to sneak some above my bed."
Jack winked at him, stepping away. "Not yours. But mine is fully decked out."