Chapter Text
It’s 3:28 in the morning when Zack climbs through his window. Jason doesn’t hear him so much as just suddenly becomes aware of his presence. He opens his eyes and looks across the room and the other Ranger is just sitting there underneath the window with his back against the wall. He grins widely when Jason sees him. “Evening, Red!”
Jason stares for a solid twenty seconds before his brain finally registers what he’s seeing. The past several weeks have been interesting to say the least: he’s gained superpowers, found a multi-millennia old spaceship buried in a middle of a mountain, defeated a crazed ex-Ranger and her massive golden murderbot. Typical teen stuff. But for some reason seeing Zack Taylor sitting in his room in the middle of the night makes him do a doubletake.
“Zack,” he starts slowly, still trying to determine if he’s asleep or not. “What are you doing in my room?”
“Sitting,” the Black Ranger says simply as if the answer doesn’t require any further explanation.
“Yeah, I see that. But why?”
“Because standing was boring,” Zack answers with a loose shrug.
Jason resists the urge to sigh. He opens his mouth to say something else but the other teen cuts him off before he can. “You know, you should really think about locking your windows at night. No telling what kind of crazies are out there.”
Jason rolls his eyes. “I have a pretty good idea because one of them is in here now.” He pushes himself up off the mattress and stalks across the room to the aforementioned window. He knows for a fact he locked it before bed (Kimberly had snuck in the same way a few weeks ago and he was hyper aware of it now) so there was no way Zack could have gotten through unless he-
Jason turns to face him again. “You picked the lock, didn’t you?”
“I can neither confirm nor deny,” Zack tells him with another breezy grin, holding his hands up innocently. “But yes, I picked the lock.”
“Why?”
“Seemed like a thing to do,” Zack replies with the same level of disinterest and dismissal as before. He pushes himself up off the floor and circles Jason’s room slowly like he’s examining an exhibit at a museum. “Wow, there is a sickening number of trophies in here.”
“Zack, what are you doing here?” Jason tries again because honestly he’s just exhausted and the sooner he gets an answer out of his fellow Ranger, the sooner he can go back to sleep.
“I couldn’t sleep,” the other teen answers vaguely, casting a glance over his shoulder. “I figured you’d be awake.”
“It’s 3:30 in the morning. Why the hell would you think I would be awake?”
Zack shrugs again. “I dunno. I figured you’d be elbow deep in planning or team organization, oh great leader,” he says, the jibe good-natured and teasing.
“Zack,” Jason says again, putting some of that oh-great-leader tone into his voice. It has the desired effect and Zack stops circling to look back at him. “What are you really doing here?”
There’s a very brief flicker of something that crosses Zack’s face. It’s lightning quick and fleeting and disappears a split second later. He grins again but this time it appear wan and thin. “I didn’t want to stay at the trailer tonight,” he answers finally, voice a bit quieter and more somber. “My mom, she…” he sighs and shakes his head slightly before continuing. “She was having a bad day today. She was disoriented and confused, I couldn’t get her to eat anything...it was just a bad day.”
Jason nods slowly in understanding; he’s listened to Zack talk about his mom enough to know that sometimes the medicine she’s taking will cause some rather upsetting side effects. “Do you think it’s okay to leave her alone if she’s confused like that?”
The other Ranger shakes his head once. “Leslie is with her tonight; she should be okay after she gets some rest.”
Jason nods again. Leslie was a family friend who stopped by the trailer a few times a week to help Zack take care of his mother. Zack had known her since he was a child and she was good friends with his mother. On top of basically being his godmother, Leslie was a registered nurse so she made it a point to come by the trailer at least two or three times a week to check on them.
“I knew she would be in good hands so I ducked out a few hours ago,” Zack continues, making it a point to reset his nonchalant, neutral expression. He grins over his shoulder again like nothing happened. “Not a lot of people out this time of night. It’s kinda nice.”
Jason watches him carefully, arms crossed loosely over his chest. “So what brought you here?” he asks, nodding to the bedroom they were currently standing in.
The Black Ranger shrugs one shoulder. “I’ve been everywhere else,” he answers vaguely, gesturing toward the still-locked window. “Sometimes I just like to walk, you know? Start off in a direction and keep walking until I end up somewhere. It helps me think, clear my head.” He looks out the window across the sleeping town.
“I’ve gone to Billy’s a couple times,” he continues before Jason can say anything. “Helped him out with a few projects he was working on down in the basement. Kid’s a genius, you know; it’s incredible. Last time I was there, though, I figured he was pretty deep into something and I didn’t want to interrupt so I haven’t been back in a while.”
He taps his fingers against the window pane softly. “I went to Kimberly’s place too. And Trini’s. But once they started dating I figured it’d be weird for me to show up in the middle of the night like that so I stopped.”
Jason listens to all of this and wonders why he feels just a tiny bit miffed that he’s the last person Zack thought to come to. Granted, he’s not overly wild about the idea of someone creeping through his windows at night but still, he’s a little upset that Zack felt like he couldn’t come to him earlier.
“So that’s what prompted you to pick my locks?” he asks evenly, glancing toward the window. “I was the last resort?” He doesn’t mean for it to sound as petulant as it does but it’s unavoidable.
Zack watches him for a second, smile faltering briefly. Then he shrugs, huffs a soft laugh, and shakes his head. “No, you know, you’re right. I shouldn’t have come over here.” He offers another grin but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “Sorry for the intrusion, Red. I’ll get out of your hair.”
He starts toward the window again but Jason steps in front of him, blocking his path. “Zack,” he says quietly, evenly like he’s speaking to a jittery child. “That’s not what I meant. I’m not kicking you out.” He presses his shoulders against the window pane and suppresses the shiver that accompanies the feeling of cold glass against his skin.
“Why did you come here?” he asks again because he needs to hear Zack say it. He knows the answer already but for some reason he needs to hear it out loud.
The other Ranger is silent for several seconds, expression dark and unreadable. Finally, he lets out a breath and his shoulders slump like he’s visibly deflating beneath the weight of everything. “I didn’t want to be alone tonight.”
Jason just nods in understanding. He had expected as much; for all the effort Zack puts into his aloof yet eccentric behavior there’s a definite undercurrent of vulnerability to him. He’s worried about his mom, worried about about how much longer she has and if he’ll be able to do enough for here. It’s an enormous amount of pressure to bear and Jason is all too aware of just how debilitating pressure can be.
“Then you won’t be,” he tells his fellow Ranger simply, reaching out and clapping a hand on Zack’s shoulder. “You’re always welcome here, Zack, anytime. Just don’t get the cops called on you, alright? Pretty sure my dad has had his fair share of meetings with the boys in the blue lately; I doubt he’s ready for a repeat.”
A fleeting look of relief passes over Zack’s face and he grins brightly in the darkness of the room. “Aye, aye fearless leader.”
Jason smiles faintly. “Good.” He hesitates for a second or so, debating whether or not he should say what’s on his mind, before finally giving in. “Hey, you know, if you ever want to talk about your mom or anything-”
Zack offers him an appreciative smile but shakes his head. “Thanks for the offer, Red, but I’m okay. It just gets to be a little too much sometimes, you know? I just needed to get out and find a place to crash for a while.”
The Red Ranger looks around his room briefly, notices the lack of additional sleeping space, and frowns. “I can probably find some extra blankets downstairs-”
Once again, Zack shakes his head. “Don’t worry about it, dude. I didn’t come here for a slumber party and I’m not exactly tired right now. I just want to hang out here for a little bit if that’s okay.”
Jason nods in understanding. “Yeah, alright. That’s fine, take all the time you need.”
“Thanks, man,” the other teen says, flashing another bright grin and walking over to the window near the wall, sliding back down to sit under it. He settles in with his back pressed against the wall, knees drawn up slightly.
“You can go back to sleep if you want. Good thing about being a delinquent is I don’t have to worry about going to school in the morning.”
“True, but it’s pretty weird to sleep with another guy hanging out in my room,” Jason remarks, dropping back onto the edge of his mattress slowly.
Zack flashes a devious, somewhat flirtatious smirk. “Don’t worry, Red, your virtue is safe with me. I promise not to take advantage of your delicate sensibilities. Unless you want me to,” he says, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.
Jason huffs a short laugh and shakes his head. “You’re such a creep,” he mumbles, tossing an extra pillow to his teammate. Zack catches it easily and tucks it behind his head. “Get some sleep if you want,” Jason tells him as he stretches back out across the mattress. “You’re safe here.”
A rare, real smile tugs at the corner of Zack’s mouth and he nods. “Thanks, Jas.”
When Jason falls back asleep that night, Zack is still sitting beneath the window, gazing up at the stars over his shoulder. When he wakes up in the morning, Zack is gone and the pillow is back on the bed. The windows are locked. Jason vaguely wonders if it ever happened at all.