Disclaimer: Buena Vista owns the Power Rangers. "Tomorrow" is by Avril Lavigne from her album, Let Go.

Author's Note: so Dustin and Marah, behind the scenes. a fic for every episode, each using a different song from Avril Lavigne's album, Let Go. it's the "Sk8er Boi" series! *grin* thank you to Red, TJ, and Starhawk. :)

As soon as he had got off work, he had left. Everyone else was hanging out at Storm Chargers, like usual. But he had left to head to the track. He told everyone that it was so he could test his bike, to see how it worked with the new part. And that was true.

But he also didn't want to listen to everyone any more. If one more person said, "She's evil," he'd… well, he didn't know what he'd do. He wasn't an ultimatum-y kinda guy. He just knew he didn't want to hear it again. 'Cause he was like trying not to think about it, and they weren't helping.

So he had left to go ride. And he'd made it to the track too. When he got there, he'd unloaded his bike and everything. Then sat on the ground in his motogear beside his bike. His armor lay beside him, but that was as far as he'd gotten.

Instead he just sat there and stared at his bike. He had been randomly polishing it with a towel to the point he could almost see himself in the fiberglass and plastic.

He saw a flash of ninja-ish light, the teleportation kind. There were only a few ninjas he knew who could teleport unaided by technology.

And most of them were evil.

He saw her feet appear in the gap between the tires of his bike. He tossed his towel over his shoulder, as was his habit, and started fiddling with the grass in front of his crossed legs. Would she say something or should he?

"I thought I'd find you here."

He grunted in response. Guess she goes first.

"I'm always here, Marah. Well, 'cept for when I'm at the shop. Or school. Or Ops. Or home." He stopped and shook his head. "Nevermind. Just, what do you want?"

"I thought we could talk," she said simply.

"Seriously?" He couldn't believe she'd just said that. Was she as dense as everyone thought he was? He wasn't a grudge-y kinda guy either, but holding onto a little anger seemed like the thing to do in this case. Though it didn't seem a ninja-like thing to do. Hard to be all zen when you're mad.

She didn't answer, but instead she flopped down cross-legged on the ground on the other side of his bike.

"I'm not used to people trusting me," she said.

"It'll be the last time too," he muttered. He doubted she heard him. And she continued on as if she hadn't.

"Most of the time no one listens to me, let alone takes me seriously." All he could see were her crossed legs and hands, but he had an impression of her body language. And right now she was all a fidgety kinda nervous.

And something about that didn't feel quite right. If he could see her eyes, he'd bet he'd see the same little whatever that had made him trust her before.

"You were serious, weren't you? You were totally trying to be good."

"Trying and failing!" He just kept watching through his little 'window' between the tires for glimpses of her true feelings.

The tips of her hair dropped into view; she must have hung her head. They were random stray curls, not the twin tight twists of her 'alien' appearance.

Should he ask? He wanted to ask. A lot of things. But he didn't know if he wanted to go down that road again.

"Why'd'ya do it?" he said finally. It seemed like a simple enough question. Though it was probably impossible to keep this conversation from getting complicated.

Her hair bobbed; she must have shrugged. "They kicked me out for being bad at being bad. You were nice to me, and being good sounded like fun." She paused, "I could be good at being good."

He tried not to smile. Tried to remember that he was supposed to be mad. But then he remembered that she couldn't see him either, so he just went for it.

"But I really didn't have any place to go. And then Kapri and Beevil showed up with a way to get me back in with Uncle. So what else could I do? They're family."

"Cam's family too, ya know," he offered.

She laughed, all bitter like. "Cousin doesn't want to have anything to do with me."

Now it was his turn to shrug. He wanted to deny it, but it was most likely true. But he could work on Cam, right? Convince him to give Marah a chance?

What was he thinking? Suddenly he realized that he was doing that right then -- trying to convince himself to give her a chance. Only with him it would be a second chance.

"You could leave," he tried.

Her hair swung; she shook her head. "I can't leave Kapri. I knew that when she came to help me. She's my sister. I can't leave without her."

He nodded and twisted his towel around his finger. He'd have a hard time leaving his sister too. Of course, his sister wasn't trying to take over the world either. But oh well.

"Are you mad?" she asked. Fidgety. Nervous. She'd started playing with the grass like he had been.

He shrugged again. "Kinda. I mean, I was. Like highly seriously ticked and stuff. But destroying Beevil took care of a lot of that. Now I'm kinda…," he trailed off, not knowing how he would or if he should finish that sentence.

"Yeah," she said quietly. Like she knew what he was thinking.

"So what are you going to do now?"

Her hair rose and fell again, as did her hands; he heard her sigh. "Go back? It's the only place I've got." He just kept watching her hands as they brushed the grass back and forth. "But I wanted to tell you I'm sorry. And that you're not the fool. I am for wasting my one chance."

He reached out before he knew what he was doing. At least he thought to use his non-morpher hand. He touched the back of her hand, and she stopped. "It doesn't have to be your one chance."

She sniffed; he hoped she smiled. "Can we, like talk… again? Sometime?"

"Well, maybe if you guys stop trying to vaporize my friends and me." He was still staring at their hands.

She laughed again, not bitter this time, but actually sorta amused. "In case you haven't noticed, we're doing a really bad job of it. Vaporizing you, that is."

"I know, but it's the principle of the thing." And he let himself smile this time.

"Tell you what, I'll do my best to always screw up. How's that?"

"Sounds like a plan," he agreed, as she pulled her hand away.

She stood then, but he didn't look up. He just watched as she moved, her hands not touching the ground as she simply straightened her crossed legs to stand.

He didn't look up, didn't meet her eyes. Just trusted in that little whatever he had seen there before. 'Cause he'd bet it was back.

He stood in the same way, pulling the towel from his shoulder. He moved to the front of his bike and wiped clean the bright yellow 27 on the front.

"'bye Dustin." He looked up then to see her smiling. A smile he found himself returning.

"Later Marah," 'cause he had no doubt he'd be seeing her again. He didn't know what side she'd be on, but they'd figure out the hard stuff when they had to.

There was all that ninja-ish light again, and she was gone. He stared after her for a moment, then leaned down for his armor.

He hadn't been able to ride for days while his bike was missing. He was overdue. And after some laps there were a few jumps he wanted to try.

A new untested part on his bike? No problem.

He was feeling trusting.

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