Chapter Text
It started off slow and then happened all at once. At least, that's what she'll tell you if you ever ask her. Kimberly Hart has always been sure of herself, that is, until she wasn't. Until she sent some picture and everything changed. Until she ended up in detention, her hair in the bin of some dingy bathroom. Until she ended up in some mine with four people she knew of but didn't really know.
And she barely has enough time to look at the pink coin in her hand before alarms are blaring and the girl in the beanie, the one who fell with the tumbling of rocks down the mines edge, is spouting off some sarcastic statement. And then they're running.
She doesn't know where the boys ended up, only that now her and the other girl are running stride for stride, and that at some point, one of them grabbed the other's hand, and there's no way Kim is letting go. And her mind is racing because the alarms seem to be getting louder, but nothing's as loud as the pounding of her heart against her ribs and the pounding of their feet against the hard ground.
And then she hears it, the girl's voice, and she's not even sure how long she's been talking until she hears her name from those lips.
“Kimberly! Hey princess, your friends car? It's coming around!” and then the hand attached to hers is pulling her in another direction, and then suddenly there's another hand in hers as Jason pulls her into the van.
She can hear Billy talking about how the “door open” light has turned off, and Jason mentioning that it's because the door is closed now. And she registers that that means the other girl made it into the car, that they're safe, at least for now.
They're driving when something or rather, someone drops on top of the van with a loud crash. She'd be annoyed except her heart's still pounding in her ears and she's still not thinking straight as the laughing boy is being pulled into the already crowded van.
“Hey guys? The train is coming.” Kim hears from somewhere in the van. And suddenly the car is moving faster and she’s telling Billy he can do it, and that same voice from earlier, she recognizes it as the beanie clad girl, says he doesn't have it. Then they're hit and being tossed around the car like dolls, and then everything goes black.
-
When she wakes, unscathed, a full day has passed, and her heart catches in her throat as she thinks of the others in the car. Are they okay? The kind but maybe crazy boys? The girl who's name she couldn't bring herself to remember no matter how hard she willed it. Did they just wake up wondering how they survived? Did they survive at all? Maybe it was those things coupled with the trash her former friends were sending her this particular morning, but she couldn't bring herself to care about her ruined phone as she rushed out of house to school.
School wasn't much better, the looks and the snide under breath comments as she passed people in the hall only seemed to double as people noticed her new hair, but once again Kimberly couldn't bring herself to care. Well care much, she won't lie the effect the coins had on the food spewing all over those bitches wasn't something she'd be losing any sleep over. Jason had convinced her and Billy to visit the mine after school, they needed to figure out what had changed them, why they had survived.
The whole day nothing has caused Kimberly to care, but the second she see her, the girl in the beanie take off, her feet are moving, and she's all but flying through the air and scaling a mountain with her bare hands. She tries to talk to her, but it seems the second words start coming out of Kimberly’s mouth, she's flinging herself across a chasm. She hears Zack yelling and suddenly he's in the air too then crashing into the girl who can't seem to really leave, even though she keeps running when they get too close.
She jumps with Jason, but when she's in the air she's alone, flying, falling and it's over far too soon for her taste. After Billy falls and calls up to the group, the boys jump, and Kimbley wants to too, but then the girl starts walking away and Kim does the only thing she can think of.
“Hey, can i have a sip of your water?” she's met with silence and an odd look so she continues, “I’m like, really thirsty.” Smooth. Real smooth. And she doesn't know why the girl steps forward, and hands over her bottle, with a stern warning not to drink it all, or why they can't seem to break eye contact, except maybe she does, but she can deal with that later. “Also, I’m really sorry.”
“For what?” It's so unsuspecting Kim almost feels bad as she grabs her and brings them over the edge together.
-
Being in spaceship millions of years old is weird enough, couple it with a sassy android and some weird fatherly wall face, Kimberly has had enough new life changing information for a day. Except right before her time ends for the day with her fellow rangers -yeah that's fucking weird- she finally learns her name. Kimberly should have known how long Trini had been in school, and she certainly should have known she shared biology and not history with the girl whose face she knew she'd now never forget. But she didn't, and when Trini left with a huff after Jason, all Kimberly could do was hope to see her tomorrow at 4 at the edge of the ledge.
But that evening and the next school day still happened, and all Kimberly could think about was the afternoon before. Think about the time in the ship, think about how her eyes sought out Trini’s, and hers did the same. Think about Alpha 5 pointing it out, wondering if it was something humans did. Kimberly supposed it was, they were the only two girls it was natural, they had (almost) willing jumped into this together, so they made eye contact. Except at that comment from the android Trini looked away, like she'd been caught doing something wrong, but Kim kept looking, she was in a spaceship, trying to morph cause she's apparently a power ranger, and all she could do was look at was Trini.
She looks for her, looks for her in the hallways, and at lunch to no avail. Her eyes seek her out in biology, in the corner of the room where she thinks of the girl who's name she could never place, but she isn't there. Kimberly has half a mind to go to the office and ask if she even bothered to show up at all today, but figures it's none of her business anyways.
There’s a weight in her gut that hasn't gone away since Trini bounded out of the cavern and she's not even sure why it's there, why she cares that Trini wasn't at school today, why all she cares about as she scales the mountain is if she's gonna see those hazel eyes again. She thinks those eyes might be part of her demise, if they make it through saving the universe, that is.
-
A few days into training is when Kim knows she's truly fucked. Trini waltzes in wearing that. That being a razorback and yoga pants that fit just right. And ok maybe Kim gets a bit distracted and takes a bad hit to the face via a Putty, but it's kinda worth it cause after, Trini does this kick that sends the Putty flying into the wall and is sticking out her hand towards Kimberly with a light “Shake it off princess.” as she pulls Kimberly to her feet.
“Hey Trini, thanks. I totally had it, but uh thanks for that” she say motioning at the still shattered form of the Putty. “Yeah I’m sure you did, but who am I to not come to the aid of a pretty girl?” She's laughing, but it's like she's worried she's said too much or the wrong thing. Trini doesn't know that her comment sent Kim’s heart into a frenzy and it's all she can do in response to say a quick thanks to avoid spewing some nonsense about how she gets it. How she'd love to come to the aid a pretty girl, a girl named Trini who has zero idea about how Kim feels.
“So...wanna spar together? It’s gotta be better than getting pummeled by puttys, stuck with chatty Kathy over there, or splitting up the wonder twins.” She's talking about Zack, who is animatedly taking jabs at Alpha 5, and Jason and Billy who have been nearly inseparable since they started training a few days ago.
“Yeah, what'd you hav- whoa! Warn a girl would ya?” Kimberly said ducking yet another fist to the face.
“First lesson, avoid things hurtling towards your face.” Trini says it with such a shit eating grin, it's infuriating and beautiful at the same time. Kim doesn't know if she's ever seen Trini smile before, but she knows she wants to see it again and again.