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Timeline: Boom
Challenge: Youth (number 4)
“Boom wanted to be an orange ranger? Oh, that is priceless,” Jack chuckled as he watched Z munch her ice cream cone. It was one of their rare days off, and even rarer was the fact that both had it off together. Z licked a drip of mint chocolate chip up her cone before replying.
“Yeah, but it was still kinda sad. I mean, he couldn’t tell his parent’s he was dismissed from training for fear of being in trouble. I guess we’re lucky in that sense, huh?” Jack lowered his cone, eyes dark.
“Don’t say that Z. Just….don’t, alright?” A little surprised, she nodded, then returned to her cone. “Besides, being the orange ranger was one of his childhood dreams. Who are we to make fun of him?”
“Granted. Some of our childhood dreams were real odd, huh?” she replied, eyes full of mirth. Jack chuckled, nodding.
“Oh yeah. Once, when I was younger, I told my foster mom that I was going to go back in time. That was always a dream of mine. I don’t know what I would have done, but I always wanted to.” He smirked, eyes fond with the memory. “What about you? What was one of your dreams?”
Z laughed. “Oh, nothing as grand as time-travel, trust me.” Scooting closer, Jack bumped her shoulder with his, giving her his best puppy expression. “Alright, alright. Besides finding Prince Charming and riding away to a mystical castle, I always wanted to visit a zoo. There, happy now? I feel silly,” she exclaimed, bumping him back.
“You’ve wanted to visit a zoo?” he asked, a little disbelief in his voice.
“Yeah, what of it?”
The grin he gave was purely wicked as he grabbed her hand, pulling her along behind him.
The New Tech City Zoo was quiet for a Wednesday afternoon, and the two of the them pretty much had the zoo to themselves. Grabbing a map for the huge park, Jack directed Z to a bench, and spread out the map. “So, what do you want to see first?” he asked, indicating the huge expanse of animal enclosures.
“Well. I had no idea it would be this big! I don’t know…can we just start in one spot and work our way around?” she asked, eyes still glued to the map.
“Sure.” With that, they headed towards the building housing many Aquitar life-forms.
Later that night, back in the base, Z was giggling over Jack’s impersonation of the Komodo Dragon that was on display….that didn’t move for 3 hours. Kicking him gently, she wiped away tears as he just rolled over, like a log. “Come on Jack, it’s high time we parted ways. You have a shift in just over 5 hours!”
Stretching, Jack acquiesced as he pulled her close. “Was today good?” he asked softly. Smiling, Z nodded, resting her head on his chest. As always, she was rewarded with the steady beat of the heart that she fell in love with.
“Thank you. You made a few dreams of my youth come true.”