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Jayden doesn’t know how to be human, he’s realizing.
Or. He doesn’t know how to live.
(Monster. Mistake. Silent question left unspoken. Jii, his father, the date on a family grave. A monster attack no one likes to mention.)
A mimic, is all. For his sister.
Antonio never thought of him that way.
Antonio still doesn’t, and Jayden leans against him as the other man sits, waiting for fish to bite. Jayden thinks he’s heard something about a romantic dinner?
It’s too much.
Too much to have him, any of them but most of all Antonio, over and over. To know the presence at his back is real and permanent and the purview of Jayden Shiba, not the Red Samurai Ranger.
“I still can’t believe you came back,” he says. He doesn’t know which time he means. Golden suit, confident voice. Hand in hand, fist in fist, feeling light for the first time in a decade. Or casual, cooler and backpack and fishing rod in hand. Saying it sure has been a few months, huh?
“That was always the plan,” Antonio says.
“I know,” Jayden says.
He just…
“I though you were cute,” Antonio says. “And sad. I thought you had really cool toys and your dad was really mean.”
“You never met my dad,” Jayden says, just a beat too fast.
“Did I?” Antonio asks.
“…It’s complicated,” Jayden says, which is the short answer. “Really complicated. I still don’t know.”
“Si, yes,” Antonio says. “Go with that. But then I came back, and you were… already happier. But all of you still seemed trapped. And then… I had to stay. I think I had to stay because you tried to stop me. You were still cute and sad. And you had really cool toys. I even got to help fix some.”
Jayden laughs, then. Finally processing - Zords as toys.
Well, in a way…
“I don’t deserve you.”
“But you have me.”
And he does.
He finds the man standing, coat and scarf and perfectly placed hair flowing in the wind, on a cliff bar Shiba house.
“Hey,” Jayden says.
The man turns.
“[Can I help you?]” the man asks, in perfect Japanese. Jayden pauses,
“[Are you Shiba Home?]” he asks. The man looks considering.
“[I am not tied to Sentai,]” he says. “[I am tied to a king. I was lead to believe this place was empty.]”
“[Empty,]” Jayden replies. “[Not isolated. Would you like to stay for dinner?]”
The man nods.
The man has a king he loves and a family to follow him, even if it’s phrased like a battle. Jayden looks to his own family - Antonio and Lauren, Jii had business out of town, who both make the slightest of shrugs.
The man is named Woz, and he calls himself things like observer and vassal and all Jayden thinks is the poor man, he should ask for help.
The Shiba house in Japan has tied itself to the “Sentai” legacy, which he knows was a big fuss some years ago. Just like the ties to the Morphin Grid were, 15 generations of international branches ago. Kamen Rider is a loose mystery.
The man speaks of a grand future and takes some of Antonio’s grilled fish to go.
“He’s lying,” Jayden says. “He’s lonely.”
“Well,” Antonio says. “With any luck, they won’t believe him.”
The man comes back. Week after week.
One week, a boy comes instead.
“[You must be Woz’s friend],” he says. “[I’m Sougo. I was wondering where the fish comes from.]”
“Oh no,” Jayden says. “[Did my sister include her special spice blend?]”
Lauren never got over her obsession with flavor in any form.
“[I don’t think?]” the boys offers. “[I just… it’s good. And he said you were a lord?]”
“[You could say that,]” Jayden says. “[I heard you were going to be a king.]”
And the boy grins, bright and innocent yet calculated.
Jayden considers what he’s heard.
“[It may be lonely,]” he says, and the boy laughs.
“[Maybe,]” he says. “[If I hadn’t met Woz and Geiz and Tsukuyomi.]”
Jayden looks at the boy.
“[Remember that, then.]”
The boy smiles softly.
“[I will.]”
The world is awash in golden clocks.
Jayden kisses Antonio gently.
“I’m always glad I found you,” he says. “I hope this doesn’t change us.”
Antonio grins.
“It never will, Mi Amore.”
Their rings glint in the light.
Woz brings grilled fish home, one day. Once they remember him again.
Sougo blinks.
“What’s this for?”
Geiz rolls his eyes.
“This freak teleports to America to get fish,” he says.
“Don’t be mean,” Tsukuyomi says. “It’s clearly a gift.”
“Oh, okay,” Sougo says. He picks it up, and some spark enters his eye. He looks up, he grins. “Thanks, Woz. For coming home with this.”
Geiz remembers him now. The others are still innocent.
It touches something deep inside of Woz to know they still accept him.
However many times it takes.