Adventures in Dating - 1. How it all began

Dating was such an unexpected surprise. Ever since the team defeated Cavity, Riley began to see Chase in a new light. At first the boy thought his feelings for the older teen were just the results of team bonding and camaraderie, but Riley began to notice that these feelings didn’t extend as far to the rest of the team. Yes, he cared about everyone and wanted to keep everyone safe, but his thoughts kept drifting back to Chase.

When they first met, Riley had to admit he didn’t like Chase. Chase was always so relaxed and carefree, almost like he wasn’t trying or caring about training or being a Ranger, and that he didn’t understand the immense responsibility put on their shoulders. Riley knew better now, but he remembered the fights and Miss Morgan’s words about how two people could find different solutions to the same problem, and he realized now that Chase simply trained and kept himself in fighting form in a different way.

The only thing Chase did seem interested in was in flirting with girls, even Shelby when he was feeling especially cheeky. Lately, every time Riley saw Chase flirting with girls, it made him angry.

It was afternoon at Dino Bites and Shelby, Riley and Chase were working. Chase was serving while Riley worked the cash register and Shelby was on the grill, which was a change of pace for her. While waiting for the next set of burgers to finish cooking, Shelby was watching Riley’s face darken as Chase hit on yet another table of cute girls.

“You’re doing it again Riley” she called out to him. “Just staring at him isn’t going to change anything.”

Riley turned to look back at her, a frustrated expression on his face.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Riley replied darkly.

“Riley, you’re staring at Chase. You might be able to convince Tyler and Koda that there’s nothing going in that mind of yours, but I can see that things have definitely changed since that last battle. And I don’t just mean you admitting you were too hard on him, the way you look at him has changed.”

“You mean the way you look at Tyler?” Riley retorted, being more than a little defensive.

Shelby blushed and was caught off guard, rendered silent by how quickly Riley cut to the matter of her own growing feelings for the Red Ranger. When she replied, Shelby was much less bubbly in her response.

“Yeah. Something like that Riley. He’s not going to hate you, not after everything that’s been happening lately.”

Riley wasn’t having any of it and let his shock at what Shelby said flow through his response.

“You have no way of knowing that Shelby. Besides, he obviously likes girls. Even if it didn’t make things awkward on the team, he wouldn’t be into me unless you threw me in a skirt and changed up some of my anatomy.”

Shelby’s response was even more quiet this time.

“Yes, I do know. And the better question you should be asking yourself is why none of them ever last.”

Shelby went back to working on the grill, leaving Riley alone at the cash register with his thoughts, his eyes always discreetly following a certain New Zealander dressed in black.

After their shift at the Dino Bite, Chase, Riley and Shelby went down to the base to change and relax before heading home for the evening. Chase didn’t normally leave right away, instead preferring to take some time to fix his skateboard on the work table before heading home to study. After getting changed, Chase went right to his board and tools, put his headphones on and started working away. Riley went to sit on the couch over by the tennis ball machine he’d installed in the base to train with, considering whether it was worth getting some training in right now, and Shelby headed right for the exit. As she was leaving, the boys could hear Shelby loudly shouting a farewell to them.

“Alright boys, I’m outta here! Enjoy the rest of your night!” Making sure both boys were able to hear her.

Riley was looking at her like she was crazy for screaming in the lab, half expecting Miss Morgan to scold Shelby for making so much noise in the base. Instead, Selby mouthed the words “talk to him” before leaving.

It was just Chase and Riley left in the base. Chase was happily working away at his skateboard while Riley was lost in thought, trying to figure out what to do. He knew that this was something that he would have to talk to Chase about sooner or later, since it was going to start compromising his ability to function as a Power Ranger and with the rest of the team if he wasn’t able to fully communicate with the Black Ranger he found himself studying. Finally, he decided to talk to Chase because he had a strange feeling that Shelby would if he didn’t.

Riley got up from the couch and walked over to the table Chase was working at and shyly tapped Chase on the shoulder to get his attention. Chase looked up from his skateboard and took off his headphones.

“Oh, hey Riley, how’s it going? That was a pretty rough shift, wasn’t it mate?

“Yeah, that lunch rush was pretty intense.” Riley began to blush. “I wanted to ask you something… how do you know you like someone?”

Chase smirked at Riley, not really thinking Riley was serious about the question and what its implications could be.

“Think you’re getting sweet on someone? Who’s the lucky person I wonder. They probably already know.”

Riley blanched. Chase couldn’t possibly already know, but this teasing and the way Chase said that had Riley worried, and he knew he was probably giving himself away by the way his body was reacting. Riley tried to school his facial features into a serious expression.

“Chase, I’m serious. You know I haven’t had much time to date or anything like that since I lived on the ranch.”

Chase looked at him thoughtfully, as though he was trying to study Riley’s face the way Riley had been studying Chase these past few days.

“Hmmm, okay. When you like someone you start to think about them more, and in different ways than you did before. Things they do make you feel more strongly than they did before. You do things about them that you don’t do about other people.”

Riley’s breath hitched in his throat as Chase was speaking. He thought about how frustrated and aggravated he was every time he saw Chase flirting with girls while working, and how he was thinking about Chase a lot more than he was before. Riley knew he was doing everything that Chase was saying, and he was scared for what it really meant for himself.

Chase waited for Riley to say something, though he noticed that the blush that started at Riley’s cheeks was beginning to radiate outward and that the smaller boy seemed to be deeply lost in thought about something. Chase wasn’t too sure what brought this on, it wasn’t like there was much time for Riley or anyone else to go looking for people, and he was the one that was always trying to get numbers from the ladies while working at the Dino Bite.

Riley didn’t know what to do, he hadn’t been in a dating situation before so there wasn’t anything for him to analyze and figure out. There were so many different variables about what could happen, and even though Riley prided himself on his smarts, there was still only so much he could do to try and predict the future, and more importantly predict how the boy he was sitting with would react if he did something. Still, he knew that Shelby was going to force the issue, so he did the only thing he could think of that made any sense to him.

“Chase I think I like you” Riley said really quickly and then flushed a bright red.

Chase looked at him quizzically, not quite sure he’d heard what Riley had said, it was mostly just a jumble of sounds that he hadn’t been able to make out.

“Ummm, say again mate? I didn’t quite catch that.”

Riley took a deep breath and tried to calm his breathing and heart, which was now beating rapidly.

“I think… I think I like you Chase.”

In the dead silence that immediately accompanied this statement, Riley started to turn and run away thinking that he’d ruined his new friendship with Chase and made it impossible to work together as Rangers when Chase grabbed him by the wrist and held him from leaving.

Chase pulled the younger boy closer and embraced him, pulling him closer until he could feel Riley’s dirty blond hair pressing against his chest.

“Shhh, its okay Baby Raptor. Relax, the hard part’s over now.” Chase soothed, trying to calm the shaking younger teen wrapped in his arms.

When Chase felt that Riley had stopped shaking, he sat them both down on the couch and looked Riley in the eyes, hoping that whatever he said next was going to calm him down.

“Riley, mate. I appreciate you telling me this…” Riley’s heart sunk when he heard those words, he knew that meant that Chase didn’t feel the same way.

“…I wish you’d told me sooner.”

Riley was stunned. He couldn’t accept or believe that Chase might actually be reciprocating his feelings and be interested in doing anything with him.

“But you’re always flirting. I thought you were straight.”

Chase gave a lopsided smile at this, like it was a not very funny joke.

“I don’t like the whole idea of putting labels on things, but I guess you could say I’m bisexual. As for the flirting, I never thought of it as serious, that’s why nothing ever developed.”

“Are we going to be serious? I don’t want to be one of those girls who you spend less than a week with.”

Chase looked at Riley and clasped onto the younger boys hands.

“I’ve never really done the serious dating thing either mate, I’ve heard it can be a bit crazy. But yeah, I’ll try going on some adventures in dating with you.”

Riley smiled. They both decided to head home now that the tension between them was gone. Both boys couldn’t focus on anything except what they’d surprisingly found at the end of a long, monster-free shift at the Dino Bite. For the first time since defeating Cavity, both boys slept well.