Adventures in Dating - 8. Going Home, Part 2

This was real, he was going home. He was in the passenger seat of Tyler’s truck, which Chase had conveniently borrowed for the weekend so that they could sneak away and visit Riley’s family before Christmas. Watching all the familiar sights and sounds pass him by put a smile on his face, and Riley took the few minutes of quiet that Chase was giving him to think about the last few months, and the last time he had seen the family.

Intellectually, Riley knew it had only been a few months since he first found his Energem and had become the Green Ranger, but he was surprised at how quickly time had gone by, and also by how much he had changed. He wondered if his family would really believe that he’d changed this much in just the short time he’d been away from the ranch, and what they would think of him now that he had grown and become so different from the Riley they had grown up with.

He couldn’t wait to be heading back and to be bringing Chase with him. Chase, the boy who somehow figured him out before Riley could figure out Chase’s own intentions, and now the one he shared his life with and was slowly being changed by. Riley smiled at that, thinking that logically, they should never have been a match for each other, but here they were, and he supposed that meant that logic didn’t always have the answers.

That in itself was a shock to Riley. Not just that it was Chase of all people that he fell for, but that he found himself in love at all.

Before he came to Amber Beach and the museum, he was a quiet kid. Smart, no one denied that, but not one with many friends. Hard to make friends when there’s no one around except your older brother and the ranch animals. He loved the ranch and all the memories he had growing up there, but he didn’t want that to be his life. He knew he could do anything and felt trapped by the family and their need for him to help maintain the ranch when he was old enough to co-own it with Matt.

Now he was a Power Ranger, and while his family didn’t know *that* part, getting a chance to see the wider world had definitely changed Riley.

He had learned patience for the people around him, knowing that just because they didn’t do or see things the way he did didn’t mean they were wrong. Just that they were different, and there’s nothing wrong with being a bit different when you’re all working towards the same goal.

He learned that there was a whole world out there that didn’t exist in the black and white fantasies that he grew up with. He thought that Power Rangers were always Good, and the monsters were always Bad. Sometimes it was harder to see what was really motivating some of their foes, and that too was something he learned that he wouldn’t have otherwise learned if he stayed at the ranch.

He wasn’t done learning yet. He was still high strung, still caught up in trying to analyze things and figure out how to make things work better, more efficiently, more effectively. He still liked running and being by himself to train and perfect himself as much as possible, and he still had some things about other people that drove him crazy.

But he was learning. With a little help from Chase.

Riley wouldn’t say that he loved to skateboard; he was always going to prefer running, but he could see why Chase loved to skate so much, and he had to admit it was fun, once you got used to being on a board and not falling over all the time. He wasn’t going to be as good as Chase on a board, but he didn’t have to be.

He was also learning to be more spontaneous, more willing to let things go with the flow and relax. Part of that was probably because things were always happening and changing thanks to Sledge’s monsters, but part of that was Chase being so relaxed and willing to let things happen. If he could stop worrying, Riley figured he could as well, and he found that it was okay when things weren’t totally controlled and planned to the last second.

More important than that, he was coming to appreciate that there was a benefit to relaxing and doing something just for the sake of having fun. Everything Riley used to do was all about training, being smarter, stronger and faster so that the other Rangers wouldn’t think of him as a burden. He knew better now, and while he refused to stop growing and improving, he was starting to learn that he could relax and just be around the others without it having to be a Rangers emergency, and without having to feel like they looked at him as their younger teammate.

Most of all, Riley was learning all about what it means to date someone. He never really thought about it as an option. First because there weren’t many people close to his age where he lived and none of them were that interesting, then later because he wasn’t sure what he really wanted. Of course, he didn’t have a lot of time for dating, and he figured that being a Ranger and working at the café would put a damper on the time he could spend with a significant other. It helped that Chase did all the same things and had the same commitments.

And they did spend time together, even if a lot of that time was spent fighting monsters and surviving life and death situations. Chase said it made their private time together all the more special and important, and Riley had to admit that there was nothing better than coming home and curling up on their bed with Chase, not thinking or worrying or doing anything other than enjoying each other’s company.

As they pulled up into the driveway Riley could see his family waiting for him, looking happy to see their youngest son again. For his part, Riley was happy to see them, and when both he and Chase got out of the truck they walked hand in hand up the driveway to go make the introductions and get settled in for the weekend.

It felt right, and Riley was happy to be home.