trans_9 | Cranston For Hire [Open!]

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Cranston For Hire [Open!]

It was once again time for Billy to assess the progress being made in this seemingly endless war with tasks and deadlines. So far, reorganization of the Engineering department was about 25% complete. Not terrible for a day's work, but he could certainly do better. Several projects were stalled pending discussion from the involved parties. His social time and interactions with the Rangers had taken a hit due to all of this.

Though he was following his orders to take more resting time during the day and having fun with Ronnae on many of the nights, nothing stopped him from taking on more than enough work to fill the compressed schedule.

Today's work: Supervising the new structure and performing odd jobs around the ship. Repairs were going well in the hangar, Neuropathy needed to be left alone, infrastructure was busy in the City. He visited wherever he could and lent a hand to each, struggling to find time for what he wanted to do in secret: move his personal belongings to his girlfriend's house.

As Billy wandered back and forth throughout the day, a stuffed backpack always accompanied him. Throughout the day, the loaded-down teenager made trips between a number of places on the upper levels and a particular house in the City. Distracted as he was with the constant juggling of omnicom, comm ring, tools, and items, he eventually wore himself out.

Where he ended up shouldn't be a surprise: in the city park, fast asleep, sprawled across an assortment of odd items. Somehow, he'd note when he woke up, he doubted this was what had been meant by the recommendation for 'personal time'.

((ooc: The two location tags basically mean you can catch him anywhere: asleep with shiny stuff to steal or rushing back and forth between the different areas of the ship. Just make a note of where you found him.))

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"Hey YOU, no secrets!" Katara said aloud, laughing. It actually all sounded pretty good, and despite subsisting on mostly fish, she did like her share of meat, although Sokka's love of it was pretty insatiable. Katara saw no reason for Ronnae to be bashful.

"That all sounds wonderful," she said, grinning. "My mouth is watering just thinking about it! The next time that we go off world, we should totally make sure to grab different types of food."

She blushed and gave a quick nod, trying to avoid their gazes.

"That'd be pretty awesome. Maybe eat at one of the local stores."

She held Billy's hand for comfort and tried to get back the normal color of her face, hopefully it would go back to normal soon!

Billy held her hand loyally until she calmed down, smiling. "Trust me, Katara, you'll want us to keep some secrets from you."

What on earth was he implying so casually? Billy laughed, awkward as ever. "But do you want to rest, or did you want to continue the interrogation?"

Now she was confused, and definitely looked so. "What do you mean some secrets? What else have you guys been up to?"

Yes, Katara, despite being intuitive and intelligent, was still lost when it came to innuendo.

"Interrogation!" Katara giggled. "What have you two been up to?"

So, the previous desire for her face going back to it's normal color? Shucked out the window as her face grew from a slight blush to full blown.

She laughed awkwardly and played with her single long ponytail idly. "B-Billy's the secret keeper! Ask him!" Only way she thought how to escape the spotlight, was shoving it at her boyfriend! Isn't grand?

Billy glared playfully at her, folding his arms over his chest in an over-exaggerated dramatic fashion. "Nothing you wouldn't expect a new couple to do," he said evasively. "Enjoying closeness for the most part."

"In that case, you can definitely keep it to yourselves!" Katara said, sticking her tongue out. "After all, I'm an impressionable young girl, you can't just talk casually about things like that. I might pick up the wrong information!"

It was gentle enough teasing, though Katara had certainly heard more about intimacy than was necessary on the ship, as well as varied ideas of when and how it should happen.

"G-good! Th-that's settled then! So n-next round of q-questions? I was last so." She looked at both awaiting the next question.

Billy slapped his forehead. "No, of course not," he agreed hurriedly. "It will be kept. And I shall ask..."

What was he going to ask? This one would be directed to Katara, hopefully keeping her mind off that embarrassing slip.

"If you only had the opportunity to tell us one more story, something that would remind us of who you were, what would it be?"

Katara flushed. "Well, I'm not bragging or anything like that, but I do have a story. It happened a few years back, when I arrived at this Earth Kingdom village and met this earth Kingdom boy named Haru. At the time, the village was occupied by Fire Nation troops, so earthbending of any kind was met with imprisonment. Haru was too afraid to earthbend publicly, because his father had been taken, but he was tricked into showing his ability and taken on a Firenation ship. To get him back, the gang sert it up so it looked liek I was earhbending, and I was brought to the ship. There we met up with other imprisoned Earth Kingdom people. At first, even though I tried to get them to rally and fight, they wouldn't: they were too beaten down, they'd almost lost all hope. But with Aang's help, the coal from the ship was brought on deck, and with gentle nudging from me, they were able to defeat their fire nation captors and take the ship for their own."

She smiled. "I didn't give up on them though, no matter how hard it seemed. I knew that as long as the seeds of hope were there, with a little help they could free themselves. When it comes down to it, that's who I am: I believe in the better parts of us, and I know that with a little nudge, people can do amazing things."

Ronnie listened to the story with a warm smile. She was nuzzled to Billy, and listening to a rousing story of hope, listening to Katara speak with pride was also something that made her happy. "It's nice, when someone has so much hope in others. More people should be like that." She herself included... sure she always tried her best to cheer people and her team or troops up. But it was always about keeping others happy when she wasn't. Maybe she'd have to learn more through life.

Billy leaned on Ronnie happily, listening to the story with a nod. "That's right. You've always been pushing me, especially when I get discouraged. You're one of the toughest coaches I know, but I wouldn't have it any other way."

He squeezed Ronnie's hand, then looked up at the girls. "I suppose it's high time I tell you about myself, huh? What would you like to hear? Something embarrassing?"

"That's because I could see how strong you were, Billy. You never gave yourself enough credit, and I was tough because I wanted to make sure you found out how amazing you were all on your own. And look at you now: you've gotten stronger, many friends on the ship and an amazing girlfriend. Just like with the Earth Nation fighters, all you needed was words and encouragement: everything else you got on your own."

Katara looked at Ronnae and nodded. She had already asked her a question, and Billy had asked her one. It was only fair Ronnae asked Billy the next question.

Ronnae blushed heavily, hiding her face behind one of her long bangs.

She looked down in thought, trying to avoid eye contact since she was still embarrassed. "Any secrets?" Sort of a bold question for someone like her, but she figured it would move the spotlight from her.

Billy was right there with her in the embarrassment department. Katara always did that to him whenever she 'talked him up', and with the two of them right there. He gave Ronnie's hand a squeeze on the word 'amazing' to communicate his agreement.

"Secrets? Hmm...do I have secrets." It was difficult because he had become a fairly open person. "I have former secrets. I was once required to keep my status as a Power Ranger a secret. I tried to keep my feelings for you a secret. But the main secret I hold currently is..."

He paused, wondering if he should continue. But it was only fair that he do so. Without further ado, he took Ronnie's hands in his own and smiled innocently at her.

"Lately, my dreams have all been about you."

Well. This was something she hadn't been expecting, not in a long shot. It was, of course, something she wanted Billy to elaborate on, if only because she could see the deepening relationship between the two of them.

"Really?" Katara said. "What are they like?"

She is actually NOT in the gutter, Billy.

Ronnae blushed immensely, so much so that she opted to partially hide by hugging one of her pillows to her chest and close to her face. You could only see her bright teal eyes from the top of the pillow.

Billy shot a questioning glance at Katara, then shuffled closer to Ronnae and nudged her.

"They're about us spending time together. One of the most vivid dreams was of us on the beach. I suppose I thought of it because Nokosi told me that we both have sun-baked scents: yours is a sunflower seed and mine is the sand. Anyway...we were there, fighting the waves and relaxing in the sun all day. At night, we were together by the fire. I remember feeling so relaxed and carefree with you."

He blushed, ducking his head just slightly.

Katara returned the look, totally innocent, and sat cross legged. When Billy told his story, she smiled: it was a really sweet dream, and she could see that Billy really did care for her.

Though without realizing it, tears were coming down her face, and she blinked, wiping them away.

"Oh, sorry! Must be something in my eye."

Ronnie was gripping her pillow tightly, both from her heart swelling with joy, and trying to hide that her cheeks might burst at any moment from so much blushing, but...

She looked at Katara concerned. She moved forward and knelt in front of her holding her hands comfortingly.

"You sure? You know we're here for you right?" She gave her a reassuring smile, wiping her tears gently.

Billy moved to Katara's side too, placing a hand on her leg and looking guilty. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to open the wound again."

She shook her head, managing to smile. "No, no, don't pay any attention, you guys should be happy! Billy, that's a wonderful dream, and I'm really happy how you two are...are..."

She sniffed, wiping her eyes. "It's wonderfully romantic, really. It just reminded me of some things. It isn't right to make you guys sad about it."

Ronnie smiled warmly. "I'm not sad, and you're definitely not making me sad. I'm concerned for a friend who's pained. Nothing wrong with that." She then hugged Katara comfortingly. Rubbing her back as she held her.

Billy added himself to the pile, holding the two of them as tightly as he could. "We care about you because you're an invaluable person to us, Katara, and we never want to hurt you. Let it out if you need to."

She hugged the two back fiercely. She had no right taking their moment, making things so sad when they should have been laughing and having a good time, but what Billy described had really hit home.

"I didn't mean to get so upset, really guys. Your dream sounds wonderful Billy, really. It's just, I never really got to have that with Aang, there was a war, and on the ship, I just kept trying to find a way to get him out. Even when I did, the ship podded him before we could ever really have what you guys have: long dates, looking into each others eyes, just being a couple. We had an intimate moment once, he and I, and the ship stopped us of course, we weren't in the City. Other than that...besides our love from home, we never got to just sit and be WITH each other."

She ran a hand through her hair, looking miserable. "The type of things you guys are doing, the lead up to all of it....I had that with Matt. And now, Matt is in pain, because of all of this. Two men I care deeply about, and I just cause them pain."

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