trans_9 | Build it up [closed to Hoshi]

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Build it up [closed to Hoshi]

Finally, with so much other work out of the way, Billy and Hoshi are making progress on her personal project. She'll have her Riders' motorcyle, the magnificent Nazca Legacy, completed soon enough. After that, the three Riders will be an even more efficient team.

He's enjoyed the challenge of building a motorcycle from the ground up. He's not the expert hand at it that other past crew members would have been, but motor vehicles are simple enough to learn and he has templates from others. It's been great so far, and he sincerely hopes she'll be proud of the finished product.

Today's job: prepping and painting the plates. He's brought fume masks, work tables, and the few colors they have to choose from. "Hey, Hoshi, I'm sorry I'm late. These took some time to find."

It'd be a nice chance to learn about her life, he thought.

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Hoshi expected to work today, and so, she was dressed in one of her t-shirts with a pair of shorts. She gave Billy a smile and shook her head. "Don't worry!" she stated.

She tied her hair back into a ponytail and cricked her neck a bit.

"Let's get cracking!"

"Right on it!" Billy flashed the thumbs up, immediately laying out one of the side plates and starting on his buffing work.

"What colors did you have in mind?"

Hoshi went right by Billy's side, waiting for anything he needed help with.

"I was thinking a skyish blue, black... maybe in the decals something orangey, too."

"Navy blue, black and orange. I've got it," Billy grinned, clearly approving of the colors. He set out the chosen paints for later, focusing for now on the task of buffing and preparing.

"I have more tools if you want to do this too," he suggested gently, "or anything else you'd like. It's your project, I just want to see you happy with it."

Hoshi nodded back and then listened to his suggestion. "Of course I would!"

She did have another idea in mind, mostly due to the HardBoiler. Maybe when she changed forms, she could have the motorcycle itself change, too. "Do you think that, when I change forms, I could have the bike also change forms?"

"What alternate form do you have in mind?" Billy wondered as he worked, scrubbing at a particularly stubborn spot.

"I made a little sketch, so--" Hoshi paused to grab a drawing (http://images.wikia.com/kamenrider/images/a/ab/R_Nasca_Dopant.jpg) of Nazca's Level 3 form.

"This!"

"It'll be tricky, but doable," Billy promised, already tracing some lines over the plates to show where they would need to be cut. Some codes were tapped into the computer as well.

"So I might be here a while longer. I hope you don't get bored of me too quickly," he chuckled.

"I figured that since I could change forms as Double, why not try it with Nazca, only with my motorcycle?" Hoshi pondered as she studied what Billy was doing.

"And, please. As if I could get bored of someone like you," she said, giving him a teasing grin.

"It'll help you with Shoutarou and Philip," Billy agreed, still making his adjustments and scribbling his notes. They would get there eventually, he was sure.

"Even if I babble on about things? Not that I will, my life hasn't been too fascinating lately."

"That it will!" Hoshi commented, wondering just what she could do that would help lighten the load on him.

"Yeah, that's totally fine. I can do the same, if you want."

Billy nodded happily, extracting the tools he'd need to make the first adjustments. It would take a fair bit longer to snip and reroute, but he would manage this somehow.

"Maybe you should start, unless you have a particular fascination with the ins and outs of paperwork," he suggested gently, a smile on his face.

Hoshi went to sit on the floor, her hands behind her. She wondered what she could talk about before deciding to talk about her life before Stacy.

"Well, I feel like you don't know much about my family, so I'll start with that. My mama's a homemaker who runs a babysitting service in her spare time to help bring in some income and my father's a major general in the JGSDF -- the army of Japan. He enlisted when he was eighteen, fresh out of high school, too, so I'm a military brat. While I strive to protect people's smiles here, he strives to protect those around the world and for Japan, too."

Hoshi was right, he hadn't known. He nodded along as he worked, definitely impressed. "I knew your strength had to come from somewhere. You resemble both of your parents."

Motherly and serious, warm and powerful. He was sure that the Hikaris would be proud of their girl if they were present. "Were you closer to either of them than the other?"

Hoshi chuckled, scratching behind her head. "Thank you, Billy. I think you're the first who said that."

At his next question, she said, "It's both, although, my father tends to go on a lot of away missions, so my mama picks up the slack and tries to be both my father and my mama at the same time. She did her best raising me and when I was around five or so, I decided to try to help her out so that she didn't have to do everything around the house. At first, she was opposed to it, but I insisted. And, at age five, who can really say no to you?"

"That's just like you," Billy answered with a smile, still working away at his next part. "I know I wouldn't be able to deny a younger you. I have a hard enough time with you as you are now," he laughed.

"If you want to know, though...my family was similar, at least until my parents divorced. I then lived with my dad, and...to give you an idea of how often he was around, I inherited my work effort from him. Even when he was there...in the past year, I couldn't really confide in him. Most things about my life had to be secrets and half-truths. He wasn't quite sure why that was tumbling out of him.

"I might have to take offense to that," teased Hoshi lightly with a chuckle of her own. She continued to make mental notes of what he was doing while she sat up a bit, getting a closer look on it.

She listened to what Billy explained, nodding in understanding. "The relationship you had with him was strained... I'm sorry about that," she said, raising her hand up to put it on his shoulder comfortingly. "I bet one of the things you had to keep secret was the Power Ranger stuff, huh? If you want my honest opinion on that, he'd probably be proud of you for that."

Billy leaned toward her just a little, taking a silent moment to comfort himself with that. He didn't think Stacy would awaken his parents, she hardly ever did such a thing, but if that were to happen...he'd have to tell them everything. And maybe, just maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

"That was the main secret, yes. We were sworn to secrecy about our powers, leaving us to explain why we snuck out of school and were injured so often. He trusted the Rangers, the whole town did, but knowing one of the people risking their necks was his son...I hope it would be all right."

He pushed past that with a smile. "At least you, Phillip, and Shoutarou don't have to go through the same thing. Do you?"

Hoshi nodded, glancing at Billy. She had to do the same thing when BEGA was gaining so much influence when their ideals were clearly skewed, but yet were sugarcoated to gain more popularity. She was glad that the same thing hadn't happened here, however.

"He'd worry. It's natural for any parent to do, but I think he'd be proud of his son."

She, too, smiled a bit and thought on his question. "Well, it's personal choice for us Riders. We can go public or we can stay in secrecy. At least for me, I decide to be open about my ability here so that people don't undermine my potential when it comes to a dire situation that I know I can help in. It just wouldn't make sense for me to stay on the sidelines, right?"

"Exactly. I was actually caught before fully deciding to go public. It's against a Ranger's rules to do so, but I felt I had to make that choice. If people had any confusion about me, they could mistake me for an enemy," he shuddered, imagining the chaos. That would've been quite the problem.

He paused to brush off his work. "How do the others feel about it?"

"And that would just open a whole new can of worms, wouldn't it?" she asked, tilting her head slightly to the side.

"Well, I think they'd feel the same. I'd have to ask Philip and Shoutarou personally on their opinion."

Billy nodded along, bobbing up from his work. "Yeah, absolutely. I'll keep my mouth shut for their sake, of course."

Their names did make him wonder, though. "How are things, anyway? The last report from Shoutarou indicated that you and Phillip were teaming up on him in 'childish games', is that true?"

Hoshi nodded again and chuckled a little bit.

"Things are great with us, but I won't dispute that claim. I've been able to be more of a kid, which is nice."

Of course, she was still riding on cloud nine after the confession Philip and her shared. It might have been obvious a little bit in the way her mood was.

"That sounds great." It did. Carefree fun was so rare these days, so it was great that she had found it.

"It looks like you're really happy, Hoshi. I'm glad to see it."

"Thank you, Billy. Say, how did things with Ronnae work out after our conversation in the bathhouse?" she asked.

She hoped it worked out for the best for the both of them.

"We were honest, just like you advised," Billy said, turning a faint shade of pink as he remembered that night. "We both had emotional issues to work past, but we did feel relief. And...uh, the rest of the night was great."

More than great, actually.

Hoshi smiled, although it turned into a little teasing smirk when she noticed his cheeks turning pink. "I'm glad it was great and that things worked out!"

Billy paused to make an indignant face, miming the act of throwing something at her. "We're happy now. Just like you, right?"

In which that just made Hoshi's grin widen when Billy mimed the act of throwing something at her. "Ah... Yeah! Happy! I'm happy as I can be!"

"You're sure?" Billy taunted, finally happy with his bike piece. "There's nothing that you'd improve about your life here?"

"J-Just what are you getting at?" Hoshi challenged, puffing her cheeks out slightly.

"What's going on in your life," Billy suggested. "You're happy about something that's changed recently, Hoshi, I just don't know what. And I don't think it's just Shoutarou---did you get a gift recently? Something special?"

"Ah, well... I guess you can say that I got a gift that's special," replied Hoshi, the puffing going down.

Then again, Billy had been in a relationship longer than she did and probably had more experience than she did, so maybe it'd be okay to reveal it this early on.

"Huh. So what was it?" Billy asked gently, sure it couldn't be too bad. Maybe it was...

"Um, ah... Philip and I are together, but I haven't told many people since I don't know how comfortable he'd be of it being public." Hoshi scratched behind the back of her head.

Billy thought he'd guessed that. It was perfect, and he really hoped to see her happy.

"Congratulations," Billy whispered, leaning over to squeeze her arm. "I'll keep it quiet, you have my word. How recently was this?"

"Thank you on both counts," Hoshi said quietly, leaning in a bit to the arm squeeze.

"A couple of days ago or so. You know how weird time can be here."

Billy knew, all right. He nodded along, drawing back to get a good look at her. It definitely explained why she appeared to be happier now.

"May I ask how it happened, or is that private?"

"It's not terribly private. I just decided to admit my feelings and the rest went on from there," Hoshi said with a little shrug.

"I gotta admit, though. I feel better after doing it because even with the amount of friends I have here, it's nice to have someone worth fighting for and to make sure I've got that someone to come home to."

"Sometimes it's scary when something goes wrong and you don't come home to them," Billy added, remembering various missions and crisis situations quite well. "But the moment you're reunited is wonderful."

He kept up his happy grin, a definite bounce in his hands as he worked. "I really am happy for you. I think you'll have a great time."

"Yeah, which is definitely something my mama and I worry about when my father went on his missions," Hoshi commented, giving him a nod. She'd never admit to it, but she did openly cry when her father came home to them all safe and sound.

"But, thank you, Billy. The two of us will work our hardest at this."

...Okay, she was getting a little tired of just simply watching him work. "Is there anything I can help on, in the meanwhile?"

Billy gave her a brief hug around the shoulders as he passed, supportive. It was all going to be okay, wasn't it?

"Actually, you can loosen the red screws on the side facing you. I'll need those out to start making my attachments."

Hoshi smiled at the hug and leaned into it, nodding her head in thanks. It'd be hard, but she'd definitely work to make it okay.

"All right," she said, grabbing a screwdriver and she worked on the loosening the screws. She wasn't going to take them out since Billy said not to, so she'd listen to what he said.

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Build it up [closed to Hoshi]

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