Note: Adri wrote a story called "Visiting Hours" which, like so many of her stories, I fell in love with immediately. The story includes the second and third verses, plus the chorus, from Darryl Worley's song "I Miss My Friend". Only the first verse is left out, and with her permission, I wrote a prequel based on the missing lyrics. The overlap at the end is her writing. Thanks Adri! :)
My Friend
by Starhawk
"I miss the look of surrender in your eyes
The way your soft brown hair would fall
I miss the power of your kiss when we made love
Oh but baby most of all I miss my friend"
A few puffy fairweather clouds drifted lazily through the light, but the sun still shone bright and warm on the fields below. Andros recognized the scene immediately: the hills just east of Keyota, where he and Zhane had so often come to play as children. They had spent many nights camped out under this very sky, while the stars splashed distant sunlight over a world gone dark and close.
Without warning, the light vanished and he was once again enveloped by quiet warmth. Unable to shake the warrior instinct, even here in this inviolable place, he stiffened at the sudden loss of vision and he heard someone whisper, "Surprise."
He would know that voice anywhere. Andros relaxed, a reluctant smile tugging at his lips as Zhane uncovered his eyes and let his hands fall. He turned, pretending to scowl when he caught sight of the smirk on the Silver Ranger's face. "I could have hurt you, you know."
Zhane laughed aloud. "Sure you could have," he teased. "Just like I could do this."
Andros blocked his lunge without thinking, catching hold of his friend's arms instead of shoving them away and twisting as Zhane's momentum carried him backward. He landed on top as they tumbled to the ground, and he grinned down at his friend as he pinned him in the grass. "Just like that, huh?"
Zhane tried to look annoyed, but his eyes shone with unabashed adoration. "Yeah," he sighed, lifting his head for Andros' kiss. "Like that."
We never do this anymore. The thought flitted through his mind like an unwelcome visitor, reminding him of how much things had changed in the last two years. No matter how he tried to lose himself in the moment, he couldn't pretend this was real forever.
Zhane took advantage of his distraction to throw his arms out to the sides, upsetting Andros' balance with a classic self-defense move that he ought to have been prepared for. Squirming out of his jacket, the Silver Ranger tackled his friend with a force that sent them both sprawling, rolling over and over in the grass as they scrabbled for dominance.
"Hah!" Zhane crowed, and the strength with which he slammed Andros' hands to the ground belied his physical state. "Shouldn't have closed your eyes!"
Cool metal pressed against his back, harsher comfort than the twilight dimness in which he lingered. His injured wrist ached, a sharp pain shooting through his arm as the muscles clenched involuntarily.
Zhane drew back in alarm when he couldn't keep himself from flinching, looking him up and down for the source of the discomfort. "Are you all right? What happened, did I hurt you?"
The questions blended together as they tumbled out, and Andros wanted to smile at his friend's concern. But the fact that Zhane was the first one to ask only underscored his loneliness, and he winced again as the Silver Ranger went to help him sit up. "I'm fine," he said, more brusquely than he'd intended. "It's nothing."
"It can't be nothing," Zhane insisted, hovering beside him with real worry in his eyes. "What did you do, fall off your Glider?"
Andros looked away, and his guilty silence prompted a hoot of laughter from his friend. "Not again!" Zhane whooped. "What do we have to do, get you a seatbelt?"
"Don't you ever fall?" Andros asked sarcastically, nursing his sore wrist.
"Were you always such a whiner?" Zhane countered with a smirk. At Andros' hurt expression he asked, "Look, would it make you feel better if I fell off my Glider?"
"Of course not!" Andros sulked, "But-"
"But I don't have to flaunt my superior dexterity while you're babying your injuries. Got it."
Andros wondered just how undignified it would be for the leader of the AstroRangers to stick out his tongue.