It's Hard (A Power Rangers Samurai Fanfic)

Ji's Away

Jayden's stomach had started to bother him after dinner that night, but he ignored it and tried to sleep. At 2am the next morning though, he was somewhat regretting not telling anyone. He was tossing and turning in his bed, trying to find some position that wouldn't annoy his stomach. After turning over in his bed for about the fiftieth time, he heard a voice come from the other side of the room. "Jay?" Antonio said softly, using his nickname for the older teen. "Are you awake?" "Yeah, Toni." Jayden said, returning the nickname gesture. "I'm awake." "My stomach hurts." Antonio whined. "Like a lot." Jayden sat up in his bed. "Mine too." He told the gold ranger. "Come on, let's go see if we have any medicine left over from when we first got the SwordFish Zord." Antonio knew the story of course, Ji had told him about when a Nighlock poisoned the team, and the only hope was of Kevin catching the Zord. Suddenly Jayden was standing by his bed, holding out a hand. Antonio took it and let Jayden help him out of bed, and then the two went to find medicine.

Mike was heading out into the kitchen to get some water. He'd been coughing all night, and it was really starting to bother him now. He was in the kitchen when he heard voices, voices that sounded a lot like Jayden and Antonio's. Mike put the now empty glass down and his behind the fridge as the two samurai came into view. "Are you sure we don't have any medicine?" Antonio whined. "I really don't think there's any out here." Jayden told him. "Medicine?" Mike thought. "They must be sick too." Jayden and Antonio left, back to their room Mike presumed, and Mike emerged from behind the fridge. "Tomorrow," he thought, "is not going to be a fun day."

Ji wasn't home, he had thought the Rangers could handle themselves for a week while he handled some things up at the temples. It was a Saturday, so the Rangers weren't training that day. Lucky thing too, as neither Jayden, Mike, or Antonio were up before ten am that day. Kevin and Mia had gone to get the groceries for the week, and they left before usual wake up time, so they had no idea about their sick teammates. When the three boys did finally get up, they all just sat at the kitchen table, drinking water. Mike to help his throat, Jayden and Antonio in hopes that it would settle their stomachs. After a while of sitting there, Mike had a thought. "Hey," he said hoarsely. "Where's Em?" The three boys stood up and went to the girls' room. Antonio lightly knocked on the door, and was surprised to see how Emily looked when she opened it. She looked like she had just gotten out of bed, and she was extremely pale. "Feeling okay Em?" Mike asked, his voice very close to being gone. Emily shook her head. "I have a headache." She said. "I noticed it when Mia woke me up this morning, saying she and Kevin were going to the store." Jayden nodded and all four Rangers went to the kitchen.

While Kevin was waiting for Mia to return to the shopping cart, his Samuraizer started to ring. "Hello?" He answered. "Kevin," Jayden started. "Are you still at the store?" "Yeah," Kevin replied. "Why?" "I need you to pick up some things."

When they got home, Kevin and Mia headed into the kitchen where they found the rest of their team, still in pajamas. "Did you get what we asked for?" Mike questioned. Kevin nodded and placed a bag down on the table in front of the sick teens. Jayden rummaged through it and once he got his hands on the bottle of Ginger Ale, he immediately started pouring some into glasses for himself and Antonio. Mike pulled out the bag of cough drops he he requested, and some throat spray as well. Mia grabbed the fever reducer out of the bag and asked, "Where's Emily?" "In your room." Antonio said. "She wanted to try and go back to sleep." Mia nodded and headed to her and Emily's room. Jayden sat back down at the table, giving Antonio his glass of soda. "Wow, you guys really don't look good." Kevin realized. "Gee, thanks Kev." Mike said sarcastically as he popped a cough drop in his mouth. "You know what I mean." Kevin joked. "We feel terrible." Antonio said, taking a sip from his soda. "You'll be okay right?" Kevin asked. "We'll be fine Kev," Jayden assured. "Don't worry about us."

By the time dinner rolled around, Jayden and Antonio's stomachaches had turned into nausea and vomiting. Emily's fever had started getting worse, and Mike was coughing his throat raw. Kevin had made chicken soup for dinner, luckily Mia was occupied with trying to lower Emily's fever, and could be nowhere near the kitchen, except to get new cold compresses. Kevin, knowing the exact thing Jayden and Antonio didn't want to do right now was eat, headed off to get Mike. Mike ate happily, even though it hurt to swallow, the soup soothed his throat. "It's great, Kevin." Mike said as Kevin sat down, having filled his own bowl and one for Mia and Emily. He knew the girls would be coming in because Emily couldn't take her fever reducer on an empty stomach. "Thanks." Kevin replied. "It's my mom's recipe." Emily and Mia came in a few minutes later. Emily was reluctant to eat, but after some encouragement from Mia, she managed to take several spoonfuls before deciding she'd had enough and took the fever reducer. Luckily, this made her feel a bit better into the coming night, and she sat out in the main room with Mike, Kevin, and Mia. They were having a light conversation when Jayden came in. "How're you feeling?" Mia asked him. "A little better. Not as nauseous as before." Jayden replied. "I kinda want to go out and do something. Get some fresh air y'know?" "A walk actually does sound really good right now." Emily agreed. "We could, we just have to wake up Antonio." Kevin said. "And obviously you'd have to get dressed." Jayden didn't bother telling them Antonio wasn't asleep, he was for a little while, but they had both woken up a while ago.

After the four sick Rangers got dressed, the group of teens stepped out into the cool night air. Even though it was summer, there was a light breeze. The sick teens zipped up their hoodies. They walked through town and ended up getting smoothies. Jayden and Antonio's stomachs weren't bothering them as much anymore, so they were able to enjoy it too. Eventually, when they all got back home, they were exhausted. They ended up crashing in the main room with piles of blankets and pillows, none of them looking comfortable at all, but having serene and pleased looks on their faces.

Ji arrived at the Shiba House at about 3am. He had ended up coming home nearly four days early, so the Rangers weren't expecting him. He soon found something he wasn't expecting either though. The Rangers asleep in a big dog pile in the main room. Ji didn't question it, he just smiled and snapped a few pictures.

A/N: Hey guys, I don't really have much to say at the moment, but please comment and vote if you enjoyed! Bye guys!