Challenge: Smile – written by BloomingViolets 
Last Revised: October 23, 2006

Summary: All he could do was stare at her and smile  
Disclaimer: We don’t own ‘em, wish we did. 
Ship: Syd/Sky

AN: Done in response to the Ars Amatoria’s Ranger Romance Themes Challenge.  Sorry it took us so long, but we’re busy college students and thing have gotten in the way.  And no, we haven’t forgotten A Different Side Of You, promise.

 

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Her hair was like strands of gold, glistening in the sunlight.

 

It was one of those overused and cliché sayings, something one might hear in one of those cheesy, unrealistic chick flicks that he detested so much. The kind of movies that she probably loved and would sit and squeal over for hours on end with Z or one of her many other friends from her family’s Country Club. He knew this, because he had witnessed the squealing first hand on more than one occasion.

 

Her hair was long and beautiful and he had never seen anyone else with hair that would capture his attention like hers did. Wasn’t there some fairy tale about a princess that had to spin straw into gold in order to prove herself to some fairy and thus win the hand of her prince? He imagined that her hair was what that gold would have looked like; long, glistening strands or yellow that was as soft to touch as silk or velvet and scented with enticing smells of apples or vanilla or even rosemary and jasmine.

 

Sky blinked, coming out of his daze and glancing at his coffee cup suspiciously. Exactly how much caffeine had he consumed today, anyway?

 

He glanced back to the table where the object of his current fixation was sitting, chatting away happily with Z. To his surprise, a pair of suspicious blue eyes were staring back at him, exactly the color of blue crystals held up to the light…

 

Ack! Stop that, Tate. What has gotten into you today?

 

They stared at each other for a long, appraising moment, cerulean blue holding crystal blue, before Sky allowed a faint smile to his lips, raising his near empty cup to her in a mock salute. That action appeared to break the spell. Ignoring Z’s sudden questioning, Sydney stood up abruptly and began marching forward towards him. There was a fierce scowl on her pretty face that she probably thought made her look threatening, but in actuality made her look adorable.

 

Like a kitten with her fur all ruffled up, pretending to be a lion…

 

Sky mentally smacked himself over the head, just before the pink ranger reached him and stood with her hands planted on her hips. “And just what is it about me that’s so fascinating that you have to keep boring holes into the back of my head!” she demanded in a high, frustrated voice. “You’re starting to creep me out!”

 

Sky regarded her for another moment, and then smiled again, noting how she suddenly flushed and blinked and looked away in a fit of embarrassment. “Oh, nothing much,” he replied causally. “I was just admiring the way your hair glistens like strands of gold in the sunlight, that’s all. It’s really beautiful, you know.”

 

And with those words, he set the empty cup down on the counter and proceeded to stroll casually out of the common room smiling widely, leaving an openmouthed and extremely speechless Sydney staring after him.