A/N: Me? Series of Romance ficlets? Better look out everybody, the universe has warped and folded upon itself.

That aside, do enjoy.

Warning: Mild Spoilers ahead. Rated T for some low-key swearing.

1: Stunt-ed

Set in: "Kick Into Overdrive I"

For the first time in his life, Dax Lo felt small.

There had been moments, several of them, too many to count, when he had felt put down, humiliated, ignored and shunned – but he had always managed to bounce back (a characteristic that might have had an influence on the selection of his genetic power, but that was an issue for another day); a part of him that constantly reminded him that he was edging closer to his lifetime dream – that the kind of fame he was hoping for was just that one jump, that one motorcycle stunt, that one death-defying leap away – kept propping him up, kept his spirits alive.

Until…

Until this happened.

He was a Power Ranger, dammit, he was supposed to be excited, what was merely a bunch of wires, kick and graphics before was now real, solid, state-of-the-bloody-art; he was actually going to go out there and save the world, with his actual powers and actual spandex suit and insanely powerful weapons from actual alien villains, and…

And yet, with his actual teammates, in an actual underground hi-tech headquarters, Dax Lo felt incredibly small.

He looked to his side to see… to see her, decked out in black and pink, roguish, self-assured smile resplendent on her face as she soaked in… well, whatever Mr. Hartford was trying to tell them. Occasionally she would interrupt with a correction or remark, eyes shining with a practised smugness that suggested that she was used to correcting those older than her.

And it was this that was making Dax uncomfortable.

He was in a room full of prolific achievers – well, it didn't seem like Mack had done anything extraordinary, but hey, he was a rich kid and it didn't seem as though he was going to get to be a Ranger – and his own background – a naïve stuntman – in comparison to them… her… seemed… inadequate. Almost lowly. Like he didn't deserve to be in the same team as them… her. Just her presence seemed to have quashed that little place in him that had stood up to the worst kind of humiliations Hollywood had to offer, and yet opened up places that he had never bothered about before.

Funny that Rose Ortiz, barely hours after their first meeting, had already managed to turn his world upside down.