He left his room definitely feeling more at ease. Talking with his best friend always had that effect on him. Zhane was off helping the rebels, protecting them while they built weapons to help in the war against Dark Spectre, but Andros and he were always in contact. Whether telepathically or like just now using shipboard communications, they spoke frequently.

Andros had called Zhane to discuss the latest Earth ritual he had been asked to participate in: something called a prom. After Andros had filled him in on the details, Zhane had actually laughed at him and claimed that he was returning on the day in question just to see it. Andros had threatened to sever the communications link right then, but Zhane got his laughter under control and offered him some advice on the matter. Just talking to Zhane had been enough to make him feel better, even if his friend had found it hard not to make jokes.

As he walked down the hallway, Andros remembered the first time he had heard about this prom, dance, whatever-thing. Ashley had asked him to attend the prom with her, and he had accepted even though he had no idea what it was; anything to spend time with Ashley. After some initial confusion the Earth Rangers had sufficiently explained to him the purpose of this social event. It was then that he became nervous; the dressing up, the dancing, the room full of strangers... But one look at Ashley's excited smile and he knew he wouldn't let her down.

She was even nominated for something called a 'prom queen', though Cassie had been the one to tell him that. She said that Ashley hadn't mentioned it because she didn't want to make it seem like it was a big deal. But all the Earth Rangers knew how much she wanted it.

He was passing Ashley's room when he heard laughter from within and couldn't resist peeking in. The Pink and Yellow AstroRangers had just returned from a shopping trip to the mall. 'Prom preparation' they had called it. Apparently special clothes were required for this event, and Andros was supposed to go get similarly prepared with TJ and Carlos later that day.

Despite his protests that DECA could synthesize him any clothes he needed, TJ and Carlos had insisted that if they had to go through the mess of the fitting and renting of tuxedos, then so did he. They had explained to him that the guy wore a tie and cummerbund that matched the girl's dress, and that he needed to find out what color Ashley was wearing.

TJ already knew that Cassie was wearing pink. The two were the best of friends, so it only seemed natural that they went together. It also helped to keep Cassie's admirers at bay without either of them having to explain that she was really in love with a currently absent intergalactic warrior.

Carlos' girlfriend, Karen, was wearing green, which made Carlos very happy. For despite being the Black AstroRanger, he had always felt more at home in green.

Andros thought it only logical then that Ashley would wear yellow. But as he looked into her room, he saw he was wrong.

Cassie was sitting on the bed, surrounded by shopping bags. She was laughing and clapping as Ashley swirled around the room holding a short dress in front of her - a short red dress. As she turned, Ashley caught sight of Andros watching her and stopped. Embarrassed, she lowered the dress and smiled at him.

Andros was amused by her reaction to 'getting caught', as if he would ever be angered by her exuberance. True it had confused him when he had first met her, but in time it was one of the many things that made him love her so much.

Cassie had been wearing a knowing grin when she had excused herself from the room, though neither had noticed her leave. They both stood there, staring at each other till finally Ashley looked away. She laid the dress out on the bed and seemed to consider it for a moment. She then walked over to stand next to Andros and hesitantly put her arm around his waist. She shyly smiled and asked, "So, what do you think?"

Andros shook his head to clear his thoughts, and much to Ashley's delight he put his arm around her shoulders. He looked again at the revealing red dress, then back at Ashley. "It's beautiful," he offered. "But it's not your color."

"No," she agreed readily enough, and turned to face him. "But it's yours."

With her words, the last of his nervousness disappeared and he leaned in to kiss her.

"Zhane! I don't want to go to the Simudeck! I'm tired! I just want to sleep and forget this miserable day ever happened," Ashley protested as Zhane dragged her down the hallway.

But Zhane refused to take no for an answer. He just laughed at her uncharacteristic whining and pulled her into the lift. "You won't want to miss this. Trust me," he winked and leaned against the wall.

She folded her arms across her chest and pouted in the corner as the lift ascended. She was really not in the mood for any of this, especially if it was one of Zhane's pranks. Though the day couldn't really get any worse than it already was. The day was supposed to have been happy. This was supposed to have been one of the best nights of her life. But as far as she was concerned, the whole thing was shot to hell.

The Psycho Rangers had been giving them a very tough time lately. And their capture of the MegaVoyager the day before had led the AstroRangers on a chase to another galaxy. It had been a long, hard fought battle, but the Psycho Rangers had finally been defeated once and for all. But not before they had managed to totally foil Ashley's plans. It had been a long search and battle; too long for Ashley's taste. For back on Earth the time was now 4am on May 14th... the morning after the senior prom. Instead of spending the night dancing with the man she loved, she had spent it fighting psychotic killer Ranger rejects on an alien planet.

Cassie and TJ had both been too tired to care about missing the prom, and had already gone to sleep. Carlos knew he was in trouble for standing up his girlfriend on prom night, but since Karen knew he was a Ranger, he hoped that she would understand. Ashley, on the other hand, was furious at having missed the one night she had looked forward to through four long years of high school. After the Psycho Rangers had been destroyed, she had stalked off on her own to make the repairs to the MegaShip. No one had dared to bother her, except Zhane. Nothing seemed to bother him. He had come to find her just as she had finished the repairs and was heading to her room to sleep. He had pretended to be totally oblivious to her irritation, and ignored all protests.

If a Psycho Ranger had been in the lift with them, she would have single-handedly ripped them limb-from-limb for ruining her night. As it was, Zhane with his annoyingly cheerful smirk appeared to be the prime and, unfortunately for him, only target available for her to vent her anger and frustration upon. She was plotting the many ways of wiping that smirk off his face when the lift doors opened.

Zhane started forward, but stopped in the doorway, blocking the doors' sensors so they wouldn't close. He turned and gallantly motioned for her to exit the lift first. She thought about refusing but decided it was just too much trouble to try to out stubborn him. Andros and he are as much alike as they are different, she thought as she exited the lift. Zhane stepped off also, and as the doors closed behind them, he started toward the open simudeck doors.

"Zhane," she sighed as she stopped outside the simudeck. "There isn't anything here that I could possibly want to see...," her words trailed off when she caught a glimpse of what was inside.

He quickly stepped in front of her, blocking her view. "No, I guess you're right. Nothing here you'd want to see. You said something about being tired, right? Why don't you go to sleep?" He jokingly tried to usher her away from the door, but she shoved him aside so she could see again. He made a show of stumbling backwards, not that she noticed. So he leaned against the doorframe and resigned himself to watching her reaction to what she saw in the simudeck.

The simudeck looked darker than usual. There had never been any visible lighting, but it had always been well lit. But now it was quite dark and the black walls, ceiling, and floor made it seem more so. The green grid lines were glowing in the darkness.

In the grid lines' glow stood a solitary figure, fidgeting with nervousness. But when he saw Ashley, he turned to her with a warm and inviting smile, hiding the anxiety as best as he could.

"Andros?" she stuttered. He was wearing his rented black tuxedo, with the red tie and cummerbund to match her dress; his hair was down, hanging past his shoulders. He looked so different out of his usual AstroRanger uniform, but at the same time he looked strangely normal, like any American teenager his age. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Waiting for you."

"And you took your own sweet time about getting here, too," Zhane interrupted, earning himself a glare from both Andros and Ashley. Not that either fazed him in the slightest.

"But what's going on?" she asked again, still not quite comprehending what was happening.

"I know how much this prom meant to you, Ash. I couldn't just let you miss it." He held out his hands, grinning and showing the still dark simudeck. "Now are you going to come in here so I can start this program or not?"

With a joyous smile Ashley ran into the simudeck and hugged him. She pulled away from his embrace only long enough to admire him in his tuxedo. "I'm not really dressed for this Andros," she admitted ruefully, looking down at her dirty uniform.

"I think you're beautiful no matter what you wear, Ash. You don't need a special dress for me."

But she just shook her head. "No, it's only fair. You got all dressed up for me, I can do the same for you."

"Then go ahead. I'll wait," he agreed, and added, "I'm sure Zhane will keep me company till you come back." Ashley turned to see the Silver Ranger still leaning in the doorway. He tossed them a jaunty wave, that ever-present smirk still on his face.

"I'll hurry back, I swear," she said, turning back to Andros.

Andros grinned at her attempt to placate him. "I'd wait forever for you, Ash."

She hugged him again before she could start crying. Andros had changed so much since they had met. And he continued to surprise her with how warm and open he could be when he really tried. She practically skipped to the door, stopping to turn back and smile at Andros. She gave Zhane a quick hug too before running off to the lift.

As he watched her leave Zhane commented, "I don't know, Andros. Are you sure she likes this? Or you, for that matter?" It earned him yet another good-natured glare from his best friend; one which he yet again cheerfully ignored.

True to her word, it did not take Ashley long to return. As she stepped off the lift, she saw that Zhane was no longer in the simudeck doorway. She started slowly down the hallway, the click of her high heels on the metal deck announcing her approach.

She peeked into the simudeck at Andros and Zhane, not hearing voices but suspecting her arrival would interrupt some silent conversation between the two. Andros' eyes grew wide when he saw her there in the doorway. Zhane saw his best friend's face and turned to see what had caused the reaction.

He let out a long, low whistle. "Oops, I'm sorry. I believe that was your line, Andros. And I believe that's my cue to leave." He clapped Andros on the back, and sent him a silent message to have fun. If Andros hadn't been so preoccupied with Ashley he would have had given him a sarcastic retort, or at least another glare. But Zhane escaped the simudeck without retaliation. He paused in the doorway, watching Ashley walk up to Andros in the grid lines' green glow. His smirk changed to a smile as he left them alone.

Ashley had glanced at the Silver Ranger as he passed her on his way out. He had seemed sufficiently smug and happy with his part of this plot. She reached the center of the simudeck and hesitated.

"Wow, you look beautiful, Ashley," he said slowly, still staring at her.

"Thank you," she muttered shyly, looking down but not moving closer. Neither her nor Andros made an attempt to close the small distance between them.

"So," she started, trying to open things up between them again. "Did Zhane help you set all this up?"

Andros laughed and looked away, thinking back to Zhane's prank after the fight with the Psychos. Zhane's dressing up as Psycho Red had scared years off of Andros' life. "Yeah, he did. He sort of owed me."

"I bet he did," Ashley giggled, and stepped forward when Andros offered her his hand.

"Now let me make sure I have all this right," he said, and held out his other hand to a corner of the room. Courtesy of his telekinesis, a corsage flew across the room to land on his hand. It was a wrist corsage of small red and yellow flowers of a kind Ashley had never seen before.

"Andros, they're gorgeous!" she sighed as he slipped it on her arm. She couldn't help but tease him by adding, "TJ and Carlos taught you well."

"Cassie taught me a few things too," he teased back, as once again something flew to his empty hand. This time Ashley stared in surprise at the small simply made crown in his hands. "Andros, wait," she protested. "We missed the prom. We don't know if I won."

"Well, no one else is here to argue," he offered conspiratorially. She giggled and relented, allowing him to crown her queen of 'their prom'.

"So where's this great program you mentioned?" she asked, steadying the crown in her upswept hair.

"Well, everyone described to me what the place would look like, but I thought there was a much better place we could go dancing," he said. "DECA, begin program please."

The gridlines faded away, taking with them the light in the room. In their place, tiny stars sprang up, lighting the darkness. Their glow brightened as more and more stars continued to appear. A slow and unfamiliar song started to play, and Ashley wondered if it was Kerovan as the warm and inviting melody filled the simudeck. He gently put his arms around her and they began dancing, criss-crossing their way through the stars.

"Andros, this is all so perfect," she sighed, resting her head on his shoulder. "Thank you."

"I knew how much you were looking forward to last night. I'm sorry you had to miss it," he apologized. "I know there's no way I can make up for that."

"It was the Psychos' fault, not yours, Andros." She pulled back to look in his eyes. "And it wasn't so much the formality of a prom that I wanted, as it was a special night with you. And you've given me that. You're what matters, Andros. Not the clothes and flowers, but the quiet time with you," she paused. "We just seem to have so little of that lately."

"We'll just have to do something about that," and he kissed her as they continued their slow dance among the stars.