Learning to Dance

of course I do, Taz.”
“I feel like-” She could feel the rage that had been
slowly building up inside of her since the day of his injury,
the day everything had changed. It was boiling hot now and
there was no more keeping it in. “- cutting open your belly
and filling it with jelly!”
The morons behind her gasped. That insult hadn’t even
made sense. Her brain was buzzing with anger. Or maybe it
was the dead goddamn bugs.
Up, looking perplexed, put his arm around her shoulders.
“Taz, is something bothering you?”
Is something bothering me? Is something bothering me?
She shrugged him off of her, and then did what she always
did when someone was pissing her off, though she’d never
done it to Up before.
She punched him, across the face. He doubled over - he
hadn’t been expecting it.
“Ow! My mug – that hurt.”
“I know it hurt! It hurt because you are soft now. You are
so soft you couldn’t even handle leaving a robot behind!
And now we -” she strode over to stand with the other
Rangers. “- are all dead!” She gave an angry salute. And
then she saw the look in his eyes.
“Taz – please, stop – now my feelings are hurt, too.”
The expression on his face was eating into her heart, but
it only made her angrier. He had no right to look so
helpless, so pathetic. Not Up. “You want me to stop?”
He nodded.
“Hit me back.”
He just stared at her, so she hit him again. This time he
fell to the ground.
“Hit me back!”
Slowly he raised his head, and they stared at each other,
Taz and the man she used to love.