Note: This story was written for Lily as part of the Fun Happy PR Fic exchange. She requested a Kai/Leo story: "A mistletoe misunderstanding accidentally outs the pair to Mike." Marci helped me come up with misunderstandings. These wonderful women are filled with whimsy and warmth.

***

It had started as a morale-booster for the kids.  They were five months out from Earth, and homesickness still ran rampant among the schoolchildren.  Kai wasn’t sure which of the teachers had come up with “Christmas in July,” but he thought whoever it was should have more important things to do than convincing kids that Santa Claus would be able to find them in space.  He knew whoever it was had higher priorities than making every single child in the colony play Santa themselves so they could see how easy it was.

Telling them that Santa Claus didn’t exist would have been a good start, as far as he was concerned.  It turned out that very few of the parents agreed with him, though, so for ten days in the middle of July little kid-sized multi-colored Santa hats were everywhere.  Apparently anyone wearing a Santa hat had “magical powers” that included barter leverage, truancy exemptions, and admittance to high-security areas.

Everyone else called it “helping kids be kids.”  Kai called it chaos.

It didn’t help that the madness was contagious.  He’d thought it couldn’t get worse than adults encouraging children to break every rule in the book... but of course, once Leo got involved, it did.  The Red Ranger was a one-man social demolition machine.  He put on a Santa hat himself and started making the rounds.

He started with Maya, and Kai knew this because she should have been the last person on Terra Venture to know what mistletoe was.  But by day two of their summer Christmas she not only knew, she was in charge of a public campaign to sneak the stuff into every available doorway.  A secret public campaign, since he couldn’t technically pin the effort on her.  But no way would Kendrix have been that enthusiastic on her own.

“That isn’t mistletoe,” Kai informed her, when she met him at the door of the room she shared with Maya and pointed upward.  “That’s some sad evergreen imitation that probably would have been happier living the rest of its life in whichever dome you stole it from.”

“Maya’s helping with the harvesting,” Kendrix said, kissing him on the cheek.  “It’s completely sustainable.”

“Great,” Kai grumbled.  “So what you’re saying is, little green twigs of something that’s definitely not mistletoe will be everywhere by this time tomorrow.”

“Come in,” Kendrix said, taking a step back.  “Unless you’re waiting for someone in particular to come along while you’re under the mistletoe?”

“I’m waiting to see what other surprises you have in there before I commit,” Kai retorted.  He leaned against the door, confident that he could see far enough in either direction that he could get out of the way before anyone else caught him there.  “What do kids need with fake mistletoe, anyway?”

The problem with Leo was that he had speed and serious issues with personal space.  The flouting of personal space in particular.  “Hey!” he exclaimed, bounding down the hall with entirely too much energy.  “Just the people I was looking for--oh, wow, is that mistletoe?”

He swung into the door, holding onto the frame with one hand and reaching out to cup Kai’s face with the other.  Leo’s mouth landed briefly on his, warm and weirdly slow when he was moving faster than the speed of sound.  Kai absolutely did not close his eyes.

“Nice,” Leo declared, sliding past him.  “Kendrix, do you have that schedule the commander sent around yesterday?  I can’t find mine.”

Kai opened his eyes in time to see Kendrix grinning at him.  “Define ‘kid,’” she told him.

“Still not mistletoe,” Kai muttered.

Leo ended up conspiring with Kendrix next, which was not unexpected.  Kai could tell it had happened when he arrived for his next duty shift and found pseudo-mistletoe hanging in front of the elevator bank.  And there, at the back of the command center, Leo was obviously waiting for him.  Kai tried to point at him in a way that was both threatening and subtle.  “Don’t even think about it,” he warned in a low voice.

Leo held up both hands without straightening from his deliberate slouch.  “Just came up to talk to you about training rotations.  Got a minute?”

So he was allowed to pass--one more day of not telling as long as no one asked--and if he forgot on the way back, letting Leo sidle up to him and smile while they waited for the elevator, well.  It was his team leader.  Who was going to accuse Power Rangers of being too friendly?

They weren’t all so constrained.  The GSA actually had a non-discrimination policy, and the irony of it applying to everyone except the soldiers who enforced it wasn’t lost on Kai.  Or Leo.  Kai assumed he was getting his way on this one because Leo’s older brother was a commissioned officer too, but it was also possible that Leo had some sort of a quota when it came to breaking rules.  Maybe he’d already made it for the month.

Whatever the reason, he would have expected engineers to be more practical about the whole “mistletoe” thing.  Couldn’t it fall off and get into... electrical things, or something?  Weren’t the leaves some sort of pollution hazard, or mechanical choke, or at the very least a distraction?

He should have known: engineers didn’t get distracted, and if there was one thing they loved it was an excuse to do more work than they were already doing.  Half of them were helping kids with secret projects--in their spare time and even, as far as Kai could tell, during slow moments on duty--and the other half seemed to have been recruited by either Maya or Kendrix to hang green sprigs in the most unlikely of places.  Kai assumed that Damon had been in charge of the Megaship.

“Is there anyone you haven’t brought in on this?” Kai asked, when Leo caught him alone on the Bridge before their test flight.  There was yet another ribbon-wrapped plant hanging between their stations.  “Seriously, what does Damon care about kissing traditions?”

“Maybe it appeals to his inner elf,” Leo suggested, sauntering up to the status console as though he wanted to look over Kai’s shoulder.  “All I know is, when an engineer offers to help you, you say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and you give them the most important job you can think of.”

“Hanging fake mistletoe,” Kai said flatly.

“Making people happy,” Leo corrected.  When Kai didn’t turn around Leo did, leaning back against the console beside him to catch his eye.  “Please can I have a kiss, Kai?”

He sighed, but Leo was still wearing his Santa hat.  He’d hate to be the one who single-handedly disproved the “magic powers” theory.  Catching Leo’s elbow, he pressed a quick kiss to parted lips and tried not to think about making out on the Astro Megaship.

“Thank you,” Leo said, perfectly polite as he drew away.  “Also, I’m sorry about the audience.”

Kai closed his eyes, counted to three, and then looked over his shoulder.  Kendrix and Damon stood in the nearest doorway, arms around each other and identically obnoxious expressions on their faces.  Which was to say, they looked supremely happy and entirely too smug for his taste.  “I really don’t want to hear it,” he told them.

“Yeah,” Damon scoffed.  “And if saying it made it true, you wouldn’t have a team.”

“He means thank you,” Kendrix assured him.  To Kai she added, “You’re welcome.”

Kai ignored her to frown in Leo’s general direction.  “Can I fire them?  Technically?”

“Yeah,” Leo said with a grin.  “But I’d just hire ‘em back.”

By the fifth day of their summer holiday, Kai felt like he’d been conditioned.  He was trying to suppress the urge to look for leaves and berries every time Leo approached--he even found himself doing it in their room, which Kai had declared a mistletoe-free zone days ago.  Damon hadn’t objected, and they had voted Leo down.

Now, though, even the locker room at the firing range wasn’t safe and finally Kai couldn’t stand it anymore.  He found Leo pulling the mesh coverall on over his workout clothes and he just gave up.  He walked over, fisted his hands in the coverall, and kissed his sneakily subversive boyfriend until he forgot how long they’d been standing there.

That, he’d found, was sometimes the best standard he could muster when it came to public displays of affection with Leo.  Or... maybe not the best.  Maybe just the only standard.

“Nice,” Leo said, his appreciation more breathless than usual when he grinned at Kai.  “And there isn’t even any mistletoe.”

“Isn’t there?”  Kai gave the room a token glance.  “My mistake.”

Leo laughed, Kai changed, and Damon eventually wandered in... not followed by Mike.  He called from Medlab to say he’d explain later--he definitely didn’t--and maybe it was his early absence that made them so casual that evening.  They gathered in the girls’ room for another round of food and highlights of the day and for once Mike seemed to fit right in.

He seemed more relaxed than usual, Kai thought.  And that was the only explanation he had for the way they didn’t even think about it: when Kendrix hung the mistletoe over Maya, who happened to be sitting next to Kai and Leo, her girlfriend pretended not to see her and instead turned to them.  She asked Leo if everyone was supposed to kiss, whether they were romantically involved or not.  Leo pretended it wasn’t impossible that this had never come up before and threw in his vote for “yes.”

Kendrix seconded it as though it shouldn’t even be a question.  Damon said, “What the hell,” in a not totally disgusted voice, and Kai waved in a way that was supposed to mean whatever.  Whatever they wanted, whatever he had to do; he liked them too much to fight over something this stupid right now.

Mike said yes.  Maya said yes.  So Maya gave Kai a peck on the cheek, and hey, if there was free-floating mistletoe.  He turned to Leo expectantly.  It wasn’t until after Leo had kissed him that he realized what they’d done.

“Oh,” Mike said mildly.  “Did I just vote against GSA regulations?  I didn’t notice.”

Kai thought it was strange that he didn’t feel anything.  Not hurt, or shocked, or frightened.  He didn’t even feel resigned, which he’d thought would be at the top of the list since he’d been expecting Leo to accidentally out him for months now.  Of course, after all that, he would be the one to do it to himself.  Even with that, though, he didn’t feel...

Well, he didn’t feel different.  He felt just the way he’d felt a minute ago, and if he lost his commission over it, so what?  He had other things to worry about.

“Rules of the game,” Leo said, his light tone showing no sign of guilt or chagrin.  “All bets are off when mistletoe is involved.”

“You don’t have to cover for me,” Kai said.  He wondered at the words, sure that they should seem more significant--indicative of a major turning point in his life, or at least his career.  But right now, they felt like any other words.  “I’m dating Leo,” he told Mike.  “So far he’s actually managed to keep it a secret better than I have.”

“He’s full of surprises,” Mike agreed, eyes on his little brother.

“I didn’t want you to have to break any rules,” Leo blurted out.  “You know I’m not good at that stuff.  No one in the GSA military division knows.”

Kai cleared his throat.  “We haven’t told anyone in the GSA military division,” he corrected.  “I’m pretty sure some of them have figured it out.”

“You’re the First Officer,” Kendrix told Mike apologetically.  “We weren’t sure... you know, how much you wanted to know.  Officially.”

“We weren’t trying to keep anything from you,” Maya murmured.

Damon snorted.  “I was.  No way was I gonna be the one to tell Mike Corbett one of his officers is pushing ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ as far as it goes with his brother.”

“Look,” Mike said.  “I know what the colony charter says, and I know how the New World Constitution was written.  I personally like the rules we all agreed on together better than the ones we brought with us from Earth.  I don’t think you’ll find too many officers willing to enforce DADT this late in the game.

“I do think,” he added, pointing at Kai, “that you’d better watch yourself, because friends or not, that’s my little brother you’re kissing over there.  He’s trouble, but I love him, so don’t mess with him.

“That goes for you too,” Mike said, giving Leo a warning look.  “I know how you work.”

The room was absolutely silent for a moment.  Kai didn’t know what made him do it, but he leaned over and whispered, “Merry Christmas,” loud enough for everyone to hear, and Leo cracked up.  That was all it took.

Everyone else started grinning or snickering or patting each other--on the shoulder, on the back, they were all very touchy-feely--and the food went around again and finally someone got to asking Mike what he’d been doing in Medlab.  This led to a mumbled account of some entirely fictional issue, and they were onto him: he had a serious crush on someone on the medical staff.  Not only did it divert attention from Kai and Leo, but it gave Kendrix the perfect excuse.

Offering him the little sprig from the table beside her, she suggested innocently, “Maybe you should take some mistletoe next time.”