Disclaimer: Don't own them.

Author's note: Happy birthday, Liz! This one's for you! Love you! Hope you enjoy it!

The beach house

The sea breeze blew gently through his hair, caressing his face in the process. The last remaining rays of sun warmed his face. The soothing sounds of the waves crashing on shore soothed him and lulled him into a sort of trance. He closed his eyes, effectively stimulating his other senses. The sounds of the sea seemed to intensify and the wind felt even softer against his skin. He sighed softly.

Two strong arms wrapped around his waist and Dustin relaxed back against his boyfriend's muscled chest, eyes still closed. The warmth radiating from the other body warmed him. Being in Hunter's arms like this, it made him feel cherished, safe and protected. Hunter kissed his bare shoulder and then rested his chin on his shoulder.

The moment was almost too perfect for words. He didn't want to say anything and ruin it. He could stay like this forever.

"It's starting to get colder. Maybe we should go inside." Hunter whispered.

Dustin shook his head. Hunter's arms tightened around him, drawing him even closer to his body.

"Dinner's ready."

Dustin's eyes flew open. Food was definitely a good way to draw his attention. He turned in his lover's arms and wrapped his arms around his neck.

"I'm curious and a little apprehensive about what you cooked." Dustin said with a smile. He risked a glance over Hunter's shoulder at the illuminated beach house and was relieved to see it had not gone up in flames like he had feared it would with Hunter cooking. The Crimson ranger had the reputation of burning things, had even managed to set the kitchen of the apartment he and his brother shared on fire. Dustin bit back a smile. He'd given his boyfriend enough grief about it.

"I swear you'll like it." Hunter replied. "And I know you'll love dessert."

Dustin smiled happily and leaned in to press his lips to Hunter's, once again thinking about how he had the best boyfriend in the whole world. Hunter had rented this amazing beach house for the week. It had been his birthday four days earlier and Hunter had wanted to do something special for him. Unfortunately, due to their ranger duties, they hadn't been able to go too far from Blue Bay Harbor but Dustin couldn't even begin to care about that. As long as Hunter was with him, he didn't care where they were.

The kiss deepened when Hunter's tongue licked at his lips. Dustin opened his mouth in invitation. Hunter's tongue started a thorough exploration of his mouth. Dustin was glad Hunter was holding him so tightly because his legs were turning to jell-o. He let out a satisfied moan. He was disappointed when Hunter pulled away.

"How about we skip dinner?" Dustin murmured.

Hunter laughed. "No way, birthday boy. I didn't slave in the kitchen for nothing."

"Guess we know who the female is in this relationship."

"Keep that up and I'm not putting out tonight."

Dustin pouted, batting his eyelashes and giving Hunter his best pleading puppy-eyes look. Hunter smiled slowly and leaned in for another kiss, effectively kissing the pout off his face.

Hunter took his hand and led him back to the beach house. They took the stairs up to the deck and entered the kitchen. Dustin raised his eyebrow at the pizza sitting on the table.

"Well, I may have burned dinner." Hunter said sheepishly and pointed at the trash can.

Dustin burst out in laughter. "So you did slave in the kitchen for nothing."

"Pretty much, yeah. Although I did manage to make dessert." Hunter replied, pointing to the gigantic chocolate cake on the counter that said 'Happy Birthday' on top of it in colored yellow M&M's. It even had a little heart under the letters. It made Dustin smile.

"It's perfect, dude." He assured his boyfriend before pressing a quick kiss on his cheek. Seeing the pizza actually made his stomach growl and he was glad Hunter was insisting on having dinner first. He grabbed his t-shirt from where he had left it on one of the chairs and pulled it on.

They ate the pizza mostly in silence with Dustin pretty much wolfing down the slices. He was a lot more in the mood for chocolate cake. It was his absolutely favorite and the more chocolate, the better. The cake looked plenty chocolate-y. Unfortunately, Hunter was taking his sweet with eating the pizza, no doubt doing it to annoy him. He was pretty much bouncing in his seat by the time Hunter finally finished.

"Do you want the cake now or wait for a little longer?" Hunter asked with a smile that stated he knew what the answer was going to be.

"Now." The cake was on the table before Dustin had finished getting the three letter word out.

Hunter gave him a slice, the one with the heart. Dustin plucked the M&M's off the cake first, popping them into his mouth one by one. Hunter was doing the same. Finally, he could start on the chocolate cake. He took a tiny bit. A chocolate taste exploded on his tongue and he actually let out a small, satisfied moan. Hunter had definitely used a lot of chocolate, exactly how he liked it.

"Hunter, man, this is delicious." Dustin said appreciatively.

Hunter smiled shyly. "Not too much chocolate?"

"Definitely not!" Dustin exclaimed. He took another bite, a bigger one this time and savored the taste of the chocolate. "From now on, you're baking me cake every Sunday."

"If you're a good boy, I just might." Hunter replied with a leer that almost made Dustin choke on his cake. He couldn't stop several naughty images from running through his head at high speed. For some reason, most of them involved him somehow being tied down. His eyes got a far away look in them when he actually started considering it. Yeah, that could definitely be fun.

"I really don't even want to know what's going through your mind right now," Hunter muttered, raising an eyebrow at the little, secretive smile on his face.

"Maybe, maybe not. I might tell you one day." He said, pulling his thoughts back from his fantasy so he could go back to eating the delicious chocolate cake.

After two more slices, he was officially stuffed. He wanted to eat more cake but didn't think his stomach could take more. They still had a half a cake and Dustin was seriously looking forward to being able to finish it the next day.

Hunter took a hold of his hand and lightly tugged on it. Dustin moved and sat in Hunter's lap, wrapping his arms around his neck while Hunter's arms came around his waist.

"You're the best boyfriend ever." Dustin said, smiling widely.

"Yeah, I know," Hunter replied teasingly.

"And I just love how you are so modest about it too," Dustin retorted which made Hunter laugh. Dustin shook his head and leaned in for a kiss. His tongue slipped between Hunter's lips and he could taste the chocolate, mixed with a taste that was purely Hunter. He decided it was his favorite combination and took his time with thoroughly exploring his mouth, tongue sliding over his teeth and gums before settling for rubbing over his tongue.

When he eventually pulled away, they were both completely out of breath. Hunter's eyes were dazed.

"If you keep kissing me like that, I'll bake you a chocolate cake every day of the week." Hunter mumbled absently. Dustin smiled while trying to catch his breath.

"So, I was thinking for our next activity that we could make a walk down the beach."

"And some fooling around in the dunes?" Dustin asked hopefully.

Hunter shook his head. "You youngsters and your raging hormones."

"Can't keep up, old man?" Dustin teased.

"I'll prove to you that I can later on," Hunter answered, chuckling.

"Promises, promises." Dustin shot back. He grinned and got up. He was still barefoot from earlier but didn't want to put shoes on. Hunter didn't want to either.

When they got outside, it was definitely colder than before but not so much. The sun had fully set and the cloudless night's sky was covered with stars. The moon shone brightly. The sounds of the waves gently crashing against the shore were the only sounds they heard. It was very peaceful. Dustin briefly closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He could smell that distinctive ocean smell. He loved the feel of the sand against his feet.

He wrapped an arm around Hunter's waist and pressed himself closer to his boyfriend's warm body. Hunter didn't hesitate and laid his arm around his shoulder.

"You know, this is kind of cliché," Dustin said, breaking the comfortable silence that had settled between them.

"What? The walk on the beach in the moonlight under a star-filled sky? … Yeah, it actually is." Hunter added as an afterthought.

Dustin snickered. "I like it though." He admitted. Hunter voiced his agreement.

They walked for about an hour, talking about everything and anything and even had some rather philosophical discussions about the meaning of life. Dustin blamed that entirely on the contemplative mood this walk and their surroundings had put him in. Most of the conversations were almost held in whispers, as if they were afraid to break the peace of the area.

When they reached the beach house, Dustin wasn't ready to go back in yet. It was getting even colder but somehow, he was rather out here in the cold than inside in the warm house. He sat down on the sand and pulled Hunter with him. He snuggled as close to Hunter's warm body as he could.

"It's so nice here," Dustin mumbled.

"Yeah, so peaceful. It's almost as if we're the only ones here. It's nice to not feel as we can be attacked any moment."

"We can be attacked any moment. Lothor could be watching us right now." Dustin pointed out rather unhelpfully. It earned him a soft punch against the shoulder.

"I do not want to think about Lothor right now."

"Me neither," Dustin agreed and shivered at the thought of the evil space ninja. Nope, definitely not fun to think about.

Instead, he changed the subject. "I think Shane has a crush on Cam."

"You're kidding me!" Hunter said, laugh sounding even louder in the silence that surrounded them.

"No, he was totally checking out his ass the other day. I'm telling you, dude, they need to get together."

"We can play matchmaker although I think Shane will kill us both if it turns out he's not into Cam… I'm actually more scared of Cam." Hunter admitted.

"I just bet he's got some cool Ninja tricks up his sleeve." Dustin agreed, "But still, we totally should."

"We can plan later."

Dustin agreed.

When they were getting a little too cold, they went inside, much to Dustin's dismay but he followed immediately at Hunter's suggestion of hot chocolate. Fifteen minutes later, they were sitting on the couch with a steaming mug in their hands. The television was on and it was showing some sappy romantic movie that they still decided to watch. They were just in the mood for the romantic stuff.

Exhaustion was slowly catching up with Dustin. It had built up in the past couple of weeks with constant training sessions and monster attacks. He hadn't even realized how tired he was until now. His limbs just felt heavy and a bit stiff. He rested his head against Hunter's chest and closed his eyes. He let the soothing sounds of the television and Hunter's even breathing wash over him. Hunter started rubbing his arm. It felt good. It wasn't long before sleep pulled him under completely.

Hunter could hear Dustin's breathing start to even out. He kept rubbing his arm, even when he was sure his boyfriend had fallen asleep. He would have to prove to Dustin that he could keep up some other time. Right now, he just wanted Dustin to have a good sleep. He readjusted their positions on the couch and actually managed to do so without waking up Dustin. His boyfriend was lying half on top of him, back resting against the couch. Hunter had his arms wrapped around him. He grabbed the blanket from the back of the couch and covered them with it.

The couch might not be the best place to sleep but he was more than happy to lie here with Dustin in his arms. A feeling of completely happiness swept over him and his arms tightened around his boyfriend.

"I love you, Dustin," he whispered and pressed a kiss on top of Dustin's head before allowing himself to drift off to sleep as well.

The end

Again, happy birthday, Liz!