Summery of Chapter: Aisha, Adam and Rocky have a talk on the beach. Set after Ninja Encounter Part Three.
A/N: Wow. So, this is the first story I've posted here to in a very long time. However, I think this is as good a time as any to come back, right? Lessee... I'd like to thank my beta, Starrah (whymetoday on LJ), for putting up with me and actually betaing this for me. However, since she isn't all that familiar with PR, any character goofs are mine and mine alone. I'd love to hear what you all think of this (good or bad)!
Disclaimer: Power Rangers and its characters, as well as the various places and objects, all belong to Saban and Disney. No money is being made off of this; it was done purely for the entertainment value.
The afternoon was warm, the water was gentle and all three tired teens were grateful to be back on their own stretch of beach in the quiet 'burb of Stone Canyon. It wasn't often they went to a relatively large city like Angel Grove, even if their own home of L.A. was still larger. And while they'd learned quite a bit in Angel Grove, it was still good to be home. Back in their own stomping grounds, so to speak.
"So, what do you think?" Aisha finally asks, digging her toes into the wet sand, smiling when the water came up over her ankles before receding again back out in the ocean.
"What do we think of what?" Rocky answers Aisha's question with one of his own, almost too busy trying to beat Adam at a friendly game of Thumb War to really hear what she says.
"What do you think of our new friends in Angel Grove," she prompts back, turning slightly to glare at her lighter friend. The glare turns into giggles when her question promptly distracts Adam, causing him to lose and endure Rocky's brief bout of gloating.
"They're nice," Adam offers, glaring at nothing in particular, not proud of himself for losing, especially due to a distraction.
"Only nice?" Aisha teases, bumping shoulders with the black-wearing teen. While all three of them were best friends, and Adam and Rocky had been friends longer, she felt she was closer to Adam than Rocky, if only because she and Adam were the ones to get Rocky out of his tight spots. They were the brains and Rocky was the brawn.
"I thought Kimberly was really cute," Rocky comes in, finally sitting back down in his spot, getting tired of the gloating since neither of his friends was paying attention any longer.
"She was," Aisha agrees with a wide grin, white teeth reflecting the setting sun. "Though, Tommy was pretty hot. Huh, Adam?" she ribs, bumping shoulders with him again, grin getting wider still.
The teen sputters, his ears turning pink as he splashes a little water that comes into his reach at Aisha.
"So what if he was?" Adam grouses back, scowling at his suddenly howling friends.
The three of them had been best friends from the beginning of middle school. They'd become friends when Aisha and Rocky had inadvertently teamed up to get Adam away from some bullies. What had made it worse was that it hadn't been Adam getting bullied, but another boy much smaller than him. After getting detention, bloody noses, and matching black eyes, Aisha had claimed the boys as hers, stating clearly (to them and the entirety of the school) that if anyone messed with her brothers, they were in for a world of hurt. Adam had fallen a little in love with Aisha then, and he'd done everything for her, anything she asked so long as it was in his scope of being able to do.
It hadn't ended very well. Or, maybe it had, since they were now closer than they'd ever been. But suffice to say, he'd trailed after her like a puppy. Even asked her out once. But that had all come to a startling end when Aisha began dating the quarterback of their middle school football team. It had been frightening when it hadn't been the jock that he'd been jealous of. Aisha was the first person he came out to, admitted that he may like guys as much as he liked girls. She'd shrugged, bumped hips with him and then started to set him up- with the same jock she'd been dating a month earlier. Rocky hadn't taken it as well, unsure of how to deal with his best friend who suddenly liked guys. But he eventually got over it- nothing major had changed, Aisha had pointed out after hitting Rocky upside the head. They'd just discovered something new in all three of them- Rocky was the straight one, Aisha preferred guys but was totally up to talking about girls and Adam... well, he couldn't care less. So long as the person was good-hearted, smart, and knew that his two friends (his family) came first.
"You are so easy, Adam," Rocky teases, putting the teen in question in a headlock and noogieing him until he found himself being flipped into the dirt and sat on by both Aisha and Adam. He protests loudly until they both got off of him, opting instead to use him as a backrest while they watched the rest of the sunset.
"But it's more than that, isn't it?" Aisha asks curiously. "I've never seen you look at someone like that, Adam. I almost felt like I should leave the room," she tells her friend, laughing softly at the irony in her statement.
"It was nothing, honestly," Adam quickly comes back, sounding uncomfortable and not looking at the dark girl, still dressed in her dusty outfit from earlier that day. Thinking about it makes him rub his wrists where the skin had nearly rubbed raw from the cold, metal chains.
"It wasn't nothin', man. Even I could tell," Rocky says from behind him, leaning up on one elbow so he'll have slightly less sand in his hair than he has now.
"Adam, if Mr. Dense could see it, you've got some serious explaining to do," the only female in their little group tells him, her voice warning against protests. When Adam doesn't answer, she turns more towards him, studying his distant-looking face. He looks almost pained, she realizes, feeling sorry for one of her dearest friends. "You really like him. Even though we've only known him for three days, you really like him," she sums it up, laying a hand on her friend's shoulder.
She hadn't been lying earlier. He'd never looked at someone the way she'd seen him look at Tommy Oliver. It was strange, and if she didn't believe in such nonsense, she'd say it was almost love at first sight. She feels her stomach do a flip at her own thought; she didn't believe in such nonsense but Adam... God, poor Adam was a romantic. Through and through. He believed in silly things like love at first sight and happily ever after. And if his mind believed such things... what about his heart?
Sighing and knowing she was going to have a hell of a time getting him to get over the White Ranger, she wraps her arms around him in a tight hug, getting a blink of confusion from both her friends. She mouths at Rocky the problem, careful not to let Adam hear or feel what she's telling Rocky. The young man in the red sleeveless shirt blinks at her, eyes narrowing as he tries to figure it out. It takes him a moment, but he eventually does. He sighs in exasperation, sitting up giving his friend his own sideways hug.
"Okay, now I'm worried about you two; what's up?" Adam asks, confused.
"Just making sure you know you're loved," Aisha tells him with a cheeky grin, leaning her head on his shoulder as the sun sinks behind the far horizon. Adam shakes his head, wrapping an arm around each of his friends, still confused, but grateful to have them both beside him.