Disclaimer: Power Rangers belongs to Saban.
Prompt: ranger_bingoDreamwidth - Rangers Before MMPR, fanbingoDreamwidth - The Way We Were: Pre-Canon
Rocky DeSantos dug enthusiastically at the sand, trying to create the greatest moat in the world for the sandcastle that he and his best friend, Aisha Campbell, were working on. He was supposed to be helping out with the castle too, but Aisha had been horrified by the big mountain of sand that he had amassed and called the castle, that she had directed his energies towards digging a moat instead.
He had no idea why the castle needed a moat, but Aisha had insisted that all the pictures of castles in her storybooks had them, so their castle had to have one too. Knowing from experience that it would just be better to do anything that Aisha told him to, Rocky had started to dig the moat using his small, red plastic shovel.
Now, there was a shallow moat in the shape of a messy ring surrounding Aisha and the sandcastle she was making. Rocky was rather proud of how big his moat was. He could make it deeper now, and then they could fill it with water like a real moat!
They were interrupted by his mom calling his name as she came towards them chatting to a petite, black-haired lady.
"Mama?" Rocky cocked his head inquiringly at her, as Aisha made the effort to dust as much sand as she could off her hands as she joined him.
"Rocky, Aisha, this is Mrs Park," Mrs DeSantos introduced, gesturing to the smiling, Asian looking woman. "She and her family just moved to Stone Canyon and they have a little boy your age. Perhaps he can join you in building the sandcastle."
Rocky knew the tone in his mother's voice well enough to know that it was not a request.
"Say hi, Adam," cajoled Mrs. Park softly as she reached behind her to gently pull a small Asian boy forward.
Beaming at the prospect of another playmate, Rocky waved at Adam. "Hi! I'm Rocky!"
Adam blurted out a greeting, then hid behind his mother again and buried his face into her skirt.
Rocky's smile fell. He wasn't that scary was he?
Mrs. Park smiled softly, ruffling Adam's silky black hair. "I'm sorry, he's a little shy in front of strangers."
Never one to be deterred, Aisha marched up to Adam and stuck her hand out. "I'm Aisha."
Adam peeked out from behind his mother's skirt and for a moment it seemed to Rocky like he would not take the proffered hand. But then Adam surprised him by reaching out and solemnly shaking Aisha's hand before softly murmuring his name.
The almost comical look of surprise and then panic on Adam's face when he tried to retrieve his hand to retreat behind his mother again and found he could not break Aisha's strong grip made Rocky grin.
It was just like Aisha to boss people around.
"Oh dear," Mrs. Park said softly as she watched Aisha drag a terrified Adam to the half-built sandcastle, "do you think he'll be alright?"
Mrs. DeSantos waved a nonchalant hand. "The kids will be fine. Rocky will watch out for him, won't you?"
Rocky beamed and nodded. "Yep. Mommy lets me watch my little sister too, because she says I'm a big boy now," he told Mrs. Park proudly.
She smiled at him, eyes twinkling kindly. "Yes, you certainly are. And you'll watch out for Adam for me?"
"Yep." Rocky decided he liked Mrs. Park. She seemed nice. "Mommy, can I go now? I wanna finish my moat. It's gonna be the biggest moat ever!"
He barely waited for his mother to nod her assent before dashing off to where his shovel lay in the sand.
As Rocky deepened the moat he had already dug, he could hear Aisha directing a silent Adam in helping her to build her sandcastle. He pitied Adam. The poor guy clearly did not know what he had gotten himself into.
"Hey, Rocky, we're done!" Aisha cheerily announced as she bounced up to where he was digging out the last of the sand, Adam in tow. Poor guy still looked overwhelmed. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to let him get bossed around by Aisha without some kind of intervention.
"Me too," he said, throwing out the last shovel of sand.
"The moat is awesome, Rocky," Aisha said, causing Rocky to puff his chest out at the compliment.
"Thanks, Aisha. The sandcastle is pretty awesome too."
Aisha beamed. "We're not done yet! We still have to fill the moat with water! C'mon!"
Picking up the bucket she had been using to build their sandcastle, Aisha headed for the water.
Left standing next to Rocky, Adam heaved a silent sigh of relief and jumped guiltily when Rocky laughed.
"Aisha kinda does that to people," Rocky told him, giving him an understanding pat on the shoulder.
Adam's brows knitted and he asked hesitantly, "Is she always so bossy?"
"Yupp, that's Aisha," confirmed Rocky.
"Oh." Adam's shoulders sagged. "She's scary."
Rocky collapsed into helpless giggles. "Don't let her hear you say that," he warned.
Adam only shrugged, a corner of his mouth quirking up into a slight lopsided smile.
Rocky decided that perhaps Adam wasn't as wimpy as he looked.
"Rocky! Adam!" shouted Aisha, as she came back, struggling with a sloshing bucket of water, "get moving! That moat ain't gonna fill itself!"
"Yes, ma'am," quipped Rocky as he picked up the plastic buckets he had brought with him and handed the blue one to Adam. "Come on. You can help too."
After many trips to and from the sea, they finally managed to fill up the entire moat. The trio collapsed into an exhausted pile onto the sand.
"We did it!" Rocky and Aisha exclaimed, exchanging weary high-fives, beaming proudly at their creation.
It certainly was something to look at; layers of wet sand stacked together to form something resembling a rectangular castle with four towers that was surrounded by a large circular moat filled with water.
"Come on," Aisha got up and tugged Rocky's hand to get him to do the same.
"Why?" he asked, unwilling to get up from his spot in the sand.
"We have to put our names there so that people know that this is our sandcastle!" Aisha told him impatiently, in a tone that said, duh.
Rocky sighed and scrambled up as Aisha turned to grab Adam, who had been watching them silently with wide eyes, and marched him over the moat to the empty space between moat and sandcastle.
Following Aisha's lead, Rocky crossed the moat and got onto all fours. Together, they traced out their names in their best handwriting possible.
"Adam, write your name out too," Aisha commanded, pointing to the empty space to her right. "Well? You helped build it too, didn't you?" she asked impatiently, catching the look of surprise on his face.
A smile broke out on Adam's face, and he gave a jerky nod, before squatting down to trace his name into the sand.
"Perfect," Aisha declared when they were done, taking a step back to admire their handiwork. "Great work, guys."
Rocky beamed and threw his arms around the other two in an exuberant hug. "We made the bestest sandcastle ever! Now let's go get some ice-cream! I'm starving!"
Aisha giggled as she extracted herself from his grip. "You're always starving." Grabbing the hands of both boys, she headed for water. "Come on, let's wash up first."
"Yes ma'am," Rocky gave a cocky salute and stumbled when Aisha tugged at his hand a little too hard. He grumbled at her, but she pretended not to hear him.
For the first time that afternoon, Adam giggled.
The group came to a halt as both Aisha and Rocky turned to look at him in wide eyed astonishment. Then Aisha grinned. "You're not so bad after all. You can come play with us again, if you want."
Adam beamed. "Really?"
"Yeah!" Aisha confirmed with a decisive nod. "You can join us for this martial arts class we just convinced our moms to sign us up for too. It'll be fun!"
"Great! Now can we hurry up and go get ice-cream?" Rocky asked.
Aisha and Adam exchanged glances before bursting out laughing. Rocky only shrugged and grinned goofily at his bestest friend and his newest friend.