Any Moment Chapter 25: By the Sea, a power rangers fanfic

Chapter 25

By the Sea

I don't own Sweeney Todd.

Takes place the day after the pool party.

That's right, we be backtracking

-:-:-:-:-:-

The scratch marks were fading, and by tonight they would be gone. In Blake's opinion they should have been gone by this morning, seeing as they were only scratches, painless and mostly not worth mentioning, but they seemed to disagree with his prognosis, stubbornly decorating his arms whether he liked it or not. It must be a ranger quirk, he decided. Any wounds from Lothor's attacks pretty much healed overnight, so Blake was thinking that maybe wounds that were afflicted to him by his teammates or himself did not warrant immediate healing power. Perhaps this was just his morpher's way of telling him to play nice and/or not be stupid.

If that was the case his morpher was way behind on that one, Hunter had been occupying that job position for years. Though in his defense, Blake had been riding him just as hard.

It was a brother thing.

Speaking of whom, Blake thought as he adjusted the position of his backpack strap on his shoulder, he's finally decided to throw himself into the mythical "mess".

No matter how much Blake pressed, Hunter would not explain it to him, as though it were on a need to know basis.

Whatever, no skin off his back (as long as it didn't throw off the Winds too much, he and Hunter could pretty much handle anything thrown at them after everything they'd been through), though Blake wasn't ashamed to admit that he was slightly bewildered by the suddenness of it all. This wasn't humoring (not like it had been for the movies, Blake had pressed him into getting a date for that one), this was Hunter in full-on predatory mode. Now he was all for the subtle acts of wooing, actually interested in pursuing a relationship. Of course Hunter being Hunter, he had to make it a challenge.

At least, that was all Blake could come up with when his brother announced to him that he was switching his sights to Cam, as opposed to continuing his pursuit of Dustin.

Unless he knew something Blake didn't know.

They didn't keep secrets, not normally, but when it came to someone else's sexual identity (if Hunter figured it out), his brother always kept that information to himself, choosing to let the person address it whenever they chose to. He considered himself a gentleman that way. He even (even after multiple insults and jokes) said he was going to emulate Blake's chosen approach to dating (or acquiring a person for dating) and take things slow and steady.

With Cam, Blake was pretty sure that would have been necessary whether Hunter liked it or not.

Then again, Blake didn't really know the guy all that well.

And that was probably something he should look in on. He had been so focused on Tori he never paid that much attention to the rest of the team (excluding Hunter). Maybe he should try and hang out with them more often? Sure, he was going to be seeing a lot more of Dustin, but that wouldn't be in the friendly-social kind of way.

It would be in the "Trying-to-make-up-for-causing-your-phobia" kind of way.

Tori had filled him in after the party had winded down when he had managed to get away from Hunter long enough to make the call. Blake had shocked him and thrown him into the ocean where he would have drowned if he hadn't been morphed (because from what Tori had described, Blake had to have paralyzed him for at least a little bit). Tori hadn't known the full story herself (until the party) because she had had her hands full with evil-Blake, but she had wondered what had taken the yellow ranger so long to make it back to the shore.

By the sound of it he wasn't the only one dealing with a guilty conscious.

That was something they'd talk about today.

They decided just before they had to end their conversation that they needed to meet to plan their next move. After all, nothing said romance like helping a teammate you accidentally wounded.

Enough of that, he chastised, speeding up his pace to make it to the beach faster.

Blake had a morning shift today, so the meeting was to take place in the late afternoon before they had to make it to Ninja Ops for training. They chose the beach on the basis of process of elimination. They didn't want it to take place anywhere where Cam had security measure set up (as doubtful as it was that he'd be steadfastly watching the cameras, being caught on tape would still allow him the opportunity to review the footage and discover their dirty secret), and the only place they could think of that might be safe was out on the water (and even there might not be the best place, but Tori figured the all the excess noise would drown out their conversation).

They were posing as though Tori was teaching him how to surf (she would, a little for looks) and they would pause halfway through, choosing to float on their boards and "flirt".

It wasn't the most ideal of set ups, but it would have to do.

Blake loathed the idea of it all, mostly it was the not-telling Hunter thing that got to him, he told Hunter everything. When he tried to explain that he didn't keep secrets from his brother Tori had countered that she was protecting her brother (a low blow, he couldn't point out the lack of blood relation seeing as how that didn't apply to him and Hunter), and if it was Dustin's choice to keep this from the rest of the team then they had to respect that.

He didn't like it, didn't even understand it (it was pretty clear that Shane and Cam were Dustin's best friends, and why he didn't want them to know (why he was afraid to share) was beyond Blake), but he had come to accept it.

It wasn't like they had a lot of options here.

Slowly, the beach came into view, more than half full with sunbathers, families, and surfer wannabe's (he had seen Tori surf before, he knew what the real deal looked like) and he pressed forward, drifting off to the right. He passed Tori's van, empty; she was probably changing, and he made his way over to the bathrooms to do the same thing. When he finished he found her leaning against the side of the vehicle, hand on one board while another rested against the passenger door beside her.

She looked good (she always did, but he never really knew how to tell her), sporting white swim trunks with a blue stripe down the side, her top echoing the same color. Smirking, she gave him a small wave, wiggling her fingers at him as he approached and stepped aside so he could chuck his backpack into the van so they could get going. He picked up the extra board and they made their way down the beach, their destination, a private cove. It wasn't accessible by land (at least not easily, and Tori had already learned her lesson about Ninja streaking when it wasn't necessary) so they would have to paddle to it on their boards.

The lessons were…hard. While strictly for appearances (and at the moment it was the only date-like thing they had done this week) Tori took it very seriously, but not seriously enough to not get a kick out of every time he kissed salt water, which was a lot. He had balance, he was great at balancing, you couldn't handle a motocross bike without balance or even go very far as a ninja without balance but for some odd reason staying on the surfboard seemed to be something he just could not grasp. Kind of like Shane and motorcycles. He hadn't gotten to witness that particular run-in because he had been to busy babysitting Hunter while he completely failed at skateboarding, but Dustin had been more than willing to fill him in on the details at work the next day, enthusiastically waving his arms in what Blake assumed was a not-completely-accurate but still totally-hilarious impersonation of Shane crashing into bales of hay ("The poor innocent bystanders") he had moaned.

With all the sneaking around they were doing, plus the withholding of key information from their teammates, he knew better then to ask for Tori to keep his inability to surf between them. He could only hope that it wouldn't get back to Hunter (considering how hard he had been riding his brother about his lack of skateboarding skills he knew he would never hear the end of it).

After about half an hour of sucking up seawater Tori called an end to her "teaching" (she was taking sick pleasure in watching him fall he just knew it) and beckoned him out a safe distance from the shore. She paused a minute, kicking her legs idly in the water while running a hand through her hair before pulling it into a new pony tail, low at the base of her skull. It was cliché, and he could never tell Hunter about it (partially because he wouldn't listen and partially because if he did listen he would spend the rest of the day mocking him), but the way the light hit her…just so, she looked gorgeous. Then again, he thought she was beautiful after hours of training simulations and miles of jogging, but out here, completely in her element she just…glowed.

Like there was no place else she'd rather be.

He knew then, that moment, that he would be willing to fall off any board as many times as she wanted just so he could spend time with her like this, so he could witness another moment like this one.

Any teasing Hunter gave him would be well worth it.

Unfortunately the spell of comfort and unhurried leisure that had cast itself over them had to be broken, as nice as it was; it was not the reason they were out here. Now it was time to get down to business.

Casually he leaned down, dipping his hand into the water and running a meager handful through his hair, cooling him off slightly now that the sun evaporated the majority of the water that had been on his body. While carefully making sure none got into his eyes, he began, "I assume you have a plan."

When they had gotten off the com last night she had sounded determined, a clear indicator that she was going to figure something out to help Dustin and her nod confirmed it, even if her face remained cheerful and relaxed. Before he had met Cam he would have called all heir precautions paranoid, but after seeing everything he can do, it was more than appropriate now.

"It's pretty basic," she replied, voice light, "we gradually help him work through his fear while keeping it a secret from the rest of the team."

Yeah, that's pretty basic.

He kept his sarcastic quip to himself, instead choosing to feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside at the mention of "we". She didn't say "I'll help him," which he thought she was going to say because she had known him longer, and Blake was the one who caused this mess in the first place. Instead, she had said, "We'll help him," including him in the solution instead of just assigning him to interference and decoy duty.

That was something else they needed to address.

"And how do you suppose we do that?" he asked, not mockingly (he reserved that for the others), simply prodding for the details.

Her face stayed the same as she playfully splashed some water at him, but her eyes hinted at her awareness, "We need to talk to him first," she declared, blocking her eyes from his return splash, "get him to give us all the details."

He wasn't sure if she was purposefully not acknowledging the cloak and dagger portion of their scheme or if she was so focused on helping Dustin that it wasn't as high a priority, but for Blake this was a very important part of their plan. Perhaps that was for the better, if they divide and conquer they could guarantee success.

While flicking excess seawater off his hands he glanced nonchalantly at the horizon, sun firmly fixed in the middle of the sky, "I was talking about the keep it secret part."

She rolled her eyes dramatically, wagging a finger at him as though she were playfully chastising him, "It shouldn't be too hard."

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes in return. "We're on a team of ninjas; we are trained by a ninja master, and we are currently having this conversation floating on surfboards in a secluded cove for fear of monitoring from the super genius that pretty much runs this team. It's going to be a little hard," and then, to make keep her from being distracted with useless things like anger he added, "What should we do?"

She took it all in stride, only her fist curling slightly betrayed any annoyance she felt. "Cam's…he's probably going to be super busy now that he's a ranger right? Odds are he won't even notice if we 'invite' Dustin along for a few beach outings."

Everything would have to take place at the beach, for exactly the same reason the planning meeting was taking place there.

"The footage we can't hide, so maybe…" she trailed off, staring hard into the distance and allowing the slightest race of worry leak onto her face, her brows furrowed as she tapped idly against her board.

Blake gave her a light splash to snap her out of it.

"Should we tell Cam?" he asked, eyes steady against hers. It would be a lot easier if they did; he might even be able to give them a few pointers, heck, even give them proper procedure on how to deal with this kind of thing. As good as they were, and as busy as Cam might be, eventually the tech was going to smell something suspicious, and he would know it was an issue if they kept it secret.

Tori reacted as he feared she would, "No!" she exclaimed, frowning at him slightly (pretending it was from the splashing) before sending another wave of water in his direction. As he rubbed the salt out of his eyes she calmed down slightly, enough to continue her board tapping, "Dustin trusts us to keep this a secret, and I'm not going to go behind his back-"

"He's going to find out eventually. You know it and I know it and he might not be as inclined to secrecy as we are when it happens," he kept his tone calm, his voice light, and allowed a small smile to grace his face, but his frustration was clear by the tight grip he had on the edge of his surfboard.

Her eyes frowned, and he knew she had already reached the same conclusion, "I know," she murmured, pushing a stray hair behind her ear, "I just…I don't want to hurt him."

Blake finished the part of the sentence she hadn't wanted to say aloud in his mind,

More than you already have.

He gave a sigh, drumming his hands against his board to accompany her nervous tapping, "Fine," he said, after finishing with a flourish, "We won't tell Cam. But he'll still have the tapes-"

"Well we'll just have to keep him too distracted to look at it," She declared, whipping her hair back and regaining some of her fiery spirit. He was pleased by the change in mood, but it didn't overwhelm his growing confusion. What did she mean?

"Exactly how do you… what, are we going to sabotage the tsunami cycles? Break something every mission so he'll be too occupied with fixing things to notice?" He dipped his hand back into the water to run some more through his hair, thinking about how they could make something like that work.

Then again, the act of repetitively breaking things could be a clear sign to the green ranger that something was up.

Tori frowned, then smiled again, "No, not something like that. We need…" she tucked the rebel hair back behind her ear, eyes narrowed from thinking.

We need…

What? He thought, not risking a glance at his waterproof watch because he knew that time was flying by to quickly.

We need…

What do we need?

As he looked over at Tori, the answer came to him.

We need someone to distract him.

Obviously, it could be one of them but…Hunter, now there was a guy who could thoroughly "distract" the new green ranger. Romance, or attempted romance, would be way more successful at diverting Cam's attention than anything Blake and Tori could think of to throw at him.

It was perfect.

"Hunter," he declared, true smile lighting up his face, "I'll get Hunter to distract him whenever we work with Dustin. He's been wanting to get closer to him anyway."

He wouldn't say why, that wasn't his place, and besides, Tori made it pretty clear where brother's privacy stood as far as she was concerned, so he was sure she wouldn't mind in the long run.

Tori's eyes were skeptical, "You can get him to go to Ops whenever we need him to, no questions asked?"

It would take a little more finagling than that, and a lot of hinting and finesse, but at the end of the day Blake was sure he could get it done. If worse came to worse they could always just wait to act whenever Hunter decided to go on his own.

"Yeah," he replied, and the brief nod Tori gave him in agreement lifted an immense load off of his shoulders, allowing him to finally relax. "When do we make our first move?"

"How about a week from now?" She asked, wringing out her hair, "give Dustin some time to cool down."

Blake gave her a thumbs up, smiling enthusiastically, "Sounds like a plan."

Hopefully the yellow ranger would trust them enough to just go with it.

-:-:-:-:-:-

This is a tub

A what?

A tub.

A what?

A tub.

Oh, a tub!

It hadn't changed any since Dustin began his staring contest with it, it hadn't moved, it hadn't emptied itself, it just stood there, all gleaming and white and plastic-y but not made of plastic-y and stupid. He had filled it up himself, a safe medium amount, so as not to overflow, and he had been staring straight down into it once he shut the water off, but his reflection and the… there was a lot of water in there…and it made him queasy, so now he was huddled on his bed, legs tucked up to his chest, hands wrapped around his ankles, and his eyes just peaking over the tops of his knees so he could glare at the stupid water filled tub-of-evil through the open door of his bathroom.

He had thought he was over this. He had taken a bath like, the day after they had gotten back from the island and he hadn't freaked out then! Sure, all his muscle soreness and concern over Shane and slight discomfort at being old and having memory loss might have distracted him a little...

Okay, now that he's actually listed it, it distracted him a lot. But now it was today, the day after he shared his dirty little secret he hadn't even known he had, and for some odd reason he couldn't bring himself to get any closer to what was clearly a small amount of water.

What kind of power ranger was he?

It was a tub; it wasn't even that deep! You couldn't even float in a tub, in fact you could barely even think about floating in a tub because…because…because that's how stupid tubs were!

That's right, he's not going to let a stupid tub beat him, he's the yellow ranger, pilot of the Lion zord, super hero extraordinaire! He could take on anything!

Dustin was across the room before he knew it (before he could even think about it) and suddenly he was back at the edge of his partially filled tub, once more glaring down at his murky reflection.

Stupid tub. Stupid water. Stupid face.

Frustration and anger welled up within him, and in a flash of hatred he slammed his foot down to where his face was reflected, plunging it into the water, and before he gave it too much thought he brought his other foot down beside it.

When the anger died down a little he looked up, glancing at the mirror. He could see it, he was standing in water, two feet in, he could feel it consuming everything from mid-shin down but he wasn't…

He wasn't freaking out about it.

…He wasn't freaking out about it!

He was standing in maybe a foot in a half of water (closer to the foot but Dustin didn't let that dampen his spirits) and he, Dustin (Waldo) Brooks was completely owning the being-in the water process! He, lords and ladies, had defeated his foe, vanquished all evil, destroyed his tormentor!

He should call Tori; let her know he was all cool, no need for secrecy, because obviously he was fine!

To complete his celebration he decided that he could take the plunge, get the rest of himself wet, clothes or no, and he got himself in position, slowly walking to the far wall so he could delicately slide himself in. Sure, he could crouch, he could just set himself down like everyone else did but he wasn't everyone else. He didn't say it, barely thought it, but deep down he knew he was stalling, deep down he knew he was still afraid of what might happen when he got the rest of himself wet, if the flashbacks would come back or the fear, or the para-

He stopped thinking about it, instead focusing on shuffling his feet forward one at a time until he was slanted, and he braced one arm against the long wall beside him as he shifted down, and he's almost there, he just had to very delicately, very carefully-

"Hey Dustin!"

The noise was enough to startle him, throw off his groove, and he lost whatever grip he had and went tumbling down into the slew. His head banged painfully against the side before he went under, but he didn't bother concentrating on that because suddenly he was in the water again, it was everywhere, it was still awful, nasty, terrible and-

Flailing, he yanked himself out of the tub, throwing himself over the edge of it, spilling a majority of the water onto the floor. He gave a weird cough-sputter kind of thing before he looked up and realized that someone (from the voice and the shoes he judged it to be Shane) was staring at him, wondering exactly what had just happened, and Dustin began to scramble to his feet, mind racing to find an explanation.

His feet (once his friends, once his proud weapons) betrayed him by slipping on the wet tile, and he would have done another floor belly flop if Shane hadn't interceded and crouched down in time, catching him before it happened.

It was a real struggle not to curl up into his friend, not to hug him or try and acquire some kind of comfort from him because he doesn't deserve it.

He was Dustin Brooks.

Yellow Ranger.

Pilot of the Lion zord.

Super Hero extraordinaire.

And he couldn't take on anything.

He couldn't even take on a bathtub.

What kind of ranger was he?

Shane patted his back a few times as Dustin coughed up what little water (cursed, stupid water) went down the wrong way.

"Dude" the red ranger muttered, incredibly confused, and Dustin waved him off, putting on a smile.

"You startled me," he explained, because he did, and he ran a hand through his hair innocently, wiping some of the water away.

Now came the question he couldn't really explain.

"What were you doing?" Shane asked, looking back and forth between his fully clothed self and the tub. Dustin noticed that he hadn't bothered trying to pull away, despite the fact that the yellow ranger was excessively dripping on him.

He felt guilty about this (there was no reason why two of them should be covered in water) so he gently pulled himself away, but accepted the hand that helped him to his feet.

"My…" he began, looking down at his feet, and rubbed a hand across his chest, "shirt was dirty."

That would do.

Shane took his hesitation as embarrassment and gave a small laugh, clapping him gently on the shoulder, "You know they have washers for that."

The normal conversation, their usual snippets, bring Dustin out of his funk slightly, enough to let him give a more sincere smile when he gave his reply, "It's full."

Shane's smile broadened, "Then put on another shirt," he joked, handing him a towel and Dustin distracted himself momentarily from his failure by drying himself off. "Come on," Shane continued, still smiling at him despite his minor freak out, "I came to get you for training."

Training, right, that thing you did so you wouldn't suck as much as you already did.

Right.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Dustin only had one dry towel left after he finished cleaning up the floor after training. He was bone tired and wanted nothing more than to get clean and pass out on his bed, but this mess (this stupid water) demanded to be cleaned up, and he needed it to be banished from his bathroom completely, any pools, puddles, or congregations must be destroyed.

The last towel dangled pristinely on a wall wrack, reminding him, as he collapsed against the floor, of the happier, better hygiene times he had before the island. When water wasn't so bad.

When he wasn't so weak.

When he could do better.

Sighing, he shoved the shower on, blazing hot, and began discarding his clothes, carelessly throwing them in the direction of his laundry hamper to join the multitude of soggy towels.

He thrust himself under the water, closing the curtain behind him, and tried to think about better things, happier things, anything that didn't have to do with-

His mind went to Shane and Cam and he was instantly happier. He tried to imagine how awesome it was when Cam finally got to be a ranger, or how happy he was when they liked his cooking, or how caring and nice they were even when they didn't have to be. The attention they gave him even when he didn't ask for it. How Shane's smile let him know everything was okay after he got scared of a bathtub, or Cam's soft concern after he stumbled over a rock during their 5 mile run. They made things better.

His mind wandered to the rest of the team.

Tori, she made things better too, she cared about him, protected him, helped him without…without making him feel terrible, and she was one of his first real friends. And Blake was awesome, he made jokes with him at Storm Chargers, gave him tips at the track, and sparring with him was both challenging and super fun. Hunter, once you got past his dark and brooding side was a lot cooler than Dustin had thought, helping him learn cursed pre-Cal while making him laugh.

He had a great team, he had the best team. They were the greatest friends he had ever known (Sensei included, as stern and teacherly as he was), and Dustin knew he was willing to do pretty much anything for them, anything at all. He knew that they probably all felt the same way, that they wouldn't mind if he was afraid of something but-

He cursed himself for letting himself get pulled back into that, but the thought remained.

He was failing his friends; he was failing his team, his family, because he couldn't get over this one little thing.

It shouldn't be an issue, it shouldn't be a problem, he shouldn't be a problem. They shouldn't have to worry about him being near pools of water or the ocean, that shouldn't have to be something that's on their mind.

What kind of ranger was he?

Why couldn't he be better?

As calmly as he could he shut off the water, skin red from abuse and toweled off, slipping into his sleeping clothes. He piles on the pillows when he got to his bed, normally something that delighted him simply on principle but tonight it did nothing, and buried himself deep under them, trying to cocoon himself into a peaceful place.

The thoughts of Shane and Cam get him through the night.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Endnotes:

For the record, this chapter takes place the day after the events of Ch 23, and a week before the events of Ch 24.

A big thanks to Rogue Ranger for his review, always very much appreciated, and to answer you question about last chapter Shane got there early in the morning, they slept for a bit and the freak out happened around one. And then they went back to sleep. As for the second question Shane's to busy trying to look after everyone else to bother feeling anything at the moment, but he'll get there, guaranteed.

Check it out JDTB90 ; it only took 25 chapters to get to Blake's POV!

Will I be doing him again? Maybe, but to be honest it's probably only going to be for strictly him and Hunter scenes because I encountered minor difficulties writing Tori-Smitten Blake.

In other news I have official decided to make this a Shane/Dustin/Cam story. Don't worry though, I'm not going to leave Hunter out in the cold, he'll get him some lovin', it just won't be from any of them.

Until next time.