Chapter 7

Home – Rocky and Aisha: Telephone

Warnings: References to Rocky/Adam.

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"Chica, bonita, querida; how are you doing my dream of dreams?"

"Good to hear you're the same old flatterer," Aisha laughed, long and warm. It was a good sound. "Please don't tell me you stayed up until three in the morning just to call me."

"Of course I didn't," Rocky chirped, grinning into the phone pressed against his ear. "I stayed up to call the light of my life, mi corazón, mi-"

"Enough, enough," she laughed, and Rocky's heart sang. Corny, perhaps, but it had been too long. He missed his friend. "Alright sunshine, tell me why you're calling my side of the world at three in the morning."

"It's only noon for you, isn't it?" Rocky pointed out with a waggle of his eyebrows. She couldn't see them, but she would hear it. Aisha was always good at that kind of thing.

The following snort confirmed it. "Nice deflection," she said appreciatively. Because someone acknowledged his genius. Aside from Adam. Adam was kind of required to. "Rocky, baby, tell me what's up."

It was soft and friendly, but it was still an order. Aisha made her requests with a gentleness that could put you in awe, but Rocky knew better than to ever discount their legitimacy. If you had some news to spill that Aisha wanted, she would get it, come hell or high water. Her thirst for gossip and stable inner-team relationships had been a bonding point for her and Kim.

Rocky knew this, had known when he had picked up the phone- it was the entire point of this call – but a small part of him still felt regretful. He was going into battle, a different kind, one that he hated, but he had run out of stalling tactic and it really needed to be said, so…

"So…the reunion's coming up," Rocky began, trying to be casual. He could do casual. Casual could be his middle name.

It wasn't, because his parents liked him, but the metaphor still held up.

Aisha sighed. "No Rocky, you know I can't go."

Rocky dropped all pretense of the casual-he-actually-wasn't. "Aisha-"

"No Rocky," the yellow ranger repeated. "I can't."

"Screw 'can't'," Rocky, abandoning his begging. "Aisha, we miss you. It's been years since you've gone to Africa. What are you hiding from?"

"'What'?" Aisha echoed. "Or 'who'?"

Who? Or…oh.

It clicked into place slowly for Rocky, a steady, gradual thing, but it got there. He knew with a sudden twist in his heart, with an ache of outpouring sorrow for his friend, his sister.

"Aisha," Rocky whispered. He didn't need to, it was just him in the apartment with Adam out consulting with Bio Labs, but he didn't have the energy for more. "Aisha, please. We've got your back, you know we do. Just…come home." He let his head hang against his chest until he could see the scuffed linoleum floor of the kitchen, a cozy small thing he and Adam had decided on together. "The three ninjas, remember?"

"I remember," she sounded sad, but Rocky actually couldn't remember when she didn't sound sad nowadays, when the joy she used to inspire lasted beyond just a few insubstantial minutes.

When Aisha had first taken up her post in Africa, Rocky had thought that it had been because her generosity couldn't keep her home anymore, couldn't keep her in California, fighting by Rocky and Adam's side. He had thought that her selflessness, her need to help, had called to her so strongly that she could not possibly consider any other choice at that moment.

Back then, maybe Rocky had been right, but now Rocky realized Aisha had merely seen what the rest of them couldn't.

Nothing lasted forever.

Instead of waiting for the morpher to decide it was done with her, Aisha had walked away. She had chosen her own path.

Even now, with his active Ninjetti morpher, his active Zeo crystals, Rocky was still insanely jealous she had managed to find her own closure. Or, what he had assumed was closure.

In reality, he was almost certain the only thing that kept Aisha in Africa now was the need to run away.

And he was tired of it. He was going to be the stubborn one this time.

"Come home Aisha," Rocky urged, determined, done. "We can get you a job at Bio Labs, you can study whatever you want, you don't have to be near anyone you don't want to be but please, come home." He swallowed, his eyes moving to the corkboard Adam had hung up by the telephone, a monstrosity of pictures, drawings, and phone numbers of various rangers. In the center was the photo of the Ninja Competition, the one that had brought them to the original ranger team's eye in the first place.

"…I'll think about it Rocky, okay? I'll think about it."

It was the most he was going to get for now, but that didn't make Rocky feel any less brokenhearted. "Okay, Aisha," he sighed, rubbing a hand against his forehead. "We love you, okay?"

"I know," she replied. It was bittersweet, but sincere. "I love you too, goofball."

"Ah," Rocky grasped at his heart dramatically, rocking back in his chair. "Mi corazón, por que?"

"Because you're crazy," Aisha replied cheekily. "And I love it."

"Luckily, Adam does too," Rocky shot back, wiggling his eyebrows.

There was no laugh this time, but she was probably just tired. It had to be hot over there, this time of day.

"Get some sleep Rocky," Aisha ordered softly. It still left no room for argument, but it was kinder. "Give Adam my love."

"I will," Rocky promised.

He would. It never needed to be said, but he would.

He would do anything for family.

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Endnotes:

I got nothing. Seriously, nothing.

Until next time.