"Casey, come on," her voice urging him to follow her. The floor creaked under their collective weight. She wanted to sigh but silently rolled her eyes instead. Donnie needed some chemicals and a first aid kit or two so, with the stores completely raided by now, he'd sent her and Casey out to the school a few miles out into town to scavenge for supplies. She'd rather be with one of the guys but considering all of them were deathly worried about Leo, she and Casey-unfortunately-were the best option.
"You carry 20 pounds of gear on your back," Casey snapped. Withholding an annoyed scoff, she moved forward scoping the hallway ahead visually and mentally.
"Clear," she stood up from their covered position. The invasion was so much worse than any of them could have imaged with the Kraang having created a super Mutant virus that affected humans AND animals. It was part of their plan to terraform the Earth into another Dimension X. Thank god for Donnie who came up with a vaccine just in time to save them. However their friends and family in New York City weren't so lucky, everyone, even Master Splinter, was infected and the brood had fled to the old O'Neil farm home until Donnie could come up with more vaccine or some other solution. (No pressure, Don.)
They snuck into the science lab, softly closing and locking the door behind them. Before they headed to theclassroom, they'd broken into the main office to steal a master key, that was Casey's idea; which would have been smart except for the fact that the sound of breaking into a lock box with a hockey stick and a baseball bat attracted all the mutants like some shitty zombie movie.
"What was it Don needed?" Casey blinked at April innocently, despite the 5th time she'd told him.
"Just," April paused wondering if she wanted to play tutor to Casey again, but decided against it, "Grab everything you can take. I'm sure Donnie can find some use for it."
"Cool," he replied pleased with an easier task than finding some specific long name of some dumb chemical. They easily raided the cabinets for all the supplies they deemed useful or worthy and found a mostly unused first aid kit with a spare in another drawer.
"I'm glad there were two kits up here," she mentioned with an undisguised annoyance in her voice.
"Hey, I got you a master key and you didn't even thank me," he started in a joking but grew more upset, "I don't get you Red. You always treat me like shit. Why? What did I do?" he said jamming as many containers and one of the first aid kits into his pack.
"Now, Case, you're picking now?" she shot back.
"Yes, because you won't talk to me in front of the turtles."
She fumed a moment, squeezing everything that wouldn't fit in Casey's pack into hers. "Fine." April spat, "You're irresponsible. You don't listen. You can't handle a simple supply mission without putting us in massive danger. You fight with Donnie all the time about me no less. I'm so done with you acting like a kid. This is basically the apocalypse and you're treating this whole thing like a video game. We have one life, Case...you only have one life." Her irritation changing to care in the last sentence.
"Um, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but we are kids April. We're teenagers," Casey looked her square on. "Sorry this looks like a game but I came out here because I didn't have a choice. My family is out there and I gotta help 'em. It's not all about you April." He grew more rebellious and louder.
Scratches started moving closer to the door, twisting handle, threatening to pull off the knob, or worse, the door of it's hinges. "Shit," he whispered and in one swift motion he grabbed April's arm. He lead her and their gear to a spare supply closet smoothly locking it behind them. He may have been upset but not enough to get them killed. The space was narrower than anticipated with shelving covering one wall entirely and two small frosted rectangular windows on the opposite wall near the ceiling. Luckily, everyone and everything fit. The two settled on the floor sitting next to each other after they'd sealed the bottom of the door with some old rags they'd found.
They sat awkwardly in the silence, unable to speak with Mutants about. Their conversation was far from over, but the inability to speak calmed them both down, forcing them to think about things rather speaking on impulse which got them in trouble a lot. A sudden bang of something hitting the floor shocked them together, April grabbing Casey's hand and Casey moving closer to her.
A knot pressed up in her stomach as April scooted away quietly, letting his hand go, putting more space between them than before. A soft summer glow flooded the windows illuminating their current cell. April rested her head on her knees wrapping her arms around her legs. She was a little shocked by her reaction, but she passed it off as being scared and just nerves. She hated that she liked him because admitting that would start a never-ending war between Donnie and Casey. And what if Donnie, turned the other guys against them? She detested even thinking about this in their situation, this thing-this crush-was not top priority; fighting to stay alive and curing the Mutants to save their planet-their home-was. There was literally no time for this.
Casey, on the other hand, felt his heart skip a beat when April had reached for him. He questioned why she had done that, wasn't she still mad at him? Or was she just scared? Or was it something else? He'd told April he liked her some time ago and she never seemed off put by it but she never said anything about it either. Which frustrated him to no end, he just wanted to ask. To know. What was she even thinking? When she pulled back, he wasn't surprised but he was disappointed wanting to offer her some form of comfort.
A soft sniffing sound broke their tense silence as a snout pushed at their closet hide out. She shot a look at Casey who stared back, both scared out of their wits. He backed away from the door, inch by inch until the two of them were up against their packs in the corner. He'd carefully removed a baseball bat from their stuff and stood ready in front of April, who had also slowly gotten up and pulled out her fan.
The snout stopped and there was complete silence before a loud sound outside attracted the Mutant's attention and they all left in a massive clamour. The created Mutants were stupid but ruthless and vicious when it came to food. Resources were scarce because the animals had been mutated too and Mutants didn't eat each other, at least not yet. Casey exhaled heavily from having held his breath in anticipation for the past minute and April softly fell to the floor.
"Let's go," Casey muttered quietly, looking back at April who was collapsed on the floor. She looked past him, staring blankly at the door. "Hey Red, we have to put on our stuff and go home," he tried again softer in tone, kneeling to her. April looked scared, more scared than he'd probably ever seen her. "April, we have to go," he looked into her eyes trying to reassure her, "We'll be okay, but we have to go now."
April finally focused on him. "I'm fine," she lied, looking into his eyes and how close they'd gotten. She offered her hand to have Casey help her up. He took it.
"Two times in one day," Casey nodded to her hand in his with a toothless grin.
"Don't push your luck, Jones," April returned quietly, regaining her balance and swallowing any fears of leaving their closet. She wanted to stay on the floor at least a little longer to calm herself down but it wouldn't be any safer. She had to push through. The longer they were there the more at risk they were. Getting back to the farmhouse was better than their current hideout by miles but who knew where the mutants had gone or how far.
Gear on, Casey turned the knob as slowly as possible and the door gave a small click. He did a quick check of the room before fully opening the door and walking out of the closet and across the room. He looked back to April who had composed herself and was more focused than scared now or, at least, that's how she seemed to him. She was braver and stronger than everyone gave her credit for (except for Master Splinter) and he knew that.
She kept it together as they backtracked out of the school and out a different door than they entered hoping not to attract attention to themselves again. They didn't talk until they were back on the road home. When April finally spoke.
"Sorry about yelling at you. You actually came up with a lot of good ideas," April started, "Your quick thinking probably saved us. So, thank you." Their 20 minutes spent in the closet forced them to think rather than just react.
Casey perked up, surprised she apologized much less thanked him. "Uhm, you're welcome, I guess. Sorry I was the one who attracted all the mutants." He was sincerely sorry about that and how reckless he had been. "I didn't mean to pick a fight with you either, Red. But you really won't talk to me around the guys."
She gave a small smile in response to his apology. It was a tad strange that he done that, but it also must have been weird for her to apologize to him too. Either way, she was grateful for it considering they hardly apologized for any of their poor behavior to each other. Both of them typically just acted on impulse and said exactly what they were thinking. "You asked me what was wrong earlier and I told you. If you want me to talk to you, you have to stop fighting with Donnie all the time. He's the only one who can get us out of this mess."
"I know," he grumbled, "You never fail to remind me. I mean it's not like we almost died for Donnie today."
"Casey, I know what this is actually about," she was going to put this to rest once and for all, "I'm not stupid. Both you and Donnie like me, it's not hard to figure out. It was never was hard to figure out. But this competition over me is out of control now, it was before the Krang decided to turn our planet into a new Dimension X. I never said anything because I thought it would work itself out. It's a problem now though. Obviously. That's what I don't understand. We're in this Mutant apocalypse and all you Donnie do is fight and neither of you can focus with your eyes popping out of your skulls because I'm around." She mimicked eyes popping out of her face dramatically.
Casey pouted, mimicking her motion. "I do not walk around with googoo eyes." April shot him a look and he kept his eyes front. "It is the apocalypse that's making us crazy. Who knows if we'll survive, so why not put it out there?"
"Seriously? There are so many other things to prioritize than a stupid girl, than me," she fumed.
"First of all, you're not stupid and second, you might be right," he looked at her, "but you're not helping by ignoring it."
"That's not what I meant." April blinked at him in disbelief, "You're kidding though, right?"
"Nope," he went back to staring at the road ahead.
She looked forward too, mouth agape and stumbling for words. "Why-What? Casey, how is this my fault now?"
"Like I said, you ignoring it isn't really fixing the problem is it? It just makes you look like an attention seeker." Casey knew the buttons he pushed but he had been waiting to say that since that week they'd all arrived at the farmhouse.
April scoffed, crossing her arms. She didn't say anything for several moments, just stewing over Casey's words. How dare he call her an attention seeker. "I didn't ask for this."
"No one asks for half the things they get, but they still have to deal with them," his tone more sympathetic than angry.
She sighed heavily, cursing to herself and at herself. The more she thought about it, the more she knew Casey was actually right. Again. She was bitter about that and questioning how she wanted to approach this. Dealing with this meant talking to Donnie and telling him no, but what did it mean for Casey? Did she admit she liked him back or just tell him no so both of them could move on. Telling Casey meant talking to Donnie, not telling Casey meant lying about her feelings. Both placed the emotional well-being of several people on her decisions. She chewed on her bottom lip.
"April, I didn't mean," Casey noticed her withdrawal from their conversation. Their banter typically didn't end that suddenly, "You okay?"
"Just," she stopped walking for a second, grabbing Casey's arm to stop him too, "Here's what sucks, you're right." April kept her eyes down, "Okay? You're right. But I don't want to deal with this because it means risking friendships and…" she sighed heavily, "It means lying to myself too."
Casey stepped to face her, "What does that mean?" He was honestly confused.
She scoffed, nodding her head in disbelief of the statement she was about to make before she'd even said it. "Casey, I like you," she admitted, finally looking at him. "But I can't like you. There's too much to deal with right now. My feelings are not important when they put the larger group at-" She was cut off by a sudden unexpected kiss from Casey who had moved closer to her as she spoke. Rough, warm hands cupping her suddenly reddening cheeks.
April pulled back first, grabbing his hands and pulling them away, "I could slap you right now Casey Jones," she shoved a finger in his face, "That was uncalled for." Her words lacked their previous bite and conviction.
"But you can't say you didn't like it," he mused, pushing her buttons again.
"I can and I will," she started walking away furiously, half to hide her red cheeks and half to keep them heading home before it got dark. "Why would you do that?" A subtle warmth still clinging to her lips.
He shrugged, a stupid smile on his face, "I guess because actions speak louder than words."
She rolled her eyes. "Smooth," April mused sarcastically as they followed the road to the last curve before the farmhouse.
"C'mon Red," he playfully pleaded, "Don't be so dense."
"You want dense?" April side-eyed him when Casey caught up, "How about we talk about how thick your skull is. You think you can just kiss me and call it good?"
"No," he smiled pulling ahead because April had stopped out of anger. "I think we should call it something else."
Crossing her arms she started walking again. "You are-"
"The most awesome person ever, I know," he'd cut her off again, "Why not try this. There are crazier things going on than us getting together. What do you say?"
April kept her arms folded. The farmhouse coming into view down the road and she realized how much her shoulders hurt from heavy packs. They didn't have much time left for this conversation and she was sure as hell not going to finish it in the house. Not that she'd planned on having a screaming match, but she wasn't ready to tell the guys yet. "Okay," she smiled softly. If it didn't work out, they just wouldn't talk about it, right?
"So, you'll talk to Don?" Casey asked, holding out a calloused hand.
"Yeah," she unfolded her arms, intertwining their fingers.