Casey and April: How the Mess Began

Chapter 1

A child. Just a damn child. That's all he was. A hockey mask wearing, cricket bat wielding child. He had to be the most irresponsible, irritating, immature man child running around New York City with his ninja clan of clueless turtle followers. Ugh! She knew all of this. She thought about this all the time. How incompetent he was and how childish he was, and yet it didn't make anything stop. It didn't make any of the feelings go away. And the hardest part for April was trying to figure out if it was an actual meaningful attraction or if it was a simple matter of animalistic, aggressive sexual behavior and she just needed to get laid. There were times she liked being around him and not just in the group, but just him. When he wasn't being a pig that is. Then there was that kiss. That kiss one time that seemed like a lifetime ago.

No matter how many times she told herself she would stop over thinking Casey Jones, she found herself lost in a thoughtful trance again over thinking about Casey Jones. It was awful. Especially with all the shit they had to worry about on a regular basis, but it had literally become second nature to live this life. It was hard to remember the time she wasn't living like this. Once upon a time, this was so exciting and new and now it was just family. She spent fifty percent of her time above ground in her apartment/ antique store being a New York City news reporter and fifty percent in the sewers waiting for Casey and her four masked turtles to come home to her.

Mikey was starting to notice it on April's face. The googly eyes and parted lips. He was perceptive like that, honestly no one gave him enough credit for noticing the small things. Every time she caught herself accidentally gazing at Casey and looked away quickly, Mikey was always ready to give her a wiggle of the brow. Oh, he knew and it would only be a matter of time before he took his teasing further and made it more obvious.

"Uh hem."

April's head popped up from her hand where it was propped in a thoughtful trance and slowly turned around. There they were standing behind her and she had no idea how long they had been standing there.

An awkward smile formed on her face, "Heeey."

Mikey wiggled his brow, "Whatcha thinkin' about?"

She scowled at him, "Nothing." She said firmly, "How'd it go?"

They all began making their way around to get comfortable. Casey hopped over the back of the couch and landed next to April interrupting her comfortable position. He wiggled around and made himself right at home. He propped a foot up on the coffee table and lazily threw an arm on April and grabbed the remote, "It was okay. Donnie got a little scratched up." He replied as he fiddled with the toothpick in his mouth. April became increasingly annoyed as she watched him invade her space, "What were you thinkin' about, toots?" He asked in his thick Brooklyn accent as he shuffled his hand through his black semi curly/frizzy hair.

April sat there with a thoroughly annoyed look on her face, "Ugh." Was all she could manage as she tossed his arm off of her and went to the kitchen with Mikey and Raph.

Casey shot April a perplexed look and threw his hands up, "What?! What'd I do?... I'm changing the channel since you're bein' a bitch."

April just rolled her eyes and sat at the table, "Is Donnie alright?"

"Yeah, Leo and Splinter are patchin' him up. Nothin' major." Raph replied taking a sip of his coke can, "You okay? You seem… annoyed."

She sighed and tried to calm her tone, "Yeah, I'm fine."

Mikey grinned, "You sure?"

Her annoyed tone came back quickly, "Yes, I'm sure, Mikey."

"Sounds like she needs to change her tampon to me!" Casey chimed in from the living room. April snatched Raph's now empty can from his hand and chucked it at Casey's head, "What'd I tell ya!"

"Okay. I'm going to go home and get some sleep." April decided out loud and kissed Mikey and Raph on the head, "Tell the others I said good night and I'll see you tomorrow. Pizza at my place." April walked passed the back of the sofa towards the door and thumped Casey on the head.

"You know you love me." He mused as she shut the door, "God, she drives me up the frickin' wall."

Raph flopped down on the sofa and jerked the remote from Casey, "April's the best. What are you talkin' about, knuckle head?"

"I'm not sayin' she's not. April is the best, but I don't know what I'm doing to piss her off all the time." Casey explained, "We used to somewhat get along and just play fight. Now she seems really pissy with me all the time."

Raph shrugged his shoulders, "So? What'd you do to piss her off?"

"I don't think I did anything, man. She just went haywire on me." He answered honestly.

Mikey snorted as he walked passed the TV towards his room, "Buncha dumbasses." He chuckled.

Casey cocked his brow at Mikey, but let him walk on by. Truth was, he missed April liking him and wanting to be around him. They had become really close and even kissed that one time after they thought they had defeated the Foot clan, but nothing ever came of it. They never went out on a date or anything, it just kind of went away. He honestly wished he had made more effort, but he didn't and now he felt stupid trying anything after this long.

But the way she was acting, he probably didn't have a chance in hell. Who was he kidding? He didn't have a chance then, it was just a celebration that they had lived through what they did. Casey thought about her pretty much all the time and he only wished he could get the attention from her he used to get.