ugh, guys I wrote this so quickly and in such a state of exhaustion and sort of to establish a concept suggested bythewordaccordingtomollye that I want to develop more in other fics so I don't know if it's much of anything good but hopefully it'll be at least a little entertaining.
OOO
April was in a filthy mood.
Her hair felt lank and greasy, there was a zit the size of a small planet on her chin and her breasts were so tender every step she took made them throb with pain.
She had to fight the urge to throw her Starbucks after a bicyclist that whizzed by her too fast, cutting off her passage before the lights changed. She struggled to stay awake during a team meeting when a couple of her colleagues began debating coverage angle of the Sacks trial. A relentless headache refused to abate, denying her ability to concentrate on critical research. But it was when My Heart Will Go On came on the radio and she found herself tearing up, April knew it was time to call an end to this interminable day and go somewhere she knew she'd find comfort and joy.
The sewers.
Despite the persistence of her pre-menstrual tension, April's spirit unmistakeably lightened as she drew closer to the subterranean lair of her incredible new friends. Theirs was a bond forged in the most significant of histories and through the most arduous of challenges and it was the truest sense of family she had known since her beloved father had died – had been murdered – all those years ago. She loved those boys, each with their significant individualities, and their surrogate father, with his strong, calming presence and time spent with them was revitalising to her in a way that still seemed precious and rare.
"Hello," she called out, as she entered the den, having found the dojo empty and silent. "Anyone here?"
There was the grind of wheels on cement and Donatello's head peeked out from behind his computer station, his mouth quirked in that gentle, shy smile that inspired so much affection in her. "Hey April, good to see you. What's doing?"
"Don't even ask," she dismissively waved her hands and wandered over to where he sat as he slid his wheeled chair back to his keyboard, nudging his glasses back up with the customary push of his thumb. "How about you? What are you working on?"
He replied absent-mindedly, already being engrossed back into his work and she noted with a smile the keyboard was surrounded by a variety of mugs, each filled to varying depths by cold and very black coffee: "Just some research into old security systems used in the nineties. Seems you can never tell when that stuff will come in handy – "
As she drew up beside him and placed a hand on the topmost skateboard that had been fashioned into his chair-back, leaning over to take a peek at his work, he stopped abruptly and stiffened. April cocked her head and looked at him curiously as he stared ahead at his monitor without seeming to really see it, his jaw working anxiously for a moment. Then he swivelled his neck to look at her, an expression of profound befuddlement on his face.
"Donnie?" she queried, suddenly concerned. "Are you okay?"
"Uhhhh – " the turtle in purple continued to gaze at her, his eyes even bigger than usual behind his coke-bottle spectacles. He licked his lips nervously and swallowed and she frowned a little in prompting enquiry, inclining her head, waiting. "I'm – uh – I'm – " he seemed desperate for words, his green eyes alive with confusion and distress. He leapt to his feet, so abruptly his computer chair went skidding back several feet. April blinked rapidly, thoroughly puzzled by his odd behaviour. "I gotta go. I gotta go to the lab and uh, I gotta work on, uh, on a uh, I gotta work on a new – a new compound. A new compound I've been working on," he finished lamely, backing away from April as though she was infected and highly contagious. "Leo's in the hot tub. Sorry, April. Bye."
And with the speed only a ninja possessed, he whirled on his heel and vanished into his laboratory, shutting the door behind him with a sharp click.
April could only gape after him, no clue in hell what had just transpired and struggling not to feel offended. Donatello was the shyest of the four but he was quite comfortable with her by now and had certainly never seemed adverse to her presence before. Confused and a little hurt, April huffed and headed towards the bathroom.
Sure enough, Leonardo was partly submerged in the huge hot tub that occupied most of the massive alcove designated as their bathroom. He had his shell turned towards the UV lights that beamed brightly down from overhead, his muscular arms dangling over the side of the tub, his cheek resting on the rim and a blissful, lazy smile on his face. He opened his eyes a crack as April entered and his smile widened. "Heeeeyyyy!"
She couldn't help giggling. She loved how dopey and euphoric they got when basking. Raphael, especially, was a treat but Leonardo could be particularly amusing too. Plus, he seemed happy to see her and after Donatello's unexpected rejection, it was a welcome relief.
"Hey Leo," she ambled towards him with a grin to match his. "Enjoying the soak?"
"Oh boy," he agreed amiably and she laughed outright, coming up beside him and seating herself on the edge of the tub.
A second later, Leonardo's eyes flew open and he sat upright so violently water sloshed over the side of the tub, soaking her jeans.
"Woah!" April stood up, swatting at the sodden denim in dismay. Wet jeans were about the most uncomfortable thing imaginable. "Leo, what the hell?"
Leonardo was pressed up against the opposite end of the tub, staring at her with an intently concentrated expression, his jaw rigid. "April, I'm so sorry," he said with stiff urgency. "That was an accident."
April shook her head, a little of her earlier irritation returning as she looked from her wet jeans to the usually calm and controlled blue-clad leader who now gazed at her like she was an enemy he was assessing on the battlefield. "Leo – " she exhaled a confused noise and shook her head again. "Is everything all right?"
Leonardo was clearly determined to restore his habitually unflappable demeanour. "Of course. Everything is fine," he said in an exaggeratedly composed tone.
There was a moment of awkward silence. Everything was not fine and April could see that very well. Leonardo sat still and stiff as a rock in the tub, his face fixed into an expression bordering on alarm, not even the soothing water and glowing warmth of the lights above seeming able to take him back to his formerly supinely relaxed state. It's me, April thought in dismay. He doesn't want me here. It had never been an issue before. What had she done wrong? As they stared each other down, Leonardo's blue eyes began to flicker over her frantically and with great deliberation he cleared his throat and stated in an unconvincingly casual voice: "Well, I think I've been in here long enough for today. Time to hop out."
He didn't move but his eyes slid sidewards and she followed his gaze to the chair his loincloth was neatly folded upon and she hemmed in understanding. "Ah. Sure. I'll leave you to it then. Bye."
Stung, she turned on her heel and left the bathroom quickly, her sensitive emotional state piqued immediately into a jumbled mess of insecurity and rejection. Damnit, she'd come down here to have her spirits lifted – not have them dragged down even further. Just what was going on?
Once in the silent den, she pouted and fingered the tender zit on her chin, an arm folded across her chest so that her swollen breasts protested. Faintly, her ears picked up the clang and clink of weights being lifted and her heart pattered in response. Raphael. Raphael would be happy to see her. The bond she felt was strongest with him, hinting at something more though as yet they both edged cautiously around it. And watching him pump some iron, those magnificent muscles flexing and stretching, would definitely perk her up.
Buoyed, April made a beeline for the weight room, a separate space from the dojo, the faintest of smiles finally beginning to spread up her lips again.
She almost ran straight into him. He had apparently just finished his workout and was mopping his sweaty brow with a towel as he wandered from the gym.
"Hey!" she exclaimed chirpily, anticipating the wry smirk that said so much even as it strove to conceal.
But Raphael had pulled up short, the hand clutching the towel arrested at his forehead, every muscle in his impressive physique taut and quivering as he stared down at her with a dully horrified expression.
April's heart plummeted. Oh no. Not Raphael too?
But she wasn't going to be deterred, even as she felt her eyes smart and her heart beat heavy with confusion and hurt.
"I've had the day from hell and thought we could hang out, maybe watch a movie or something," she ploughed on, trying not to notice the way a vein began throbbing in his forehead as he stared at her, how his throat moved up then down as he swallowed hard, how his eyes seemed like hard amber stone that consumed her with so watchful a glare it was as though they were once again strangers on a rooftop. "You know, just chill out, kick back, drink a beer or two – " she was aware she was babbling but she was so distressed by Raphael's rigid unresponsiveness she couldn't seem to stop herself.
Suddenly, he threw the towel on the floor. "Gotta go," he grunted, ripping his gaze from her and exhaling hard. "Gotta go out."
He barrelled past her with no further explanation and heading rapidly for the dojo and the tunnel that would take him out of the lair, leaving her standing by herself in the door way to the gym, abandoned and thoroughly dejected.
Raphael couldn't even stand to be in the lair with her at the same time. Had she really so easily, so quickly, worn out her welcome?
April's chin was wobbling as she headed back towards the den, deciding to give Raphael a few minutes head start before she also departed, despondently resigned to the realisation she wasn't wanted there. Morosely, she sat on the edge of the sofa and gazed at her wringing hands, wondering how she was going to adjust to life without her beautiful boys in it anymore and not understanding what it was she had done just so very wrong.
Her self-pitying thoughts were interrupted by the familiar whooping exuberance of the youngest brother as he pelted into the den from the dojo, flipping his skateboard back into its pouch on his shell then executing a perfect flip that flowed into an effortless series of hip hop moves before he caught sight of April still perched on the sofa, unable to help the smile that spread hopefully up her face even as she dreaded another heartless rejection.
"April! Hey!" Michelangelo's delight at seeing her was unfeigned and unrestrained and he bounced over to her like a frisky puppy, falling to his knees on the rug before her and sweeping her up into a tight hug that she melted into gratefully, fighting back the relieved tears, not even caring how his plastron uncomfortably crushed her sensitised breasts. Then, all around her, she felt Michelangelo stiffen, and slowly release her, withdrawing with a curious, fixed look on his face.
Oh no. Not Mikey. Not Mikey, whose crush on her was both so endearing and so enduring. Surely not even he would abandon her in her time of need?
"April…" Michelangelo began, his expression transfixed and his crystal blue eyes shimmering with a stunned strangeness.
"What is it?" April practically cried out, desperately needing to know exactly what it was that was suddenly so repellent about her.
Michelangelo leaned in closer to her, his nostrils quivering excitedly, a look of delight suffusing his features. "You – smell – amazing!"
April started and stared at him, her jaw slack. "What?"
Michelangelo sat back on his haunches, gazing up at her with captivated adoration, his eyes darting rapturously all over her as though he strove to understand this glorious new element of the human woman he crushed so hard on. "How are you doing that? Is it a new perfume? What is it? Oh my god, it's amazing. Oh my god, I can't get enough! I'm gonna be an addict in another ten seconds!"
"Mikey!" April laughed a little but recoiled backwards, overwhelmed by his unabashed enthusiasm. "I'm not wearing perfume."
Michelangelo's blue eyes stretched even wider and he gazed at her with awe. "You mean that's just you? Oh my god, April. April. You need to bottle that and sell it. I'm not even kidding babe, you'd be a kazillionaire. That is literally the best smell I've ever smelled in my entire life ever – I can't believe I'm even gonna say this but I think it's actually better than the novantanove formaggi," he said this last with such an urgent sincerity, looking directly and fervently into her eyes, his hands grasping hers and as weird as all this was, as the whole experience had been from the second she set foot in the lair to that very moment, his sheer unfettered admiration was beginning to soothe her heartache and wounded ego and helplessly she began to giggle, suddenly so relieved to find her beloved Mikey still held a soft spot for her, her restored smile seeming to inspire an even more zealous devotion in him. He squeezed her hands again.
"Can I get you something, April? Do you want something? A drink? A snack? Anything you want babe, it's yours. I'll go get it for you. I'll get it for you right now. You just tell me. I'm at your command, angelcakes. There is nothing I would not do to make you happy. Girl, I will go steal the earrings off the Statue of Liberty if that's what you wanted."
His professions were bordering on the manic and on some level April knew something strange was going on, but after her shitty day and the looming spectre of her period making her feel ugly and fragile as hell, not helped at all by the distance the other brothers had so obviously wanted to put between her and them, April wasn't in much of a mood to question it.
"Mikey, I just want to hang out," she implored him, squeezing his hands and gazing at him hopefully. "I had a rotten day and I just want to hang out and have some fun with a friend."
Mchelangelo continued to behold her with bedazzlement in his eyes. "Girl, I am here, I am here for you. Me and you and you and me, you just name what you wanna do and I'll be right there by your side, right through to the end. Babe," he paused and tugged her hands forward to his plastron, holding them over his heart. "If you wanted to go mess with Raph's Playboy stash, I would go with you." He spoke with solemn sincerity, his eyes shining bright with reverence.
April gazed at him wonderingly, her brow crinkling with confusion even as she smiled. "What's gotten into all of you today?"
Michelangelo tilted his head in perfunctory contemplation, his apparent intoxication still consuming his attention but compelled to answer just to make her happy. "Dunno, angelcakes. Maybe it's something in the air."