Author's Notes: Guys, the reviews are SO LOVED and APPRECIATED and ADORED. Please keep them up; they make me feel like I'm doing something right for once. :P
Disclaimer: TMNT belongs to Nick/Eastman/Laird. Nia Anders, Hugh Reese, Melody Gray, and any other Original Characters you notice belong to me. I'm in no way making any money. Thanks.
Chapter 02 - Hollow
Hamato Michelangelo glanced at his genius of a brother. "Oi, Earth to Braniac!" he called—louder than his previous two tries. Given a moment, Donatello finally jerked his head upwards and regarded his younger sibling with a blank look. "Dude, you're so far gone, I think Pluto is asking where you're at."
"Sorry, Mike," replied Donatello with a sigh. His distant voice tugged at Mikey's heart, so the younger Chūnin set aside the plate of leftover food he planned to heat up for Leonardo.
Though they were alone in the Lair's kitchen, he kept his voice low enough where it couldn't be easily overheard. "What's up? Lately, you've been looking sorta…hollow. Thinking about July?"
"Huh? No, no." The purple-banded mutant shook his head then placed down a half-filled plate of his own.
Mikey frowned when his brother sighed again; only this time, with obvious traces of annoyance. "I take it the others have questioned you about this already."
"A few times," answered Don simply.
"Have you been down because of Kingston?"
"No."
"About Bishop then?"
"No, Mikey."
The youngest was wearing on the more patient brother's nerves, as apparent by Donatello's quick replies. Still, Mikey had to know. "Donny, you've been sighing and notably drearier for months. Doctors call that depression."
"I have nothing to be depressed about!" the genius snapped coolly. His brown eyes narrowed then rolled before he reclaimed his plate. "Splinter's had his ups and downs, but our herb oils have been working for the most part. Everything else has been fine."
"I wouldn't say that," added Mikey under his breath. "Gavin caused big drama with Raph and me yesterday afternoon. And it didn't feel right with just April here this Thanksgiving…"
"If Casey weren't such an idiot, it wouldn't have been just her."
Michelangelo frowned at the snarky, almost mocking, edge in Don's tone. Immediately, he took the plate from his brother's hands, flashing a disapproving look.
"What?" Donny asked while frowning. "The jackass practically asked to be dumped. 'A motorcycle is better than an engagement ring'? He's lucky April didn't jab the keys into his thick skull."
"Regardless, you don't have to sound so hateful!" countered Mikey. He pushed the plate back into Don's hands with such a force that it caused the purple-banded mutant to step back. "I was there too. It was a boneheaded move, yeah, but you still shouldn't belittle him."
"Whatever," Don muttered. He continued loading the plate with food, though his thoughts must have still lingered on the recently disbanded couple—if the overflowing spoonfuls of green bean casserole meant anything.
"I thought you were over liking April," the orange-banded ninja said absentmindedly. The following slam of Don's ceramic plate against the countertop echoed in the kitchen and shot an electrifying shock up Michelangelo's spine. As the youngest Hamato took two steps towards the fridge behind him, Donatello twisted on his heel, a sour frown on his wide mouth.
"It's not about that, alright?" he said in a tone softer than expected. "I just—it's that—he..." Sighing, Don slumped shoulders. "I'm just tired of watching idiots abuse their chances in love."
"You mean idiots like Casey and Raph?" Michelangelo's words grew a little tart, much to his displeasure. He shook his head as his older brother nodded then grabbed an empty plate for himself. There was a long chip in the side, but he couldn't have care less about it. "Guess I can understand that. I don't think it's settled in Raph's mind yet that Nia's the kind of woman he needs to be attentive with, unlike Angel…"
"Someone sounds jealous."
'Jealous?' thought Mikey. He side-glanced his sibling, yet Don didn't face him. The older Hamato simply walked over to the microwave, put the food in for a minute, and then exited the kitchen without another word. He left Mikey staring blankly at the room's brick archway until the latter blinked, turning his gaze to a container of macaroni and cheese mixed with bacon. 'Jamal said the same thing last night when he helped me in the kitchen…'
"First the macaroons, now your butter fingers smash an entire egg in my perfectly-measured bowl of pie crust?" Panicked, Michelangelo dashed from his boiling pot of macaroni on the gas stove to Donatello's side at the crowded countertop. The orange-banded Chūnin was met with the terrible site of crushed eggshell sprinkled across the dough rolled neatly in a glass bowl. That alone would've been enough to warrant a sob from Mikey, but in Don's fumbling to fix his mistake, he had pushed the smallest flecks of eggshell deep into the dough's pliable surface.
"Sorry, Mikey," Don said, drying his hands.
"You can sodden wiring perfectly fine, yet can't crack an eggshell right?"
"I said sorry!"
"That's it; you're as much of a liability as Nia at this point. Out! Out! Out!" At the sound of Silver Sentry's voice Mikey began pushing his older brother out of the kitchen. With one final shove, the genius was exiled and Michelangelo was pleased to note his good friend stood ready as a replacement. "Jamal, could you do me a favor and pick the eggshell out of that dough?" he questioned a bit sheepishly, eyes set on Nia and April as they retrieved some silverware before leaving. Turning back, he gave Silver Sentry a large smile, hoping the use of the ex-hero's real name would be no issue.
To his relief, this earned him a long nod and a light chuckle. The tall superhuman set aside his gloves on a nearby stool then pulled his mask backwards to reveal a pair of dark brown eyes that Michelangelo had been introduced to last year.
"Your new friend seems…excitable," Jamal said once at his station.
Mikey quickly returned to his pot, which now boiled over. "She's only that way with things she really likes," the mutant replied while dumping the pasta into an awaiting colander in the sink. He flinched away from the burning steam that followed. "That's the most excited I've ever seen her, though I guess I've only known her for about three months." Sending his friend a light smile, he began rinsing the pasta in cool water. "Thanks, by the way. I know since you've started a family, you don't really want to wear your uniform anymore, but…It meant a lot to her. Like me, she grew up idolizing you."
"Anything for the Turtle Titan," Jamal replied. The clear humor in his voice had Michelangelo chuckling.
"Thanks," Mikey managed through his wide grin, "but, like you, I don't think I'll be donning my super hero alias again. Uh, how's your family?"
"Good; the twins are getting bigger every day. It's hard to believe their first birthday is just around the corner. They certainly keep Teresa busy."
Guffawing, Mikey saw his way back to the turned-off stove—macaroni pan in hand—then set the pan down before retrieving the shredded cheese, milk, butter, and pre-cooked bacon to complete his recipe. "Which one likes to crawl around the house and tear down all the curtains? Trey?"
"No," answered Jamal, "that's my baby girl Candace. Girl is a one-man wrecking machine…She's walking now."
"What? Already?"
"Yeah. Teresa and I are torn on if it's because she's half superhuman or unnaturally determined."
"Is Trey walking?"
"Not really; he likes to roll more than anything. Hey, I think I got them all."
Having made the right measurements for the macaroni and cheese, Michelangelo stepped backwards until he stood beside the tall human, gazing into the glass bowl. "Yup, everything looks good. Now do you want to mix the mac and cheese?" The Chūnin held up the wooden spoon in his hands and Jamal took it instantly. "So…do you regret it?" Mikey inquired as his friend headed for the stove.
"You ask that every time we see each other," Jamal replied.
"Just making sure you're consistent and happy," countered the mutant. He half-laughed before spreading his saved dough into a pie pan to the side.
"Believe me, I'm very happy. You have no idea how great it feels to have a wife and kids." The pause of Jamal's stirring could be physically felt in Michelangelo's gut, as if the human's guilt had manifested. "Oh, uh, I'm sorry, Michelangelo. I never meant—"
"It's alright," injected the mutant, only a tad bitter. "I know very well what I can never have."
"Maybe never is being a little overdramatic. The young woman I met earlier, you told me over the phone that she was your brother—Raphael's—girlfriend, correct?"
"Yeah."
"Then isn't there hope for you as well?"
"Nia's too sweet for Raph," Mikey suddenly said. His thick thumb tore clean through the dough in his strange rise of anger, and only Jamal's loud hum brought the mutant back to his task.
"Careful, friend. Jealousy can be a dangerous thing."
"What? Me? Jealous?" Quick as the blink of an eye, the Chūnin loudly passed air through his lips. "I'm not jealous. I just can't see why someone as quirky and fun as Nia would want to date an insensitive brute like Raph. I just—I don't—I don't see it. I don't. Do you?"
"I'm not one to ask." Ceasing his assignment, Jamal turned around so he met his friend face to face. "You would know better than I. What I can see, however, is a disturbing dislike for your brother's newest relationship. Shouldn't you have more faith in him?"
At Jamal's arched eyebrow, Mikey's thoughts immediately fell on the reason April had arrived at the Lair alone. "Given the recent track record of our resident boneheads?" he asked after a long pause.
"Michel—"
"Know what? This pie can be completed in a little bit. Right now, why don't we go tell everyone food's ready to be set up, huh?" Mikey walked out of the kitchen before Jamal could reply, but he swore he caught a weak 'Alright' just as he crossed the threshold.
"Oi, Mikey! I swear if ya ain't in here wit' the rest 'a our food in three seconds we're leavin' yer shell behind an' orderin' pizza!" Raphael's Brooklyn accent snapped Michelangelo back into the present as quick as the crack of a whip.
Blinking, he quickly piled more food onto his plate—not really minding what he chose—as he cried back, "I'll be there in a minute!"
Why did his brothers always feel a need to argue? Even over the dumbest of things, they made snappy comments. Hamato Leonardo didn't think he could withstand one more of these comments—he really didn't. They'd been following the group ever since the ninja quartet left the Lair nearly two hours ago and it was because Michelangelo had been prodding at Raphael with such a fury that even Donatello snapped at them once.
The Jonin had let the brotherly discord slide for the first few times—If only because the fighting lasted only a moment—but when the prodding grew more constant, Leo forced the group to land on a narrow, flat roof of a dance club. Immediately, he spun to face the duo behind him, yet neither brother met his stern gaze. Raphael was preoccupied with something off to the side while Michelangelo bypassed the leader and Donatello to overlook the main street below.
Of course, Mikey's voice had to dash Leo's small hope that the prodding had actually stopped. "Hey, there's a nice little craft store down there. I'm sure Nia would like to visit that. Don't you think, Raphy?"
Like the other fifteen times, Mikey was answered with a low growl followed by the question, "Would ya stop sayin' things like that every block we pass?"
"What?" asked Mikey, a patronizing tinge in his tone. "I'm just saying."
"Now's not the time for this, you two," Leonardo finally interjected. He kept his voice level, despite wanting to yell, and even repressed a sigh as Michelangelo sent him a fake innocent expression.
"But now's a perfect time to scout for places, Leo," the youngest Hamato noted, smiling.
Leo grimaced. "We aren't here to scout; we're on patrol."
"So?" Mikey shrugged. "Nothing's come up yet. Besides, Raph should find places to take Nia that aren't roofs."
"I can take care 'a that kinda stuff myself," snarled Raphael, stomping a heavy foot.
"Obviously not," the orange-banded mutant retorted. He faced Raph again, meeting the stocky Chūnin's glare squarely. "If Nia were my girlfriend, I'd be taking her to all kinds of places. Not just rooftops."
Amber eyes rolled. "She likes rooftops. An' in case ya took one too many blows ta the head, we can'texactly enter any normal places, idiot."
"Oh, bull," remarked Mikey suddenly. His form straightened as he crossed his arms, and Leo barely detected what must've been a sly smile across the youngest's face. "We've done it before. Just pick the right time and place and you can easily be mistaken as a horribly disfigured fat man instead of the horrible disfigured ninja turtle that you are."
"Mikey, I don't think Raph putting himself in such a position is a good idea," Donatello added dryly. The genius stood between his brothers to keep a growling Raph from outright body-slamming Mikey. It barely worked.
"I don't see the harm," countered Michelangelo with a huff. "We used to do it a lot when we were younger."
"Yes, and it was dangerous then, too," continued Leonardo. With a small sigh, the Jonin rounded the group, signaling them to follow him to the roof's ledge. Once they did so, he peered over the building's shin-high lip. "Disguises are a last resort and not our priority right now, Mikey. Do you want to tell Phil and Ernie we aren't taking this seriously?" In an instant, Leo sensed Mikey's face drop.
"Hey, I am too taking this seriously!" the youngest cried in obvious defense. "Just because I don't have my eyes glued on every single cranny doesn't mean—What?"
Leonardo held up a hand for silence. Albeit with a few disgruntled noises, Michelangelo listened and hopped on the ledge his older brothers peered over. Together, the group eyed some subtle movement in the barely-lit alley. Leo's six fingers twitched at his sides, ready to draw his weapons if necessary. However, the metallic rustling of trashcans was soon followed by a goofy laugh that sounded fit for a child's cartoon.
The Jonin felt a bit of tension leave his body as a bulky-clothed figure tripped over the trashcans he had once been standing beside into the grimy backlight of a sports bar. There, the figure promptly stumbled to the trash-littered ground and once he managed to sit upright, he began occasionally giggling as his dingy sneakers tapped the body of a fallen trashcan.
"Great; it's a drunk," Raphael commented in well-practiced sarcasm.
"Don't be so quick to assume," remarked Donatello.
"Seriously? Ya don't consider that drunk?"
The purple-banded Chūnin disregarded Raph's deadpan expression completely, and instead leaned further over the concrete edge, vision set firmly on the human making small beats on the asphalt with his hands. Only after a long moment did Don lean back.
"Look at how he's moving," he added, jutting his chin forward. Leo exchanged brief looks with Mikey and Raph before he did as his genius brother commanded. "Notice his movements. They look sluggish and uncoordinated, but if you study them, you'll notice they have order. His hands and feet, even his head, are moving to a well-timed beat, a tempo."
"Oh, so he's a musical prodigy." Leo sighed at Raph's biting sarcasm.
"Do you mean his hands, feet, and head are all tapping a different song?" Mikey asked.
Donny shook his head. "No. I think it's the same one."
"How can ya even tell something like that, Braniac?"
"Break."
"I didn't break anything," noted Mikey quickly, hands up.
"The song Break," Don elaborated in a near-strenuous tone. He pointed to the low brick building ahead that Leo now realized thumped with muffled music. "By Three Days Grace."
"Ah," Mikey drawled while nodding as if realizing something obvious. Then, he paused. "What about it?"
Donatello promptly ran a hand down the side of his face. "Don't you get it? The instruments. He's tapping his limbs to the beats of the drums, guitar, and bass."
"Oh…so he is a musical prodigy?"
"Not so much a prodigy, Mikey," answered Don with a light shake of his head. "Just someone who really likes music."
"An' he's actin' like a three-year-old 'cuz…?" Raph raised an eye ridge, awaiting an answer.
"Rupert!" a new, very alarmed, feminine voice cried out. It startled even Leonardo, who scraped his shin on the concrete lip when he spun and ducked to face the alley's mouth.
"Damn, that woman's got some lungs, don't she?" Raphael questioned in a whisper. He had followed his older brother's lead like the remaining Hamato brothers, ducking low to keep out of sight.
Leonardo didn't reply, but watched intently as a curly-haired brunette bundled in a worn fur coat approached the man with haste. The hard clicks of her heels drew Rupert's attention, though he didn't rise from the ground. He only released another goofy laugh and outstretched an arm like a child wanting to be picked up by their parent.
"Rupert, I swear you almost gave me a heart attack," the woman said with broken words. When close enough, she reached a gloved hand to his bare one then wrapped her fingers around his, sighing shakily. "I told you, you can't leave like that. You have to stay by my side."
"Sammy," spoke Rupert. His high voice sounded no less silly than his laugh had been. "Sammy, music."
"Yes, I know, you love music," Sammy replied as she kneeled to help the man up. Doing so cost her little effort—regardless of how Rupert towered over her—which left Leo convinced she had been pulling the grown man out of alleys for years already. "We can't always follow the music, though, can we?" she asked, moving to catch his erratic gaze.
Like a wounded child, Rupert's head ducked, the chipper light in his movements suddenly dimming. "No, Sammy."
"Hey," Sammy's hand rose to catch the man's face and draw his eyes to her, "You aren't in trouble, okay? You just scared me. Bars aren't a good place for you. Remember? The people there are not nice."
"No, not nice," replied Rupert, his voice less goofy as it lowered.
"Alright, come on." Stepping back, Sammy slipped her arm under the man's and began leading him out of the alley. "Cliff took the girls to Christmas shop for their brothers, so you and I are going to keep Ryan and James from fighting over who gets the best present in their name."
Laughing like a hyperactive child, Rupert jumped a little in excitement. "Tory help me!"
"Yeah, Tory loves you," Sammy replied. The rest of their conversation was lost to the city's usual chatter.
Leonardo stood straight at the same time as his brothers, his eyes lingering on the alley's mouth for a second before he faced his family. "I guess we'll call it a night. We haven't seen anything out of the ordinary."
"Oh, have you guys started your Christmas shopping yet?" Michelangelo asked with a Cheshire grin. His lowered baby blues fell on each of his brothers. "Have any of you picked out a gift for Nia yet?"
"Mikey," Leo snapped. He tried maintaining his displeasure, yet sighed after a long moment of staring into the youngest's wide, hopeful eyes. "We can make a game plan about that when we get home. Alright?"
"Yes!"
"But our priority is still to help Ernie and Phil with Star."
"I know."
"Good." The Jonin nodded to the others and without another word, the ninja disappeared from the roof.
Author's Notes: There's a lot of foreshadowing in this. May not seem it, but it's true. Prepare. And don't forget: review please! :D
