Author's Note: I own nothing but Marie and Jaclyn. Sorry this chapter is a bit on the short side; it was really just..."Here, I need this thing to happen but it feels awkward including it with the last or next chapter so here, have fifty words BOOM CHAPTER THREE." I promise future chapters will be more...um...meaty?
Chapter Three: Ignorance
"He was so beautiful I couldn't even talk. I literally lost the ability to comprehend the concept of language."
"It's true, I heard it. Or…you know, didn't hear it."
April laughed as she walked back to her apartment with her roommates, having been at a nearby pub celebrating her successful move. Granted, she was still living out of boxes, but hey, they'd gotten the boxes into the loft, and that was what mattered, right?
"How about you, Ape?" Marie said, snickering at the look on Jaclyn's face while she reminisced about the attractive male nurse at work. "Got a piece of mancandy? Or…womancandy? Genderfluidcandy? Whatevs, you do you, babe."
April snickered initially, simply because of Marie's gender inclusion, but then shook her head. "No, no mancandy. I've been…pretty career-oriented. Not a lot of time for a relationship."
"Um, who said anything about a relationship?" Jaclyn said.
"Well, that's fair," April said with a smirk.
"Got a type?" Marie said.
April paused for a moment. "I….I like green eyes?"
Marie nodded in approval, while April wondered where that had even come from.
"Blue are my weakness," Marie said, carrying on with the topic. "Tall, blue eyes, funny. Recipe for Marie disaster."
April actually stopped in her tracks, Michelangelo's face appearing in her mind.
…..nah.
"What about you, Jac?" April asked. "What's your aesthetic?"
"Hot," Marie answered for her friend. "Ripped and hot."
"That's…true," Jaclyn conceded. "I also like personality traits too, but obviously that's not the priority."
"Of course not," April said, laughing. They reached the stoop of the antique store, and she dug into her jacket pocket for the key-
And she found herself staggering back as a man walked right into her, not even attempting to move around her. She turned and gawked, as the man turned around to look at her. He glared directly at her, as if…he'd done it on purpose. As if he knew her. But she'd never seen him before…
"Hey, watch it, douchenozzle!" Marie shouted at the man, sounding like a born-and-bred New Yorker despite not being a native.
"It's okay," April said as the man turned away and continued to walk. "Just some creep."
"That's an understatement," Jaclyn said, glaring at the back of the retreating man.
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
The man hurried down the street, expertly weaving through the late-night walking traffic, people leaving the bars, stumbling, drunken, stupid, worthless. He was none of those. He was fast on his feet, graceful, and on a mission.
He reached the building, abandoned for all intents and purposes, but only a façade. Inside, a long hallway led to a door that only he and a few very select others had access to. He allowed the device to scan his retina, and walked through the door.
A bed was one of the only comforts in the room, the rest filled with machines, tubes, equipment that he couldn't even name. And in the bed was a man, covered in gauze, currently kept alive by the very machines surrounding him. Black eyes looked up from reddened skin, flesh twisted and devastated by what had happened to him. A man who had been broken.
But was healing.
The man moved to the side of the bed, bowing at the waist respectfully, and then knelt, face level with the scarred hand that lay on the bed.
"We have found the girl, Master Shredder."
The hand clenched into a fist.
