Author's Note: Man, I have tried like three times to write this chapter, but I have just been too exhausted. I couldn't even stay up past ten pm last night to watch a tv show.
But here you go! Not nearly as much action in this story as my others... But those scenes will come. There's a storm a'brewin, as they say around my neck of the woods...
It was surprisingly easy to fall into a routine with Saki.
Even though April certainly expected that their relationship was now what one might consider official – and had no reason to believe otherwise –their behavior together remained mostly unchanged, though April came to understand that this was more of a cultural difference than personal preference. Outward affection, pet names and things of the like were not all that common in this area, with Shen's lavish attentions to her best friend being the sole exception. So even though Saki still often nodded to April in public rather than embraced her, his secret smiles were more than ample reminder of the connection they shared, and if April ever did need someone to hold her hand, Shen was always there, uncaring of anyone who was watching.
For the first few weeks, April continued to observe Saki when they were around Shen, or even Shen and Yoshi together, but his behavior towards April's friend and roommate was unchanged as ever. Even when Yoshi made his appearances, as he often did, and flirted shamelessly with Shen, Saki never seemed to notice or mind.
After a while, it was easy enough to forget that April had ever thought he loved Shen at all.
And without the obsessive love of Tang Shen, it was easier, by leaps and bounds, to remove Hamato Saki from The Shredder she knew. And if April gave herself a little credit for this positive change, it was something she kept to herself.
Next to her, sitting in silence as he had been for nearly half an hour, Saki dutifully turned a page in his novel.
"This book is terrible," he said at last, his tone flat.
April glanced up with a grin from where she was sketching onto a notepad. The afternoon was warm and beautiful around them, and they'd chosen to spend Saki's 'study time' outside, so at least they sit next to one another against a large old tree while he finished his work.
"I can't believe your dad is having you read Wuthering Heights," April admitted, leaning a cheek on his shoulder and peering at the text. "I mean, we read it a lot in high school, but wow. Your dad is serious about your English training."
"I enjoy some English literature," he admitted, closing the book with a snap. "But this book does not make any sense to me. Am I supposed to want Heathcliff and Catherine to marry? Or are they the villians?"
April curled one of her arms around his and their fingers linked as she peered thoughtfully at the leatherbound book cover. "I don't know," she admitted, gaze pensieve. "They're both awful people. And they don't even seem to get along that well. They're too much the same." Reaching over him, April flipped open the pages until she found the text. "I am Heathcliff," she read aloud. "He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."
Saki tilted his head towards her, and his lips brushed the crown of her head, so that she could feel him smile. "It sounds like a very romantic novel, if that is the only line you know."
Turning her eyes to his, April brought their faces close. "I guess that's why it's best to hear the whole story," she said softly, stroking the hand she held entwined in hers.
"And so you've read it?"
At her nod, he set the book aside and pulled her closer, so that she was against his chest. One arm moved around her waist, and he looked down at her in that way that made her feel like he was placing each word she spoke into a special, cherished part of his memory.
"And? Are they villains or are they lovers?"
April thought about it, but it was hard to concentrate with Saki so near. "I think they're both," she said at last. "Two horrid, selfish people who act on every impulse they believe will take them away from each other, only to find themselves right back where they started."
"That is not the worst fate one can come to, I think," said Saki, shifting his arms around April as she dropped her face into his neck, curiously comfortable at their proximity, relishing in the comfort it brought. An amicable silence floated between them for a moment before Saki spoke again.
"What are you doing here in Japan, April?"
She froze in his arms, her eyes wide, hidden against him. Slowly, she shifted away, just enough to look at him. Her pulse jumped in her fingertips and her arms felt weak with fear. He didn't look angry or suspicious, at least, but he watched her very carefully for any hint of a lie.
As April stared, unwilling to speak, Saki waited patiently, no less familiar with her than before. The hand joined in hers moved in his long fingers and he curled it gently against his upraised knee as he waited for her to answer.
She thought of a thousand half-truths, and a thousand more outright lies. She tried to remember everything she had told Shen, about the university and the hang-ups.
But they all evaporated from her tongue.
April dropped her head, her chest clenching painfully as she fought back a hard swallow. "You really want to know?" she asked after a long moment, her voice soft and shaky, and when she lifted her eyes to Saki, she saw him nod, his dark brows furrowed.
"I'm here," April said, fighting to keep her voice firm, "because for the last three years, I've been involved with a group of ninja in New York. Their master is the one who talk me how to use a tessen, and ever since I met them, it has been one dangerous, crazy, absolutely insane thing after another." She sucked in a deep breath, and Saki's image fell to the side in her vision. "I mean," she prattled on. "I love them, I do. They're my family, and I would never regret knowing them, but oh my god, I haven't had a normal week in three years, my dad has gotten kidnapped more than once, they're always in danger, things are always going nuts, there are ALWAYS people after me -" she sucked in a deep breath, tears brimming as she released the frustrated torrent she'd kept confined to journals and quick mental rants that left her feeling guilty as hell.
"And the whole reason I came here, is because someone ELSE that is involved with them, someone who is also involved in really dangerous, crazy stuff, brought me here for some reason but wouldn't tell me why, and I can't get in contact with the guys. I can't go anywhere else until she comes back, I have no idea if they're okay, I'm scared I'll never see my dad again, and all of this is just totally out of my control just – like – freaking – always!"
That was when a small choked sob finally bubbled to the surface, and April squeezed her eyes shut.
"Not all that long ago, our entire city was overrun, and we had to spend four months in an abandoned house, and I just – I felt like I needed to take care of them, because they were injured and scared, but I didn't know what to do and I -" She felt her trembling hands reach for her face with a vague sense of detachment. "This feels like that," she choked out. "Like I'm stuck somewhere again, and I'm supposed to be doing this thing, but I don't know how and I'm afraid if I fail, people will get hurt again."
She dropped her hands heavily to her lap.
"And not to mention the fact that I'm not actually graduated from highschool, and god only knows if THAT will ever happen, because I may never get back home and even if I do, my school may be nothing more than a freaking crater in the ground!"
April drew in one last, deep, rattling breath. "Because that is the kind of thing that happens to me," she murmured, suddenly deflated. "Someone's trying to hurt me and my friends, someone is in trouble, our enemies are at the door, people are getting hurt or killed..."
Her mind clouded with thoughts of Leonardo, beaten and nearly dead, flying through the window of her apartment.
Of Karai, mutated and incoherent with rage.
Of Master Splinter's grief, his hours of agonized meditation afterwards.
Of her time as a Kraang prisoner, threatened by Kraang Prime.
The turtles. Time and time and time again, with cracked shells and bruised skin. That time Slash had nearly killed Donnie and Mikey. Those horrible hours Raphael had spent under mind-control. Watching her father get mutated. And then – her mother, in the farmhouse... So close...
Tears poured down April's face, swift and silent, but a hand came up and caught them.
"Look to me," Saki said softly, and April managed to open her eyes to see him lean close. His body encircled hers, and his motions were soothing, but his voice became firm.
"Your enemies do not fear the weak," he told her, his dark gaze serious. "They fear you, April, because you are strong." His rough, warm hand brushed away her tears with shocking gentleness.
April murmured, "I'm sorry. You didn't ask for all that."
Turning her so that her back was against his chest, Saki pulled her close and his strong arms moved around her stomach, where they rested.
"It is exactly what I asked for," he whispered to her, before placing a gentle kiss on her shoulder.
"Guess what I learned!" April exclaimed excitedly a few days later, a mischievous grin on her features, to which Saki responded with a suspicious glare.
"What?"
"It'ssss..." she tossed up her hands, raining down strips of paper that served as confetti on a very unimpressed Saki. "Your birthday today!" She pointed at him, trying not to laugh, as he was now covered in her homemade confetti. "And don't try to say it's not."
"I am going to kill Yoshi," he deadpanned.
"See, this isn't so bad!" April laughed, leading him into the meadow, though she jerked to a stop when Saki also halted behind her, unwilling to go any further at the sight of Yoshi and Shen, waiting on a blanket with a load of food in baskets.
"Happy Birthday, little brother!" Yoshi declared very loudly from his spot, waving frantically as if Saki could not see him from fifteen feet away. "And you are welcome!"
It took ten minutes of begging and tugging, but at last, Saki sat down with the others on their picnic blanket, a reluctant grin working its way on to his features.
"Eighteen," Shen said with a laugh. "Growing up so fast!"
"Mm," grunted Saki as he settled next to April. "I do not normally celebrate my birthday. And neither does anyone in my family, for that matter." Even so, he smiled at April as she took his hand in hers and kissed his knuckles.
Dipping into the picnic basket, April proudly unveiled a plate of delicious cupcakes, which she set in the center of the four of them. "Well, you should!" she said, but no sooner were the words out of her mouth than Shen snatched up a cupcake and crammed most, if not all of it straight into her mouth.
"Shen!" April shrieked. "That had a candle in it!"
"Ohmgrusah-" Laughing uncontrollably around her cupcake, Shen pulled the candle out of her mouth, making Yoshi and April lapse into hysterics, with even Saki threatening to lose his breath to laughter.
"I'm sorry!" Shen said as soon as she could manage, still trying to get rid of all the icing on her face. "I have been thinking about these cupcakes all day!"
The four of them enjoyed Saki's birthday in a liesurely manner. Saki outright refused to eat a cupcake, though he blew out a candle at April's pleading request, and Yoshi was more than happy to eat his cupcake anyway. The spot April had chosen for their picturesque outdoor setting was a meadow to the east of the town, one that brushed up against the high rockwalls that dotted the mountainside. As April and Shen relaxed on the blanket, Yoshi and Saki observed a high natural wall with critical eyes.
"I bet I can climb that faster than you," said Yoshi off-handedly, to which Saki rolled his eyes.
"I could climb that twice in the time it would take your old body to get off the ground," he said, but he'd barely finished before Yoshi shoved him down and sprinted for the wall. Saki raced off after him, and when Yoshi jumped on the rock wall, Saki yanked him back down and jumped up in his place. Yoshi said something in Japanese that was definitely not for children before he followed, the two of them shouting jeers to each other as they climbed, far enough away that their arguments and boasts were a distant echo.
"I think brothers live to fight," Shen commented as she popped a grape in her mouth.
"That's probably true," said April, thinking back to Leo and Raph. They watched the boys for a moment, before she looked slyly at her friend. "So you've been hanging out with Yoshi more."
Shen's cheeks caught a flush, but she simply shrugged. "I see him sometimes. I am busy, and so is he." She paused, drawing out another grape, but she did not eat it and simply kept it in her fingers for want of something to do with her hands.
"Yoshi is great," she said with a sigh. "I know it. But that does not mean I think he can fit in with my life. He will not leave here. And I will not remain. We are only going to cause ourselves pain."
April followed Shen's gaze back to the two boys, who were now nearing the top of their wall, with Saki barely edging out Yoshi. "Yeah," she said softly. "I can relate to that."
She felt Shen turn at her side. "What makes you say that?"
With a shrug, April fought to keep her tone casual. "I'll have to leave Japan some day. I know it. Saki knows it. What we're even doing is beyond me." It was the sad truth, one she typically avoided thinking about, but her confession to Saki a few days ago had stuck in her mind.
What Shen said next surprised her.
"Saki is not like Yoshi, April." April looked to Shen curiously. "I am not saying he is better or worse," Shen continued, reclining against the blanket on her elbows. "But he would leave here for you, I know it. He is the type of man who is willing to make sacrifices, however great the cost. It is a trait, I think, of someone who is very self-interested, but that is not necessarily a bad thing."
They looked back to the boys, who had made it to the top of the wall and were laughing about something.
"Yoshi thinks of others before himself. That is an admirable thing, but it means acting against his own wishes, sometimes. He will not leave this village because he could not bear to do such a thing to his father, to his clan. But Saki is not like this. He loves his family too, I think... but Yoshi is the mountain and Saki is the ocean. Their worlds are simply not made of the same things."
The two girls glanced at one another, April now quiet as she absorbed Shen's words.
"Do you really think he would do something like that for me, though? I mean," April looked to the distant figure of Hamato Saki. "How could he feel that much for me? To leave his home and everything he's ever known?"
It was not a possibility, not where she had to go. But to know he would. That meant something.
Shen said, "I only have to watch him to know that he would let the world fall to ashes, if only to have a single moment to think of you."
They finished their day, and just before they left the darkening meadow, Saki pulled April aside and embraced her, whispering thanks into her hair. Out of sight from the others, he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her lips. It started out slowly, but when she felt his firm fingers at her hip, she found herself stepping closer. The spark of desire she felt then had her wishing they were truly alone.
Saki must have felt the same way, because he pulled away from her very slowly, his eyes never leaving hers. For the first time, she saw him look at her in a completely unguarded way, one that spoke of his youth. He wanted to keep her there, April realized. He really... wanted her.
The thrill from that simple knowledge kept April awake after she and Shen went to bed, and another night passed in near sleeplessness.
With the four of them together, their time full of laughter and stories, it was easy enough to forget what had happened before. But April could feel, sometimes when the others were occupied and she let her powers seep out into the area, the tension held by Yoshi.
"Are you okay?" she asked one day, when she caught him alone outside one of his father's shops. "You look kind of... lost."
Yoshi blinked, an uncharacterstic look of apprehension coloring his features. "Just thinking," he said, trying to smile but failing to make it even marginally authentic. At April's disbelieving stare, he sighed softly. "I am just thinking about the Foot clan. We have not heard from them. No response since Oroku Nagi's death."
"Isn't that a good thing?" asked April, leaning against the railing.
Yoshi raised a brow at her, his eyes taking on the familiar hint of wisdom she knew from Master Splinter. "Tell me," he said with a tilt of his head. "Have you ever kept children before?"
April blinked. "You mean, like babysitting? Well, yeah, I kept my cousins some."
"So tell me," said Yoshi. "Would you prefer these children were right in front of you, making noise and causing trouble? Or are you more comforted when they are out of sight, silent?"
She thought back to her disastrous babysitting adventures. "Well," she said. "I'd prefer they were right in front of me, I guess."
"Why?"
"Because if I can't see or hear them, I don't know what they're getting up to," she said, understanding dawning even as Yoshi nodded gravely.
"Yes," he agreed quietly. "That is the problem."
"Release me!"
Keiji reached up to grip at the hand holding a blade to his throat, but the strength of the other was unrelenting. "Damn you, Hamato Yuuta, you honorless dog!"
The street quickly gathered with frightening spectacters, and Keiji knew his clansmen would be there soon to help him, and so he snapped up an arm and jammed it into the chest of his attacker. When they rounded to face one another, Keiji felt his own blood prickle at the wound on his neck.
"Attacking me in the streets, like a common theif," Keji snarled at the young man in front of him.
"You are the theif," sneered Yuuta. "And it is time you are gone from these lands. You and your entire filthy clan! The Hamato ninja will tolerate you and your band of disgraceful brethren any longer!"
"I will kill you for such insults!" shouted Keiji, as he lunged for Yuuta, but hands appeared to hold him back and he knew his clan had come. They formed a circle around him, but Yuuta's fellows had arrived as well, and now the two hostile groups stood, glaring, weapons drawn. The most heated and hateful of glares fell between the two young heirs, Keiji and Yuuta.
But one of the elders of Keiji's clan called out, "There are too many onlookers here! This village is no place for a battle."
With grunts and growls, the two groups dispersed, but not before Hamato Yuuta sent Keiji a mocking glare. "We will finish this soon, Oroku Keiji..."
"So we shall," agreed Keiji.
