Michelangelo watched with an unusual twinge in his stomach as Rebecca's curls disappeared under one of her printed bandanas. He quickly averted his eyes as she turned around to retrieve her pack from the ground, and hefted the bag onto her shoulders. Only after a couple of seconds had passed did he look at her again, as if his gaze hadn't been locked on her the entire time.
"Waiting was the wise thing to do," she remarked. "I needed that rest; I really am feeling better today."
"Glad to hear it," he told her, as he scooped up the duffel bag housing their tent. "What's our first step here?"
"The easiest way to locate a source of fresh water deeper in the forest would be to follow the animals," she replied.
The orange-masked turtle looked around in an exaggerated motion. "Hear that guys? Are there any animals around here to give us directions?"
She laughed softly. "I was thinking more along the lines of following a gaming trail; but if you've got some amazing talent as the wild animal whisperer, by all means, be my guest."
"I think your plan is better." Mike grinned.
Rebecca shared a couple things with him to be on the look-out for, and they split up to search for the trail a few yards apart, looking for obvious signs of animal movement. When Michelangelo heard her excited cry a few minutes into their search, he figured she'd already hit on something, and trotted quickly her direction.
He didn't see the young woman right away in the brush, and stood absolutely still as he waited to catch some sight of her again. "Rebecca?"
The young woman popped up from a crouched position near the forest floor, a few feet to his right. When she straightened up to stand next to him, a secret thrill ran through the turtle. All the brothers were pretty much used to their human companions towering over them, but Rebecca was only slightly taller than him. It was a nice feeling to be standing almost level with another person.
He blinked rapidly to prevent himself from staring at her goofily, rejecting the automatic compulsion to do so. If she caught any indication of the thoughts currently racing through his mind, she certainly gave no indication of it. "What were you doing? If you wanted to play hide and seek, you should have clued me in." Mike forced a laugh.
"I found bamboo shoots!" Rebecca said happily, as if she'd just discovered that chocolate bars really did grow on trees.
"And this is...good?" Michelangelo smiled, feeling more relaxed at the sight of her enthusiasm.
"It's great," she replied. "They're a fantastic source of protein, and they can supplement us really well while we're out here. They're also not half bad if you boil them, and then let them soak overnight. Since someone was clever enough to salvage us a pan, we can actually do that."
He waved off the compliment. "Food is always on the brain as far as I'm concerned; grabbing that thing was second nature."
"Marc told me that you're an exceptionally good cook."
"I don't know about the exceptional part, I just enjoy it," he replied casually, and then glanced around. "I don't suppose we know where we're going yet, do we?"
She nodded swiftly. "Following tracks is actually how I found the shoots to begin with. I'm sorry for the hold-up."
He shrugged at the apology. "You're good. So you really know what you're doing out here, huh?"
"I ought to; I've had plenty of experience with needing to rely on the land to supply a lot of things. I've just never been the um...the one who..."
"The one in charge of the hopeless city guy?" he offered with a toothy grin.
"I wouldn't have put it that way Mike."
"No, it's the truth. I could survive on my own, but I'm more than happy to be leaning on your particular genius right now. On the other hand, you don't need to feel all this pressure to perform or anything. Think of this like...well, like a partnership, okay? You're guiding our steps, and I'm protecting them. As long as you're with me, nothing and nobody is going to hurt you, understand?"
She nodded with a solemn expression that seemed to weigh her down considerably.
"You don't know me or my brothers yet, but we're a pretty determined bunch. Once we start something, we finish it," Michelangelo went on.
The young woman exhaled softly and some of the lines left her face. "We'll get through this," she said with a renewed note of confidence. "I...I'm glad you're here with me. The wilderness can be a pretty unforgiving place, and I feel safer to be doing this with you."
Michelangelo felt some heat rising in his cheeks, and fought to control it. "Yeah, well, this is a mutual thing we've got going on right here," he stumbled a little awkwardly, and then smiled again. "So lead the way Annie Oakley, we've got some new territory to blaze through."
Rebecca was a bit unnerved by how little noise the orange-masked turtle made at first, and caught herself continually glancing around to make sure that he was still with her. There was obvious amusement in his blue eyes when she turned to look for him again.
"No magic tricks, I promise. I won't be disappearing on you, at least not without any warning first," Michelangelo told her.
"I've met a lot of people who could move quietly, but you have to take the award. I honestly don't think you need me for very much. You'd probably blend in better if you were on your own."
"But it wouldn't be half as much fun," He returned impishly, and earned another smile.
Mike shifted closer to her side, in a move she assumed was his way of making it easier to keep track of him, and to keep conversing while they hiked.
"Was that ninjutsu that you were doing this morning?" she asked.
"Part of it - those were katas. The building blocks of every good ninja, at least, so I've been told." Mike chuckled to himself. "I feel a little disadvantaged here. Marc's told you all this stuff about us already; I don't even know what I ought to tell you. And then I really don't know a thing about you, except that you're probably the greatest Girl Scout to ever grace the earth."
She shook her head. "I never had the opportunity to be a Girl Scout Mike."
"No, you just live your lifeas one," he clarified. "C'mon. Tell me something about yourself that I don't know."
"What do you want to know?"
"How about starting with that one dude, back at the settlement? Y'know, the one who let us go?"
"Nanji," she said softly. "I'm sure he's dead now."
Michelangelo actually stopped walking. "Hold up a second. Isn't he the guy who betrayed you to start with?"
Rebecca faced him with sudden surprise. "How did you know that? There's no way Marc had a chance to tell you."
"No, it was Kirkland, he-"
Rebecca's breath caught in her chest.
"What did I say?"
"You talked to Kirkland?"
"We've done more than talk; he sort of strong-armed his way into the group. He was determined to find you and Marc, helped us a lot actually."
The turtle cocked his head as Rebecca slowly sank to a rock.
"Mike...they told Nanji to kill him, and from what we saw...It honestly looked like he had."
Michelangelo shook his head. "Nope, he's alive. He's the one who told us exactly what happened, the one who called April. He said he woke up with a couple of casings on the ground..."
"Nanji faked it. He faked it!" Her joyful outburst seemed to startle the turtle a great deal, as tears filled her eyes. "That makes me so happy, but...sad too. They wouldn't have let him live, and he wouldn't have tried begging for his life in any case. I'm sorry, would you mind giving me a minute?"
The concerned look that flashed through his eyes surprised her in its' genuineness, and the turtle sat down directly on the ground, without any appearance of being in a hurry. A shuddering sigh escaped her, after a couple minutes of silence had passed Rebecca stood up, reaching for her bag wordlessly. No matter how patient Michelangelo might be, she didn't want to waste the daylight sitting here.
As Mike fell in step beside her again, she finally opened her mouth once more.
"Nanji and I have a long history. He's only about four years older than me, and we practically grew up together. There was a period of several years where I called him brother."
"Brother?" Michelangelo echoed. "Y'mean like a good friend? Or did you love the guy?"
"Like family. He and my older sister Hannah, they were in love. They were going to get married," Rebecca stated dismissively.
Michelangelo didn't seem satisfied with that "ending" of the story. "What happened?"
"It didn't work out. He was hurt very badly, and he became bitter and angry. It ate away at him, until there was hardly anything left for me to recognize him by. But I believed that he was still in there, somewhere underneath. He proved that by helping us escape...and finding out that he didn't kill Kirkland only confirms it further."
She gave Michelangelo a sidelong glance. "Being betrayed by him felt like getting stabbed in the heart, but I already knew something was off. I just didn't realize how off it was until it was too late."
"I'm sorry about your friend," the orange-masked turtle said quietly. "I know how easy it is to get close to people who aren't even related to you. When Marc disappeared, there wasn't really any question in my mind whether we'd be going after him or not; only how we were gonna get the other humans to go along with it. They can get pretty protective when it comes to the four of us."
"From what Marc described, your family dynamic sounds pretty amazing." Rebecca smiled shyly. "And I think the fact that all of you risked so much to come here, it says a lot about your loyalty to each other. You're turning out to be everything that Marcus made you out to be, and it makes me want to learn more."
A slight awkwardness returned to the turtles' frame, as he paused in his stride again. "I think it's easier if we just say that we're starting from scratch right here. If I happen to repeat junk that you've already heard, you'll have to promise you won't get mad, okay?"
