Happy Holidays, everyone. This was a birthday/Christmas present for my wonderful friend Sameth. I hope that this season finds you warm and safe and surrounded by loved ones, just as April is.
Family Traditions
The brass ornament in her hands glittered in the rainbow lights of the tree. She traced a finger over it, reacquainting herself with the familiar lines of the reclining unicorn with the wreath of holly around her neck, and the neat, cursive "April" engraved on the unicorn's flank. With a soft, wistful smile, she reached up to place it in the branches of the tree, currently fragrant with the very nice artificial pine scent they had bought as a compromise so that April could have a tree that smelled like a proper tree, and Kirby didn't have to put up with hayfever all Christmas.
Her smile slipped a little at that, but she'd promised herself she wouldn't think about the large, dad-shaped hole in her life right now. This was not a time for being sad. Setting the little unicorn in its place, she stepped back with her hands on her hips and stared at it with satisfaction as it danced and caught the light.
"Does that one have a story?" a soft voice at her shoulder asked. She turned with a smirk. "Leo, I told you, they all have stories." She gestured toward the unicorn. "Mom wanted something special for my first Christmas. Something that would last a really long time."
"And she liked unicorns?" Leo rested his elbow against her shoulder, looking at the ornament.
"Not particularly," April said, grinning at the story she'd heard time and time again. "But she kept putting it off, and putting it off, and finally, the last place open that'd do it on Christmas Eve had two ornaments left: this one and a dinosaur."
"A dinosaur would've been less lame," said Raph from where he sat in the pit pretending he wasn't listening.
"Maybe," April said. "But there was a little boy there who really wanted the dinosaur, and Mom couldn't say no once she looked into his eyes. Besides—" Mikey had started making popcorn chains before he'd been distracted by dinner preparation and wandered off; April picked up a handful of popcorn from the abandoned bowl next to the tree and tossed it at Raph. "—in some stories, unicorns are giant creatures with blood-red faces who breathe poison and impale their enemies with their horns."
That made him glance up from his comic. "Seriously?"
"Yup," she said.
"Huh." Raph picked up a kernel of popcorn and chewed on it thoughtfully. "I may have to reassess the coolness of unicorns."
Grinning, April took another ornament from a snickering Leo. She had been uncertain when Splinter had invited her to bring her holiday stuff to the lair, for though her aunt had her own decorations, meaning that April had had nowhere to put hers up, she hadn't known how she'd feel this year indulging in traditions that had always been between her and her dad. But she had to admit, aside from a pang or two here and there, she was actually having fun. Far more than she had thought she could, given the circumstances—
Catching herself, she gave herself a little mental shake. Not thinking about that.
"April!" Donnie appeared in the doorway of his lab, beaming fit to burst. "I found it!"
April gasped. "You didn't!" She clapped her hands gleefully. "I thought it was gone forever!"
Donnie sauntered over to the TV and plugged a flash drive into the USB interface he'd installed. "Oh ye of little faith. I keep telling you, if a file exists on the internet, I can find it." Grabbing the remote, he punched a button and the TV came to life, filling the lair with happy, tinkling music as a host of stop-motion animated elves danced across the screen.
Laughing, April threw her arms around Donnie and hugged him tightly. "Thank you, Donnie! It wouldn't be a proper Christmas without Adventures in the Land of Ice and Snow!"
"You're losing cool points again," Raph muttered.
April turned her head to stick her tongue out at him before returning her attention to Donnie, rising up on her toes so that she could kiss his cheek in thanks. That got a giggle out of him, but he returned her enthusiastic hug instead of falling over this time, for which she was very glad. She knew it was a silly little kids' Christmas special. But for April, it was as much a Christmas tradition as the tree and the turkey, and she'd been heartbroken to open the box this year only to find the DVD snapped in half. But before she had been able to let herself get worked up over it, Donnie had come to her rescue, as he always did.
Raph rolled his eyes and abandoned his comic, wandering off in the direction of the kitchen as the magic of the elves ramped up to extreme levels of cheese. Donnie and Leo exchanged a glance, but smiled good-naturedly as April danced her way around the tree, humming along with the songs she had memorized as a little girl. The rest of the ornaments were quickly distributed, the more delicate ones passed off to Donnie so that he could hang them up high, and as the intrepid elves battled their way through the Path of Forgetful Frost, Leo helped her finish off Mikey's popcorn chain so that they could hang that, too. And if half the popcorn was consumed in the process, it was between them and Santa Claus.
Finally, April stood back and surveyed the finished tree with a nod of satisfaction. "Only one thing left," she said. Returning to the boxes of Christmas supplies the guys had helped her drag from storage, she picked up an old, battered shoebox. Lifting the lid, she carefully parted the tissue inside to reveal the antique angel. It had belonged to her grandfather, and rather than being one of those frou-frou collections of fur and glitter that proliferated the shelves today, it looked like it had flown straight out of a renaissance painting – a little ironic, given her present company, she thought with a smile. The angel lifted a long trumpet to his lips, his blue robes sculpted to look like they were blowing in an unseen breeze.
"When I was little," she said, "Dad used to lift me up so I could put it on the top. I know it's silly, but it always made me feel really special." She looked over at the two turtles with a sheepish grin. "I guess… I felt like I was flying with the angel, you know?" Cradling the angel carefully between her hands, she rose to her feet and offered it to Donnie.
Leo and Donnie exchanged another one of those looks, and before she quite knew what was happening, strong green hands seized her around the waist. Her stomach fluttered a little as her feet left the ground, and she found herself staring down into the smiling faces of her adopted brothers as Donnie held her high enough to reach the top.
Feeling her cheeks growing red, she reached out and secured the angel to the top of the tree using the extremely high-tech solution of her dad's devising – an elastic band around the angel's sculpted wings, which had come off and been re-glued countless times over the course of her childhood. Once the angel was secure, Donnie lowered her back to the ground, and as she looked up at the finished tree, she was smiling so hard it almost hurt.
"Beautiful," she said, staring up at the tree.
"…yeah," Donnie sighed, staring at April. Leo elbowed him in the side and he let out a little 'whuff,' clearing his throat and refocusing his attention on the tree.
Shaking her head fondly, April reached out and drew both of the turtles close, her arms around as much of their shells as she could reach. As the solid weight of their arms settled across her shoulders, she leaned her head against Leo's arm. "Thanks, guys," she said, and her voice only betrayed the tightness in her throat a little. "I mean it. I…I missed this."
"It's our pleasure, April," Donnie said in all sincerity.
"Besides which, Mikey's loved this stuff since we first discovered Christmas specials on cable," Leo added dryly. "It's nice to actually do it properly for a change."
"Oh, that reminds me!" Ducking out from under their arms and ignoring the little "awww!" from Donnie, she ran to the pile of bags she'd dragged with her and hauled the largest of them over. "It's not a proper tree without presents!"
The faded tree skirt covered in glittering silver sequined snowflakes had caught her eye when she was eleven, and she'd fallen instantly in love with it, so much so that her dad had kept it long after its natural lifespan. Smoothing it out and resettling a few loose sequins, April drew several large, brightly-wrapped boxes out of her bag and distributed them under the tree. "There!" she exclaimed. "That's—"
"Raphael!" Mikey's infuriated voice burst from the kitchen. "If you keep picking at that turkey before it's cooked properly, you're gonna get worms, I swear! You had better—"
There was a moment of silence, followed by a scream of horror that had Leo, April, and Donnie sprinting for the kitchen. They burst through the curtain, Leo just slightly in the lead, and he skidded to a halt, a tanto in his hand despite the fact that they were supposed to keep weapons in the dojo when they weren't using them and it hadn't been apparent anywhere on him just seconds earlier. "What?" Leo looked around frantically. "What's wrong? Mutants? Aliens?"
A look of rage on his face that April rarely ever saw, Mikey pointed an accusing finger at Raph. "He ate the chestnuts!"
Raph, his eyes wide, swallowed and held up his hands. "What? I like chestnuts!"
Mikey grabbed a wooden spoon from the counter and launched himself at Raph with a bloodcurdling screech. Grabbing a soup ladle, Raph put up a valiant defense, but an enraged Mikey tended to take everyone by surprise. Within moments, Raph had been disarmed and pinned against the counter as April and the others watched in astonishment.
"I needed those chestnuts for the stuffing!" Mikey growled. "Without chestnuts, there's no stuffing, and then April's Christmas will be ruined!" He jabbed a finger in April's direction. "Look at that face! Do you want to tell her that you ruined her Christmas?"
"Honestly, I'm fine without the—" April began.
"Fine!" Raph huffed. "I'll get the stupid chesntuts."
"Great!" Instantly cheerful again, Mikey kissed Raph's head before letting him go, good-naturedly taking Raph's subsequent punch in the arm. "Be back in an hour."
April coughed in an attempt to stifle her grin. "I'd better come. It'll make the transaction part a lot easier."
"I'll come too," Donnie said immediately.
"Fine," Raph said. "You get her coat, I'll get the weapons."
"I can get my own coat," April said, scowling a little.
Raph laid a hand on her shoulder. "You need to reassure him."
Back over at the counter, Mikey was poking forlornly at the dishes he was preparing. April rolled her eyes and gave Raph a quiet "fine" before she butted her head against his. He grinned at her and slipped out of the kitchen after Donnie, leaving April and Leo to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Mikey.
She crossed over to him, putting her arm around his shoulders. "Mikey," she said gently. "I'm going to be happy no matter what you make."
He looked up at her, his blue eyes wide. "But this dinner is supposed to be special."
April's smile widened, and she hugged him tightly. "Anything you make is gonna be special." She grinned at him, and tapped his nose. "But leave it to me. I'll make sure we get you what you need."
Mikey answered her smile with one of his own, and gave her a rib-cracking hug before letting her escape to the others. "All right, Leo," she heard as she let the curtain fall behind her. "If this dinner is gonna be ready in time, you're gonna have to let me be the leader now…"
Rejoining the others, April accepted her coat and scarf from Donnie as Raph descended the dojo steps, tossing Donnie's bō to him as April struggled into her things. Zipping up her coat, she fell into step with the boys as they headed topside. As she looked from one to the other, she couldn't help but smile – the last time she'd been between the two of them like this, it had been on her first visit to the lair over a year ago. It was hard to believe that it had been that long, and yet she was also having trouble remembering a time when the guys hadn't been in her life.
The conversation as they ambled through the tunnels was light, drifting from the best vegetable side dish to serve with a turkey dinner, to the elves' battle with the Fearsome Frost Giant, to the very serious matter of who would win in a fight: Santa Claus or Frosty the Snowman. Finally, they reached the right exit, and April found herself flanked by overprotective turtles, one in front of her and one behind as they ascended the ladder to street level. She rolled her eyes a little at that – they were just buying chestnuts – but it was kind of sweet, in an annoying sort of way.
Raph went up first, scanning the area before giving the all-clear and letting April up. She smirked as she pushed herself up, accepting his hand and letting his incredible strength take most of her weight as he hauled her out. "Good thing you checked," she said. "Wouldn't wanna get taken down by a chestnut vendor."
"Hey, those nut guys can be sneaky," Raph fired back with a grin. "They've gotta have some way to protect all that deliciousness."
"Is that the guy?" Donnie asked, looking across the road at the man standing by a cart, steam rising over his head from the roasting chestnuts.
"Yeah," April said, patting his shoulder. "I'll be right back."
Securing her scarf more firmly around her neck, April sprinted across the road to the chestnut cart, relishing the warmth of the sweetly-scented steam as she exchanged holiday greetings with the chestnut seller. After a moment of frenzied negotiation, she forked over all of the cash she had on her in exchange for as many chestnuts as she could carry.
The heat of the chestnuts burned through her mittens, but she took solace in the fact that she didn't have far to go before strong, scaled hands with thicker calluses than she had could relieve her of her burden. She was almost to the mouth of the alley, intently focused on her goal, when a dark shape loomed in front of her and she was overwhelmed by the scent of sweat, booze, and tobacco. Wrinkling her nose in disgust, she found herself looking up into the sneering face of an unfamiliar man sporting a host of purple dragon tattoos.
"Looks like you got a lot of cash to throw around, girlie," he said as he leered at her.
"Back off, creep," April snapped, debating whether to drop the chestnuts and go for her tessen. It would be a shame – she didn't want the nuts to go to waste for a sleazebag like this. "I spent all my money on chestnuts."
His expression grew more predatory as he invaded her personal space even further. "There's other ways I can take a paym—oof!"
A green fist in his face cut off anything else he was going to say, and he staggered back, blinking in terrified astonishment at the shadow that loomed behind April.
"That is no way to talk to a lady!" Donnie's voice was sharp with rage.
A second fist caught the gang member on the other cheek, spinning him around with the force of the blow, and he went down in a boneless heap. Emerging from the shadows opposite, Raph glared down at the unconscious dragon. "Yeah! Nobody gets to be a jerk to April but me!"
"Aww, Raph, that was almost sweet," April said.
Donnie laid a hand on her shoulder as he looked down at her in concern. "Are you okay?"
"Of course. He didn't even touch me. I'm glad I didn't have to drop these, though." She passed half the chestnuts off to Donnie. "Here. Careful, they're—"
The rest of her words dissolved into a cry of alarm as something wound around her from behind and yanked her off her feet. She could hear Donnie screaming her name from below her, but all her attention was focused on the gaping maw looming in front of her. The… the thing clung to the side of the building about halfway up, and the strange, whiplike appendage that had pinned her arms to her sides was coming from its mouth. A mouth that was wide open beneath the eerily glowing head, sharp incisors dripping with saliva as a second head shot out from within the mouth to snap at the chestnuts she still held.
Wait…. Is this thing a squirrel?
She shrieked again, ducking her head as the inner jaws snapped at her, just before a green streak plunged from above. She had just enough time to see the gleam of light off a sai before it sliced through the appendage holding her. It went abruptly slack, and April slipped from its grasp, plunging to the ground below. Green hands caught her before she struck the pavement, and she was on her feet in another instant, chestnuts raining around her as Donnie shoved her behind him.
April flicked open her tessen as Raph landed next to them. "Anyone want to tell me what that thing is?"
"Squirrelanoid," Raph said. "Long story."
"Heads up, there's more than one!" Donnie called, and April spun to catch sight of the tail of another disappearing around the mouth of the alley in which they stood. Suddenly, her eyes widened as she realized exactly what they were doing.
"They're taking the chestnuts! We've gotta stop them!" She made it three steps toward the retreating squirrelanoid before impossibly strong hands locked around both of her wrists. Glaring, she tugged sharply against their restraining hands as both brothers held her back.
"Are you crazy?" they chorused in unison.
"I spent the last of my money on those chestnuts!" she snapped back. "If we don't get them back, Mikey will have nothing to use for the stuffing, and he'll think he's ruined my Christmas, and then my Christmas really will be ruined!" She shook them off and planted her hands on her hips. "Do either of you want that?"
They looked at each other helplessly, and Raph heaved a long-suffering sigh.
"No," he said. "But April, trust me, you do not want to mess with these things. They—"
She would never hear what Raph had to say about them though, for as he spoke, the darkness behind him roiled with a sickly green glow, and a half-dozen more of the creatures burst from the shadows, throwing both of the brothers into a wall as they surged toward April. Her scream was swallowed by a tide of glowing, screeching mutants as clawed hands enveloped her, and everything went dark.
She awoke slowly, her head pounding, and she immediately had to fight to keep from heaving at the stench that assailed her. Cracking her eyes slowly open, keeping very, very still, she found herself lying on a pile of leaf litter and branches, the walls arcing away into a sphere over her head. Far overhead, there was an opening in the sphere, which let in a thin, sickly green glow. Struggling to keep her breathing calm, she pushed herself gingerly to her knees.
As she moved, her hand came down on something that shifted beneath her, and she caught her breath as a soft pattering echoed through the nest. Looking down, she discovered that all of the stolen chestnuts had been piled at her feet, and something about the sight of all the nuts filled her with a flash of seething rage. Yanking her scarf from around her neck, she used it to belt her coat firmly at her waist, gathered up the chestnuts, and stuffed them into her coat, zipping it up tightly. Once she had accomplished that, she set about trying to find a way out of her prison.
Her foot hit something hard, and she glanced down, recoiling in horror at the skull grinning back up at her. "Okay," she whispered. "Not cool. I am not food to be stored up for winter."
Settling the chestnuts more securely, she crept over to a wall and dug her fingers in between the mud-coated sticks and bones that made up the wall. Drawing a deep breath, she began to pull herself up the side, silently thanking Splinter for the hours of tree climbing he'd assigned her as strength training. Carefully, step by step, she moved up the side of the nest, trying very hard not to think about what the squirrelanoids had used to make it.
She'd made it about halfway up by the time they noticed her. A screech alerted her to her discovery, and she looked up to find one of the creatures clawing its way down the wall toward her. The creature screamed again as it lunged, and that hideous prehensile tongue-thing snaked its way toward her.
"Oh, no." Her eyes narrowing, she freed one hand to flick open her tessen. "Not this time." With a deft hitch of her wrist, she sent the tessen sailing toward the thing. The iron fan whirled through the air, slicing through both the tongue-thing and the second head jutting from the monster's mouth before it thunked solidly back into April's hand. With a bellow of rage, the squirrelanoid retreated, a spray of steaming green liquid dripping from the severed stump. She reared back out of the way of the spray, but as the green fluid fell, her handhold came loose, and she found herself tumbling with it. She braced herself for the impact, but as she struck the nest, the fluid that had gotten there first had eaten a hole clear through the bottom, and she found herself falling straight through it.
Screaming, she scrabbled at the edges of the hole, but the sticks and bones that made up the floor crumbled beneath her questing fingers and she fell into darkness. Time narrowed to a razor's edge as she dropped, helpless, into utter blackness, but there was nothing she could do. She couldn't see. She couldn't stop herself. This was it.
Without warning, something slammed into her from the side, driving the air from her lungs as she went from tumbling straight down to flying sideways. The motion stopped just as abruptly, her fingers dragged at the iron bar locked around her waist as she struggled to breathe.
It took her a moment to recover her wits enough to realize that the thing that held her pinned fast was a scale-covered arm.
"I got her!" Raph's voice called over her shoulder, answered by a resonant whoop from Donnie across the vast expanse of darkness. A small sound, half-sob, broke from her, and she turned to throw her arms around Raph's neck.
"Hey, easy there," he said softly, as his other arm came around her, stroking lightly down her back. "We gotcha." Keeping one arm tightly around her waist, he reached up for the rope hanging above his head. "Now let's get outta here, huh?"
"Uh, Raph?" April's eyes widened. "Why can I see you now?"
Raph blinked at her in the dim green light and glanced up. "Aw, sewer nuggets." Grabbing April off her feet, Raph kicked off the wall and swung down to where Donnie waited as the squirrelanoid horde swarmed down the wall toward her. "Go!" she cried. "Go go go go go!"
Letting out a squawk of alarm, Donnie started running the second April and Raph hit the ground, his naginata braced in front of him. But getting out wasn't going to be that easy. They appeared to be in some kind of abandoned warehouse, if the brackish water they were running through was any indication, and the nest she had fallen from wasn't the only one the squirrelanoids had constructed in the beams that supported the roof high overhead. In front of them, the doorway was illuminated by the glow from the heads of the dozen monsters lurking in wait.
Donnie skidded to a halt, his arm outstretched to stop April as she staggered to a halt behind him. As she felt Raph brace himself behind her, she looked at the ring of monsters slowly wading through the icy water toward them. "This isn't good, is it?"
"This?" She heard the metallic ring as Raph drew his sai. "This is just working up an appetite for dinner."
But there was a quaver in his voice that wasn't normally there, and it didn't exactly fill her with confidence and reassurance. April bit her lip, glancing up at the nests again, trying to figure out something, anything, that would get them out of this. Which was when her gaze fell upon a red-and-white sign far overhead, and she jabbed Donnie in the ribs, wincing as his shell bruised her elbow. She pointed upward when he glanced at her, and as he followed her pointing finger, his brows drew down with resolution.
That was one of the things she loved best about Donnie. So often, she didn't have to explain what she was thinking. He just knew.
"Raph!" Donnie was already moving, calling over his shoulder as he began scaling the beams. "Get April to the top of those crates! Now!"
Often, Raph would protest vociferously if Donnie tried to tell him what to do. But there was no questioning the resolution in his voice. April found herself yanked off her feet again as Raph bolted for the mountain of wooden shipping crates sitting nearby. The squirrelanoids reacted to their sudden movement, abandoning their slow creep to sprint toward them, but Donnie was faster. Even as Raph leaped for the crates, Donnie was drawing a tanto from his wrist wraps and flinging it with laser precision toward the thick cables beneath the warning signs up above. He fell along with the cable, and struck the crate next to April and Raph only seconds before the arcing cable hit the water. As Donnie teetered on the edge, his arms windmilling as he fought to keep his balance, Raph's hand shot out to grab the edge of his shell and yank him close. And then the two of them closed ranks around her, grabbing onto each other with April at the centre of the protective wall of shell as the world exploded around them.
When they staggered back into the lair, giddy and giggling, Mikey and Leo, could do nothing more than stare as they pushed their way through the turnstiles.
"April, girl," Mikey said at last, wiping his hands on the 'Kiss the Cook' apron he wore. "Love the new look, but I'm not really sure it says 'Christmas'."
Reaching a hand up, April brushed it against her hair, her fingers still dancing with tiny static shocks as they ran through the massive ball of frizz. With a grin, she shrugged. "Maybe you're right, Mikey. Why don't I go do something about it while you do something with these?" With that, she unzipped her coat, sending the chestnuts within tumbling to the floor.
As Mikey fell upon them with a crow of delight, Leo raised a brow at the three of them. "Anything I should know?" he asked, his voice ringing with suspicion.
"Nope," Raph said.
"Just dealing with a little pest control problem on the way home from shopping," Donnie added.
Snickering at both of them, April stepped forward and took hold of Leo's hand. "Come on. You can help me fix this mess." And she led a mollified Leo away, trailing the scent of ever-so-slightly-singed hair in her wake.
Dinner was everything she had hoped it would be, and even more. Leo had managed to get her looking presentable again, and if Splinter had wondered at the state of his students, he merely raised a brow and complimented April on her hair. They sat down to a veritable feast, chestnut stuffing and all, and it was glorious enough that April had followed the instructions on Mikey's apron and given him a heartfelt kiss on the cheek, earning them much hooting and hollering from the others.
She sat on her bed, curled up beneath the blankets in her favourite fleecy pyjamas, the ones with the scarf-wearing polar bears on the pants and sparkly snowflakes on the top. Her room was dark, her face lit by the glow of her Tphone as she scanned through the pictures she'd taken that night. One of herself and Mikey icing the Christmas cookies. Splinter, sitting distinguished at the head of the table with the paper crown from his Christmas cracker set over one ear at a jaunty angle. Raph and Leo fighting over the turkey drumstick. Mikey proudly beaming as he bore the Christmas pudding out from the kitchen. Mikey proudly setting the pudding on fire. Mikey watching in astonishment as the flames shooting up from the pudding reached the ceiling of the lair. Leo leaping in to douse the fire with the hard sauce. Raph wielding his coveted drumstick as a weapon as he chased a screaming Mikey around the room. Leo yelling at both of them to stop ruining Christmas. Herself, falling over herself laughing. Donnie, trying to figure out how to cryogenically freeze the leftovers.
Paging through another screen, she slowed, a little smile stealing across her face at the series of events captured in the next few photos. Dessert (slightly singed pudding and cookies) had ended around midnight, at which point Donnie had tapped her on the shoulder.
"Merry Christmas, April," he said, his smile warm enough to banish even the chill of the lair.
Mikey scooted in on her other side, taking her arm in his. "Check it out," he said, grinning ear-to-ear. "Santa's been here!"
April whipped her head around, and sure enough, there was another large box beneath the tree in addition to the ones she had placed there. She hadn't taken her eyes off the guys for more than a second - she knew she hadn't - but there it was.
Ninjas. Oy.
"Come, April." Splinter shooed his sons away from her and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Let us open the gifts before we return you home for the night."
At Splinter's gentle urging, she took a seat on the cushion that Donnie placed beneath the tree, and insisted that the others open theirs first. Her budget had been practically nonexistent this year, but she was incredibly proud of what she had done with so little.
She had more photos of those. Splinter admiring the calligraphy set she had found in a small shop in Chinatown to replace the old, cracked one he had scavenged years ago. Mikey crowing over an instructional book she had found on how to write and draw comics, and the pen set she had bought to go with it. Mikey using the pens to draw on Leo after he fainted following the reveal of her present - an autographed Space Heroes cast photo, and a one-hour internet chat session with Captain Ryan. Raph flipping through the Kicks and Punches magazine she had bought for him, finding the note hidden in its pages, and nonchalantly wandering off to locate the real present she'd bought him - a sketchbook and a set of artist's pencils, which she'd hidden behind the Atomic Robo-X game. And Donnie…. well, that one she'd been particularly proud of.
Donnie had gotten the extra-credit science project that had singlehandedly saved her from failing last year. In every spare moment she had when she wasn't at school or training with the guys, she'd been at the university learning how to sequence DNA. Her final project had been titled "Family Portrait," and featured seven lines of DNA electrophoresis, enlarged and printed in colours across across a clear acrylic background. The first of the lines was yellow, followed by dark orange, which aligned with the bands on the yellow line roughly half the time.
The next five were more interesting, to her at least. Blue, red, purple, and light orange, followed by brown. Those next four, while sharing no common bands with yellow or dark orange, shared several with each other, and with the brown line.
Donnie had said nothing as he looked at it. Just run his fingers over the title, printed neatly at the bottom, and looked at her with shining eyes. Then he had set the artwork carefully aside, crossed the room, and hugged her so hard that her feet left the ground.
Once again, with Donnie, she didn't have to explain. He just knew.
But it was the last series of photos, taken by Mikey as he commandeered her Tphone, that brought the tears to her eyes. Leo had passed her the big box, which was lovingly wrapped with scraps of nice paper and festooned with brightly coloured ribbons.
"It's from all of us," Leo explained. "We all pitched in."
Curiosity driving her, she started undoing the dozens of ribbons that bound the package. She got stuck at one point, but the advantage of being in a family of ninjas was that when you started cursing at a stubborn knot, four knives materialized out of nowhere to help you cut through it. Finally, she had worked her way through the wrapping to the gift inside, and stared at what lay within the box.
One of the first notions that Splinter had done away with when he had begun her training was that, Foot ninja aside, ninja didn't usually wear a shinobi shōzoku - but that hadn't stopped her from longing for one anyway.
What lay inside was her own shinobi shōzoku, reinforced with dark armour plates in many of the same places Karai had hers. But where Karai's was all sharp steel lines and functionality, April's had hints of yellow here and there, and almost imperceptible embroidery in the shape of the Hamato sigil. And as she drew out the sash that would fit around her waist, the buckle that fastened it bore not the Hamato sign, but the outline of a hand done in red.
He had slipped up and called her 'Princess' one too many times, but as she bopped him on the head with the feather duster she was using to help clean the dojo, she had just laughed at the look in his stricken brown eyes. "You're not far off, you know. Dad loved to tell me about how the O'Neils are descended from the High Kings of Ulster. I used to think that the whole 'Foot' symbol thing was weird, until I remembered that the O'Neils tend to all have a red hand in their coat of arms somewhere." She bopped him again. "But that was a long time ago, Donnie, so knock it off, okay?"
He'd remembered. They all had. There were touches of all of them in the outfit. From the careful stitching of the flowers to the cunning spaces to hide weaponry in the armour plates, all of it spoke of stories she'd told in unguarded moments to all of the brothers and to her sensei. She didn't miss the symbolism of the flowers and the hand together, either. Two families, united. She was part of the Hamato clan while still retaining her ties to the father who had raised her...
They had made her try it on, and the successive photos were of Mikey attempting to play fashion photographer, positioning her into an increasingly bizarre series of poses until Leo had stepped in and made him stop. She hadn't minded, though; it had channeled the overwhelming tidal wave of emotion she was feeling into laughter instead of tears.
Sighing, she turned off the Tphone and set it on the table next to the bed, burrowing her way beneath the covers. It had been an incredible night. An incredible Christmas, though it was still only in the wee hours of Christmas morning. Really, there was only one thing that could have made it better...
She was interrupted in her thoughts by a soft, metallic sound from outside. Instantly awake again, April flung off the covers and raced to the window, yanking it open, but the fire escape was empty.
Almost.
Before she had gone to bed, she had quietly liberated a pound of hamburger and a bunch of bananas from her aunt's kitchen and left them outside, wrapped up in a little gold ribbon. Both were gone now, and she could almost have attributed their absence to the stray cats that roamed the city, were it not for the steaming pile left in its place. In addition to the fast-food wrappers, moths, and a small dead mouse that lay within the pile of goo, there was a gleaming knife clearly liberated from a hapless foot soldier still within its sheath, a long, thin strand of crystals between two leather cords that was designed to wrap several times around the wrist as a bracelet, and a large red bow from one of the festive arrangements that sat beneath the streetlamps on her street, half its flocking now dissolved away.
Nudging the garbage and the dead animals carefully over the side of the fire escape with a stick, she carefully picked the tanto and the bracelet out of the goo. Looking up into the dark, she thought that maybe, just maybe, she could hear the whisper of large, leathery wings.
"Merry Christmas, Daddy," she whispered.
And in that moment, despite everything, it truly was.