Hanami – Chapter 41
"Aw, come on Leo, Master Splinter'll fix things." Mike's faith in his sensei was absolute. "Besides," he continued in a quieter voice, "your pacing s'only making the girls nervous."
Leo looked over and realized that Mike had a point. "Ok, we'll build a bonfire."
"Yes! YO! DON-NIE! Get the marshmallows, dude!"
Raphael looked over at Leo from his perch on top of the fridge, "Isn't it a bit light outside for a campfire?"
"Dude, it is never too early in the day for baked apples with brown sugar and syrup."
+"Amen to that."+
Cabbage wiped her eyes, "Have you ever had baked apples before?"
+"Nope, I'm a baked-apple virgin! But it sounds good, doesn't it?"+
Mikey laughed maniacally, in a terrible Transylvanian accent he passed her a bag of mackintoshes, "Yay-s, dee Ah-pools ov dee night, Vat Vondare-fool moosick dey mayke."
"Ah-pools of the mid-afternoon you mean."
Mike made as if to bite Donnie in the neck, then pulled back. "Yay-s, dem too."
Leo built a roaring fire out in the campfire circle set back in the woods. Mike was showing Pipes how to cut an apple into a spiral so it would cook quicker and hold more syrup. Donnie was talking to Sterling about the rewiring job she'd done in the barn; she kept up her end of the conversation as best she could with her notebook and paper. Cabbage just sat quietly, lost in thought. All in all, the girls were tensed, nervous about their sister and the upcoming contact with an unknown human. Raphael slipped back into the house.
When he came back Leo glared at him. "I hardly think that's a good idea."
"Shove it Leo." Raphael poured some Coke into the plastic cups. "I didn't break this out for us to all get plastered, just to take the edge off. Besides, nobody gets rum if they don't want it." He poured some in for himself, and downed some of it. "Well, anybody else? Pipes? Cabbage? Sterling? Mike? Donnie?" He paused, "Leo? A little won't hurt. I'm not asking if you want heroine."
+"Sure."+
"Yeah."
nod
"Sure thing, bro!"
"Why not?"
Leo looked around. Raph rolled his eyes, "Leo, look there is no possible way for us to get drunk on what is left in this bottle. Will you relax?"
"Fine."
Raph nodded, "You just wanted to have some one else talk you into it so you didn't have to feel guilty about it." He passed the Rum'n Cokes around. "We're out of rum, so enjoy it."
Mike stood up, "A toast! To family!"
+"TO FAMILY!"+ They all chorused. nod!
The baked apples in their foil pockets glinted in the embers of the fire. They smelled lovely. Donatello'd already burnt himself trying to check and see if his was done.
Mike leaned back, "Hey Cabbage, remember that game we were playing the other day? I mean, it's my turn to ask a question."
Cabbage smiled, "Ok Mikey, what do you want to know?"
He grinned like a maniac, "So two parts: do you remember how to tango? And will you dance for us?"
Cabbage rolled her eyes, "Vaguely and not right now. Besides you guys don't wanna see me dance. You wanna see Sterling dance." Sterling tried to murder her sister with a stare.
"We do?" Raphael was curious. 'I'll bet we do with legs like that…'
+"Yup! It's the one feminine thing she does!"+ Sterling flipped Pipes off. +"See?"+ She turned to her sister, +"Seriously, how about it? I'll do accompaniment. Please?"+
Sterling blushed and wrote something down.
+"OK! So provided that you guys don't say anything until she's done, she'll do it."+
Sterling got up and gestured for them to make space between the fire and the logs where they were seated. She counted out some steps, as if to make sure her routine would fit and ran through some brief stretches. She dropped her coat as twilight settled gently around her shoulders.
Raphael had stopped breathing. Sterling and her sisters had been running around without clothes all weekend. It hadn't really mattered; their shells kept them decent. But standing in the falling dark, with the fire glow playing across her curves and features, it struck him how naked she was. Her eyes were shut, her breathing controlled, and she stood with her feet together and her head bowed towards her chest.
Pipes settled herself comfortably, and grinned. 'She's got it bad. First she injures herself worse just to come to his defense, and now she's willing to dance in front of him. And not just a dance, but an Arabesque' +"Ok, I'll give you a four count. One. Two. Three. Four."+ Pipes' throat echoed the strains of one slow violin. The notes followed a simple melody without the complications of drums or pipe instruments.
Sterling was still, poised. On the count of four, she brought her hands up slowly, rotating her wrists in the same direction, turning her arms into fluid snakes that rippled with the rise and fall of the violin. She followed the melody up in an arc, leading with her sinuous arms, trailing her head and upper body in her arms' wake. Her hips and feet remained still as stone. She only moved from her rib cage up. Just as she was stretched to her tallest, the music changed. Pipes added a pulsing drum and a lively flute, while increasing the tempo only slightly. Sterling's hips rose and fell weaving a figure eight. She pivoted lightly and dropping her pulsing wrists to frame her front-most hip, focusing the rhythm on the rounded muscle of her left leg. She pushed it toward her audience, riding the slow beat of the drum and hypnotizing them with her flowing hands. She only repeated the motion briefly before her movements brought the eyes upwards again. Arms over her head, she circled her chest to Pipes' throbbing drums, all the while her hips returned to their slow figure eight.
Raphael remembered to breathe. She was moving now, shuffling with the same tempo as her hips undulation. Exposing just a bit of inner thigh to fire light as she moved across the dirt. 'So sexy…' Suddenly, the tempo sprang forward and her hips were a blur of shimmy. He didn't know how, but she retained the slow motions of the first part of the dance in the dip and roll of her shoulders, yet her hips were a continual flicker of movement. The music calmed and she circled round to clap on a pair of beats. She turned round in a circle, pushing her shoulder in the pulse of the music. She stopped, closer now, extending her left leg in front of her. She switched her weight to her back leg and rolled the rhythm out the length of her body: shoulder to breast to rib cage to stomach to hip to thigh over and over. 'God, I want to be next to that…' She stepped forward, bringing her legs back together and shimmying, traveled back the way she had come, turning in a circle and leading with her other shoulder. Her arms went over her head and she leaned straight back her entire body pulsing with the drumbeats. Breasts and hips circling in seemingly opposite directions, she dropped back in on herself, her body falling toward her own extended right leg. The flute and violin mimicked her descent and the drum beat only once more.
Silence.
"Yaaay!" Pipes and Cabbage were both clapping enthusiastically. None of the guys had moved. Pipes noted with considerable satisfaction that Raphael had yet to close his mouth. 'Point for Sterling.'
Raphael had two thoughts. 'Damn…' and 'Holy Shit…' They alternated. He jumped when Cabbage and Pipes started to applaud. This kicked in far more complex thoughts. 'Wanna see her do that again…' 'While we're alone…' and 'While she's underneath me…'
"Whoa, that was amazing, dudette…" Michelangelo shook off the last of the haze induced by bobbing female flesh.
"You truly are a talented dancer." Raphael looked to Leonardo. 'I can't believe he said that. Only Leo could watch all that and come up with a compliment so, so, fuckin' Mr. Rogers!'
At this point, higher brain functions were beginning to work again. Raphael nonchalantly tried to readjust his seat on the log to ease the ache between his legs.
Donatello must have noticed, because he flashed Raph a quick grin before he asked Sterling, "So that's what three years of dance training'll get you?" She nodded vaguely, but her attention was on a pair of figures coming over to the fire.
"I suggest you begin cleaning up, as April will be here any moment." Splinter held Shima's hand; she looked different somehow. Leonardo's eyes went wide. 'The turtle under the apple trees! The one from my vision! She looks so much calmer. Shima actually looks happy.' Shima's sisters had surrounded her, hugging her as though they were afraid she would leave them again. Leonardo felt a warm breeze and smelled just a hint of the scent of apple blossoms. Splinter smiled gently, "Hanami."
The End.
kinda ;)
Hanami means "Flower Viewing." It usually refers to viewing the cherry blossoms (sakura) that bloom in the spring. It's customary to pack a picnic, or throw a party outside under the flowers. If you've watched any anime, you know that sakura petals tend to flood the screen whenever a character has a romantic moment. But it's also a standard "happy moment" phenomenon.
Ok, I, Kyabetsu, do hereby promise that there will be sequels, and that they will be WAAAY shorter and easier to digest. Thank you for all of your feedback. I couldn't have written without some form of encouragement. (My cat is useless in that department. If string is not involved, he's out like a light.) I hope you like my girls, because if you don't then the sequels won't be 'sequels' so much as 'something entirely different.' So yeah, if you're happy and you know it, clap your hands….