Chapter 9

After what felt like a long, very long day for Shredder, he and April O'Neil were heading down the corridor back to the control room. They had both agreed it was for the best to do it at night rather than in the evening.

April was ecstatic about the interview. He had never seen her like this before. She wasn't wearing her yellow suit or any make-up but she still looked radiant as she was setting up the camera in one of the corners of the control room. He, on the other side of the room, felt quite stupid in his spiky suit. He didn't know why but today he didn't like it one bit. But he certainly wasn't about to do the interview without his very intimidating and very hiding helmet.

"Come on! Try to cheer up a bit. Why are you looking so gloomy? Is it about Krang?"

He felt his blood turn cold in an instant. Just after dinner, April told him about the fact she and Krang had started a relationship. He couldn't believe it. Even if it was a life or death matter, Krang never changed his mind and he had stated his hatred for the journalist a long time ago. As stupid as it might seem, he took this piece of information as the evidence something was about to happen in his back.

Because of his lack of answer, April stopped wiring her camera and look questioningly at him. Her demeanour had changed a bit. If it wasn't for them living together for nearly a month, he wouldn't have seen it. That slight downturn of her lips, her eyes a little smaller than they normally are. She was attentively listening to him.

But he knew for a fact that an April on a rampage wasn't good in any way. He had to convince her that it could be dangerous without terrorizing her.

He calmly said: "Well, whatever you believe in, miss April. I'm only saying that, for your safety, you should never accept anything from him."

For the first time since he had put his helmet on, he felt grateful. The faceplate had always been a way for him to hide his too expressive face. And obviously, it was doing wonders hiding his uneased face as she pouted and rolled her eyes: "You know, you don't speak a lot so… I have to find other means of having fun."

"Don't tell me you're having fun speaking to him. Are you even speaking to him? Or is he the only one speaking?" He said in a too angry tone for his liking.

"Well, I have to say I can only speak when he asks questions, if not he'll get angry saying I'm cutting his speech down. And well, I don't give a shit about batteries savaging." She finished her last sentence by giving him a wink.

"April. As a journalist, you shouldn't swear."

At those words, April laughed and he felt anger rising in him, too scared that she might be mocking him like she is so used to do. But as she looked at him and smiled in between to laughs, he understood she was genuinely laughing and he let slip a little laugh himself.

"Okay big boy, are you ready?"

"I'm a man."

"Shredder, that's just a way of speaking. Ready?"

He focused on himself, trying to muster up the confidence he needed for the interview. He knew this was a great opportunity to strengthen his image. He looked at her straight in the eyes and said: "I'm ready."

April turned on her camera and took her microphone. She stayed behind the camera as they had planned. She had insisted that she wouldn't appear on camera without her yellow suit and make-up. So, the result was that he would be the only one filmed.

"Good morning Channel 6, I am April O'Neil and I'm about to interview the man that New-York fears the most: Shredder. This is a very exclusive interview as it is the first one he gives. Shredder, Good morning."

"Good evening." He said flatly.

She glared at him. "You have to say good morning."

"Why? It's not the morning. It's 11pm. Why not say good evening?"

"You have to say good morning because I already said it, come on! Don't be a kid!"

"Good morning."

"So, Shredder, tell me more about you. Where do you come from?"

"Japan."

April seemed annoyed and made some movement to him. He understood it as a silent "keep talking".

"I come from a small city near Tokyo, but now April O'Neil, tell me why I should be telling this to Channel 6?" He said in an angry tone as he got up. She seemed offended but he wasn't about to let her turn this around. He had kept his private life private until now. He wasn't calling himself Shredder and wearing a mask for nothing. He didn't want anyone to know his real name nor his origins.

She didn't say anything for a few seconds, closed her eyes and tried to calm down. Taking a deep breath, she started explaining: "You see, when you make an interview, you need to ask personal question. As reporters, that's our job. Making information."

"I hope you wanted to say "Finding information"".

"Don't play on words. I need you to answer."

"This will not help me to strengthen my image."

"Yes, it will!" She nearly shouted. "Look, we have to start at the beginning. Where you come from, then go on with why you came here."

"And if I don't want to tell that story? Perhaps I want to keep this private."

"Than just makeup something."

He gave her a very distraught look which made her go on: "You really don't want to tell the real story. That, I can understand. But can't you give me the big lines? It doesn't have to be too detailed."

"No, I can't give any big lines. Apart from the fact I went from Japan to the USA."

"Then let's just be very, very, very elusive. Is that good enough for you?"

"Yes."

"Let's just start it from the beginning okay?"

"What are the other questions?"

"You can't answer my question by another question Shredder." She said in a flat tone.

"I want to know before you ask them to me."

"That's not how it works! Where is the surprise if I tell you first?"

"You will be surprised if I chose not to answer!"

"Okay, okay, calm down. I won't tell you exactly what the questions are but I can tell you globally and you tell me if it's good or not ok?"

"It seems good enough."

April went to her bag and took out her notebook. He felt proud about the fact she had really used that old book of his and as she turned the pages, he smiled to himself.

"So, we have a section about things like your favourite colour or what you like to do in your free time."

"I'm not answering that."

"Oookkaayyy" she already seemed upset but she went on: "There's a part on family" He shook his head, "a part on what you like to eat" he kept on showing his denial, "what kind of films you like" he again shook his head and she abruptly closed her notebook.

"Shredder, you can't just say no to everything."

"I don't see the point in those questions."

"The point is to entertain viewers!"

"My private life is not a source of entertainment!"

She pouted and for a minute she looked like a spoiled brat who understood his mistake.

"Well, yes, I guess someone might see it this way."

She looked again at her notebook, then her camera, then him and back to the notebook.

"You know what? Let's just do it from the beginning. I promise you I won't ask anything too personal. Okay?

Shredder wasn't convinced but nonetheless, he answered: "Okay."

She smiled and started again: "Good morning Channel 6! , I am April O'Neil and I'm about to interview the man that New-York fears the most: Shredder. This is a very exclusive interview as it is the first one he gives. Shredder, Good morning."

"Good morning April O'Neil."

She gave him a thumb and he had a hell of a time no to react to it. What would his viewers think if he looked like he was easy to distract?

"Shredder, I heard you were Japanese, is that true?"

"Yes…" she started to move her arms again and so he added, "your informant is right, I am Japanese."

She smiled, looking pleased as she added: "As a supervillain, why did you not stay in Japan?"

"I had affairs that needed to be taken care of in the USA, and well, I saw I had opportunities here."

April was now moving right and left behind the camera, never stopping which made Shredder think that if her mind was at least half as much agitated it explained a lot of her life choices.

"Opportunities? What kind?"

"Opportunities to take over the country of course! People here are too… lazy. They need a better leader. I'll be perfect for the role."

"So, your objective is to first take over New-York than the rest of the country."

"Exactly."

"And what do you plan to do when you'll be the leader?"

For half a second, he was lost. He had never thought about it. Krang probably had plans, but on his side, he had nothing planned. But he had no time to look lost so he did as always, he chose to look extravagant.

He got up from his chair as April changed the orientation of the camera to keep the focus on him. "That, miss O'Neil, you'll be the first one to see! And be assured that, on my very first day as the sole and unique leader of USA I will make you dine on turtle soup!"

She stopped moving and looked at him. At first, she seemed shocked but she then smiled suggestively. "Are you inviting me to the restaurant?"

Taken back a bit he still answered flatly: "I invited you to eat your best friends."

"Said like this, it's less inviting."

He gave her a mean look to try to make her stop her bantering.

"Don't worry, we're stopping there. It will be a short interview but still good. We're going straight to the point. And at the end, your move was brilliant. When I'll be back at channel 6 I'll do a little editing and try to zoom on your face. You'll be terrifying."

"I thought the interview would be longer than that." He said as he watched her packing her things.

"Well, it was supposed to be! But as you don't want to answer anything too personal we'll have to stuck with this."

He took the camera from her: "I'll take this."

"Thanks!"

As they walked back to the bedroom in silence, Shredder couldn't stop thinking he had missed an opportunity with his shorten interview.

"The interview is too short."

"No, it isn't."

"Yes, it is."

April stopped and turned to him. "Shredder!" He put his only free hand on her mouth, had she forgotten that they needed to be discreet? Of course, she used her own hands to move his.

"Hey!"

"Be more discreet for god's sake." He hushed.

Turning a bit red she said softly: "Sorry, I forgot."

He hummed her and started to walk again down the corridor. The sooner they were back at their room, the better.

"I just wanted to say, you have to stop fighting."

He was prepared for a lot of things but not for this kind of answer. At that instant, he believed April O'Neil had lost her mind.

"What?"

"You have to stop fighting what just is."

She had definitely gone mad.

"I believe you have lost your mind."

"No, it's just that I'm not saying this in the right way. It's something hard to express."

He didn't add anything as they entered their room. He disposed of the camera in a corner of the room before he went straight to take a shower. The hot water soothed him, as always.

When he got out, he found a new "cake" on his bed.

"Surprise!" April shouted as she saw him.

To say he jumped from fright would have been too much, but he couldn't deny she startled him a bit.

"Why the cake? I thought it was only when I was depressed or something."

"It made you a cake because you accepted the interview. It's a way to say thank you." She nonchalantly said as she sat down on the bed.

"Of course. Especially since you won't give me a real thank you in the first place."

He smirked as he saw her open and close her mouth like a fish out of water and then pouted. Satisfied with his victory, he sat on the other side of the bed and started to eat.

"Thank you for the interview."

He looked at her, surprised she would really say that.

"Am I dead miss April? I believe I just heard you thanking me."

He saw it, the fire in her eyes, that fire which was always the beginning of their small fights. But she didn't say what she was about to say. Instead, she stopped, closed her eyes and breathed slowly. After a few minutes, he really thought that he had definitely closed their conversation for tonight but she spoke again: "Shredder, what I said earlier. It's true."

"That nonsense? The part where you said I had to stop fighting?"

"It was more than that!"

"Enlighten me." He sarcastically said.

"Shredder, you're always going both ways. You're always fighting yourself."

"I guess being stuck with me made you turn Chinese at some point."

"I'm not joking!" she shouted back to him.

This time, he didn't move. He just looked at her, waiting for whatever she wanted to say. He had seen those kinds of scenes so many times when he was a kid. His mother shouting on his father at nights, when they fought he and his brother were asleep. He guessed they had reached that part of the "we're stuck together relationship". The part where they act like an old couple on the verge of divorce.

"I'm…" She watched the wall and seemed to calm down a bit before she turned back to him and said: "I just want to say that you have to stop overthinking. That interview, it's good. Stop thinking about it. And if you really want to redo it then we'll redo it. But it already is good. You shouldn't demean yourself like you are doing."

He wasn't prepared for that. They had grown closer over the days, that was sure. But had they really grown close enough for them to have those kinds of conversations? He didn't really know how to reply. He never really had the opportunity to speak about his problems to anyone. And he wasn't really sure that speaking about his self-confidence problems with April O'Neil was really a good idea.

She lightly tilted her head to the side, obviously waiting for an answer.

He sighed and chose to focus on his nearly finished cake.

She smiled, he didn't see it but he now had a gut feeling about her smiles and especially what kind of smile she had on her face. He put the empty bowl down on the night desk and he heard her get up from the bed. As she stood up, he could hear the little cracking noises coming from her spine.

"Your back looks painful."

"That's the result after days of sleeping on the floor you know? It tends to have this effect on backs."

He thought a bit, he knew he could help her. By one way or another. One part of him was afraid she might turn back to the cold and haughty April. The one who took his heart, threw it on the floor, spit on it and then proceeded to stamp it until it was nothing but trash. But the other part couldn't deny the fact she was nice now, and apparently doing her best to stay nice.

When he saw her lay down on the floor, looking like a feral cat trying to get comfy with an old blanket he gave in.

"Come here."

She gave him a questioning look.

"Come on, come here." He said, patting the bed next to him.

"You know, there are better ways to get a woman in your bed Shredder." She said to him as she got up. He saw in her eyes that even if she just joked with him she was a bit suspicious.

Nevertheless, she came and sat next to him. She might be afraid she still was the wild and fiery reporter from Channel 6.

"Turn around." He made a spinning motion with his hand to punctuate his sentence.

She pouted, not wanting to turn her back to him but also not wanting to show him that he could frighten her.

He put his hands on her shoulders and even though he first felt her tense up. She started to relax as soon as he began to massage her back.

"April, if I wanted to hurt you, I would do it in a very different way. I'm not a brute."

"Said the man who is always throwing me over his shoulder to go faster when he kidnaps me."

"Well, it's up to you to follow me or not. You choose your own fate. Also, I haven't done it for a long time."

"That's true, you haven't done it in a while. Still, would it be fun if I was just following along?"

He chuckled at her words. Her back was as hard as wood, no wonder she had a hard time when they were training. Working slowly but surely, he worked on all the tension points she had. As he worked from her shoulders to her lower back, it came to him how ridiculous everything was. From fighting the Turtles to having an affair with the best friend of the said Turtles to getting lost in space in a high-tech spaceship with the aforementioned best friend. At some point, his life had taken a comical turn.

"There! Stay there, I have a sore spot right where you are."

"Okay."

Now that she mentioned it, he would feel a very tight bundle of muscle right under his thumbs. As he worked on it, he heard her humming, nearly purring. When he thought about the massage, he didn't think of it going anywhere as suggestive as this.

He went on for a few minutes, enough for her back to get better but not too much either for his sanity. When he stopped, she said: "Wow! That was terrific!"

"Thank you."

She got up and spun around, nearly dancing. "I feel like I've just come back to life!"

"I think you are overstating here."

"Come on! Stop being humble like that, you good at this. Perhaps you should consider it as a new job?"

"I'm pretty sure I will not."

She opened her mouth then close it as quickly as she opened it. Obviously, she had just censored herself. She surely was unique.

"Do you want me to do the same for you?"

"What?"

She was smiling from ear to ear.

"I did something nice for you. Don't play with fire or you shall face the terrible anger of the Shredder!" He tried to say without laughing, which he failed at miserably.

She went back to her duvet on the floor and he felt pity by looking at her. He knew that he had been overly childish in some ways. He knew that she wasn't some kind of rapist and that sleeping in the same bed was possible from the very beginning. It just was that, at first, he couldn't bear to see her and even less touch her. She really had broken his heart in some ways he still wasn't able to accept. Those thoughts remind him that even though things were better now. They would probably go back to normal when they got back home. If they got back home.

"April, I have a question for you."

She turned around in her duvet which made her look like a little redhead maggot which was quite funny. Still, he composed himself, he needed her attention.

"Do you know the broadcast frequencies of Channel 6?"

"How do you want me to know that?" With her brows knitted together, she now looked like an angry maggot. "Is it linked to a way to go back home?"

"No." Well, yes, but he didn't want her to overstress over it. If she didn't know the broadcast frequencies than nothing could be done.

"I thought that perhaps we could try to have the TV here."

She peered at him, weighing if he was lying or not. "I'm pretty sure it can't be done."

"Well, we could have tried."

"Yes."

He looked at her, the little maggot on the floor and he felt pity. Tings were not turning in a good way. He had done all that he could to find a way home and he needed something to link them back. Like a radio frequency. But he had none. Which meant that they were stuck here, meant to die of hunger or to go out and perhaps die in some inter-galactical prison. He couldn't just let her sleep her last days on the floor because of some stupid decisions they had made before.

"You can sleep in the bed."

"I already told you, your sleep is more important than mine!" She said turning her back to him to close the discussion.

"I mean, I'm ready to share."

She turned back in at an inhumane speed: "What?"

"I'm ready to share."

"Are we about to die?"

Since when was she so perceptive? "No, I'm just trying to be nice."

"I was joking! Don't worry." She got up, not arguing in any way and sat on the bed. "We can use the duvet to make a wall".

"Very clever miss O'Neil." He said as he laid down on the left side of the bed.

"Shuushh". She said as she put the duvet between them and turned off the lights.

He didn't dare to move now. Neither did she. The stayed in absolute silence for what felt like ages and as he started to fall asleep, he thought he heard her say: "Thank you Saki."

First, thank you for sticking up with me! I know, I take a long time to write.
Thank you for your nice comments, they touch me every time. Knowing people like my work is a great way to stay motivated! As I am now on holiday I plan to try to write as much as I can and perhaps finish this fanfiction in the following weeks :)
Please, keep on liking and commenting! I'll always to some time to reply :D