April is still grinning like an idiot when she arrives at Murakami's the following evening. Not even Raph's cheesy comments about how Donnie must have put on a great show in the bedroom last night managed to wipe that grin from her face. It's only Raph, and Raph knows nothing.
Although Donnie's performance has been as good as always.
But that's not the reason she's grinning.
April fights the grin down a bit now, though. She's about to face Karai, and Karai doesn't need to know how proud she is of herself.
She probably knows already because she's watched April last night.
By the time April sits down at the bar next to Karai she managed to tune down her grin to a smirk.
As always, she orders pizza gyoza, and as always Karai is sipping sake, but everything feels so much better today.
April can't help, but shoot a side glance at Karai every now and then.
The Foot kunoichi wears her usual bored face.
"You were being cute last night," Karai says.
April's eyes widen for a moment, and she feels how her good mood is starting to wear thin.
"All this trying to act like a kunoichi," Karai continues, taking another sip from her cup. "Adorable."
I didn't act like a kunoichi! April wants to yell at her. I am a kunoichi!
But she doesn't. As much as it hurts, Karai has a point.
Again.
"You may have been a tiny bit better," Karai admits, "but you're still far from being good. Very far."
April presses her lips together so hard that it hurts.
"What do you suggest?" she says finally.
Karai shrugs. "Why don't you let me train you?"
"You?" April almost laughs. "But you're our ..."
She breaks off, mid-sentence.
"Enemy?" Karai suggests. "No, I am not."
She turns a bit in her seat to face April.
"As far as I know, I didn't wipe you out yet. I didn't send an army of Foot ninja or the Purple Dragons after you. And this, although I do know where your lair is. Although I do know what would be the best way to get rid of you all. So what does this tell you?"
"Well, there are fights still," April says meekly.
"When we run into each other by accident, yes," Karai replies. "I have a reputation to keep, you know."
April turns her attention to her pizza gyoza, but Karai just keeps talking.
"I can't just walk up to my Foot soldiers and tell them, hey, we're friends with the Hamato now. I'd be dead before I finish the sentence. No, it can't be done after what my fa... Shredder told them."
April doesn't look at Karai, but she can hear the pain in her voice.
"I'm sorry," she says, turning to look at Karai. "About Shredder."
She feels Karai's eyes on her. "No, you're not."
"No, I'm not," April confesses.
"You know what the funny thing is?" Karai asks, turning back to her cup of sake. April doesn't reply. Karai doesn't want a reply here.
She takes her time taking a long sip from her cup.
"I would have forgiven him," Karai finally says. "So many things, I could have forgiven him - that he lied about my mother's murderer, that he took away my name from me, that all my life he told my lies. I could have lived with those lies. I could have lived with knowing the truth, and still, I would have fought loyally by his side till the bitter end. But this one lie, I couldn't forgive. He wasn't my father, April. He was just some random guy my mother banged before she met my true father. And yet, he let me call him 'father' all my life. That, I couldn't forgive."
April watches Karai closely. She searches for a sign that all the hurt in her voice has really been there. And for a moment, she thinks she sees something like a foreshadowing of tears glistening in her eyes, but then Karai turns to look at her, tilting her head, and it's gone the moment the smirk is back on Karai's face.
"So, about that training, are you in?" she asks.
"I'm in," April replies.