Afterglow

Rated: T

Date Night - Part 2

Chapter Summary: April and Raph go on their first date - it only took them a year and a half. Also, like everything so far in their relationship - it doesn't always go as planned. Part 2 of 2

After cleaning the mess and saying their goodbyes to Murikami, who surprisingly asked them to come back sometime, the two set out toward the theater hand in hand. With winter fast approaching, the sun fell from the horizon annoyingly early which meant that anytime after 6pm was basically midnight; meaning Raph wasn't too concerned about being noticed in the darkness of the night.

"Isn't this great, Raphael?" April trilled from his side, tightening her grip upon his arm.

"Yeah." Raph replied with an easy chuckle, sidling closer to his girlfriend in an attempt to steal some of her wonderful warm-blooded body heat in the cold late autumn air.

"...Thanks." April whispered, slowing down her steps to a stop near a dark alley.

"What for? Ruining the dinner?" Raph asked with a nervous chuckle, taking a glance into the alley and around to make sure their surroundings were clear.

"Raph, it was an accident. It happens...besides, you were so sweet and it's kinda sexy to see you working that mop. You should clean more often." April replied with a light chuckle and wiggle of her brows, tugging on his scarf in order to bring his face toward her for a quick kiss before resuming to their destination.

They made it two blocks til Raphael began getting a familiar dreaded tug in his gut. A feeling that came up all too often for him and his family. Being a ninja vigilante who vowed to keep his city safe was by no means an easy job. In fact, it didn't pay a freaking penny and caused more injuries and headaches than he ever cared to remember. But there was no doubt he appreciated his heightened sense of self - he could sense danger, knew when someone watched him and could easily discern when he was being followed. Raphael quickly glanced over his shoulder on occasion, he became all too aware of one detail -

He hated being right.

There were five of them in total. All wearing way too much black and making a ruckus from just a couple yards behind him and April. Sure, this theater they were heading to was empty and cheap, but this neighborhood was notorious for crime and being out here after dark was just asking for trouble. Raph sighed deeply at this predicament. Wasn't anything going to go right for him tonight? He closed his eyes and wasn't at all surprised when he felt April tug tighter on his hand.

She knew.

April may be lacking in the muscle department, but she could sure pack a punch regardless - not to mention her psychic Kraang abilities. She probably sensed them before he did. Raph did not want this to end in a brawl though. He was restricted by way too much clothing and he doubted April brought her Tessen with her, so he was just hoping to get away and avoid confrontation - which for him, was a big deal. If it was any other night, he'd be the main instigator just to have an excuse to break in a scumbag's face.

Then all of a sudden, they were gone.

Raph thought it odd and thought maybe it was his nervous habit to expect the worst out of humanity. He'd been rejected and only associated with the worst of them, except April, Mr. O'Neil, Murikami, and Casey of course, but in total, his experience with people had never ended positive, so so what was he supposed to expect? But for now, he relaxed, until he noticed just up ahead, those same goons walked out of the alley and just stood there just yards away from him and April.

Raphael took a calming breath and immediately braced himself for a fight. He was about to tell April to take off somewhere safe before things got too messy, but before Raph could say anything, one of the boorish idiots decided to speak.

"How you guys doing dis night?" the obvious leader of them, looking like a complete douche-bag accentuated with greasy long hair and leather jacket, chuckled with a heavy New York accent.

Both the redhead and terrapin ignored the attempt at conversation, but it didn't slow down the man in the least.

"Hey, you're kinda pretty lady...so w-whatcha doin' with dat short freak? I think you can do better than that."

"Maybe she's just got low standards, Joe." one of the other men began instigating along.

"Heh. An easy girl, huh? Hey, I gots an idea, why dontcha ditch the fuckin' loser and come have a taste of a real man? If ya know what I mean..." The leader spoke up, his slurred words signaling his obvious drunkenness if it wasn't obvious enough by the nearly empty bottle of Jack dangling in his fingers.

"Hope yer prone for sharing though, cause if ya fellas don't mind, I'd love a piece of that. Hmm... Ya think she's a natural redhead?" a pot-bellied older man next to him spoke, not even bothering to hide the obvious adjustment he had to make in his pants.

"Only one way to find out..." the leader chuckled back.

The other three younger men, probably sixteen to eighteen years of age, looked more uncomfortable than anything but seemed to be waiting to see what the older men were going to do next before they decided on what action to take.

Raphael saw red. His heart hammered and palms itched to ram his sais into each of their groins until they breathed their last. The only thing stopping him was April's warm hand atop his trembling fist. He knew losing his temper would do no good. These men could be armed and he knew for sure April wasn't. These men may be drunk, but they were huge, so there was no way he was going to fly into a blind rage with his girlfriend unarmed.

"Listen, I don't want any trouble tonight, alright? If you'll please excuse us, I'd like to continue to our destination." April said calmly, but Raph felt the tremors of her hand against his.

"Nah. I don't dink so. You're not from dis side of town are ya? Heh. Walking down the street this time of night looking like that, yer pretty much askin' for it." the leader chuckled as he gestured to her with the bottle in his hand, the unpleasantness of that deep slurred voice making April's hair stand on end. The sourness in her gut increasing as his eyes roved over her making her skin crawl.

"Yer the one asking for it..." Raph growled suddenly, but April's hand just tightened over his, calming his sudden rage.

"Hey, I'm sorry if we're on your turf or something. We had no idea, so we'll just go. Now, if you please exc..." April spoke but was interpreted yet again - it was enough to get on her last nerve.

"Aw, ain't that sweet, boys? She's trying to get her lil' boyfriend out of getting his ass kicked." The eldest, heavier man said, looking back at the three younger men behind them.

The younger men glanced at each other before all chuckling nervously in response.

"Hah! That's a load of shit if I ever heard one! It's you guys who'd get your asses handed to them before you raise a fist." April snorted suddenly, making Raph turn wide eyes toward her. Here he thought she was going to try and avoid getting into a confrontation, but he also remembered, this was April - the fiery stubborn redhead who didn't take crap from anybody - least of all a group of stupid drunk men.

"What was that, bitch?" The leader asked, a quirked eyebrow in amusement.

April's eyes flashed steel blue and Raph tensed.

He did not just say the b word... The only thought circling in the terrapin's head.

"Excuse me?" April said, releasing the comfort of Raph's hand and placing both of her hands firmly on her hips. She didn't even move and Raphael firmly stayed put but remained tight as a loaded spring as the man approached them until he was only a foot away. From this distance, Raphael could easily discern the hard liquor on his breath and b. much everywhere else - his sensitive nose could barely take it.

"What - ya mean, bitch? Heh. Seeing as you spread your legs for this freak, do ya just prefer I call ya slut?" the man's nose was broken before he even realized what happened.

April pulled back her hand and flinched at the blood that covered her knuckles, but before she could do anything else, Raphael was already in motion; flicking out the sais from underneath his coat, cutting the buttons in the process to reveal exactly what he was in the dim streetlights.

"HOLY HELL! What da fuck are you!?" the fat man screamed, not even bothering to help his bleeding friend screaming like a wounded cat next to him.

"Your worst nightmare..." Raph growled while making sure to flash his canines before flying forth and delivering blow after blow with arms, legs, and the butt of his sais. The blows he dealt were not meant to do serious harm - Raphael was not a killer if he didn't have to be, and he found out quickly that these men weren't even armed. But after those words they had spoken to his girlfriend and their veiled insults to himself, he was surprised that he wasn't the one who attacked first.

The leader and heavy man were knocked unconscious quickly and dumped unceremoniously into an open trash bin where they belonged. Raph was apprehensive to follow after the three teens that scattered as soon as April gave the first blow. The red-banded terrapin took a calming breath before giving a swift kick to the trash can once more for good measure before turning around.

His heart skipped a beat when he realized April wasn't standing behind him.

Raphael holstered his sais while he scoped the darkness where he noticed her sitting in an adjoining alley. Without signaling his approach, he sprint toward her. Raph realized too late that it was a bad idea when her first reaction was screaming. Before he could utter a single sound, April launched to her feet in a flurry; her small first smashing against his snout causing a flash of blinding pain to erupt behind his eyes.

Raph grunted and fell back to the cold, hard cement much to April's shock and dismay.

"Oh no! RAPH!" April shrilled as she ran toward his fallen form.

"Woah... D-Damn, gurl, whataya been eatin' lately? Hulk powder?" Raph grumbled nasally, cradling his bleeding snout in his hand.

"Oh gosh, honey, I'm sorry, Raphael... I'm so sorry, I didn't know it was you. I swear! I - I..." April blubbered, hands shaking profusely as she tried to access his face; eyes wide and scared.

"It's okay." Raph replied, pulling himself up to a sitting position. He pulled a large hand away and saw a good amount of glittering red blood on his palm. Catching her eyes for a moment, he saw the fear etching those beautiful blue orbs. Wanting to abolish that look in her eyes, he smiled at her and continued, "Wowie, baby. You sure pack a punch. That was awesome."

"Awesome!? Raph, I just socked you in the nose and you're bleeding everywhere! How is that awesome?!" April shrilled angrily, taking off her scarf to begin dabbing the leaking blood from his nostrils.

"I've never been prouder of you in my life. I mean, not only did you get that asshole, you got me! You're getting better everyday." Raph chuckled, grasping her hand that was dabbing at his nose.

"I think you hit your head when you fell. Come on, we need to get back to the lair and have Donatello take a look at you." April diagnosed, quickly standing to help him up.

"Babe, I'm fine." Raph groaned, making his way to his feet even if he wobbled a bit on the way up.

"Please, Raph. Not now..." the voice she was using was firm as she wrapped her scarf around his bleeding orifice to collect the remaining dripping blood.

Raph took another glance at her in the dim light coming from the alley. He felt a cold breeze through his plastron when he saw tears lining the edges of those baby blues.

"...April..." her name a sigh on his lips.

"Please, Raph. Let's just go back to the lair. Okay?" April yelled suddenly, arms shaking by her sides.

"...but the movie..." Raph mumbled, feeling slightly uncomfortable with her sudden emotional breakdown.

"PLEASE! Let's just go now!" April demanded loudly and Raph found himself unable to say no.

With a nod of his head, the two made their way to the closest manhole cover. Once safe in the confines of the sewers, they silently made the long trek to the lair. Raph kept glancing at her at intervals, but April was stoic and silent; eyes trained forward and mouth in a firm line. He opened his mouth multiple times to joke with her a bit in order to ease some of the sudden tension, but wasn't sure what to say. It was like something inside of her snapped and he had absolutely no idea what to expect had he decided to open his mouth.

Walking into the lair, it was much like you would expect. Leo was gone - probably on his own anal-retentive patrol or another long meditation marathon with Master Splinter; Donnie was holed up in his lab like usual, and Mikey was an inch away from the television, surrounded by junk food and completely oblivious to the world around him.

April and Raph still didn't speak as they walked the distance to his bedroom. Raph plopped down onto his bed as his girlfriend quickly disappeared back out into the hallway and soon returned with a small rusted tin of first-aid supplies they kept in the bathroom.

The redhead was methodical as she unwrapped her ruined, formerly white, scarf from his face; flinching when she saw the crusted blood around his nostrils. She gently stroked along the barely noticeable nasal passage to check for any signs of broken bone but thankfully, found none. Silently, she was just thankful that Raph had such a hard head, which was a testimony to why her knuckles still stung.

Raphael watched her work in silence; April grabbing the small bottle of alcohol and a few large cotton balls and began cleaning the area to clean away the remainder of blood. There was no cut, so no pain accompanied her ministrations, but the strong smell of the product still caused him to flinch at the contact anyway.

"I'm really sorry." April whispered suddenly while gently running a thin finger along his now bloodless snout.

"It's fine." Raph sniffed, glad the bleeding had already stopped. "Heh. Sorry about ruining your scarf."

"You didn't ruin anything...I'm the one that screwed everything up..." April softly admitted, turning her back to him once while throwing away the used cotton and packing away the unused supplies.

"What are you talking about? You're not the one who spilled pop all over the floor and counters at Murikami's place; not to mention almost choking to death on a fortune cookie paper." Raph chuckled, his fingers itching to touch her but wanting to see her reaction first.

To his relief, April laughed softly and turned to him while leaning heavily against the wall. "It's still better than nearly breaking two noses in the span of three minutes."

"That was awesome, though! I don't see why you freaked out about it. You were really something, babe."

"Raph..." April groaned.

"April, please - just tell me what's wrong? You've been weird even before you nearly punched my face in." Raph replied with a chuckle, hoping to God she would take the bait and start joking back or at least reveal what was wrong.

April opened her mouth to retort, but her countenance fell just seconds later as she made her way toward him, plopping herself next to him on the bed. "It's just... I never made anyone bleed before."

The admission was strange to Raphael. April had been in the midst of fighting and had kicked some serious butt on numerous occasions. Yeah, they were mostly bloodless Kraang and machinery, but she'd still fought. So, for her to admit something so minimal kind of caught him off-guard. Raph hated to dwell on it, but he'd killed before - the first time was the worst, but he validated it because he was protecting his family - which necessarily didn't make it any easier, but doable. It was the only way he could sleep at night - and to see his girlfriend so shaken up just for smashing some scumbag's nose? It hardly made sense.

Before Raphael could say anything, April continued speaking.

"It's not really the fact I broke the dude's nose. The jerk deserved it - it's just - I never lost my temper so quickly like that..."

"...So that one time I forgot to use a coaster, you screamed so much, you almost popped a blood vessel... Was that just a fluke?" Raph asked, making sure to grin sheepishly as he said it/

"Shut up, Raph, that's completely different!" April groaned miserably into her hands. "I just... I was so freaking nervous tonight! I wanted to make it perfect and nothing was going right, I - I was just so mad that this asshole had the gall to approach us and just instigate all this crap when all I wanted was for us to be normal! For us just to go out and have a good time like any couple deserves to! Instead we get cornered by this jerk and I yell and overreact and get us into a fight! I almost break your nose when all I wanted was for you to get to enjoy a crappy movie at a shitty public theater for the first time in your life and... I just... Oh, Raph... I can't do anything right..."

"What the hell are you talking about? I was the one who ruined the dinner! All the pizza gioza Murikami worked so hard to made us were drenched in soda!" Raph was quick to point out, the sheer audacity of April taking blame for their date going array giving him the courage to point out his own mistakes for the evening. "You were perfect tonight! I mean, for you to arrange everything and actually want to attempt to go out with me in public is phenomenal, April. I was the one who was terrified of fucking everything up."

"Really?" April asked a moment later, pulling her shocked face from her hands to match eyes with her boyfriend. "You just seemed so self-assured even when you were on your hands and knees scrubbing soda from his hard wood floors."

"Heh. Yeah, that was mainly an act - my heart was pounding out of my chest nearly the whole freaking time. If anything, I was the one ready to mess it up - Let's face it April, I have no experience on this stuff whatsoever. Yeah, I've seen people date on TV and movies, but I was certain I was just screwing everything up. Casey's advice wasn't any better either. It's not like Jones is the greatest guy to model a successful date after... Anyway, I was nervous because I just wanted you to have a good time..." Raph admitted, hands nervously wiping at his thighs.

"...I did have a good time."

"Really?" Raphael had his turn to ask, eyes widening at her admission.

"Well, yeah...while it was unconventional and not exactly as I planned...but... it was fun. Getting to have dinner with you and walking around town - seeing you beating the crap out of those losers. Heh... I had a lot of fun... I really did." April admitted, smiling warmly at the green-eyed terrapin.

"Hmm. Me too." Raph replied before going in and kissing the edge of her lips. He pulled away just seconds later, smiling at her, hands folded in his lap as he tried to calm all the sudden butterflies dancing in his stomach.

"Can we do that again?" April asked, nervously biting at her lower lip.

"The date?"

"I meant the kiss, but I think another date is in order too."

"Hmm. I guess I can manage that..." he replied, reaching over to grab her small hands, which she grasped eagerly in return. April scooted closer to him as their lips started to close the distance -

"RAPH! APRIL! You're here!?" Mikey suddenly announced himself, Raph's bedroom door flying open with a crash against the adjoining wall, causing Raph and April to quickly fling apart.

"Dammit, Mikey! You nearly scared the shell off of me! What do you want!?" Raph growled at his youngest brother, standing to his feet to put as much distance between him and April as possible - mostly just to avoid any questions Mikey may start asking upon seeing their closeness.

"The unofficial Crognard the Barbarian one-hour special is about to come on! Me and Donnie were getting ready to watch it. Wanna join?" Mikey said excitedly, jumping around eagerly on the balls of his feet.

Raph turned slightly to gauge April's reaction and the redhead just shrugged, a big smile taking up residence on her face.

"Sure. Why not?" April spoke up, turning her gaze to the excited youngest turtle.

"Really?! Awesome! I'll make the popcorn with lots of extra butter and jellybeans!" the orange-banded terrapin screamed excitedly before running back out toward the living area.

Raph let out a deep breath out as soon as Mikey bounded out of the room; crossing his arms loosely across his chest. He tensed slightly upon feeling April's arms suddenly wrapped around his neck, her soft lips pressing upon his cheek.

"So, where's the kiss I was promised?" April whispered against the side of his head.

Raph quickly quelled the sudden flush of his cheeks, arm wrapping around her thin waist. The kiss he gave her was quick and chaste, pulling away while he still had control over his own urges.

"Aw, that's all?" April whimpered with a mock pout.

"Heh. Sorry, babe. Guess we just gotta wait til after Don and Mike fall asleep for all that."

"Perfect. It's a date." April giggled, stealing one last kiss before bounding out of the room with Raphael following close behind.