12CHAPTER 10 - Takes To the Sky Like a Bird In Flight And Who Will Be Her Lover?
Sunday, September 18, 2072 - 2:15 AM ET
April dreamed a nonsense dream, as most people are wont to do, when a gentle shake startled her out of sleep. She jerked and drew in a sharp breath.
A three-fingered hand pressed to her lips, preventing her from crying out. Her pupils dilated completely, leaving a thin rim of green around the black centers of her eyes.
Mike's face came into focus. He kept his hand over her mouth and raised a finger to his lips, reminding her to be silent.
April's heart slowed as she came more awake. Mike gestured for her to follow him and slipped from her cubby with ninja silence. She reached for her robe but got the back of her hand lightly slapped as Mike leaned in and gestured for her again.
Perplexed, April threw off the bedclothes and slipped from her floor pallet, self-consciously aware that she was walking around in a night dress she'd properly outgrown six months ago. She fought back a giggle and followed Michelangelo between the cubbies where their older brothers snored obliviously. Mike stopped briefly to fetch his phone, then grabbed her hand in his and led her to the dojo.
His hand was strong and warm, much larger than her own, and had callouses from hard use and regular training with the nunchaku. April's own palm got a little sweaty with nerves.
The two little ones might occasionally wake in the night, but that always resulted in them waking one of their older brothers and sleeping with them, or else waking Splinter and sleeping on the floor in his room. This sneaking about in their home while everyone else was asleep was new. April thought it was deliciously exciting, but she had to wonder what Mike was planning.
Mike opened the door and pulled her ahead of him, giving April a gentle push inside between her shoulder blades. He took a moment to sneak back to the room and make sure everyone else was still asleep. He didn't join April in the dojo until he was satisfied. When he did, he closed the door tightly, leaving them in the pitch darkness.
Rather than searching the wall for the overhead lights, Mike felt around on the floor next to the door. He produced an electric lantern that gave off enough light to maneuver while leaving the pair draped in a curtain of darkness. He carried the lamp to the center of the dojo. "C'mere," he whispered, setting the lamp on the ground.
April gave the hem of her night dress a tug, but had to trust the darkness to hide most of her legs. She followed Mike and squatted down next to where he sat.
She didn't see the way Mike looked at her legs out of the corner of his eye for the brief second they were fully lit. She also missed the tiny smile he wore as he looked them up and down before turning back to his phone.
"You feeling better?" He pulled April close and sat with his arm around her shoulders, fiddling with his cell phone. "I was kinda worried about you." He slid his thumb over his phone screen, but his blue eyes were locked on her face. "I wanted to ask when we got home, but I didn't want to hafta explain everything to Leo or Dad, you know?"
"Yeah, I know," April shrugged. His stare was pretty intense. She looked down at her hands and, again, tugged at the hem of her gown. "Better, yeah. Raph said if I had bad dreams I could sleep in his room tonight, but I was sleeping good." Then she grinned at him. "Before you woke me up."
"Yeah, well." Lately, Michelangelo wondered if the Universe were conspiring against them. They never had any alone time, of course, but that was the problem with living in a converted underground bunker. There was very little space, with four boys and a young girl all piled on top of each other.
Leonardo once told Mike that Splinter had been thinking about them moving, but hadn't said anything definite about it. That had been months ago, and nobody had heard anything more about it, so they had all come to terms with living down here for five months of lock-down, and having nearly no privacy. No quiet time. No… personal time… with April.
Without looking at his phone, Mike tapped the screen, and the spoken start of the 1975 concert version of "Rhiannon" started playing. "Come dance with me," he whispered, putting the phone on the floor in front of him. He stood, taking her hand, and leading her just outside the ring of light made by the lantern.
April was glad of the dim surroundings hiding her blush. She followed Mike obediently, letting him settle his hand on her hip, her own hand on his shoulder. He pulled her very, very close, and she felt the back of her neck starting to sweat. Her right hand in his left was damp, but Mike either didn't notice or didn't care.
This is a song about a Welsh witch, Stevie Nicks declared as the first strains of the music began to play.
April didn't remember the last time she and Mike had been alone - really alone. Tonight, hiding under the bushes, they'd smoked and snuggled and played like they always did, but Mike must have had it in the back of his mind that one of the others was probably watching over them, because he hadn't talked about anything too personal.
It wasn't very fair. If the older boys wanted some solitude, Splinter didn't object to them taking short walks or scouting the rainwater culvert not far from their home, and if they didn't want to leave, they could lose themselves in their various projects. Mike could escape into his paintings sometimes, but his time to use the garage was limited. Raph, Don, and Leo needed the space to work on their various commissions, and the family needed the money, so either he shared his space or he gave it up to give the older turtles room.
Rhiannon rings like a bell through the night
And wouldn't you love to love her?
Neither she nor Mike were allowed to leave without an escort, and April's photography still required Donatello's help if she wanted her pictures developed properly. The guys tried very hard not to be all up in her things, but the tiny section of their "sleeping room" that was blocked out just for her felt smaller and smaller every day.
And Mike and April never had any alone time anymore. If Raph wasn't following them around at a distance, Leo was right up in their personal space. And while Don didn't baby them the way the other two did, he could be intrusive any time the youngest siblings found themselves on their own.
She rules her life like a bird in flight
And who will be her lover?
April suddenly realized that, for once, they were completely alone.
No wonder Mike had woken her up and snuck her in here!
All your life you've never known
A woman taken by the wind
"We have to do this again, soon," she whispered.
Mike raised his brow at her. "We're doing this now. Pay attention." Lately, more than wanting his own space, he'd wanted April's undivided attention. Her little crushes on Don and Raph weren't too bad, but why had Raph had to come to their rescue tonight? Why couldn't Mike have manned up enough to comfort April by himself? At the time, he'd appreciated Raphael's presence, but now he was kicking himself for letting Raph get between them yet again.
Would you stay if she promised you Heaven
And would you ever win?
Mike liked being able to hold April. To dance with her. To move his body very close to hers.
She is like a cat in the dark
And then she is the darkness
April blushed hotly to find herself pulled tight against Michelangelo's chest, her cheek turned to rest on his plastron.
She rules her life like a fine skylark
And when the sky is starless
April was quite a bit shorter than Mike, so he had to stop dancing and push her away slightly to bend down and press his wide mouth to her sweet lips.
Once in a million years a lady like her rises
Oh no, Rhiannon, you cry, but then she's gone
Your life knows no answer, your life knows no answer
April kissed warmly and gently, and she tasted of mint toothpaste.
Mike kissed with a forceful clumsiness April found appealing, and he tasted like cinnamon chewing gum.
There was a bit of awkwardness with the differences in their mouth shapes, and Mike's tongue got a little too close to April's elongated canines, but he barely felt the bite, and completely forgot it as he melted into her, or she into him, whichever.
They broke apart, only to kiss again, dancing forgotten.
Rhiannon
Rhiannon
Mikey wrapped an arm around her waist, his free hand cupping the back of April's head, fingers threading through her hair. April traced her nails down the scutes of Mike's plastron. They kissed with an exuberance that made up for their lack of practice.
When they finally broke apart, the two of them giggled quietly. They could each see the blush on the other's face.
"Wow," April whispered. "I've got to stop sleeping at night - hanging out with you is a lot more fun!"
Mike beamed a stupid grin that April found strangely charming. "So… you know you're not really my sister. Right?"
"Yeah." She ground her toe into the wooden floor, suddenly shy. "Well. You're not really my brother, either. So…"
"So… you're okay with… this?" He gestured between the two of them with his index finger.
"I'd have hit you if I weren't," April assured him. "And Splinter gave me special lessons."
Mike's right brow ridge went up. "What kind of 'special lessons?'"
"How to get away from any guys pulling unwanted moves on me." She beamed brightly. "He called it, 'beating boys back with an ugly stick.' I need to show you some of the funky kicks I learned!"
Michelangelo covered his mouth to muffle his laugh, then reached for April again. She liked Mike's assertiveness. She liked the way he held her close while he was kissing her, the way his mouth softened on hers, the way she could feel his heart pounding behind his plastron through her thin nightshirt.
Mike forgot about the claustrophobic closeness that always surrounded his family and felt more free standing here in the dojo with April than he ever had running the rooftops of New York City.
All your life you've never seen
A woman taken by the sky
Would you stay if she promised you heaven
Oh would you even try?
Eventually, April pulled away from Mike and tugged nervously on her dress. "I really have to get some sleep," she whispered. "If I'm not good at practice tomorrow, Splinter's going to disown me."
Mike's grin fell a little. "Yeah." He gave a cheerful shrug then. "I should at least be in bed, but I'm not gonna sleep." He licked his lips nervously. "You wanna… do this again tomorrow night?"
"This is kind of…" April flushed, smiling despite her attempts to control herself. "Kind of a date, isn't it?"
"Kind of." Mike looked around, annoyed that it was the same old dojo they saw every day of the year. "I wish I could take you out someplace."
"Well, this is good." April grabbed his hand and stood on tip-toe to kiss the very end of his beak. "I like it. You picked a good date for us. So… yeah. Tomorrow. Same time?"
Internally, Mike danced and spiked an imaginary football. Externally, he smiled that idiotic smile. "Yeah, same time. I'll wake you up."
Neither made a move to leave. Eventually, April leaned against him to exchange one last kiss before slipping out on her bare feet and heading back through the dark to her cubby in their room.
Mike turned off the music, put the lantern back in place, and gave her a minute to get settled in her cubby before following her out. He hummed the tail end of the refrain to himself as he slipped through the great room to their room and bundled himself into his cubby and onto his futon.
He lay awake for an hour, grinning at the dark ceiling like a fool. Stevie Nicks cheered him on in his mind.
Dreams unwind
Love's a state of mind
