milliways_bar | (no subject)

(no subject)

A young woman with a tangle of dark, curly, brown hair was sitting alone in a booth. Several items were abandoned on the table before her, including a small, leather-bound journal and a plate with a half-eaten chicken salad sandwich. Her bright blue eyes were perusing the pages of the New York Times, although closer inspection would have revealed that they didn't seem to be settling on anything.

She certainly looked like April O'Neil, yet if you were to judge by steely, distant expression alone, you would have easily mistaken her for someone else. There was also the matter of a certain gold locket being conspicuously absent from its previously permanent place around her neck.

~~[OOC: 4:00 PM ET - Mun is leaving work now, and going to do real life-ish stuff. Will be back in a few hours.]~~

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She turned her eyes up to him. "Why must you always been so damned logical about these things?" In spite of her words, she pulled his hand to her mouth, kissing the knuckles. "I love you, too," she murmurred quietly, sighing.

"Because when they say that Wisdom comes from the strangest of places they were talking about me? It's a curse. A curse, I tell you. To be so handsome and so wise all at the same time. It's a wonder I don't just implode on the spot."

Squeezing her hand in reassurance.

"you know, if you need snuggle time with someone who won't break your heart or confuse it futher, you know where to find me, right?"

"I don't want to intrude, Mikey." It was true enough. She felt very much like a guest in his place in spite of the open invitation.

"I wouldn't have offered if it was an intrusion."

"I know. Thanks." She wouldn't go, anyway.

"None required. You should know that by now."

His voice is warm and inviting like cocoa during a blizzard.

"I miss you," April admitted, sitting back up again with a faint, rueful smile. "All of you."

"Are things really all that different now?"

"Feels like it, yeah. When was the last time we were all together?" It had been at least a year, she was certain. "If I want to see you and Raph, I have to be here. If I want to see Leo and Don and Splinter, I've got to be home." She was getting a little tired of being the only one really making an effort to hold their family together. Or, so she thought.

"By all together you mean living in one place, right? Because really, we've been drifting apart for a while April. I mean, it hurts me too, but that doesn't make it any less true."

"No, Mikey, I mean all together. In the same place. For holidays or just... whatever. Like normal families do. Drifting apart is one thing, but just forgetting about it completely?" She sighed and rubbed at her temples. Of course, she knew why they couldn't all be together again, but she couldn't exactly say that, now could she? Aside from the obvious reasons, she was not willing to let so much blame fall on him.

"It's just like... Like you guys don't care anymore!"

"You think we're here because we don't care?"

"I think you're bastards, the lot of you." April crossed her arms over her chest, her mouth forming into an indignant pout. "And you wonder why I think you prefer Mel. You never come home, not even just to visit." She looked away again and added under her breath, "I hate this damned place."

"Well you're right about that. I'm pretty sure my parents weren't married when they decided to clutch. It's something that's taken years for me to get over, but now? Now I've come to embrace my illegitimate heritage."

The smile doesn't seem to be radiating nearly as well as it should be. He sighs, and tries another tactic: honesty.

"Look April, you know why I can't go home. Not yet."

"Yes, I know. And you know why I'm here. But he would be okay for a day, Mikey. He's a big boy." Her sigh echoed his and she slumped in her seat. "You don't know what it's like, going back. Having to tell him what you guys have been doing, so that he at least has some idea. He would never say it, but I can tell he misses you. Both of you."

Mike nods, breaking eyecontact for a moment.

"I know. He tells me."

Then he taps at his temple. Splinter always had that creepy way of showing up unexpectedly as the voice in the back of their heads.

"Do you understand why I'm upset? Why I could get to the point where I just don't want to even be bothered with it anymore? Where I think I should just leave you alone? This isn't just about me, or me and your brother-" She rolled her eyes with a subtle snort, realizing how ludicrous a concept that was. "It's about all of us. About being a part of this family and watching it unravel."

"Honestly? I'm not sure I do. And that's not to say that I haven't been listening,...I just don't know that I understand."

Mike shrugs.

"Of course you don't, you're happy as a clam," April replied, her tone slightly accusatory.

"No April, I just don't try to fight the tides so much as ride the currents. Big difference. Besides...no one really knows how happy clams are."

"Yeah, well, you're not me, Mikey." And you don't know how much this hurts. "I tried to go with the flow, and flow bit me in the ass."

"It happens. I'm not saying it's the perfect thing for everyone. I mean, heck...it nearly drowned me last week."

April opened her mouth to retort but then stopped abruptly, her brow furrowing. "What?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah...I nearly drowned last week. Got sucked right down a hot tub drain pipe.
...
It's wierd...I was never afraid of water before, but I think I am now. That's messed up, isn't it?"

"WHAT?!"