warning: not intended for young 'uns. Adult situations, violence, and nasty language
follow, though not as bad as sometimes.
Layla
Aluminum, tastes like fear
Adrenaline, it pulls us near
(I'll take you over...)
It tastes like fear,
(...there. I'll take you over...)
Will you live to 83?
Will you ever welcome me?
--R.E.M., E-bow the Letter
"Wanna come watch us train?" Shadow asks.
"I don't know...I'm kinda busy..."
"This is a special one," Shadow says. "This time we get to fight against the ninja..."
April frowns. "I didn't even think Leo was around..."
"Aw, Raph does it half the time anyway," Casey says.
"Yeah." But not when my kids are involved... "Maybe I'll come down and watch you guys."
"Yeah," Casey says, "come on...it's kind of fun to see how they match up against each
other."
It's Saturday, so the TV in the corner is off. Fine with April; watching the stocks
glide by on Bloomberg unnerves her as much as watching Raph train the kids.
Something about watching him calmly turn his eye to the Dow Jones while they're
pounding the crap out of each other. It's so hot the room's practically steaming; once in a
while the guys will consent to having a fan in the window, but most of the time they
insist the kids should train the way they'd have to fight; in all weathers, under all
conditions. Ookami's only six, and she already knows how to properly grasp the edge of a
manhole cover.
It goes better than April expects, for a while. Everything's fine until they get to the end of
the katas. Carlos is almost finished when Raph's staff snakes out, knocking his son off
balance.
"Carlos," Raph says harsly, "no cutting corners."
Raven snickers. April frowns.
"But Dad, I wasn't--"
"You didn't follow through. And when I'm holding this--" he lifts Splinter's staff, the
teacher's staff-- "you address me as sensei. Which you should know by now."
"But--"
"Carlos," he says, "it was sloppy and it could've gotten you killed. That's the end of it, all
right?"
Carlos frowns at him, and the staff swings up, knocks Carlos hard on the back of the
head.
"Start it over," he commands. April winces.
Carlos says nothing, but starts the kata over.
"Raph," April says.
"What?" His eyes meet hers, defiant before he even knows what she's going to say.
"I don't like your hitting them like that--"
"April," he says sharply, his eyes back on the kids. "As long as I hold this staff, I'm in charge of these students. If you can defeat me in single combat, I'll hand it over to you with a smile on my face. Until then, I'm in charge, and I know what's best for them. Understand?"
"I understand," she says darkly.
Mike watches her as she retreats to the corner of the training room. Raph's been in a bad mood ever since Leo left a couple days ago, on another of his risky attempts to find Isamu. This isn't the day to try arguing with him.
"Carlos, spar with your sister, tonfa...try not to beat him up too bad, huh, Lupe? Angela, you're with Raven, Shadow, I wanna see what you can do against Mike, okay?"
"Sure," she says.
"Wait," April says softly. Raph turns to her. She's standing next to the wall, holding one of Casey's bats.
"What?"
"You said if I could defeat you--"
Casey says, "April, will you just--"
"Casey," Mike says. "Everyone speaks here, remember?"
Raphael is calmly hanging his sais on the wall.
"You said--" April begins again.
"I remember what I said," he tells her, takes a staff off the wall. "Warm up. I'll give 'em ten minutes to spar, after that, it's you and me."
Mike takes her arms, looks into her eyes. "You'll do fine, April."
"Yeah, right..."
"April. Trust me, okay? You're a lot better than you think you are. Just don't let him
intimidate you." I wish it was that easy. "Thanks, Mike."
"Remember," he murmurs, "he may be better, but you're smarter. You can use that..."
"April?" Raph asks. "You ready?"
"Ready as I'll ever be," she says.
"Good." He smiles that familiar, sadistic smile...
"He thinks he's got the edge 'cause he scares you," Mike whispers. "Prove him wrong." Easier said than done, April thinks, but she strides to the center of the ring with as much confidence as she can muster. Just don't humiliate yourself, you'll be all right...
They bow. Let him make the first move...
They circle each other, slowly... it's impossible to breathe in this heat, how can she possibly fight?
"Y'know," he says, "it's gonna be awful hard to beat me if you never fight..."
"I was just thinking the same thing," she says.
He strikes out, hard, with the bo; she catches it with the bat, feels the shock in her
forearms. Another strike, a third, her mind concentrates on the attack...
"Good," he says, smiling--he's toying with me-- she swings the bat at his head; he
ducks it easily, but isn't prepared for the kick she delivers to his leg.
He frowns, smacks her side with the bo, hard, and she goes down.
Casey opens his mouth, starts getting up, but Mike holds him back. "Hold on," he says.
"That wasn't much."
"What--"
Mike nods back at them; April getting up, holding the bat again, more comfortably this
time, Raph waiting for her. "You ready?"
"Yeah," she said. That wasn't so bad...
He kicks this time, not enough time to block it, so she moves back, tries to figure out
where the next-- shit.
He goes to her side again, where he hit her the first time, gonna bruise-- He's picking out my weak spots...She stands up, waits for him to strike again,
yes, he goes to the same spot but she's not there, moving forward, hits him with
the bat-- YES-- kicks, gets him right in the plastron, damn that's hard-- it
takes her off guard, he hits her chin with the back of his hand, flips her and her back hits
the ground-- faces her, says "had enough?"
"No." She slams her knee up, connects with his jaw, swings and punches his shoulder--
he grabs her, flips them both, drives his knee into the center of her back, his hand at her
neck.
Mike starts breathing again. "Okay," Casey says, "let her up--"
She reaches, grabs Raph's arm, flips him over her back.
"Your mom doesn't give up," Angela tells Raven admiringly.
"No," Raven says proudly. "She doesn't."
Raph lands on one hand, awkardly, springs up, waits in a crouch.
Her instincts are serving her pretty well, he'd bet better than any of Casey's crappy
training; but she's tiring, he can see it. He wipes the blood from his mouth; that last kick
did some damage...and she's lucky he hasn't broken one of her ribs yet...he should call it
off, but since when has he done the smart thing? "Ready?"
"Yeah." She picks the bat back up, stands ready for him.
"Look," Casey says tentatively, "why don't we just talk this out--"
Raph's eyes flash in his direction. "First time I've ever heard you say that,
Casey."
He starts getting up. "Raph--"
"Casey," April says sharply, and the way she's holding the baseball bat is enough to
convince him to sit back down.
"I don't like this," he grumbles to Mike.
"Not much we can do," Mike says.
He strikes at her weak side again, and she dodges him. "Good," he says.
She frowns at him, swings the bat-- fakes the blow, gets him off balance, but he's still
inches away from her foot as she kicks.
"What about that pisses you off so much? I'm tryin' to compliment ya..."
"I'm not one of your students, Raph." They're circling each other again, slow,
cautious.
"You're still an amateur."
This time she doesn't take the bait.
"Not to mention you're gettin' old..."
Her eyes narrow, but she stays calm. "Like you're one to talk, Raph?"
"Well--"
"I mean, women peak in their thirties, but men...they're all done at seventeen...don't have
the oomph down there you used to, right?"
Mike starts laughing; Raph's arm flies out, but she ducks it...Casey quickly scans the kids.
They look lost. Good.
"Pretty soon you're gonna be sneaking into the pharmacy..."
He growls. Casey looks over at Mike. Mike hasn't taken his eyes off Raph since he
stopped laughing.
"Least ya don't haveta worry about going bald, I guess..."
He flies at her, which she expected, but she wasn't expecting him to stop inches
from her--
He wraps an arm around her neck, and they're both on the ground again, April's face at
the mat. "Good thought," he says. "But I am older...don't lose it easy as I used to,
either."
He's breathing hard, now, she can feel the changing pressure on her back.
"Raph..." She gulps for air. "Raph, please, you're starting to--"
He eases up, and Shadow can see the grin spreading over her mother's face.
For half a second, she thinks about warning him.
Then April's fist slams into Raph's face. "Sucker," she crows, follows it with another
kick to his plastron--
She's rising, then falling again-- oh my God that hurts...
He had her by the leg, now the grip is changing...
The world spins...
And Raph's face swims into focus. "April," he says, his breath in her face, his hands on
her wrists, pressure bearing down on her breasts... "do you understand the
difference?"
A bead of sweat from his forehead drips onto her face. "What," she gasps, "what
difference?"
"What if you were fighting for your life, April?"
She can feel the pulse in his thighs against her jeans. "I--"
"I don't want 'em panicking the first time something hurts."
"I didn't panic," she says stiffly, feeling his chest rise and fall against hers.
"Maybe I just didn't hurt you enough."
Casey starts to get up again and Mike stops him.
"Mike--"
"You'll do more damage gettin' into it, Casey," Mike says softly.
"Would you hurt me enough in front of them?"
"If I thought it would save their lives someday? I'd beat the living crap out of you. And
you would too..." He stops, takes a deep breath in, lets it slowly come out. "Okay." He
stands up, takes the staff again, looks at his students. "All right, kids, what have we
learned today?" Not to piss you off, Shadow thinks, but she's smart enough not to say it.
"We learned," Raph says carefully, "that even when you think you're right, you can't
always win. But...if you think you're right, it may be worth trying. Though April didn't
win this match, she's more than earned you kids the rest of the day off."
The kids try-- with some difficulty-- to contain their excitement.
Raph looks over at Mike. "Will Maureen be okay if they all show up--"
"Yeah, that's fine."
"Good. You kids run over to Aunt Maureen's, and we'll pick ya up when we're
finished."
"Finished what?" Casey asks.
"Discussing their training."
"Right," Casey says, trying to get the disbelief out of his voice.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"You okay?" Mike asks the bathroom door.
"Fine," Raph growls.
"You better come out; I got yer kids here and Maureen wants me home..."
"'Nother minute."
"How long you been in there?"
"While."
"You know, cold water only makes it worse..."
"Fuck off."
"It's true." Mike grins. "Sure you feel a little better now, but an hour later your testosterone count's hit the ceiling and yer beggin' fer..."
"I thought you said my kids were here--"
"Mercy," Mike finishes. "What did you think I was gonna say?"
Raph groans and shuts the water off.
Contents are the property of phishtar, with the exception of the Eric Clapton-- Derek and the Dominoes title reference and R.E.M. quote; and of course
many of the characters are the intellectual property of these guys. If you try to profit from any of this, good luck...you're gonna need it. If you'd like
to link to this story, please link to the main page. If you'd like
to reproduce this for any reason, email me
and we'll talk. Your comments are welcome as well.
