Peace
Chapter One
Dedicated to wombatking
The sounds of activity were the first thing that Karai heard in the mornings when she woke up. It had taken her a few weeks to adjust to living in her family’s sewer lair, but as she rolled onto her back on the padded mat and gazed up at the ceiling, she was proud to think that she was adjusting. She raised her arm above her head, spreading out her fingers and gazing at the ceiling in-between them as she listened to the ever-increasing volume of activity in the kitchen.
She’d never felt like this before—so welcomed, as though she really belonged—as she did with her new family. Her true family. Her father and brothers hadn’t hesitated in trying to make her transition from being the Foot Clan leader to, not only member of their team, but a member of their family as easy as they could. She wasn’t very good at saying thank you, and hadn’t muttered it more than once even to her father, but felt immense gratitude towards them all regardless.
“Raph! Come on, that’s mine!”
“I grabbed it first! Go get your own!”
Karai smiled to herself at her brother’s bickering, then rolled gracefully to her feet, stretching her arms high above her head and swiveling her torso this way and that till her lower back stretched out and popped pleasantly. Things were certainly different here, but she didn’t think that that was a bad thing.
Dressed in her simple black clothing, armor put away until needed, Karai left her small sleeping area and headed towards the kitchen. She wasn’t at all surprised to find her brothers arguing over the last slice of leftover pizza, and shook her head with a small smile tugging at her unpainted lips as she crossed to the fridge unnoticed.
There was hardly ever anything decent in their fridge, but, once in a while, she found a surprise waiting for her—like fresh eggs. She plucked out two eggs from within the fridge’s depths, then closed the door and crossed towards the grimy stovetop. She lit the nearest burner and set the eggs on the counter.
“Come on, man, you stole my pizza last night!” Mikey groused through gritted teeth as he was crushed under his brother’s weight, the coveted pizza slice just out of his reach.
“I did not; I just stole back the piece you stole from me!” Raph quipped back, opening his mouth wide to enjoy the final slice of stale cold pizza. He swayed slightly with the effort of keeping Mikey at bay.
With a flick of her wrist and fast reflexes, Karai snatched the pizza from between Raph’s fingers and leaned back against the counter triumphantly.
“Hey!” the turtles snapped, eyeing her with surprise as they noticed her presence in the kitchen for the first time.
She cocked a brow and smiled at them, waving the junk food tauntingly. “You snooze, you lose,” she mocked, opening her mouth as though about to take a bite, but then her gaze shifted to a spot behind the turtles. “Hey, catch,” she called, and tossed the pizza over the turtles’ heads and outstretched hands.
“Oh!” April jumped slightly as she caught the slice of pizza, successfully avoiding getting any of its greasy contents on her clothes. “Well, thanks,” she said with a smile and took a bite out of the pizza. She made a slight face at the odd combination of flavors, but munched away dutifully as she ascended into the kitchen.
“Aw, man, that was my breakfast!” Mikey whined, grunting when his brother climbed off of him.
“Yeah, right,” Raph grumbled, crossing his arms.
“It’s not really to my taste, but I didn’t get a chance to eat breakfast this morning, so I won’t complain,” April said licking her fingers as she finished off the slice of pizza. She came to stand near the stove where Karai had gone back to cooking her eggs.
“Wish you’d said that before you scarfed that junk down. I would have made you eggs,” Karai said, smiling at the red-headed girl as she cracked the eggs over the heated frying pan.
“Oh, that’s okay. I don’t really have time to stay anyway. I just wanted to stop by on my way to school,” April said with a good-natured smile.
“But isn’t the lair a little out of, uh, your way, April?” Donnie inquired from the other side of the table, glancing towards the fridge where Mikey was now throwing out a number of random food selections for them to make for breakfast.
“Maybe a little, but I thought it would be worth it.” April’s smile widened before she leaned in and gave a surprised Karai a kiss on the cheek. “It’s a short day today,” she said, more to Karai than the turtles, brushing a strand of lose red hair behind her ear. “So I’ll be here earlier than normal. Maybe we could get in some one-on-one practice before training with Master Splinter starts.” Her cheeks burned slightly.
Karai felt her own cheeks burning with heat and turned her attention back to her eggs, her heart puttering a little faster than usual against her ribs. “Yeah, sounds good,” she said with a nod, shooting the other girl a sideways glance and a small smile.
April beamed and turned to leave. “Thanks for the pizza. I’ll see you guys later!” She waved at the turtles and trotted off for the exit. “Say good morning to Master Splinter for me!” she called as she hopped over the guardrailing that blocked the rest of the sewer tunnel from the lair.
“Bye, April!” Mikey called back, dropping a large stash of frozen pizza bites onto the table top.
Donnie whined and lowered his head to the table.
“Oh, come on, Donnie. Don’t act like that,” Leo sighed as he sat down at the end of the table and started sorting through the food options that Mikey had provided for them. “You know April still likes hanging out with us. Nothing’s changed.”
Tuning in to the conversation behind her, Karai switched off the stovetop and turned to face her brothers. She crossed her arms to hold her elbows and leaned against the counter. “I’m sorry, Donnie. I know you like April…” She chewed on the inside of her cheek for a moment and looked away from the lanky turtle.
She’d known for a long time how important April was to the turtles, having used the red-headed girl as bait on several occasions herself. But it also hadn’t taken her long to realize that Donatello had special feelings for the girl. The potential of hurting her brother had only briefly crossed her mind when she and April had started getting close—becoming friends. When April admitted that she’d always thought that Karai was really pretty, any thought of hurting her brother hadn’t even entered into Karai’s head.
“Oh no, please don’t feel bad, Karai!” Donnie gasped, the gap between his teeth making a slight whistling sound that Karai was starting to find adorably charming. He shook his head and waved his hands rapidly at her. “I’m not upset with you, and I don’t blame you, or—or anything like that!” He deflated slightly and rubbed at the back of his head. “I mean, I just want April to be happy. And if getting close to you makes her happy, then who am I to try and mess that up?”
“Besides what kind of big brother would you be if you ruined Karai’s first relationship, Donnie?” Mikey frowned and whacked the tallest turtle upside the head with a frozen pizza bite as he walked around the table towards the stove.
Karai had to restrain a snicker. She wouldn’t be the one to spoil Mikey’s view of her by telling him that she’d indeed had other relationships before, though nothing quite like her relationship with April. They weren’t quite dating, but they were more than friends. She didn’t fully understand what they were becoming to one another, but she didn’t mind the way it made her feel.
“Big brother?” Karai chuckled, turning to remove her frying pan from the stovetop. She slid the eggs onto a plate using a pair of chopsticks.
“Well, yeah,” Mikey said happily as he opened up the frozen pizza bites and started laying them out on a dingy and beat-up baking sheet. “Leo’s the oldest, I’m the youngest, and you’re, like, the one right above me.”
“Does that make me the middle child?” Raph asked, cocking a browridge in thought.
“That would explain so much,” Leo teased.
“Shut up!”
“Whatever you say, Mikey,” Karai chuckled, taking a seat at the cluttered table and setting her plate down. “Itadakimasu.” She cracked her chopsticks apart and starting in on her breakfast.
She listened to the boys chatter and argue while she ate her breakfast, not really taking in most of what they were saying; her mind was playing the kiss April had given her on repeat. If she thought enough on it, she could have sworn that the spot where she had kissed her still felt warm—was tingling even.
Karai had been living with her father and brothers in their sewer home for nearly three months—three glorious months since the defeat of her kidnapper, Shredder; three months of getting to know her true family and work with them to hunt down the rest of the Foot Clan. Sure, it had taken some getting used to, and there were still some things she wasn’t entirely adjusted to, but she knew that with more time everything would fall into place.
During her time living in the sewers, she had gotten closer with her brothers, even getting Raph to warm up to her more, and worked to form a bond with her father. She’d never felt so loved than when her father’s arms wrapped her up in a firm hug. Shredder had never shown her such warmth and kindness. All he’d ever given her was a harsh attitude and a lifetime’s worth of fighting skills—some of which she was now having to unlearn under her father’s watchful and keen eyes.
Along with getting closer with her family, Karai had also been making friends with April and even Casey, despite thinking that the latter was rather annoying and way too overconfident. It had taken April and Karai about a week to get over their past encounters and move forward as fellow students under Master Splinter; once they did, they both found, much to their pleasant surprise, that they worked rather well together.
Where Karai had more training and skill, April knew Master Splinter’s technique—things that, when combined between the two of them, made them a rather formidable team. Sure, they weren’t really good enough yet to take on Leo and Raph two-on-two, but Karai didn’t doubt that once they’d learned more about each other and how they worked together, they’d be taking down the boys in no time.
“Hey, Karai, wanna play some video games before morning training?” Leo asked, drawing Karai’s attention from her wandering thoughts.
She blinked and sat up a little straighter in her chair to find that the turtles had finished their breakfasts and were making their way towards the living area. She glanced down at her own empty plate and stood up. “No, that’s okay.” She paused. “Thanks, though,” she added awkwardly as she put her plate in the sink—no doubt where it would fester until either Leo or Donnie couldn’t stand it any longer. Karai figured she’s beat them both to the clean up.
“Okay, suit yourself,” Leo said with a shrug before turning and joining his brothers.
Karai glanced fondly at the four mutants as she ascended the stairs towards the dojo and her father’s room.
---
The dojo was one of her favorite rooms in the entire lair. The lair was cool, charming even in it’s own way, but Karai found the dojo to be almost magical what with its giant bonsai tree growing up towards the ceiling, shafts of light filtering in through its thick leaves to dapple the decorated mats at its base.
A quick glance around the room told her that her father was not there, so she crossed towards the sliding doors on the far end. Kneeling down and tucking her feet carefully underneath her, she bent over her knees slightly and cleared her throat.
“Good morning, Father. I was wondering if I could speak with you.”
A few silent seconds passed before the sliding door opened, and, as she straightened up, she found herself faced with her father.
She couldn’t help the smile that tugged at her lips as she looked at him. Something warm and fluttering careened around her insides at the realization that it hadn’t all been a dream. She really was free of Shredder and the Foot, she really did have brothers, and this really was her father.
Sometimes she found it a bit silly and almost laughable at the fondness she felt for the man-sized rat, but then she told herself that it didn’t matter that her father was a mutant rat. That wasn’t a fact that changed how he felt towards her, nor how obviously happy he was to have her in his life again.
“Miwa, good morning,” Splinter greeted her, ears perking up slightly as he looked down at her. “It is still a bit early for training; what is it that you wish to speak about without your brothers?”
She felt her cheeks warm slightly at the sound of her birth name; she still wasn’t entirely comfortable going by that name yet. She didn’t think she would have permitted anyone but her father to call her by it.
“It isn’t something that I couldn’t discuss in front of them,” she said shrugging one shoulder awkwardly. “But I thought that it was something that maybe we should talk about alone.” She cleared her throat and closed her eyes, trying to gather up her thoughts and steel her nerves. When she opened her eyes, she found her father watching her intently, as though memorizing every little bit of her features. She wondered if he too sometimes feared that it was all a dream, too good to be true.
Taking a breath she took the plunge. “Father, I was wondering if you would object to my asking April out on a date,” she managed to get out, proud of herself for keeping her voice steady and not letting the words tumble past her teeth at an ungodly speed.
Her father’s ears perked up a little straighter and his whiskers twitched as his brows rose a bit.
She felt her guts twist nervously. “Um, like a date-date, not a friend-date,” she added awkwardly, her voice squeaking a little and forcing her to clear her throat.
“I don’t think that that would be objectionable.”
“It’s just that we’re getting along really well,” Karai said, her gaze wandering as she straightened up a little. Her heart hammered hard against her ribs. “And, when I thought about it, what’s the likelihood of me meeting anyone else that I got along well with, and, I mean, she’s very pretty and— Wait, what?” She blinked, pressing her hands against the tops of her knees as she leaned forward slightly. “What did you say?”
Splinter chuckled. “I said that I don’t think asking April out would be objectionable.”
“Y-You mean, you don’t mind?” Karai gaped, hardly daring to hope. “You don’t mind that…that we’re both girls?”
“Why should I object to that?” he asked, ears quirking slightly as he tilted his head. He reached out and placed his clawed hand over Karai’s own hand gently. “All that matters to me, Miwa, is that you are happy,” he assured. “And April is a good girl; I think that you two work well together. If that extends to a more personal relationship, you two will be all the better for it.”
She could hardly believe her good fortune; not only did her father not object to her desire to possibly date another girl, but he also quite approved of her choice. April wouldn’t have been the first girl that she’d shown interest in, but she never would have dared asked Shredder’s approval.
Beaming, she gave a shallow bow. “Thank you.” When she straightened up, she was seized by an urge she didn’t even bother to fight down, and launched herself forward on her knees to wrap her arms around her father’s shoulders. “Thank you, Father,” she whispered against his fur, squeezing him slightly.
There was a moment of surprised inaction before Splinter’s arms wrapped around her own shoulders and hugged her back. She felt his whiskers tickle at the side of her neck and ear.
“I only want you to be happy, my daughter.”
---
“Okay, I’m here!” April announced loudly as she hop-skipped into the living area of the lair, dropping her school bag at the end of the nearest sofa and beaming at the group sitting around the television. “Did I miss anything exciting?” She glanced from the turtles to Master Splinter, who was sitting drinking tea on the far sofa, and then to Karai who was lounging back a few cushions away from him.
“April, it’s terrible!” Mikey shrieked, grabbing onto her wrist and pulling at her arm gently, tears in his eyes. “A crazy woman showed up out of nowhere and said she’s Karen’s mother!”
April made a momentarily confused face, glancing over the youngest turtle’s head towards the others.
“And then she drugged and kidnapped Leann, like she wasn’t already having enough stress dealing with her jerk of a father who came from the city to do nothing but complain!” Raph barked, flailing his arms angrily.
April glanced towards Karai, who smiled and shrugged her shoulders.
“Wait,” she scratched at her chin confusedly. “Isn’t Karen an alien from a planet billions of lightyears away?”
Mikey nodded his head rapidly, sniffling and tugging on her arm again weakly.
“But I thought her entire planet was dead.”
“Exactly!” Donnie chimed in. “We know that this lady is lying or something, but she’s causing all sorts of trouble for Karen and her adopted family—”
“Hey,” Raph snapped, causing Donnie to flinch and shrink where he sat. “Don’t call the Martins her adopted family!”
“But, Raph, they are,” Leo argued, causing the shorter turtle to turn his rage on his other brother.
“I don’t care!” Raph barked. “They’re more a family to Karen than even her own real family!”
With a little effort, April managed to extract her arm from Mikey’s grip and cross towards the sofa, sitting down beside Karai and looking warily at the arguing turtles around the TV. She shook her head and straightened out her sleeve.
“Is this all you guys have done today—watch Meteorville?” she asked turning her attention back to the other girl.
Karai shrugged her shoulders and crossed her ankles. “No, we had a short early-morning training session, then lunch, then I joined Master Splinter in meditation, and then we started watching this while we were waiting for you,” she said with a warm and more confident smile.
“I hope I didn’t miss anything important,” April said leaning forward in her seat slightly. Her attention was still mostly focused on Karai, but was starting to slip towards their master sipping his tea quietly a few cushions away.
“We merely did some exercise drills—nothing that you have not done hundreds of times,” Splinter said, not glancing in April’s direction as he lowered his teacup to his lap. His eyes were focused on his squabbling sons and the TV program whose plot was unfolding without the notice of the turtles.
April sat back in her seat again and sighed. “Aw, I’m still sorry I missed it.”
“Karai.”
Karai blinked and turned her gaze towards her father, who was still paying attention to the show on the television as he slowly raised his tea cup for another sip.
“Why don’t you and April go do drills—to help April warm up before we begin our session,” he suggested, whiskers twitching slightly as the teacup met his mouth. A dark eye glanced sidelong at her knowingly.
Karai had been pondering all day how she would get April alone to ask her out without the possibility of interruption, and she once again couldn’t believe how fortunate she was to be blessed with a father like Splinter. She knew that he would guarantee them some private time, even if he had to stall the turtles by telling them everything they’d missed during their argument.
She smiled at him and nodded. “Of course, Master.” She stood and bowed to him before turning to April. “Come on.” She nodded her head towards the stairs for the dojo, and offered April a hand.
April smiled and accepted it, standing from the sofa with Karai’s unnecessary help and straightening her shirt before the two headed for the stairs, leaving the boys and their master in the living room.
---
“Thanks for this, Karai. I really appreciate it,” April said as she withdrew her fan from her pants pocket and began stretching her arms above her head, using the fan as an extension of her arm.
Karai was stretching her own shoulders as she crossed to the other end of the dojo, turning to stand beneath the bonsai tree. “No problem,” she assured. “I mean, it wouldn’t really be fair that we’d all gotten a good exercise and warm up session in and you were all stiff and tight from being in school for most of the day,” she teased.
April made a face at her and widened her stance, extending the hand with the fan towards her. “Who’re you calling stiff, Karai?”
“You. I mean, you spend your entire day sitting at a desk don’t you? That can’t be good for your health.”
“Oh I assure you, my health’s just fine,” April teased back, smiling at Karai. “And I’m plenty loose.”
“Oh yeah? How about we test that?”
“Bring it.”
---
“But I don’t get it, why was the photograph at the end of the episode so important?” Mikey asked as Leo turned off the television and helped his brothers gather up their garbage to be thrown away.
“Come on, Mikey, weren’t you paying attention to the beginning of the episode?” Raph asked, thumping Mikey on top of the head as he passed. He balled up his sandwich wrapper and lobbed it towards the large garbage can in the kitchen; the wrapper bounced off of the rim and onto the floor. Raph’s shoulders slumped and he growled in annoyance as Leo bent down and picked the wrapper up, pointedly dropping it into the trashcan.
“You mean about the fact that Leann had a sister?” Mikey asked, standing in the middle of the living room and holding his empty pizza box with a look of perplexed confusion on his face.
“Yes,” Splinter said with a nod as he stood from the sofa and looked down at the youngest turtle. “Do you not remember how Leann confessed to Karen that she was like the younger sister she’d always wished she’d had?”
“Well yeah, but, I mean, Leann had a sister.”
“Yes, but Leann also told Karen that her little sister had died when she was still an infant, leaving Leann with emotional trauma and guilt that has eaten away at her over the years?”
“When did she mention the emotional trauma, Sensei?” Raph asked from the kitchen, where he was helping Donnie shove the trash down deeper into the can so that they wouldn’t have to empty it yet.
Splinter’s gaze shifted towards his other son and he lifted a finger. “She did not say, but it is heavily implied in her writing so far this season. Now that we know that she had a sister, it is easy to tell why she sometimes acts the way she does.”
“I still don’t get why the photo at the end was so important!” Mikey cried, recapturing Splinter’s attention.
“Because the photograph in the locket was not a photo of Leann, but of her father with another child—a child who was quite a bit older than an infant,” he explained.
Mikey’s eyes bulged in their sockets and he dropped his pizza box to slap his hands over his head. “Oh my god!” he shrieked. “Does this mean that Leann’s sister didn’t really die when she was a baby, and her dad’s been lying this entire time?!”
“What?” Leo leaned over the back of the sofa behind Splinter, his own eyes wide. “No way!”
“Wow, what an asshole,” Raph grumbled crossing his arms.
Splinter stroked his thin beard and shook his head slightly. “We cannot be sure as of yet. It remains to be seen if this mysterious child is indeed Leann’s supposedly lost sister. Though, given that we know her father was not a very loyal husband, we may find that this is an entirely different unknown sibling,” he mused, looking down at his youngest son’s upset face.
He chucked his empty tea cup behind him with force. The cup knocked hard against Raphael’s forehead, knocking the stocky turtle back a few steps before he caught the undamaged teacup in his hands and shook his head, slightly dazed.
Splinter turned his attention towards his dazed son, ears flattened back slightly. “And do not use such language, Raphael!” he snapped, causing the other three turtles to snicker quietly.
“Yes, sensei.” Raph bowed slightly in apology, turning to put the tea cup in the sink and rubbing the tender spot on his head where the cup had struck.
---
“You’re getting really good, O’Neil,” Karai panted, resting her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath.
April was sprawled on her back in the middle of the dojo, fan resting a few feet away from her, her chest rising and falling rapidly with her own labored breathing. She had her left hand pressed between her ribs, fingers digging into a stitch that had formed there. She lifted up her right hand and gave Karai a weak thumbs-up before groaning and letting her arm fall.
“I bet that, in another month, we’ll be able to take Raph and Leo,” Karai said as she crossed over to the floored girl, looking down at the redhead splayed out on the dojo mat. Her red hair was slipping from its tie to spread around her head like a slightly crooked halo.
“You think?” April panted.
“Oh yeah.” Karai nodded, offering the other girl a helping hand. “Five weeks top, and we’ll knock ’em on their asses.”
“That sounds pretty good,” April panted, nodding back before reaching up to grip the other girl’s proffered hand. “Really good. But I’ll settle for knocking you on your ass.” She gave her arm a mighty yank.
Karai gasped and fell over April, rolling so as not to crush her, and landed sprawled on the mat beside her. She looked at her with wide, surprised eyes before they both burst into laughter.
“Yeah, well, don’t hold your breath on that one, O’Neil,” Karai teased, leaning up and resting her chin in her hand. “You’ve got a long way to go until you’re ready to take me on in a one-on-one fight.”
“Oh yeah? I’m pretty sure I did pretty well against you the first time we met.”
“Please.” Karai rolled her eyes, smiling at the other girl. “The subway stairs did more damage than you did.”
“Oh yeah, let the stairs take all the credit,” April joked as she rolled onto her stomach so that she was lying shoulder-to-shoulder with the other girl. She rested her chin atop her knuckles and smiled contentedly at Karai.
The two stayed there on the floor of the dojo in comfortable silence for a few moments, before Karai shifted slightly and crossed her arms on the mat in front of her before laying her head down. April followed suit and gazed at her from over her own bicep.
“April, do you remember this morning? That, um, kiss you gave me in the kitchen?”
“Yeah,” April said with a smile before her eyes widened slightly and she stiffened. “Oh no, did I embarrass you in front of the guys? Oh I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have, you just looked so cute, and I don’t think I’d ever seen you without your makeup on before—”
“No, no, you didn’t embarrass me,” Karai assured, shaking her head quickly to try and put the other girl at ease. Admittedly, it had embarrassed her a little bit, but not nearly enough to make the experience a bad one. On the contrary, she’d been thinking on and off about the kiss for most of the day.
“Oh, I’m glad.” April relaxed a little as she gazed at the other girl.
“It just got me thinking,” Karai continued, fiddling with a few loose strands of straw on the mat with her nail. “Well, we’ve been getting along really well over the last few months and, well…”
“Yeah?”
“I was wondering if maybe you’d…” Karai sucked in her lips before taking in a deep breath and making eye contact with the red-headed girl. “Maybe you’d like to go out on a date with me.” She felt herself grow impossibly still as she laid there on the floor of the dojo, waiting for the other girl’s response.
April stared wide-eyed at her for what felt like an eternity—unmoving, unspeaking. Karai thought that she was going to go insane, but then April lifted her head off of her arms and looked down at her.
“Yeah, I’d really like that,” April said with a nod.
Karai’s head shot off of her arms and she lifted herself up onto her elbows. “Really?”
“Yeah. I think it would be fun,” April said her cheeks flushing with a vivid red blush.
Karai felt her own cheeks warming and she smiled widely at the other girl. “Oh my god, I’m so glad! I have no idea what we’ll do yet, but I promise you it’ll be fun!”
April nodded and chuckled. “I think doing anything with you would be fun, Karai,” April assured, making the warmth that was burning in Karai’s cheeks spread to her ears.
“I certainly hope so,” she managed to whisper as she leaned over into the other girl’s space, catching the briefest hint of the spiced applesauce she’d had at lunch before their lips met.
April made a small noise of surprise but didn’t pull away, instead adding a little pressure of her own against Karai’s lips.
Her eyes fluttered closed as they shared their first real kiss. Karai felt as though her head were spinning and the room tilting all at once as her own eyes fell closed. She’d never shared a kiss like this with anyone before, and she was pretty sure she never wanted the feeling to end.
---
“We will do two five-minute drills before splitting into teams,” Splinter announced as he crossed the dojo to stand beneath the bonsai tree, his six students kneeling in the center of the room. They all bowed forward slightly, heads tilted downward and eyes closed.
“Hai, sensei!” they chorused.
Karai lifted her face slightly, catching Splinter’s gaze. She gave a quick wink before standing with the others and getting into position to begin the drills.
Splinter allowed himself a small smile before straightening himself a bit more, whiskers twitching, ears straight up.
“Begin!”
Authors Note: Thanks to UnderdogAngel for beta reading this for me, you're a doll. Also, for anyone who might be curious, the television show Meteorville that the turtles are watching is a parody of Smallville. I couldn't resist, and I regret nothing.