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"You sure about this?"
April nods. Her jaw is tight. Her eyes are sharp with focus. Nothing in the arch of her spine or plant of her feet or clench of her fist around the borrowed bokken she has raised before her reads hesitation. If she is unsure, she hides it very, very well. But Raph was never too good at reading people, so it’s hard to tell. Donnie would know. He would know if she was afraid or debating with herself, would know if her heart was beating faster as she bends into a defensive stance. Raph can only guess.
If she says she’s sure, he has to assume she is.
He shifts his weight. His own practice sword, strange in his hand from years of disuse, cuts a lazy arc to his side. April exhales, as Splinter has taught her. Raphael remembers those early lessons, entire afternoons spent trying to meditate, struggling to hold still as his brothers fell easily and naturally into the place between thought and action. Breathe, Splinter would say. Calm the storm inside yourself, and breathe. It had never been Raph’s strong point.
He had spent entire years just breathing before he’d known what it was like to hold a weapon. April had graduated to that particular honor inside a month. Part of him was envious.
"Do it," she says.
So he does.
He tests the waters with an almost lazy sweep, low and looping, and she evades. He advances and she spins to the left, opening an escape route but leaving her flank vulnerable, and receives a shoulder to the gut for it. She’s a flash of color somersaulting to the ground and something in Raph immediately panics - oh shit oh shit oh shit - but she’s up as fast as she went down, and they’re circling, circling.
He waits for her attack, but it never comes. She’s patient. Moreso than he is, though that’s no surprise. His bokken cuts through the air and the clatter of wood on wood confirms she is paying attention. It is almost with the deliberance of a delicate kata that he spins to catch her opposite side, and she deflects that blow as well, circling lithely out of his reach the moment his sword slips from hers. He’s babying her, of course, but it’s still surprising, the lightness in her movements. She is quick and careful and focused, and she is learning fast.
"You aren’t taking this seriously," she accuses, and if Raph had eyebrows, they’d shoot up.
"How do you figure?"
"I’m not stupid. If you’re not going to bring it, there’s no point in sparring."
Annoyed, Raph hunches low and moves to sweep her feet out from under her, but she is in the air before he can. “You’re not even sparring! You’re just running away!”
"I’m banking on my strengths," she replies in an indelicate grunt as she stumbles back, dancing out of the way of a series of blunt jabs only to trip over her own feet. She rolls out of the way of his onslaught, and in a blur of red hair, she is behind him. "We’ve all got ‘em."
"You haven’t been at this long enough to have strengths,” he snaps, but he knows this is a lie even as he spits it out. Master Splinter has gone a different route with April. There will be no attempts at a broad mastery of all the shadow arts for her - or at least not anytime soon. Instead, he has apparently decided a crash course in taijitsu is more appropriate. April moves fluidly, if not uncertainly, and every step, every breath is focused on maintaining balance, on defense and uprooting, on toppling her opponent by making his strength her own.
It’s kind of ingenius, truth be told.
"I asked you to help me," she reminds him. "Are you going to spar, or should I just go to Leo?"
April has found the magic words, and Raphael comes at her.
It doesn’t take long. The bokken goes clattering out of her hands, and she is on her knees, clutching her midsection and likely trying not to puke. Raph opens his mouth to offer something between an apology and a that’s-what-you-get, but she rises, shakily, before he can, scooping up her abandoned weapon and moving back into position. Uncertainly, he does the same.
Their swords meet. She twists from his grasp, tagging him in the process. Part of him is shocked, and part of him is pissed. The pissed part is definitely the more dominant. A shoulder check and she goes sliding across the dojo into the cross beam of a training dummy. Again, she rises.
And again. And once more.
She is a bruised, battered mess by the time she kneels with one hand on the hilt of her bokken, panting raggedly. Sweat drips from her matted hair. A black eye will likely form, and Raphael will be surprised if Splinter doesn’t beat him stupid for it. This might not have been a very good idea.
He drops down beside her, a little on the winded side himself.
"Damn, April," is his summary of the situation, and she manages a dry little chuckle in response. "You okay?"
"Yeah." She slumps fully to the floor, surrendering for the day. Her left knee is oozing blood. When did that happen? "Yeah, I’m fine. I’m good."
"Yeah, beaten half to death is a great look for you. Super attractive."
Somehow, she finds the strength to swat him upside the head, even as she’s snorting a laugh. “Good thing I’m not aiming to impress you, then.”
"Really? Because I can’t think of a single other reason for what just happened. The hell’s gotten into you, April? You don’t need to prove anything to me, if that’s what this is about."
When she turns, April’s features have arranged themselves into something Raph can’t read. Something appraising, maybe, but clear and focused, strong and certain. Her left eye is swelling, but he’s still pretty certain her gaze could cut through solid rock. It’s unsettling. He wishes he knew her better. He wishes he knew what this meant.
"It’s not about you," she finally assures him. "Well, not really. I need to train. I know Splinter doesn’t want me pushing too hard, but he has to know how bad it’s getting. My dad is running out of time. I can’t just sit here knocking around wooden swords while they get up to god knows what. I have to get better. Fast."
"So, you came to me because I’m the best?" he asks, and her eyes roll dramatically. "I still don’t get it. I’m not good with beginners, April. I’m nobody’s sensei. Donnie would spend every waking minute with you if he could, why not train with him?"
April’s gaze drops to her toes, and when she speaks, her voice is colored with an exapserated warmth Raph reads much more clearly than her cryptic expressions. “He goes too easy on me.”
"So, just ask him to stop. He’ll do anything for you. It’s actually really obnoxious."
"It’s not that simple." She reaches up and pulls the band from her hair, shaking the damp mess out over her shoulders. "Shredder’s guys.. they’re not like the bad guys from the movie. They’re not gonna hesitate because I’m a girl or a kid or whatever. One moment of weakness and they won’t think twice about running me through. I know that."
"We won’t let that happen," Raph objects, but April waves him off.
"If I’m going to be out there, I need to be ready. I’ve never been in a real fight before. Moving through katas with Splinter isn’t the same, and neither is training with Donnie." She bites her lip. looking for the right words. "Like.. okay. That old saying. More sweat in training, less blood in battle. I won’t learn to be strong if everyone’s handling me with kid gloves all the time, and I know you won’t pull punches. If I have to get my ass kicked a couple times, well, that’s the way it is. You won’t treat me like I’ll break. Donnie.."
"Donnie?"
Her lips quirk upwards, ever so slightly. “Donnie couldn’t hurt me if he wanted to. That’s what I like about him.”
"Oh."
Raph tries not to grimace too much. There is a pause as he searches for something inoffensive to say.
"That’s… actually, okay, this conversation just got really awkward and I kind of want to hit something again."
She laughs. Despite how much her ribcage must ache, she throws her head back and sincerely laughs. Raph rolls his eyes and pulls himself to his feet, reaching out a hand to his battered opponent. She takes it, still giggling, and allows him to haul her up.
"Come on," he sighs. "You’ve got a date with the first aid kit. Donnie’s gonna kill me when he sees you like this."
"You’re actually worried about his retaliation?"
"He’ll probably build an android to throttle me in my sleep," he mutters, and April laughs again. "It’s a legitimate concern!"
"I’m sure you can handle it," she snickers, giving him an easy shove as she shoulders her weapon and dances out the door. The spring is already sneaking back into her step, and in spite of himself, Raph is impressed.
"I was wrong," he remarks, and this is enough to stop April in her tracks. He has no gift for reading people, this much is true, but Raphael still knows surprise when he sees it.
“Come again?” she asks.
"You have strengths. I’ve never seen anyone get back up the way you do."
She studies his face a moment, but soon she wears her brightest smile, and the steely, foreign focus in her eyes is softened by its light. “Damn straight.”
They leave together, to bandage her wounds.