Chapter Text
It was a chilly evening in the beginning of spring in New York. The sun had just set, and the turtles moved out in the shadows.
They were out on patrol, spread out to take each their usual routes… except the leader, funny enough.
No, Leo would take his route soon (probably), he just wanted to check on something first. He walked through a few allies, before he reached the apartment building, where April lived.
I all started the week before, when April announced that she was getting a roommate.
Splinter had just left together with Draxum and Cassandra, on a secret mission. They weren’t sure when he would be back. Obviously, they had protested about not coming with them or even being allowed to know what their mission entailed! But they stayed behind as told. They couldn’t do anything except waiting for them to make contact, but from what they understood, that could take a while.
They were all gathered, eating some pizza in the kitchen, talking about what the secret mission might be about, when April suddenly brought up the news of her new roommate.
“Her name is Lisa and she’ll be moving in next week,” she explained.
The turtles got curious, forgetting all about their dad’s mission for a bit, and started asking questions.
“How do you know her?” Leo asked.
“How old is she?” Mikey followed.
“Where’s she from?” Raph then asked.
“What is her occupation?” Donnie asked lastly.
“She and I were neighbours when we were kids and she’s 19. Like I said, were neighbours when we were kids, but she and her mom moved to some small town in Connecticut when I was in like, fifth grade. Right now, she doesn’t have any occupation that I know of, but she’ll be looking for work when she moves in.”
Leo was reaching for another slice of pizza, while asking, “Why’s she moving in with you?”
“Well…” April hesitated a bit.
She told the boys that Lisa’s mom had died in a car accident just a few months ago. She couldn’t afford to stay in the house on her own, so after the funeral and having sorted things out, she decided to move back to New York, where her grandmother also lived in a nursery home, so she at least could be closer to her. She had found April on social media; she was the only person she could remember from her time in New York besides her nana. When asking her if she knew of a place she could stay in New York, April told her that she herself was actually looking for a roommate, so they met up a few times and after talking things over, it was decided that she would move in as soon as possible.
Raph and Mikey immediately started asking with concern about Lisa, if she was okay, and if it had been okay for her to be on her own after her mother had died.
“She’s fine!” April quickly assured them. “I mean, yeah of course she’s still grieving, but she’s fine! She’s just like how I remember her.”
“What’s she like then?” Raph asked, the worried look had turned into one of curiosity.
“Oh, she’s a lot of fun!” April said, then glanced to the side, as if in afterthought. “But she tends to daydream, and then if you take your eyes off her and she’ll disappear on you.”
This had Leonardo interested. He had a feeling that April wouldn’t be introducing her friend for a while, but this might be the one and only normal friend April had (normal, as in not a mutant/yokai or someone associated with them), she was like a weirdo magnet! He wanted to see what a “not weird” person like that was like.
And so, here we are.
Leo looked up at the building. April lived on the fourth floor, so he jumped up to the fire escape and started climbing. He just wanted a look. Put a face to the name y’know? Then he’d go right back to patrolling the city.
He had barely reached the second floor when suddenly he heard… a flute? A melody was playing from somewhere. A lively and playful melody, something you could imagine hearing at a renaissance fair or something. He looked around, but quickly realised the sound came from up further the apartment complex.
Curiosity got the better of him. He would check out April’s new roommate right after this and then get back to patrolling… maybe. He climbed quickly, reaching the third floor, fourth, sixth and then he reached the roof. He peeked from the edge. The roof was bare, there was just a rusted garden table and two equally rusted chairs in one of the corners, nothing interesting.
There was a figure standing on the middle of the roof, however. The lights outside the roof’s door were dim but enough for Leo to make out the person there.
A girl with dark brown hair, and a yellow ribbon tied in it stood there, playing the flute. She was wearing a long bright blue dress and an open purple zip-up hoodie with red roses printed on the sleeves and she wore pink sneakers on her feet. Her eyes were closed, and she was swaying gently from side to side intact with the melody she was playing. Leo watched her, fascinated. What had made this girl want to go up to the roof to play her flute?
The girl’s music was rudely interrupted by a cold wind passing through. She gasped, clutching her flute close to her chest. The ribbon in her hair undid itself and blew off towards the turtle in hiding. The girl saw and reached out to catch it, but she wasn’t quick enough. Without thinking, Leo jumped up and caught the runaway ribbon, revealing himself right then and there.
When realising what he had done, he looked to the girl, expecting a startled scream or an expression of fear of some kind.
However, he looked in to two big, wonderous eyes, that looked surprised… but not scared. She stood perfectly still, her now unruly hair caressing her face in the wind.
The red eared slider wasn’t quite sure what to do. He might’ve had enough time to come up with some pick-up line, but the door to the roof was suddenly swung open.
“Lisa, are you up here?” It was April. As soon as she stepped out, she saw Leo on the edge of the roof and the girl, standing with her flute clutched to her chest and froze on the spot. Leo was pretty sure he saw a glimpse of something angry in April’s eyes. He knew that she immediately knew why he was there.
But before April could start scolding him, the girl pointed at Leo with the edge of her flute and looked to April, exclaiming in an excited voice; “April look! My music lured a kappa up here!”
Both April and Leo then looked at each other, dumbfounded. Neither of them had ever expected that kind of reaction from a girl who’d supposedly never been exposed to mutants or yokai before.
They were all quiet for about five seconds, then both April and Leo just burst out laughing, leaving the girl, Lisa, standing there looking confused.