Digital Mutation (Book Five)

Chapter 16: The Tough Stuff

"That looks awesome!"

Raphael looks up from his drawing, meeting Annalise's cheerful blue eyes. She's decked out in skating gear, from her helmet down to her elbow and knee pads, and her skateboard rests at her feet, tilted against the skatepark's stone bench. The soothing drone of Michelangelo's wheels surrounds them.

Raphael glances down at his drawings. Five of the seven outfits are pretty much completed, four of those belonging to him and his brothers, the fifth belonging to Destiny. The last two belong to Sarina and Casey, although something about Sarina's white colour scheme isn't working and Raphael can't settle on the design itself for Casey. His body type is so different than the turtles and the girls.

"It's alright," he mumbles, sketching some blue highlights onto Leonardo's cyber-katanas. "I guess..."

"Just alright? Dude, I can't draw at all. You're bringing my vision to life!" she insists, scooting closer to him. "The helmets, the weapons, everything my mind could dream up is perfectly drawn here and...wow...it's so cool."

He grunts. "Yeah, it's not like it's easy," he mutters, reaching for a pencil. "Can't get this outfit to work around Destiny's wings."

Annalise frowns a little. "Well...how does she usually get her clothes on?"

Raphael pauses, thinking. Ever since her wings got big enough that slipping them through sliced holes wasn't plausible anymore, Destiny resorted to wearing two different types of shirts. One is anything with a low swooping back where the hem of the "neckline" rests beneath the stalks of her wings. She steps into those, tugging the shirt over her legs and hips, up to her torso. Raphael isn't sure of the details and he's not sure he wants to know.

Second, the more comfortable version she says, are these shirts where the back is mostly open save for cloth around the neck and waist that close via buttons or zippers. This lets her pull her clothes on from the front, fix them around her wings, then close them up. It leaves space for her wings to breathe and she doesn't have to go through any hassle. All she needs is for Sarina to zip (or button) her up if need be.

Instead of explaining all that to Annalise, he erases the back profile of Destiny's outfit and starts sketching something similar to the shirts he's seen her wear. Annalise observes.

"Are you always this...deadpan?" she asks.

He doesn't answer. Instead, he gets to his feet and heaves a rather wistful sigh. "Just...don't worry about me, shrimp," he mumbles.

He wanders off to one of the ramps, leaving Annalise feeling rather dejected. He settles against one of the railings and perches the sketchpad on his lap, although he doesn't start drawing. Instead, he tilts his head towards the darkened sky, face sagging with sorrow.

Michelangelo pulls Annalise away from Raphael when he skates up to her, all smiles. "Hey you," he greets.

"Hey to you too," she returns. Her smile falters as she again glances at Raphael. "Question...is Raph always like this? With everything?"

Michelangelo's smile also falls. He kicks his skateboard up into his hand and flops down next to her. She grips the edge of the bench and leans forward a little, watching and waiting, while he sighs.

"No...not really. He's kinda always been grumpy, but this attitude is maybe a month or two old," he admits, pressing his thumb against his palm. "Before that, he was more of a hothead, but he had this soft side and someone who made him really happy."

Annalise has the sneaking suspicion that the someone is a girl. She purses her lips, her heart aching with sympathy, and Michelangelo reflects the same feeling as he watches his brother.