Chapter Text
“Guess who’s the best host in the-woah what are you doing!?”
Leo looks up at April like a dog who just soiled the carpet. That bashfulness only lasts about a second, before Leo doubles down. Continuing to gut the lizard puppet she just finished. The stitching on the side bursting with what thin layer of cotton she stuffed it with. It’s a massacre. A cotten-fluffin-massacre.
“I’m just fixing it.” Said the murder, yanking the other side stitch out with one jerk of his fist. No hesitation. No mercy, “I mean, just look at what a mess it was before.” Leo shakes his head with a chuckle. April feels an ache in her chest.
Slowly, hardly being able to believe it, April sets the plate down on the foot of her bed. Sitting on the floor of their work area, she watches Leo re-stuff the Lizard Witch with a focused eye.
Taking the Beast puppet April had done, and the Alien Princess Leo had done- there was hardly any competition. Leo’s stitches with clean, with tight knots that held it all perfectly in place. Years of experience given physical form.
Meanwhile April could see her inexperience, like blood on white satin. Messy loops and frayed yarn, the beasts horn already begun to dangle off.
April feels a warmth in her cheeks, a sense of cold shame creeping up her spine. She hates the fact that she can see her nose turning red- which means her whole face is probably red. The room feels stuffy all of a sudden.
“You don’t-“ April falters. Scooping up her notebook with all her chicken scratch ideas. “You don’t like my ideas?” Her voice comes out soften than she intends. After all, its not a big deal. Not everyone is going to like every idea.
But Leo liked it before. He laughed and helped April stich together her puppet dreams. Was it suddenly bad? Did Leo just pretend to like her work? Waiting for her to leave before he could redo it all himself. God, it makes her feel stupid.
“Of course I-“ Leo picks his head up, but his voice seems to die when his eyes meet April’s. He sits there, scanning April’s face as if trying to find what to say.
“You’re ideas are great! I think they’re really...cute.” He said bashfully, looking down at April’s notebook with a faint glow in his cheeks. Gently, he lowers the Lizard Witch and the needle already in his hand.
“I’m just fixing some of the stitch work!” He attempts at a smile. “There’s always room for improvement.” He says knowingly. Actually, he's acting more like a know-it-all
April huffs, lifting up the Alien Princess. “Then how come you aren’t ”fixing” any of the puppets you did?”
Leo blinks, dropping the needle. “Oh! Thank you for reminding me.” He said, grabbing the puppet from April’s hand.
With no mercy, and no hesitation, Leo rips the arm off. April physically flinches, reaching out her hands.
“Wait, wait! Why are you ripping them up!?” She snatched back the Alien Princess, holding the puppet close to her chest. Those we're their creations, their babies!
Leo looks to the side, then at April. “Because I need to restart?” He said, as if it was obvious. “If the arm came off that easy then I clearly didn’t do it right the first time.”
“Leo, it’s puppets.” April states. “No matter how good you stitch them, they’re gonna rip if you pull on it.” It’s just fabric and thread, of course it would rip with enough force. Why can’t he understand that?
Leo blanks, his brows furrowing. “Why are you mad at me?” He asks defensively.
Oh geez, she wasn’t expecting that. “I’m not mad.” April huffs, setting the puppet down and pulling her legs close to her chest. “I just-“
“You look mad.” Leo sets down the puppet. Looking as if he’s majorly uncomfortable. He looks about ready to bolt, April takes a breath. She refuses to end tonight on a sour note.
“I’m not mad.” April said firmly. “I’m just frustrated. We worked really hard and you’re just ripping it up like it was nothing.” She rests her head on her knees, a habit she promised to stop. But no one who knew was there to call her on it.
“It makes me feel shitty.” April muttered.
Leo has a look, as if April just smacked him across the face. April isn’t going to feel bad about it saying it how it is. no matter how uncomfortable Leo looks.
“I’m…” geez, here it comes. Man, April always looses friends like this. First Cindy, then Maria, and now the turtles.
“I’m sorry, April.”
Huh, there’s a sentence you don’t here everyday.
“I didn’t mean anything by it.” Leo avoids eye contact like the plague. Looking at the puppet massacre in front of him. “You wanted my help, and you told the librarian that this would be the best show ever. I didn’t think-“
April uncurls, sitting cross instead. She holds out a hand to pull Leo’s attention. Surprisingly, he looks at her.
“Leo, it’s a puppet show for children. I’m not making a movie.” The stakes were never that high, it’s not even worth that much credit. She’s mostly doing it for fun. It was fun at first.
“But you said-“ Leo scrambles for something to say. “What if you can’t graduate if you don't get enough credits?”
April rolls her eyes. “I’m in the 10th grade Leo, I have time.” She assures. It’s funny watching Leo attempt to scramble for an excuse, and failing to grasp even one. It really felt like Leo was blowing it up bigger than it needed to be. Making mountains out of molehills, that kind of thing.
But, thinking about it, maybe it was a mountain to him. It's not like he knows anything about high school. They only came to the surface recently. April keeps forgetting that.
“Leo,” April holds out a hand. “There’s a reason I asked you and not your brothers.”
“Because you can’t sew?” Leo said plainly. April gives a dry look. Smartass.
“Partly.” She admits, making a so-so motion with her hand. “But it was mostly because we don’t hang out much.”
Leo tilts his head, like he can’t fathom the concept of someone wanting to hang out with him. “We hang out all the time.” Leo says simply.
“In a group." April clarifies. "I don’t really know you like I know your brothers. but they talk about what a cool guy you are. I didn't wanna miss out.” April snickers. Normally they talk about how lame Leo is, but you’d have to be blind not to notice the little ways they seem to look up to him.
Leo starts to smile before looking down at the puppets, a somber sigh leaving his lips. “And yet all I’ve done is be a jerk to you the whole time.”
April shrugs. “Not the whole time. Besides, you were just trying to help. I get that now.”
There’s that smile. April can’t help but feel kinda proud. Leo picks up the Lizard Witch in one hand and the Alien Princess arm in the other.
“Hey, what if we swap their arms like in episode 43 of Captain Ryan?” Leo asks, looking a little nervous about the suggestion.
It takes April a second to remember that episode, but when she does, stars light up her eyes.
“They could be secret siblings!” April pushes herself up, picking up the Alien Princess and snatching the Lizard Witch’s dismembered arm. “And the witch doesn’t think the Beast is good enough for her sister!”
Leo seems to like that idea, picking up the needle and already sewing the pink arm on the Lizard Witch. “And maybe they have a twin sense,” Leo suggests. “That’s how she keeps finding them.”
April scrambles for her notebook, already rewriting parts of her script.
“Keep the ideas coming Leo!”
⋆｡˚🪼🫧˚｡⋆
The night gets better from there. April’s glad she trusted her judgement on this, Leo surprisingly had some ideas she didn’t even think about.
They end up staying up way later than April had planned, but it was worth it for the outcome. Not only were the puppets done, but they had more character than previous ones. And, April didn’t eat the whole plate of cookies alone.
Deputed how uneven and wonky they looked, Leo didn’t seem to care. He always had one in his mouth whenever April looked at him.
Things didn’t have to be perfect, they just had to be good. She watches Leo leave with a satisfied smile on his lips.
⋆｡˚🪼🫧˚｡⋆
“-Then the alien princess hugged the beast.” April pressed the puppets together, basically like holding her own hand. Moving her fingers so the puppets would hug.
“Did they kiss too?” A girl asks before her hand was raised.
April hums. “How old are you?”
“Seven!” The kid says with gusto.
“And they kissed!” April said in her narrator voice. Pushing her knuckles together with an exaggerated smooch! All the while the kids giggle and gag.
“And despite how different they look, the Alien Princess and the beast were the same, and they lived happily ever after.” April makes little jazz hands, making the puppets googily eyes rattle.
Some of the adults clap mutely, while the children clap and jump like they just saw the show of their lives. To be fair, when April was there age she probably did the same thing too.
As the parents collect their children April finally- finally gets to stand from her kneeled position on the ground. Just in time for April to get approached by the little blonde girl and her father.
April waves with the best puppet. “Hello sir, did you enjoy the show?”
The man chuckles, his hand rested behind his daughter’s back. “I’ve definitely never heard a story like that before.”
You just gotta be on the right side of the Internet. April isn’t gonna say that. “Well, I am in theater group.”
The blonde girl keeps her fists close to her mouth. April squats back down using the best puppet to greet the girl. “And what’s your name, miss seven year old?”
“Can I have your alien puppet!?” The girl shouts, nearly making April’s ear ring. She really must’ve been holding in that question, Jesus-
“Baby, no. Those are her puppets.” The father laughs in the way adults do when their kids embarrass them. He waves at April. “Thank you for your time.”
The small girl huffs, like she’s about to start whining. “Hold on.” April uses her teeth to rip the beast puppet off her sweaty hand, she takes the alien puppet off and hands it to the girl.
The father sighs, giving an April a look of relief and gratitude. April didn’t want the kid to start screaming either, but mostly she didn’t mind giving it away. She knows who to call if she needs another puppet.
“Thank you!” The girl beams. Father echoes that statement. “She’s so ugly, I love it!”
April snickers. Now thoroughly embarrassed, the father takes the girl’s hand and starts away. Waving to April as he hurries his daughter along.
Cute, that was cute. Leo probably would’ve found it funny. It suck’s he couldn’t come see the show, but his hard work was not left in vain.
April approaches the front desk, volunteer sheet already in hand. Only the middle of the schoolyear, and most of her sheet is already filled. April flashes the sheet to the librarian as if showing off a badge.
“Your signature please, Mrs. Muldoon.” April asks in her cool girl voice. Mrs. Muldoon barely reacts. Pushing her glasses up her round nose as she takes April’s sheet.
“You know, I haven’t seen a volunteer make that much effort. Not a kid, anyway.” Mrs. Muldoon said, clicking her ballpoint pen and messily scribbling her name on the empty slot. Her name seems to get messier every time she signs a new slot.
April beams at the compliment. “Thank you.” She nods.
“My favorite part was when the Witch popped her eye out, was that on purpose?”
She puffs up her chest. “Nope!”
April’s proud response earns her an odd look from Mrs. Muldoon, but the woman just hands back the sheet with a half smile.
“Regardless, good work O’Neil. On such short notice too.”
“Thank you, but I did have help from a friend. We stayed up really late.” April chuckles, folding up the sheet and sticking it in her front pocket.
Mrs. Muldoon hums. “Good friend you got. I wouldn’t have done all that.”
She says that, but she’s also the one who went out of her way to ask April for help with the kids today. Even when she doesn’t have to. April waves goodbye and heads over to her bag by the kids carpet. Already stacking up the rest of her cardboard props when she spots some powder on the floor.
April hesitates, tilting her head oddly the dust on the ground. Lifting up her gaze only to find a pair of white eyes staring back at her from the small gap in the ceiling tile.
The eyes grow wide when April spots them. Sliding the tile back into place as if to hide.
April grins. He didn’t miss the show after all.
“Thank you again.” She says up to the ceiling. Hopefully he stuck around to hear that too.