I tear my eyes from the beautiful scenery outside the window when I realize that Raph said something to me.
"I'm sorry, R..." I blink and interupt myself, "you're all out of your disguises?!"
"Yeah, dudette," Mikey piped up, "They know what we really are."
"Ah..." I say.
"Yeah, wull, as I was sayin', we're almost there," Raph says.
I suddenly feel nervouse like I always do when meeting new people, which in turn, makes me colder and more formal than usual.
I gulp inwardly as the limo comes to a stop and TN steps out.
"Aunt TN!" I hear a youthful female voice exclaim.
"Hey, Dia," TN responds warmly, as Don steps out by her.
"Uncle Donatello!" I heard this Dia cry again.
"What brings you guys here?" I hear a fun loving masculine voice ask.
"We brought someone here to meet you."
Leo and Venus get out of the limo as well.
Then I hear one of the deepest, most sexy, if not a bit pissed, voice say, "I thought I told you not to bring anyone here unless it was an emergency."
"It is an emergency. Otherwise we wouldn't be here," Leo says.
"Oh?" he asks.
I take that as my cue, and try getting out on my own, but realize, rather painfully, that I can't do it alone. I end up needing Mikey's help.
"Who's this?" I heard the voice ask as I stood, gathering the courage to meet the peoples' eyes.
After a few moments, with Mikey's encouragement, I look over, not removing my shades.
I see three men and three women.
There is a cute man with wild blonde hair standing with a pretty young woman with long red hair with a black streak in it.
Then there is a VERY tall, hansome man with strait, silver hair falling past his shoulders. He's standing with a beautiful woman with golden blond hair falling past her waist.
With Don and TN is a pretty young woman with flowing silver hair like the man's, and whose face looks a lot like the woman he's standing with.
Last, but CERTAINLY not least is an amazingly gorgeouse man with flowing auburn hair and deep blue eyes. I feel my heart increase its rate.
There's something about him...I think to myself.
"This is HLM. Her apartment building in New York was fire bombed by an anti-mutant group. She said she'd once lived here in Tokyo...we thought you'd be able to help."
"I'll see what I can do, but why would an anti-mutant group attack or attempt to kill an innocent woman?" the man asks.
"Because I am a mutant," I say softly, resting a hand on the roof of the limo, and looking directly at him.
He didn't look overly suprised, though the blonde man did.
"I see...well HLM-san, if you'd kindly come with me, I'll give you a place where you can rest and freshen up a bit before telling me and the others what happened, ok?"
"Ok...thank you Mr..." I trail off, realizing I don't know his name.
"Nephrite. Call me Nephrite."
I nod, going with him into the mansion.
I shift the pack I was carrying over my shoulder, grimacing in pain.
Neph looks over, concern in his dark blue eyes.
"Are you all right?" he asks.
"Hai, I just took a lot of punishment at that bombing. I've had worse, but I'm still recovering," I say in a soft voice, my breath being taken away as some of the more raw parts of my back rub up against the bandages.
Nephrite frowns at my grimace as he takes my pack from me.
"You don't look like your feeling all right," he comments.
I look at him, resisting the urge to take off my shades and LOOK at him.
"I'll be fine. I just need to change my bandages and clean up a bit," I say, uncertain of how I was feeling.
Neph raises a brow at me, looking at me as if he was trying to figure me out.
"I...see, well, you can freshen up in here," he shows me to good sized bathroom, "I'll be right out here if you need me, ok?"
I smile at him, accepting my pack back. My heart almost melts at the return smile he gives me.
"Thank you so much, I'll be right back, " I say softly as I go into the bathroom and close the door behind me.
I take off my shakes, setting them down, and then carefully take my leather jacket and shirt off, followed by my bra.
Ok...here comes the fun part.
I try not to wimper, too loudly at least, as I take the bandages off. Or attempt to at least.
There's a knock on the door.
"Yes?" I say, not succeeding in keeping my voice free of pain.
"HLM? Are you all right in there? Do you need some help?" Comes Nephrite's worried voice.
"Uh...well...I
need a little help getting these bandages changed, actually," I say,
grabbing a towel, covering my chest as I slowly open the door.
Part III
Part V
Meetings Index