felt the urge to draw a little boy with a little outfit
ill die on the hill of vitiligo mikey,, like 1 he has the yellow spots on his turtle bod, 2 the hair and vitiligo across he eyes is just a cuter and cooler ver of the mask, and 3 vitiligo is so fuckign pretty and it fits our resident silly boy
After clocking out of the club, making sure to let the others know she was out before the evening shift, Zandii quickly made her escape before her boss could say otherwise. Even after being there for months - or was it years? she lost count - he was still determined to treat her like bar staff and his lackey. There was only so much she could do and she wasn't prepared to work three jobs while getting paid for one.
Grabbing her rucksack and skateboard, she snuck out the service entrance into the alley and was pleasantly surprised by the sun. Running a hand through her messy pink hair, tucking it beneath her SnapBack cap, she sighed. Stepping on to her board and rolling off with a lazy kick, she headed out. Avoiding the main streets, taking any and all shortcuts and tracks away from those too-important-people who didn't want to move an inch over, she made her way to her favourite spot. An old run-down concrete skatepark beneath an overpass. It wasn't much but it was enough to feel freedom for a few.
Greeted by the usual scruffy teens, Zan leapt up on to a ramp and surveyed her small grey kingdom. "Might wanna watch it today gurl, cops been circlin' today..." Kenny mumbled nonchalantly, filter between his lips as he rolled a cigarette.
"That wouldn't have anything to do with you dealing would it?" she asked, sniggering a little as he threw her a look.
"Never."
Rolling her eyes, she reached into her bag and brought out a spray can, checking it was the right colour before shaking it through. "Well, if you're stayin' keep an eye out...kinda wanted to continue with that mural I started..."
It was that that made him pause and look up at her fully, a thick brow raised beneath his dark hair. "You really need to quit that, it's gonna get you in shit..."
What she had started had been found and painted over multiple times by either cops of local gangs, a mural for the vigilante of the city. She changed her design for it often but now she was sure she had it, after studying those damn symbols for so long...
With a confident smile on her studded lips she kicked off on her board again, gliding around Kenny as he continued to ramble at her. "If you're gonna be a pussy, fine, I'll go by myself," she grinned, his exasperated sigh only making her chuckle. She was determined to spread the tag, almost as her small way to get back at the Foot clan, and it was also an excuse to practice her graffiti lines.
Snatching up her bag that held the rest of the colour sprays, she set off - not without a few tricks along the rails - weaving in and out of the other skaters. It wasn't far, just a little too far for Kenny and his friends to want to follow. His heavy bagged eyes watched her go and he blew his hair out of his eyes with a shake of his head. "Crazy bitch..."
***
Extraordinary things are always hiding in places people never think to look.
His Master's words kept rolling through his head, along with the sentiment that a ninja's true challenge was to hide in plain sight. Blending in. He held to it to a certain point, but he always ended up connecting with people. It was just who he was. He could always blend into a group of people, but inevitably, he always wound up drawing too much attention. It was why his brothers always wound up using him as a distraction, if they needed it.
He couldn't be mad, though. He loved getting to know people, interacting with them. Out of all of them, he was the only "social butterfly," which often left him feeling alone and like something was missing. Especially on that day. Raph was off spending time with Stacey and Sera, as hard as it still was for him to wrap his mind around that fact that his brother was a father. They were good for him, he couldn't deny it, and oh, that little girl was adorable. It was still a bit weird, though.
Leo was either off meditating or something else honorable, no doubt. All he knew is that he wasn't in his face and demanding yet another training session, so he had slipped away while he had the good fortune to. Donnie was in his lab, because that's where Donnie always was when there weren't any training or patrols. Working on something brilliant that they'd all come to depend on, he had no doubt. He felt a pang of guilt as he kicked his normal skateboard into his hand, that he wasn't using the rocket-powered one he had designed specially for him... but he wanted to blend in that day. Just be one of the normal kids for a little while.
Well, maybe not so normal that he didn't get in some parkour on the way to his skatepark of choice for that day. It was a lot more fun when Leo wasn't along, correcting every tiny detail so he could really push it. He had a few local haunts, and he decided to hit one of the smaller, more real skateparks. Run down and almost hidden, some of the sweetest shit he had ever seen went down there. Also some of the sketchiest, but sometimes he took care of that after hours.
He made his way around the rails, taking it easy for the most part, and observing. Chatting with a few people here and there, giving some young kids a few pointers and brightening their day as he cheered them on. It was the little things, and you never knew just what kind of difference it might make to someone. Their smiles were all it took to keep him doing it. On the far side, he rolled up to his favorite part of that particular park. Someone with some killer skills had been keeping up a mural... with their symbol. His tag. Family.
It was always getting defaced one way or another, but it was always fixed eventually, and improved on. He never got lucky enough to figure out who was doing it, in his mind it was some young kid, an admirer. So when he rolled up a ways away and saw a girl at the wall, he assumed it was one of the people defacing it and his heart sank. Working his way closer slowly, still blending in, he snuck looks over until he tripped up on the halfpipe.
It was him. Her. The person. The artist. Whatever.
Pink hair peeking out of her hat, hand on her hip and a can shaking in the other, he could see the fresh paint on the symbol in front of her. She was fixing it. SHE. A girl! Did that mean that his admirer was a girl? Or maybe she just liked the tag. No. She came back too often and put too much care into it for it to be just that. But why? What did she think? What was her name?
A million questions bounced excitedly off the insides of his head until someone shouted at him to get off the ramp, and he realized that he had simply sat where he had fallen to contemplate it... and her. He had to know more.
"Dude! Seriously...it ain't a fuckin' bench..." Shaking his head with the faint chuckling and jeering behind him, Kenny huffed heavily as the blonde eventually looked up. A foot on his board, ready to drop in, he raised his brows expectantly and groaned when he eventually scrambled to his feet. "Idiot..." he sneered as he obnoxiously sped past, close enough to knock him down if he really wanted to.
Oblivious to what was going on, Zandii continued to spray, angling the can to get a thicker lines and colour larger areas. Every new mark created a new piece, making the mural once again expand and evolve over the blank wall. It's vibrant colours of orange, pink and yellow stood out almost like a beacon in the sun. It lifted her spirits, a nice change from the repetitive red light district vibe she had at work.
Placing the can down, wiping the paint leaked that leak from the nozzle on to her scruffy skinny jeans, she huffed as her mop of long hair was starting to escape her cap. Removing it, she decided now was time to fully tame it, looping it up into a messy bun to keep it out of her face. Stepping back as she did so she could admire her work so far, she smiled to herself and tilted her head. "So far good..." she mumbled to herself, picking up the next can - a black for the outlines - shimmying as she began to shake it up again.
Mikey was aware of how close the taunting skater was as he rushed past, years of reflex training saw to that. He simply couldn't be bothered to move away any faster, his attention was elsewhere. Dropping his skateboard to the ground once he was off the ramp, he forced himself to continue blending in, but never losing tabs on her as he weaved her direction.
Slowing down as he neared, he skipped off the board and openly gawked. The bright colors of the mural struck a chord in him, but still paled in comparison to finally seeing the person he had been curious about for so long. Mesmerized, he watched as she took off her hat and messily pulled it back... only to start doing a content little dance as she shook her next can up.
It was too much. He couldn't blend any more. His curiosity and interest got the better of him and he decided he had to talk to her. But what to say? Compliment her? Because hell, she was hot. Ask her about the work? But how could he go about it without seeming to directly interested in the symbol and not her as well?
Taking off his own hat, he ran a hand through his messy mop of blonde hair (he could almost hear Leo in his head telling him to get a haircut) and strolled over with his skateboard over his shoulder. A grin stretched across his face as he got closer, he couldn't help it. He was so excited to finally meet the artist and see her at work.
"Hey there," he said coming up behind her, his voice friendly and as exuberant as he felt. "Damn, that is sick as hell, girl!"
Before she could press down on the nozzle to spray again, she paused and listen to the voice behind her. For a split second she thought it was some undercover cop, someone who had slipped passed Kenny and others without them realising, as his voice wasn't familiar. Glancing over her shoulder, she was surprised to meet a pair of blue eyes gazing at her. And they were blue, insanely so, in fact she thought they had to be contacts or something.
Beaming a wide grin happily, she stepped back so she could face him and bit her lip, trying to tame her prideful expression a little. "Thanks man, it's been an ongoing thing...been fuckin' painted over enough times, heh..." A little awkward, having never been directly spoken to about it, always having 'awesome' and 'sweet' thrown her way as people skated by. "..I'm determined to get it done today though." Preferably before work, but that was wishful thinking.
Glancing up at him again, she took the time to adjust her messy hair again, forever playing with it as its neon pink curls never seemed to be tamed. Flipping it over one shoulder she braided it into a loose but tidy fishtail, avoiding the strings of her strap crop top. Tilting her head with a giggle, she followed his gaze to wall, having lost him to the colours and patterns again. "Uh....hello?"
He was overwhelmed in the best way. It wasn't often that he was rendered speechless, as a matter of fact he was certain his brothers would say it was was downright impossible. The excitement of meeting the person who was spreading their tag paled in comparison to her work, and well... her. He had been staring at her until her green eyes flickered up to him, contrasted starkly with the pink hair she was arranging, and had quickly let his attention get drawn back to the wall. It wouldn't do well to look like a creeper, and it was easy enough to get wholly distracted in the intricate designs and colors.
Her giggle drew his attention back to her, and the way she tilted her head and looked at him caused him to blush slightly. Giving her a lopsided grin and a laugh, he dropped his board against the wall out of the way and put his hands on his hips. "Yeah, I've been keeping an eye on it. I noticed people kept fuckin' with it. Damn shame, really," he said, meaning every word of it. He ruffled a hand through his hair again before plopping his hat back on backwards. "If you're set on gettin' it done today, maybe I could give you a hand? I mean, you know, if you want. I dunno if I'm as good as you, but I follow orders."
Clicking his heels together and raising a hand to his forehead in an exaggerated salute, he grinned and gave her a wink.
Licking a lip as she thought, looking back to the mural with squinted eyes of determination, she let out a hum as she pondered. Having help would get it done sooner, but she was curious to see what skills he had. Handing over a spray can, the cap being as neon as her eyes, she rested her other hand on a jutted hip.
"Alright, sure a hand would be good, but...show me what you got first?" Pointing to the scruffy looking patch of wall next to her own mural, she couldn't help but smirk a little with slightly flushed cheeks. She wasn't about to let his charm and gorgeous smile throw her, otherwise she'd be poor at her job. However it was difficult, that smile of his made her stomach fill with butterflies and she couldn't bring herself to stare him out that long.
She had no idea at that moment she was speaking to one of the original tag artists of the city, in fact, the very one she was doing it for. The possibility it could be him hadn't even crossed her mind, in all honesty. Part of her though was expecting him to be some arrogant tool who prided himself on showing off. She was used to it. Men throwing around their "talent" trying to get it for free. Caught in her own thoughts and memories, she absentmindedly rolled her eyes a little, hopefully he didn't notice....
As he took the can and shook it, she stepped over to the wall with him then rested against back against one of the large overpass pillars, folded arms across her arms as she waited to see what he had to offer. "Show me what you got, cutie."
Mikey wasn't stupid, he knew what guys could be like a lot of the time, especially in that kind of environment. Lots of testosterone, lots of showing off, plenty of challenging. To have an obviously talented girl come into the field would only push the insecure douchewads of the group into being an obvious, showy dick. He didn't take it personally when he noted her brief eye roll, it just set it in him to prove to her that they weren't all like that.
Crouching in front of the wall, he brushed the outside of his forearm across it, knocking off the obvious bits of dirt and debris. Contemplating the space, and brushing at it absently with his calloused hand, he wondered at what he should do. Part of him wanted to do something specifically for her, as she had been doing unknowingly for him. But the other part of him wanted to add that tag. Maybe he could do both...
"You mind?" he asked, keeping his kneeling position but stretching back across to her to snag her bag, lifting an eyebrow with a small grin as she looked down at him and shrugged. Pulling out pink, orange and black to go with the green she had tossed him, he set to work quickly. Green tendrils curving up from the ground, he set the layered base before moving onto mixing the pink and orange like he was blending oil paint on a canvas.
Quite appropriately, the design grew quickly, and before too long, he had successfully painted out a stylized lotus, green surrounding pink and orange petals, with the main petal of the center designed into his tag, family . He was wholly into it and couldn't peel his eyes off as he chewed his lip, moving onto the black for contrasting outlines, expertly placed. Everything about it just felt right, the flower growing out of the dirty wall, just like the actual one grew out of the muck. Just like she shined in the dim, concrete background that surrounded her. As well as the peace his family tried to bring to the darkest parts of the city. Sitting back on his haunches, he pulled his cap back off and buried his hand in his hair, looking over it with pride.
Remembering that she was watching, he looked up with hopeful eyes, tossing the black can back up at her.
With each stroke of colour, she followed his hand, every curl leading to another beautiful wave. She couldn't peel her eyes away the whole time he was working and it was enchanting almost to see someone so full of wonderful talent and creativity. The way he just began working and pulled the design out of thin air made her heart flutter a little. It was such an amazing change from the same repetitive shit she saw at work.
As the fiery orange blended against the pink, carefully controlled by the black lines, her eyes lit up as she stood back to get the full image in one hit. It was so vibrant and flowed perfectly along the wall as if it was almost plastered just for that to be painted there. If it wasn't for the double take she would have missed the can, but luckily she grabbed it after nearly failing miserably.
With a wide grin on her face, she nodded and let out a small giggle, not at him, but more with him in excited surprise. "Wow...that's so gorgeous...I'd kill to have that kinda thing in my apartment...." Gazing at him happily, she held out her hand to pull him to his feet then handed the bag full of other paint colours and sprays to him. "Care to lend some of that talent over to me?" Keeping her hands on the bag as well as his own, she raised a brow curiously and bit her lip, her smile still very much present.
Grin stretching from ear to ear as he saw her smile, he held onto her hand as he rose to his feet but didn't put any leverage on her. As she pressed the bag to him, he rested his other on top of hers and gave it a friendly squeeze. There wasn't a chance in the world that he would've turned down her offer, but as she quirked an eyebrow and bit her lip, something inside of him positively melted.
Unlike most, that was Mikey in his element. Where most would get nervous and clam up, his charm and gregarious nature surged forth, and he had never even attempted to stop it. It was just who he was, and he rolled with it. "I would be totally stoked to lend you any of my talents," he offered with a mischievous smile. Before her expression could drop and think he was simply being lewd instead of playful, he continued. "I mean, I play a mean game of checkers, or you got an eating contest to win, I'm your guy. Or you know, defacing of apartment walls."
Hearing him accept so enthusiastically, her smile turned into a cheesy grin, her dimples making it seem just that little wider with her eyes creasing with it a little too. As he began to ramble however, she giggled and shook her head, stepping back to pull him back toward her own mural. "I'm sure I could hire you out for something..." she winked playfully, letting her hand slip from his hand as she turned back to the wall.
Resting her hands on her hips as she looked up, she gestured with her hands what she had thought up while watching him create his own piece of art. Talking with her hands, waving and swaying with the notions of the colours she mentioned, she looked back to him hoping he fully understood what her wild gestures were implying. He seemed to know though. Those bright blue eyes followed her every point, his body almost going with the flow of her movement. It was charming.
"So you got it right? Or...do you have better ideas?" she chirped, raising her pierced brow again, running her hands through her mane of pink waves and curls.
"Better ideas," he scoffed, shouldering the bag and tossing a can at her playfully. "Angelcakes, I don't think it's possible to come up with any better ideas than the ones that come out from under that gorgeous pink hair. You bet I got this."
Giving her a wink, he flipped some hair back over her shoulder, finding himself unable not to touch it. If he was being honest, he was dying to know if it smelled like cotton candy, but he figured dipping his nose in there would be pushing it. She was being playful and he liked that. He really liked that. Rattling his can, he stepped forward and started spraying as she had directed.
It wasn't long before his curiosity got the best of him. He never was the patient sort, no matter what Sensei tried drilling into him. He'd mostly given up the battle, saying that he was pleased that at least if he was going to blurt things, they were honest and rarely harmful. Clearing his throat and glancing at her over his outstretched arm, he just went for it. "So uh, what makes you pick this design, uh... oh gosh, I didn't even introduce myself. This'd be the part where my bro cuffed me across the head," he chuckled, blushing a little at the realization. "I'm Mikey. What kinda gorgeous moniker are you carrying to match yourself?"
Catching the can he had tossed over to her, she admired for a moment how confident and eager he seemed with helping. Genuinely helping. Not trying to worm his way in, in any way that seemed remotely creepy or a quick 'you owe'. Maybe it was because he didn't know her, or what her work was. Too often guys would try and get a freebie.
The slight break of his confidence as he asked for her name made her pierced lips curve into a bright and bashful smile. "Zandii, jus' call me Zan though...or Pinkie is what they call me at work...." It was too adorable, that cheeky grin he adorned was complete with dimples and it made her giddy, and so she but her lip to try and control her smile before she looked a little too smiley for it to be flattering. No use looking like a blushing school girl.
Before she sprayed her first line after the small break, she looked up at the symbol on the wall as she replied, "...and well, I thought I'd try and show my appreciation to the vigilante… or vigilantes, whatever you wanna believe." Shrugging playfully with a small smile, she ran a hand along the orange and red fiery strikes close to the kanji. "Thanks to them I've felt safer when I walk home from work in the morning, and after hearing so much about them from the news and stuff… just felt like it, just hope they see it. It's my thank you, I suppose?"
Being so happily distracted by the bubbly blonde she had just met, she hadn't realised her time was beginning to run short, not only with her break but with how long she could go without being caught. With her lookout at the skatepark gone as well, it was only a matter of minutes. Turning to Mikey after working a little more, she reluctantly asked after flicking her tongue against her lip, "So, have you heard about the vigilantes?"
Allowing himself to bask in her smile, he rolled her name around in his head. Zan. Zandii. It was different. The good kind. Though he wasn't sure about the Pinkie... it just seemed too simple and didn't do her any service. Sure, it described her hair. But she was obviously so much more than that. So much deeper that Pinkie was literally just scratching the surface. He dismissed it and decided he'd use any nickname he could just to make her smile like that again.
Listening as she described the vigilantes... really, what he and his brothers did, and hearing that it made her feel safe and that she appreciated it... he had to focus on spraying for a minute to gather himself. It was generally a thankless job, and contentious at best. They were either touted or ripped apart by the news. Either way, they rarely got to stick around to see the appreciation, if it existed in the first place. It was a lift he didn't even know he needed, and he pinched his lip ring against his teeth to keep himself from just spilling the truth to her right away.
"Who hasn't?" he chuckled, clearing his throat to take the nervous edge out of his tone. He racked his brain to try and think of a response that didn't sound self serving. "That's awesome that they've made you feel safer, near as I can tell they don't get a lot of thanks on the news. Except channel 6 with that O'Neil chick. She's got her head on straight. I bet that if they saw, it they'd really appreciate.... oh shit."
He had finally looked up and caught movement out of the corner of his eye and his reflexes kicked in. Light glinted off the person's chest and it took him mere seconds to determine it was the police and he had little time to react. He knew they were spotted, but at the angle the officer was coming from, only he was visible. It wasn't dark enough for him to make any kind of covert escape, but he had just enough time to get her out of there, and the last thing he wanted was for her to get caught for thanking him. That would be stupid.
Locking the bag of paint onto his shoulder, he reached over, took her can and moved her more out of his angle of view. "Go. You need to go. Now. Cops. They haven't seen you. I got this. Go!"
Startled at first as she hadn't seen the lights and him grabbing and moving her aside, she just stared at him before it clicked together. A heavy groan left her lips and a grimace took hold of her smile. Cursing under her breath, knowing she really didn't need to be caught, especially on her break, even if it was a job she despised. She needed the money and it came it quick.
Keeping as out of view as she could, she grabbed her skateboard and darted around the corner into a small path that lead away from the underpass. Before she leapt into a full sprint she paused, a little torn and her feet weighted with guilt. How could she let this guy take the rap for her? It wasn't fair. Plus, he had her bag...it wasn't important, but still. Biting her lip hard, the sound of the cop car door slamming shut and the officers barking their orders to the blonde pushed her on. She had to get back to work, anyway.
From the skatepark, Kenny and a few of the other skaters had taken cover and watched from out of sight. A few jeered at Mikey and others threw insults toward the so-called 'pigs'. Kenny however, had seen Zandii escape back to street, and after the earlier stand off he couldn't have cared less. However, he knew how much she took pride in her mural, and now that her paint had been taken she'd have less time to work before it was covered over again. Especially now the cops had seen it.
"Hope you've got some good friends..." Tightening the handcuffs roughly on to Mikey's wrists with a scowl, one of the police officers shook their head as they looked down at him, albeit a little surprised at how calm and accepting he was. They were used to chasing down his type through alleys or along the waterfront. Pushing him into the back of the car, both cops glanced at each other, still a little lost, especially when he seemed to shrug it off with a smirk.
