A/N: This is set after The War for Dimension X. In the show, you only see the two nose boop, so I wanted to correct that. = P I assume when Raph was passed out, the others told Mona about traveling back in time to stop the Triceratons, but not how they got to Earth. Also, in my research I found that some species of salamanders can hear vibrations in the ground, so I incorporated that into the opening scene. Finally, the title is totally a Lion King reference. I had to.

Edit: Thank you so much! This fic tied for third in Loveliest Romance Category in the 2016 TMNT Fanfic Competition! I'm so happy you all enjoyed my story! It means a lot to me. =D

The lush jungle leaves brushed against Mona's calves. She huffed, slightly impressed that her opponent had managed to land a strike. Blinking her golden eyes, she scanned the surrounding area. He was nowhere in sight.

Strange. His next move would be to strike rapidly.

No matter. She would simply have to seek him out. Mona curled her toes into the ground, tuning her hearing to her surroundings. Internalizing her senses, the only disturbance was the racing beat of her heart. It was a strange sensation for her to have during a fight since she exercised great control over her bodily instincts. Then again, her opponent was prone to a racing heart around her as well, so she supposed it was only natural.

Remember his techniques. He must be hiding behind one of these Rakkaus trees.

Just then, a flashing vibration scattered across the foliaged floor, reaching her grounded feet. Her inner ear heard his movement before his battle cry. Twisting her body, she neatly dodged his attack and slapped her tail against his armor. He slammed into the brush and found the end of her sword at his neck.

"Do you surrender yet? I may honor you with a swift end," Mona offered.

"I've still got one more trick up my sleeve, sweetheart," he replied, unwilling to give up so easily. With that, he flicked his weapon. She raised her arm to block it from striking her snout, which gave the warrior an instant to kick her legs out from underneath her. Jamming his foot onto her thrashing tail and his forearm into her throat, Mona found herself pinned to the jungle floor. Her eyes locked with his. She smiled, noting his improvement.

"Most impressive, Raphael. Of course, you would have caught me somewhat off guard if you had continued your previous attack," the Salamandrian said smugly.

"I just wanted to give you a moment to catch your breath," Raph said offhandedly. "It's hard to actually land a hit on you."

"It was my understanding that you enjoyed my punches," Mona teased, shifting underneath him. "Perhaps you are not fighting to your fullest potential so that I may defeat you more often."

"Yeah right. Being my girlfriend doesn't make you the exception to my 'don't hold back' policy. In fact, it means that you're good enough to keep up with my strength." Raph lifted the arm at her throat to flex. He glanced down at Mona to see if she was impressed.

"Only keep up?" Mona said, flexing her own free arm. Even though most of her scaled skin was covered by armor, there was no mistaking the thick muscle.

"Well, pretty much beat me in every fight," Raph flustered, clearing his throat. He pushed himself off of her, then offered his hand. She clasped his appendage and he tugged her onto her feet. They stood in the midst of the jungle, hands still connected. The plant life enclosed around them, guarding them from the outside world.

"Now that you have seen my home, allow me to see yours. I must know of the world that produced such a noble creature," she insisted, practically leaning over him. Raph's eyes blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected her to be interested in his planet considering she spent nearly all of her time traveling through space. But this was a good development. Maybe she would like Earth. Maybe enough to. . .

"Alright." Raph said, clearing his throat. "I'll show you my hometown at night. That's when the fun begins." Digging into his memories, he projected the vast landscape of New York around them. The skyscrapers, flickering streetlamps, angry pedestrians, it was almost as if he never left. They stood on a rooftop and Mona took in the foreign sight, setting her eyes on the nearby buildings. Her mouth held open, intrigued by the skyscrapers. She strode to the edge of the building, loosely pulling her hand away from Raph's, to gaze at the street below. Raph stared after her, gauging her reaction. Funnily enough, she stood out in the cityscape. The turtle had seen some of the weirdest things the city could dish out at him, but Mona suddenly seemed more. . . alien. Maybe it was that he had yet to see her in his hometown. The two didn't quite mesh together as he thought they would.

Waving the thought off, Raph caught the smirk on the corner of Mona's jaw.

"Your architecture is primitive, but it has charm to it. I noticed that only humans walk the streets," she pointed at the small crowd of pedestrians below. "Where do your kind reside?"

"Me and my brothers? We live underground, otherwise people freak out and call the cops on us," Raph told her casually, walking over to her.

"Why do they fear you?" Mona asked, confused.

"Humans think they're the only things that can walk and talk. We have to run around at night so they don't see us and lock us away in a lab somewhere," he explained.

"A lab? They would take you to a laboratory simply because you are not human? But you are fighting to save their lives this very moment," she said, frustration rising in her voice.

"That's the downside of being a mutant turtle. No one can know we exist if we want our freedom, but they'd be goners without us." Raph had resigned himself to this truth long ago. That didn't make it less annoying that nearly every human he had ever met had either screamed in terror or tried to kill him and his brothers.

Perhaps that was part of the reason he was so drawn to Mona. She initially despised him because she thought he was got in the way of a fight with the Triceratons. That he could relate with.

Mona frowned at this.

"They are ignorant. It is no wonder there is no designated space port in this galaxy."

"We have enough aliens already. But I wouldn't mind if you came to visit."

"I will visit when we have won the war against the Triceratons, but I do not think we would be welcome among the humans."

"Well, you'll be welcome at April's place. Her dad's okay with us. We can vacation at her farmhouse in the countryside." Raph concentrated and shifted the environment. Concrete melded into a darkened forest and a clearing replaced the roof. The two stood just outside said farmhouse. "As much as I love city life, I wouldn't mind coming back here. There's no one out here that can bother us and you'll love the scenery."

"As long as I am with you, I will love any place. I trust you will not let me down."

Raph smiled at Mona, a warm look in his eyes. Then, a bat swooped overhead, briefly casting a shadow in the moonlight. Mona's eyes turned toward the skies.

"You can see the stars here. They were not this luminous in the city."

Always looking to the stars, Raph thought irritably.

"I'll be glad when I can look at them instead of being in them," he grumbled.

"There are many incredible discoveries to be found in space. Does exploration not excite you?" she questioned.

"Well, some planets are nice to look at, but I'm sick of being stuck in the ship all the time. There's just too many risks. Mikey nearly died because I broke his helmet like an idiot. I can't stop a hatch door from opening or aliens tearing through the ship. I just want my feet planted on the one place where I know exactly how the turf works." He yearned for the day that he could finally shed his spacesuit and kiss the ground. No more traveling in space as long as he could help it.

"Then why did you leave?" she inquired, tilting her head. "Earth is not a threat to the Triceratons, so why did they attack your home?"

Raph shook his head, wondering where to begin.

"You remember the Kraang? They're hiding out on our planet. We thought we got rid of them, but there's still some left," he started.

"So that is why they despise you," she nodded.

"They've tried to kill us, so they had it coming. Anyway, there was a Triceraton named Zog looking for them." He hesitated. "I thought. . . he could help us get rid of them for good. But it turned out that he wanted to bring his entire army to our planet. Sending them back to Dimension X wasn't enough. He thought that Earth needed to be destroyed along with the Kraang."

"Those cowardly, irrational beasts. How dare they endanger all of the innocents in the crossfire of their war, rokka rokka," Mona hissed, her tail thrashing.

"Guess that makes me the coward," Raph started hollowly.

"What do you mean? You are not a coward, Raphael."

"You don't know what I did. I led them right to Earth. I'm the one who tricked Zog into working for me and I let him send the beacon. I tried to stop it, but I wasn't fast enough!"

Around them, the memory began to replay itself. The pair stood on the torch of the Statue of Liberty, watching the scene unfold around them.

"I see no reason to spare you," the dinosaur threatened.

"Cause we're friends, Zog!" Raph pleaded.

"Friends?" Zog said mockingly.

Raph turned his head away, not flinching when his hologram swung up to crouch next to them. He and Mona were merely ghosts in his memory. Their presence did nothing to change history. Mona twisted her body as the holograms circled around them, observing the battle silently.

"We made a good team. We stopped the Kraang together. Don't do this, man! Don't do this to our world."

"Enough!"

Zog threw the device high into the air. The hologram of Raph destroyed it with his ninja star moments too late. A tussle ensued and Zog dangled from the statue by a mere railing. Raph stretched his arm out to the soldier.

"Zog! Zog! Take my hand!"

"Raphael."

"Long live the Triceraton Empire."

A dull thud sounded below them. Tearing away from Mona, Raph slammed his fist into the flame, halting the memory. His head hung low, reeling in fresh agony. His teeth clenched hard enough to crack.

"Raphael," Mona started, reaching a hand for him.

He reeled in a frustrating growl. She didn't need to see this. He didn't need to relive this memory.

"There's another me right now, back on Earth, who didn't screw everything up. That me didn't get everyone, including Master Splinter, killed!" His breathing shuddered, the sight of Splinter's body being lifted into the black hole flashed before his eyes. If he could stop this from happening, then maybe his past self wouldn't be so filled with agonizing regret. Raph tried not to think about what happened for too long, filling his days with making sure Mikey didn't somehow fall out of the ship and not getting motion sick. He had to keep moving, but that was a near impossible task considering how enclosed he was in the ship. Every encounter with an otherworldly being was a reminder why they were in space in the first place.

Mona's eyes softened, filling with compassion. Her head turned to the frozen hologram. His hand outstretched for an enemy that had vowed destruction to his planet moments before. If only Raphael could see how noble his intentions were. He did not deserve such suffering.

Her claws curled into a fist.

"Allow your past self to face me," Mona commanded. Raph lifted his eyes to give her a quizzical look.

"Let your past self fight me. Only him," she reiterated, baring her teeth. Raph blinked, then raised his hand. The hologram of himself reanimated itself and recoiled as Mona slid down to meet him on the platform. He drew out his sai.

"Who the heck are you supposed to be?" he demanded. Raph shook his head at his ignorance.

You don't know the half of it.

"You need not feel guilty over the demise of the Triceraton," Mona said, striking at the hologram with her fists. He managed to roll out of her reach, but Raph could see the hesitation in his movements.

"What do you know about it? If it weren't for me, he'd still be alive in the sewers somewhere!" he howled, pointing down where Zog had fallen.

"You offered your friendship. He chose to throw his life away. It is not your fault." Mona whipped her tail across Raph's chest, smacking his shell against the railing. A clang reverberated through the rigid air. Raph flinched.

"Someone died because of me!" he wheezed furiously.

Raph's lips curled into a tight scowl at that. It was too much. He raised his hand to erase the nonexistent plane around him, but she was faster.

In a flash, Mona gripped the hologram's face with her claws and tossed him atop the flame. He flopped at the real Raph's feet, groaning. He halted. Mona leapt up to face the turtle, her eyes brimming with fury. She leaned down to haul the hologram to his feet by his shell, holding him inches from the real Raphael. The mask hid the bruises Zog had inflicted, but Raph distinctly caught a familiar flame in the hologram's eye. Tormented and shaken, but the will to fight echoed from his past self.

"Look on yourself. You feel guilt even though the soldier sought out the destruction of your world. I know of few who are capable of such strength," Mona Lisa said, jolting him out of his thoughts.

"I wasn't strong," Raph exhaled. "I was stupid and none of this would have ever happened if I had just. . ."

"Raphael."

He looked up at her. She laid the exhausted hologram down, giving the turtle her full attention. Mona placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Even though you may not have known it at the time, standing against the Triceratons is a feat few have accomplished. The Kraang hide and the Triceratons kill the innocent while you fight their tyranny and cruelty. Even though you despise space travel and your planet may never know of your deeds, you are here, amending your mistake," she said reassuringly and candidly. With every word, the projected world around them faded piece by piece. The night sky melded into the pristine walls, the hologram of Raph faded without a sound of protest. Soon, it was only the two of them standing in the middle of the Holo Room.

They hardly noticed the shifting environment.

Mona laced her fingers with his and squeezed reassuringly, sending a creeping heat across Raph's skin.

"That is the mark of a true warrior on my world. I swear that we Salamandrians will assist you in this battle however we can. We will claim victory together."

Her smile eased the weight in Raph's chest.

"And besides, if it is any consolation, we would have never met if you did not have a reason to leave your homeworld, rokka rokka."

Raph soon shared her smile. He rubbed his thumb on the back of her hand.

"Thanks, Mona. I needed that," he said softly. The memory of Zog often drove away his dreams, but he didn't have to be alone in his burden. Mona's warrior spirit helped ground him amidst the confusion of his journey through space.

Thinking back to when she first punched him, Raph was grateful that they had met. Despite every mistake and each time space had nearly killed him, being with her made the journey a little easier. She was strong enough to help him with his battles and he hoped to do the same for her.

"I'm so lucky to have you."

"I will always fight by your side."

In that moment, Raph found her so beautiful that he leaned up and kissed her fiercely on the lips. His words were far from eloquent, but he could at least show her what she meant to him. Mona raised the ridges of her eyes in curiosity and leaned into the embrace. The hand on Raph's shoulder traced his skin to his cheek, holding him close.

They parted and Mona smirked at Raph.

"I did not know such a touch could be so pleasing," she commented.

"That's how we kiss on Earth," Raph clarified, ducking his head the slightest bit. He thoroughly enjoyed their nose kisses, but he wanted to share a few of his kisses with her. At that, he could feel Mona's tail slinking around his shell.

"I believe you need to show me more of this custom," she said, her eyelids lowering.

Raph shuddered and melted into her touch.