Disclaimer: I do not own the ninja turtles, or anything relating to them. I only own my OCs and plot
"I'm going up to the roof for a while," Lyssa called out, looking over at her parents. Her mother met her eyes and nodded, smiling softly, before returning her preoccupied gaze back to the television on the far wall of the living room. Lyssa sighed as she moved her eyes to her father before quickly turning and exiting their fourth floor apartment. As usual, her father had noticed almost nothing beyond the television screen and the bottle in his hand.
Lyssa took the stairs up to the roof of the building, carrying a blanket, pillow, and her backpack. She had stuffed the bag with snacks, a book, and her music player to pass the time. As she climbed the steps, she thought about her parents' lack of interest in her activities and sighed once more. Her mother loved her, Lyssa knew, but the woman was usually busy running the small interior design company she had started and often was oblivious to things happening in the household. She checked in on Lyssa and spent time with her when able, but Lyssa still missed the days when her mother had the time to really talk to her. Between work and carefully avoiding the subject of Lyssa's father's drinking problem, it seemed that her mother had very little time to actually notice Lyssa these past few years.
Still, Lyssa adored the time she did get to spend with her mom. It was more than she got from her father, even if he was home more often. Ever since her mother's business had become successful and he'd been laid off, her father had withdrawn from the two women, preferring short conversations and alone time with the television set. And more often, his nights began to include a drink…or several. On this night, Lyssa's mother had chosen to relax after work by having a glass of wine in the living room, joining in on whatever show Lyssa's father was watching. The air in the living room had been thick with carefully ignored tension between the two, and Lyssa found herself headed to her usual escape spot for some peace of mind.
She loved the rooftop of their building; it had been her favorite spot since she was sixteen. Eighteen now, she still loved coming up to star-gaze and look over at the lights of the city; Lyssa felt so far away from her everyday life when she went up there. She had made a cozy sort of spot for herself at the far left corner of the roof, away from the door, where she had placed an old lawn chair she'd gotten from a neighbor and a radio. No one had ever seemed to notice them sitting on the building's roof, or if they did, they never complained about it. As Lyssa opened the door that led out on to the roof she made her way over to the lawn chair, placing her pillow on the chair first, then sitting down and reclining with a sigh. The radio, she remembered, she placed back in her apartment to avoid getting damaged by the heavy rain that had fallen over the past couple of weeks.
"Summer in New York City," she thought. "Always a storm on the way."
Lyssa pushed her long, dark curls behind her ears as she looked up at the night sky. She suddenly thought about her recent graduation from high school, and the changes that would soon come when she started college in the fall. She'd gotten a full scholarship, something she'd worked hard for throughout her academic career. She was thrilled to go to her first choice university to study psychology; she had always been fascinated with people. It was an exciting prospect, although her three best friends had all chosen different school and she knew keeping in touch would be hard. But she also knew that her friends were her family, and she wouldn't give up on them because of some distance. Lyssa smiled to herself as she felt almost certain that the four of them would be alright in the end.
She then pulled the blanket over her legs and reached into her bag to pull out a banana nut muffin and a book. She ate the muffin quickly and then settled down to read contentedly, sparing one more glance at the city lights.
A short time later, Lyssa awoke with a start. She immediately noticed that she had fallen asleep on the roof, with her book in her lap. She moved, groaning a bit at the slight stiffness she felt from falling asleep half-sitting in the lawn chair. As she swung her legs over the side of the chair, a noise from somewhere nearby caught her attention. She couldn't tell exactly what it was; it sounded like feet shuffling. Lyssa looked around, but saw nothing. The roof was empty but for her; she stood and walked toward the edge, looking out at the surrounding rooftops. She thought maybe the sound had come from a neighboring building; perhaps someone else in the area wanted some quiet time under the stars, too.
For several minutes she heard and saw nothing, and thought about gathering her things to go back inside the building. Then, she heard a soft thunk from behind her, followed by a harsh whisper that sounded like, "Mikey!" Lyssa froze for a second before quickly turning around, glancing at the buildings around her before walking over to the opposite end of her rooftop, behind the doorway that led into the stairwell. She softly called out, "Who's there?"
No one answered. As she rounded the doorway, Lyssa found no trace of anyone. She looked up and the building directly across the alley, the roof of which was a few stories higher than the one she stood on. She thought she saw a silhouette or two move, but it was so brief that she assumed her eyes were playing tricks on her. Regardless, her heart was beating a little faster than usual and Lyssa thought it was a good time to get her things and go back inside. As she turned toward her corner, however, she happened to look down at the ground. A small patch of blue caught her eye, and she walked over to it instead. She picked it up and examined it; it was a ripped piece of cloth, soft and the same shade of blue as a perfectly clear summer sky. She noticed it had lain near a stack of broken boards that had been on the roof forever. Her heart pounded once again as she wondered if someone had been here, and ripped a piece of their clothing when they hurried away. But how could they have vanished so quickly? It wasn't as if there was a fire escape that went all the way to the roof.
Shaking her head, Lyssa stowed the cloth in her pocket and set her wide brown eyes on her belongings. She quickly got her things together and headed back to her apartment.
Leonardo stood on a roof several buildings away from the one where the girl had slept. He took a deep breath, trying to scale back his annoyance at Mikey for almost blowing their cover. A soft wind blew the tails of his mask out to the right of him, and he sighed when he noticed the ripped edge of one dangling, now slightly shorter than its twin. There was nothing for it now; he was just thankful that she hadn't actually seen any of them.
They hadn't meant to wake her. The four turtles had been on their way back from patrolling when Mikey had spotted the girl sleeping on an old chair on that rooftop. He had drawn their attention to her by practically shouting, "Hey dudes! Check out the sleeping chick!" This was closely followed by a frown and the much more softly spoken, "What if she's cold? We should check on her."
The other three had approached Mikey's vantage point and Raph had argued that she was probably fine, but ultimately Leo had to agree that it was odd for a girl to sleep on the roof of a building. He decided that they should just check on her quietly, to make sure she wasn't in any kind of immediate trouble. And that had gone just fine, until she started to wake up.
When the turtles realized she was just sleeping, with no injuries or signs of abuse or anything, they started to back off. They were almost on the next roof when they noticed her suddenly sit up. The brothers tried to hurry their escape, but then it happened.
Mikey dropped his nunchuks.
In a rare moment of clumsiness, even by his youngest brother's standards, Mikey's nunchaku had slipped out of his belt and hit the roof with a soft thud as the brothers leapt to the nearest building to hide. The girl had faced the opposite direction, but Leo could see her body stiffen and knew that she'd heard it. Mentally cursing, he signaled his brothers to hide and made a quick dive for the nunchaku before she could see him. He grabbed them and leapt up to the next roof, losing a piece of his bandana to a snag in the pile of boards he had knelt next to. Leo and the others dove for cover as they heard her call out and approach the far side of the roof. They waited until they knew she'd gone inside before moving further away and glaring at Mikey who, to his credit, wore an apologetic smile before simply saying, "My bad?"
As Leo watched, his brothers stood several feet behind him, Raph chewing Mikey out and Donnie shaking his head at the pair of them. Leo took one last look at the roof where they had seen the girl, and approached his brothers.
"Come on, guys, she didn't see us, okay? Can we get back to the lair now?" Donnie asked.
"Yeah, she didn't see us, no thanks to you, Mikey," Raph said, eyes narrowed at the younger turtle. Before Mikey could reply, Leo decided to cut in.
"Guys, Donnie's right. The important thing is that we got away unseen. I will come back tomorrow night and keep an eye out for that girl, just so we're sure. But I'm pretty certain she didn't see us and even if he heard us, she'll likely chalk it up to run-of-the-mill human hoodlums or something."
"Hoodlums Leo? Really?" Raph snorted. Leo sighed.
"You get what I mean. But I'll come back and check, just in case. Okay?"
The three brothers nodded. As they silently headed for the sewers, Leo thought of the pretty girl with the dark curls, and hoped she wouldn't pose any threat to his family's secret existence.