[Name] hated to admit it. It made her feel so pathetic. She couldn't lie though. The teenage girl was incredibly delicate compared to the company she kept. She only stood at 5'5'' and that was a whole 9 inches less than the shortest of the brothers. She had been living with the turtles for around 2 months now, and couldn't be happier. But it was hard trying to hide certain emotions when a girl was so insecure when it came to romance.
She didn't have training in the martial arts, so in her own eyes she was useless and a burden to the turtles, it was still embarrassing no matter the amount of reassurance. She had ended up here because of a near kidnapping the turtles had stopped. Thanks to some extra convincing from April, with who [Name] had become fast friends with in between the kidnapping and her staying here. It was nice, not having any responsibilities aside from helping out with patrolling once in a while. Who could complain? She constantly spent time with who she would call her best friends, but recently [Name] had started to develop a problem…
Every time he walked near her heart sped up, she would smile more and try to do things to appeal to him. But like she already knew, she was delicate and Raphael was tough. So obviously he would want a girl who's tough too wouldn't he? [Name] figured herself extremely tough emotionally, no insult could harm her unless it came from someone she cared deeply about. Her father died three years ago when she was 13 and she made friends with the wrong people after that, so she was apathetic towards people trying to hurt her feelings.
But currently she was hanging out with Donnie in his lab, listening to music as he worked on Michelangelo's skateboard, this was probably the third time this week he had broke it. [Name] sighed lazily, leaning her chin on Donatello's shoulder as he worked. She could probably do this for hours, it was so calming to watch him work. Donnie turned his head, adjusting his glasses with a smile. "Something troubling you, [Name]?" It was almost unnecessary to ask what the problem was, he had caught on to her feelings right away and Leonardo followed soon after. The only one who hadn't found out aside from Raphael was Michelangelo, not that that was surprising; for someone who obsessed about girls so much he didn't know much about how their emotions worked.
"Hmm, nothing important.." She mused, leaning back into her chair and folding her arms in front of her chest. He scratched his head, pulling away from the repairs for a moment and turning in his chair to face the teen.
"Well you can always talk to me you know." He reassured, a kind smile gracing his features.
"Yeah.. I know." She muttered, glancing down at the floor as her cheeks tinged with pink for a moment. "It's just… Hard to talk about, I guess."
He sighed, rolling his eyes playfully and placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I'm not going to make you tell me, but don't hesitate if you want to, okay?"
Her face broke into a smile and [Name] nodded, "I know. Thank you Donnie." She murmured, standing and hugging him tight.
He laughed and patted her head playfully, "Any time."
"I'm gonna go see what the others are up to." [Name] explained, removing her arms from the brainiac and waving. Donatello nodded and waved, turning back to Mikey's board and hunching back over to continue work as [Name] closed the door.
When she heard grunting from the dojo that familiar feeling returned. Her stomach started churning as she heard Raphael curse in aggravation from the other room. "Come on Raph, you gotta learn to control yourself better…" The oldest brother sighed, getting a frustrated grunt in return. A frown came across [Name]'s face as you walked over hesitantly, she knew it was foolish and potentially harmful to walk in on them training, but had to know what happened this time.
Slowly, she pulled the doors open and peeked around the edge. Raphael was clutching his right fist in pain and clenching his jaw in anger. A good guess would be that he and Leo were sparring and he got lost in anger and hit the wall when Leonardo dodged. Unfortunately, [Name] wasn't a ninja and got detected within seconds. The blue clad turtle lifted his head, looking towards her and letting out a sigh. "Uh.. Sorry." [Name]'s voice came out as a pitiful squeak and her face went red. "I just.. wanted to…" Well she didn't really have a good excuse, if one of them got hurt she couldn't do much to help. "I wanted to make sure everything was ok."
Leo smiled softly, it was sweet of her to check up on them, but extremely dangerous if Raphael was still in one of his rages. April had nearly got thrown into the wall when she walked in just as Raph had thrown a training dummy at the door. "Everything's fine [Name]. Just a uh.." He paused to look at Raphael, who had turned his back to [Name] in embarrassment. "A little accident." The larger turtle turned suddenly, walking straight towards [Name] and pushing past to get the his room. She flinched away, chewing her lip nervously and looking down at the floor in shame. "Don't worry about it.. Raph's just being… Well you know how he is." Leonardo sighed, walking over and placing a hand on the girls shoulder. "I wouldn't overthink it."
"I know.." She sighed, leaning into his plastron with a groan. "Does Raphael hate me?"
"What? Of course not! If he hated you he would tell you, trust me." Leo smiled, "He tells me all the time."
"Yeah but you know he doesn't hate you! He hardly ever speaks to me, just get's pissed and ignores me whenever I enter the room." She whined, crossing her arms and ducking her head down.
The oldest brother almost thought about telling [Name] that Raphael felt the same way about her as she did about him, but then Raph would really hate him. "Well why don't you go talk to him?"
"Talk to him?!" She seemed appalled at the idea, "He'll make fun of me!"
"He won't, I promise." He chuckled, nudging her towards Raph's bedroom and grinning reassuringly. [Name] looked betrayed, giving him a pathetic attempt at a death glare as she shuffled her way towards the rageaholic's room. She knocked gently, which she thought would go completely unheard until a growl of "Come in." came from the room. The door creaked open and Raphael turned to meet [Name]'s eyes, quickly turning his head away.
"What do you want?" He asked gruffly, resuming the polishing of his sai and sighing. Why was she here? This wasn't helping his attitude. It was getting hard enough to hide how he felt without her coming to him.
"I wanted to make sure you were alright." [Name] explained shakily, taking a few steps closer to him sat on his bed. "It looked like you hurt your hand."
His expression softened slightly as he glanced over at her, deciding to respond after a brief silence. "Yeah… Yeah I did." He sighed, showing his bruised hand to her, some blood seeping from his knuckles. So he did punch the wall. [Name] repressed the urge to ask if he was alright as she took his hand to examine it closer, knowing she'd get sarcasm in return.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" She asked gently, looking up and flushing scarlet when she saw he was staring down at her.
He blinked rapidly, looking down as his green cheeks tinged with red. "Uh, it'll be fine." Raphael nodded to himself, gently and almost reluctantly pulling his hand away. "Just a bruise." What the hell was this new Raph? He hadn't snapped at [Name] once this entire conversation. The ninja raised his head again and glanced to [Name], opening his mouth to speak as she looked around nervously but changing his mind. It was pointless, she wouldn't be attracted to a giant turtle with a temper problem. She had probably had tons better boyfriends anyway… He was so lost in thought he gasped aloud when their eyes suddenly met again. "I-I uh.." He stammered, looking desperately for an excuse before hurrying out of the room.
[Name] stared dumbfounded, rubbing her eyes to make sure she saw right. "H-Huh?" Why would he just leave like that?
