"Hey guys," said Audrey, plopping two oversized grocery bags down on the counter. A dull, distracted, "Hey" emanated from the apartment. It sounded like three voices - one was missing. She quickly took stock of the situation.
Michelangelo and Donatello were on the couch, playing head-to-head video games. More correctly, Donatello was on the couch - Michelangelo was a little on the armrest, a little on the couch, and all over his brother. "Dude, what gives, I totally kicked your ass!" he grumbled half-heartedly, his body lurching in tune with the combat.
Leonardo was sitting at the table behind the couch. He had a book in one hand (was that the Hobbitt?) and a slice of pizza in the other. Of course. Even though he was leaning back in the chair with his feet partially on the table, he looked deep in thought. A piece of meatball from the pizza was dripping ever closer to the floor, missing his open mouth by all of an inch. Audrey shook her head. This was what her cousin left her with - giant humanoid nearly-adult turtles. Leo had just celebrated his 23rd birthday, but she was still unsure as to their maturity. She whispered a small word of thanks to the ceiling.
Michelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo...that left one. She looked around the corner to see if he was hiding in the bedroom. "Anybody see Raphael?" she asked. The name seemed to pull Leonardo out of his reverie.
"Yeah, he's on the roof. He's been up there all night. What did you do to him?"
Audrey hit him playfully on the shoulder as she walked past to the fire escape. "Wouldn't you like to know?" she said with a wink. Leo shook his head.
"Not especially, now that you mention it," he replied, finally taking a bite of the gooey mess in his hand. She chuckled.
"Oh, no way, unfair..."
"Fair's fair, Mikey - you know you had that coming."
"You suck. Okay, my turn to pick a character. I'm gonna get the biggest, baddest, and meanest of them all..."
"That's great, but Raph's on the roof - OUCH! What was that for?"
"He's our brother, man. He's mean, but dude can kick some serious booty."
"Yeah, I guess so..."
At the top of the apartment complex, Audrey saw a recognizable figure against the shadows. He was slouched over, the back of his red bandana swaying in the cool breeze. He didn't even see her approach; he jumped when she touched his shoulder.
"Everything okay there, slugger?" she asked softly. She'd learned to pose her questions gently and light-heartedly, fearful of his ever-pulsing anger. Ordinarily when something got to him, he'd push her away and make some sort of irritated comment. Now he just sighed.
"Yeah, I guess so," he echoed his brother. "I was just, y'know...thinking about what you said earlier."
"What, about the half-price deal at the Museum of Natural History? I think that's fair, since you guys probably belong in the Museum of Natural History," she teased. He shot her one of Leonardo's famous "that was so not funny" looks, Funny - they fought to be different, but these brothers were so similar.
"No," he said, slightly agitated. "About what you said you could do for us."
"Free lunch at the cafeteria?" she guessed.
"No, geez, not that."
"Private planetarium showings?"
"Hey, come on."
"After-hours free-for-alls? Well, I guess I could talk to my boss about that..."
"APRIL, for Christ's sake cut it out!" he roared. He blinked and shook his head. "I mean Audrey. God, you sound just like your cousin sometimes."
She sat at the roof's edge next to him, drawing her knees up to her chest. It was so cold and damp up here. Why did he have to make this his private sanctuary, of all places? She looked up at the full moon above them, shaking a bit of hair from her face. "Sorry. I used to hear that a lot growing up. I really miss her sometimes."
"Me too. She took such good care of us, Splinter especially. She treated Mikey like gold. And Casey was the only one who could ever keep up with me. And with Donnie. And when he was with Leo - "
" - I get it. They were God's gift to mutants, I get it," she interrupted crossly. She knew, going into this arrangement, that this had been a tight-knit group. She knew that when April and Casey left to the west coast to start a life together, the boys had lost a best friend. She knew that was Splinter passed away last year, it would take a long time to pick up the broken pieces. She knew all of that. But sometimes, the constant reminders of how happy they were before her was unnerving. After all, hadn't she lost her cousin?
Raphael stiffened. He hated that word, "mutant", and she knew it. "Yeah, well, anyway...I was thinking about that spell you mentioned."
"The transfiguration spell?" she asked. She had teased him, but she knew exactly what thoughts kept him wrapped up here. She'd made mention of it earlier that morning after an exhausting search that had kept her up the night before. All of the brothers seemed shocked, but the opportunity to be human struck Raphael most of all. Maybe it was because he'd always wanted to be a loner, to branch out. Maybe it was because he hated being stuck in the odorous, damp, disgusting sewers day after day after day. But whatever it was, he just hadn't been himself all day. At lunch, when Audrey took her hour-long break to spend it with the guys, he was nowhere to be found. Had he been up here all day?
"Yeah." He looked down at his hands, rubbing the spaces between his fingers. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I can't just go into it blindly. I mean, it's not just a rare opportunity - it's a life-altering one. Me, a human being! I could go out on the streets in broad daylight- broad daylight! - anytime I want. I could do as I please, go where I want, talk to whoever I want. I could - "
" - live the rest of your life without your brothers," she finished.
In his high-energy state, his temper flared. "Dammit Audrey, can I finish one sentence without you barging in on it?!"
"Hey, Raph, chill. I just wanted to tell you that I understood what you were saying."
"How could you when you didn't even give me a chance to say it? Human or not, I don't need a babysitter. Not you, not April, not even Leonardo in all his infinite wisdom. Maybe it would be better to turn me human, after all." He got to his feet but stood in place for a moment, as if he didn't really want to leave. She knew he was rash, but even his moodiness couldn't numb the fact that he had a heavy decision to make.
She rose as well, taking his abnormally large hand in hers and lightly massaging it. "You know, if Splinter were here..." she cooed. But as gently as she tried to say it, it was possibly one of the worst things she could have said at that moment.
"Splinter?!" he cried, as if it were the most ridiculous argument he'd ever heard. "Are you throwing 'What Would Splinter Do?' in my face? Our sensei is dead, Audrey, and you never even knew him. What do you know about what he would have said? He'd probably tell me to drop you and strike out on my own for once. He'd say that this was a great chance for me to learn about myself or some crap like that. He'd say - "
"Master Splinter would never say anything like that," came a cool voice from the shadows. Both Audrey and Raphael turned on their heels to see who it was. Leonardo. Fantastic. She hadn't been around long, but long enough to predict what was about to erupt. She groaned inwardly.
"Leo? What the hell? Look, get outta here, this isn't your decision, a'right?" Raph snapped angrily, making a motion of dismissal.
"It isn't yours, either. It's a major decision that will affect all our lives. Don't dive into this head-first without thinking like you always do. We need to talk this out as a family." Leonardo's voice remained cool as he stepped out of the shadows. He had a dead-set, unwavering look in his eyes that only served to anger Raphael further.
"Yeah? Well I got news for ya - this body is sure as hell mine, and I'll do whatever I damn well please with it." His fist was clenched, and Leonardo was reaching uneasily behind him for his katanas. Audrey swallowed-hard-and started to back away toward the fire escape.
"Raph. Please. I don't want to fight you over this," Leonardo pleaded.
"Don't worry - I'm outta here anyway." Raphael did an about-face and, in a daringly impressive move, lept off the rooftop to an unknown part of the city. Leonardo sighed.
"Man, is that guy moody or what?" Audrey burst out. Leo approached the rooftop and looked thoughtfully into the darkness.
"Try living with him for 23 years." He turned and faced his companion. Even in the pale moonlight there were visible scars all around his face. His eyes appeared war-torn and heavy with concern. Raising his brothers even before the death of their adoptive father was taking its toll on him.
"Before I call a family meeting on this one, I'd really like to go over some things with you," he murmured, holding his hands behind his back and squinting up at the moon. "I'd like to know the details of this spell - when does it happen, what happens exactly, and how long will it last. Why him. And of course, I'll want to meditate on it. I really wish I knew what Splinter would say. It's such a difficult thing to decide. We've already lost our father. I don't want to lose my brother." There was a pain in his voice, as though his heart were about to break. He inhaled sharply. "He's always fought to break away, but now that the opportunity is staring us right in the face, I want him to stay more than ever. It was always, 'Raph, don't split up the team.' 'Raph, the team needs you.' Well, team be damned - I need him."
Audrey understood where he was coming from, and she wanted him to release some of the tension before it ate away at his heart. But it was mid-March, and the breeze on the rooftop carried a bitter chill. She shivered and tried to coax him back inside.
"Leo - "
"I mean, I know he's hot-tempered and moody. Sometimes so am I. But he's my little brother. I've known him forever. I've watched him grow and wrestle with his weaknesses. I've seen him overcome obstacles that would have left me for dead. He's strong and he's passionate and - I love him. I just don't think we could live without him. We've been together for more than 20 years. We've never been apart for long. How could I even begin to move on?"
"Leo, come on. Let's make some tea and talk about this, just you and me."
He sighed, the heavy sigh of someone with the weight of the world on their shoulders. "Maybe later. Right now I just need some peace to think." He raced to the rooftop edge and, in a swoop even more graceful than Raphael's, pounced silently on the rooftop adjacent to theirs. Audrey paused for a moment to give him some time to go, then cried out in exasperation to the night sky.
"Thank you for making me an only child!"
