Author's Note: I really don't know what inspired this, the idea just popped into my head and I simply had to write it down. I hope you guys enjoy it, it's up to you if you want me to continue it or not!

Stranger

Curiosity killed the cat, but did wonders for the turtle...

"Don't look at my face." The person cried as they backed up further into the opposing corner and hastily pulled their headband over the left side of their face.

The request surprised him; shouldn't he be the one saying that? Wasn't it his face the young woman should have been worried about? Wasn't his face far more terrifying than some female human's face? Curiosity made his blood continue to sing with adrenaline, and his three green fingers itched to pull back the strange woman's headband and take advantage of the tiny patch of moonlight off to the left. Curiosity made him want to look so badly- he had always loved secrets. Before he could stop himself, he asked;

"Why?" and settled himself in the shadows to conceal his bulky turtle body.

"Because I have lost many things because of this face." The stranger replied with ease, and he found that he liked her voice; it was soft, and pleasant to listen to. It was just the type of voice you expected to belong to a person who read books to children at libraries or took over delicate female acting roles. But from what he had seen of the stranger's body, she was not delicate- she was actually quite powerful looking, and not at all feminine.

"What type of things?" he asked, conscious of his surroundings even as he desperately tried to imagine what could be so gruesome below the mask.

"Relationships, friends in general…" the stranger replied, a resurfacing pain making her voice thick like glue. The words seemed strained, as if speaking them aloud were like driving a knife into her chest.

"Are you sure they were real friends to begin with then?" he replied, once again unable to stop himself. He cursed, hearing the sharp intake of breath, and for a moment he could have sworn she was going to dash out of the dark alley where two thugs' unconscious forms lay sprawled, or even worse-start to cry. Much to his immense relief, she began to laugh, her voice choking with pain; dimly he remembered that she had already been fighting when he had arrived on the scene. He had seen her take a blow to the gut, but he knew more than that had probably been done. That's how thugs like the ones he had taken out generally worked. Purple Dragons were real jerks.

"You see the underneath well, stranger." She smiled, the faint moonlight illuminating her features enough for him to catch the grin she flashed in his general direction.

"However, I can't answer that question, no mater how much I want to. Answers are never definite and I am a poor judge when it comes to friendship-call it lack of experience with it, if you will. I can judge character, but not friendship. Aren't I weird?" she laughed, moving slightly, testing the pain to see if it was manageable.

"What are your character judgment skills telling you about me?" he asked, curiosity making him delve further into what he knew could be a potentially harmful attack on his psyche. There was a measure of silence. Somewhere, a fight broke out between a group of dogs and a police siren began to echo throughout the streets. A car horn blared, someone began to yell curses. This was life in New York at night, he knew the sounds well; he also knew that he had to leave soon. His brothers would only wait for so long before he got in trouble.

"They're telling me that I can trust you. I don't know why, I've only just met you, but I think you just might be a good person, stranger." The young woman murmured, just loud enough for him to hear as she forced herself to stand on shaking legs- her nerves were definitely shot. He couldn't really blame her, after his first fight he had been the same way.

"I have to go." He said, almost as an afterthought, as he began to sink back into the shadows.

"I know, so do I. Will I see you again?" she replied softly, carefully keeping to the shadows in order to continue hiding her face. He did the same.

"Perhaps." He replied, a longing to discover the mystery behind the woman already burning deep in his chest.

"Well, I guess I'll see you around sometime, Stranger." The woman smiled as she pivoted on her heal and turned away, throwing an offhanded wave behind her shoulder with her right hand, the empty sleeve of her left arm flapping casually behind her.

Not for the first time, he felt the adrenaline rush that came with curiosity. He wanted to know so much more about the strange human that had named him Stranger.

Perhaps it was a bad personality trait to be so curious, he really didn't know, and he didn't care to either. For now, he would be a stranger, but someday he hoped to become a friend.

After all, he was really, really curious.