A/N: Thank you Emporer-Darlek for the review and tip! I actually don't have a beta or anything, and I'm too shy to ask anyone so uh…

Admittedly, Raphael was a tough shell to crack. It was a surprise to himself when he found out that a human girl had managed to break him in the best possible way. The red banded turtle met her like in those cliché movies (according to April); he caught her from falling down the stairs in the fire escape.

The startled girl could only stare at Raphael with her eyes the size of saucers. His eyes were just as wide as hers, internally scolding himself for revealing himself to a human.

'But if you didn't catch her, she'd have a crack in her head right now.' His mind argued. Raph mentally told it to shut up.

The girl was still staring at him. She looked like a deer in the headlights, and although the though was amusing, he wanted to die from embarrassment. If his brothers ever heard about this, he'd never hear the end of it. Raph could see it now.

"Raphie's got a girlfriend!" Mikey would tease. Leo would chide the youngest brother sternly, but still unable to keep the smirk off his face. Donnie would look over to him, giving him his infamous 'I told you so' look.

Raph zoomed back into reality when he heard the girl quietly squeak. He let her go immediately and said the first thing that came to his mind.

"Hi."

The girl screamed, pulling out a can of something and spraying the contents at his face. Raph nearly screamed as well, when the substance burned his eyes and cheeks.

"What gives?!" He demanded, rubbing at his beak in attempt to get the burning away.

The girl huffed. "What gives? You're the one to just decided to dip me over a staircase!"

"You were going to fall down!"

She opened her mouth to reply to the turtle, but closed it knowing that he was right. She fiddled with the pepper spray can.

"Are…you okay?" She asked him softly. "I'm sorry for, uh, that."

He squinted, finding difficulty on focusing on her face. He could only see (H/C) hair and (Skin/Color) skin.

"I'm peachy," Raph bitterly replied. "And it's fine. Just don't do it again."

Awkward silence filled the gap. The two kept meeting each others eyes, staring a little, then shyly looking away. Raphael noticed that she liked to move around a lot.

"Why were you going down the fire escape and not the front door anyway? No one's stopping you." He pointed out.

She nearly dropped the can and looked down. "My parents keep fighting with each other. I don't want to be in the middle of it." She told him quietly.

Now Raphael was regretting his decision. He looked at the girl, about to (awkwardly) tell her it was going to be alright when she interrupted him, "I'm actually renting an apartment a few blocks away. Just a place to escape life, y'know? That's…where I was going."

Raph found that as an opportunity to take him leave and let the girl be alone. But when he looked up, he realized that it was very late, and around the time Purple Dragons came out to look for "prey". He sighed.

"Where is it?" He asked her. "It's too dark to be going there alone."

Startled eyes met with electric green. Raph could see the genuine surprise in her eyes when he offered to walk her back home. He understands, she just sprayed pepper into his eyes, and even he wasn't expecting himself to offer.

Raph decided that she was just lucky that he was in a good mood today.

In the few awkward minutes in their walk, the girl did not like "awkward". She began telling him about her adventures in life, noticing how stiff he was. She told him where she studied, where she really came from, her family, and why she kept sneaking out. In return, he told her about his brothers, but not where he lived, and he didn't talk too much, just so he could her her ramble.

Raph liked her voice, and, no matter how much he denied it, found it adorable how she ranted.

When they reached her apartment, Raph was disgusted to find out that she rented an apartment in the most dangerous part of the city, usually where the turtles would fight the Kraang or Shredder's goons. He silently wished that she had picked a better place than this.

Sure, a girl like her could last a few minutes against the Purple Dragons, but against their more dangerous enemies like Tiger Claw, Fishface or Rahzar? She wouldn't stand a chance.

Soon, in the midst of this girl's rambling, Raph realized that he worried about a girl he just met, and he didn't know why.

"We're here," She announced, stopping in front of an old looking building and spreading her arms out wide. "Ta-da~!"

Raph grunted in response, deciding to tell her what was on his mind. "Yeah. Uh, couldn't you have picked a better place than this?"

Her smile wavered. "What do you mean?"

Raph peeked at her at the corner of his eye, sticking to the shadows, and answered, "This isn't a good place in NYC."

"Oh."

Silence again.

The girl scrunched up her face, as if deciding about what to do. She nodded lightly to herself, and to Raph's great surprise, kissed him on the cheek.

"Thank you for catching me and walking me home," She murmured. "But I don't think I'll ever worry about anyone messing with me at night anymore, now that I know there are four of you watching over New York." She hummed. "NYC's very own angels."

She nodded in satisfaction and started heading up the stairs, skipping two steps each.

"Wait!" Raph called after her. She turned around with an arched eyebrow. "What's your name?"

"Call me (Y/N)." The girl grinned. "I'll see you later, turtle dude."

She headed back up and left the turtle to his own thoughts. His insides churned at the thought of seeing her again. Excitement for tomorrow bubbled up as he raced home, uneager to get another scolding from either Leo or Splinter.

But at the end of the day, the only thing that was on Raphael's mind was her adorable "deer in the headlights" look.