Unmentionable crime.
The next few days were uncomfortable, I felt excluded from the family. It was awkward when they tried to talk to me and everyone pretty much ignored me in practice. Mikey and Donnie weren't angry anymore but it was Leo and Raph that kept throwing me these glances. I understood without being said that they wanted me to apologize, which I refused just as silently.
I spend my time training, which meant beating the punching bag until only one of us was standing, usually the bag won. I knew I was acting weird, I usually wasn't this stubborn or rebellious. I hated fighting with my family, but I hated this feeling more. It felt like a fire in my body and it just kept building and building until it found someone responsible to burn. I was fighting round three against the bag when I heard the door being shoved open. Probably Mikey, I thought trying to cheer me up or something.
"You wanna try fighting a more formidable opponent?" Raph said, I ignored him but I was curious as to why he was here. "Or are yah just gonna continue being stubborn like a little brat?" I knew what he was doing, I hated that it was working. I tried to ignore him but I could feel it was just a matter of time.
"Come on, or are yah gonna go into yer room and scream into yer pillow, turn up the music to shut us out. Thought yer teenager rebellious phase was over." He teased a little more and I could just hear him smirk, he was going in for the kill. "If you continue this, Splinter is gonna dump yer ass back in ninja 101." That did it.
I yelled and charged him, he stepped out of the way and just lifted his leg. It was such a stupid basic move, but I tripped and fell on my face just the same. He laughed at me, the fire in my chest roared.
"Oh did we start already?" he taunted. I flipped back on my feet and charged, he avoided all of my attacks, and he was humming all the way. Out of frustration I overcharged a punch and lost balance a bit, he picked right up on that and made me kiss the floor again.
I growled and came at him blindly, he got this glint in his eye, I thought he was finally getting serious. But he just grabbed my wrist twirled me around and swept the legs from underneath me. So he landed on top of me keeping my exhausted ass grounded.
It ceased my struggling, for a few minutes it was just us. Raph was silent and waited patiently for me to catch my breath. I was still angry but the worst was over, I didn't feel like exploding anymore. when he felt I calmed down enough he simply said "This is why we are mad." I didn't fully understand what he meant at first and I tried to look at him but his hold prevented that. "Going up against anyone blinded by rage is a bad idea, you taught me that remember?" he kept me arms locked behind my back so I had no choice but listen to his logic.
"Amateurs are unpredictable you know that, if you get into a fight blinded like this, chances are yer gonna get hurt or worse." He tightened his hold a bit. "Trust me I get it…" He got off me then and spoke the words I had been longing to hear since the incident. "… but it wasn't yer fault."I didn't get up right away. I just sat on my knees of course the others were watching from the door the whole time.
"We were too late." I admitted the thing that caused all this mess … the person that I was angry at. "We were too late."
He glared at me "It was NOT yer fault." He said seriously, I nodded and looked at the floor. He turned to leave the dojo. It's hard and exhausting to hold onto your anger when you realize where it is coming from and who it is directed at.
"Raphie?" he stopped and looked at me, "I'm sorry." I said, his anger seemed to cease a bit, he just nodded and pushed the others out of his way. "Don't cha got anything better to do."