Author notes- I do not own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or any of their compadres.
Humans...
The knock at the door wakes me from my slumber and I groan as I roll onto my left side to look at the door.
"Come in." I say sleepily, huddling my shoulders and rubbing my eyes. Don comes in, smiling sweetly, a purple mug in his hands.
"Good morning Karm."
"Morning Don." I sit up and pat my bedside. He sits down and hands me the mug.
"I made you some coffee, you seemed to enjoy it yesterday."
"Ooh thank you." I take the cup gratefully, grin at the purple banded brother and sip at the warm, sweet liquid. I close my eyes and lick my lips.
"Is it okay?"
"Mm it's lovely." I open my eyes and grin whilst Don smiles at me.
"Good." He glances at my wrist. I sigh and put down the coffee on the table by my bedside. "Raph told me." I hold my wrist.
"I told him not to." Don frowns. "From the sounds, I don't think remembering your past would help you an awful lot. It might bring on night terrors, flashbacks, really unpleasant things, you may not have amnesia, it might just be repressed memories, even though you did hit your head… hmm, maybe-"
"Don," I grin, interrupting his mumbling, "you talking to me or yourself?"
He looks up, his head still twirling with thoughts, then smiles and laughs at himself slightly.
"I'm sorry, I get carried away."
"I noticed. It's fine, I'll be okay. As you said, it might be better not to know." I shrug, picking up my cup of coffee.
"Hmm."
"Anyway, I did wanna talk to you, I'm glad you brought me some coffee."
"You 'wanna'?" Don smirks.
"Huh?" I frown.
"Don't you mean, 'want to'?"
"Umm, oh yeah, sorry." I get embarrassed slightly but Don just grins.
"You're saying sorry to a bunch of New Yorkers who talk like that anyway? I was wondering if you were always gunna be so well spoken if you were living with us." I smile at him. "Sorry, you wanted to talk?"
"Oh yeah." I rub my face. "I'm not quite sure how to say this, but… well, clearly you and your brothers have never met a girl of your kind, and I'm kind of wondering what you all think of me because I don't want to cause any problems."
"Well, I know I can speak for myself completely accurately and… well Karm, you're lovely and…" Don stops to think how to say it, blush rising to his cheeks as he does, "you're very pretty and I'd love to have somebody there for me, but… you're not the one for me."
"Phew, I'm kind of glad of that Don, you're like my big brother." I smile up at him.
"And you're like my little sister."
"Your imouto?" I ask.
"Yeah, my imouto." He smiles, not seeming surprised by my knowledge.
"What about your brothers? What do you think they think of me?"
"Hmm, well Mikey I'm pretty sure doesn't have a crush on you… he thinks your hot though." Donny grins and I laugh.
"Mikey all over!"
"Exactly." He looks up at the ceiling in thought, "Raph, I'm not so sure, since he hides most of his feelings away anyway, but since you've been here, he's… calmer I guess. More polite, more conversational… in fact… have you brainwashed my brother? I want the hot head back, a calm Raph is a scary thing." I laugh again. "I think, as un-Raph-like as this sounds, he might be shy." Don almost whispers the last bit, as if he's afraid of saying it, just in case Raph hears.
"Hmm, okay, well, that clears things up a bit, but the brother confusing me the most… Leonardo…"
Don looks at me in thought, his brown eyes flickering. "Leo… he's… well, I'll put it bluntly, difficult. Sensei must think Raphael is the most difficult son, or Mikey, and at times, he must think I'm difficult, always tinkering, always tired for practise staying up half the night, but… Raph can go off and blow steam instead of shouting his head off, Mikey can play his games instead of bouncing around down here and I can let things rest, even myself, at times… Leo, he pushes everyone away, carries the weight of the world on his shoulders, keeps things to himself and that, in my opinion, is the most difficult thing to put up with. He's hard to read, and I'm sorry Kar, I can't seem to give you an answer on our good brother Leonardo."
"Hmm." I take in all of Don's information, playing it through in my brain. "Okay Donny, thank you."
"Is that all that was on your mind?"
"Yeah… oh no, wait, something else…" I grin.
"What?" Don seems wary of what I'm going to say.
"You guys do know you pretty much walk around naked all the time?"
Don laughs and blushes slightly, "Well, we've never had a reason to cover up, and we hate clothes! We don't understand humans wearing them."
"I don't understand humans full stop."
"Me either sometimes, but if you like, I'll see if April can get you something to fit if you feel slightly conscious. We have no shame, but you are a female after all."
"Who's April?" I ask, being the wary one this time.
"Our friend."
"Another turtle?" I frown.
"No no, as we said, you're the only one we've ever come across, April is… a human friend."
My eyes widen, horrified.
"Human friend?! Are you completely damn crazy?!"
"Look, Kar, she's okay, we found her in the sewers… a few days before you come to think of it… She was unconscious, we had few options, bringing her out of harms way was the best one we had." He shrugs.
"Is she here?" I ask, my heart hammering at my chest like a drumstick against a drum.
"No, she has her own place."
"But she knows where you live right?"
"Kar, calm down please, we knew the risks of trusting April, but she's nice, and trustworthy-"
"You could handle the whole world knowing about you? Finding you, chasing you out, torturing you, putting you in cages, breaking your arms-" All these thoughts running through my mind all at once.
"Kar." Don puts his hands firmly on my shoulders. "It's okay, I promise you."
"I don't take promises lightly Donatello."
"Neither do I. You're safe. I promise you."
I sigh and nod, looking into the brown eyes of my brother.
"I believe you."
"Okay, good. C'mon, Mikey is probably wrecking the kitchen, making breakfast."
As Don and I descend the stairs, the worry still lays heavy in my mind. I manage to smile as I see Mikey's big grin as we go into the kitchen.
"Good mornin'!" He says cheerfully, an apron tied around his waist.
"Morning Mike." Don goes straight over to the kettle.
"Morning." I say, sitting down at the table.
"Kar, you're lookin' a bit on the skinny side, so you get a special Mikey breakfast!" He turns his back to me, picks something up and turns back to me with a plate piled high with pancakes. I gasp.
"That's breakfast?!"
"Yup, and all yours." He sets it in front of me. Donny smiles as he sees my eyes widen in awe. Raph comes into the kitchen whistling, but when he sees my face, he stops to laugh.
"What's up with you littl'un?" He takes a seat next to me.
"That," I point at the monstrous meal in front of me, "is my breakfast."
"Yeah, Mikey special, pancakes, chocolate sauce, strawberries, crushed hazelnuts, it's damn good." Raph says calmly.
"But… it's huge!"
"Why thank you Karmy, I know it is." Mikey grins then winks at me. I smile, my cheeks flushing slightly as Don and Raph laugh at my expense.
"Don't eat all of it if you can't, Mikey ate one twice the size of that one once & went back to bed all day." Donny cups his coffee in his hands.
"Are you sure it's okay for me to have all that?" I ask biting my lip.
"Pssh, Karm, shut up and eat it." Mikey turns back to the frying pan, where he cracks an egg on the side of it. I pick up the knife and fork tucked underneath the bottom layer of pancakes and cautiously cut into the top pancake. I pick up a fork full of chocolate and nut covered pancake and a small strawberry and put it in my mouth as elegantly as I can, but still manage to drip sauce over my chin. I wipe it off whilst chewing and swallowing the food. As I put my knife and fork down everybody looks at me. I clap my hands over my mouth. Mikey comes over.
"Are you okay?"
I nod and throw my arms around Mikey's waist.
"That is the best food I've ever tasted!" I grin up at him and he grins back.