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Bliss~

Early. Too early. Why do I keep waking up so early? I want to sleep in so badly. But every morning, always the same. Wake up. Watch the ceiling. Wish I were sleeping. Everyone else is still out cold. Hope is beside me, and she looks so comfortable. I bet she doesn't feel the clammy chill of the room from where she is, snuggled between our bodies. I consider burrowing in closer, sharing the pocket of heat with her, farther away from the drafty edges of the covers. But then I'd have to be pressed up against her for another two hours before I fell back asleep, or she got up. It wasn't fair.

Instead, I crawled out of the covers. I quickly noticed the lack of dust in my nose. Or my stupid 'nose holes,' actually. It smelt sterile and static, and the floor wasn't concrete. It wasn't the office place anymore, I quickly realized. It took me a moment to gain my bearings. My eyes adjusted quickly and found the corners of counters, edges of tables and shelves, and the piles unidentifiable debris----

early, always too early. I would think. It was always too cold. They never gave us good blankets. They thought we weren't awake at night, but we were. Sometimes we talked. But not very often as the weeks dragged along.

They moved us around. I didn't always know who was in the cage beside me was. Not in the dark. They whimpered alot. Me too. I cried alot. Until I couldn't feel my own tears. It wasn't fair. Sometimes I couldn't remember the names. They would always call me Bliss, and I'd remember their voices.

It hurt so bad. It was like period cramps a million times over, all day long. At night they sedated us, is what Angel said. But it didn't put us to sleep anymore after awhile. Or if it did, we'd always wake up too early. Then we'd just have a softened pain, the warnings of the major hurt readying to surface in the morning.

But we were always up before the mornings. We got to wait for it. Sometimes the girls would cry, and moan, and swear. They didn't hurt as bad as I did though. I cried all the time, it hurt so bad. It wasn't just the hurt. I wanted home. I wanted out. It wasn't fair. Not for me, I didn't deserve this. I was one of the good people. I never hurt anybody. It wasn't right. They wouldn't listen.----

I quickly remembered where I was. This wasn't the laboratory. That was a long time ago. Well, not that long ago. We were safe now. No more pain. We weren't safe and back home yet, Conneticutt, but we were alot closer than we were yesterday. I knew someday I'd be home again, away from this sucky life. I remembered the rescue we had, and how four men had taken us in. They told us everything would be alright. And except for looking like a monster, I was agreeing with them.

It was still cold though. There weren't any spare blankets around to cover myself in, and Mercy and Hope seemed to have a pretty good hold on the bed covers. I looked to Angel through the darkness. It wasn't like she'd notice if I took her blanket. It wasn't a really good one in the first place. She had all those wires and the little beeping machine that measured her heart. That would keep her warm or something if she got cold.

But I suddenly had a better idea. Tentatively making my way around Angel's protruding cot, I fumbled with where I thought I had seen the door knob. My hand brushed it, and I quickly grasped on. It turned easily, although the door stuck a little when I opened it. I slipped out and closed the door quickly behind me, so as to not wake up the other girls.

Outside the lab room, I recognized the hallway I had seen last night. There was a light at the end of it, where the living room and kitchenette and things were. Under the doors across from me, however, were lights also. I believe I had seen bedrooms in them earlier. Messy, tell-tale guys rooms. Since I didn't know who was behind any of the doors, I opened the first one I came to, which was directly in front of me.

It was totally dark, the hallway giving only a faint wash of light to the things inside. Sparse furniture, stacks of things intermixed, like CD's, magazines, and 'fruit roll-ups.' It smelt as though some food had been lost inside for a long time. I really didn't have to think about who's room this was. I had already sized the four turtles up, compared to the guys I knew. Mike was like most of the immature neanderthals walking the planet. He would be fun to hang out with, fuck a few times, easy-going fling potential. But I was no fool. This wasn't like high school or anything. From what we had been told, we were the only eight mutants around. And we were our only company. From the get go I knew where this was leading. I mean, duh. Four girls. Four guys. Seamless hook-up-age. And I was going to come out on top. I wasn't out to step on my friends or anything, but this was war... And Mike was not the top. I could see him, etched in the bed by dim lights, hanging half out of his bed, foot hooked through the foot board, arm and leg splayed out to the floor. How was I supposed to sleep in a bed with that? He'd probably roll all over the place and kick me.

I closed the door softly, just in case I woke him, though it was unlikely with the rolling snore he was issuing out of his mouth, or nose (if he had one) or something. Bare feet patting down to the next door, damn the floor was cold. This one had a light on beneath, a good sign. I pulled a few locks of hair forward, all of it back looked a little severe sometimes. Of course, I hadn't had a good shampooing in a long time, so my hair was starting to dread, and always looked ratty. At least when it was forward it looked a little softer.

Peeking inside, I didn't like what I saw. The room was messy (although not as messy) like Mike's. But that's not what I was disappointed with. This was Raphael's room. I just knew. Hell, maybe I was picking something up. He really did look like the rest of his brothers, sitting halfway up in the bed. Maybe in a few days I could tell the difference, but right now it was those hard eyes that made the distinction. This one was dangerous. And mean. I couldn't get a bead on him. But I did know that the way he just watched us all quietly was not a good sign. I would not want to be left in a room with him. So I quickly excused myself from his gaze, as it was turning from frozen surprise to curiousity. Creep.

The next door I decided not to bother with. There was snoring for one thing. Taped on the door was a sign, probablely not by the inhabitants hand, that read 'I'm a big dork head.' So I guessed it was Donatello, the doctor, inside. Which left one door on the hall, left wide open and empty. That seemed more promising than a sleeping dork head. Fuck it was cold. I didn't get goosebumps anymore. That was wierd.

I glanced into the open room quickly. It was kept in order, though the bed was in disarray, and the trashcan was overflowing onto the floor. Still in better form than the first two I had the displeasure of wandering into. I didn't know where Leonardo was though, or what he was doing awake so early. Although I did intend to join him.

Surely he was the one who had turned on the lights. Treading timidly into the quiet expanse of home, I found I was correct. Glass of water in hand, he was heading my way from the kitchen, or bathroom, or somewhere. Well-toned was a good word for him. Before he would've been too short for me. But now that I had seemed to have had shrunk, he was a good height. I could really appreciate all those mad muscles. I wondered what he could really do with all those *evil grin* What he could do to me, that is.

And what was up with that 'naked' thing? Don and Mike had both gone down to their birthday suits almost as soon as they had walked through our doors yesterday. I thought maybe they had just made a horrible mistake. How embarrasing that would've been. I know I wanted to die. But then when we got into the sewer den, they all took it off. Like, everything. Fucking naked! I was totally red, for like, three hours. Whenever I had to look at one of them. I couldn't believe they had done that. I guess they always walked around like that. Shameless.

Now Leonardo was wearing a robe, kind of tattered, but still warm looking, left untied. He looked surprised to see me up, suddenly pausing in step. The water sloshed in his cup, and I nervously pulled my tee shirt around my panties. At least if I had had goosebumps, he could've seen how cold my legs were. He asked what was wrong, and I told him how I was cold. How I woke up early. How I couldn't get back to sleep, and was looking for a blanket. He quickly disrobed, careful with his water, and helped me into his robe. It didn't have much heat, since he had only put it on himself a few minutes ago, but it was fuzzy and cut out the chill. He asked if that was better and I nodded, with the cute smile. I could wrap the robe all the way around me. Maybe even all around to my back again. Part of this, I could tell, was because I didn't have a big fuck-ass shell like he had. Mine was thin, and didn't come around my sides at all. In fact, when I wore clothes, you couldn't even see the thing. It was kind of narrow, and was just starting to get hard. The others were always making plans to shapen the rim that sort stuck out, and make their backs into big cookie cutters, and all the adventures they would then have. It was juvenile really. I pushed it out of my head.

He asked if I wanted a glass of water, I looked up through my eyelashes and smiled my assent. He paused for a moment, then handed me his. I hoped he hadn't already had a drink from the cup. He wanted to see me back to the med lab, I quickly asked him to stay up with me. I knew I couldn't get back to sleep. It startled him. Was that too stong? No, still good. Blanketed by this oversized greying robe, I was too small to be aggressive. Concentrate on looking helpless, he seemed the protective sort. He was unsure, maybe of what was expected of him, of just of what to say to my gracious offer. I wanted him to stay with me. He had never hung out with a girl in his poor hermit life before, obviously. And here I was. I'd take it slow though. He agreed, motioning toward the couch. No bedroom, but that was fine. First I'd see he was comfortable with me. More comfortable than the other girls. Then, as Donatello had said, 'we'll take it from there.'