Darielle was excited. She had the recorder placed on a shelf on her desk, right where Raphael would be sitting. It had 10 hours recording time, so she turned it on and covered the red power light with a knick knack snow globe of the Statue of Liberty. He was due any minute. She had tea boiling on a hot plate and a freshly delivered pepperoni pizza on the bed along with plates, napkins and bottles of water. She heard the tell-tale knocking of the first part to 'Shave and a haircut'. She smiled wanly, stepped to the door and knocked twice to finish it 'that's all.' She opened the door and the huge biker turtle stood there.
"You should never open the door to a motel without checkin' who it is." He said. "First tip a the day." She went to her desk and jotted it down diligently.
"Noted." He closed the door behind him and took off his helmet. He looked around and saw the pizza on the bed and smiled.
"Pepperoni?"
"As requested."
"Sweet." He began to unzip his suit, then stopped, looking at her. "You mind?" He asked. "This thing can get kinda hot." She nodded that it was fine and turned her back to fiddle with the tea. Raphael smiled dryly at her prudishness. She heard the bed squeak and turned around. He had sprawled out on the bed, opened the pizza box and was eating his first slice.
"Not on the bed!" He jumped up.
"Sorry!" He mumbled with his mouth full. "Is it like an antique blanket or somethin'?"
"No. Have you ever slept in a bed with pizza crumbs? I haven't and I would like to keep it that way." She pointed to the chair. He obliged by turning it around so the back of the chair was to his chest. She slowly took her seat and he took another bite.
"Normal chair seats aren't long enough for my shell." He explained. "My butt only gets the edge, ya know?" Not knowing what to say to that she said,
"So, where should we start?" He shrugged, chewing.
"How does this normally work?" He swallowed. "I mean, like, with your victims."
"Well, they're not my victims. I didn't attack them, but they usually started with how they got into the situation. This is kind of different. You don't have an event you're describing. You have advice. So…" She put her pen to her mouth to chew the cap in thought. "Maybe we can start with typical victims, or maybe…locations? What do you think?"
He grabbed another piece and was about to bite it when he saw she wasn't eating yet. He offered the slice to her. Such a small thing, but it resonated with her. In her typical fashion, she analyzed the moment in an instant. If she refused the pizza, he could do one of two things: first, not care and bite into it himself, or second get offended and clam up. If she accepted the pizza he would see that she wasn't afraid to accept something that he touched and that she was willing to share a meal with him. It made for a more open social setting. She decided that accepting the offered slice was the best action to take even though she was not hungry.
This decision took seconds and Raphael did not sense any hesitation when she took the piece from his hand. His hand was so large that it was unavoidable that she touched his skin. It was just for an instant, but it was noticeable. At least for him. Her skin was warm and soft. She felt alive. He was used to touching his brothers or Splinter. Splinter's skin was furry and his brothers' were just like him. He had never touched a human before. Well, not exactly true. He beat their faces in or threw them into walls if he had to kick some scumbag butt. And when he had helped her with his hand that night, tensions were high and he wasn't thinking about how it felt. This was different. He had time to feel it and think about it.
She noticed that his skin was cool, but not icy. It reminded her of holding her hand just above frozen ice, that cool mist that breathed against your skin but didn't freeze or chill you. She had been surprised that it was so smooth, like her own skin. His looked pebbly like a reptile, but it didn't feel that way.
"Location." He chose. She set her pizza down after taking a healthy bite and began taking notes as he spoke. It didn't take much to get Raphael talking about crime and defense. He was very helter-skelter and Darielle decided to break the tips into three separate categories. Types of Attacks. Bad Locations and Victims. He listed situations and humbly glossed over how he stopped them. He focused more on how he spotted them and how he learned where to look. She had pages and pages of notes before she raised her hands in a time out sign.
The pizza was long since eaten, and they were on their third pot of tea.
"This is great stuff, Raphael. Really great."
"But?" He prompted, skeptic.
"I have to go to work in four hours." She smiled.
"Right," He said, sheepishly. "Didn't mean to talk your ear off."
"No! This is good. I mean really good." She was flipping through her notes. "I can't believe everything you know."
"Yeah, well. I'm smart. What can I say?" She smiled at him and he swore his pathetic heart skipped a beat. He was noticing that her eyes were a bright, clear blue. Like two frozen blue hydrangea flowers. And her ebony hair framed her porcelain face. Hers was the kind of face he imagined when Leo was reading stories out loud from Olde England, t
he type of face that would make knights bow and swear their swords to protect. He had always believed it to be more about the code of Chivalry, but looking at Darielle, he could see it was so much more than that. She was beautiful, yes, but there was also a gentleness and goodness that emanated from her.
He had almost talked himself out of coming tonight. When his thoughts turned to her, he tried to turn them away. In the end, he told himself he came because he wanted to teach her how to be safe. And to a certain degree, this was very true. But looking at her now, he could no longer deny the fact that he enjoyed her company. After walking her home the night before, he had rehashed everything that happened the night they had met. Tried to see it from her point of view knowing what he now knew. And he could believe every word she said. That it didn't matter that he was a mutant, that it would have been the same with anyone. She had given him equality. And it didn't matter that the equality was for her level of fear. No one had ever treated him like an equal. Not even his brothers. He was a student to Splinter. He had to bow down to Leo because Splinter chose him to be their leader. Donnie looked down on him because Raphael was not as intelligent as him. Even Michelangelo treated him like he was someone to herd back to Leo to be controlled. And humans. They always screamed. Either they screamed before they attacked, or they screamed before they ran. April screamed, but stuck around. But even April regarded Raphael as someone to keep in line. Whenever he said anything, Leo and the clan would dispute it somehow and move on to another plan.
And now, Darielle listened to him. And she told him what he was saying was good, worth hearing. It made him regard her with even more, what he was loath to call, affection. He was no softy and hated himself for feeling this weak emotion. At the same time, however, why couldn't he have it? Why did he have to be content to be alone? Couldn't he have friends? Couldn't he have more? Didn't the world owe him that? He was getting older. While not quite thirty, he was beginning to feel his youth slip away. In the human world, he should have been married with at least one kid on the way if not his third. He had told himself he was content to be alone. That he accepted his fate and that he would never meet someone. It had been a fight, but as the years passed, and nothing changed, he felt his future becoming clearer. His life would end with him. Once he had come to that realization, his anger knew no bounds. He didn't ask to be this way. He didn't ask to be different. And he wanted the world to pay for the way he had to live: away from the sun, away from people in the dark, dank sewers where humans disposed of their waste. But the anger had faded in intensity. Flashes would appear every now and again and he would go break some heads to clear his mind. But it would always fade and come back. But now, he wondered. What if there was hope?
"Well, I think I have a lot to sort through, so maybe tomorrow we can take a break? I want to go through the notes and get questions in line for anything I might be missing on the information I already have."
She was confident now. In her element. This is what she does. She gets other people to talk, she listens and absorbs. He enjoyed her confidence and imagined this to be her true self when she wasn't worrying about the rest of the world.
She realized that the entire night, she hadn't once looked at the floor. She hoped he noticed that. It was a big step for her.
Even now, she looked at him and saw him. While he had sinewy muscles that would put a wrestler to shame, she found she was not so intimidated by him now. He was forceful and dangerous, yet he had a very easy way about him when he was 'off the clock'. He cracked jokes and sarcastic remarks and she had found herself smiling more than she could ever remember. And he had smiled a lot, too. He had big white bright teeth that made his smile contagious. And tonight, his mocking nature was not directed at her. He never once made a comment or jibe in her direction. When she asked a question, he answered it immediately and sometimes told her it was a good one to ask.
"Yeah, that works." He agreed. He thought maybe he needed some time with his family right now. Splinter might help him meditate with some advanced katas. She held out her hand. It was unexpected so Raphael stared at it for a moment not realizing why she was sticking her hand out. Once he caught on, he tentatively took her hand. He didn't know if she would want to pull away quickly, so he wanted to give her hand an easy exit out of politeness. She closed her fingers around his.
"You interview very well." She complimented. "This kind of information is life-saving."
"Yeah, well. It's good to know." He agreed and pulled his hand back. He went to the bed where his NightWatcher costume was. He stepped into it easily and zipped up. He grabbed his helmet and turned to her. "G'night." He saluted her with two fingers, walked to the door and put his helmet on. Then he was gone.
