Hello! I'm back (again!) I'm going to try to finsh/get as close to finishing as I can before school starts again (Next Monday... blech) I'm going to guess there are one-two more chapters left after this one, although I do plan on doing a sequel eventually. Enjoy!
"Don't be stupid, Rachel. You're smarter than that. Of course it's a costume. There aren't just giant humanoid-turtles running around New York." Ellie scoffed.
"Oh... I guess you're right, but it just feels so real!"
Ellie rolled her eyes before inspecting Raph. "Why is your mask red, if the one you gave April is purple?" She asked, sounding suspicious.
She quickly stepped between Ellie and Raph and Rachel, who was still hugging Raph for some unfathomable reason. "This isn't Donnie." She saved Raph from a load of embarrassment, as well as quiet a few of tough questions. "This is Raphael, or Raph for short."
"Where's Donnie boy, then?" Ellie demanded. "I want to see my best friend's boyfriend"
Even in his shocked state, Raph managed to crack a smirk. She watched in shock as he gently pulled Rachel's arms off of his neck, and only twitched slightly in irritation when Rachel latched onto his arm instead.
"Donnie's stayed at home." Raph muttered.
"Well, why don't we go and see him then. I want to embarrasses Apritello in person." Ellie cackled.
"Apritello?" She shot her best friend and inquisitive glance.
"Apritello." Ellie confirmed. "That's you're couple's name! You put the Apri- from April, and the -tello from Donatello."
She glared at Ellie before Rachel looked up at Raph with the 'sad eyes' she uses to get her way with anyone who didn't know better. "I want to met your brothers. Please?"
They took their devastating toll on Raph's judement. "Ok." He responded numbly.
"You can't!" She blurted before Rachel turned the eyes on her.
"Why not?"
"Because... Raph's house is really far from here, and I'm assuming he decided to walk." She glared at Raph for giving in.
"Come on April. We're big kids here, we can handle a little bit of walking. Our feet won't fall off." Ellie griped. She then took a step towards Raph and poked him hard in the chest."Wow, this is really realistic. Where'd you get it?"
A small, strangled growl escaped Raph's throat, and she couldn't help but chuckle slightly. "But it's really far, isn't it Raph?" She was looking for some help from the red-masked mutant, before this snowballed into the worst-case scenario possible. It was a miracle that they thought it was only costumes.
"It's not a costume." Raph grumbled in a low, menacing voice.
"Oh ha ha, very funny, wise-guy. Of course it's a costume. " Ellie barked. Then, she very stupidly poked Raph's chest again. "See? A costume. No matter how real it looks and feels, animals in the world that I know don't talk."
"Well, this turtle does!" Raph was obviously very flustered and angry, although Rachel didn't seem to notice; she was too busy examining the details on the arm of his 'costume'.
She then decided to throw in the towel. There was no escaping it now, although Leo would kill her. Donnie might be slightly angry, but she could hopefully count on his support, and Mikey wouldn't care.
"Uhhm, guys." She choked out. "He's not lying."
"Very funny April, you're in on the joke now too?" Ellie snapped.
"I'm serious!" She snapped back. "I'll prove it, too."
She stomped over to their bathroom to gather materials. Rachel must have recovered from her astonishment, because she could hear her firing of questions.
"So this isn't a costume? You poor thing! Are you a turtle that was experimented on a lab when you a baby? Or are you a human who was changed by radioactive chemicals? Or where you a human experimented on by scientists? I've read a book called 'Maximum Ride' where something like that happens. No, no, it couldn't be any kind of experimentation; the government would never allow that, and if they did, I'd have a fit! Any kind of dangerous experimentation on animals or people is cruel and wrong. Hmm, maybe you were a turtle changed by radioactive chemicals!"
Poor Raph couldn't get a word in edgewise, although he managed to interrupt her before she could go off into a rant on the dangers of radioactive waste. "You could say that."
"Rachel! Don't tell me you actually believe any of this. It's just joke April's playing on us, so she doesn't have to get embarrassed in front of her one true love."
"But I can feel his heart beat!" Ellie whined.
"Every living human on this earth has a heart beat! The extensive makeup and costume he's wearing wouldn't make his heart stop beating." Ellie protested.
"No! Not like a human heart beat, it's different. It feels slower, and heavier, and deeper inside his chest."
"You're being ridiculous." Ellie huffed.
She finally returned to break up the argument with her evidence. "Raph, hold out your arm." She said firmly.
With a hint of a snarl, Raph thrust his free arm towards her, and closed his eyes.
Hesitantly, she pinched the loose skin at his elbow. "First off, this is his actual skin. If was a costume, it wouldn't move like this, and-" she tugged sharply at the skin. Raph, in response, cracked open an eye and glared. "-and it wouldn't hurt. Now, if you are going by the logic that he's wearing a costume, he must have on extensive make up. So, this one had been soaked in soap and water." She held up a sopping wet, white wash cloth, and scrubbed at his arm, then laided it down, with no green stains.
"If it can't be removed by soap and water, if must either be removed by an alcohol or oil-based cleanser." She continued, this time dipping a cotton ball into a bottle of rubbing alcohol, and scrubbing the same spot, before she discarded that as well. It was without a green stain as well.
She took the final white washcloth and doused it in a liberal amount of turpentine, before scrubbing his arm again, and showing the still white cloth. "You know even more than I do, that make up has to be able to be removed with one of those three things, and that green would have left a giant spot on those white surfaces. As much as it metaphorically kills me to tell you guys this secret, I am. Rachel guessed it, when they were little, they got into an... accident with some chemicals, and it did this." She finished, hoping Ellie finally believed her, because if she didn't, there was no way that she could go into the sewer, and she wouldn't stop pestering her until she got to meet the rest of them.
Ellie's normally warm, lively complexion paled to something akin to chalk. "I've lost my mind." She whispered. "You can see it too, so we've all freaking lost our minds! Please tell me this is a dream. Please?" She frantically glanced about.
"I am one hundred percent sure that this is reality." She said firmly.
"I don't know how it's possible, but I believe you." Ellie said quietly. "Wait a second! If Raph's a turtle, then are the rest of them turtles too?"
"Well, their dad is a rat- long story." She answered quickly.
Ellie seemed to ignore that last part, and continued with a shocked expression. "Then if Donnie's a turtle, and he likes you, and you said you kind-of like him, wouldn't that be like zoophilia or bestiality? " She finished in horror.
"Actually, since they are sentient and intelligent, it isn't." Rachel piped up. "I think it's sort of like if there were intelligent aliens that we came into contact with; they aren't animals. Oh my! Ellie, I just thought of something. April and Donnie would be like the beauty and the beast! That's so romantic!" She squeezed Raph's arm tighter, and Raph simply stared, obviously stunned at her indifference to his status.
Ellie's eyes widened like she had an epiphany. "Oh, m, g, Rachel, you're right. That is so romantic!"
She couldn't help but glare at the trio. "Raph, I need to borrow your phone; mine died right after I texted Donnie. I think we should tell them what's just happened." She sighed. This was not going to be a pleasant conversation.
Raph nodded tersely and handed over his phone, while Rachel was chattering to him.
Hesitantly, she entered Donnie's number and waited the eternity through the rings. It never took Donnie this long to answer calls from her number.
When the he finally picked up, she said in her sweetest, girliest voice possible, "Donnie? I have something to tell you. Make sure Leo's with you, and put me on speaker, please."
"On it!"
With a deep sigh, she started to explain. "Well, my friends saw my text to you, and insisted they come over. Then my phone died, so I couldn't contact any of you, and Raph swung in through the window, and they saw him, and one of them thought he was wearing a costume, but realized it wasn't. Then the other friend told my friend who figured out it wasn't a costume that she was being stupid, and that made Raph mad, and he let it slip that it wasn't a costume, and the friend who thought it was a costume thought he was lying, and she wanted to come and see the rest of you, otherwise I would have let her think it was a costume, and being called a liar made Raph even angrier, but after to talking, she believes me, and they both want to come and meet the rest of you." She knew she spoke in a breathy, hurried tone, but her nerves were getting the better of her.
The first response she got was from Donnie, "They know what we are, and they still want to come and meet us?"
"Yes." She answered uneasily.
Leo finally spoke in a tensed, frustrated tone. "By all means, let them come over. There's no point in hiding anything now. "
"Thank you!" She breathed a sigh of relief. She had been expecting a lot worse.
"Ok, I called and explained, so they know we're coming, but Ellie and Rachel, I want you to keep an open mind as to where they live."
"What, do they live in the sewer or something?" Ellie scoffed.
"Yes."
"You're not joking, are you?" Ellie shook her head.
Chapter done! I really liked this one, so pretty please let me know what you think in the reviews!