Chapter 12

"So tell me again why we're doing this?"

My brothers and I were seated around Elena's apartment waiting for her to finish getting dressed. It had been a little more than a week since that evening she and I sat in my room and talked. And now for some reason we were all waiting for her to go walking around in the city in celebration of Halloween night. It sounded like some local bars and night clubs were working with one another to throw a combined festival during the night and she wanted to go.

"Because you promised to make up for being an ass for so long. Then you told her to pick how to make it up to her," Leo answered as he read a magazine on the couch. He stood up as Donnie needed his attention at the laptop he was typing at in the dining room.

"Yeah, dude. Even I know not to promise to make it up to a woman by letting them decide what to do," Mikey said as he closed the refrigerator after grabbing a soda. "That's like women 101."

I ran my hand over my face in frustration; it's not like I knew anything about chicks or even what to do in these kinds of situations. After we had talked in my room the other night it seemed like everything was looking better. Elena made me promise not to go out by myself with Casey anymore and my dumbass had agreed to it before even thinking.

Granted, Casey admitted we were running ourselves ragged without much progress, but that was besides the fact. I guess April had noticed the increase in patrols and had spoken to him as well. Traitor.

So because of that I had to fall back on Leo's plan of gathering more intel before doing anything else. I hated it; I hated it so fucking much, and all I wanted to do was just bum rush into the purple dragon's main base and start beating the information out of people. But I guess that was off the damn table.

But then she just had to go and ask what I would do in order to make up being an ass those prior few days, and I stupidly said whatever, you pick.

Worst. Mistake. Ever.

Leo and Donnie were talking with one another before they motioned for me and Mikey to come over. Donnie had some sort of police report pulled up and he was pointing to a list he had been compiling as he talked with my eldest brother.

"Here, there's easily another nine or ten extra within the past couple of days…"

"What's going on?" I ask.

Leo stood there with his arms crossed, thinking deeply. "So I had Donnie run some checks and look for anything suspicious after you found all those dragons moving equipment the other week. Nothing out of the ordinary really except…"

"These," Donnie took over, talking quietly, "over the course of the past few weeks there's been an increase in missing persons reports. On average there's about twenty five a day, which is pretty typical in a city this large. Most people are located within a day or so; jilted lovers, quarreling parents and runaway children, those types. But now," he stopped as he pulled up the list he was making, "there's consistently thirty or more per day, with a lower number of those that are actually located."

"Ok, so you think they're connected to the purple dragons somehow?" Mikey asked from beside me.

"That's the thing, I don't really know if it's connected or not, but it definitely stands out," Donatello readjusted his glasses. "I've created a program that uses a mathematical algorithm to find any possible links between any of the missing persons…age, gender, socioeconomical status, etc. But there hasn't been any solid link between any of them yet."

"So what you're saying is we really have no idea and are still at square one," I growled slightly at the frustration brewing inside.

"Raph, I know you want answers as much as we do. You're not the only one who wants to get revenge for what they did to her, you know," Leo ended quickly as the sound of Elena's bedroom door began to open. "We'll finish this later. Just keep your eyes open tonight."

Wow, I never pegged Leo as one who acted on revenge; he was always high on his honor-duty-mercy horse. Ok, so he was taking this whole thing seriously and not just screwing around. Good to know.

The fit of laughter Mikey was currently having drug me from my thoughts as I looked up and saw what costume choice Elena had picked for the evening.

"A ninja, seriously?" I shook my head at the idiotic idea, though it was hard not to keep my eyes on her.

"What's wrong with it? I can be like you guys for one night! Oh, and I even have green on it too, look," Elena turned around to show the green trim on the mainly black dress and her mask. "See, a ninja, and green since y'all are turtles!"

I turned towards Donnie, "You sure she didn't have any brain damage?" He smirked in amusement.

"Well, at least there's one night a year you guys can go out and actually enjoy being among people," the girl said as she walked over and got a beer out of the fridge. "No one will question how you look tonight. Remember how we used to do it all the time when we were younger?" she popped the top off of the bottle and took a big swig before looking at Mikey, his face lighting up at the memory.

I hadn't brought up the idea yet about training her further in martial arts due to her being seen with myself, and thus making her a target. This whole idea was starting to sound like a bad idea.

"Yeah, that was before we had a ton of people who wanted our shells. You sure you want to go traipsing around the city at night in that outfit? That and I don't think ninjas would be able to fight very well in those heels," I pointed down to her thigh high boots that showed just a small bit of skin before meeting her skirt. "You're not climbing any rooftops in that getup."

"Well, when you put it that way father," she chastised as she walked over towards me, "Yeah, I'm sure." She smiled as she saw me frown. "You said yourself that the last couple of years had been pretty quiet. And look, no matter whoever your 'enemies' are," she made air quotes for emphasis, "they wouldn't be stupid enough to try anything in the middle of a huge crowd of people, all with cellphones to take pictures and video with."

She looked around at all four of us and sighed, "Look, guys, y'all need to learn how to live a little. There is more to life than just training, patrols, and fighting." She looked at Mikey, "I know I have at least one drinking partner, right?"

He quickly nodded and smiled, but then stopped and slowly shook his head when he saw Leo looking at him. The moment he looked away he started nodding his head again. Idiot.

"And besides," Elena walked straight up to me and started poking my plastron, "you promised I could pick whatever I wanted to do since you've been such an ass. No takesy backsies."

I rolled my eyes in irritation; at least this was just one night and I would be done owing her. "Fine."

She turned her eyes towards Leo and Donnie, "You two coming as well?"

The two looked at one another before Leo finally spoke, "Well, since there's not much we can do at the moment, sure, we can go as well. If nothing else we can make our way through the crowds and stop what mischief we come across. Though no drinking for any of you, ok? We still need to be alert."

Donnie nodded and grinned at the slight reprieve he would get tonight. I saw Mikey nod at the instruction, but quietly hid a hand behind his back and crossed his fingers. Yeah, like no one saw that coming. Looks like I'd have to babysit two kids tonight.

Elena smiled wide and did a small dance; ugh, she really didn't need to move all that much in that outfit. She was going to freeze her ass off tonight.

Though I just looked down and realized she had a pair of rubber practice sais attached to her green belt. Not going to deny that I was a little happy when I noticed them.

Within minutes she had put in a request for an uber ride that would take all of us to the part of downtown where the festivities were to be held. I didn't even know what an uber was, but the driver who showed up liked mine and my brother's "costumes" and kept asking questions on how we did our makeup.

Ugh. Tonight was going to suck.

We finally, finally, finally reached the bar district and hopped out of the van a few blocks down since some of the roads had been blocked off. Sure enough I saw her cringe in the slight breeze, and I inwardly laughed at her…she even knew she was going to freeze her ass off.

Donnie and Leo branched off from us once we hit the crowds to do their own thing; of course Mikey stayed with me and Elena so she could have a drinking buddy.

I hated crowds; too many people and too many places for someone to hide. I hated loud music; not only was it irritating, but it could also mask other sounds that could alert you of any potential attackers.

Jesus, I was starting to sound like Leo.

I felt Elena grab my hand and excitedly pull me into the crowd towards one particular bar she had already sent Mikey to. He seemed like he was in the perfect environment, constantly smiling and high fiving people for praising our "costumes"; well at least one of us was going to have fun tonight.

She shoved a drink into my hand as she excitedly sipped on her mixed drink. Thankfully it was just a cup of beer, and not some sort of froo-frooey concoction like the one she had to her lips. I shook my head at her; I knew Mikey was going to be drinking so there was no way I was going to be drunk as well.

"C'mon, Raph…remember? Anything I want," she said loudly over the noises from the crowd. She really was going to keep bringing that up all night, wasn't she? I looked at her as she poked me, "Leo forgot that part. I just want you to have some fun for once, ya know. Sometimes you have a stick up your ass that's even bigger than he does."

I did not.

"Fine, but just one. Someone's gotta be able to take care of him when he goes down," I pointed over at my little brother, who was already working on his second drink. She smiled genuinely and raised her cup to toast mine before putting it back to her lips and taking a long swig.

We made our way down the street, visiting a bar here and there for the two idiots to refill their drinks. Out on the street sat some lucky food truck vendors; they were sure going to make a killing tonight. Elena stood in line and bought all three of us some polish sausages that were pretty delicious and paired well with the beer I had still been sipping on.

Elena twirled and started dancing as a space opened in the crowded street, the nearby club playing some sort of loud hip hop song. Mikey laughed and joined right in with her, gaining some cheers from the crowd.

Those two really were a lot alike; like freaky scary. They actually moved as one form during the music, like they choreographed the dance or some shit.

So the other night when she had mentioned she couldn't be with him because they were too much alike, did that mean she had thought about it before? She had to have because she seemed to have a simple answer; like it didn't take her any time to think about it.

We both knew it would never work between us. Had they actually discussed it with one another? Had they tried anything? He had hinted at it when we were spying on her coffee date, but I had never thought about it before.

Why the hell was I thinking about this now? I couldn't…no, I shook my head to rid the thought. No, it wasn't going to happen. But when I looked up to see her really close to Mikey in a provocative pose because of their dancing I could feel an odd tinge of jealousy.

The crowd cheered as the music ended before another song started, and I saw her flushed face lock eyes with mine as if she were searching for me. She smiled and ran over, trying to drag me back to where she was with Mikey to dance with her as well.

"Oh, uh uh. Nope…This turtle don't dance," I tried to admit as I pulled my arm away from hers. Within seconds she was back on me, pulling at the wraps I had on my forearms.

"C'mon! It'll be fun!" she laughed as she instructed Mikey to go grab another round of drinks, "Don't make me remind you-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I sighed as I chugged down the last couple bit of my beer before tossing the cup into a nearby trash can. I made the quotation marks and rolled my eyes, "whatever you wanted…"

"Hey, don't promise what you can't provide," she said as she pulled me where now some other people were dancing in the street. "You know this isn't hard; Mikey does it well enough. It's not too far off from your bad ass ninja skills, right?"

I kind of stood there awkwardly as she danced up next to me. I was never one for dancing, that was Mikey's schtick. But when she put it like that I guess it made sense. I moved around like the other people around me and actually started enjoying myself. Her body moved against mine to the music, and for a few moments we were one form. She had leaned back into me, the smell of her shampoo wafted up to my nose. I remembered that smell from the other night, but had never put two and two together.

Elena reached back and grabbed my hips, holding me close to her in time to the music. I didn't know what else to do, but followed other peoples' cue and reached forward to hold her hips securely against mine. I leaned my head down near her neck and moved in time with her.

I don't know if it was the thumping of the music, her smell, or even the beer that I had already finished, but I got lost in the moment.

"Here you guys go, next round!" Mikey jumped up at us, three drinks in his hands.

I sucked in a deep breath and must have jumped back a good foot or two at the intrusion. Thank goodness these shorts had some extra room in them, because I could feel the electricity through my body at having her so close to me.

Elena blinked a couple of times too, I guess she just registered how close we were dancing just a few seconds prior; she blushed furiously and thanked Mikey for the drink. I grabbed mine and chugged it down in just a few gulps. Jesus I needed a cold shower.

We all decided to keep moving down the street to see what other kind of entertainment had been planned for the evening. Some streets that branched off had live bands down them, while others had acrobats who set up their ropes and other tools of the trade between buildings. Other acrobats on stilts would occasionally make their way through those slightly less crowded areas.

"Elena? Is that you?" I heard a voice shout out from a few yards away. None other than Mr. Prime Real Estate himself maneuvered his way through the crowd and waved to her. He was dressed in scrubs and his doctor's coat, but had on a pair of black-rimmed glasses.

Elena stopped suddenly at the reunion; was that a flash of hesitation that crossed her face? She finally waved back as he came up towards us.

"Hey! Cool seeing you here," he glanced carefully at me and Mikey since we were so much bigger than him before smiling back at her, "I tried messaging you the other week, but hadn't heard anything back yet. Didn't know if I might have said something screwed up when we had coffee."

"Oh!" she squeaked as if she remembered something, before pulling out her cellphone from her bra. Why that surprised me I don't really know, but I just now realized she wasn't carrying a purse. "Here, my last phone got busted the other week and I only just got this one like yesterday. Here, let me put your number in here again, I'm so sorry." She typed at the screen and plugged his number into her phone before storing it back in its place.

I wonder what else she could carry in there.

"So it's kind of funny we run into each other out here," Mr. Perfect said while adjusting his glasses, "I was supposed to work tonight, but when I got there they said they didn't need me, which explains my lame outfit. Figured I'd give the whole Clark Kent thing a go."

Great, so he's perfect and a nerd.

"Who are your friends?" He asked as both Mikey and I pretended to not really notice him there.

"Oh, yeah, sorry about that. A little bit to drink tonight," she apologized before motioning to me, "This is Raphael, and over here is his brother Michelangelo."

He stuck his hand out and expected a handshake. Good God. Fine.

"Wow, you two have great costumes, so much detail and wonderful makeup skills. You must do theater or movie work, right? How do you two know Elena? We went to high school together…"

"Oh, them? We uh, met at, um…yoga class! Yeah!" She seriously was going to go with that lie? Yeah, I can tell she'd had enough alcohol.

"Yoga?" he raised his eyebrow, in obvious disbelief at her admission.

"Yeah, son," Mikey quickly interrupted as he leaned an arm on Brad's shoulder, "We gotta keep it all flexible, you know, for the ladies," he wiggled his eye ridges. "That's a great place to pick up hotties. I mean, look, we found her there."

I almost laughed out loud at the facial expression of the doc in front of us; I don't think he could tell if Mikey was actually serious or not. But either way, I think it worked because within another minute or so they had said their goodbyes to one another with a promise of Elena getting back together with him for another meeting.

"Yoga class, eh?" I poked fun at her as he walked away.

"Hey, hey, hey," she pushed on my plastron, "I'm a little intoxicated if you couldn't tell, and I didn't see either of you two coming to my aid! I thought you were supposed to rescue me if anything went wrong?"

"I didn't see any danger around, did you Raph?" Mikey laughed as he mocked looking around through the crowd.

"Nope, not a one," I replied. I could see the irritation cover her features, but disappear as she took another swig of her drink. I guess alcohol can fix most social awkwardness.

We ended up putzing around the crowds a little more before calling it a night; I texted Leo and Donnie to let them know I was escorting Tweedledee and Tweedledum back to Elena's apartment and that me and Mikey would be back soon. The walk back from her apartment would give Mikey some time to sober up as well, because I really didn't want to hear any lip from Leo tonight.

We did do that Uber thing again to get her back home safe. Mikey waited down by the sewer while I went up the elevator with Elena to make sure she got into the apartment ok. She wasn't falling over drunk, but she was pretty lit; I was impressed she was able to stay upright on those heels the whole time.

The elevator dinged as it reached the top floor, and I ducked a little to exit without hitting my head. Humans needed to stop being so short dammit.

Before she could input the code incorrectly for the third time I reached over here and typed the right numbers; we didn't need a false alarm tonight. She smiled gratefully and opened the door before reaching back down in her bra to retrieve her money and cellphone to dump on the front table.

What, do those things have friggin' pockets in them? She hopped around awkwardly after unzipping her boots to slide them off and just dumped them where they lay. I could hear her sigh in relief as she stood on her own two bare feet again; I guess they weren't very comfortable.

"Here, help me with this," she held up her long wavy hair to show me a zipper on the back of her dress. She looked back and saw me looking at her funny before sighing, "Look, I had a hell of a time getting this on when I was sober, there'd be no way I'd be able to get it off now and I really don't want to sleep in it.

I hesitantly unzipped the back of her dress, her creamy white skin shone brightly compared to the blackness of the material next to it. She quickly thanked me and held the dress to her body as she walked to the bedroom, telling me to hold on for a few seconds.

I could hear grunting and some mild cursing as she apparently struggled with her dress, and I couldn't help but let a small chuckle escape my throat.

"Hardy har har, Raph, very funny," she finally said as she came out of her room in a tank top and shorts. I could see the wound on her shoulder had healed pretty well, but it was still obviously newish and bright pink.

"Just tell me one thing," she said quietly, "did you have fun?"

I thought for a few moments and found I couldn't disagree, and she could see it on my face. She smiled and crossed her arms, "See? Fun does a body good."

"Thanks for bringing me home, and for everything," she continued, "I realize now I was kind of pushy with the alcohol and stuff all night, so I want to apologize for that."

"Nah, it's not a big deal," I replied to her, "It was just you bein you."

Her eyebrows knitted in confusion before a goofy smile crossed her lips, "You know, I don't know if that was supposed to be a jab at me, or if you were being nice. So I'm just going to let the liquor talk and say wow you were being nice for once."

"Heh, well there's a first for everything, isn't there…"

"C'mere, I want a hug before you go. Mikey's probably getting bored so who knows what trouble he's going to get into," she said after a moment.

Elena came forward and stretched up on the balls of her feet to wrap her arms around me, but I didn't realize she was stretching so high as I had leaned over to give her a hug.

"Ow!" She cried out as my forehead hit her face and she bit her lip a little.

"You ok?" I cupped her face with both of my hands and I looked down at her lips to see what kind of damage I had caused. Her lip had swelled just a tiny bit, but I couldn't tell if it was because they were flushed from the alcohol or if I had actually hurt her.

Before I could react I felt a pair of small and warm hands place themselves on top of my own three fingered monstrosities. The touch was gentle, and I paused to look in her eyes. The light from the front hallway reflected in those gray orbs, and I momentarily lost track of time.

I hadn't even realized she moved her hands to the sides of my face and pulled it down so my lips could meet hers. I closed my eyes as she pressed her lips to mine; they were warm, soft, velvety…and perfect. I vaguely felt her arms wrap around my neck and pull me closer, our kiss deepening, our tongues exploring one another gently but with a desperate need. It felt like I was struck by lightning and was grounded to only this one spot, with her. One hand traveled to the middle of her back while the other held the back of her head, holding her firmly in place.

I felt like I was drowning in her being, and after a few moments my body pulled back with the need for air. We both pulled apart at the same time, both had the same incredulous look on our faces.

Oh my god. What have I done.

"I, uh…um…" I stammered, trying to think of something, anything to diffuse the situation. Her lips were open, breathing deeply after the moment just spent together. I couldn't tell her reaction.

"I…I gotta go," I felt myself saying, going against everything my body wanted to do.

So I did the only thing I could at that moment. I left.