So, this chapter is also pretty expositional and fluffy, but I have to say that I really enjoyed writing it. I'm really trying to sprinkle as much humor as I can into the story, but it's a little hard with things being a bit more on the serious side right now. I really do want to embrace the humor of this show as much as possible, though. So, I'm hoping to be able to do that more as the story progresses, but for now, I hope everyone enjoys the feels!
Also, just wanted to give a quick shoutout to the few people who have reviewed so far! To ma-will, and guest reviewer: Thank You! I really appreciate you taking the time to give your opinions and advice, and I hope to hear from more of you in the future!
The next several days seemed to pass in a bit of a blur, as the boys would usually spend most of their time either eating or playing around. Although, whether it was together, or each doing their own thing, Katerina couldn't help but feel slightly, out of place. Mostly, she just tried to stay out of everyone's way and not be a nuisance, but she was continually at a loss as to what to do with herself.
When they would participate in a group activity, it usually involved a type of sport or training exercise. Both of which she had little to no experience with. So, on the occasion when they'd convince her to try and join in, she'd put forth a less than stellar performance, before insisting that it would be better if she could just watch instead.
During times when the guys were focused on their own interests, Katerina would feel even more isolated. Having nothing to work on, or anything to use to entertain herself, it left her with sitting in the living room and watching TV with Splinter as her only option. She'd never really been a big fan of television, though. Between the commercials and the reruns, it always felt like a waste of time to her. She'd much rather be using it to accomplish something productive, or at least, the semblance of productivity through digital means.
In light of this, it didn't take long to figure out that Donatello was the big gamer of the family. Whenever the boys would break off into solo activities, he could usually be found either working in his lab, or spending time in the lair's 'gaming room'. The room in question was, in Katerina's opinion, probably the most impressive part of the whole lair. Lined with retro video cabinets, a DDR machine, and even an air hockey table, it was like they had their own arcade!
The real star of the room was the large flat screen, hooked up to several current-gen consoles, and even some not-so-current systems. Too bad Katerina hadn't worked up the nerve to ask about using any of it yet! Maybe it would have been easier, if it had been someone other than Donatello constantly commandeering the equipment. But as it stood, it seemed that he was the go-to turtle to ask about using any of the electronics. As such, that's where she knew she'd find him when the others happened to ask her to go fetch him for one of their ritualistic 'skate ball' games.
Katerina hesitantly poked her head into the game room. The purple clad turtle was currently seated on the floor in front of the flat screen, frantically takking away at the controller in his hands. As he did, a pair of familiar characters moved across the screen. She found herself watching for a moment, before shaking her head, reminding herself why she was here.
"Hey, Donnie?" she questioned carefully, moving closer to make sure he could hear her. "The others wanted me to let you know that they're gonna start –" she tried informing him, but his sudden waving at her stopped the attempt.
"Yeah, yeah. Not interested right now," he snapped, his eyes not leaving the screen.
"O-oh, sure," she acknowledged, and began backing away.
However, he must have just gotten past a boss battle or something, because a moment later, the screen shifted and a cut scene began to play. Despite her better judgment, Katerina found herself stopping to watch. Dialogue between the horsemen was always entertaining, and this was certainly better than that skateboarding thing!
She was contemplating her options, and how much she was willing to risk, when he must've sensed that she hadn't left, because he suddenly flipped around to stare at her. Her immediate response at being caught was to jump and squeak.
"Sorry," she managed to quickly mumble out, before awkwardly turning to hurry away. Donatello sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Hang on!" he called after her, halting her in her tracks. She turned her gaze back to him, thinking that he probably had something else he wanted her to tell his brothers.
"Did you – wanna play?" he asked, albeit sounding a bit reluctant. He held a controller out towards her as if to prove he was serious.
Katerina stared at the controller in surprise. She almost couldn't believe this was happening, not to mention didn't understand where it was coming from. To be honest, she had really only wanted to watch, actually playing with him sounded too good to be true.
"Um, I don't know how good I'll be," she opted to warn him, instead of directly answering the question. Heaven forbid this actually happen, and he get mad at her for sucking at the game!
He seemed to consider her words for a moment, but then shrugged. "Can't be any worse than the AI," he reasoned. "Come on. I don't actually bite," he added, when she didn't immediately accept, shaking the controller towards her.
"Okay," she complied, moving over and taking a seat next to him. He set the controller in her hands.
"And would you stop apologizing for everything already? You act like every little problem is somehow your fault," he complained like it was annoying, not wanting to show that it actually somewhat bothered him.
"I –" she began. However, sensing yet another apology coming, he held up a finger to stop her.
"No!" he commanded, and she stopped. "What did I just say?" he lectured at her. So, not knowing what else to do, she simply closed her mouth and turned back to the screen.
"Just let me get to a summoning stone," he told her, taking control of the character again and moving through the level.
Once he activated the stone, the screen prompted her to hit start, causing it to split once she did. Katerina tested the controls, quickly finding the jump, dash, and attack buttons. Donatello just watched as she experimented.
"You play this before?" he wondered. She honestly shook her head, but that didn't mean she didn't know about it. He raised his eyebrows with a bit of surprise. "Trigger's the charge attack," he informed her, and she nodded that she understood.
"What do you want me to do?" she questioned softly.
"Uh, hang back and don't die? Think you can handle that?" he wondered. She nodded again that she could, and moved her character along to follow after his, using the distance attacks whenever they encountered enemies.
After a while, Katerina felt herself relaxing as she got into the groove of the game. It had felt like ages since she'd played anything. Mostly because these last few days seemed to be like a whole different lifetime! But feeling the smooth plastic in her hands, and that satisfied sensation of watching the character move exactly how they should with each button click, helped ground her back into a sense of semi-normalcy. It was nice.
Especially having Donatello occasionally offer instructions here and there (since it was clear he was already well past the tutorial stages) in a tone that was neither annoyed nor condescending. Instead, he was just simply, informative. It was putting her at ease even more than she realized.
Meanwhile, Donatello couldn't help but notice the gradual change in the girl's demeanor. For the first time since she got here, she actually seemed – comfortable. He kept sneaking glances in her direction, catching her grinning at the screen with delight, especially during the cut scenes. She really seemed to be enjoying the dialogue. Not to mention, she looked much better when she smiled, he admitted to himself.
During this time, Michelangelo had been sent to find them to see what the hold up was. But after discovering them contentedly sitting and playing together, he decided against trying to bother them. Instead, he just smiled at the sight, before flipping around to go inform the others that they wouldn't be joining them.
Several minutes later, the pair came to a particularly difficult boss battle. In fact, it was everything Katerina could do just to keep her character alive, let alone attempt to do any damage! That is, until Donatello's character finally ran out of HP. Katerina saw that he was down, and the prompt flashing to do something about it, but she was hesitant to try, being dangerously low on health herself.
"You need to come revive me," he informed her, staring in her direction expectantly. Meanwhile, she was busy running around and collecting the scattered healing orbs to try and get some health back, without taking more damage in the process. "Hey, are you listening?" he asked, his tone growing more urgent due to her lack of response. "You need to come revive me before they take you out too," he repeated, but she still didn't respond.
"Katy–!" he barked her name, but she cut him off before he could complain further.
"Keep your fricken pants on! I'll rev you when I'm ready!" she snapped irritably, glaring at the screen.
Donatello felt his mouth hanging open as he blinked at her in surprise. What the. . .? Where had that come from?
An instant later, Katerina must have realized what she'd just done, because her expression shifted to a look of panic. She paused the game and turned to him with a regretful gaze.
"I – I mean – I didn't – I was just trying to. . ." she quickly attempted to explain, without apologizing, but she was having trouble finding words.
However, instead of getting mad at the outburst like she'd been expecting, Donatello's face relaxed into an amused smirk. He put up a hand to stop the rambling.
"It's fine. Don't worry about it," he assured her. Katerina wasn't entirely sure what was happening, but she was glad to hear he wasn't angry. "It's actually – nice to see you smiling for once. I think this might be the happiest I've seen you since you got here," he told her. Katerina could feel heat sneaking over her cheeks at his words. "You really like gaming a lot?" he stated more than asked, but she nodded all the same.
"I guess I didn't realize how much I've been missing my games. My electronics have always been, pretty important to me, you know?" she confessed, figuring that he of all people would probably understand. He smiled, confirming that he did.
"They're – like friends," he said, casting a glance around the room. He turned back to find the girl gently fingering the controller in her hands.
"Well, then. Why don't we go get them?" he offered suddenly, dropping his own controller and rising to his feet. Katerina stared up at him with astonishment.
"A-are you serious?" she wondered in disbelief.
"Sure, why not?" he reasoned with a shrug. "It's your stuff, isn't it? And if it's only your mom that you were living with, we could just go over during a time when you know she's not home."
Katerina pondered the idea for a moment, before unconsciously pulling out her phone to check the time. She hissed in displeasure when she was rudely reminded that the screen was currently totaled.
"Oh yeah. I forgot that it was broken," she murmured to herself.
At seeing this, Donatello reached out in a gesture that indicated he wanted her to hand him the device. She passed it to him without hesitation. He hummed as he took a closer look.
"It looks like it's only the screen that's broken. I can fix it," he told her, stepping out of the room to presumably head to his lab. Katerina jumped up to follow him.
"You don't have to do that," she tried to tell him, but he seemed more interested in studying the damaged phone.
"I know. It's not like it's hard though," he said casually, which he was quickly able to prove.
Once in his lab, the whole process only took a matter of minutes. He used a tool to pop off the old screen and tossed it aside. He then pulled out a new, undamaged version, and used the same tool to place it back on the phone and seal it all together. He even changed out her battery, replacing it with what she could only assume was a superior version. He booted it up and handed it back to her. The cat girl glanced back and forth between him and the phone, looking stunned.
"My brothers break their phones all the time," he explained in response.
"Oh, thank you," she told him sincerely.
"My pleasure."
Katerina redirected her attention to her now repaired phone, trying to ignore the embarrassing, yet pleasant, feeling that his words inadvertently elicited. Meanwhile, Donatello was currently staring off with a stymied look at his own vernacular. Why had he just said that? Since when did he phrase his 'you're welcomes' so formally? The phone fully booting helped pull him out of the awkward sensation, informing them that it was currently Thursday evening. Katerina had to do a double take. Was it really that late in the week already?
"Let's see. It's Thursday, so. . . she's probably at the Paradise Club right now," she mulled, slipping the phone back into her rear pocket. She glanced up to see Donatello fixing her with an incredulous look. "Thursday night is ladies night," she explained with a shrug. "She would never pass up the opportunity for free drinks."
"Are you sure? You've been missing for days – and your mom is out partying?" he questioned dubiously.
"Probably," she told him matter-of-factly.
"Well, we'll scope it out when we get there, just to be safe. Come on," he waved for her to follow.
"Hey guys!" he called to the others on their way out. "We're gonna make a run to go get Katy's things. We shan't be long," he informed them flamboyantly.
"What? Just the two of you?" Raphael asked after them, the others simply looking on curiously.
"Yes. We'll draw less attention that way in case we run into any human types. Plus it's not like this is some kind of dangerous mission," he reasoned.
"Okay, well, still, be careful," Raphael warned. "And call if you need anything!" he added quickly after them, as they disappeared out the door.
"Yeah, yeah!" Donatello called back, brushing him off.
Once outside, Donatello hit a button on his omni-tool to open up the hover mode on his Battle Shell, complete with a seat and handlebars for a passenger. Katerina looked impressed at the transformation, but a bit wary of what it entailed.
"Hop on. It'll be faster if we fly," he offered, gesturing towards the seat. She hesitated, beginning to second guess this decision. He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Don't worry. I give April rides like this all the time. You'll be fine," he assured her.
That wasn't exactly what she'd been worried about, but she thought better of making a big deal over it. So, with a bit of his help, she managed to scramble her way into the seat, taking a firm grip on the handlebars. Once he felt she was settled, he took off into the night sky, Katerina keeping a death grip on the bars.
"So, where's your place?" she heard him call up to her when they had risen well above the rooftops.
"It's on 30th," she yelled back, seeing him nod in affirmation before taking off in that direction.
He was right. Flying there seemed to take them no time at all, because before she knew it, she was pointing out which specific apartment building her and her mother lived in. Donatello landed on the roof of the building next to it, signaling for her to hop down. She did and he repacked his hover gear.
"So, what exactly are we doing? Shouldn't we be, over there?" she gestured towards her old home.
"I told you, I wanted to scope the place out first. Now which apartment is it?" he asked, pulling his goggles down over his eyes.
"That one, I think," she said, pointing.
"What do you mean, 'you think'?" he question skeptically.
"Well, it's kind of weird from this angle," she reasoned, and he sighed.
"Whatevs, I'll check the apartments around it too, just to be safe," he decided. Katerina waited quietly next to him while he did his thing. After a minute, he leaned back, replacing the goggles back onto his head. "I'm not detecting any signs of life," he confirmed.
"Okay, so now what? You gonna fly us over there?" she wondered.
"That won't be necessary. We can just jump from here," he told her as if it should be obvious.
"Are you crazy?!" she exclaimed, back stepping away from the edge.
"What is the problem now?" he groaned with frustration.
"Not all of us are ninjas, you know!" she snapped, her tone edged with worry.
"You're a cat! Most cats can jump five times their body length, minimum," he reasoned, as if a simple factoid would be more than enough reassurance.
"I've only been a cat for less than a week, and I've never had any kind of, athletic skills," she argued, not sounding at all reassured. "You've seen proof of that," she mumbled shamefully.
He had to admit that she had a point there. She'd been exceptionally terrible at all of the physical activities his brothers had attempted to get her to participate in, even worse than he was! Accepting defeat on this front, Donatello instead grabbed the girl, slipped a hand under her legs and scooped her up into his arms with ease. She tensed and flushed at the sudden unexpected gesture.
"Wa-what are you doing?" she demanded.
"Oh relax! We've done this before, remember?" he pointed out slyly, effectively invalidating her argument.
She didn't protest any further, but she didn't relax either. As he stepped up to the edge of the high rise, Katerina leaned closer against him, clenching her fists and teeth and squeezing her eyes shut. She let out a small whine when she felt him leave the ground and grunted a bit when they landed on the adjacent roof.
"It's nice to see that you trust me so much," he told her sarcastically, dumping her unceremoniously onto the floor. "I'm surprised you didn't scream," he added, turning to head towards the building access door.
Katerina could feel that all too familiar sensation of guilt and shame settling heavily in the pit of her stomach, coupled with her own confusion. Did he want her to trust him? But if that was the case, then why did she keep getting the impression that he didn't care? Questions for later, she supposed, as she rose and rubbed at her now slightly, sore rear. She followed him to the door.
"I'm not, really a screamer. I'm more like one of those goats that just freeze and fall over," she offered, thinking maybe a bit of self-deprecating humor might ease the tension.
"Why doesn't that surprise me," he replied, jimmying the lock and popping the door open.
They made their way inside, and he followed her down the stairs and the hall until they'd made it to the door that lead into her mother's apartment. He leaned down and studied the electronic lock on this one, stroking his chin in thought.
"This might take a hot minute, but I'm sure I'll be able to crack the code," he informed her, pulling out what Katerina assumed was some sort of hacking device. She raised an eyebrow at him dubiously.
"You don't need to do that," she stated flatly.
"What?" he wondered in confusion.
"I already know the code," she said with a head shake, punching in the pin. The lock clicked open a moment later and she pushed open the door. Donatello had an 'oh duh' moment, before narrowing his eyes at her.
"You're taking all the fun out of this," he informed her with a pout.
This was supposed to be fun?
Stepping inside, Katerina clicked on the lights to reveal the living quarters in complete disarray. There were dirty clothes, empty food containers, beer cans, and other sorts of odds and ends scattered haphazardly all over the room. Donatello felt himself recoil a bit at the sight. While he and his brothers could be a bit messy, they usually never let the lair get this bad. Even so, Katerina seemed to glide through it completely unfazed.
The kitchen didn't fair much better. Dirty dishes piled high in the sink, overflowing onto counters stained with mystery food spills and littered with more garbage. In the middle of it all, was a large, hastily scrawled note tacked to the fridge door with a souvenir magnet from some random part of the country. Catching their eyes, Katerina shuffled over and pulled it down to get a closer look, Donatello peeking over her shoulder to read what it said.
I don't know what the HELL you've been doing
But if you don't do the laundry and get this place
cleaned up soon, I'm smashing that STUPID GAME!
Donatello blinked down at the horrible message in bewilderment, before taking a step back to get another look at the living conditions. It hit him then that this girl hadn't been exaggerating her situation. In fact, if anything, she'd been underselling the kind of home life she'd been dealing with. Not only did this woman not seem to be bothered by the fact that her daughter could be missing, or worse, the only thing she did care about was that she wasn't around to clean up after her! Even threatening to destroy her belongings if she didn't do it? What kind of a person treats their own family that way?!
He watched Katerina's countenance fall. Her grip tightened on the slip of paper as her shoulders began to tremble with emotion. And he, couldn't help but feel terrible about how hard he'd been on her. Seemed as though she really was all alone in the world. It was no wonder she'd acted so lost and scared when they'd first rescued her from Draxum's henchmen, or why she had no desire to come back to this place. He reached a hand out towards her.
"Katy. . ." he began, not really knowing what to say, but garnering her attention all the same.
She turned to stare at him with wide eyes, almost as if she'd forgotten that he was there. Donatello paused, wondering what she was going to do. However, instead of the breakdown that he'd been expecting, a look of realization seemed to sweep across her features as she studied him. She glanced back down to the note, and then back up to him, before narrowing her eyes in determination. It was a resoluteness that practically screamed, you know what? I don't have to put up with this anymore!
Katerina flashed him a smug look, before crumpling up the note and dropping it on the ground at their feet. "She can do her own stupid laundry from now on. Come on, let's just get my stuff and get out of here," she suggested smartly, flipping around to lead him into her old bedroom. Donatello couldn't help the smile that tugged at the corners of his mouth at the display.
The fixings inside the bedroom were pretty meager. Bare, off-colored walls looked down on a twin bed, a small dresser, and a folding table that she appeared to be using like a desk. It would have looked even more simple if the contents of the room didn't give the impression that it'd been recently rifled through. All the drawers of the dresser were hanging open, clothes and other contents spilling out of them and onto the floor. The closet was also pulled open, everything piled inside in a messy heap. Katerina hummed at the sight.
"Looks like she already tried to find my system," she surmised.
"I take it she didn't succeed?" Donatello guessed, judging by how calm the cat girl was acting, despite finding her room in this state.
"No, otherwise you'd see smashed bits all over the floor," she assured him.
Stepping around her discarded belongs, Katerina pulled one of her drawers completely out of her dresser, setting it down on the exposed mattress of the bed, everything having been clearly ripped off it earlier. She took the few remaining articles out, before sticking her finger through the wooden bottom at the very back corner of the drawer. A small piece popped out and she lifted up the plank of wood, revealing that it was a false bottom.
"Luckily, she's not the sharpest sort," Katerina commented, pulling out a pair of electronic cases. One of them was clearly system shaped. The other looked like it could possibly house a small laptop. She held them protectively to her chest and sighed.
"The fact that you keep those hidden in a fake drawer is telling," Donatello confessed. Katerina glanced around the room.
"I didn't have a lot of options, and there was no way I could afford to replace them. Not if I ever wanted to get out of here. It was already enough of a splurge to get them when I first started my job," she explained, taking the now empty drawer off the mattress.
"Where did you work?" he wondered, making conversation as she pulled a backpack and duffel bag out from under the bed to begin packing.
"I'm, er – I was, part of the Nerd Squad at Bargain Buy. That's how I was able to get these at all. They're used, and I got to apply my employee discount on top of that," she told him, slipping the electronics into the protective pouch of the backpack.
"So, you were getting paid to be a nerd?" Donatello couldn't help asking, taking a seat on the bed to watch her while she worked. Katerina rolled her eyes at the playful jab.
"Yes, I suppose you could put it that way. I almost had enough saved up for the first two months of rent and a deposit too. Oh well," she sighed. "Guess I don't need to worry about that now." She nonchalantly gathered up an armful of clothes and shoved them into the duffel.
"I'm assuming your mother doesn't know about this money?" he guessed.
"Oh, no way! She didn't even know I had a job! She still thinks I'm going to school everyday," she replied, shaking her head.
"She sounds super out of touch," Donatello decided. Katerina simply shrugged as she continued packing.
Once finished, she lashed the backpack to her back and slung the duffel over her shoulder, glancing over at the now, mostly empty room. It was sort of hard to believe that the culmination of her entire life so far could be broken down into just two bags, but there it was.
"Ready to go?" Donatello asked.
She eagerly nodded, bounding after him and out the door of her old apartment for the final time. The click that sounded when the door latched behind her had never seemed so satisfying. It was as if she were closing a chapter on her life, leaving behind her old self in the process. There was nothing but possibility for the future! Who said change had to be scary? She had never felt so ready to embrace the unknown with open arms. Both metaphorically and literally, she realized, now confidently climbing up into the seat that Donatello had so generously re-deployed for her. Not feeling the least bit nervous as they zoomed through the wide open sky on their way back home.