His True Love

Disclaimer: I deny any ownership of any adult or adolescent transformed shadow warrior chelonians.

Author's Note: This was supposed to be a Don chapter as usual my muses had other ideas. Maybe next chapter but I promise nothing.

Chapter Nineteen – Raph's Mistake

RAMIELA:

When I first woke up in the morning I made sure I could still spins the sai. I didn't want to find out being able to do it was just a dream I had in the night. I often dreamed of spinnin' the sai.

I'd been waiting to do this forever and ever and ever even, that long and longer.

I didn't know if I could stop my fingers from doing it now that they knew what they were spose to be doing. I watched as my fingers caused that sai to spin, I knew I didn't quite have the speed down that Uncle Raphael had but I also knew if I went too fast I might drop the sai and I didn't wants to do that. It seemed so easy now that I could do it I had to wonder why my fingers never did it before yesterday.

I finally stopped had a lesson with Sensei soon, Sensei was teaching me how to chuck at the moment. I kinda thought it a waste of time to learn all those different weapons but Sensei and the Master said it were important to knows as much as possible about all weapons.

I didn't really mind chucking too much but I sure didn't care for the bruises I got when I accidentally hit myself with them.

I had a pretty busy day cause I had a lesson with Sensei, then breakfast, then I had a bit of free time before school began, after school was another lesson with Sensei and then I had to do my homework fore dinner, After dinner till bedtime was mine to do what I wanted, unless I hadn't finished all my schoolwork.

I was hopin' Uncle Raphael would be able to teach me more about the sai this morning cause I wanted to shows him so bad that I didn't think I could keep it secret much longer. Sides by tonight Sara would be back from school and he might be busy kissing her again.

YUCK!

After I showed Uncle Raphael then I could show dad and the rest of the clan that I could use my sais properly even with my silly extra fingers.

RAPHAEL:

During breakfast while I was still trying to pry my eyes open mind ya. Don made an announcement " Jen and I became engaged last night" He said rather uneasily.

I chuckled " Congrats Don, two geeks in love you deserve each other." I replied.

Leo gave Don a skeptical look " I said to tell her how you felt I didn't expect you to go that far."

" Well I wasn't going go that far either, least not just yet Leo but it kind of slipped out unexpectedly and I didn't want to tell Jen that I didn't mean it just then" Don explained embarrassed, " So uh I figured let it stand."

Karena glanced his way, " An engagement only means you intend to wed Don so the wedding itself can wait. Still after knowing her for two years I don't think you have to worry about a long engagement."

Naturally most of the conversation around breakfast centered around the engagement and up coming wedding but I wasn't awake enough to pay much attention to it, seemed nothing been finalized yet anyhow.

Not that I wasn't happy for Don but it just made me realize all the more that if Sara got away I'd really be alone in the family which sucked.

With breakfast out of the way Ramiela started to bug me about going to practice with the sai. I looked over towards Leo who was busy feeding Aiden.

" Leo what the hell are you doing with Ramiela? Are you brainwashing her into wastin' her life away practicing?"

" I call it dedication to her training and there is nothing wrong with it" Leo countered, " And don't swear around the twins Raph, I don't need Aiden picking up that kind of language."

Every time there were young children in the house I was told about swearing.

 Of course, Leo would see nothing wrong with Ramiela wanting to spend so much time in the dojo, he did it when he was younger and felt that it was what all of us ought to do with our lives.

" I wants to be kunoichi Uncle Raphael" Ramiela insisted firmly.

She made it sound like she had all kinds of career aspects ahead of her and she had picked this one thing as her calling in life. Instead of it being the only thing she would ever know, never mind having it be the life that was forced on her due to what she was.

She didn't really have any choice in the matter she could be ninja or she could be ninja.

" All right then let's go. Got your sais?" I muttered as I drank the last of my coffee.

" Uh-huh they are right here" Rama patted her belt with the sais tucked in them " Can't you sees."

Mike chuckled a bit " Be nice to your Uncle, Rama. Raph isn't a morning person and he needs the coffee to hit his system and wake him up before he is much use to any one."

A few minutes later and only a little more awake I was putting Rama through some sparring practice. My mind only half assed on what I was doing the rest of it was thinking about Sara.

Seemed Sara had been wrong about one thing last night and that was Ramiela's important interruption that I could have done with out. What ever had been bothering her last night had been all but forgotten about by this morning.

At least Ramiela hadn't said anything to me about it so I figured whatever had stuck a bee into her hadn't been all that significant to even bring up after a night sleep. It obviously couldn't have been even that big of a deal to the kid because she was acting normally enough not even acting upset about the events.

" Lets see how you do using the sai against the bokken," I decided going to the rack and taking out a wooden practice sword.

Swords were not really my style but I knew how to use one, not that I could match Leo very well with a sword in hand. However Ramiela had to learn the advantages and disadvantages of as many weapons as possible.

What she learned here in the dojo could save her life in battle later on when she knew how to use the sai against any weapon that was brought in to attack her. She would be able to know how to then use the sai to her advantage.

Ramiela was able to disarm me using a trick that I had often pulled on Leo during sparring sessions. This wasn't something I had taught her to do and while she did learn from observation I had a feeling, this time, Leo had a hand in this particular instance.

" Very good Ramiela" I bowed to her letting know I approved of her skill.

" Sensei taught me how to do that one Uncle Raphael," she admitted readily. " But I seen you do it a few times to him, just never done it before myself."

" I wasn't expecting you to pull that move though, so it allowed you to gain the advantage. That is important in battle Ramiela, if you can do the unexpected and gain the upper hand it can save your life." I told her.

Ramiela smiled up at me eagerly " What's next?" she asked impudently ready for the next challenge.

" Lets get to work on your Achilles heel, the spin move, then you can finish off with some katas." I decided, " Remember your wrist movement. Concentrate on your finger placement" I stated.

I watched as she took her position on the mat and positioned both sais, she started the spin and this time instead of the sais dropping she kept them going the motion blurring. A large cocky smile crossed her face.

I was thrilled and returned her smile it looked like she finally got it.

" You are doing it Ramiela. You finally have it down!" I cheered her triumph.

She gave me an impish grin " I knows I am. That's what I wanted to shows ya last night," she boasted.

The impact of her words hit me then. She knew all along that she'd be able to perform the spin move. She had to have only learned how to do it last night. Last night coming to see me all excited and I had shot her down without any consideration whatsoever.

Rama obviously hadn't forgotten, I had only thought she had and Sara had been correct that what Rama had wanted might have been important to her.

Important! Now there was a large understatement if I ever heard one, when you realized that spinning the sai had been Ramiela's mission in life.

She had learned stealth at an early age in an effort to obtain my weapon in spite of the many punishments for doing so, she frequently asked me to " spin sai" for her watching me perform the move, she disobeyed the weapon rule time and again, and only the wrath of her Sensei had finally forced her to reveal her reason for doing so. She didn't think she could ever use the sai or make it spin because she had two more fingers then we did.

Ramiela looked up at me the sais still spinning; she was obviously quite pleased with the stunned expression I knew I just had to be wearing on my face at this moment.

" I figured it out last night but when I went to shows ya, you said…"

" Yeah, I know what I said Ramiela" I said cutting her off I really didn't care to have that thrown back in my face. Nor did I want to recall how upset she had been when I had turned her down with my refusal to see what she wanted.

Okay go ahead and kick me, stomp me into the ground while you are at it. It wouldn't be like I didn't deserve it!

If Ramiela had my sort of temperament and attitude instead of Mike's she could have very well decided to get stubborn and lose interest in using the sai just from my simple rejection.

This was something she had worked hard and long to achieve as her Sensei in the sai work I should have at least seen what she wanted. But I didn't know, she hadn't said that was why she wanted me.

Sara had been so right; I had made almost made a terrible mistake in my rejection of Ramiela. For she could of ended up also hating me as well as losing interest in the sais.

" You do that very well" I told her and gestured for her to put her sais away.

She willingly obliged and I went to a one knee kneel in front of her.

" Ramiela I know how important this was for you. I know you worked very hard on it and I'm proud of you." I told her, " But I'm also sorry I didn't pay attention to you last night when you asked me to see something. Will you forgive me?"

Ramiela reached out and wrapped her arms about me hugging me; she laid her head alongside my cheek.

" Course I forgive ya Uncle Raphael. I just wanted to surprise you."

" You did, trust me on that" I assured her returning her hug.

" Loves you Uncle Raphael," she whispered.

Damn!

She was really a great kid! I kissed her thinking to myself that I wouldn't mind having one of my own.

I tousled her hair with my hand " Keep it up and you are going give me some competition" I stated as I tickled her a little bit.

Ramiela laughed cheerfully " I gots to go show dad, Sensei and Master Splinter too. That okay? I wants to do it for school starts."

" Good idea. You are dismissed for being the best student I've got."

" I the only student you gots Uncle Raphael."

" That is why you are the best!" I replied teasing her. I watched her leaving the dojo at top speed.

I was glad that Rama was the way she was because I knew for a fact things could have been different if she hadn't been.

If pride really does go before a fall, then I had taken quite a tumble today, and I didn't want to ever risk making this mistake again the consequences could be too great.

TBC