The Cat.

Chapter 3: An Invitation.

Raph jumped onto the fire escape and climbed up to the penthouse of the Roberts Industries building, he crept into the apartment and looked around. The place was pretty nice but, seeing as there were two teenage girls living here he supposed it must be their influence. On one wall there was a floor to ceiling TV, a huge sofa opposite, a computer in the corner that would make Donny quake at the knees, a large picture of Nikki and her parents was along another wall. He walked over to a door to see what was behind it when the lights flicked on, he spun around and placed himself in a fighting stance and found himself facing a black man in his forties who was smiling kindly at him, wearing a chauffeurs outfit.

"Well hello there young sir, you must be Rapheal," the turtle nodded, "I'm afraid Nikki's out with my daughter tonight but she asked me to give you this," the man walked over to a side table and picked up an envelope, "you know she was so excited to be seein' you again that she plum forgot ta take that with her the other day when she went to find you, I'm Wally by the way, you hungry cause I'm about to heat up some pizza," Raph wasn't listening as he was looking intently at the contents of the envelope. It was a handwritten invitation to a party and it read;

To my dear Rapheal,

You are cordially invited to come to my birthday party on the third of this month, it is fancy dress so be 'original' if you would like to attend then join me at my pent house at six so we can get to the party for seven.

Your friend

Nicole xx.

Raph gulped, he wanted nothing more than to go but his master Splinter would never allow it which would mean sneaking out and more than likely getting into trouble again, but he placed that thought to the back of his mind when he relished the thought of actually being able to behave like any other teenager and maybe even make some new friends.

"Sir," Wally chuckled, Raph looked over at him and saw that there were two plates on the dining table each with a slice of pizza on them, "Here why don't you have that slice there kid and then you can tell me you're answer."

"Oh that's easy Wally," he said in his thick Brooklyn accent, "I'd love to come, oh and thanks for the pizza."

Once he'd finished Raph started for home deciding to take the scenic route and enter through the warehouse entrance. He jumped from roof top to roof top as if they were athletes hurdles, then he saw a figure out of the corner of his eye watching him and he stopped. She leapt down and joined him.

"Hello again Raphael," Raph felt the color in his cheeks rise as he got lost in her eyes, they were a hazel-green like Nikki's, "How's you're brother doing."

"Oh fine, miss Cat and it's Raph." He said as normally as he could muster with his heart going nineteen to the dozen.

"all right Raph, and you'll just call me Cat right?" He smiled and nodded, "It's a quiet night out there, I wonder what all the crooks are up to?"

"Oh they're probably likin' their wounds after the poundin' you gave em yesterday, Casey, that's a friend of ours says the word's spread like I don't know what about you and the crooks are runnin' scared."

"Really?" Cat looked at him and and smiled she'd always been fond of Raph and had missed him a lot since she'd moved to LA, but something about how he so obviously liked her in her 'Cat' persona excited her. There was only ever one secret she'd kept from her dear friend and that was that she knew what it was like to be different, her reflexes, senses and physical strength were all a lot stronger than the majority of her kind (excluding the Silver Sentry, but she wasn't sure if he was human or not), as a child she'd hated it as her parents were terrified that their little girl would be treated like a freak, so Nikki was ordered by them not to take part in the games and they sent a fake doctor's note to the school excusing her from sports. She'd hated watching from the sidelines but at least they'd let her learn martial arts from a young age instead with Lillica, Kimieko and their mother Leona, they were the only other people who knew her secret.

"So uh, . . " Raph abruptly brought Cat back to the present, "you do the whole patrolling thing or something or what?" She laughed still paying attention on what was going on elsewhere.

"Not always," she looked down and pushed her long red hair behind her left ear, "but when I'm bored or need to think then I guess I just like to find something to do and this fits the bills, guess I'm a little weird huh?"

"No!" Raph said a little too loudly and blushed, then checking his tone, "no, but Mikey had this whole super hero thing going a while back and he tried to get us to go out on nightly patrols and stuff."

"Why didn't you?"

"Well we thought it was stupid and we're not s'possed ta go looking for a fight were only s'possed to fight if there's no other choice left."

"Some how I get the feeling that with you that's not always the case." She grinned at the blush she'd caused and found her heart was quickening.

"Well I got this temper and I don't always manage ta keep it in check," he could have kicked himself why did he tell her that now she'd never be interested, "but I'm workin' on it you know?" He looked at her with pleading eyes begging her to understand and was greeted by a more understanding smile than the mischievous one earlier.

"I understand and when someone has a problem with that it can be really hard to conquer." She heard a scream in the distance and someone yell thief. "Duty calls Raph, see you around." She smiled at him one last time and jumped off the roof top and headed towards where she heard the scream, he hadn't heard anything. He stood there dumbstruck for a while, sighed and then headed home.

Sorry it's taken so long we've had a internet prob, anywhoo whatdya think? Toodles, Angel.