"Woah! Where can I get one of those!?" Mikey demanded as he watched the Jedi on the tv screen whip out their lightsabers. "Donnie! Can you make me one?"

"You'd destroy the whole city with one of those," Donnie pointed out.

"No I wouldn't! I'm careful!" The orange masked turtle turned to me excitedly. "Raiya, can you get me one?" I glanced at Leo, unsure of what to say. He shook his head with a light smile.

"Sorry Mikey, leader's orders." His face fell.

"Awww, you're no fun, Leo." The turtle's mood quickly returned to it's usual, joyful state as he cuddled closer to me and watched The Phantom Menace. Tired and enduring a headache from training, I gratefully sank into the couch and against Mikey's warm side.

When Mikey must've thought I was asleep, he started to whisper to his brothers over the movie,

"Dudes, check it out!"

"Mikey, what are you doing?" Leo demanded, completely unimpressed.

"Chill bruh, I'm keeping her warm, she's freezing."

I'm always freezing.

"A blanket works just as well," Donnie said.

"Yeah but I'm a blanket and a pillow, which is even better. Look! She's so cute..." Leo and Donnie shared a sigh, and probably an eye roll over their younger brother.

Where's R-?

"You should leave her alone, Mikey."

Oh, there he is.

"Aw, are you jealous, Raph?" He teased. All four brothers momentarily fell silent at that.

"You're setting yourself up for disappointment," Raphael snapped. I tensed, causing Mikey to pull me closer.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Leo asked, immediately jumping to defend me.

The sound of battle droid blasters could be heard, still emanating quietly from the tv's speakers.

"You know what I mean. We're mutants. She's a human, she'll never like any of us as more than friends. So stop drooling over her."

"Raph-" Leo started, but his brother was having one of it.

"Nah Leo, I don't wanna hear any of your bullshit about how 'she's different' and 'we can trust her' and 'she's not like those Area 51 guys.'"

Area 51 guys!? Is he seriously comparing me to professional alien nerds hired by the government!? I just about jumped up and murdered him then and there. Mikey sighed and remained quiet so as not to interfere in the growing argument.

Raph's words threw Leo over the edge.

"What's your deal with her, anyways? You still haven't figured out that you can trust her? It's been four days of you following her around!"

More blaster fire and yelling. Lightsabers cut through the air and collided.

"My deal with her?" He snarled. "My deal with her is that she's some rando girl you saved fifty years ago and suddenly decided to drag into our lives, Leo! Our secret, dangerous, ninja lives of living like rats beneath the city and training to defeat the most dangerous villain in the whole goddamn world! You can't just drag someone into something like that! She could die!" Leo scoffed.

"I didn't drag her into anything! She found me!"

"Why the hell did you stay to chat then? You could've ran and avoided all this! Now she's in the middle of it!" Leo sighed, allowing an uncomfortable silence to settle over the room.

"Raph, now's not the time for this." I could feel myself trembling slightly against Mikey, not with fear, but with rage.

The Phantom Menace still played.

I could feel a pair of eyes on me.

"You can stop pretending to sleep now. Only Mikey could sleep through that." I sighed in defeat and opened my eyes to see Leo smiling sadly at me.

I didn't look at Raphael, I couldn't. If I did, I would kill him. Instead, I forced a smile onto my face.

"You guys are really loud," I said with a fake yawn. Leo didn't buy it for a second.

"I'll take you home before you fall asleep on Mikey again." But his expression told me something else; we need to talk. Donnie hastily got up and ran over to the tv to take the disc from the DVD player.

"No, you guys can keep watching them. But I want them back, so keep them intact," I said before he could interrupt the movie Mikey kept glancing desperately at.

I stood from the couch and smoothed out my clothes before following Leo to the exit. I yelled a feigned cheerful goodbye, and received the same forced reply from Mikey and Donnie; but not Raph.

Leo must've been just as mad as I was. His hands were in fists and his jaw was clenched, with his eyes set in fire and his mouth an angry line. He sighed through his nose.

"I know you heard everything we said." Guilty, I didn't say anything. So he continued, "I'm sorry about what Raph said. We trust you and we know and like that you're different, but for some reason he refuses to. I'll talk with him and Sensei about the whole 'following you around' thing.'" I nodded, not knowing what to say.

"Do..." Leo hesitated, "do you...like us?"

"Of course I do. You guys are awesome! I mean, maybe Raph not so much, but he...he has his moments." He looked sideways at me.

"What do you mean?" I shrugged.

"There've been times in the past few days where he's surprised me. Like, I fell asleep outside on the roof with him one night and he brought me back to my bed. I don't know, all these nice, fun things and then he turns around and starts acting like an ass all over again. It's all just a stupid cycle, and I'm getting really fed up with it."

"You mean he was having fun with you before tonight?" He repeated, dumbfounded. I nodded.

"You were right, he does have a soft side." I couldn't help but smile as I recalled cleaning my room with him.

Leo said nothing. I didn't mind at first, but then his growing silence began to confuse me.

"Leo?"

"Huh?" He blinked rapidly and looked over at me sheepishly. "Oh, sorry. I must've zoned out." Awkwardly, I ran my fingers through my hair as we walked.

Since when is anything awkward between Leo and I?

"Raiy? I...I'm sorry for dragging you into this. Raph's right, no human should be involved in our lives. It's too dangerous." I stopped in my tracks and stared at him in defiance,

"There's no way in hell that I'm gonna just remove you guys from my life because it's 'too dangerous.' Come on Leo, I can handle myself!" I crossed my arms. He sighed and wrung his hands together.

"I know, I just don't want anything happening to you." I shifted my weight uncomfortably, not knowing what to say or do. Leo smiled and started walking again.

"Come on, it's getting late."

"Ugh, and I have to get up early tomorrow for flight training," I groaned, making him laugh. I brightened when I remembered what my sister had told me earlier today during my break at the zoo.

"Olivia's gonna be out all day tomorrow so I might be able to hang out with you guys after I leave Uncle Tom's."

"Really?" He asked excitedly. I grinned and nodded.

"But I have no idea how to get to the lair from there so can you meet me somewhere?"

"Yeah, here..." I watched as Leo removed something from near his walkie-talkie. He placed a small, black, hard plastic disk in my hand. A round button covered most of it's face, with a ring on the top of it to clip onto a keychain. It looked like car keys, but minus the actual key.

"It's a tracker Donnie made. When you press the button it'll send me your location and I'll be able to find you."

This thing's so cute.

"Oh cool, thanks!" I stuffed it into my jacket pocket.

"No problem, Donnie made a bunch. You can keep it in case you ever need us. Uh, when does your training end?"

"It's usually like an hour, soooo around nine thirty." He nodded.

"Activate it when you get to your uncle's."

"Okay, thanks." Leo lifted a manhole cover out of the way for me and I climbed out of the sewers,

"I'll see you tomorrow," I said.

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

••• 影の秘密 •••

I climbed in through my bedroom window in case Olivia was already back. But I hesitated when I turned to close it.

What if Raphael comes tonight? I shook the thought from my head angrily. Why do I care? But my fingers were stiff on the window pane; I did care. And that annoyed me.

How can I possibly care about someone that big of a jerk? I rubbed my face and silently groaned in frustration. I knew exactly how.

Yeah, he acted like an ass a lot, but that was because he expressed himself differently than Mikey, who was open and unafraid to tell me how my eyes were pretty or something.

Raphael was indirect in sharing his feelings, and almost never spoke openely about them. He was always hesitant to show his feeIings around others, hiding them behind his anger or changing the subject. I understood all that about him surprisingly well, which must've been why we managed to get along so well for those few days.

I sighed. I probably shouldn't have gotten mad at him earlier, but I got so momentarily mad that I just reacted without thinking and then it was too late.

Ugh, that sounds exactly like something he would do.

I massaged my temples, trying to believe what my stupid head was telling me.

Trying to...Trying to...And failing to. It was just too hard. My heart was too strong for it's own good. And I wanted to accept what it was saying; trust it. But I was scared. I was scared of the consequences.

What would the others think? What would Olivia think? What would he think? What would he do?

It was this goddamn war inside of me, and it'd been going on for what felt like ever but I'd only noticed it now; when I was confused, and wanted an answer.

When I wanted to know what the hell was going on with me and why I kept having these random thoughts that caused my heart to flutter and my cheeks to flush and my body to ache for something that it couldn't have.

I gritted my teeth against the inner brawl, and yanked my shirt off to replace it with a light hoodie, then pulled on a pair of boy shorts.

I can't handle all this stupid shit right now. I just need to sleep. So, not bothering to shower, I gratefully crawled under my bedcovers, which still held Raphael's bold scent. I breathed in the musk, the wood shavings, the metal; him. I could almost imagine him beside me, but that reality was too unrealistic to consider a possibility.

Yet, I hadn't closed the window.

AN: I'd reeeaaally love to hear some feedback from you guys! How are you liking my story so far? Is there anything I can improve on?

Also, sorry I made Raph act like a jerk, but that's kinda how he shows that he cares (but don't worry, he's literally the biggest and cutest softie ever, just you wait lol)