"Is it an apple?" Leo asked hesitantly, trying to determine what exactly Mikey was drawing.
"A blob? Or an orange?"
"A flat ball!" I called desperately. "Or a puddle?" Mikey added a large, enlongated protrusion to the top of his round-ish drawing. In his excitement, Donnie almost jumped up off the couch beside me.
"Oh! It's an amoeba!" His younger brother spun around and threw a whiteboard marker at him.
"Dude!" He cried in horror, "how dare you!?"
"Mikey, you don't even know what an amoeba is," Raphael groaned.
"And you do?" I asked, partly impressed and partly disbelieving. His mouth opened and closed as he tried to form an answer, but that was the only proof I needed to know that he was clueless.
"Oh it's a bird!" Leo exclaimed. We all whirled toward the whiteboard in anticipation.
"What kind of bird?" Mikey asked slyly. And everyone started yelling over each other.
"A pigeon!"
"A crow! Oh, or a raven!"
"A duck!"
"Goose!"
"It's a turkey!"
"A rooster?"
"A CHICKEN!"
But these birds were too simple for Mikey's imagination. Plus, it's legs were way too–holy shit.
"AN OSTRICH!"
"YES!" In his excitement, Mikey drew three large circles around the worst drawing of an ostrich that's ever graced this planet. I threw my arms up in victory as the boys muttered and groaned among themselves.
"That makes it, what? Eight for me and three for you guys?"
"Can we find a game that you're not good at?" Raph muttered, crossing his arms.
"Well I would tell you guys but it's actually a really long list, so I'd rather not."
"Technically speaking, ostriches have longer necks and legs than that, and a smaller head," Donnie interjected, causing Mikey to scoff.
"It's better than your frog!" We all shared a laugh at the reminder of Donnie's very disproportionately drawn amphibian that resembled more a hyena than anything else, and when he added a long tongue from it's mouth we all assumed it was an unknown species of anteater.
"I really hate this game," Raph muttered.
"Why don't you take over for Mikey?" I offered, remembering what his brothers had told me earlier today about his decent ability to draw. I shot Mikey a look and he was immediately nodding his understanding.
"Yeah Raph, I wanna try and guess." He tossed the marker to him with a smile. Raphael sighed and got off his beanbag chair, allowing Mikey to take his spot. He lightly tapped the marker against the whiteboard propped up on the monitor's skatebaord-chair, thinking. Knowing Raph, he'd probably draw weapons or something violent. So I was ready and quick to recognize the slightly curved line he began with.
"Katana!" I called. All four brothers craned their heads around to stare at me in exasperation and surprise.
"Okay. I give up," Donnie announced, crossing his arms and propping his feet up on the pizza box table.
"Do something harder," Leo suggested. Raphael muttered something unintelligible and wiped away the blue marker to restart. I watched in interest as he used bold, confident strokes, angling the marker to get varying line thicknesses where needed, and even using the slightly drying ink as shading or lighter, less noticeable lines.
I was so caught up in the movements and techniques that I forgot about the game, allowing the brothers to guess correctly while I was still in a mesmerized haze.
"Lizard!" Donnie yelled.
Wait, what? I though he wasn't playing anymore!
"Dragon!" Leo cried as Raph hastily added wings to the serpentine body. "Ha! I got it!" I shot an incredulous look to the brother sitting beside me.
"I thought you weren't playing!"
"Well, I wasn't but then I realized you were too busy drooling over my brother to guess anything." I glared at Donnie.
"I was not drooling over anyone," I hissed in protest.
"Fine, you were moonstruck." I froze in horror, then tried my best to play it off like I had no idea what that word meant.
"Moonstruck?" I repeated in disbelief. "Are you kidding? That sounds like a word a toddler would make up to describe why dogs howl at the moon or something."
"That's a myth. Dogs don't howl at the moon." I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, I know that, I'm just -"
"Dudes, what the hell." We both turned to face the bewildered expressions of the three other turtles.
"What?" I asked innocently, hoping none of them knew what we'd been discussing.
"Let's focus on winning," Leo said to Donnie, then shot me a pointed look. I fought the rising heat in my cheeks and turned to face the small, cracked whiteboard a smirking Raphael stood beside. I forced myself to ignore him.
"Alright, just one more round, guys. I have to leave for flight training soon."
"Already?" Mikey whined.
"What do you mean 'already'? I've been here for hours." I was snapped back to our game of pictionary when Leo and Donnie started yelling their guesses.
"A ball!"
"A pond!"
"A cactus!"
"A water droplet?"
"Oh it's a flame!" I declared. Raphael whirled around to glare at his brothers.
"What the hell, guys!? How does this look like a water droplet?" He demanded, tapping the drawing of a blue, flickering flame with the marker.
"Well it would've been easier if you used a red marker," Mikey muttered, arms crossed.
"Yeah, maybe if we had a red marker, shell-brain."
"Hey!" Leonardo—sensing an imminent physical fight between the two and deciding separation would be the best solution—announced that Raphael would escort me to my uncle's hangar. While Donnie was giving him quick directions, I found my sketchbook—still open to my most recent drawing—laying on Mikey's bed. I called the youngest turtle over.
"Yeah RaiyRaiy?"
"Do you wanna keep this?" I asked, holding up the portrait of him.
"Heck yes! I'm gonna frame it and everything!"
"Okay," I laughed, carefully tearing out the paper for him. He took it from me with a huge smile.
"Thanks, and tell your uncle I say hi." I shook my head as he walked off to the jam room. Raph came over as I zipped my bag up and pulled it over my shoulders.
"You ready?" I nodded and followed him into the training room.
"You know where you're going?" He scoffed, reaching up to unlock the porthole door.
"Course I do." Raph gave me a leg up into the circular doorway, then climbed up after me and locked the door before heading off.
••• 影の秘密 •••
"Okay, your turn." I looked up expectantly at the mutant strolling casually beside me down the sewer tunnel. Raphael pondered different questions for a while. His unusually long decision-making process was beginning to make me anxious by the time he finally spoke up.
"Why do you wanna be a pilot?" I blinked, not expecting such a simple question.
Actually... now that I think about it, I don't think anyone has ever asked me that before.
"Well... I never really wanted to be one until I actually flew in a helicopter; and that's when I realized how much I loved being in the air and seeing everything so differently in such a big picture." He opened his mouth to inquire further but I cut him off.
"Hey! Only one question! It's my turn." Raphael grumbled something to himself and rolled his eyes.
"Why do you want to be a ninja?" I asked, trying my best to keep a straight face. He shot me an incredulous look that I responded to by raising an expecting eyebrow. Raph loosed a sigh before answering.
"I don't. I've never wanted to be one." I could feel my next question bubbling up my throat, and I had to keep my lips clamped tightly together to keep it from exploding out of me.
"What did you want to be before a pilot?" I shrugged.
"I dunno. Maybe a physics or science teacher or something involved with the environment or forensics."
"What's–"
"Hey! My turn." I poked his side, making him swat my hand away. "Do you like being a ninja?"
"Sorta. I mean, it's cool and I like it I guess, but... there's no purpose. It's like when I'm mad at Leo so I go take it out on the punching bag, except I can't let off any steam. I can't just go to the surface and kick some Foot solider ass whenever I want. It's ten years of pent up rage I can't let loose." His hands clenched into fists. I bit my lip and nodded, then cracked a grin.
"Well just give me the word and I'll get myself caught up in another Footclan raid for you." His entire being relaxed, and I even caught a breath of soft laughter from him.
"Thanks, I'll consider your offer. Just don't tell Leo." I grinned.
"Gotcha." Raph titled his head back to look at a manhole cover above him. He stepped onto the ladder and reached up to nudge it out of the way and peek outside.
"Okay, you're good." He hopped off the ladder and landed in front of me. I met his smouldering gaze with a smile.
"Thanks for the escort," I said, patting his arm before stepping past him to grasp the ladder. "I'll see you tomorrow." And with that, I ascended into the world above.
AN: I've played pictionary in Spanish class and its so stressful XD
HOPE YOU'RE ALL READY FOR SOME ACTIOOOON! Finally jumping back into the movie plot so that means we got the SUBWAY SCENE NEXT CHAPTER.
So I'm gonna add an extended summary to the beginning of my story as soon as I can, because my author's note is not very good at reeling in more readers lol.
Thank you guys so much for reviewing! I'd love to see some more, love y'all!
For anyone waiting on the update for The Unsaveable Girl, it won't be up until tomorrow because I have CRAZY homework, sorry! The only reason this chapter is up is because it was already prewritten so all I had to do was upload it.
