It took a while, but here's Chapter 4!
I don't know why, but I found writing in Raph's 'POV' a bit harder than April, Leo, or Don's. Nevertheless (fancy words), here it is. After many many rewrites, 'POV' changes, and grammar/spelling checks, it is done.
Oh, also, a little side-note, you may have noticed a reference to ROTTMNT in Chapter 2 ("Senor Hueso's Pizzeria" - it was during the mind-numbing and painful-to-read Kraang dialogue in the alley).
So, yeah, Senor Hueso isn't mine either, that also belongs to its respectful owner(s).
Enjoy! :)
Disclaimer: I think I dreamt about it once... Pretty sure that doesn't count though.
Raphael didn't remember how he got stuck in this situation. All he knew was Mikey had something to do with it.
"And over here is the bathroom. The washing machine is right there," he groaned. Why did he have to give the girl a tour? Why couldn't Leo do it? He was the leader, after all. Fearless Leader, he thought bitterly. I shouldn't have made that stupid bet.
One thing he was grateful for though was the fact that Lilith didn't do anything to drag the 'tour' on any longer than it needed to be. It seemed like she wanted it over just as much as he did. "Thank you. May I meet your father now?"
She wanted to meet Master Splinter? No way. He didn't trust her by herself, let alone with Sensei. "You'll have to ask Leo," he responded gruffly. A loud and frustrated sigh escaped his mouth and he turned towards their newest guest. "Listen, sister. I don't trust you in the least." To his surprise, she didn't retort. "You and your two friends are sketchy and pretty shady. I don't trust that. I'll give you a warning: if I see you lay a finger on my brothers or Splinter, the next thing you'll be doing is screaming."
Lilith nodded. She seemed to do that a lot. "I understand," the girl whispered and left Raphael standing there in his cynicism.
She didn't even say anything to defend herself! That little- his fists clenched together. Fine. I'll just have to wait for her to show she can't be trusted. Then Fearless will finally realize-
"Raphael?"
"Sensei!" he turned around, surprised.
"What is troubling you, my son?"
He scowled. Might as well spill the beans now. "Lilith. We can't trust her."
Understanding flashed across the old rat's features. "I see. Trust goes both ways, Raphael. I suggest you return what she has so graciously offered you." Raph internally scoffed. There was no way he was trusting her any time soon. "I was just about to introduce myself to our new guest. Would you like to accompany me?"
He hesitated, but then shrugged. "Sure."
The two silently ventured through the Lair in search of Lilith. The silence held for an uncomfortable two and a half minutes while they searched each room. Although to Raph it felt longer. He almost sighed from relief when they heard a loud commotion in Donnie's lab. The turtle and his sensei rushed towards the sounds quickly, halting immediately in the doorway.
"STOP!" Donatello shouted. He looked panicked, eyes wide, breathing heavy, eye ridges drawn together. "Don't. Move." It took Raph a second to notice the mutagen spilled all over the floor, the puddle barely stopping an inch in front of his brother's toes. "Just give me a second."
"What happened here, Donatello?" Splinter asked after recovering from the shock.
Don didn't say anything, too focused on trying to cross the green goo without touching it. Where is he going? Raph wondered. The doors are over here!
"I-I'm sorry..." someone sobbed quietly. "I-I didn't mean to, please, I didn't!" It was Lilith, huddled in the corner, as far away from Donnie and the mutagen as she could be. What the heck is she apologizing for?
"I know, it's okay! It was an accident," Don reassured as he jumped from his chair to his desk, then to the floor in front of her. "It was an accident, Lilith, I know. Not your fault." He reached a three-fingered hand out to her, which she accepted, and helped her to her feet. "You okay?" Typical Don, Raph inwardly scoffed. Brainiac almost gets double mutated and he's worried about the crazy in the corner.
"Th-Thank you."
His immediate younger brother nodded and said, "Follow me," before leaping back to the desk, chair, another desk, then the doorway. Lilith was in toe, not once stumbling or slipping.
"Donnie!" Raph shouted, the anger in his tone masking pools of worry. "What the shell happened?!" Master Splinter frowned at the 'curse' word but made no comment.
"Sorry, Raph," he mumbled. "And Master Splinter. I was working with the mutagen we found, trying to figure out how it works exactly but then Lilith came in looking for Leo and startled me, causing me to knock the mutagen I had all over the floor, and, luckily, we both got out of the way in time, but Lilith started freaking out when she saw it, which makes sense, because, you know, the Kraang and such, but-"
"Thank you, Donatello," Master Splinter sighed. "Are you two alright?"
"Yeah, the mutagen missed us."
"Good. Let us stay away from your lab, for now, my son. You may clean up the chemical tomorrow when our guest has grown more comfortable in our home."
"Hai, Sensei."
Lilith still looked panicked, her eyes darting from Don to Raph to Splinter. "I-I'm s-sorry," she whispered, mostly to Donnie, but it was clearly meant for all three of them.
"It is alright, little one," Splinter assured. "I do believe chemical spills are not all too uncommon in Donatello's lab."
Donnie chuckled, blushing slightly. "A test tube may slip through my fingers every now and again."
"You mean 'every day,'" Raph sneered. But there was no venom behind the accusation, only light-hearted teasing.
"Thanks, hothead."
"No problem, Brainiac."
"Salad tongs."
"Whistle mouth."
Splinter tapped his jade walking stick on the floor. "My sons. We have a guest."
"Hai, Sensei," they answered in unison.
"Now, Lilith was your name?"
The girl nodded.
"That is a beautiful name. You may call me Master Splinter. My sons call me Sensei because I train them in the art of ninjitsu."
Lilith gave a small smile. "Lily's my nickname."
"I have many things I wish to discuss with you, 'Lily,' but first, do you like tea?"
"I love tea."
Don and Raph watched the two tea-lovers walk into the kitchen. For a second, Raph expected Donnie to turn back into the lab and clean up his mutagen mess despite Sensei's orders. That's what he usually did after a chemical spill. But when the red-clad turtle faced the purple one, why his face was a freakin' tomato.
"You feelin' okay, Donnie?"
Don just blinked. "I'm feeling great."
"Suuure..." Raph was about to walk away and into his bedroom before training started, but Donnie caught him before he could.
"Wait!"
An annoyed sigh. "What?"
"I just wanted to... Uh, you know what? Nevermind. It can wait." The genius chuckled and headed off for his room, surprisingly.
"Oookay." Raph knew his immediately younger brother could act weird sometimes - scratch that, all the time. But that was... different. The guy was red as a beetroot, but he wasn't sick, so what was with the strange behavior? And what was he going to say? Unfortunately, this kind of thinking was never his strong suit, so he left it and went to his room.
He would ask later.
There was something else that he needed to do.
The lock clicked behind him, assuring he was alone. He quietly walked over to the locked on his wall, the one that usually held his weapons. His three-fingered hand reached out and pulled the door open. His lungs drew in a sharp breath.
A lettuce leaf.
A small pillow.
A tiny, old water bowl.
And multiple pictures of a small, non-mutated turtle.
"Spike..." he whispered. The pain from his 'loss' was still relatively fresh. It took him a while to be able to put the little shrine together without nearly breaking down in tears. "I'm so sorry, little guy..."
And there went the waterworks.
"Yame!" the familiar word silenced the dojo.
The four turtles had just finished a last-turtle-standing spar, Leonardo being the last turtle standing. Lilith joined in for their stretching and katas but Master Splinter said she should observe for the practice fighting. None of them knew how good she was at combat whatsoever. But guessing from her age, upbringing, and the fact she's been an experiment for the past year, they all guessed she was fairly inexperienced. Everyone was scared of accidentally hurting her.
Except for Raph.
Well, less on the 'hurting her' part and more on the 'inexperienced' part. The hotheaded warrior suspected that she was a Foot kunoichi putting up an act. An act to fool them, lure them into a false sense of security, and then eliminate them. After all, the Foot did hate them, and from what he knew, Kunoichi were trained in trickery and mind games.
So he did not believe she was inexperienced and he was not scared to accidentally hurt the potential enemy.
Splinter interrupted his train of thought. "My sons, your skills have improved greatly. But, as always, there is still much to be learned." The ninja master went on, offering advice and criticism where necessary to each of the turtles, then turned to Lilith. "Lilith, do you know what your name means?"
She shook her head. "I know it's of Assyrian origins."
"Lilith means night monster or ghost. And if I did not know better, I would have mistaken you for the latter," he chuckled. "You were near-silent when you stretched, and your swiftness and stealth while performing the katas was impressive. Have you had any training like this before?"
"No." The answer was quick but confident. Probably a half-truth, Raph thought. Shredder probably doesn't train his soldiers like Sensei trains us.
"It doesn't show," the rat smiled. "You are skilled, young one. My son, Leonardo, mentioned you have two friends?"
"Yes. They're awaiting your permission to come and stay here."
"Hm. Well, once my sons and I decide it is safe for them to come down, I would like to start training you three in the art of ninjitsu and self-defense. If that is alright with you?"
Lilith smiled and bowed her head. "Of course!" There was no hiding the giddiness in her voice.
That little rat - no offense, Master Splinter - just wants to find out more secrets. Well, I won't let that happen. Not even over my dead body. Raph gave a barely audible growl, which caused Michelangelo, who was sitting right next to him, to jump.
"Yo, are you okay?" the youngest whispered.
"'M fine," he answered, teeth clenched. He was not, in fact, 'fine' at all. But that didn't matter. What mattered was that Splinter was now giving her permission to wander around the lair without one of the turtles watching her.
"Thank you!" she said and stood up, still bowing.
"You are all excused; that is the end of today's training."
Like heck I'm not gonna watch her, Raph thought as he stood up. She's probably plotting right now! He meant to follow her, but as soon as they exited the dojo, Mikey ran past him and dragged her away. All Raph could make out of his speedy rambling was 'dudette' 'kitchen' and 'you'll be sleeping,' which he assumed was part of 'I'll show you where you'll be sleeping.'
His stomach rumbled. Speaking of kitchen...
Things had been surprisingly peaceful since training ended. Lilith was in her new 'room,' which was just Leo's bedroom floor. There was some arguing before it was determined the dojo and lab were off and Leo's room was the cleanest. Raph's three brothers were all sitting in the pit watching Space Heroes. Of course, Leo was basically drooling on the screen and Mikey was watching intently from the couch. Don looked half-interested, his nose buried in a book he found earlier that week on car mechanics.
Raph had occupied himself with trying to make a grilled cheese sandwich. It took longer than expected, and he burned a few pieces of bread, but eventually, he turned up something edible and sat down to eat. It didn't taste all bad. The cheese wasn't fully melted and the bread's toasting wasn't exactly even, but he needed food. So a half-baked grilled cheese worked fine.
Soon, he heard a light panting outside approach the kitchen entrance. He then watched Lilith quietly enter the room, clearly not noticing he was there. As soon as she was all the way in the kitchen, she started rifling through cabinets and drawers, occasionally looking in the fridge.
Apparently, he wasn't the only one who was hungry.
She threw a smaller drawer open and paused. The utensil drawer, Raph remembered.
He only started panicking when she pulled a steak knife out and slid it into a pocket. Panic quickly turned to anger.
He launched himself across the counter and pinned her against the counter. "What are you doing?!"
Author's Note
Chapter 5 will probably take a while too, I apologize in advance.
Corona is causing chaos where I am, and chaos means less time to sit down and open my computer, let alone think of something to type down. The sudden spurts of writer's block I'm getting aren't helping either.
Luckily, I have plenty of old(ish) notes to help me out, so don't expect this to be discontinued. I'm sticking with it until the end no matter what (which I don't know when said 'end' will be).
Thank you for reading! :D