Another side story. But we get to see some character/relationship growth. Not to mention some feels, which I always enjoy. Hope you do too!
"I've gathered you all here today to unveil my latest, and might I add, most entertaining creation to date!" Donatello declared dramatically to his impromptu audience, which currently consisted of his three brothers, April, and Katerina.
"Oh! Oh! Is it that awesome drill you showed us when we were fighting those mutant silver fish?" Leonardo guessed.
"No, like I said before, that drill is still in beta," Donatello informed him.
"Is it an even bigger, cooler drill?" Michelangelo wondered, before he had a chance to continue.
"No! It's not a drill!" Donatello snapped back. "How would a drill be entertaining?" he reasoned testily.
"Well, I thought it was pretty fun to watch," Raphael chimed in, earning him grins from his other brothers.
Donatello rubbed his fingers over his eyes with a frustrated sigh.
"If you guys would stop interrupting for two seconds, he'd tell us!" April barked at them, her own irritation clear. "Go ahead Donnie," she encouraged him with a smile.
"As I was saying, my latest creation. . ." he trailed for dramatic effect, yanking a cloth off the table next to him. "Our own custom designed laser tag vests!" he announced with that same flamboyant flare.
Sure enough, on the table sat a set of shiny, black vests complete with several different sensors on the front, back and shoulders, similar to typical laser tag equipment. However, unlike typical laser tag vests, these seemed to be much less bulky and cumbersome. The guns were also slimmed down and weren't permanently attached by a chord. Very versatile.
"Whoa!" Was the general consensus from the crowd. They all leapt up to inspect them closer.
"Donnie, this is so cool! And there's one for each of us?" April wondered.
"That's right. Each vest has been made to everyone's exact specifications – more or less," he added as an afterthought. "Katy, I didn't have yours, but I thought April's would work for you since you two seem to be around the same size," he told her, handing her the vest in question.
"O-oh. That's fine," she assured him, looking it over. She didn't feel like she was in any position to complain. She was just happy that he'd thought to include her at all. "So, you said these were custom designed?" she questioned, hoping that he would elaborate.
"They've been programmed with invisibility mode, night vision flashlights, and voice guided directions – all conveniently relayed through everyone's individual goggle/headset combos," he punctuated the explanation by passing around said headsets.
"How far can these things fire?" Leonardo asked, experimenting with the weight of the gun and glancing down the sights.
"Up to 200 feet. I've also programmed them to be able to collect bullet power-ups as we play. Everything from rapid fire to shot gun to rockets," he told them.
"What do the rockets do?" Michelangelo asked, sounding excited.
"They have a wide AOE," Donatello offered, but he just stared back at him with a blank expression. "They can hit multiple people at once," he tried again in more layman's terms with a sterner tone.
"Ooooh," Michelangelo acknowledged that he understood.
"This is great, Donnie! It'll really help with our combat skills," Raphael decided.
"It's almost dark out," Leonardo hinted impishly, already donning his vest. "Who's ready to go play?"
. . .
Turns out, it was much more of a declaration than a question. Because before she knew it, Katerina found herself getting whisked along with the others to the park. Since they were going to be moving around at ground level, the guys had all dressed in dark hoodies, so that even under the cover of night, their mutations would be less noticeable. Katerina only had to pull her hood up over her ears and keep her tails wrapped around her waist up under the bottom of the sweatshirt for her to effectively blend.
Once they'd arrived and were fully suited up, the turtle boys began to form a plan of action.
"So, how are we gonna do this?" Leonardo asked.
"Free for all!" Michelangelo cheered.
"Actually, I was thinking it would be better to form teams. We can think of it as a team building exercise," Raphael suggested.
"I don't know. . ." Leonardo trailed. "I'm cool with a free for all," he voiced, never one to miss an opportunity to shine on his own.
"I like the idea of playing on a team. What about you, Katy?" April posed to her.
"Uh, I guess I'm fine either way," she shrugged in an unsure manner.
"Guess that makes me the tie breaking vote," Donatello determined. "And I vote for teams," he decided.
"Alright fine, teams it is," Leonardo consented without much struggle.
"Okay, but, how are we gonna decide who's on which team?" Michelangelo wondered, not sounding real excited at the prospects.
Katerina couldn't help but relate to his lack of enthusiasm. Maybe she should have just gone ahead and voted for the free for all? That way she could have just let herself get taken out early, and wouldn't have to worry about letting down whatever team she ended up on.
"How bout we draw straws?" April suggested after noting the slightly nervous looks. "That way it'll be completely impartial and no one can play favorites," she reasoned.
"Sure, I can program the vests to pick teams at random," Donatello mentioned, clicking away at his omni-tool. "I just need to tell it how many total teams, and number of members for each one," he explained, glancing up at the group expectantly.
"I say we start with three teams of two," Raphael offered merrily. "You know, just to keep things a little more interestin'."
Interesting? All Katerina could see was this setup just making things harder, especially for whoever ended up stuck with her!
"No probbles," Donatello acknowledged, punching in the info.
A moment later, the vests began to light up. Each one flashing a random assortment of colors in rapid succession. Until they seemed to settle on three separate options, with two people each sharing a color. It only took a quick glance to figure out who got placed with who. Both Leonardo and Raphael's vests were glowing a lime green, April and Michelangelo had an almost painful yellow, which left – oh no!
Katerina felt her stomach drop at the realization that both her and Donatello were sporting the same shade of vibrant pink!
Seriously?! She internally lamented, fighting with everything she had to not let the dismay show on her face.
What were the odds? Like, twenty percent? Why couldn't it have been someone else, anyone else? If he didn't already hate her, as Michelangelo seemed to believe, he certainly would after the fiasco that she knew was surely coming her way!
Donatello, on the other hand, was much less subtle about hiding his apparent disappointment. She could almost hear his own mental groaning as soon as he spotted the matching color lighting up her vest. He stared up at the sky, probably debating on whether or not it would be worth it to try and complain. In all fairness, Katerina wouldn't have blamed him if he did.
However, as the others were happily celebrating their own good fortune at team selections, he must have decided that it wouldn't be worth the hassle. Because he suddenly pulled her aside, slightly away from the main group.
"Well, looks like you're with me," he grumbled.
Katerina said nothing.
"But if it's all the same to you, I'd rather not stick with this nauseating color." A few button presses later, and the palette of their vests shifted to a deep shade of purple.
Katerina had never been the biggest fan of pink herself, usually associating it with blonde, barbie, mean girl types, but she'd never considered it nauseating before.
Seemingly pulling himself together, Donatello turned back to the awaiting group.
"Alright, here's how it's gonna go. I'll set a timer for five minutes in order for us to scatter and have a quick planning session with our partners. You'll get a message through the headsets when the game officially starts. Then we'll go for twenty minutes. Whichever team scores the highest wins," he quickly went through the rundown.
"Sounds like a plan!" "Yeah!" Leonardo and Raphael were saying.
"Ready when you are." "Let's do this!" April and Michelangelo added.
"Okay, and – go!" Donatello announced, smacking his hand against his omni-tool. "Five minute warning," an electronic sounding voice stated in Katerina's ear.
Like flicking on a light in a room of crickets, the members of the group immediately dashed off in all directions, disappearing into the darkness. Well, everyone except for Katerina, that is. Donatello had to latch onto her and drag her after him as soon as he realized she wasn't following! Once they'd gone a good distance from their original start point, he pulled her down behind a hedge so they could talk.
"What part of scatter did you not understand? You wanna lose before we even get started?" he harshly lectured at her.
Honestly, at this point, Katerina was already regretting that she was even playing at all! However, there were several factors that were still keeping her here. One being that the teams would be uneven if she didn't participate. Also, after Donatello had gone to all the trouble of trying to include her by making her, her own vest, she'd feel bad turning it down. Although, with how irritable he was acting already, she couldn't help but wonder why he'd bothered.
"I'm s–" A sharp glare from him cut her off.
"It's fine. Just, pay attention," he ordered. "So, here's the plan. . ."
Donatello proceeded to delve into a complicated strategy of maneuvers that he had calculated would optimize their chances of success. What he failed to account for, however, was Katerina's nerves affecting her aim, such as it was. Shooting a laser gun was a lot different than aiming a bow, especially when accounting for moving targets and altering bullet styles.
They played several rounds, all of which they ended up getting last place in. Katerina could see Donatello growing increasingly frustrated as the night wore on. She attempted multiple times to make her own suggestions on how they could improve their game, only to be shot down each time. So, she did her best to follow along with his plans, but couldn't seem to make them work.
He even tried convincing the others that they should change up the teams, using reasons that didn't actually involve Katerina, she figured in an attempt to save face. No one went for it though, claiming that they were already synced with their teammate and it would be weird to try and switch now. Until finally, Donatello opted to at least try changing the rules for the next round, hoping more than believing that a different play style might make a difference. . .
"Okay, here's how this next game is gonna go. Instead of points, each of us is going to get a set number of lives. Each time we get hit, we'll lose a life. Last team standing wins," he explained, struggling to keep his tone steady.
"What about if we accidentally shoot our teammate?" Michelangelo wondered.
"You should try not to do that, because friendly fire will be on," Donatello warned.
"What about if one member of the team loses all their lives before the other one?" Leonardo asked, obviously expecting a change in rules.
"I'll enable a power play mode to activate, where the remaining member has increased abilities," he assured him, not missing the hint.
"Interesting. So, we're gonna have ta go stealth mode for this round," Raphael surmised.
"That is the idea," Donatello assured him.
"Alright! You guys can run, but cha can't hide!" April threatened mischievously.
"And some of us can't even manage that," Donatello muttered under his breath.
"What was that?" April questioned, giving him a confused stare.
"Nothing. Ready-set-go!" he suddenly exclaimed, activating the timer and surprising the others with the lack of warning.
They scrambled a bit before hurrying off. Meanwhile, Donatello didn't bother taking chances this time, latching onto Katerina before dragging her off, while she reluctantly attempted to keep up.
The others might not have heard his comment, but she'd picked it up loud and clear. It felt like he'd punched her in the stomach, as she stared down dejectedly at the ground. She realized he might as well have.
He pulled her way off to the edge of the park, not leaving them much opportunity to discuss strategy, which was quickly revealed to be intentional. He plopped her down next to a broad oak.
"Don't move from this spot," he ordered. "If you see anyone, I guess feel free to fire away. Otherwise just stay here," he barked at her. He glanced down at his omni-tool to see how much time was left.
So, camping was it? Not the most noble of strategies, but it could be effective under the right circumstances. Especially if there was no time limit to worry about.
"Wouldn't it work even better if I were up in the tree?" she offered slowly, not actually expecting different results.
Sure enough, he shook his head.
"You can barely hit anything as it is! How are you supposed to aim from up there? Not to mention, as soon as they figure out where you are, you'll be a sitting duck! No, just wait here and I'll handle the rest," he grumbled, before stalking off into the darkness.
Whatever. If he would really prefer to just do this by himself, she wasn't going to argue. She would be perfectly fine just sitting here by herself, hiding. It's not like she was a stranger to solitude, after all.
Leaning back against the trunk, Katerina let her eyes close. She found herself focusing on the subtle sounds coming from the nature around her. Crickets chirping, frogs croaking, the occasional wing beat. Given the time of day, she could only assume a bat, or maybe an owl, but weren't they supposed to be masters of the silent flight, or something along those lines? Listening deeper she began to pick up the light panting of small creatures. Could there perhaps be a family of squirrels living in this tree?
She surprised herself with everything she managed to distinguish by sound alone. Living in New York, people wouldn't normally consider the multitude of different creatures they shared the city with. Most of the time when you look at it, all you see is glass and stone. It was cold and dead, but sitting here, amongst the grass, flowers, and trees – the city sounded alive!
She was suddenly ripped out of her meditation by the sound of shouts and tromping footsteps gradually coming closer. Katerina sighed and opened her eyes.
Hello, Reality. Nice to see you again. She thought sarcastically, readying her gun. Heaven forbid she actually have a chance to shoot someone, but not be prepared for it!
"I think I saw it coming from over here!" She heard someone holler. Sounded like Michelangelo.
"Isn't that the direction Donnie was heading?" April's voice called out in response. "Let's see if we can head him off," she suggested gleefully.
Not a moment later, and Donatello practically fell on top of her as he crashed through the brush. Katerina stared at him with wide eyes, feeling very unsure about what was happening.
"What the heck do you think you're doing out here?!" he demanded angrily.
"Wha – nothing!" she protested defensively. "I've just been sitting here, like you told me to," she reminded him.
"And playing with your vest lights? You really think that'll help you hide better?!" he snapped.
Katerina just stared back at him with a bewildered look. What on earth was he talking about?
"Never mind! There's no time! We gotta move before –" he didn't get a chance to finish before the others found them, guns blazing!
They did their best to put up decent defensive fire, managing to take out a few of the others lives in the process. Unfortunately they lost just as many themselves, if not more. It was only when Donatello had come down to his last one that he decided to duck out and regroup. He grabbed onto the cat girl next to him, hoisting her up and away from the fray.
They ran for a solid few minutes in an attempt to lose their pursuers, finally ducking into another grove of trees. They sat panting for a moment, hoping they wouldn't be heard.
"Would you quit yanking me around? I'm not a Ragdoll, you know?" Katerina complained.
"Well, maybe if you'd get your butt in gear, I wouldn't have to!" he snapped back.
"I'm trying! It's not my fault I'm not good at any of these weird maneuvers you keep expecting me to do," she whined.
"Not good?" he laughed humorlessly. "That's the understatement of the week! I just wanted to win one round, but no! You're completely useless!" he criticized harshly.
Katerina paused for a moment as she considered her response options. A small part of her felt like crying at his meanness, but mostly, she was more mad than anything! If he really didn't like her this much, why was he bothering to tolerate her at all! She rose with determination and flipped around to face him with an angry scowl.
"That is it! I give up!" she yelled, shaking her head, her eyes flashing dangerously at him. "And I don't have to take this off of you! You – giant butt-hole!" she hollered, before drawing her gun on him, and blasting him straight in the middle of the chest, effectively taking away his last life.
Donatello seemed completely stunned at the sudden outburst and subsequential attack! His mouth hung open with unsaid words as the cat girl rounded on her heel before skillfully slinking up the nearest tree.
A moment later, and Katerina could hear the computer voice coming in through the headset.
"Player five, eliminated. Player six, power-play mode, engaged," It droned.
The message must have sounded out to the others as well, because it wasn't long before Leonardo and Raphael cautiously padded onto the scene. What they found was Donatello on his back, grumpily glaring up at the dark sky above.
"Donnie? Why are you lying there like that?" Raphael was first to wonder.
"Yeah?" Leonardo couldn't help the snicker that snuck out. "What happened to your furry little partner?" he teased.
"She turned on me," he muttered.
"Seriously?" Leonardo's snickering turning into shameless chortles. "Well, where is she now?" he asked.
"I'm dead. I'm not allowed to tell you that," he told them with no small amount of exasperation.
However, he couldn't help his wandering eyes, as they slowly drifted around to the tree where he knew the cat girl was currently perched. His brothers didn't miss the hint, too bad for them it came too late, because Katerina was ready.
Taking advantage of her newly acquired power-ups, she wasted no time in launching the rocket feature straight at the unsuspecting boys! Apparently only having one life left himself, it took out Raphael easily enough. This normally would have given Leonardo the same advantage she had, only she didn't give him the chance to use it.
Switching to rapid fire, she knocked out his remaining lives before he knew what hit him! Only hopping down once she'd gotten the confirmation notifications.
"Player One, eliminated. Player Two, eliminated." Sounded out over the headsets.
"H-hey! What the heck?" they both protested at her.
"Did you, seriously just use Donnie's dead body as bait?" Leonardo scoffed in amusement.
"That's not very honorable, Katy," Raphael added in a slightly lecturing tone.
She simply shrugged in response.
"What good is honor to a dead man?" she questioned flatly, and as if to prove her point, she suddenly unhooked her vest and tossed it into the hedge next to them. Yet still keeping the headset and gun.
"Wait a second, what are you–?" Leonardo attempted to ask, but Katerina didn't give him a chance to finish before darting off into the dark.
Poor April and Mikey had no idea what hit them when they came to investigate why Leonardo and Raphael were both suddenly eliminated one right after the other.
"Hey guys, what's going on? Is the round over?" April wondered in confusion as they wandered closer.
"Mikey, April! Look out! Katy's –!" Raphael quickly tried to warn them, but once again, it wasn't fast enough.
Katerina ran up from behind them, guns blazing. Instinctively, the others attempted to defend themselves, but of course, it didn't do them much good since she was currently sans-vest. The whole thing was over in a matter of moments.
"Round over. Winner – Purple Team," the headsets droned.
While the rest of the group sat confused and stymied at the unexpected sequence of events, Katerina wasted no time in tearing off the headset and stalking over to the still prostrate, purple turtle.
"There, we won. You happy now?" she barked snarkily, Donatello grunting as she tossed the remaining accessories into his abdomen before turning and stomping off out of the park and back towards the lair.
"Wha – what just happened? Why was Katy cheating?" Michelangelo wondered after a moment of uncomfortable silence.
All eyes turned to Donatello, April's in particular narrowing suspiciously.
"Why don't you take a wild guess?" she challenged, her harsh tone directed at the purple turtle.
She took off after the retreating cat girl a moment later, hollering in her direction. "Katy, wait!" she called.
The rest of the turtles stared down at their brother expectantly, waiting for an answer. But he didn't give them one, only glaring at the ground before finally gathering up Katerina's discarded equipment and heading back towards home himself.
. . .
Katerina spent the following day doing everything in her power to completely avoid Donatello. Despite this, she had at least taken the time and consideration to apologize to the others for her rude and unsportsmanlike behavior from the night before. To which, she was happy to find, that they had no qualms about forgiving her for.
This made it easy to focus on hanging out with them for the day and their various activities. Some cooking with Mikey, a little training with Raph, and eventually – watching one of those silly Jupiter Jim movies with Leo while Splinter took a nap in his chair.
Katerina couldn't help but wonder at how much easier it seemed for her to get along with all the others compared to Donnie. She didn't fully understand what it was about her that put him off so much? So much for the progress she'd thought she'd made, perhaps it was the same thing that always seemed to make everyone else around her dislike her as well?
Not that it mattered, though. She had given up, she reminded herself. There was no sense in dwelling on it. It was like she'd been telling Mikey before. He didn't have to like her if he didn't want to. Now it was just a matter of staying out of his way until they could either find a means to at least tolerate each other, or – her possibly finding some other living arrangement. . .
However, what Katerina couldn't have known, was that Donatello had been struggling with a heavy, guilty sensation swirling around in the pit of his stomach all day! He'd been trying, and failing to ignore it, only getting worse and eating at him harder whenever Katy veered off her course with a pained expression, in order to keep as far away from him as possible.
He'd never meant to make her feel so bad. He realized he'd just gotten too caught up in his desire to win! It wasn't the first time his competitive nature had gotten the better of him. Only problem was, he wasn't sure how to fix it, or if he even could fix it. Guess there was only one way to find out.
Donatello crept into the living room as the movie she'd been watching with Leo came to a close. He only hesitated for a moment, before awkwardly clearing his throat to get their attention. They both turned to eye him curiously, although the cat girl with more suspicion that anything.
"Hey, uh, Katy? Do you mind if I, talked to you, for a second?" he attempted to request.
"About what?" she wondered skeptically, remaining stubbornly rooted to the spot, despite the obvious hinting.
Donnie felt a bit stymied at the response, turning to his brother with a hopeful gaze.
It didn't take Leo long to pick up on the unspoken message. His face softened into a smile of understanding, reaching over to nudge at Katy's side encouragingly.
So, she finally complied, but not without an eye roll and an exaggerated sigh.
"Ugh, fine!" she consented, rising to follow the purple turtle out of the room and into the privacy of his lab.
She crossed her arms and waited, before he finally turned to address her.
"I just wanted to say that – I'm sorry – for hurting your feelings last night," he mumbled, not sounding all that sincere.
". . .Okay," she stated after a moment, then made a motion as though she were going to leave.
"Wait. That's it?" he questioned dubiously.
"Oh, I – I thought you said you didn't want me apologizing anymore, but I guess I can if you want. I'm sorry I yelled at you and called you a –" she began, but he lifted a hand to stop her.
"What? No. You don't have to apologize," he told her.
She stared at him with a bewildered look.
"Well, then, what do you want from me?" she scoffed.
"I –" That was a good question, what did he want from her?
Her forgiveness? For her to stop being upset? For her to be as comfortable around him as she was around the rest of his family? And yet, he couldn't seem to bring himself to admit to any of it!
Why couldn't she just berate him and smack him around until she felt better, like April did? Why was it always the guilt trip with this girl? He hated how she made him feel bad about things. And the worst part was, that it was obvious none of it was even intentional!
"Look, it's fine if you don't like me. Wouldn't be the first time. I mean, I keep trying to tell you that I don't have to stay if you really don't want me to, but you guys keep saying no, that I should stay. But then you act like you resent the fact that I'm here. . ." she trailed, waiting to see if he'd comment on her observations.
She watched his frown deepen as he stared down at the floor, before deciding to continue when it seemed he still wasn't ready to talk yet.
"I could, keep doing my best to stay out of your way from now on if that would –" she tried suggesting with a shrug.
"No!" he suddenly exclaimed with exasperation, surprising her and cutting her off. "I don't – It's not your fault. I'm just not used to –" he gestured at her.
Katerina cocked her head at him. Why did he keep stopping before finishing his sentences? He turned away before trying again.
"My brothers have always been really competitive," he began with his back towards her. "And of course their favorite activities to compete in are mostly sports related, which I've never, been the best at," he admitted quietly, actually sounding a bit embarrassed.
He paused for a long moment. Meanwhile, Katerina nodded and simply waited patiently for him to continue.
"But no matter how many times they've won, it doesn't stop them from bragging and always rubbing it in my face! It sucks, constantly losing all the time. But of course, I can't let them know that, or else they'd give me an even harder time," he lamented.
As he spoke, Katerina found herself slowly sinking to the floor, until she was sitting with her legs crossed as she listened.
"So, I usually just try to focus on what I am good at. I spend all this time and energy developing all this tech," he began pacing the room at this point, waving around at all the various in progress projects. "But do any of them thank me for it? Noooo!" he continued to rant.
"Everyone's always happy when I fix their phones, or build them cool gadgets, but does anybody care about the work that goes into it? Does anybody ever take an interest in what I can do? Of course not! Nobody ever bothers to appreciate what I'm good at," he muttered, leaning back against his work bench with a sigh. He crossed his arms over his chest as he continued to glare at the floor.
"April seems to appreciate what you can do," Katerina offered hesitantly, now that he'd taken a break.
Donatello's eyes snapped up to her with a bit of surprise, almost as if he'd forgotten that she was there. She swallowed and shuffled nervously under his gaze.
"I – I mean, you were the one she called for help when Albearto first broke, right?" she reasoned.
"Sure, right before he went on a rampage and nearly killed us all, which she still gives me grief for. She may call me whenever something breaks, but she's not shy about reminding me whenever my fix doesn't work," he told her.
Katerina gave him a confused look.
"Well, that doesn't seem very fair. I mean, you can't expect everything to always go perfectly when working with electronics and programming. I've found they tend to go wrong more often than they go right," she mused casually. "Nothing is ever bug-free on the first go around. I swear, if it's not the endless looping, its the constant null reference exceptions," she rambled with a lamenting head shake.
Donatello stared at the girl in astonishment for moment. While it might have been just a passing observation to her, for him, it was like she was speaking another language. His language!
"Come here. I wanna show you something," he decided, waving her up.
Hopping up off the floor, she moved over to stand next to him in front of a large computer monitor. Clicking several keys, he brought up a window that covered the entire screen in code. He then just hung back and let her look.
As he watched her eyes rapidly move over the screen, he felt the sensation of eager anticipation building in his chest. Her brow furrowed in a frown of concentration as she unconsciously scrolled the window, studying.
"Is this," she paused for a moment of consideration. "a program for a VI?" she asked with wonder.
"That's right," he confirmed, having to fight to keep the admiration out of his voice that she'd been able to figure that out without any help.
"This is – brilliant! I've never seen anything like it!" she marveled, and Donatello couldn't help the grin that spread across his face. "Did you create all this code yourself?" she asked, her eyes not leaving the screen.
"Most of it, yeah," he acknowledged, a sense of wow washing over him. He almost couldn't believe it. She gets it!
Although, once he really thought about it, he realized he shouldn't be all that surprised. She did say she used to work in the Nerd Squad, after all. Except, like him, she was still a kid, and he had his doubts that most adults would even be able to understand his code.
"That's amazing! You really are a genius! I mean, this is unprecedented! How did you. . .?" she turned to ask, but then trailed off when she noticed how he was looking at her.
Katerina felt her face flush and the shyness return. She pulled her eyes away.
"Um, but, I guess, you don't really need me to tell you that," she realized.
Donatello's expression softened, nonetheless.
"You, wanna hear my thought process?" he guessed at her unfinished inquiry.
Feeling encouraged by the question, and his tone, Katerina smiled and nodded eagerly.
She listened with sincere curiosity as he delved into his inspirations and machinations for the code he was sharing with her. Only interrupting with a question or two when he went into something she didn't quite understand.
Meanwhile, on the inside, Katerina was practically giddy with glee. Although she didn't fully comprehend why, he seemed to be, voluntarily opening up to her! So maybe, maybe he actually did like her a little more than she thought?
Her mind inadvertently wandered over what he'd been saying before, about how competitive his brothers were, and how losing all the time sucks. Well, she could certainly relate to that. She guessed that was his attempt at explaining his behavior during laser tag.
And the part about nobody appreciating his interests, it gave her the impression that he didn't frequently get the opportunity to share. After all, why bother trying when there was no one around to care? She couldn't help but feel a bit, special, at the realization – even if it was just a little.