Raph grunted, more annoyed than anything else. Did Becca really have to take all of her clothes with her? How many clothes did one chick need, anyway? He had two full suitcases in his hands and two with straps around his shoulders. It wasn't that heavy, but still, damn. There were a lot of clothes… and shoes. He'd always saw the way girls acted over shoes on TV, but this was ridiculous. She only had two feet! He huffed, jumping off the fire escape and landing close to the van. At least he wasn't in Donnie's shoes, Raph gave a small laugh.
Sara, April, Casey, and Marcus were moving the bigger things for Becca, who was shoving other things into boxes and bags. Donnie was pouting, watching Sara carry out the couch and book shelves with Casey, not able to take her place due to the route through the building. Mikey was helping Becca, wrapping up fragile items and labeling the boxes for identification. Leo was keeping an eye out on the rooftops, making sure that no one who wasn't invited decided to show up. Raph's role was that of the mule. Carrying the smaller boxes down to the van in the dark. He kept sidestepping light even though he had human clothes on, just in case some of the other tenants decided to look out a window at the wrong time.
They'd decided to go ahead and let Becca's landlord know she was moving out. Becca filed a report with the police, saying her place had been broken into, covering the damage the PD's had caused. Raph had to hand it to her; she was smart to ask him to punch her bathroom door once he yanked out the katana. It covered the distinct impression the blade had left. Her whole plan was elaborate. The landlord was shocked, but agreed to repay what rent she'd paid up if everything else passed inspection. Of course, Becca would have to wait until the insurance paid up before she got her money back.
She seemed chipper enough though, even throwing some jokes his way as he loaded her stuff in the van. 'Don't strain yourself,' Becca had laughed. 'Careful, this one might be heavy,' and she tossed him a pillow. Very funny, Raph frowned. It felt good to have her at least try to interact with him though. She had seemed so skittish around him that he thought he'd scared her somehow. Maybe she was just getting used to them.
Raph groaned, climbing back up the fire escape. Her apartment was small, how much more stuff could she have in it? At least they had gotten out of training this morning because of this. Raph lightened up. Anything to get out of morning training and to see Leo get frustrated over it. It had been his idea, serves him right. Speaking of training, he wondered if Mikey would go all ape-shit-crazy again when they got back into the swing of things tomorrow.
His little brother kicking his shell was annoying. No doubt, it happened more than he would like to admit, but still, Raph grumbled to himself. Usually Mikey would taunt and tease him, dodge him, tire him out first. Yesterday had been something new. Raph growled low. Who knew Mikey could be serious like that? He sure didn't. Then Raph smirked. Neither had Leo, Raph laughed lightly before entering Becca's apartment again. Time to get back to work. As he loaded a few more boxes, he played over the scene of Mikey kicking Leo's shell again and again.
*)O(*
I wonder how long I can keep this up, Becca laughed inside of her head as she handed another box to Raph. The one with the pillow had even made Mikey bust out. "Lift with your legs…" Becca started.
"I get it, I get it," Raph grumbled. She laughed, finally he'd broken. "I just want to make sure you don't hurt yourself," she continued to tease. Raph muttered something but took the box out the window anyway. Mikey chuckled. Becca turned to look at him.
He was wrapping up her teacups and other glass things. He kept his eyes down, not talking much more than to ask for more newspaper or to let her know he was done with a box. In comparison to last night, he was being boring. She still smiled as she thought or their tickle war. It felt normal, like something anyone would do.
She needed more normal in her life. She'd been immensely grateful for the cancellation of training that morning. She didn't want a replay of what had happened before to happen again. She liked Mikey like this, or like he had been last night. Light-hearted, kind, warm, easygoing and fun to be around. Becca shook herself and looked around.
Her apartment was almost bare. Mikey had the last of her fragile things and she added the last thing she could find into her box. Now there was just her stripped bed frame left in her bedroom. It almost looked like the first day she had moved in. She sighed. It wouldn't be long and she'd be moving again. At least next time she would have a job, she sighed to herself. Mikey said something and she turned to look at him. "Huh?"
"You've been sighing a lot. You okay?"
"Oh, yeah… it's just… moving, you know?"
"Yeah," Mikey nodded. She heard about them moving a couple of times. Mostly because someone had found their lair or it had been destroyed. "Sorry," Becca murmured. "I didn't-
"It's cool. I like where we are now." Mikey gave her a soft smile. When he was like this, his eyes sparkled. His orange mask somehow complimented his eyes and his light green skin. It was… Becca shook her head, looking away from him. She was just about to say that he looked pretty.
She chuckled, leaving Mikey where he was, searching her apartment for anything she might have missed. Sure, Mikey would have taken to her calling him pretty like white on rice. She could just see him playing it up, batting his eyes at her while saying something like, 'Oh, you.' At the mental picture, Becca giggled. Maybe she should say it, just to see his response.
"This is the last thing, right?" Casey's rough voice broke her inner conversation. He was lifting her headboard like it was nothing. Sara was coming in behind him, reaching for the railings. "Oh, I think so." Marcus and April were in the living room, taking a break. Donnie was leaning against a wall in her living room, pouting. No doubt, it couldn't be easy to watch his girlfriend lifting such heavy things and not being able to help. "Time to start putting up the new doors then," Donnie said, annoyed.
Mikey chimed in that he was done. Becca continued to look around. Everything seemed to be packed up and away. The only things they had left to do were to put up the new doors to please the landlord and get the last two boxes out. Make that just putting up the doors as Mikey and Raph took the last two boxes out to the van. There was nothing her to indicate that she'd ever lived here. It was as if a she was a ghost, erased from here forever. It was odd.
Her large things would go to storage, as well as most of her boxes. She would start over. It was an odd feeling. It felt like it had been too soon since she'd done this before. Everything passed around her. The new doors went up and she walked around each room. It wasn't until she got back to her bedroom and saw Mikey coming through the window that she woke up. He looked angry. "Mikey?"
"I need you to stay in here," he told her softly. "Sara, Donnie, Casey, outside, PD are back." Mikey called out to the others.
"Wait, who are the PD?" Becca huffed.
"Don't worry about it," Mikey soothed, softly touching her cheek, not hurting the swollen flesh there. His finger felt odd but warm. "Just stay inside, okay?" Before she could respond, he was out of the window again. April pulled her away from the window as she went to look out of it. "They said to stay here," the older woman warned. Something in Becca poked its head up. "None of you are the boss of me."
With that, Becca went over to the window. Down in the alley, there was her team of six was facing a crowd of people. Some of the people had pipes, others had knives. All of them looked dangerous. Trying to get a head count, Becca would get to twenty or so before she lost track, people moving around too much to get an accurate number. There was no way they would be able to take all of them on at once! There was triple the number of enemies as opposed to her team. "-After the girl," floated up to her.
She felt sick. The dark alley was full of people, all of them wanting to hurt her friends and her. April and Marcus said something to her, but she ignored them. As quickly and quietly as possible, much to April's annoyance, Becca slipped out of her window and out onto the fir escape. "You're not going to lay a finger on her!" Mikey's voice rose above the crowd. Something entirely too feminine inside of her wanted to cheer him on. She tiptoed down the stairs, praying not to let the metal squeak.
She was about two flights down when all hell broke loose. In the middle of everything was her team and the van. She hurried, trying to get close enough to help somehow. She was at the end of the stairs. She had to jump. It looked like a long way down, but she took a moment to tell herself that it was only ten feet. Taking a breath, she jumped. She landed on her hands and knees, scrapping them up. She winced. Who knew what she had in her palms, but she wiped them off on her pants. Looking around, there was a pipe that had been dropped. She couldn't see Mikey or anyone else from this angle. Who knew if they were still fighting? What if someone had hurt him because of her?
Becca picked up the pipe and turned to the nearest person she didn't recognize. Their back was to her and she took her chance. Like she was on her old softball team, she smacked the guy in the ribs. He howled and doubled over, holding his injury. Not sure what to do when he turned around and yelled in her direction, she smacked him in the head. She winced twice. Once when she hit him, the second time when he smacked the ground. The only thing that brought comfort was the fact that he was moving, groaning, but not getting back up. Three more people turned and she almost dropped the pipe.
They were all large, muscled and scary to look at. One guy had brass knuckles, one had a pipe like what she held, and the last one had a large knife pointed at her. The fuck did I get myself into, she screamed in her head. She choked up on the pipe, spreading her legs, ready to smack whoever got too close. The one with the brass knuckles laughed, "I got this one, guys." He was larger than the other two. Becca squeezed the pipe in her hands. He took one, two, three and four steps towards her. Scarred out of her mind, she swung; he jumped back then lunged at her. Squealing, she tried to sidestep him but he caught her arm.
With some pure luck, she took the pipe in her free hand and smashed in down into the side of his head. He let out a yelp of pain before squeezing her arm hard enough she though he would shatter the bone. He started to stand up and Becca took the only opening she could see. She smacked the pipe against his chin. Now he howled. She almost felt smug. That was until the pipe was jerked away from her and new hands held both of her arms.
She twisted and jerked, trying to get free. She was panicking. She needed to think. Then the person who had first come at her looked up, blood spewing out of the corner of his mouth. He took a moment then spit. A tooth popped out, landing on the cement. That's what you get, asshole, was her last confident thought. Then he raised back his hand and Becca tensed. His fist smashed into her gut.
With as many times as she saw this in animes, you would think she would expect what happened. As pain erupted from her stomach, she became winded to the point of gagging. Her body jerked away from her capturer her mouth popping open and her eyes locking on the ground. She choked, gagged, and tried to breathe all at the same time. Then something crackled through the silence ringing around inside of her head. A roar.
Before the large man could hit her again, he was tackled to the ground. The person holding her dropped her to the unforgiving dirt. She sat, slumped, gasping as each breath pained her. She looked up. Mikey was driving his fist into the guy-who-had-punched-her-stomach's face. It was so quick that he got four solid punches in before the guy's friend tried to save him. Mikey whipped around to him when the guy ran at him with a knife exposed.
Becca felt slightly sick as Mikey grabbed the new challenger's wrist, bending it back until a pop-crack sound came and the man screamed. Mikey didn't stop there. He pulled up his leg close to his body and sent the guy flying with a snap kick. Mikey turned on her. For a moment, his eyes were dark. He scared her almost as badly as the other guy had. Then his face softened, twisting, looking like he was hurt as he walked to her slowly. "Becca," his voice was harsh, cracking. "Okay?" Becca looked at him, confused.
"Are you okay, Becca," he asked.
Oh, Oh! Now she got it. He bent down and… sniffed her? "Hurt?" He asked again. He didn't touch her. He sniffed her hair, then close to her next. "Becca," he growled. Her name, rumbled on his lips made her shiver. "I-I'm fine," she rushed. She had Goosebumps. His breath coated her neck. She kept a hold of her stomach, nervous and not sure what was going on. Mikey's eyes fixed on her hands.
Like a warm breeze, his hands ghosted over hers. "Not hurt?" He seemed confused. He was blinking a lot. "N-No," she smiled at him, his eyes finding hers. "You, you saved me," she gave him a bigger smile. Before she could blink, Mikey's lips were touching hers.
*)O(*
A/N: Seemed like the best place to stop ;)
