Sorry it's been so long people. College classes have really been busy for me.

Authors note: Still don't own them dammit… (Curls into a ball and cries on the floor).

Chapter 3

A Simple Christmas Wish is Sometimes All that's Needed

Leo's Pov

I've been sitting here in amazement, and horror just listening to her tale. How did we not notice it that day or notice it another day? I take a critical eye on Raph, and notice the scars where he must have been shot. The only give away is the fact that
/they don't look like Donnie has patched them.

I now notice that Don is giving the same look over on Raph as I was just doing. He looks upset, but I don't blame him. Patching everyone up has always been his thing, and to have someone else do it makes him feel a little useless. There are times he's
/too overprotective. April has been on the receiving end of his wrath a couple times when she tried to help out.

Donnie looks over at me with a worried face. I try and offer him a weaksmile. He really hates finding out about injuries later. I remember when I first got back, and he required me to have a full exam. That was a lovely 12-hour exam of every test

he could think of. I never want to leave again, for that long period of time again.

Back to Raph and the girl. I'm still amazed by her strength. Here he is falling asleep on her, and she's not even breaking a sweat. Most people would, just due to his sheer weight. We all know how heavy he is. What happens next shocks me even more. He
/just shifted his body enough to start sliding off her shoulder, and before we can even react she swings herself around to catch his head in her lap so he doesn't crack his head on the floor. She then gets them maneuvered enough so she can speak facing
/towards us.

She sighs, "When he finally gained consciousness he didn't seem scared of us. Mostly, he was just confused as to why we didn't give him to some scientist to dissect him. I remember Carol telling him that it would be hypocritical of her to sell off a fellow
/mutant."

I watch as her eyes become extremely saddened, "Many shelters don't allow mutants or people who believe in mutant rights to work or live there. Sadly there are more homeless mutants than ever before, thanks to groups like the Friends of Humanity. Angels
/Passage is one of five shelters in the state of New York and the only one in Manhattan that allows mutants.

Now she is shaking in rage, "Do you know what the average is for kids getting dumped on the streets, by their own families if they start showing signs of being a mutant? In America there is an average of 15 kids a week. 50% of those kids will die in some
/horrible manner in the first month. By the end of the year one of the 15 may still be alive.

I watch her shake her head, and tears drip down her face, "I've lived on and off the streets since I was 3 years old. I've seen those numbers with names, and faces. I've seen them dead behind a garbage bin due to starvation, and shot in the middle of
/the day, in the full view of a crowd because they were "freaks". I've seen them raped, and prostituted because who would miss them. If I hadn't been transferred here I may have fully given up on humanity."

"What changed your mind?" I jumped at my own voice, because I hadn't realized I had talked out loud.

She smiles, and now I see one of the reasons Raph fell for her. For someone littered with so many scars she is absolutely gorgeous. "You guys mostly, and thanks to Raph's encouragement to get off the street, I met Carol."

She gives me a humored smile, "You may think he's a "Dark Prince" but ask any homeless person and they will tell you he's a "guardian angel"."

She shakes her head again; "Let's get off these dark thoughts, and back to out tale, shall we."

Flashback Yami's POV

The week that he spent healing we became very close, and I couldn't deny that I was extremely attracted to him but who would be interested in a gawky girl, who knew nothing of her past or even really where she was from? I kept my growing attraction to
/him a secret, and the day he getting ready to leave I felt like I was dying inside until, "I dunno when I will be able to come back bu' I'd like ta come back, an' help out if I can. Ya know, as a way ta thank ya."

Carol walked up to him, and pulled him into a hug, "Sweetie you can come back anytime you want but you don't have to do it to just to thank us. All of us were more than glad to help you out, child. We help everyone or after awhile we'd only be helping
/ourselves."

He nodded and promised to be back.

A month and 3 days later he came back. After that he came almost every weekend to help out. He started off with just helping out with cooking, cleaning, and repairs but some of the kids started to beg him to teach them how to fight.

At first, he flat out refused, that was until he caught some of the kids trying to do kata stances out of a book, and they were doing more harm then good to their own bodies. That's when Saturday evening lessons began. He reminded them several times that
/he was not a master but he still wanted them to treat him with respect, and if he corrected their stance it was so they didn't hurt themselves in the long run.

The kids adored him, the adults loved him for the fact that the kids had a decent role model, and the elderly called him respectable and raised the right way. There was really only one troublemaker that tried to make his life a living hell, "Old Leroy".

That man was as mean as a starving cheetah, and he was the rudest person I have ever met. He constantly insulted Raph's looks, his teaching methods, and worst of all he mentioned, on a few occasions, that Raph and his family needed to be exterminated.

By the time he made that comment, where everyone heard it, Christmas was rolling around, and Raph had offered to play Santa for the kids. Actually more like begged by the teenagers to humor the kids. No one saw what happened come next.

Maya, who was a 5-year-old little girl with big green eye, dark skin, dark brown shoulder length cornrowed and beaded hair, and had unofficially declared herself Raph's daughter, heard the hateful comment that Leroy had made. Now even though she was the
/next in line to sit on Santa's lap, she stormed right out of line, and planted her fist in a sensitive spot, the only real place she could reach at her height. He landed to the floor with a thud, and then got the lecture of the century.

She started screaming; "You can't say that about my daddy!" If it wasn't for the seriousness in the room there would have been a big grin on everyone's face by the fact that the little orphan had decided he was her dad, and not her big brother.

Then she continued, "If you hurt him, and he goes away, I will hurt you. I love him, we all do. None of us want him leaving. I won't let you. You wont hurt him or Yami. Yami loves him more than anyone of us, and I'm gonna make sure he stays, even if you're
/a butthead."

"And how are you gonna do that, you little shit," he rasped out questioningly.

She put her hands on her hips and looked at him like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "Santa grants wishes, so all I'm asking for is for him to get daddy and Yami together, duh. If anyone could do it, it's him."

I don't think I have been ever more red in my life. I heard a few people chuckle. Over the last 2 months I was asked on many occasions why I wasn't just asking him out, and if I didn't do it soon they were gonna do it for me, but this was going too far.

I was about to say something but "Santa" got up, and walk over. He knelt down, and just looked at her, as if he was trying to find the right words to say to her.

Finally he said, "Ya know I bring presents, bu' I canna grant every wish."

In that moment my heart broke, and I just wanted to be swallowed up whole by the floor. Maya still had some fight left in her.

"Daddy loves Yami. I know I asked him, and he said he wouldn't ask her out because she won't go for a guy like him. I've heard others ask her why she hasn't asked him out and she says the same thing but about herself. You just gotta help them out, you
/just gotta. It's all I really want for Christmas, is for them to be happy. Please, Please?" Tears welled up in her eyes, and Old Leroy was about to make a comment but someone slapped their hand over his mouth, and drug him out of the room.

If I had been paying attention I would have noticed that everyone was slipping out of the room to give us a chance to talk. The only reason I didn't notice was because I was waiting for him to answer her.

He sighed, "Yar puttin' me in a tight spot, ya know. If dis doesn't work out den it's basically my fault."

She got a smug look on her face, "No you won't. Come on Santa take a chance, and get your Mrs. Claus." She leaned over and said, " Beard does nothing to hide your face, but I'll tell the other kids that Santa's a changeling." She ran out of the room before
/either of us could react.

He looked up at me, and then decided to look anywhere else. It was cute how embarrassed he was, and it actually helped ease my embarrassment. I walked over, and sat down in front of him, and he still refused to make eye contact, instead he preferred to
/look at his hands. I put a finger under his chin, and made him look at me.

"I…I….I…." I had never seen him so flustered before, and it was really adorable so I quickly leaned over, and kissed him.

Present time Leo's POV

I watched the dreamy look cross her face. I still couldn't believe all I was hearing. I felt a little at sea not really knowing my immediate younger brother as well as I thought I did. Why didn't he tell me I had a niece? I know she said the child was
/unofficially adopted, but it still counts in our family. Did he really think we would make him get rid of her? Then I thought about it. Yes I would have demanded that he cut her off from him. Things that happened in Peru changed me, even though I
/acted like an ass on the roof to get him to fight me, I have really changed. Maybe after this tale is over I can finally tell him why I failed. That it wasn't them I failed but really a small village down there. Cascada, why did I have to lose you
/and fail them?

"After that day, Wednesday nights became our official date night, even if it was really early Thursday mornings some weeks." She shook her head; "He was determined to spend as much time with me as possible. I guess he wanted to make sure he wasn't dreaming."
/She looked down, and caressed Raph's cheek lovingly, and again I watched in amazement. Raph is just so rough around the edges that I couldn't see anyone really falling for him. I now feltshamed for ever thinking that.

The girl looked up to say something, but then she whips her head to the left, and looks startled. We follow her gaze and find Casey, and April standing at the door looking a little guilty. I get up, and got over to greet them, and find out how much they
/heard.

Well this chappie is done hopefully I can keep going on this…. Unlike another fanfic that I am totally stuck on

Cascada will be explained; I think she is going to be fully explained in another fanfic when this one is done

Jin will be explained soon in the next 2 or 3 chapters my brain child really wants to be a really long fic