A/N: This chapter has absolutely nothing to do with the actual plot of the fic. Shke Behet made a comment to me about the difference between the couples and this is a direct result of that comment.
A/N: As always thank you to everyone that has read, favorited, and altered this fic. Special thanks go out to whitefire33, whose awesome reviews made the dream of fifty reviews come true for Run That By Me Again. Thanks go out to Avolla Yoshi, redxcanary, Wonderwomanbatmanfan for reviewing the last chapter. You guys are awesome. Happy Halloween!
The Bet…
"What do you mean you're the sexier couple?" The girls were sitting on the couch in their apartment spending a night without the turtles and passing Piper's laptop back and forth. Li nodded and took a sip of her drink.
"Raph and I are a sexier couple than you and Leo."
"Oh no way! Da Vinci and me could out sex the two of you any day of the week."
"No you couldn't. The two of you just aren't as interesting as us. You're kind of the boring old married couple that's just around for comparison."
"We are not! I've got more interesting in my little finger than most people have in their entire families."
"That doesn't mean you and Leo are a sexier couple." Piper tried to think of a way to prove Li wrong, but couldn't. Her and Raph were pretty darn sexy.
"Maybe, but that's all you've got. When was the last time you hung out and it didn't end in sex? When was the last sweet couple moment you had? I've got so many freaking sweet couple moments with Da Vinci I can't count them all." Now, it was Li's turn to think. Her and Raph's everything seemed to end in sex. They really didn't have any couple moments.
"Damn."
"Ha! See I was right."
"That doesn't make you and Leo sexy."
"And you and Raph aren't sweet."
"We could be if we wanted to."
"No. I don't think so. Now, me and Leo we can be both, we have that ability."
"I bet I can be sweeter with Raph, than you can be sexy with Leo!"
"You're on!"
"Loser has to take the other's shifts for a week."
"Deal." They shook hands.
"We'll compare stories at the end of the week." It was set they had one week to prove the other one wrong, honor and free time was on the line.
The next day arrived and so did the start of the bet. It was held off until the next morning to make book keeping easier and because the girls had promised never to let boys stand in the way of fanfiction writing.
They sat at the breakfast table, eating cereal and drinking coffee, each planning their attack strategy. Piper was pretty sure being naked and walking around without a bra would be her first wave of attack, but she would need more if she was going to prove how truly sexy her and Leo were. Li was having a tougher time trying to figure out how to make Raph sweet. He was already sweet just not in the obvious way Piper was talking about, but he was always there for her, comforting her when she had nightmares of things she would rather forget, keeping the monsters away and dammit she was going to prove that they were a sweet couple! She hadn't noticed she had slammed her coffee down until the warm liquid hit her hand. Piper gave her a look.
"Already frustrated about the bet? Is it because you know you can't win." Li gave her her best evil eye.
"You will eat those words, because I will beat you and you'll be stuck opening and closing the shop, while Raph and I are off being the best couple."
"Color me scared." Both girls finished their breakfast in silence before getting ready for battle. It was to be war between them.
Piper already had her outfit picked out; blue jacket, jean skirt, low cut white top, black boots and blue knickers. Yes, this would be her Leo outfit and the title of best couple would be hers! She tried cackling manically, but ended up coughing. Well, time to put Phase A into action.
Li was trying to find something that wasn't slutty in her wardrobe. The less skin the less likely Raph was to jump her. What would a boring sweet girl wear? A sweater vest! She didn't own a sweater vest.
"Darn." She settled on her favorite green top and jeans. Now she needed to figure out some sort of couple thing to do. Maybe a picnic? A romantic stroll in the park? A good roll in the hay? No! Why did her mind always go back to that? She was never going to win if she kept thinking about sex.
Raph was in the garage working on the shell cycle when she came to the lair, a twangy old country song was playing in the background. She was about to lean against the wall and strike a pose but stopped herself. She was going to be sweet, not sexy today.
"Hey toots." He looked up from the bike and gave her a lazy grin. He beckoned her over with his hand and wrapped his arms around her when she was close enough. "You smell good."
"New soap." He buried his head in her neck.
"It's good." She pried herself away from his and eyed the shell cycle. Working on his bike together could be sweet.
"What are you tweaking?" He wrapped his arms around her from behind.
"Just changing the oil and checking some tings."
"Show me." He grinned and started leading her through the repairs on his bike. She'd ask him questions she already knew the answer to and he would proudly explain why the shell cycle was better than any other bike on the street.
-/-
Piper was waiting outside the dojo, adjusting her skirt. Leo was training with Master Splinter and she wasn't going to interrupt them, even if she did want to win the bet. Breaking up a training session wasn't sexy it was rude. Still…
"How long do you think he'll be in there?" Her question was directed to either of the two remaining turtles. Donny looked up from the circuit broad he was fixing.
"Depends." Piper slumped and sat down next to Mikey, who had his comic books scattered around him. She started helping him organize them while waiting for Leo.
-/-
Li looked around for her underwear. Raph was staring at her ass and she was trying to figure out when she went wrong. They were having a good time just being a sweet couple, and emotionally bonding over motorcycles and the next thing she knew she was on her back and Raph was ripping off her clothes like cheap wrapping paper. This wasn't what she had in mind for the day, although she didn't seem to be able to keep the grin off her face.
"Try behind the work bench." There they were.
"How did they get all the way over here?" Raph wore a proud smirk on his face.
"I'm dat good." Crap, that look made her want to drop her panties and jump him again. This was going to be harder than she thought.
-/-
Piper was still waiting. It was going on hour two and she was still waiting for Leo to finish training. She was trying to figure out how to prove they were a sexy couple when half of her couple was missing.
"Damn." This was going to be harder than she thought.
-/-
Li was once again trying to find her clothes. This time she was looking for her shirt. How did this keep happening? She had to take the bull by the horns, the turtle by the shell, and force some sweet couple moments down Raph's throat, and this time she would do it without losing any of her clothes.
"What do you say to a movie tonight?" A movie was almost a somewhat sweet date idea right?
"Sure." He shrugged and handed her her shirt but not before giving her one more knee buckling kiss. He went back to working on his bike pointing out the various modifications he and Donny had made. She happily watched the obvious pride on his face as he told her about the first time he'd seen a motorcycle on TV and didn't know what it was, but knew that one day he'd have one.
Piper was working on a sexy playlist that would just be happening to be playing when Leo walked in on her changing in his room, with her lacy blue bra on. Yes, it would be sexy. The problem was that Leo was still training. This wouldn't do at all, at this rate Li was going to win the bet. She bet that if she had ended up with Donny she would have already won. But that was beside the point. She had a wager to win, and based on the laughter coming from the garage she needed to bust out the big guns.
"Tell Leo I was looking for him." She had to go shopping.
-/-
Li was looking through her movies, she had kicked Piper out of the apartment for the night. Raph was coming over soon and she had yet to pick a movie, or for that matter how for movie night not to end up a sex night. She had initially thought about going to a movie theater, but crossed that out. Movie theaters were expensive and public, even if they did decrease the risk of sex. She could do this! She just needed to pick out the unsexiest movie of all time, something that would keep Raph entertained without giving him any ideas. She had also planned a romantic candle light dinner for two. Unfortunately she couldn't cook, but Mikey could and right now he was in her kitchen making her dinner. She was going to feel bad when she told him that he didn't get to eat any of it, but she'd just have to buy him a comic book to make up for it.
"Here, you go dudette, white chocolate soufflé, garlic bread, pasta, and my special apple sauce salad."
"That's great Mikey, but now I need you to leave Raph is coming over." She attempted to push Mikey out of her apartment and failed.
"But I cooked."
"I know Mikey I'm sorry, but I'm trying to have a date with Raph, so that I can beat Piper and its cheating if you're here."
"Huh?"
"Ask Piper, it's her fault. Now I'm sorry but please leave."
Piper sat defeated with her Victoria Secret bag lying next to her. Leo was now busy meditating and attempting to reach a higher plain of existence. And she was sitting in his room, reading a depressing book in slutty blue lingerie. She consoled herself with the fact that Li was doing no better than herself. She had seen the unkempt state of Li's hair and knew it meant only one thing, sex and lots of it.
"But at least she's spending time with her turtle." She might as well put her clothes back on and go play video games with Mikey.
"Who?" She looked up from her book and launched herself at the speaker.
"Da Vinci!" Finally!
"Hello to you too." He hugged her back, before noticing what she was wearing, which wasn't much of anything at all. "What are you wearing?"
"Do you like it? I have been waiting for you all day!" She grinned up at him, and he grinned down at her, before depositing her on his bed.
"That outfit would look better on the floor." Score one for her she thought.
*~*~*/-
Raph was telling her about the time he, his brothers, and some girl named Renet ended up in the Jurassic period.
"And Don caused an entire stampede of dinosaurs with a sneeze." She laughed as he explained dino surfing to her.
"Den Mikey found dis dinosaur and named him Zog." He then told her who Zog was and everything they'd been through with the fugitiod. When Mikey had told her about all of this he had made himself out to be the hero, Raph's stories seemed more likely, but she guessed he was exaggerating at some points.
"You used spoons instead of sais?"
"Had to." She laughed again and told him some of her more interesting high school stories. He took a sip of his drink and his eyes took on that familiar glint that made her weak in the knees. He was leaning in, and she was about to follow his example when an image of Piper gloating popped in her head. That successfully broke the mood. She jumped away from his as if she'd been burned.
"Babe?"
"No! No." She calmed down a little. "We have to have a date that doesn't end in sex, cuddling, watching wrestling, beating someone up anything but sex!" Raph was officially confused.
"Why?"
"Because…" She trailed off trying to think of something. "I can't tell you!" She and Piper had agreed to keep the bet strictly between the two of them, and right now she was really wishing she hadn't agreed to that. Right now she was wishing she never made the stupid bet so she could jump back into Raph's arms and spend the night like that.
"Argh!" Raph held his hands up.
"Okay toots I won't make you do anything I know you love doing." He gave her a cheeky grin and she didn't know if that counted as sweet or not. She decided it didn't.
~*~*~*~/-
Piper was mentally preparing her victory dance as she laid against Leo. Yup, she was so going to win this bet. She wondered if she should get herself a plaque. World's best couple. Yeah, it would be awesome. Leo was lazily tracing circles around her stomach.
"I love you." Crap, he was about to get sweet on her. She had nip this in the bud. She turned around and gave him the sexiest kiss she could muster, hoping it would distract him from any type of romantic speech. It didn't.
"I mean it I think you're the best thing that's ever happened to me." Aw, she wanted to melt right then. No, she needed to be strong and not let him be romantic and sweet, despite the affection filled look he was giving her. Okay, she relented she at least had to tell him how important he was to her too.
"I love you too." She had to bite her tongue to keep from going on. She wanted to tell him how much he meant to her, but she wanted to win too. She tried telling herself that after she won the bet she'd write him a love haiku to make up for it. But for right now she needed to stop the speech about love she knew was brewing in Leo.
"I didn't think I could ever be as happy as I am with you." This was bad. No it was incredibly sweet and heart wrenching, but it was bad because despite how long they'd been dating Piper still didn't know how to stop a speech from Leo.
"I love you." She wanted to scream, but hold him and never let go at the same time. She settled on a confused mix of both. She latched on to him and gave him a soft kiss and stared deeply into his eyes.
"Dammit Da Vinci are you ever not sweet, because I'm going to lose at this rate." She actually needed an answer; she really wanted to get a week off from work. "I mean is sex too much to ask for? It's not like I don't love you with all my heart, but dammit I need you to sex me up right now and be sexy, but you're being sweet and romantic instead!" By this part of her speech was sitting up in the bed gesturing wildly. Leo was just plain confused.
"I'm sorry?" Piper sighed and laid against him. She kissed him, silently apologizing for her behavior. The kiss deepened and Piper wondered if sweet apologetic make up sex counted as being sexy. She decided it didn't.
~-/
Li possibly had the worst night of her life. She felt incredibly guilty after snapping at Raph, and all she wanted to do was wrap her body around his and make it up to him the best way she knew. Instead he watched Sports Center and she did a Sudoku. She decided the night was neither sweet nor sexy, just kind of lame. After Raph left, she couldn't get to sleep and it took all her will power to stay away from the lair, and Raph's room. And to top it all off she felt like a bitch.
"This sucks." She was starting to think a week of no work wasn't worth hurting Raph's feelings. No, definitely not. Nothing was worth more than Raph and she wasn't being fair to him. She needed to find him and apologize. She got up off the couch, intent on finding her boyfriend when the mess in the kitchen stopped her. She needed to apologize to Raph, but first she needed to do the dishes.
/
Piper felt like a Grade-A bitch. Leo poured his heart out to her and she complained about not having enough sex. They had plenty of sex! Everything was perfect until she made that stupid bet with Li. She needed to apologize to Leo and explain what was going on. She didn't care if she had to work double shifts all week. Hurting Leo was not worth it.
"To hell with it." She needed to find her boyfriend and apologize. She walked out of Leo's room. He was already up and training, but before he left, he woke her up with a gentle kiss and told her he was sorry for whatever it was he had done. She never felt worse than she did at that moment. She was going explain everything and tell him she loved him. She headed to the dojo, but stopped when she saw Mikey in front of her holding a plate of waffles. Okay she would apologize after breakfast.
She sat down at the kitchen table and Mikey piled the waffles on her plate, and handed her the syrup.
"Thanks." He was giving her a look. She cocked an eyebrow and stared at him. "Yeah?" Mikey took full advantage of the invitation.
"What's going on with you and Li? She was acting bonkers last night and kicked me out after I made her dinner." Piper dug into her waffles and decided that since she was officially going to surrender there was no point in keeping the bet a secret anymore.
"Li and I made a stupid bet. I bet her she and Raph couldn't be sweet and she bet me that me and Da Vinci couldn't be sexy."
"Huh?"
"She made a comment about being a sexier couple and then I made a comment about me and Leo being the sweetest and now we're battling over who's the better couple. Except I hurt Leo's feelings so I'm going to surrender and apologize and call the bet off." She slumped in her chair feeling sorry for herself. "I'm a bad person." Mikey was going to comfort her and tell she wasn't, but Master Splinter was calling him to the dojo and if he didn't hurry he was going to have to do flips. He settled for patting her on the head and pouring her some orange juice before leaving.
…/...
Training had just ended and the turtles were in the process of returning the dojo to its original state, while Master Splinter meditated in his room. Raph was returning the weapons to their place when Leo crept up behind him. The two brothers had a deal that if one of them had a problem with his girlfriend the other one would try to help. It almost worked. Almost.
"Say Raph…" Leo looked around to make sure his other brothers weren't listening. "Has Li been acting weird? I think I did something to make Piper mad, but I don't know what, and I was hoping it's just a girl thing, not an I- did- something- really- bad- thing."
"Li was acting screw loose last night. I thought she was just drunk." Except last night wasn't typical drunk Li behavior and they hadn't been drinking.
"That's cause they made a bet!" Michelangelo. Leo was disappointed with himself for not hearing his brother approach. He must have been listening the whole time. He really should be more aware, especially when it came to Mikey.
"What bet?" Typical Raph wasn't worried about his failed ninja test he was only worried about a bet. Wait…
"Bet?" Mikey nodded happily.
"Li and Piper made a bet over who's the better couple. Li was supposed to be sweet and Piper was supposed to be sexy." Mikey seemed too happy about this Raph decided.
"What?"
"They're trying to prove which couple is best." Raph scoffed.
"Dat's easy. It's me and Li." This irked Leo.
"What do you mean you're the better couple? Piper and I are perfect."
"Da two of yah aren't even interestin'."
"We are so!"
"Don't fool yahself bro. Piper and yah are da safe couple Li's right yah ain't sexy."
"And you and Li aren't even a real couple you just have sex."
"We do couple stuff."
"Like what?" Raph paused for a moment.
"Like tonight! I'm takin' Li on da most romantic date of her life."
"Really?"
"Yeah! And you'll see Li and I are da better couple!"
"Not likely bro."
"I bet we are!"
"You're on!"
"Loser has to do the other's chores for a week."
"Deal." Leo left the dojo and found Piper and grabbed her by the waist.
"Da Vinci! Look I need to talk to you. I'm sorry about last night Li and I made a stupid bet and—"
"I know." He cut her off.
"Huh?"
"I know. Now come on we have something to prove." He picked her up and tossed her over his shell before disappearing into his room and locking the door.
~/~
Li hadn't made it to the lair yet, after cleaning the kitchen she decided that the rest of the apartment was dirty and needed to be cleaned. Then she found out she had no pledge and needed to go to the store to get some, but she couldn't just buy pledge so she had to shop around the store till she found something else she wanted. By then it was noon and she was hungry, so she had to stop and get a sandwich, but the line was too long, so she had to find another place to eat. After she ate she realized she didn't have any paper towels and didn't want to take April's so she had to go back to the store. By then it was 3:00 and she still hadn't apologized to Raph. She just kept coming up with reasons why she couldn't see him yet. Unfortunately Raph decided he was going to come see her instead.
"Hey." She meeped and spun around, not really relaxing when she saw him.
"Hi." He got right down to business.
"Are you busy tonight?"
"Um no?"
"Good Casey got me dese wrestling tickets do yah want to come with me?" She relaxed slightly.
"Sure." It was the least she could do, and wrestling really wasn't that bad.
"Good I'll see you at eight." He turned around and started leaving.
"Wait!" He stopped. "You're just leaving?" He shrugged. "…I'm sorry about last night." He shrugged again.
"Babe it takes more den dat to freak me out. I'll pick you up in a few hours." He left without a further comment and Li didn't exactly feel relieved by his dismissal of last night's events. Still she supposed maybe it really hadn't bothered him.
8:00 that night…
Li tugged a tee shirt over her head. She didn't want to wear anything too nice, because she was sure beer and other concessions would be spilled on her by the end of the night. She tried to get herself pumped for seeing a wrestling match. A completely fake wrestling match. Why would a ninja like a fake sport? Oh well, she had to make up for last night and if wrestling was the way to do it then so be it. She slipped her shoes on and waited.
"Ready?" She smiled when Raph walked through her door wearing his motorcycle jacket. Good they were taking the shell cycle the night wouldn't be all bad.
"Yup."
"Bring a coat. It's gonna get cold."
"At a wrestling match?" He just grinned at her and handed her her black hoodie. She took it from him and climbed on the back of the bike and wrapped her arms around Raph holding on tighter than necessary.
"Ready?"
"Always." He sped off into the night and Li let herself relax against him, feeling completely at ease with Raph behind the wheel.
She hadn't been paying attention and so she was confused when he pulled into Central Park and not some sports arena.
"Raph?"
"C'mon toots. We gotta get a good seat." They were at an outdoor concert hall in Central Park. He led her to the top of the hill, behind the crowd of people.
"We're not here to see a wrestling match." She sat down next to him, but her attention was on the stage as soon as she heard instruments tuning.
"You took me to see a concert?" Not, just any concert a classical concert with a real orchestra.
"Yah said yah played the violin, thought yah might like dis. We can leave if you want."
"No. No this is perfect. Thank you." She leaned against him and listened to the orchestra play Holst's The Planets.
Donny and Mikey were huddled in Donny's lab turning the volume on his computer all the way up trying to drown out the noise that was coming from Leo's room. It was doing no good they decided to give up and spend the night with April.
/
"That was wonderful thank you." Raph helped Li off the grass as the people started leaving after the concert. They had played all her favorites. Raph had asked her which ones she knew and she ended up telling him all about the pieces she knew, which led into a discussion about orchestra, which led to a discussion about orchestra camp. Raph didn't believe it existed. She told him people didn't believe he existed.
"No problem babe." She wrapped her arms around him.
"No, really thank you." He smiled down at her, taking in the small joy of having her in his arms.
"Night's not over yet toots." She looked up at him curious, he simply grinned and led her back to the shell cycle.
"Where are we going?"
"Can't tell yah." He handed her her helmet and sped off once more into the night. She clung to him again, curiosity eating her alive. He pulled into an ally and parked the bike.
"Stay here. I'll be quick." She nodded and examined the ally it looked familiar. She could smell water in the air and tried figuring out where they were. Raph returned quickly as promised holding a bag. He put it down and led Li over to the fire escape helping her to the first level before grabbing the bag and joining her. She grinned as she walked up the fire escape, so that's where they were. Her grin grew larger when she saw the bay. Raph had taken her to their roof. She sat down near the edge of the building she wasn't worried about heights when Raph was with her. He would never let anything happen to her.
It was a clear night, but he was right, there was definitely a chill in the air and Li was glad Raph told her to bring a jacket. He handed her a carton of Chinese food and chop sticks.
"What no romantic candle light and cheesy French food?" He ignored her joke.
"I was gonna make Mike cook, but he said he wasn't cooking nothing no more that he didn't get ta eat." Li laughed and dug into her food.
"I like Chinese." The watched the cars drive by on the Brooklyn Bridge. Raph hummed the old country song that was playing on the radio the other day while she watched a freighter and ate her rice. She leaned into him and he responded by putting his food down and wrapping his arms around her.
"Yah know I neveh got da chance ta tell yah when you were awake, but I though yah should know I love yah." He smiled at her, a kind gentle smile, that she rarely seen him wear. She smiled back and kissed him.
"I love you too."
"I know." She cocked an eyebrow. "Yah told me once when yah were half asleep." She laughed of course she would tell Raph she loved him when she was asleep and of course he wouldn't tell her he loved her until she wasn't awake. That was how they worked. She and Raph might not win the contest for the most sugar coated couple, but he was always there for her and he loved her. And in the end that was the only thing that really mattered.
/
A week later saw the girls sitting at their kitchen table drinking coffee. The next day they had told each other that they wanted to call off the bet, and they were going to but then Raph and Leo decided to keep it going. So while Li and Piper no longer cared about who was the better couple their turtles wouldn't quit. Piper couldn't walk in a straight line and hadn't been seen for most of the week. The apartment was filled will flowers and chocolates Raph had given her. She was going to give half of them to Mikey when she got the chance.
"Let's never bet about anything ever again." Li nodded and pushed a large stuffed animal holding a heart off the couch.
"Amen." Piper got up and stretched, trying not to wince.
"I have to go to work."
"I'll come I wanted to talk to April about the colors for the nursery." They walked up the stairs and saw Raph and Leo talking to April. They couldn't hear the conversation, but based by the look on April's face neither was sure they wanted to know. April saw them and broke apart from the turtles.
"Oh you're here! Thank goodness." She hugged both girls and whispered in their ears. "I will get you back for this." Li shot Piper a confused glance and she just shrugged as bewildered as she was. Raph came up and pulled Li away from April smiling proudly.
"Fearless and I were just tellin' Ape about dis week. She's gonna decide who won." Oh that's why April was going to kill them. Li couldn't say she blamed her, listening to Leo talk about sex and Raph talk about romantic dates would be enough to drive anyone to murder.
"Really?" Li tried mouthing an apology to April and received a death glare in return. Just then Casey came into the store holding a bouquet of flowers. He gave them to April.
"Hey I got these for you." No because he just got her flowers. April smiled and kissed him before leading him upstairs and telling the girls to not to bother with the store, she'd be busy all day. Everyone stared at their retreating forms.
"Huh?"
"Guess April and Casey win the title of best couple."
"Yeah."
"Wanna go to the mall?"
"Yeah." Piper and Li left their still stunned boyfriends on the floor of an antique shop and went to the mall. Best couple contests were over rated anyway, days at the mall never were.