When she came out into the den, Raph had appeared in front of the punching dummy, hammering in his fists with practised ease. As a red head, she'd often been told she had a temper. That stereotype used to bug her until she met Raph; she'd never met anyone with a worse temper than him. It also occurred to her that, if the boys were actually human and could attend school, anyone dumb enough to give her grief about her hair colour would face the wrath of the hot headed reptile. For someone who claimed his family was a burden, he was very protective of them, and April felt slightly honoured when she realised he'd accepted her as family.
The girl walked closer, quietly as possible even though she knew he was completely aware she was there. He didn't seem angry at the moment, just focused on his training, so that was a helpful point. "Hey Raph?" He threw a particularly hard punch into the dummy's gut, before whipping around to see her.
"Yeah?," he asked, then yelped as she suddenly lunged at him, fingers bared like claws, but still effortlessly caught her when she flung her arms around him.
"Gotcha!," she laughed, rubbing their cheeks together and squeezing him. Raph looked extremely confused for a brief moment, then seemingly shrugged it off and retaliated by tickling her.
"Jeez, what's up with you?," the red turtle snorted, one arm firmly wrapped around her waist, but was no where near to hurting her. He knew how to control his incredible strength, demonstrated by how he was actually lifting her off the ground with one arm. To him, she probably weighed little more than a feather, so she fondly dubbed Raphael's embrace as the 'Strong Brother Hug'. They half wrestled, half tickled each other – she happened to know for a fact that Raphael's neck was very ticklish – until he set her feet back on the ground. April grabbed one of the tattered ends of his bandanna, tugging his head forward to gently bump and rub their noses together in an Eskimo kiss, both grinning and laughing.
"Gah, you're a pain in the neck, but I just wanted to tell you that I love ya, Muscle-head!," the red head snerked. His expression dropped in surprise, blinking those Peridot eyes for a few moments.
"Well... thanks, I guess..." When they separated, his gaze snapped down to the ground and he stood there, shuffling awkwardly, before clearing his throat. "Love you too...," he muttered under his breath, barely audible. She gave him one last smile, before turning and leaving him to his own business, heading into Donnie's lab.
… Okay, I'm going to be honest, this is a guilty ship of mine. Yes, I do actually ship straight pairings occasionally; in truth, I ship a pair that compliment each other nicely. Raph's temper could be easily cooled by April's softer side, or countered by her equally hot temper. She takes crap from no one. I do like the Donnie/April/Casey love triangle, but it gets a bit boring at times. Donnie and Casey's dick fighting competitions just make me want to throw my hands in the air and shout, "Just propose already!". Plus, 2k12 Casey Jones reminds me too much of multiple dickheads I've met in the past who are completely convinced that they are God's gift to women, while Donnie's near-obsession with April is as annoying as it is creepy at times. Not all the time, though. I love both characters to bits, but they aren't nearly as sweet as the 2k3 versions (c'mon, Casey made her breakfast in bed and babied Donnie when he was sick). A point of the Bay movie coming out this summer that I'm looking forward to is the Raph/April moments that seem to crop up quite a bit in the trailers, but there probably won't be much development there. It's Michael Bay, after all.
Hail to the princess, baby!