Love Letter

Rachel stared as Raphael and Leonardo were sparing. Every clang of the wooden swords were like thumps on a drum. Every soft land and swish of the wind speed was like music. Unheard unless one closed their eyes and really, really focused…However, she wasn't just paying attention to the music they set, she was watching the red and the green blur. The graceful movement of Leo and the harsh jabs from Raphael…Raph was mainly her eye candy while Leo was merely observed.

He said he had a crush on her. She rested her head against the door pane. He said he didn't mind if it was one-sided, but every time she thought about those words, her breaking heart cracked another piece. She had fallen in love before. She knew the feelings were familiar. She didn't want these feelings, she never asked for them…but the proof was right before her. She was undoubtedly in love with him.

The problem was, he couldn't know that now could he? She sighed as her hip joined, resting another part of her. As she watched him spar, she wondered how she could just fall. She wondered if it was a crime to do so. "What do I do?" She murmured, "He doesn't have any problem saying what he wants, but me? I do."

"Ah!" Rachel spun around, clutching her chest. Her brown eyes were wide with surprise. "Don't do that." She begged. "Raph does it to me on a daily bases and I still can't get over it." She shook her head. "You don't have to be jealous. You and Leo-" Were made for each other? Then, that wouldn't explain the man in her vision, "Are a good couple. A great couple…" She finished off lamely. "I'm...we...I don't know."

"Mm…Well, Rae, I have a suggestion," Bria grinned happily.

"What is it?" Rae asked, wondering what her best friend had up her sleeve.

"You keep blabbering on about how you can't tell Raphael outright about your feelings for him, yes?" Bria smirked.

"Oh my dear sister," Bria wrapped her arm around Rae's shoulders and whispered in her ear, "How about you write him a letter instead?"

"A letter?" Rachel murmured back and she bowed her head. As her eyes stared at the floor her mind whirled. It couldn't hurt and writing was more her style. Words out of the mouth never came right to her. It always came out so wrong, so out of place. "I can do that." She said. A love letter, it was going to be interesting. She never had to write one before.

Bria smiled, "Good luck, Rae," she said hugging her and hurried back to Mikey who was calling for her help again.

Rachel bit her lip as she thought about the letter. She pushed away from the door and walked up the stairs, thinking about all the words she could say. What could she say? I love you...it was a strong phrase. Too strong for her to use it. It was too much. I have a crush on you? That was probably the safest way to put it. She reached her room and closed the door. She thought about locking it, but decided not to.

She grabbed her blue covered notebook that was lying on the ground and brought it over to her empty desk. She took her pencil and clicked the top a few times. She wrote the typical two words on the top of the page and stared at the blue lines, commanding her to continue to write.

But no words were coming forth. She looked out the window, trying to think. What could she say? What was there to say? A letter…who knew if he was even going to read it or not? What if he thought that it was an apology letter? She turned back to the page and stared at it. Soon her pencil started to write across the page, rambling her thoughts...as if she was writing in a diary.

'That's not good enough. It's a damn love letter!' She thought with a growl, 'I have to write something that's about love. That conveys that feeling.' She twirled her pencil around in a circle, staring at the next blank page. Okay, not a diary. No ramblings. Careful words. Careful, considerate words.

She closed her eyes and began to write again, this time using a thesaurus and a dictionary to help her pick the right words to use. She carefully chose each word with consideration and it only went half of the page. She re-read the page and wanted to scream. It didn't sound like a love letter but a goddamn report. 'This is killing me!' She tore that page out and instead of crumbling it, she tossed it to the side, not caring where it landed. 'How can this be so hard?!'

She leaned against her chair and closed her eyes as she thought about her words. How could this be so hard? Was it because she kept writing his name? Every time she wrote it, she spelled it out. Rachel didn't use the shortened version of his name. Every letter was carefully curled and curved. Every part of it was unique to the letter, for that's what he was. Unique. She looked at the notebook. So the letter had to be unique too. She bit her lip as she stood up and decided to take a break. This was too hard. She needed an idea. Something that might help her write something like this. It had to be a good idea. No, it had to be a great idea.

She tossed herself out of the chair and grabbed the notebook. Maybe isolation wasn't helping. Maybe she needed company to help her. They didn't have to give her ideas, but they could be subjects to the words she wanted to find. She walked down the stairs and sat down on the couch.

"Come ON, Donny! Please?!" Lily was begging as she struggled with the purple banded turtle who had his Bo sideways on the other side of the door holding on for dear life as Lily tried to pull him away from the lab.

He closed his eyes and gently let go of his Bo. Her sweet, amazing, adorable pleading voice was too much, "Alright already," Donatello said with a exasperated laugh, "Alright, I'll play."

"Sweet!" Mikey said happily, "Raph nor Leo wanted to play! Don't worry, I'll teach you all of the buttons and what they do."

"I'll play, too!" Lily bounced hyper-ly.

"Me too!" Bria called as she came from the kitchen with a case of water bottles. She was sure this was going to take a while and lots of hydration.

"That's four players!" Mikey said excitedly as he tossed Lily a controller and handing Bria the other when she placed the water bottles on the coffee table.

Rachel watched them set up the game and Mikey was telling Donny how to do the controls. Even as he tried to explain the purple-bandana turtle was the first to get killed off. Mikey, Bria, and Lily laughed at him while trying to kill each other off.

"Awwwwww!" Brianna and Lily pouted. They had just killed each other with one shot each, not a touch at Mikey.

"New game!" Bria challenged Michelangelo.

"Fine, fine," Mikey said with a laugh as he clicked replay. This time Donny managed to stay in the game longer, but was still the first one slaughtered. Rachel watched them play; her mind stopped focusing on the letter as she cheered them on instead.

Raphael and Leo were watching from the background, fully aware of who was watching who. He tapped Leonardo's shoulder, "Hey, I got an idea. It might make the girls mad at us for a couple minutes, but it'll be fun I think."

"What do you have in mind?" Leo asked as he glanced over at Rae and Bria. Bria was bouncing up and down trying to attack Lily and Mikey. Rae was holding a notebook in her lap, but was cheering anyway. He wondered why she brought it down. She never wrote anything within their presence.

All Raph did was motion his finger in the signal Leo was to follow his lead. Slowly and ever so carefully, he used his ninja skills to stay out of Rachel's sight, and get right up behind her, since she had set the notebook down and was standing beside Michelangelo giving him ideas.

Leo went over to Bria and stayed behind her and away from reflections. However, when she moved, he had to jump to keep away from her sight and to keep his reflection away from her line of view. Right when Mikey made of the characters shoot a gun, the sound blasted through the speakers and both him and Raph attacked their girls.

Screams echoed around the lair from all four players, the game was accidentally unplugged as they all toppled over, and Brianna laid where she had landed, patting at her chest making sure she wasn't injured from a real shot and to check if her heart didn't stop beating from the shock, "Holy fucking shit……" she breathed.

Bria finally caught her breath and rolled over, glaring death at Leo. She went to hit him with the control which magically stayed in her hand, but decided against it. Instead she grabbed a pillow from the couch and beat him with it, "You sneaky little martial artist trickster with too much freakin' sense not to scare the fuckin crap outa me!!"

Leo ducked as he laughed. "Sorry," He said with a laugh, "It was Raph's idea."

Bria turned to Raph who was trying not to get killed by Rachel as the two ran around the room, Rae with her own pillow, but it wasn't one of the squishy ones, "Oh wow...I think he's good to go on beatings," she turned back to him and hit him over the head, "Baka!" she pouted, "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

Leo shrugged, "That was the point." He pointed out to her with a smile as he watched his brother get whacked a few times with Rae's pillow. Her smile never left her as she finally stopped and tossed the pillow away and started chasing him again. She jumped, grabbed him, and both tumbled to the ground. He laughed before turning back to Bria. "If it wasn't the point, then you wouldn't be in this position. It was just for fun."

Bria jumped him and hit him playfully this time, hiding a kiss on his cheek with it, and smothered him with the pillow for a second or two to get off and declared, "I WILL get you back, Lionheart!"

Leo laughed and shook his head. "If you can," He said as he looked over to see Rae run off with the notebook in her hands. He heard a door slam and he blinked. "I wonder if Raph over-stepped a line." He turned to Bria, "I'm glad I didn't."

Bria blushed and shrugged, giggling before she started to help Lily and Don pick up everything while Mikey was working on re-connecting, "You, mister, help too, since you caused this mess," she said after seeing Leonardo trying to sneak off.

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Rachel sat down in front of the desk and tossed the notebook on to it. She had an idea. It was a great idea. It didn't take her long to figure out an idea either. It was just....unique and intriguing. She could do this. She knew she could.

She brought her pencil up and positioned on the paper. Letters were never her strong suit, but poetry and writing...that was. And since she chased after Raph it was only fair to have him chase her. With gentle cursive writing, she wrote her couplet and smiled faintly as she folded it up. She reached into her desk and pulled out a black rubber band and tied it, "Now, how to give it to him?" She murmured as she tapped the paper to her lips. "Three times…" She said. "Three riddles. When he finds me…the game begins! That's it!" She happily ran out of the bedroom to find him.

Raphael was watched from a place that Michelangelo could keep an eye on him and Lily as they played, the orange-banded turtle not wanting any more tumble-over's. He tilted his head when Rae came into the reflection on the screen, and turned around to face her, wincing, "You gonna beat me up again?"

She blinked a few times. "No…" She said slowly as she watched him for a few minutes, "I was going to ask you if you wanted to play a game with me."

Mikey snickered, "Not a game I bet."

"You shut up," Rachel replied, not even looking at him but staring at Raph, "You in?" She asked getting back on track.

Raphael narrowed his eyes and put a hand on his hip, watching her, contemplating, and then a sly smile pulled at his lips as he felt something breeze on through him which he always took as a good sign, "Alright," he agreed, not noticing the small rumble he gave and that the fact his voice went a tone lower, "I'll play whatever game you please."

Her cheeks blushed a furious red. She handed it to him. "Three tries and three riddles." She told him with a smile. "I'll leave a few fake ones to get off of your path. Don't worry." She joked with a smile. "I'm not going to make this...difficult. You have to find me by tonight." She told him with a smirk. "And the riddles will guide you. If you win, you might get something."

"Something?" Mikey glanced over his shoulder. "Is this a free for all game?"

"Sorry Mikey, it's two players."

"Damn." Mikey laughed. "Have fun Raph."

Raph took the paper and frowned a bit, but shrugged, "Sure…any rules I should know about?" he glanced at her.

"What would that be?" Raphael inquired smirking again.

"If you lose you're never going to get another chance."