Acceptable Risk

Paper Wishes

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, neither characters nor anything pertaining to the franchise. I do own a cat though, so I have that going for me which is nice.

Author's Note: So I've decided to write some shorts (some might not be so short some might be rally short) from the perspective of April/Raph. Originally for the 2012 series Raph was supposed to be in love with April, not Donnie. Since the series presents him as a guy who can't really be honest with his feelings I figured that Raph would be the ultimate tsundere type guy.

Also I'm on tumblr starsiasestra#tumblr#com (#=.). Come follow me if you like. I'm a big turtles fan and sometimes post extra stuff there

Takes place after Mutation Situation. Sometimes sorry isn't enough. Sometimes time doesn't heal all wounds and all you can do is wait and hope that everything will be okay. Raph tries to deal with April leaving in a productive way and surprise it doesn't involve hitting people.

When they were kids Master Splinter had taught them all how to fold paper crane.

"If you fold a thousand paper cranes," Master Splinter said, as he creased a brightly coloured slip of paper, "then you will be granted a wish."

"Any wish at all?" Mikey's eyes were wide and curious as he watched their father, entranced.

"Yes my son."

"How does that work?" Donnie's eyes were also intent on Master Splinter's paws, but his held more skepticism. "It doesn't seem like a very scientific method."

"It's magic duh," replied Mikey, his tone matter of fact.

Donnie flushed a deep red.

"Magic doesn't exist."

"Does so," Mikey snapped back."Tell him Sensei."

Master Splinter stroked his whiskers, trying to hide his smile.

"It is true that science is a powerful tool for explaining the mysteries of the world." He said finally, causing Donatello to beam triumphantly. "But there are also many unexplained mysteries that still exist. Our family for example."

Donnie considered this for a moment, then nodded.

"There."

Splinter held up his completed crane.

"Now it is your turn."

Mikey had been the first to complete his crane. It wasn't perfect but he held it up with pride as the others fumbled with the paper. Leo had been next, his crane was better then Mikey's and he had a tiny smug grin on his face as he watched his brothers. When Donnie finished his crane it was perfect. The lines and angles were exact and crisp. Typical Donnie he never did anything half-assed.

Almost immediately after, Raph had crumpled his paper up in a ball, declaring the whole exercise stupid, and stomped off to sulk.

They had never finished their thousand cranes. Mikey didn't have the attention span for more then 3, at 12 Donnie had come up with a new idea for an experiment he was working on and hurried off to write it down. Leo was long gone, after his first crane he'd been distracted by the television. A new episode of his dorky space show was on.

When he was sure that everyone had vacated the area, when he was sure he wouldn't be seen, Raph ran over and grabbed some of the remaining paper. Spiriting back to his bedroom, he shut the door firmly behind him.

The punching bag Donnie had helped him drag back from the dump was leaned against the door. It wasn't a perfect solution but it afforded some privacy.

Setting Spike on the floor in front of him, Raph spent the next few hours working his way through the pile of brightly colored paper. Each failure produced a new and more creative curse, sometimes in English, sometimes in Japanese.

His large hands and thick finger ripped through square after tiny square. The crumpled pile becoming so large that it toppled over, burying Spike.

Finally the pile of papers was depleted to a sad, lone sheet of paper. Carefully Raph lifted the yellow scrap. The cheery yellow was decorated with tiny flowers in rusty orange and vivid blue.

"This is it Spike." He regarded the tiny turtle. "Chew your leaf if you think I can do it."

Eyeing the young turtle speculatively Spike reached out and chomped of a piece of leaf.

Nodding, Raph set down to work.

Slowly fold the corner. Careful of the edges. Don't tear, please don't tear.

Everything was going fine for a while and Raph was beginning to get excited. Suddenly there was a crinkle of paper. Freezing, Raph raised his hands. In his excitement he had gotten careless and the paper had become rumpled.

Gritting his teeth Raph prepared to crush the ruined piece. To throw it away. To give up.

It was stupid anyways.

Something stopped him though. The half folded piece was placed back on the floor. Over sized fingers gently smoothed the wrinkles, refolded the uneven creases. With each fold the fingers grew surer.

With the last fold Raph held his breath.

The crane had uneven wings, and one still looked slightly wrinkled. Its head was a little big. The tail had an odd little tear near the end.

It was perfect.

Setting his crane safely on a shelf, Raph set about retrieving Spike from the pile of paper. He gathered up the pile and removed the punching bag from the door.

Time to get rid of the evidence.

...

"I never want to see any of your faces ever again."

The words echoed through his head as he slammed his way angrily through the turnstile. It didn't make him feel any better. Neither did stomping towards his room or slamming the door.

He understood why April was mad. He really did. They had messed up, big time, but he wished, oh how he wished, that she could be angry with the Kraang instead of at them. Sure Donnie was going to fix it but it had been their fault in the first place. They had been too sure of themselves, of their abilities, and by the time they'd realized their mistake it'd been…too late.

His fists clenched.

This feeling of uselessness wasn't something he was accustomed to. Normally he was the muscle. Just tell him who to hit. He liked it that way. This time though there was no one to hit. No Kraang, no Foot soldiers, no giant mutants. Well, unless you count April's dad.

God Mikey was so stupid. He HAD to make it worse. Which was actually pretty impressive considering how astoundingly bad the whole situation was.

With a sigh Raph let his hands hang loosely at his sides. There had to be something he could do.

A small flash of yellow caught his attention.

Reaching down Raph gently picked up the tiny crane. It seemed even smaller in his hands then it had when he'd first made it.

"If you fold a thousand paper cranes then you will be granted a wish."

Somehow a plain white square of paper found its way into Raph's hands.

This was stupid.

Slowly he began to fold, his hands recalling a half formed memory.

Paper cranes don't grant wishes.

The lines were sharper and the folds were crisper. Age had made him more dexterous.

This was never going to work.

The finished crane joined the first on his shelf, and Raph reached for another piece of paper.

Only 998 left to go.

I always felt that while all the turtles had their stubborn moments, Raph had that rock like stubbornness that some people possess. Unlike Donnie he couldn't fix April's dad so he would do the only thing he could. I like to believe that Raph's acts of kindness take place in dark, shadowy places where no one will catch him at it. I had some beef with how people were getting all nasty about April and her reaction to her dad being turned into a mutant. All I can say is she handled it better than I ever would have. Seriously her friends' mistake turned her father into a giant bat, a non-talking barely sentient bat. I think that of all the turtles Raph would have understood that anger, that need to lash out, the best. As always thanks for the reviews :) I always love reading them and they totally brighten my day. Sorry for not updating recently I've had exams and they are slowly killing me D: Check out my new Ninja Turtles story Strange Bedfellows it has a giant anthropomorphic tiger. Well, I'm going to bed now so Big Sister says goodnight.