The Frenemy

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN ANY CHARACTERS OF THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLE FRANCHISE, THIS IS STRICTLY JUST A FANFIC

6 ~ Confessions of A Frenemy

Elisa and Leonardo stood before each other in their fighting stances, eyes locked on nothing but each other. "Hajime!" Master Splinter shouted. Elisa quickly kicked Leo's legs out from under him, causing him to hit the ground.

Leonardo scrambled to his feet and instantly ducked as Elisa swung her leg over his head. The two began to circle each other. "I'm not glass Leo, don't be afraid to kick my ass." Elisa said, dodging each and every blow.

"Hey, Martinez, we're just getting started." Leo chuckled. He quickly grabbed Elisa's wrist as she attempted to uppercut him and body slammed her onto the cold, hard ground.

"Yamei!" Splinter ordered. He slowly got up and approached the two. "You've been working very hard the past few weeks you've been here, Elisa, but you should work on your aim and your timing." He suggested. He held out his paw and gently lifted Elisa to her feet.

Leonardo and Elisa bowed respectfully to their teacher before exiting the dojo. "You've really improved your fighting skills." Leo observed. Elisa smiled and pushed a lock of her corkscrew brown hair behind her ear. "I needed something to occupy me while I'm staying here." Elisa responded, shrugging.

Leo turned on the balls of his feet to face her. "Speaking of which, that's kinda what I wanted to talk to you about after our training session." He announced. Elisa shoved her hands in her back pockets. She knew exactly where this was headed.

"I know that things have been tense between you and Raph, but this is his home too. The least you can do is apologize for how you acted the other night." Leonardo suggested, nodding towards his brother who sat on the couch reading one of his comics.

Elisa fixed her gaze on Raph. Maybe Leo's right, maybe she should apologize. After all, Raphael did save her life. He didn't have to do that, but he wanted to. "If you're gonna be staying with us then you have to get along with ALL of us." Leo pointed out.

Elisa sighed and ran a hand through her thin, curly hair. "Alright." She muttered. Leo flashed her a smile before heading to his room. Elisa made her way to the couch and plopped down next to Raph.

"Hey Red." She greeted warmly. Raphael glanced at her and brought the comic book closer to his face. "Hi." He mumbled. Elisa stared at the mutant for a while. He was so handsome yet so angry all the time...why was that? Why was anger his only emotion? Was he just afraid to show his true emotions in fear he'll get made fun of?

Elisa was dying to see more of Raph but he bottled up all his feelings and never showed his sensitive side. She grabbed the comic book out of Raph's hands and placed it on the coffee table. Raphael glared at her and crossed his arms. "I know that you're mad at me for how I acted the other day and I don't blame you. I can be a brat sometimes but-"

"Leo told you to come apologize didn't he?" Raphael said, looking Elisa deep in her hazel brown eyes. She bit her bottom lip and sighed. "Yes...but he's right, I had no reason to be mad at you." She responded weakly, avoiding his gaze.

Raphael rolled his eyes and went to pick up his comic again but Elisa quickly snatched the comic off the table and placed it behind her. "I'm not finished!" She snapped. The mutant crossed his arms and exhaled sharply. "Raphael, I really am sorry." Elisa said, taking the mutants hands into hers and looking deep into those mesmerizing emerald eyes.

Raphael quickly looked away. He really liked Elisa but at the same time he didn't want to like her. She was so stubborn and really moody all the time, Raph didn't want a girl like that. Elisa wasn't even grateful for half of the stuff the turtles did for her, which made Raphael even more mad at her. But the more he thought about the whole situation, the more he seemed to fall for her.

"Why are you so stubborn and moody all the time?" Raph questioned, turning towards Elisa again. "You act like we're forcing you to be here when it was YOUR choice to come to US for safety." Elisa stared up at the mutant and sighed, hesitating to answer his question.

She stayed silent for quite some time, mentally choosing what to say next. "I just..." She started, avoiding Raphael's gaze. He leaned closer towards her, preparing himself for what she was about to say. Elisa looked up at him and sighed impatiently, her eyes welling up with tears.

"You have no idea what I've been through the last twelve years of my life." Elisa finally replied, fighting back tears. Raph stayed quiet and gave her petite hands a gentle squeeze. Elisa closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Raphael watched as Elisa sat still, not moving or breathing, like a statue. Finally she exhaled slowly and looked up at the mutant again. "My brother has been missing for five years." Elisa confessed, looking Raph deep in his eyes.

"Ever since we were little, Dylan and I have been tossed around to different orphanages. Then when we finally found a home, the lady didn't even want us." She explained. Raph felt Elisa tense up. This was probably her first time telling anyone what really went down in her life.

"What happened to your parents?" Raph built up the courage to ask. Elisa shrugged and held her breath. The only person who knew about what happened to her parents was Casey. Raphael would be the very first person to know about Elisa's past- out of the turtles that is.

The room grew deadly silent. Mikey was in Donnie room, most likely bugging him while he tinkered with Metalhead, Leonardo was in his own room watching reruns of Space Heroes and Master Splinter was in the dojo, meditating.

"Oroku Saki murdered my parents." Elisa said, breaking the silence. Se sounded so nonchalant as she said it but she still looked as if she can burst into tears at any moment. "Wait w-what?" Raphael stammered. "Shredder killed your parents?" He clarified.

Elisa slowly nodded, avoiding Raph's gaze. He shot out of his seat, nearly knocking the coffee table over. "Why didn't you tell us?!" Raphael barked. Elisa ran a hand through her hair and shook her head. "I couldn't." She muttered.

"Well, why couldn't you?" "Because!" Elisa snapped, leaping out of her seat. "Oroku Saki tried to convince my dad to join his ninja army for years. He said that it was very important that he got more highly trained martial artists to join his 'clan'."

"So my father did. Every weekend, he would take off in the middle of the night and say he was just going out for 'a walk.' This went on for months and my mom didn't like it at all. My father never told her where he went." Elisa explained.

"Soon, Oroku Saki starting sending my father and a few of his students to go jump some guys. At first, Dad didn't think anything of it...but then it began to get serious. Shredder started sending my dad to go kill people and that's when my father drew the line. He told Shredder that he didn't wanna be part of his army anymore...then he left."

Elisa paused for a minute to see if Raph would say anything, but he didn't so she continued on with her story. "This lady, who worked at the daycare me and Dylan occasionally went to, dropped us off at home...and as soon as we set foot in the house I knew something was up."

" I tried calling your mom, but she didn't pick up." Nancy announced, as she pulled into the driveway of the small, bright blue house. A four-year-old Elisa sat in the back of the car, next to Dylan. "She's at work." Elisa simply responded.

As soon as Nancy parked the car, Elisa unbuckled her seat belt and rushed out of the vehicle. Her hoodie flew off her head as she raced towards the front door of her house. "Slow down, Elisabeth." Nancy giggled, as she unbuckled Dylan out of his carseat.

Elisa banged on the front door and waited, a bright smile on her face. Dylan waddled over to his older sister and plopped down on the porch. "Try the doorbell." Nancy suggested. She was one of the workers at the local daycare Elisa and Dylan attended. Everyday, when daycare ended, she'd take them home.

As Elisa reached for the doorbell, the door was pushed open. Nancy quickly picked Dylan up from the floor and carried him inside, with Elisa marching behind them.

Everything looked the same as it was when Nancy came to pick the kids up. "Look out for the man in metal." Nancy said. Elisa quickly turned around to find Nancy holding a poorly ripped piece of paper. "Who's that?" Elisa asked, a worried look on her face.

Nancy's face suddenly turned white. She let go of the paper and let it drift to the floor. She carefully placed Dylan down on the ground and ran a hand through her dirty blonde hair. "Elisa, go take your brother into the living room, I have to make a phone call." Nancy ordered.

Elisa watched as Nancy dashed out of the kitchen and down the hallway. Dylan scrambled to his feet and grabbed his sister's hand. Elisa was about to leave when something rather odd caught her eye.

Behind the counter there was glass scattered all over the floor, most likely coming from one of the windows. Elisa quickly guided her brother out of the kitchen and down the hallway.

As they reached the living room, Elisa let out a blood-curdling scream. Dylan quickly covered his ears and began to cry. There was a trail of blood leading to their mother's dead body, lying on the couch...

Raphael stared at Elisa in bewilderment. Usually, when something that traumatic happens to someone they end up in a psychiatric ward. But he knew that Elisa was strong enough to get past that.

"My life is really fucked up, Raph, and it's hard for me to cope with it at times." Elisa said, looking deep into his emerald eyes. Suddenly, just looking at him, she began to feel better. She felt like a huge weight was lifted off of her shoulders.

Donnie strolled into the living room with April by his side, going on and on about how he upgraded Metalhead and how he's "ten times better than before." He quickly stopped talking when he noticed how close Elisa and Raphael sat.

"What's going on?" Donatello teased his older brother. Raph waved his hand at him, gesturing him to go away. Elisa looked up to find April staring at her.

"Nothing, we were talking about my training session earlier, that's all." Elisa said, forcing a smile. Raph sighed impatiently, he really wanted to finish talking to her. "Well, we're about to start OUR training session, so I'll go get Leo and Mikey." Donnie announced.

Raphael sighed impatiently and turned towards Elisa. "Don't worry, we'll finish this later." She reassured him. Raph gave her a pat on the shoulder before heading towards the dojo.

Elisa sighed and ran a hand through her hair. She hadn't realized that April was still in the room. "You're really throwing me under the bus, asking me to keep your little 'secret' from the boys." April said, causing Elisa to jump slightly. She turned around to find April standing behind her with her arms crossed.

"Is being nosy your hobby, because that's the second time you've eavesdropped on my conversation." Elisa spat. April shrugged, walking over to the couch so that she could face Elisa. "It's not my fault I don't trust you." She responded.

Elisa rolled her eyes, she was too tired to start up an argument. "You don't even know why I'm doing this but, honestly, I don't care what some nobody thinks of me." She quipped. She got up and began to make her way to Raph's room but April quickly stood in her way.

"Excuse me." Elisa began to raise her voice slightly. April shook her head and placed her hands on her hips. "The turtles are my friends and I hope I make it very clear that if you hurt them, you will regret it."

"Oh, really?" Elisa sarcastically gasped. April sighed impatiently and backed away from her. "You are so lucky that I don't tell Splinter and the boys about your little 'plan' right now." April muttered. She took a step towards Elisa and looked deep in her eyes.

"Why don't you tell them?" Elisa tested. "Why don't you rat me out so that I'll be out of your hair for good?" April scoffed and shook her head. 'She's trying so hard to make it seem like I'm the bad guy.' She thought as she turned and slowly walked away.

April quickly stopped and spun around. "I'm giving you a chance to walk away, Elisa." She finally answered. Elisa crossed her arms and waited for her to continue. "Karma's a bitch... So if I were you, I'd walk away."

And with that, April exited the room. Elisa clenched her fists and stared at the spot where April stood before she left. Maybe April's right, maybe she should walk away. Ever since she made the deal with Shredder, she's run into nothing but trouble.

Casey would still be there to help her find Dylan..but if she abandoned her mission, who knows what Shredder will do to her? It was a catch 22.

Elisa plopped down on the couch and dropped her face in her hands. April had her by the throat, but she was nice enough to give her a chance to make the right decision. "But what is the right decision?" Elisa said, shaking her head sadly.