Author's notes: Thoughts are in italics. But since Raph doesn't think as much silently, it doesn't affect the story format too much.
"…Aph. Raph, can you hear me?"
"Be quiet, Mikey, Master Splinter said he needs to rest,"
"But it's been so long! It's already night time! He's been unconscious for 24 WHOLE HOURS!"
"Hang on guys; I think he's coming through,"
Raph groaned as he opened his eyes; his head was spinning, and his body ached.
"What happened?" he finally managed to inquire as he struggled to regain his senses. The worst part of waking up after being knocked out was having completely no idea where he was, and exactly what had happened. Raph looked around, though his vision was still blurry. He could still make out the familiar view of the roof of the sewers him and his brother (not to mention Master Splinter) resided in. That meant that Leo, Don and Mikey had managed to bring him home after he passed out.
"Well, after we managed to pull Mikey's big head out of Don's invention, we went to look for you," Leo started to explain, leaning over the couch his brother was lying on.
"We saw you fighting with this orange-haired dude before you passed out!" Mikey added rambunctiously, prompting Don to hit his head to quiet down.
"Orange-haired dude?" Raph echoed hazily, "Err... Yea, right."
"They must mean that girl," he realized. From that distance, there was no possible way Leo, Don and Mikey could have realised his opponent was a girl, and had naturally assumed she was a boy from how short her hair was. Not that he did intend to let them know that; they would never make him ever forget getting his shell kicked by a girl.
"And we also found out why you lost consciousness, you got injected with numbing poison," Don revealed.
"Numbing poison? How the shell did numbing poison get on me?!" Raph demanded, his head spinning, though he mentally recalled being bitten by the girl. Had she injected the poison into him somehow through the bite?
"Beats me, though you were lucky it was just a mild one, or the effects would have been even more serious!" The purple bandanna turtle warned. A pause of silence followed after his statement as all three turtles stared at Raph, half expecting him to break into an elaborate account of how he so was near victory when fighting the orange-haired boy, with multiple excuses, or, reasons, he insisted on calling them, to explain his lost.
But he didn't. In fact, he did just the opposite of what they expected.
"Erm, guys, I'm still a little woozy so, NIGHT!" Raph gabbled as he shifted his position in his couch so that he would no longer face his brothers, and pretended to sleep. His brothers looked on, somewhat stunned.
"Hey, you guys think that Raph's head got knocked a litte too hard when he passed out?" Mikey asked loudly.
"The poison must have worn him down, let him rest some more," Leo dismissed the matter before Mikey could crack anymore comments on it, and the trio left him to rest. Upon hearing his brothers leave, Raph heaved a sigh of relief and rolled around to face the ceiling once more.
His brothers didn't know, weren't aware that aside from losing the battle, he had also lost his weapons, his precious sais. Raph sat up and stared gloomily at the floor. It felt as if a part of him had been forcefully ripped out, leaving a hollow cavern in its place. Raph gripped his fists tightly and slammed them on his legs, cursing. A rematch, another duel with that wretched orange-haired teenage girl with the strange appearance, was the only way to regain his sais back.
Raph prayed hard that she would turn up again, and that none of his brothers would discover his plans and realise that he had lost his weapons. Stealthily, he crawled out of the couch and laid the blanket over a dummy. If he had been unconscious for one whole day, then that meant he had left for patrol yesterday at around this time. Taking a deep breath, Raph snuck out of the sewers as quietly as possible. Only until he was on the roof did he break out into a full sprint, hoping that when the same roof came into view, he would be able to catch a glimpse of that same orange hair, just like yesterday.
Ren looked around blankly, as if she were in a dream. Just her luck that when Master Saki was in a good enough mood to let her go out two nights in a row, she found herself back at the same roof as yesterday, with its broken air-conditioning vent and dusty floor. She wasn't even sure why she was back, it was a waste of her precious time of see if there were more any more people with weapons that would attract her interest? Unlikely. Or because she wanted to see that mutant turtle with the red bandana again? Ren shook her head, frustrated. Even if it had been the latter reason, (which she assured herself multiple times was not) the mutant turtle had still caught sight of her face, and that would be more than enough to scare him away.
"Though, his own appearance ain't that much normal either," Ren mumbled. Maybe, the reason that she had returned was because she wanted to meet that mutant turtle again after seeing how desperate he had been to get his sais back the previous night. Throughout all the fights she had been through, with weapons to bring back as prized trophies, Ren had never met a person who was brave enough to attempt recovering their weapons again. They generally made a run for it, or were unconscious- unable to voice their protests even if they wanted to (though Ren suspected that if they had been awake, they would still not dare to try to get back their weapons after receiving such a beating down, or after catching sight of her face.) Though, she had also never fought a mutant turtle before. And not only just a mutant turtle, a teenage mutant ninja turtle.
Still, guilt was rarely a part of her as a bounty hunter of sorts for weapons; Ren wondered why she even felt that way. Was it because the mutant turtle, too, was an owner of twin sais like her? Ren momentarily considered herself in his place- with her precious weapons lost due to her simple weakness. She would have drowned in despair over that mistake. If she had known that taking those sais would push the heavy burden of guilt upon her shoulders, Ren would have thought twice before doing so back then. She could not even savor the victory this time round- it was a different sort of 'win', and the turtle had managed to catch her by surprise at the end.
Ren was silent for a while. Footsteps, plus the sound of panting, informed her of his arrival. She fought back a grin.
"I didn't think you would be back," The orangehead commented, smirking, as she turned around to face the turtle. "Especially after getting such a clear view of my face." She added, absentmindedly moving her hand towards her right eye- where the scales were engraved.
"Well, I wasn't 100% sure you would be back either," Raph snarled back, "Now ye got something of mine, and I'd like it back!" he spat.
"A rematch, eh?" She had expected it, after all, for if it had been her that had lost her precious sais, she would have undoubtedly hunted down the responsible party and recovered them through any means. She was almost relieved. This was means to lighten her guilt. If the turtle won, she'd give him back his sais (but she'd keep her own, obviously). But if he lost, he won't have been strong enough to wield them properly anyway, and she'd continue keeping them.
"Fine then, I need something to entertain me. So if you win, you get your sais back, and if I win, then I continue keeping them," Raph was about to agree, though a sudden idea struck him.
"Hey, why not add a little more to the wager? If I win, I also get to ask you some questions, and shell, ya better answer them properly! For starters, who are you, what is your name, AND HOW THE SHELL DID YOU INJECT NUMBING POISON INTO ME?!" Raph roared, recalling the painful experience of receiving the poison, as well as its unpleasant after-effects.
"Oh, that? I can answer the last question right now." Ren opened her mouth a little and pointed to her slightly pointed teeth, which bore uncany resemblance to fangs.
"So, your bite?"
"Technically, my teeth. And if your next question is gonna be how, then that would have to wait until after the match," With that, Ren cut the conversation and charged forward to attack. Jumping halfway through her sprint, she delievered a flying kick to Raph, who ducked back and received a graze to his face.
"Hey" -Ren dodged a punch from Raph- "So if I" -She swept her right leg forward to knock Raph off the ground, though the latter jump and avoided it- "win, then I" -He swung his fist forward, but she easily deflected it- "Get to ask questions too?"
"Yep, IF you win," Raph grinned, feeling his heart beat faster from the adrenaline-rush in the battle. He threw several punches, but Ren backed away, barely missing them by inches, and ducked low, pretending to lunge forward for a series of punches as well. Raph dodged back, confident that she would not be able to reach him in time from the widened gap. But that was a mistake.
"Game on!" She yelled as she simply stepped forward to cover up the distance and unleashed an upper punch, knocking Raph to the ground once again. "Gotcha!" Ren grinned in triumph. But Raph had been ready for it.
"Think again!" Raph shouted back as he gripped the collar of his opponent's hoodie and slammed them beside where he lay, effectively using the momentum to switch places. "I win, now gimme back my sais!" He demanded. Ren stared back at him dumbly, her emerald eyes cold and unreadable. Raph suddenly remembered how she had bitten and injected the pain-in-the-shell poison into him, and hastily removed his arms from her collar.
"Fool," Ren grinned, swinging her right arm forward and landing a punch smack in Raph's face. While not enough force to remove him from her, the punch gave her enough freedom to retract her legs, and she slammed her heavy black into the reptilian's chest once again.
"GAH!" Raph groaned in pain as he found himself knocked back onto the dusty ground. Again. Ren walked over to him and he scrambled to get up, but soon found himself unable to do so by the sai pointed at his throat.
"Gonna stab me? I can't answer questions with blood flowing everywhere," Raph commented in a casual tone, though his eyes darted around hastily, searching for an opening. The short silver blade was inches from piercing into his gullet, and Raph was aware that Ren had no qualms in stabbing him, if the cold apathy in her green eyes were anything to go by. But much to his surprise, Ren dropped the sai she was holding- which turned out to be his, and dropped his other sai at his feet too.
"Yea, it's no fun," she grunted, now fingering her own sais, her eyes slightly unfocused as if she was somewhere else. Raph got to his feet, holding on firmly to his sais, and assumed a battling stance, though he could tell Ren was no longer interested in fighting.
"Y'know, seeing as how fast you are on your feet and how skilled you are with the sais and all that, you could have just used them from the start of the battle and kicked my shell," Raph pointed out uncertainly, unsure why he was even entertaining the theory of victory that belonged to an opponent.
"No fun. What's the point of using your sais to fight against an opponent with no weapon to fight back?" she answered listlessly, now swinging her sais around her finger. "You'd just knock 'em out before any real fun can set in."
"Erm... Let's call this a draw, so we both get to ask questions, but I ask first," Raph blurted out, a little unnerved about Ren's quick change in character. Now she just seemed bored in contrast to her bright self before, almost as if she had ran out of battery. Or rather, she had run out of interest.
"First of all, name, and second, who are you?" Ren smirked at his questions. Greatly predictable.
"I'm surprised that you said 'Who are you' instead of 'What are you', you don't strike me as a person- I mean, turtle, with a lot of tact," She corrected herself, grinning, and Raph knew that her annoying and cocky self was back, though he admitted to himself silently that it was better than her overly spacey persona mere moments ago.
"Just answer the question!"
"Sure thing, Grumpy-Pants. My name is Ren, and I am a half-mutant. A half snake mutant. I dunno why it's only a half mutation either- maybe they didn't use enough mutation serum, maybe the mutation was just a test and failed. Either way, I'm stuck like this." She added the extra information for Raph's benefit, seeing his mildly confused expression. The two had settled themselves on the edge of the roof, with Ren dangling her feet from her seat, above a tall building, and Raph cross-legged beside her. The wind blew.
"So you can inject poison through your bites?" Raph added, curious
"Yep, comes in handy, though I need to get into close range with the enemy first. Also, since I'm a half-mutant, I can't inject lethal poison, only a few kinds. Care to try them out?" She ended her 'question' with a hiss as she bore her fang-like teeth at Raph.
"I'll pass."
"My turn to ask now. So, who are you, and, you are a turtle, right?" This time, curiosity set in and she surveyed Raph closely with her sharp emerald eyes, leaning forward to get a better view of his face. Everything seemed unusually silent as Raph stared back into Ren's green eyes, their faces only inches apart like yesterday. He had never been in this close contact to anyone that did not include his brothers, Master Splinter, April and Casey before- with half of such experiences being to throw a punch at them (with the exception of Master Splinter and April, of course). It was not until Ren moved back to her position that Raph realized that he had been holding his breath the entire time.
"Yep, definitely a turtle," she singgered.
"ANYWAY, I'm Raphael," Raph cleared his throat, "Call me Raph,"
"Raphael eh? Nice name," She remarked, staring at the night sky, and it took Raph some time to determine that she did not mean it mockingly.
"Well, Master Splinter, our sensei and master, named us after renaissance artists. I got my name from some 16th-century Italian painter. Or, at least that's what Don says,"
"Us?" Ren repeated, "There's more of you?"
"Hey, watch your tone, we ain't manufactured goods or anything, and, erm..." Raph trailed off, realizing it was not an entirely wise decision to reveal his family's existence to a stranger he had known for approximately 25 hours, in which most of that 25 hours- he had spent unconscious. Ren seemed to get the hint and nodded.
"Look, it's fine if you don't wanna tell me. Though I want you to know that I'm just asking for curiosity's sake, and I'm not gonna spread it around or anything. Besides, it's not like I could tell other people even if I wanted to," She pointed out, gesturing to the scales on her face. "But I'm taking it that you have family?"
"Yep, brothers, to be exact, and a father,"
"Lucky you." Ren said quietly, leaving Raph to wonder about Ren's backstory, her origin, and whether he should broach the subject or not.
"Erm-" As Raph finally summoned up the courage to question Ren about her past, it suddenly dawned on him just how much time had passed ever since he left the sewers, and whether it was almost time for Leo, Don and Mikey to check on him.
"Uh oh, I better get my shell out of here," Raph panicked, realizing how much he had increased the chances of being caught out while injured by spending time talking to Ren, though he couldn't entirely say he regretted it. Ren caught the urgency in his voice and stood up.
"Alright, gotta run. Erm.. Thanks for everything, I guess, Ren," He added her name hastily at the back of his farewell, which seemed to leave a funny feeling on his tongue. It was not until he was about to jump to the next roof did he hear her reply.
"HEY RAPH! SAME TIME, SAME PLACE TOMORROW!" She cupped her hands and yelled, waving goodbye before turning around and disappearing too. Raph turned back and grinned for a while before breaking into another sprint.
"Ren, huh?" He teared down the roofs, his pulse beating quickly.
"Raph, eh?" She felt the wind sting her face once again, her heart pulsing swiftly.
"Not a bad name."