Chapter 03: Roses and Chocolates

The next morning, Raph stayed as long as he could in this pleasant state between sleep and waking where anything was possible – even that this accident had just been a bad dream and his ankle wasn't broken, and everything was just fine. That he could get up any moment now and train at the dojo, or give the Kraang some good beat-down tonight. He tried really hard to not wake up completely, to stay in this state just a little longer, but the harder he tried the more he woke up, until he finally gave up. There was no use in pretending that his ankle was good again and that the accident had never happened. He could feel the dullness in his left ankle too well now, anyway.

So he opened his eyes and sat up with a sigh. He reached for his T-phone. One look at the time, and his eyes widened in shock. Ten o'clock? How could it already be ten o'clock? He never slept that long!

He had just pushed away his blanket, when his door was silently opened and Mikey peeked inside. However, when he saw that his brother was awake, he opened the door completely with a big smile.

"Now, look who's up!" he said. "Good morning, Raph!" His voice was all cheerful and friendly.

Raph on the other hand was his grumpy self.

"It's ten, Mikey!" he said angrily. "How come no one woke me up?"

And with that he tried to get up.

"Sensei said we should let you sleep," Mikey announced, all the cheerfulness suddenly gone from his voice. "Because you can't train with us and need your rest."

The last sentence had barely been a whisper, but Raph had heard nonetheless and stopped in his attempts to get up. Instead he sat down on his bed again, his carapace resting against the headboard, and folded his arms over his plastron.

"Oh, okay," he said, pressing his mouth into a hard line as he lowered his eyes, glaring angrily at the mattress – or his left ankle in the support splint. Mikey wasn't sure about this.

He bit his lip, unsure what to do now. But then he forced himself to smile again.

"I'll make you breakfast, okay?" he suggested which made Raph lift his eyes again. "How about pancakes? You love pancakes, right? Stay here. Today, it's breakfast in bed for you. Now isn't that a wonderful, wonderful way to start the day? I'll be right back!"

And with that he simply flew out of Raph's room.

Raph watched this with a deep frown, then growled. He could think of at least ten more wonderful ways to start the day – starting with beating up Mikey.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm his anger, at least a little bit. Oh, he would so love to hit something! But having to sit or stand on one leg sure limited his options. So he took another deep breath which helped a teeny-tiny bit.

And then he waited.

What else could he do, anyway?

He finished his breakfast with a satisfied sigh and put the bedtable aside.

I have to give Mikey that, he thought. His pancakes are delicious. Well, as long as he doesn't try to make them even better by turning them into pizza pancakes or something, that is.

But today, it had only been normal, delicious pancakes. Raph smiled a little and leaned back.

Now, this day hadn't been as bad as he had feared. Yes, not being able to walk still sucked, but getting a delicious breakfast in bed wasn't so bad after all. He actually liked it more than he would admit – he had a reputation to keep.

But when he set eyes on his ankle in the support splint again, he twisted his mouth. But after a few moments of glaring at it, he took a deep breath. Anger wouldn't make his ankle heal any faster.

Breathe in, breath out, river over stone…

His mantra was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Yes?"

The door was opened cautiously and Casey popped his head in.

"Hey there, Raph," he said with an insecure laugh. "How ya doin'?"

"As good as I can," Raph replied with a shrug.

For a moment he wondered why Casey was here. It wasn't even midday. Wasn't he supposed to be in school or something? But then he remembered that it was Sunday – not that school would keep Casey away if he thought something more interesting or more important was going on. He only skipped school on rare occasions though, as did April when something like an alien invasion popped up, so Raph thought it was okay.

"You…uhm…got my texts that I couldn't make it to the movie night yesterday?" Casey asked insecurely. He still hadn't entered the room, just popped his head in.

"Well, I wasn't sure if I got it right after the first twenty 'Can't make it tonight, have training, sorry'-messages, but message number twenty-one with the exact same text sorta nailed it down for me," Raph replied with a smirk.

See? That's not so bad. I still can joke around.

"Oh good!" There was a relieved ring to Casey's voice, and he finally opened the door and entered Raph's room.

And Raph's face – and his mood – literally fell when he saw what Casey was carrying. Was that a bouquet? And in his other hand, was he really holding a box of chocolates?

Raph felt how the anger that had just faded down, started burning in his stomach again.

What was he? Casey's date? Or had Donnie forgotten to mention that he was on his death-bed? And not even then Raph would have tolerated his best friend bringing him flowers and chocolates!

"That's for you," Casey explained and dropped the bouquet on the bed next to Raph and placed the box of chocolates on the bedside table.

Raph shifted away from the bouquet a little as if it could attack him any minute, and then just looked from the bouquet to the box of chocolates to Casey, then to the bouquet again and he realized with horror that it was red roses. When he looked up to Casey, his features had all switched into his trademark angry look again.

"Did you really bring me roses and chocolates?" he asked, his voice calm, too calm.

"M-my sis told me that's what you're supposed to do when you visit someone in hospital – she thinks you're in hospital, you know – bring flowers and a box of chocolates," Casey defended himself, although his voice was all shaky. "A-and roses were the only flowers I could name in that s-stupid flower shop."

"Out." Raph's voice had gained a little more calm which was a bad thing, a really bad thing. It was the calm before the storm – or in Raph's case, tornado.

"What?"

"You heard me, Casey! GET OUT!"

Casey looked at Raph for a moment, totally confused, but the fury blazing in Raph's eyes made him back away slowly.

Well, too slowly in Raph's opinion. He grabbed the bouquet and threw it at Casey, hitting him right in the face.

"Did you just throw a bunch of roses into my face?" Casey asked disbelievingly, as the bouquet landed on the floor with rustling sound.

"Get out or the next thing I'm gonna throw into your face is a bunch of shuriken!"

Casey didn't need to be told twice and quickly buzzed off.

Raph growled as he picked up the box of chocolates in an attempt of tossing them to the roses on the floor, but then he rethought that and instead opened the box and started eating some.

Really, he had been feeling so much better after this delicious breakfast, even had managed to forget the pain in his ankle for a little while. So why had Casey had to come here and bring him roses and chocolates and remind him of his actual condition? And why had Casey had to act as if Raph needed to be treated differently now that he was hurt? Why did Casey think he had to pity him? WHY!?

He growled again and shoved some more chocolates into his mouth.