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"What are you?"
Raphael stared at his wrist, becoming increasingly bothered. It was in a bold, clumsy print; barely visible against his scales. He often looked at it and felt a longing, and then a pang of frustration at himself. A mutant turtle. Of course, that would be the first thing his supposed soulmate would say to him.
If that was even true.
Some people beared the quote on their wrist, yet never came to be with their one true love. The thing about it was that the prophecy would only be fulfilled if he met his soulmate. It was a hit or miss on whether you would actually encounter them or not. For all Raph knew, that person could have been across the world, so far out of his reach, and stuck with a painful reminder on his own body that he would be alone .
Scoffing, he forced his wrist to turn the other way. Of course he would be asked what he was, it was the natural question! How would he know when he found the one? They'd probably run off, screaming.
Maybe that destiny wasn't for him. For his brothers, too. Had they been cursed?
The thought was starting to overwhelm his heart, and dejected, he rolled over onto his side and tried to sleep.
" Don't you have eyes?"
Blankly, you focused on the sharp, slanted font running across your wrist. What even was this? Surely, the universe wasn't a jokester. But the more you stared at your quote, the more you started to believe that may have actually been the case.
Thunder distantly rumbled. Even the weather suited your mood.
You pulled your jacket a little closer in as the rain pattered on your umbrella. On your way home from work that night, there weren't as many people out due to the showers. It was dim and lonely and rainy, the street just a little bit quieter. Dominating your hearing was the consistent tapping of the raindrops. The steady downpour skewed your vision.
Up ahead, the figure in the alleyway ducked back in, hidden by the corner.
Raph wasn't a fan of the rain. Neither was Donnie; it got his gear all wet and obscured his GoPro footage. But, Leo dictated they would be going out regardless, him and Mikey unbothered by the downpour. Raph snorted to himself that Leo probably even liked the rain because it made his "work" more dramatic.
"Leo, it's cold as hell out here, what're we still doing at this dump?" Raph complained, wandering around the roof with crossed arms.
Leo didn't look at him as he responded, "Come on, you know the routine, Raphael. This is a hotspot for some weird stuff. If you're so bored, you can go two streets ahead with Mikey."
"I ain't bored, I'm freezing my nuts off here. What is it, forty degrees?" Raph snapped back.
"Actually, it's fifty-eight degrees as of now," remarked Donnie, checking one of his devices. "We're okay, though. Temperature's not dropping below that."
Raph scoffed lightly. "Thanks for the weather report, Don. You think there's a hundred percent chance it's raining on us right now? "
Jogging around them, Mikey jumped up and grabbed onto the beam of a water tower, using it to do several one-armed pull-ups. Truth be told, all of them were cold and slightly sluggish because of the falling temperature, but all were too adamant about not letting their biology hinder them. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm feeling fine! Just gotta get that blood flowing!"
"Mikey, we're reptiles. Our blood doesn't warm us like mammals' does," Donnie said plainly.
Raph then began to tune all of them out, vaguely grumbling under his breath as he stepped out of their circle. Something on the street below caught his eye.
Someone getting pulled into an alley!
"Hey, hey! Down there!" he hissed, grabbing whoever was nearest and pointing at the scene. As Raph leaped right off the building, Mikey followed behind closely, promoting the other two to get into gear.
There was a man, trying to drag someone—you—into a door at the end of an alley. You struggled and kicked and tried to get free, but it just wasn't working; you were being pulled closer to silence, and in a last resort, screamed into the hand clamped on your mouth.
Leo bolted ahead of the three of them, quickly descending into the alley. "In and out, okay?" he asked toward Raph specifically.
For once, there was someone to hear the screams.
Raph pushed past Leo, saying "I got this," as he dropped down behind the man, who only then became aware of their presence. You were quickly released, and Donnie himself against the wall of a fire escape as you scrambled away from the scene. Not before looking back and seeing the hulking green figure looming over your assailant.
Grabbing the man by the back of the neck, Raph shoved him straight against the wall with a solid thud. You scrambled away. The guy was out cold a second later and being dropped onto the concrete. He signalled to Leo on the roof that it was time for the wrap-up.
"Uh, guys?" Mikey asked from the roof, having stayed there after being told to sit and "keep watch."
You were peeking around the corner watching the three massive creatures, ready to hightail it, but they had saved you. Behind the one in blue was someone lumbering, his arms crossed against his expansive chest as he turned to the side and revealed a hefty...shell? Although seemingly otherworldly, a human voice spoke. He stepped closer with his hands held out. "Easy, easy," he said, trying to keep his voice low. Now more in the light, you could see a pair of bright blue eyes and a mask of the same hue. He stepped closer in. "Don't scream."
"All clear, Mikey?" Donnie called out to him.
"No one's coming, you're good, dudes," answered the youngest.
Trembling from the adrenaline, you shrunk a little as he moved even closer in. Scales, shells, unnaturally large frames—they were the furthest thing from what she knew, human, as he could have been. Turtles with a human shape.
After a tense silence, she stuttered incoherently, trying to make herself rationalize what she was seeing. He took a step forward, she took one backward.
"You aren't going to tell anyone about this, do you understand?" He pressed coolly. You nodded with haste, and he added, "We'll know if you do."
How they would know, Leo didn't have that quite figured out yet. But he needed to do some kind of damage control, which luckily seemed to work.
"Let's get out of here."
All together, they began to scatter out of the alleyway. You finally got your bearings—they gestured and spoke like people. And you were fortunate that anyone had come to your aid. Otherwise, you didn't know if you would have even been seen again if they hadn't.
The last to leave was the largest, who, with a surprising amount of grace, pulled himself up onto the fire escape next to him.
You jumped at your last chance. "Wait, wait!"
He hesitated for a brief second, looking as though he would continue until he disappeared anyway. But he stopped with a great deal of reluctance and looked at you over his shoulder. He scoffed when you didn't talk, but kept staring at his face.
Before he took off, you gathered your courage and asked "What are you?"
"Don't you have eyes?" he bit back. His shell almost blocked his face as he looked behind him.
Simultaneously, both of their hearts skipped a beat.
There's no way, thought Raph. He heard one of his brothers call for him, but he would not reply.
How is this possible? she thought in tandem, unable to process what she was hearing and seeing.
In a moment of uncertainty, Raph rapidly started to climb the fire escapes. She saw her only answer leaving and yelled for him to stop. "Just let me see your wrist!" she pleaded.
"Raph, what're you doing?" Don muttered anxiously as they watched it all unfold.
Mikey leaned in, "What's he going back for?"
Offhandedly, Leo looked at his own wrist. The mark everyone is born with. They tried not to mention it to each other that often, but he could vaguely remember Raph's: "What are you?"
"The chance of this being what we think this is is immensely low," commented Donnie, nearly unbelieving. "I mean, I've calculated the likelihood of his situation for all of us to be so slim that it's almost impossible!"
Knowing that his time there was running out, Raph forced himself to get down, allowing her to approach him slowly as if he were intimidated.
Perhaps he was.
She pulled her sleeve up and bared the wrist with the print. "I always looked at this and...thought it was ridiculous," she said, forcing a laugh. The atmosphere was weirdly tense and uncomfortable, but she had to know. He had to know.
He turned his wrist over for her. She stared at his, and then hers, and when her eyes flitted back to him, he tucked his hand into his shorts' pocket.
"Raphael," he grumbled vaguely. Every time her eyes found his, he averted them. But she was beautiful. He'd lay awake some nights just dreaming about what she would look like, how she would sound. But she was standing right in front of him. Everything matched up. He knew his soft heart was threatening to give out and drop all the defenses he'd put up before. The marks said they were meant to be, and yet somehow, he still felt like a stranger.
"[Y/N]," she responded.
The three other brothers were stunned in their own right upon seeing it, too. Like Donnie had mentioned, there was the smallest chance of any of them finding their lovers. Distantly, Donnie himself wondered if this was all predetermined, or if really, his brother had one the lottery.
"Do you know what this means, Raphael?" she asked apprehensively. Kids were generally taught what the writing on their wrist was when they could comprehend the concept tied to it. And everyone grows up thinking their soulmate would be one of them, so to speak; but she was standing before a huge bipedal terrapin, left to wonder, what next?
Raph felt very exposed, and as usual, he felt the unrelenting urge to just turn heel and walk away from what was making him feel uncomfortable. He felt like a kid, wanting to squirm under her gaze and those words coming out of her mouth. Dealing with things wasn't always his forte. He never had formulated any kind of plan for this situation; there was no mental preparation, he was stuck in a bad place (literally), and most of all, his brothers were watching. That was the kicker, knowing they were watching it all unfold with anticipation irritated him. It was supposed to be a tender moment. So why was he so standoffish?
"I ain't stupid, I know what it means," he answered gruffly. He looked her up in down, just trying to get a feel for who this was in front of him.
She shifted awkwardly. You're supposed to feel close to them, to know they're the one when you hear the sign. But it feels...distant.
The idea was simply unbelievable that this was him. If such creatures could exist, she didn't know what else was roaming the Earth.
"If you know what's good for ya, you'll leave now and call the cops on that guy."
With that, he left her there in the alley, meeting his brothers at the top. His heart sped up every time he considered looking back, maybe even turning around. She was still trying to find what to say. What questions to ask, how to get him to come back—she couldn't lose him, because she hadn't even had him yet.
In a last-ditch attempt, she stole a glance behind her to make sure no one was coming, and finally asked. "Will I ever see you again?" Had he looked, he might have seen the little glimmer of hope in her eyes, but he didn't turn to her. He stood on the lip of the roof.
You wanna see me?
Sighing, he resigned himself to his heart, and said back, "You will."
Pacing. Pacing. Having a whack at his punching back which had taken some abuse. More hitting drills, and secretly practicing some kata away from the prying eyes of his more-refined older brother. Anything to get his mind off of his own left wrist, which was getting a bit sore the way he pounded away with it. Nevermind that. He was right handed, anyway.
Normal training went hard—now he was being excessive. Raph wasn't one for quiet contemplation as a persistently active, forward-driven person; he naturally found his outlet in physical venting. Which was unfortunately obvious to his family. He thought he was much less of an open book than he really was.
Striking the bag with a hard kick, all his concentration was focused on the here and now. He reeled back for a swing for the umpteenth time, two hours into a steady training session on form he already knew, and knew by heart. He wasn't hell-bent on perfection, but somehow, going back to his roots felt good. A sweeping kick, one more heavy strike—his dummy is done for. Those stopped being durable enough for him right around puberty; he'd gone through more than a few. Add one more to the list, a seam was beginning to tear.
He couldn't sit there and do that forever. Eventually, he cooled down to a simmer and stepped away from his training circle, swallowing down nearly half a gallon of water on his way out. The mirror (rather some kind of reflective metal) caught in the corner of his eye as he passed, drawing him in to stop at its frame.
His muscles were swollen from his workout, but even without the post-workout pump, he was still huge. He turned from the side to face the mirror head on. His eyes wandered up and down his own corn as did his mind back to three days prior. Her hands had been so small compared to his. He saw that clearly every time the thoughts of their encounter bubbled back up for some reason, occupying valuable space in his otherwise focused mindset. His mind should have been on protecting the city, besting his own personal records, trying to make his time worthwhile. And now he was standing there thinking about how he could have easily wrapped one of his hands around her little wrist and covered that ugly birthmark completely.
Why had he said it like that? Replaying his own first words to her, it bothered him in an annoying way that they had sounded so venomous. The slight look of hurt in her expression mixed in with the shock was even more bothersome. But more importantly, why was that moment stuck on replay?
Huffing, he shook his head and picked up his water jug, leaving the mirror behind. Better no one try to talk to him about what had happened. He already had questions up his ass about the whole thing, and not just his.
"Will I see you again?"
His face was tight.
"You will."
He blamed the nerves. The fact that his brothers were observing something that he had anticipated to be private, the suddenness, the pressure under her hopeful gaze as they revealed their marks. How was he supposed to think with all of that? He didn't even know if he wanted to see her! And here he was, making promises!
Putting his forearm against the concrete wall, he rested his head on it and stayed there for a good minute. If there was one thing Raph didn't do, it was break promises. She trusted him, at least a little in that moment, that he was telling the truth, that he would come for her some time. How long he could avoid it, he didn't know. There was always the option to not show up.
Closing his eyes, a brew of irritation and apprehensive butterflies that made him want to punch his gut had him feeling weirdly disempowered. He didn't want to not show. A sliver of him deep down wanted to know that there was hope for him, after all.
Raph was insecure past the tough exterior.
He heard faint footsteps approaching from the side and propped himself back up, unsurprised to see Leo coming back from polishing his katanas.
"So," started Leo, "what do you think?" he asked.
Raph's brow ridges knitted as he eyed the burnished blades that he was sheathing. "Since when did I care about your shinies?"
He already knew what Leo had meant and left it at that, exiting the conversation for the bunk bed he and Mikey shared. He was aware of his own prickly exterior, somewhat perturbed by his automated reaction to bristle at confrontation. If he didn't tread lightly in this meeting that he'd promised, he would positively make an ass of himself.
But she ought to know exactly who he was. Raph was Raph. If he wasn't what she'd fantasized about, that wasn't on him. Although, showing up with the underlying tone of frustration likely wasn't the best first impression.
Settling down into his bed, the metal frame creaked a little. Donnie should probably reinforce it with his welder, lest it break with Mikey underneath him. But for now, he had the space to himself as the TV was in the other room blaring with Mikey in front of it, letting Raph to himself. The time it took to fall asleep was always the worst. Just laying there staring up at the ceiling if he had something on his mind, trying to wind down but failing. How could he go to sleep knowing someone was waiting for him? It had been three days. And those had been slow. Was he taking too long?
Grunting, he looked over at the nearest clock. Three PM. He couldn't go then even if he'd wanted to. Normally, their nocturnal lifestyle wasn't a particular issue for him. But now it was one of the biggest inconveniences.
The tension that had been in his body all day was finally starting to release. His shoulders relaxed. As if as the tightness melted off, it gave way to images of her. Soft ones. Ones that weren't perceived with an aggravated blush this time. If that was his soulmate, it must have been true that people really were made for each other...because she couldn't look and sound more ideal. The tingly feeling her presence gave him. Comically, stupidly perfect; how that was even possible, he didn't know. It wasn't that he'd never seen a beautiful woman before. And he'd certainly heard the buttery voices and smooth tones of actresses on TV, but nothing was like hers. The thought of her thinking the same of him caused a rush.
He rolled over onto his side. He'd never thought himself a quitter. As unbelievable as all of it sounded, the proof was there. His thumb absentmindedly traced along the letters on his wrist. He'd go. Slip out earlier than everyone else, be there at the time they'd met. And if she wasn't there, he knew he would be wasting his time. One sign was all he needed and he'd be out of there.
Raph was back at the mirror for the last time. An actual mirror, not the thing sitting in the training room. In this he could see perhaps a little too much detail.
His teeth were a bit crooked. There were little knicks and tiny scars all over his face, and his eyes were an impossibly clear green. Nothing he'd seen on a human. He was some over six feet tall, which wasn't big news on its own, but his frame was probably twice the size of an average man's. His eyes trailed down to his ragged shorts and shoes that had been sewn and patched over and over again. This was the reality for them in general—did he look presentable, at the very least?
Raph wasn't one to preen much, but all of a sudden, he felt like he had to. In the end though, he had to just work with what he had, and went to leave with nervousness plaguing him. He'd never talked to a girl before. That struck him as so juvenile when he realized this was his current train of thought, his mindset similar to a teenage boy's first time meeting up with a girl, with the crisis of his appearance as a mutant casually thrown in there. A martial art-practicing bipedal turtle who lived in the sewers, still frazzled over the fact that he'd never talked to a female, let alone been alone with one. And for that certain someone to be his the one? Oh, he was all nerves behind the tough facade.
"Easy," he muttered to himself, facing the exit of the sewers to the night above, "it's easy. You got this." He shook out his shoulders and cracked his neck as if preparing for a fight. Glancing around to make sure no one was listening, he let out a quick breath, then took his first steps away from his comfort zone.
Four heads peeked around the corner as the footsteps retreated, all three brothers turning to give their father questionable looks.
"You're not gonna stop him?" inquired Mikey.
A grey brow raised. "And do what? Forbid him from seeing her?"
"Well, yeah, actually," Donnie replied. "You're not the least bit concerned?"
Splinter tucked his hand into the fold of his robe. "You underestimate your brother's will, Donatello. But no, I will not. And I am not afraid for him," he said calmly. "Even if I did forbid it, as the saying goes, 'love always finds a way.'"
"So you're just going to let him go out there and expose himself like that?" questioned Leo, arms crossed. Classic of their leader in blue—he was skeptical as ever.
"Do you think I would be having Donatello monitor her activity if I was not at all concerned?" Splinter inquired, giving his eldest "the look". "I am understanding, not a fool," he added. "Do not think you know everything. Be kind to your brother." And with that, he quietly left the scene.
Both Donnie and Mikey looked Leo's way with some level of pleasant satisfaction.
Leo narrowed his eyes, and Mikey whispered, "Dude, you just got burned."
Pacing her apartment, the girl, covered in little bruises still, slapped a palm to her forehead. Stupid, stupid! She'd just let him take off before they could even work anything out, no place, no time—what had she been thinking?
"I am such an idiot," she moaned into her hands. As Raphael had instructed, she had, in fact, called the police once her strange rescuers fled from the scene, but the procedures that ensued from an assault case had occupied her for a few days. Three, it was; too long for her liking. She racked her brain trying to figure out how to find him again. And if she didn't, all she could do was hope he was the smarter of the two and would find her.
Raphael . The corners of her mouth dared to smile a bit despite her current issue. That name suited him.
It appeared that he'd lived a rough life in some capacity. There were scars on his face from God knew what, and he carried weapons and had a weirdly vindictive stride. Though, his colleagues were all a little different in appearance and gestures. Where did they rest their heads, she wondered. Not in a place like hers, clearly. And his clothes…
Yes, Raphael was gruff. But maybe just a little handsome, in a way—she blushed at the thought. You can't not remember that character. He looked like he could bench a truck.
She'd lately been taking a cab home due to the incident, but there was only one place they could possibly convene: the alley. A dank, kinda dirty, rat-here-and-there kind of place. Or the rooftop, if she could even get up there. Who wouldn't want to get to know their prince here, she thought sarcastically.
What do people usually do when they're getting to know their one true love?
On the window sill her phone chimed twice, calling her over. She wandered to her window and gazed out. On the sidewalk below, a couple strode down the concrete, both holding a bag of takeout between them. And suddenly, she had an idea.
Where exactly was that alley again?
He jumped past one, thought it didn't look familiar and went on to the next. It was about the hour that they'd crossed paths and he felt rushed like he was running out of time, impatient as he was. Until his phone vibrated from his pocket and demanded his attention.
The screen lit, Donnie's ID. He pursed his scarred lips and picked up.
" Need some help ?" asked Don in his cheeky way. Raph could see the little smile across the phone.
He'd been expecting some kind of nagging or squawking over his departure, but it was just his brother trying to be helpful as usual. He would have to pay him back for the solid.
"Sure," answered Raph.
" Sending the location now. It should show up on your GPS."
Studying the address, he opened his mouth to speak, but Donatello was already cutting him off. " Gotta go, bye!"
"Don?" Raph said. The call ended and he stared at the address, puzzled. This was four blocks over and not where Raph remembered it to be. He wasn't that unobservant. It was the only real lead he had to go by, though, so off to the new destination he set.
He flipped over an AC unit and landed on the lip of a roof adjacent to the one that marked the tiny red dot on his phone, skidding to a stop at what he saw.
Little candlelights littered around a blanket with white boxes and a couple of plates, the girl in question scuttling around trying to get things prepared. There was a container of some kind of sweet. Raph watched as she multiple times relit the same candle, only to have the breeze blow it out, followed by her anxious groan. She went back and forth with it until she gave up and fell back onto her rear.
You're kidding, Raph thought, scooting to cover. The whole display was a bit pitiful. Now he understood the mysterious address. But how did she know to come there? Don't tell me Don contacted her?
A typical little dinner date with a mutant, stuck onto the top of a building to accommodate for his...conditions. She didn't really think that was how it could go, right? That they could just sit down and have a meal together like nothing was wrong with that picture? It all seemed so wrong, too casual for what it was, falsely comfortable. All of the candles but one went out and left her sitting alone in the dark, making her dig through her bag for her phone.
She rubbed her forehead and leaned back onto her hands, looking all around her as if surveying the cityscape for something. Her foot was tapping more and more rapidly. Cracking open one of the boxes of takeout, notably, no steam rose. Raph felt a pang of pity.
It was awkward and he just couldn't understand the idea of hers, but never had anyone do anything like that for him. Not like I ever had 'em lined up to take me out to dinner. But after some thought, he supposed that it was the thought that counted. It didn't make the approach any easier.
He stepped out into sight and whistled curtly, holding up his hands as if to say he wasn't a threat.
No, this ain't awkward or weird at all. Couldn't be, he missed with sarcasm. His long strides had him there a little quicker than he would have liked.
"You're not serious, are ya?" he asked from the distance, eyeing the setup skeptically. She closed the gap between them as she fixed up everything and made it neat again. He waited for her to finish, shifting around on his feet.
She responded, "Your...brother told me to meet you up here. I don't even know how he got my number."
"He's got the means. And the fancy little dinner was his idea, too?" he snorted.
Her face fell almost imperceptibly. Back it up, put it in reverse, he sighed to himself. Why was he like this? Why did he always have to say say what he was thinking?
"'Cause it just...seems like something...he'd do," he added reluctantly, wanting to wince. Actually, it didn't. That was more Mikey's style. A few seconds went by. "But I know he didn't, I'm just bein' an ass."
"You're not," she let a breath out, mustering a hesitant smile, "I know it's kind of stupid. I just thought that…"
"What?"
Sitting herself down on the blanket, she looked up at him, and his heart started to quicken. "You ever had takeout from here?" she asked in a soft tone, forcing a laugh. He knelt down rigidly. The whole thing was uncomfortably small for him. "I don't know what you guys eat in the sewers, but I figured that this was the least I could do. For us."
He'd been opening up one of the boxes and inspecting the contents when his eyes went wide. "'Us'?" he parroted, dropping the container and spilling some of the noodles.
"No, no, no, not 'us' us, I meant as in, getting to know us, we—getting us to know each other," she stammered. "Sorry. No, that's not what I meant. I just thought it would somehow be less weird."
"You're sittin' across from a mutant turtle freak, don't you think that's weird?" he said.
Raph could let out a sigh of relief, but felt he wasn't out of the thick of it yet. He wasn't expecting the smile, the warm eyes. The "I don't think you're weird" he heard.
Needing something to occupy himself with, he snatched one of the cans of cola and popped it open. Before he started to chug, he replied, "Sure, ya don't think I'm weird."
"Okay, then I'm weird too," she said, tilting her head to catch his eye. He glugged the whole can of cola.
"Oh, you're weird, alright," he chuffed as he wiped his chin with the back of his hand. "I mean, look at ya. Putting together all this so you can eat cold noodles with a giant turtle ya just met. Is this what you call 'fun'?"
"They'd still be warm if you'd gotten here earlier. And for the record, I am having fun," she said, dipping into her own food. "Come on, eat, Raphael. Please."
He started to refute it, tried to get his guard back in place again, but his mind couldn't find the words. How badly he wanted to say "you're not having fun, you're just tolerating me," or "you're kidding yourself."
After a moment of squirming and trying to find something to bite back with, he picked up his chopsticks and began to eat. "Nah," he finally said. Then mumbled, "No way."
"Way," she chuckled, taking a sip of her drink. Raph shook his head.
A silence befell them. The self-consciousness was somehow worse when he was only being observed, which he knew by the gaze he could feel on himself past the chopsticks feeding noodles into his mouth. She can't possibly like what she sees. Get real. I'm gross.
"Can you stop your starin'?" he eventually snapped, narrowly avoiding crushing the takeout box on the concrete beneath them. "Didn't your mom or whatever ever tell you that's rude?"
It was pretty dark around them, but between talking and eating, she'd managed to keep a few of the candles lit. The warm glow it casted on her face didn't miss him, neither did her sheepish expression that held the possibility of a blush. He couldn't see, either way. She uttered an apology and averted her eyes. She couldn't have been looking upon him with any kind of joy. That's what Raph really believed, at least. So why did it feel bad?
"I think I just can't stop looking at you, Raphael, truth be told," she said. His heart did skip that time.
He narrowed his eyes, "Whaddya mean?"
"You've got a lot of scars," she mumbled, leaning in. Though without the disgust he'd imagined she would. "And your eyes are pretty."
" Pretty?" he scoffed. He was getting up, now. She scrambled onto her feet as well and reached out, just missing his arm.
He'd yanked his arm away. She corrected herself, "They're not like anything I've seen!"
Well, you don't have any business looking at me that close.
"(Y/N)."
Her smile left. He stood square before her as if on display. But his brow ridges were furrowed in, creating the intimidating visage she recognized as the first thing she'd ever seen of him. "What?" she asked.
Motioning to all the stuff at their feet, he questioned, "What's all this for, really ?"
"I–I don't think I understand."
"You, doin' all this. Over some silly birthmark?" he pressed. "I can't figure out what's goin' on in your head and it makes me—"
She interrupted him. He went still as she slowly took his hand and unfurled his fist, cupping it in hers. The entire time Raph was fixing to shake. Not from anger, not from fear. Those trepidatious trembles he'd felt many times before, but never with another person.
"Confused? Mad?" she finished for him. All the words he couldn't quite find found themselves in the flutter of his stomach. They were caught on his tongue.
She was wrong. That wasn't it. "No," he answered, his voice light. "I don't know."
It took two of her hands to wrap fully around one of his, but she wouldn't let go. Raph wouldn't dream of trying to tear away from her delicate grip. "Do you think we can figure it out together, then?" she inquired softly.
"I...I don't—"
Lifting his hefty hand, she planted a light kiss on his knuckle, feeling the rough skin on her lips. Raph was absolutely stunned and could not move.
"I hope this tells you all you need to know," she stated, drawing away. Her back turned to him. And he only regained the ability to move once she started to walk back to the stairwell, lunging forward to grab her shoulder. Careful to not hurt her, but even that small movement was jarring.
Turning her around, he swallowed, "We ain't had dessert yet."
Raph never wanted to stop seeing her eyes shine like they did.
He prompted them to sit down this time, his hand running down her arm as he leaned back. Even then he was too shocked to smile, or make any other face, for that matter. She simply smiled at him.
"Right. Dessert," she winked.
In the end, Raph still couldn't totally shake his tough shell off. But he suddenly had the patience to try, maybe, a lopsided grin forming as she divided the cake.
"...and two for you, because you're a big guy…"
"I think I want to get to know ya without these stupid birthmarks, (Y/N)," said Raph with a smile that he didn't bother to hide. "So let's do it over again. I'm Raphael, but it's Raph to you."
Taking her focus off the cake, she slid his plate to him. "Without the marks?"
"Forget about 'em. We're strangers."
She laughed sweetly, "Then I'm (Y/N). It's nice to meet you, Raph."